Griffith: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “I have nothing to offer them.” Kendrick asked her what she thought they’d need from her. “I don’t know. A lady of the house? A person who might know how to have a staff? I’ve been on my own longer than you’ve been around. Not to say that I’m insulting you, never that. But I don’t know how to be a proper lady to a house like this. Nor to a man such as Griff. I’m just a faerie.”

  “Just a faerie? I don’t know you well yet, but I have a feeling that you are no more just a faerie than I am just a woman.” Lilac dressed, taking her cues from the other woman, in jeans and a large T-shirt. No shoes, however. Lilac didn’t care for them. “Now, I’ve heard from Griff. He’s on his way back here from helping Kip. Griff also said that he’s not seen James around, so you might be all right to venture out if you wish, but not too far. I guess he no more trusts James than you do.”

  “He tried to rape me. James did, I mean. He’s not a person that I’d be around at all if I could help it. You should also take it easy. He’ll harm you and your child if given the chance.” Kendrick turned to look at her as they were going down the stairs. “It was more than that, a great deal more, but I knew that as soon as he was finished with me, he’d murder me. That day wasn’t one of the days when I’d gladly have that happen.”

  “You’ve wished to die other times though?” Lilac saw no reason to lie to her, not that she could anyway, so she nodded at her. “I see. And this day, is it a good day or one that I have to watch out for you?”

  “I don’t appreciate you making fun of me. I don’t want to be around most days. It’s difficult to be what I am and have to deal with the shit that comes along all the time.” Kendrick said nothing. “I need to get out of here. I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to be.”

  “I’m sorry that you thought I was mocking you. I wasn’t. I can understand completely how down you can be. I was for most of my life before meeting Danburn. I had a sister and a mother that were as bad, I think, as James is. My mother shot me in the head and left me for dead, and then couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t help her and Louise when I was put in foster care to heal.” Lilac felt terrible for being so short with her and said as much. “It’s all right. How would you have known? But you have to trust me when I tell you that we’re all here for you. All of us.”

  “To what point? I mean, what will you want from me in exchange? I have nothing, as I have said, but my magic. And while it’s considerable, it’s not much in comparison to what dragons might have. Especially dragons that are the king and queen of their kind.” Lilac went down the rest of the stairs and turned to look at the younger woman. “I’m afraid that whatever Griff might want from me, I won’t submit to him. I’m my own person, and he’ll have to deal with that.”

  “I have no idea what this conversation is about, but you’ll never have to submit to anything that you don’t wish to. I’m not my brother.” Lilac turned to look at the man as he stood in the doorway to the other part of the house. “My name is Griffith Alexander Farley, the fourth Earl of Alexander’s Folly. The Duke of Winebarger and Baron of Windemere Castle. I’m a dragon of good standing and always have been. I’m not my brother.”

  “So you say. But how would I know that?” She felt rather than saw Kendrick leave them, but Lilac wanted to make a point and it wasn’t going to be nice. “You have a lot of titles and seem to be very proud of them. However, you’ll find that I couldn’t care less what you have attached to your name. I only care what you think you’re going to be doing to me.”

  “Do to you? Why, nothing that you don’t want. As I have said to you repeatedly, I’m not James. He’s a sadistic fuck that I have hated most of my life. He killed my parents without regard to what they were to us, simply because he could. He has murdered and taken anything that he wanted since we were children. He thought that as the first born, by only mere minutes before me, that he should have anything and everything that he wanted. And if he didn’t get it in a conventional way, he’d take it, killing whatever got into his way when he did.” He took several steps toward her, and Lilac lifted her chin and didn’t move. “I’ve spoken to him about you. Or he has told me that you’re his mate and that you’ve escaped. He has no idea that you’re here, and this household will make sure that he doesn’t.”

  “You’re the second born? And you’re a dragon? How did that happen? He should have been given your parents’ all. No matter what he is.” Griff told her that he didn’t know, but perhaps the fates knew what sort of person James would turn out to be. “Perhaps. But I still don’t trust you. And more than likely never will. I’m very sorry for that. But I want you to know from the start my feelings on this. I might be your mate and I may have to stay here, but you’ll never own my heart. Nor my body, even if you use it.”

  He pulled her body to his. His grip was tight, but not painful. It was like he was possessing her in some way. When he said her name, gently, like a caress, she put her hands to his chest to push him away. But touching him, she could feel his heat, his magic, as it blanketed over her like the sun did when she had a chance to be out in it in the early morning.

  “I have no wish, none at all, to take anything that you aren’t willing to part with. That would include your body.” She struggled, and he held her tighter. Lilac could feel his erection and stopped moving. “My body is reacting to how lovely you are. That you belong to us, my dragon and me. But there isn’t any way that I’d take from you, not with your heart as broken as it is. I promise you this, Lilac. You’re as safe with me as you would be with your own mother, if she is as kind as you are.”

  He let her go and took a step back. Lilac was slightly unsteady on her feet, but held onto the table that was just behind her. Watching him, she could see the struggle he was having too. Whether it was from wanting to take her, his anger, or something else, she couldn’t tell. But when he turned and made his way back the way he’d come, Lilac held tighter to the table so that she’d not fall on her face.

  “Christ.” That about summed it up, she thought. She was mated to a dragon—a very strong and old one. And his brother was out there, trying his best to take her and then kill her.

  Lilac sat down on the floor and called out to her own faerie. Sunny came to her immediately. She needed the strength that the small faerie would give her and closed her eyes when her magic healed all her wounds but the deeper cut on her leg. It was painful, but not nearly as much as her heart was broken right now.

  She thought about leaving—just disappearing into the outside and hoping no one would find her. But she also knew that once she left there, Griff would find her. And while she didn’t think that he’d hurt her for leaving, she just didn’t know. He was, as she thought, a dragon with considerable strength, and not one to fuck with.

  Getting up, she made her way in the direction that Griff had taken. It led her right to the kitchen, the heart and soul of any home that a dragon had. Sitting down when she was asked, a large platter of greens and flowers was set in front of her. Griff was having a sandwich as large as her arm, and a salad as well. Picking up the fork to fortify herself with her meal, she kept a careful eye on her host.

  Lilac didn’t smell poisons or any other kind of mixture to make her ill, but she was very cautious as to what she put in her mouth. The salad was good, just the right mixture of different greens with a beautiful array of edible flowers. It wasn’t until she was finished that she realized that he was staring at her. Pushing her plate away, she stared right back.

  “I’ve some news if you’d like it.” Lilac asked him what it was about. “You and James. Mostly him and what he’s saying about you. He is spreading the word that you’re his mate and that the two of you had a tiff—his words, not mine. No one is saying anything. Not that they knew you were here, but Danburn is making sure that everyone knows that James is trouble and they shouldn’t interact with him. Also, he’s asked that everyone go around in pairs or more so as not to be a target before he can be caught. I’m to understand from some of his
other victims’ families that it matters little to him whether you’re male or female.”

  “That’s right. If he’s around, why is no one catching him? It would seem to me that this is an easy catch. Or am I wrong about that?” He said that she wasn’t. “Then why is he still on the streets?”

  “He’s not a dragon.” She started to ask him what the hell that meant when it occurred to her. “I can see by your face that you get it. There is not one group that wants to take responsibility for his actions. The dragon council knows that he is the son of a dragon, but he’s not one. The paranormal council won’t touch him for the same reasons. Everyone wants him put away, but no one wants to do it. I call that lazy, but then that’s just me.”

  “And what happens when he kills again? Will someone step in then?” Griff shrugged. “You don’t care if he kills again, or you don’t care who takes him away? I know that he’s your brother. Is that the reason why he’s still out there terrorizing people?”

  “I care very much if he kills again. But I cannot, for personal reasons, do anything about it. And I washed my hands of James long ago. Just after our mother was presumed dead by his hand. Would I like to have him killed? Yes, with all my heart.” Lilac asked him what had happened to his mother. “My mother was fed iron every day for several weeks. He admitted that, in addition to admitting that he killed our father. James removed our father’s head one afternoon when our father refused to turn the family fortune over to him. As you can well imagine, he’s not welcome around here or anywhere that he might put his hat.”

  Lilac started to tell him that she’d gladly kill James when Griff suddenly stood up. She did as well and waited for him to tell her what was going on. As he rushed to the door, he told her not to leave the house, that James was nearby. Sitting back down, she had to wonder what James had done now.

  Chapter 2

  Griff wasn’t really mad, but he wasn’t thrilled either. There were things going on that he wished he could have a part in, but couldn’t because James was his brother. Most of it was things that he really didn’t want to get involved in anyway. He looked over at Danburn when he said his name, probably not for the first time.

  “Are you all right with this?” His face heated up in embarrassment when he told him that he hadn’t been paying attention. “Yes, I kind of got that when you zoned out on us. I wanted to know what your take is on the councils, both of them, getting involved with this. Do you have a problem with James being arrested?”

  “No. I mean, if anyone needs to be put behind bars, it would be him. Don’t you think?” Danburn nodded. “I am worried that he’ll figure out that I have Lilac at my house. And while I know that she can more than likely come out on top against him, I worry that he won’t fight fair and he’ll hurt her. Then I’ll have to kill him. I should have already.”

  “Yes. I agree with you there. Someone should have by now. Do you have any idea why your mom disappeared when she did?” He looked at Danburn and said that she’d been killed. “No, I don’t think so. At least from what I’ve gathered about this. Her body would have reverted to her human self if she had been a dragon when she was killed. But, if she’d been killed with iron while a human, she wouldn’t have had the strength to have turned into a dragon to leave. The poisons would have made her weak, had your brother actually fed her enough iron to have killed her. But you know as well as I that it would take a great deal of iron to have killed a dragon as large as she was.”

  “I don’t understand. Are you saying that my mother might be out there somewhere? Waiting on what? For James to be killed? Or to see if I kill him.” Danburn said that he didn’t know for sure, but that’s what he’d heard from Quinn. “She’s been reading up on it for me?”

  “She’s been given all the dragon books, so I guess in a way, she’s been looking for you. I’m to understand that he fed her iron in some of her meals, correct?” Griff nodded. “You know as well as I do that it wouldn’t kill her. Not unless he had given it to her over a twenty or thirty-year timeframe. As it was, you thought it was only a few weeks after your father was killed that she disappeared. That isn’t enough time for it to have killed her. Not in the small doses that he would have been feeding her. Also, if it had been much more than just a little, she would have been able to smell it.”

  “I never.... My father had only been dead for a few weeks when she was considered dead.” Griff started pacing the room. If he was honest with himself, he was having a hard time thinking of anything but the woman in his home. Their home. “Why do you think she’s still hiding out if she is alive?”

  “I would imagine for the same reasons that you said. Because James is still out there. I’d certainly hide out if I were her. Wouldn’t you?” Griff nodded and paced some more, his mind a whirl of activity from trying to think. “Griff, if he didn’t kill her, then the dragon council will not be able to take him to task. And as you have no proof that he killed your father, then the paranormal council’s hands will be tied too.”

  “Christ, this is a nightmare.”

  He stood by the office door and looked out over the work that was being done to his backyard. Danburn had caught him in the middle of working, but he had been glad for the interruption. Griff wasn’t sure how much he’d been getting done anyway. He had a distraction much larger than his brother at the moment.

  Griff looked at Danburn when he spoke again.

  “He’s been going around town telling anyone that will listen that you cheated him out of his inheritance. And that he is going to rule the castle now that someone has cleaned it up for him. I’m assuming that you’ve taken care that he can’t return there.” Griff nodded. “I have someone doing a search on your mom. But before he goes too far into it, I wanted to ask you if you care whether or not she’s found.”

  “Yes. We were good together. The three of us—my father, my mother, and me. James considered himself above whatever activities we were doing. Even taking trips, he was too busy to join us.” He thought of his brother and what he’d been like even as a child. “When we’d return from wherever we’d been, he would bitch and groan about how we’d left him behind and how we’d not brought him anything home. Like he was a four-year-old or something. Once, when we’d been gone for nearly a month, the castle was in shambles when we returned. Mom and Dad were so upset about it, and more so when he told them that they should have known better than to leave him unattended for so long. The fucker made it sound like it was their fault that he was a grown man and couldn’t be trusted at home alone.”

  “I’m sorry, Griff. I knew that it was bad at your home, but I had no idea what had happened to your family.” He waved him off, not wanting him to give him sympathy. “What do you plan to do when he comes back? You know as well as I do that he will.”

  “I don’t know. If my mom is out there, I could ask her to take away this promise I made to her. It’s the only way that I can think of to end his reign of terror. Especially since everyone’s hands are tied.” He thought of Lilac and what she’d told him yesterday. “My mate would gladly end his life after what he did to her. He had her tied to a tree naked. And had it not been for her faeries, she might well have been there when he returned. I don’t even want to think about what he would have done to her then.”

  Griff watched the rain falling. It was needed, the rain, but it was also somewhat sad to him as well. It was dreary and wet. It was only a few days until the Fourth, and closer to when Kendrick was to have her child. He looked over at Danburn and asked him if he was ready to be a father. Griff laughed when he seemed to light up with the question.

  “I am. We’ve put together all the furniture and things that we bought. Also, a rocker like the one that my mom had when I was a baby has been cleaned and refinished. Kendrick just loves it.” He asked him if they were ready for the ceremony. “Oh yes. Mom is taking care of it for us. She said that it was her pleasure to do so. I think she just wants to be the first to hold the baby, but she has been getting things set up.”


  The ceremony of welcoming a baby into the family was something older than both of them. The child would be born, and would be marked by its father then its mother. After that, he or she would be presented to friends and the rest of the family, each of them bestowing a gift to the child fitting with their future status as a royal. Then rest of the household would meet the child.

  There was more to it than that, but Griff was actually looking forward to the celebration. It would last an entire month, having the young child on display for all to come by and pay homage to. He had already gotten his gift for the baby, as well as one for Kendrick and Danburn.

  Griff was worried a little about James coming around and spoiling things for Danburn. He knew, as did the rest of their crew, that James hated them all, especially Danburn. He’d always been jealous of his wealth, as well as his titles. He’d called him Damn Bird all his life, but only behind his back. Griff had taken great pleasure in telling Danburn what his brother called him. And he’d come up with a suitable nickname for him as well—Jiminy Cricket. James hated that as much as Danburn had thought it was funny about his name.

  “Tell me what you want me to do, Griff, and you know that I’ll do it. We’ve been friends for far too long for us to stand on ceremony about your troubles. All of us will be here for you.”

  Griff started to tell him that he had no idea what he wanted when Lilac came into the room.

  Danburn stood up and bowed before her, and Griff watched her face to see how she would react. Both of them knew what sort of faerie she was—a water faerie. But neither of them knew what sort of lineage she had. Lilac could be any one of a thousand faeries. Whatever she was, it mattered little to him—he would still protect her with his life.

  “You’re a water faerie.” Lilac nodded at Danburn and looked at Griff before sitting down on the little sofa in his office. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen one of your kind. I know that there are more, but I had no idea that any were this close to us.”