The energy builds, but this time I feel Sarn’s energy too. His body begins to glow with a dazzling purple light. If my body wasn’t craving release so bad, I’d stop just to watch the beautiful colors swirl under his skin. My dragon is beautiful and I will never be able to put what I’m feeling into words. The Goddess might be able to take his wings, but Sarn will always be dragon.
Chapter Seventeen
Sarn
She is my true mate. My power builds and my violet light passes from me to her until we are one flashing glow of perfection. Her wolf’s power blends with mine in seamless harmony. I have never felt this degree of rightness. I could only share a small part of this energy with my brides. Nothing like what is taking place right now. Sierra’s cry floats on the wind and my shout follows. The light explodes around us. It reaches over a hundred yards in all directions and the ground shakes with the power of our release. We are mates. We are one. We are forever.
I hold her long after our bodies calm. The glow around us dissipates slowly. If we were in the dragon realm and she my bride, she would have already transcended to dragon. It matters not. She is my mate—a wolf with a dragon’s heart.
“I love you,” she says against my chest.
“And I love you. I’m sorry it took the extra days to get here. I had to say goodbye.”
“I am sorry for everything you’ve lost.” She’s leaning up gazing at me with my purple light spilling from her body.
I smile when I see the new color of her eyes. They are a perfect match to mine.
She lifts her arm and a trail of that light follows as she moves it. “This is glorious,” she says with the most exquisite smile.
I place my finger at her lips. “Yes, it is glorious. It can only happen between dragon mates. There will be no more apologies between us. What we do from this point forward, we shall do together. We have an eternity of happiness to live and I want every moment to be better than the one before.”
She nips my finger then snuggles back down against me. “Will the light happen every time?”
“Yes.”
“My father will love that,” she says with a slightly wicked laugh.
I laugh too. “I must build us a castle to hold the light in when we make love.”
“I don’t care if the world sees. They will only be jealous that it isn’t them. Love me again, Sarn.”
“As you wish.”
***
Sierra
So many years wasted, but we make up for them. We stayed in bear territory for a month. Then we traveled to my father. He and Sarn became great friends. Part of the key was my father seeing me so happy. My brother and Derrick came to visit also. We spent three months in the southern territory before visiting Marcus and Amy. It was just over the border of their territory that Sarn purchased land and built our castle, or as he calls it, our lair. As the mate of a dragon, I no longer needed a vampire to give me eternal life. I am truly Sarn’s forever.
We have no knowledge about how things work when a dragon and a wolf shifter mate. I still feel sad at times that Sarn no longer has his dragon form. He never feels that way, though. He is happier than I’ve ever seen him. Part of that is me, but I suspect the largest part is that he finally forgives himself.
I am the happiest woman alive. I have dragon in my soul and the love of my life in my bed. As Roxy told me, there is no greater love than the love of a dragon. And I have that forever.
Chapter Eighteen
Tahr
I lay on the bed with Meagan in my arms. Somehow she has survived longer than any previous bride. Her will to live leaves me in awe. Her cloudy eyes are open and peering into mine. I see the lines of pain that furrow her once-flawless skin. I smile gently to ease her worry. This is the end and we both know it. I have been up with her throughout the night. She only hangs on because of me.
“I wish to see the sunrise, Tahr.”
I lift her almost weightless body from the bed and carry her out the huge doors that lead to the landing perch. I hold her in my arms as she looks out over my realm with a soft smile on her lips.
It’s a long moment before she expels her next breath.
“Go in peace, my love,” I whisper against her hair as she takes one last shaky breath.
My roar of fire seems endless as I scream my wrath over the land below. I finally carry her back inside and lay her upon our bed. I don’t lie down beside her. If I do, I will never rise. I adjust her nightshift and comb her hair until the thin gray strands surround her beautiful face. I kiss her cooling lips one last time. Then I wrap her tightly within her favorite blanket. I carry her back out to the perch and shift. My silver wings spread wide and I lift her in my talons. I hold her gently and fly to the ocean. I release her in the deepest water like I have so many brides before.
I am the last of the damned. I am also the youngest of the four dragons originally cursed. They have each found a mate. I am the only one without left alone. There’s a good reason for that. It’s the reason the curse of one-hundred-thousand years will bring me pain until those years have passed.
I am the last direct descendant of Drakon, the dragon who caused the curse. My father was his brother. I alone should pay for Drakon’s sins, but the Goddess is vengeful. I’ve watched all the dragons die but the four of us. Then watched my three remaining brother dragons suffer with the pain of losing their brides again and again.
It’s fitting that I loved Meagan so deeply, and I will love my next bride in the same way. Fire rises in my throat and I let it slice over the water that has accepted my bride as gift. Now the long years of loneliness begin again.
And I will survive because dragons live forever.
Tahr’s story, Dragons Live Forever, the conclusion to the Fire Chronicles, coming soon…
D’Elen Gets Real,
You made it and I want to thank you for allowing me to shred your heart with Sarn and Sierra’s story. I know you have questions because my editing team has inundated me with them. Can Sarn and Sierra have children is number one. You must remember that dragons can only pro-create in their natural form and it must be with another dragon. Harsh but true.
When I first dreamed about these characters and developed their world in my head, I had a plan. I still have that plan and a lot of questions will be answered in the conclusion to the Fire Chronicles: Dragons Live Forever. And speaking of the last book (no screaming, yelling, and fit throwing, please) I’m hard at work on the series finale. You can bet you left tit it will have a few surprises. And yes Kathie, I know I promised you a green dragon but that will be down the line and possibly a new series. It depends on where my imagination takes me.
I balled my eyes out while writing this book. It reminded me of a dog who died in another story I wrote under one of my pseudonyms. I get very involved with my characters. Their struggles become mine and my emotions take over. I’ve always loved a book that touches my heart and that’s my goal when writing for you. Kleenex (or a roll of TP) is my friend.
Please, please, please leave a review for this book and the earlier ones if possible. I’m an Indie author and every review helps tremendously. It’s how most readers take notice of me. If we ever meet, I promise you a big sloppy kiss even if you don’t want it!
You can also find me on social media:
Blog – www.wickedstorytelling.com
Twitter – http://twitter.com/mywickedstories
Facebook – http://facebook.com/delenmcclain
Or email me at [email protected] I love to hear from readers.
Peace and love,
D’Elen
Sneak unedited peek of Dragons Live Forever
Chapter One
Tahr
Alone.
You would think this would be easier after losing so many brides but each only presses harder into my soul. I walk through the halls of my castle and remember Meagan’s sweet giggles. I can’t believe she’s been gone six months now. Even at her advanced age at the time of her de
ath, her humor lightened my life. I think I miss her laughter most.
I hear a noise to my right and turn. I catch a glimpse of a young human woman I know only as Pepper. I recognize her because of the crazy gold headpiece Meagan gifted her. The poor girl/woman lost large sections of her hair as a child before she left the earth realm. Some type of cancer treatment caused patchy baldness to cover her scalp. The cancer treatment didn’t work to end the cancer so she came to my dragon realm. Here, she lives a long life free of cancer and pain.
I swear she’s part wood-nymph. I’ve never caught more than a flash of clothes when she’s about. Meagan spoiled my humans. She loved the human children and spent too much time in their section of the castle. No matter how long and loud I complained she refused to give into me on this point. She was determined to educate them and make sure their lives were as comfortable as possible.
I caught her rolling her eyes at me once when I explained for the hundredth time that the humans wanted only to serve me. Their lives were pleasant because they took delight in making me happy. It was their good fortune to have their life saved by a dragon and they knew it.
What I didn’t say was that my humans lived a normal lifespan unlike the eternal life of dragons. For that reason I refused to become attached. Losing a bride each century was almost impossible to bear. Forming friendships with humans would only add needless suffering for me when they pass. It’s easier this way.
My complaints fell on Meagan’s selectively deaf ears without changing her mind at all. And when you add her attitude to the fact that the humans are mute; I’m lucky I’m not insane. She communicated with them in crazy hand signals that were beyond my understanding. She had no problem telling me of their needs and of course I gave into each demand, though I grumbled obsessively. I considered the humans her pets even when she hated me saying so. I sometimes tempted her wrath because it was so much fun to watch her face go pink with anger and her small fists clench. Making up was the best part of her fits of temper and she could never stay angry at me for long.
With these thoughts, my mood darkens. I would give anything for Meagan to drive me insane and make a demand or two for her humans. Remembering her causes such a deep ache that pain swells low in my gut and my head pounds worse each day due to sleepless nights. When I do manage to sleep a few hours I wake up from chaotic dreams to find her gone and her side of the bed cold. That’s the pain is at its worst.
And, I have twenty-three more years of this torture.
***
I lie down in bed with a resolve to keep Meagan from my thoughts and sleep through until morning. Not that I truly believe it will work but I must try. I need some rest.
I wake to Meagan’s hand traveling lightly across my chest. I turn toward her warmth and nearly fall from the bed. After rubbing my eyes, I look around the room. Why would I roll away from Meagan? She always slept on the other side of the bed and not near the bedroom door. Her touch seemed so real.
I’m awake now and from the glow of the moons through the large window, it’s somewhere around three in the morning. I know I’ll have trouble falling back to sleep so I step from the bed and open the double doors that lead out to the landing perch that overlooks my kingdom. My room is located at the top of one of four castle towers and high enough to see for miles. Each tower has a perch at the top for me to land and launch from. I rarely use the one in the tower that holds the rooms to the humans but for some reason it’s where I wish to visit.
I call the magic that transforms me to dragon and feel the thrill as the power runs through my blood. My dragon bursts from my flesh and the silver in my wings reflects off the moonlight as I spread them out wide. Everything is more alive in this form—colors, smells, even touch. My scales are soft and sensitive to the world around me unless I’m in danger and then they turn harder than steal.
I launch from the perch and with a mighty flap of wings and fly around the tower. I head toward the opposite perch on the other side of the castle and shift to my human form after landing. The door is unlocked and I enter a dark hallway. Even in my human form, I can see clearly through the shadowed hall.
The top floor is the single men’s ward. Single women live a floor below and married couples the next floor down. The children brought from the earth’s realm are housed on the ground floor so there are no falling accidents. The children are assigned caretakers until they are old enough to sleep in their proper ward. All the children are recovering from some catastrophic illness when they arrive. The crossing into the dragon realm takes away the pain and disease but they are usually weak from their lengthy illness. The adult humans here don’t procreate. It’s something about this realm or maybe it’s their childhood illness. It’s not something I think about often.
I glance inside the first room I come to and see the outline of a man’s body under a sheet. I continuing walking past other rooms and head down the winding stairs that lead to the women’s quarters. Catching sight of Pepper earlier has me curious. The forth room I look into in the women’s quarters is empty. I’m unsure if it’s her room until I inhale a mixture of sweet earthy spice that awakens my memory. This is Pepper’s chamber and only a short while ago, she was in mine.
Why?
Coming soon…
Bibliography
Writing as D’Elen McClain
Fang Chronicles – Paranormal Romance
Amy’s Story*
Emily’s Story
Zenya’s Story
Mandy’s Story
Dmitri
Ivan
Tyboll
Fire Chronicles – Paranormal Romance
Dragons Don’t Cry
Dragons Don’t Love
Dragons Don’t Forgive
Dragons Live Forever (coming soon)
Writing as Holly S. Roberts
Completion Series – New Adult Romance
Play
Strike
Kick
Slam
Pass (coming soon)
Crimson Series – Vampire Erotic Romance
Crimson Warrior
Crimson Brothers (coming soon)
Club El Diablo Series – Kinky Romance
One Dom at a Time*
Piercing a Doms Heart
Touched by a Dom
Domination in Pink (short and kinky sequel to One Dom at a Time)*
Two Doms for Angel
Bad Boy Dom (Bad Boys of Rock)
Loving Two Doms (Bad Boys of Rock)
Caught by Two Doms (sequel Two Doms for Angel)
Temporary Dom (Bad Boys of Rock)
Writing as Suzie Ivy
Bad Luck Detective Series – Police Humor/ Inspirational
Bad Luck Cadet
Bad Luck Officer
The Forever Team (releasing June 2015) previously released as part of the 10-Code Anthology
Free ebook at most outlets*
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Bibliography
D’Elen Gets Real
Dedication
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Dragons Don't Forgive Page 11
