Legion: Alpha Dragon Shifter Romance (Dragon Rules Series Book 1)

by Tia Didmon

  Mara’s smile lit her eyes. “I guess men and dragons share a love for beautiful women.”

  Legion turned. “For a dragon, there is only one woman.”

  “It sounds like he loved her.”

  Legion smiled. “He worshiped her, as he should. My mother was more courageous and cunning, than any of us could have suspected.”

  Mara frowned. “How so?”

  “We were at war with the mage lord, and they were winning. A dragon does not shift until he is in his teens. It would be unsafe for a dragon child, without mastery of his magic to fly around in the human world.”

  Mara’s eyebrow went up. “Unsafe for humans, you mean?”

  “Yes.” He returned his gaze to the window, as if he couldn’t face her. “The mage leader was powerful and cruel. He destroyed our future and forced an unspeakable act. One that shaped both our species for all time.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He attacked our dragon leader’s mate, Solara. She was strong, as was Magnus, our clan leader, but the mage lord sacrificed his own minions, to infect Solara with a death spell. Within two months, she informed the Rule clan that she would not survive the winter. Magnus called for all the adolescents, to begin the trials.”

  “What are the trials?”

  “When the reigning Gold dies, or is near death, the dragons that have not shifted yet, must fight in human form for the right to be leader of the Rule clan.”

  “Wouldn’t an adult be better suited?”

  “A dragon’s magic cannot be modified. The vessel of the new Gold, must be empty of all power. A shell that the magic of our species inhabits.”

  “How old were you?” Mara asked.

  “I was the youngest dragon in combat. Only fourteen. I was barely old enough to enter the trials.”

  “But you won? You somehow beat the other dragons in combat?”

  Legion huffed. “Hardly, I was the most inexperienced dragon on the field. Thantar and I are the same age, but his father was a warrior. He had me on the ground in seconds.”

  “You lost?”

  Legion sighed. “The trials are not to find the most efficient warrior with a blade. It’s to expose the dragon with the heart, the will to put his people first. I lost all my fights in human form. When I raised my sword that final day, there wasn’t a spot on my skin that was uncut or bleeding. Many dragons fail the trials. They cannot endure the pain in human form. When they fall, they cannot get up.”

  Mara leaned forward, feeling like she did when her mother would tell her fairy tales before bed. She prayed for a happy ending to the engaging story. “What happened next?”

  “The last trial is to force our dragon’s emergence.”

  “How do you do that?”

  Legion took a long breath. “You must fight to the death.”

  She gasped. “What? You killed your friends?”

  “No. The moment a dragon realizes its human counterpart will die if it does not emerge. It forces the shift, prior to our magic being mature.”

  Mara blinked. “So normally, you mature and shift when your dragon is ready?’

  “Yes. The trial occurs only when we need a new Gold, to house the magic of our species.”

  Mara rubbed her forehead. “What does that mean?”

  “There are a finite number of dragons alive in the world. When too many are killed, then the leader of the rule clan holds the power of his fallen until bestowing it upon the next generation.”

  “You have baby dragons inside you.”

  Legion smiled. “I never thought of it that way, but yes, when a new male is born to my species, I give them a spark of magic, that grows and matures when they do.”

  Mara winked. “How many sparklers have you given out?”

  Legion’s smile fell away. “None. No child has been born to a dragon since my reign as clan leader.”

  “I don’t understand. There are no mated couples?”

  He nodded. “There were many dragons and druids then. Many were mated.”

  “What happened to them?”

  Legion stared out the window. She feared he wouldn’t continue with his story. “The fight between me and the three other combatants lasted for two hours before Tokor shifted to blue. We bowed our respect to him as he left the fighting ring. He was large and powerful, but he was not gold as is required of our leader.”

  “He lost because he was blue?’

  “Yes. A Gold emerges in the time of transfer. Had none of us been gold, then Magnus would have held on without his mate until the younger dragons were old enough to enter a trial.”

  Mara cleared her throat. “What happened next?”

  “Thantar shifted next. He is a large dragon and a deep purple color that is rare for our species. Admittedly, we were all shocked by his emergence. Though he sleeps, he was one of my childhood friends and is a great warrior. We assumed he was the one.”

  “That left you and another dragon?”

  “Yes, his name was Dakon. He was a brute even when he was a child. He was rude and unmanageable, but he was a skilled fighter, like his father. We fought for three hours before Dakon, ran me through.”

  “Ran you through?”

  “Stabbed me with a steel blade. It clipped my heart. Had my dragon not shifted, I would have died.”

  “You shifted,” she said.

  “I did, but so did Dakon. He hissed when my gold scales formed. He attacked me, but my dragon has no equal in battle. I extended my scythes, something an adolescent dragon should not be able to do, and pinned him to the earth. My blades rested on his throat. He had no choice but to submit.”

  “He attacked you when you’re the size of a mountain? Was he nuts?”

  “I was no larger than a small cottage. Magnus still held the magic of our clan. I was simply the chosen vessel when Magnus sought his eternal rest with his mate.”

  “Magnus died with his mate and you became leader, but how did the elder dragons die.”

  “A month later, someone betrayed us. I never found out who, but I was traveling with my parents....” He trailed off. His eyes searching the clouds.

  “Legion?”

  “My mother was so proud of me. As was my father. She was kissing my forehead, telling me she always knew I was destined for greatness. That she had suspected I was special.”

  “How did she know?”

  “She said the plants told her. That mother nature herself chose me. I never got that answer. Twenty dark mages attacked us. They placed my parents in an immobilization spell and held them captive to keep me in line.”

  Mara put her hands to her lips. “Where did they take you?”

  “They took me to a castle in Scotland. It was the Mage stronghold, and no creature that had entered, ever returned.”

  “How did you break free?”

  Legion closed his eyes. The pain etched in every fiber of his being. “I didn’t. Magnus was at the end of his reign. His death would infuse me with the power of the Rule clan. They warned all dragons of the transition, and its cost. The druids united with us, giving us the means to destroy the dark mage, and his minions. That too had an unspeakable price.”

  Mara swallowed dry air. “What was it?”

  “A druid bomb.”

  She shivered. “What is a druid bomb?”

  “The druids combined the magic of all the mated dragons and every mature druid. They infused my parents with that magic.”

  “How did they do that? What did it do to them?”

  Legion’s eyes faded to black. “They glowed. I tore at my chains until blood ran down my arms, but I could not break free. My mother knelt down and told me she loved me. That they were proud of me and were sorry they wouldn’t be there to help me through the dark days ahead.”

  Mara’s voice wavered. “The power killed them?”

  “The power coursed through them, but magic has a price. And the one for killing an entire race was the virtual extinction of another. But sacrifice alone is not enough to
create a druid bomb.”

  Tears glistened in her eyes. “What are you saying?”

  “My parents had the power of both races, but to save me, one had to kill the other.” A golden tear slipped from his eyes and ran down his cheek. “My father held the knife. He tried, but he couldn’t plunge the knife into my mother’s chest, even at her encouragement. The druids and dragons had agreed what needed to happen to save their future, but when the time came, he couldn’t kill her.”

  Mara sniffled as she wiped the tears from her cheek with her palm. “How did they save you?”

  “My mother took the knife from my father. She hugged, him and told him how much she loved him. That she was grateful for every moment of their life together. But that the future belonged to their son. She stabbed him in the heart as she kissed him.”

  Mara wept into her hands, unable to process the depth of Legion’s sorrow.

  “I felt the magic build inside me. Magnus had his second-in-command kill him when the knife hit my father’s heart. Though I burst through my chains, it was too late for my parents. The bomb exploded around me in a white haze. Nothing survived, except me. The druids and dragons tethered to the spell; all fell.”

  She sniffled. “They all died.”

  “Most of the druids did. The few left, sequestered themselves in the last temple, until performing the spell that distributed their magic into the human world. The mated dragons died with their women. The rest fell into stasis, some have been able to wake for short periods, some awoke and turned dark. Most haven’t moved since that fateful day.”

  She wiped a tear with the back of her hand. “And you?”

  “I stood in the middle of a crater, four times my original size. My dragon was powerful, gold, and weeping for the two people who loved him more than their own lives.”

  Her speech came is stunted gasps. “I’m so sorry, Legion. That is unfathomable.”

  He rubbed his chest. “Never doubt my feelings about a druid’s heart, or her strength. My father was a thousand times more powerful than my mother, yet her heart, her sacrifice and her love for me, were more powerful than any magic.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I was leader of the dragons and infused with the magic of our species, but the adult dragons were in stasis, so I had only the young to lead. I turned to the few druids still alive. They helped us, guided us... loved us.”

  “Adara was one of those druids.”

  Legion’s eyes flared with an eternal flame. “She was.”

  Legion tracked the tear as it rolled down Mara’s face. Her compassion burned a hole in his heart, only to be filled with the need to touch her. The instinct to claim her had been building since the moment he saw her. Now it was a driving force that begged him to give in to the primal urge.

  He was on the bed in seconds, pulling her mouth to his. The rush in his body was instant. Electric currents of pure fire that reached for her. He didn’t just want her body, he wanted to consume her soul. Live and breathe in that perfect paradise of feeling and compassion. The centuries of loneliness forgotten in a new world of beauty and sensation.

  His lips were gentle and demanding as his tongue swept into her mouth, daring her to resist. She didn’t. Her body turned pliant against him. Her skin heated against his. She held nothing back, giving him everything he asked for. He had no choice but pull her closer to him, melding his hard body to hers and hold on to her as the world shifted beneath them.

  He wasn’t sure if the vibration that ran through the house was her or him. Maybe it was both, but the small shock wave reminded him he couldn’t let things go too far. Mara wouldn’t deny him, and had he not been the very dragon to make that pact with the druid leader, he would not have had the strength to wait for her to turn twenty-three. The next few hours would be hell, but he would sate his need for her in the few ways he could.

  He connected with his dragon, letting the beast know their time was coming. He let the feeling of pure sensation flood his body and his mind. Her scent, her soft skin, even the gentle rasp of her fingernails against his skin, all combined to bring him to a fevered brink. He teetered on the edge of a canyon. Instead of the black abyss, this feeling offered hope and freedom. Pleasure and acceptance. He had flown the skies for thousands of years and never felt as free as he did in her arms.

  Legion’s magic warped around them. A living flame of desire and need focused on the curvy beauty in his arms. He skated on dangerous ground. Mara wasn’t holding back. Her magic would accept him, and he would break a pact he promised to uphold. He couldn’t take her body, not yet, but he could have her mind. Tell me what you feel. His mind whispered in hers as it secured its hold on her soul. She shivered beneath him.

  I feel you. Your hunger. Your magic.

  You are incapable of understanding what you are to me. How long I have waited for you. How dark and meaningless life was without you in it. He wanted to show her everything. The loneliness. The endless hours flying the skies, roaring his anguish. The years that followed when even that anguish was a distant memory. Now he had heaven in his arms and he dared anyone to try to take her from him.

  You’re a little scary. Her admission was soft. Tentative. As if she was worried about hurting his feelings.

  He smiled against her lips, loving that she told him what she felt, even though it was uncomfortable for her. You are the only person on this earth who need not fear me. Hurting you would be the equivalent of cutting out my own soul. Stripping away everything I hold dear and cursing it for all time. I can no longer turn dark. No longer be a threat to my people, and you are the single being in the universe who had the power to give me this gift. He was too aggressive with her. His lips promising a pleasure he could not complete, but he needed her breathless, wanting him the way he wanted her. Desperate for the tiny sigh as his hands slid down her back to squeeze her ass.

  This is crazy. I feel like I’m drowning and burning up at the same time.

  It is the same for me. I was waiting for you to stop me.

  Not going to happen, dragon boy. You started this.

  Laughter bubbled in his heart. A well of mirth and delight. He broke their kiss, gazing at the sparkle in her eyes. The magic that burned just under the surface, ready to ignite at any moment. “I suppose I did. I have had centuries to learn to control my dragon, his urges, and will. As powerful as that is, it did not prepare me, for you.”

  Her arms wound around his neck. “Yup, I’m a force of nature.” She winked at him.

  He thought his heart would burst. He expected to protect her. Admire her gifts as a druid. He never expected to love her. His reverie was short as her next words tore through his heart.

  “I’m sorry, Legion, but I have to go.”

  Mara’s heart stuttered when Devlin Night entered the shop. Her hands froze on the paintings she had rolled out on the counter. His eyes scanned the dark interior of the store, before resting on her. His smile was welcoming, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Fingers of ice traced her skin, causing goosebumps to bubble up beneath her clothes.

  “Mr. Night, I was just putting my samples together. Ross scheduled a meeting at your gallery in an hour.”

  Devlin waved a dismissive hand. “Yes, I know. I wanted to see you in your native environment. I was curious about the inspiration of your latest painting.”

  Mara glanced around shelves, packed with books, potions, soaps and other trinkets connected to the occult. “We have many books and sculptures depicting dragons in the shop. I grew up here, so I guess mythical creatures are real to me.”

  Devlin smirked. “Is that so?”

  Mara’s eyes narrowed. His smile mocked her. She had grown up with looks of contempt. Being the daughter of an occult shop owner had come with its fair share of children who teased her, calling her a witch, or worse. “Why are you here, Devlin?”

  His laugh was like steel, grating in her ears. “I did want to see this place. I have to appreciate the irony of the name. I have been looking for
your family for centuries and here you were, just blocks away.” He pointed to the etched wooden sign above Mara’s head. “Inn Plain Sight. I looked up the history of this business. It was in fact an Inn many years ago.”

  Mara swallowed hard, praying her assumption was wrong. “Why were you looking for my family?”

  Devlin picked up a pewter sculpture of a sleeping dragon. “Tomorrow, you will go through a very important transition. You can have the life you wanted. Money. Fame. Your paintings in every Dark Art Gallery across the world. I just need something from you.”

  Mara’s heart cracked; blood pumped loudly in her ears. “What?”

  He placed the dragon back on the cluttered shelf. His eyes flared with red flames. “Your blood.”

  Legion! She screamed in her mind, but was careful not to let her fear show on her face. “Those are quite the contacts. Why do you need my blood? I don’t have a rare blood type.”

  Devlin blinked away the red fire. “I assure you they are not contact lenses. As for your blood type, it is rarer than you can imagine.”

  Legion shimmered in her mind. I am on my way. Stall him.

  Who is he?

  He is a dark dragon. He is blocking his presence from me. He sent waves of reassurance.

  Mara felt the sensation of wind against her skin. Legion was flying. Their connection so intimate, she could feel his anxiousness. His need to get to her.

  She rubbed her temple, faking some semblance of composure. “Mr. Night, I am not sure where you got your information...”

  “I was given no information. I feel your emergence. You will come into your power soon, and I will be there to... enjoy it.”

  Mara’s eyes flashed. “Enjoy it?”

  Devlin smiled wickedly. “Oh yes, I will enjoy tasting you, but don’t worry Mara, you will love every minute of it.”

  Pain and pressure infused her chest as Legion shifted. His anger and confidence invaded her mind. Her body. “Are all dark dragons as arrogant and misguided as you?”

  Devlin hissed. “How do you know about the dragons? You have not come into your power.”

  Mara huffed. “You forgot you are not the only dragon in the world, Devlin.”