Griffith: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  He was startled out of his thinking when a police officer asked him if he knew anyone that might have been staying there.

  “No, I can’t say that I do. I only stopped to see what all the commotion is about. Do you know who did it?” The officer said they didn’t think it was arson, if that was what he’d been asking. “I wasn’t, but I didn’t think this place had any power to it. What would have made it go off like this?”

  “We think it was just old and ready to go anyway. The fire department thinks it might have been smoldering for some time, perhaps since the last storm we had rolling through here. Lightning might have hit it, and nobody noticed it until it was out of hand.” James only nodded. He knew who had done it and why. “There was a squatter living in the place, but we don’t believe they had anything to do with the fire. Homeless people are fairly good about not setting fire to some place that they live.”

  “I’m not homeless. I have a perfectly good home that my brother took from me.” The officer looked at him oddly, and James tried to cover up his blunder. “What I mean is, I can’t believe that there are homeless people around here. I myself have a home, and wondered why everyone doesn’t.”

  If the officer believed him, he didn’t have any idea. About the time he was opening his mouth to say something back to him, someone called the officer away. James got into his car and drove off before he got himself into more trouble. But where to go, that was the fifty-four-thousand-dollar question.

  Now he had to find him a place to live and store his newly acquired shit. He’d prefer one that had some hot water and a way to use his hotplate. He had gone to a great deal of trouble to get himself one. But there were few places around that he could move into, other than being in the downtown area. By nightfall, however, he was getting desperate, and made himself at home in one of the four buildings in the downtown area that wasn’t being worked on.

  “This is bullshit. Why am I having to lower myself to living in a decrepit place when I have a castle that is mine?” James had no answer to his question, but he did stew on it for the rest of the evening. “Hopefully something will befall my brother, and I’ll not have to put up with him again. That’s just what I need. Him gone.”

  ~*~

  Danburn loved having his family here. His mom had requested that they all get together for dinner, and it wasn’t any trouble getting his fellow dragons to come as well. She loved these men as much if not more than he did. They’d been friends longer than most people lived. And he could not have asked for better ones.

  “I should like to make a toast.” His mother pinged her knife to her wine glass and everyone turned to her. “I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming here this evening. I want to tell you, from the bottom of my heart, how much you have all have come to mean to me over the decades. Some of you less time than that, but no less in my heart.”

  “Danburn, it’s time.” He nodded to Kendrick’s whisper as his mother continued thanking everyone for being there. “Danburn, I’m not joking.”

  “I know, honey, but dinner will be served soon and we’ll— What did you say?” She told him again that it was time. “Time? You mean, it’s time time?”

  “I haven’t any idea what that means, but if you mean the baby, then yes, you moron, it’s time for that.” He leapt from his chair and ran out of the dining room. Kendrick was laughing when she called him back. “Danburn? Did you forget something?”

  “No.” He came back when he realized that he’d forgotten his wife. When everyone at the table stood up too, he got the pleasure of seeing each of their faces, including his mom’s, when he made the announcement. “Kendrick says that it’s time. I’m going to be a father.”

  He fell to the floor then, everything that he’d been looking forward to over the last months hitting him right between the eyes. He was going to be a father. Danburn looked up at the face in front of him—it just happened to be his mother’s.

  “Son are you all right?” He nodded, then shook his head. “Yes, well, I can see that. It’s all so perfectly clear to us all. Are you going to sit on your bottom here in the dining room, or go up to your room to help your wife bring your child into the world?”

  “I’m not ready, Mom.” She laughed at him and he felt like an idiot. “I’m going to mess this up. Perhaps it’s a false alarm and we have a bit more time? Please?”

  About the time he was finished speaking, he felt her pain like it was his own. Kendrick was in labor. She was going to bring his child into the world whether he was ready or not. He stood up and made his way up the stairs slowly. Danburn needed time, and thought that if he wasn’t in the room with her, then she’d not be able to have the child. Christ, he was losing it.

  When he entered the room where she was, he looked at his wife. Even working as hard as she was, she still looked beautiful. Going to the side of the bed while the other women prepared her for the baby, Danburn held her hand and told her how much he loved her.

  “I love you too. I’m glad that you decided to join us.” Her temper was high, and he tried his best not to argue with her right now. He would normally have argued back, loving the way her face turned red and she didn’t hold back when she was pissed at him. “Where the fuck are my pain meds? They promised me something for pain. I’d better fucking have something for pain, Danburn, or so help me, you’re going to feel every pain that I do.”

  He believed her. The way she was gripping his hand made him glad that his cock was out of her reach. He had a feeling she’d be holding it hostage instead until this was over. And maybe well beyond that. Kissing the back of her hand again, he told her how much he loved her.

  “Danburn, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but this isn’t the time for you to be romantic. I’m in labor, for Christ’s sake.” Everyone in the room laughed, including his mom. When the next contraction gripped her, she screamed out her agony and squeezed his hand harder than he thought possible for someone of her size. The midwife finally showed up when he thought that his fingers would never be the same again.

  The labor seemed to go on forever. It had only been a couple of hours, but to him it felt as if it had been several lifetimes. He didn’t want her in pain, and he didn’t want her to be pissy with him. But when the midwife told him it was time, he held onto Kendrick’s hand. She pushed their child out of her body and into the hands of the woman there. Just like that, he’d gone from being just a man to being someone’s dad.

  “It’s a girl, my lord. And she looks of her mother.” He held Kendrick’s hand as the child was laid on her chest. She was screaming at the top of her little lungs then, and he touched his finger to the tiny fingers that she was fluttering around like she wanted to slug someone. “She is as beautiful as her mother, I think.”

  Kendrick cried and laughed when she held their child. And when asked if she wanted to nurse her, they both said that they did, as if he had any say over her doing this. When his daughter latched onto her mother to nurse, Danburn thought it to be the most beautiful sight that he’d ever witnessed. And it would probably be for the rest of his days, too.

  He held them both while the bed was cleaned up. Holding his girls was something that, before Kendrick, he’d never thought he’d enjoy. Watching them both as they dozed in his arms, he lifted them up and put them to bed when they said it was ready. Danburn wanted to lie down with them, hold them both forever. But there were others that needed to know that he was a father, so after kissing them both, he made his way to his friends.

  “It’s a girl. Healthy and happy, she has all her fingers and toes as well as the cutest little button nose I’ve ever seen.” His friends all hugged him, telling him congratulations. “Kendrick is doing well too. They’re both sleeping after all their hard work. And Mother is over the moon in love with her already.”

  “As are you, old man.” He nodded and told Rett that he was. “Good, that’s the way that it should be. I’m very happy for you both. I’ve been asked, when the child was bor
n, to declare it a holiday. I think that’s a brilliant idea, and will work on a celebration to commemorate her birth as the princess of dragons.”

  The midwife joined them in the hallway and told them that she was healthy and happy, weighing in at just over eight pounds and a good twenty-three inches long. She also commented on how well Lady Kendrick was doing, and that they were both sleeping soundly.

  Next he had to make an announcement to the town. It had been set up weeks ago when the town had hired a town crier for this event. Calling the man up who had been assigned the job, he told him all that he could and said that she’d be named later, when his wife was rested. After hanging up, he looked at Griffith as he joined him in the office.

  “You’re a very lucky dragon, I think.” Danburn said that he felt like he was too. “I’m very proud to be your friend, Danburn, and that I was able to be here when you had your first of what I’m assuming will be many children.”

  “Yes. I don’t know how she feels about having more right at this moment, but we have talked about having a great many children.” He laughed with his friend, then looked at him. “What is it, my man? Whatever it is, we can fix it. The way that I’m feeling at this moment, I could fix anything and feel very good about it. Tell me so that we can celebrate as only dragons can.”

  “My mother is alive.” Whatever he expected him to say, that wasn’t it. He knew that Griff had said that she’d knocked him off the road, but he thought it was just his head injuries talking. He asked him how sure he was. “Very much so. And in order to explain to you how I’m so sure, I have to tell you that Lilac is the queen of the waterways. Her mother is none other than the queen of the faeries.”

  “Holy shit.” Griff nodded and sat down in the chair across from the desk and him. “When did you find that out? I’m assuming recently.”

  “When I was found in the cave. She told me, and I know this is true, that she didn’t trust me enough to let me know that. She was terrified that James would have claimed her. Claimed her in the way of what she is.” Danburn said that it was a ritual that had to be said. “Yes. That’s it. And when I said the vow to her mother and her, I was able to receive all that she is. And her me, but for the shifting to dragon.”

  “She’s going to be hunted if anyone finds out. Just knowing that she’s a water faerie would have people coming after her, but this—this is something that she won’t be able to hide for long.” Griff told him of his plan and what he’d done to start on this. “That’s a big undertaking, even for you. How do you propose to keep you both hidden away with your brother out there?”

  “I’ve already made arrangements. There is enough magic surrounding all our homes that I don’t have to worry about James getting in. The lands and the homes have been fortified so that no one will enter unless we say so.” Danburn asked him about his mother. “I don’t know what to think about that, to be honest with you. If she’s alive and hiding out, I can well understand why. But to not have any contact with me, even after all this time, I find that strange, don’t you?”

  “Yes. Unless she might not know how to tell who is who between you and James. I have to admit, there were times when you were younger that even I had some trouble with that.” Griff said he’d thought of that as well. “And what did you come up with?”

  “That I’m going to reach out to her, just to find out what her thinking is. I’ve no reason to believe that she’d be against me in any way. But I just don’t know. And I’m not sure how I feel about her just coming around in time to try and kill me. Had I not ducked when I did, my head would have been removed when her claw took the roof off my truck.” Danburn had noticed that as well, but hadn’t mentioned it to anyone in the event that he was too stressed and making too much of what he’d thought he had seen. “Kassina said that she’d be able to find her better than we would. So, I have asked her to find out what she could. Just as you were telling us about your daughter, she got back to me to tell me that my mother is staying in the mountains not far from the castle keep. She can’t enter either, though I don’t know if she has tried.”

  “Will you let me go with you?” Griff said that he had hoped that he would ask. “As soon as I have things settled here, we’ll go. I know that Kendrick is in good hands, and she’ll more than likely want to go. Keeping her here to rest might be harder than it will be to confront your mother.”

  They both laughed and Griff stood when he did. “I’m sorry to have brought this to you today of all days. I didn’t know who else to talk to about it. Lilac wants me to call her out, just have a showdown, but I’m hoping that it won’t come to that. But again, I just don’t know.”

  “I understand both of your wants in this. I don’t know how I would feel either, to be honest. My mother would have stayed, confronted your brother, and ended his miserable life. But your mother was so timid, so unlike my own.” Griff laughed, telling him that was an understatement. “Yes, I’m glad that you agree. I’ll talk to Kendrick and get back to you. I think that we should try and do this as soon as we can. There is no reason to put off the meeting. Don’t you agree?”

  “Yes. Thank you, Danburn. And if this turns out to be something nefarious, then you’ll be there to help me through it as well.” Danburn asked what Lilac’s thoughts about this were, to meet up with his mom. “She’d like to take her on, as I said, but since she was the first person to point out she might not know the differences between James and I, she’s willing, for now, to give her the benefit of the doubt on this. I hope that she’s right, but a large part of me thinks that this is so wrong.”

  Danburn did as well but didn’t voice his concerns to Griff. He had enough going on in his mind for him to be adding to it. Making his way back up to the bedroom where his family was, he watched them both sleep and wondered what sort of life he was going to have now with a little girl in his home. The best, he told himself.

  Danburn had it all, as far as he was concerned. A wife that he loved more than life itself. A daughter who already had him wrapped around her little finger. A mother that loved him as much as he did her, and friends that had stood by him at every turn of his life. But Griff—he was worried about Griff and this unknown meeting.

  Chapter 6

  Marissa wanted to go out and enjoy life again, but she knew that until things were settled around the castle and her sons, she had to stay hidden. She’d already tipped her hand in going after one of them. To do so again would have grave consequences, she thought. It was times like this that she so missed her husband. He would have known just what to do.

  Walking back, deeper into the belly of the mountain, she thought about what she’d done. She’d nearly killed one of her children, and it had been the wrong one. Thinking about it now, she knew that she’d have some explaining to do, and only hoped that someone would give her a chance to tell her side of what had happened.

  She’d thought it was James, not that it made it all right to have tried to kill him. But James had been the one that had killed her one and only love, and had tried, in vain, to kill her. To think that she’d brought him into the world with such hope, to have had him poison her so heinously. But then, what did she expect to happen when he’d already killed his own father? She missed John more every day.

  When she’d discovered that she was being fed iron, her first instinct had been to confront James, to ask him what he was doing. But she thought about how he’d killed his father, and realized that he’d not quit until she too was dead. Faking her illness and then disappearing as she did was the only way that she knew to survive him. And then she’d heard about the castle.

  The castle had been in her family for more years, for more generations than she could count now. Her parents had raised her and her brother there, as her mother’s parents had raised her. The home had been comfortable, homey, and the heart of their family. But even that stood no chance against James.

  He had pilfered all that he could from it, even stripping the tapestries from the walls and selling off heirl
ooms that could never be replaced. The wild parties that he held, the people coming into her family home, had destroyed even her flower gardens, again something that had been in her family for a long time.

  “Oh Griffith, can you ever forgive me?” She mourned the loss of her son. Not that he was dead, but to be able to speak to him. To have him there when she just needed someone to hug her. And when she’d disappeared from his life, she hurt when he’d grieved her passing as if she were dead. Griffith had always held her heart in the same way that James had held her hatred of him.

  She thought of the look on Griffith’s face when he’d realized it was her trying to kill him that day. By the time she had come to the conclusion that it was Griffith driving the truck, it had been too late for her to bring her anger back. The swipe across his truck, the one that had nearly severed his head, had been meant for James. She would gladly go to the gallows for killing him if it would make her son, her Griffith, safe. James had no love for anyone but himself and money. She’d never raised him to be so selfish, and was always surprised when he showed that side of himself to her. Especially after murdering his own father.

  “What have you done, James?” He only shrugged at her, telling her to mind her own business. “But you are covered in blood. Covered in the blood of your sire, your own father. How could you?”

  “It was simple, really. I had him down on his knees, and told him just what I was going to do if he didn’t leave me the castle now and all the money that went with it. I’m going to get it anyway—I just didn’t see any reason for me to wait until he was dead to have it. So I helped him along in that.” He looked at her then. “You had best watch your step, Mother dear. I might just find that I have no use for you either. And trust me when I tell you, I’m looking very hard for a way to end your life as well.”