by Aurora Reid
Her father was number one on their list to get Nico’s autograph.
Nico had laughed. “I’ll need therapy for my hand after signing all those autographs. Your family certainly sounds big.”
She laughed.
“What about your family?” Immediately, her face contorted in horror. She wished she could hide underneath the table.
That was the wrong question to ask. Nico's eyes fell, like heavy weights had been tied to his face and dropped.
“I'm sorry, you don't have to answer if you don't want to,” she said quickly.
Cass knew a few facts about his history from reading. Also, from friends and family gossiping. They were all big LA Oulaw fans back home, if not, huge football fans.
Nico's parents mysteriously died when he was young. Then he'd been taken in by a distant relative.
That man, Alfred Hill, had been his caretaker for years. He must've seen the talent there, or rather, Cass guessed, the money, because he became Nico's manager. The rest was history. They managed to get to the Shifter Football League together, making him one of the top quarterbacks. Two years ago Nico dropped his manager without a word.
And seeing how he didn't have many visitors, that meant his caretaker, his only family, wasn't part of his life anymore.
“It's not a happy story. You might know some of it from the press. I don't have much of a family. There are very few dragons left. We don't trust very well, not even each other. It makes it hard to keep up a family line when you think your wife might want to kill you in your sleep and take your treasure.”
He laughed, a pained laugh.
“Even the press don’t know much about this. Around a hundred years ago, there was a meeting with most of the dragons alive. This was the first time in a very long time that they had agreed to meet together. I was with the children tasked with serving the food. We had not been invited to the dinner, but only were there to host for a short period of time.
Dragons are untrustworthy, so they all drank and ate from the same plates and cups. Usually, they would bring their own. No servants were allowed there, so no taste testers to check for poison would be allowed. This would all be about trust. Forging an alliance together. When they saw the hosts take a sip, they knew it would be okay.
We hadn't heard from the adults in a long while. We were told under no circumstances once the dining room doors were closed were we to enter. Knowing how important this meeting was, we stayed up all night and into the morning waiting.
Soon, it became unbearable. We opened the doors to find nearly every dragon in existence dead at their seats. The cups had been poisoned, and even the hosts—Jae's parents—had been killed.
We flew home, but when we got to our homes, they had been raided. All of our treasure had been taken.”
“I don't know what to say. That's one of the most terrible things I've ever heard. Did they ever find out who did it?”
“No.” He looked down and poured himself more wine. His lips were starting to be colored red, and Cass thought about kissing him, consoling him with her own.
“You didn't deserve that.”
“No one deserves that,” he said. “There's a lot of conspiracy theories about what happened. Some say it was the work of another group of shifters who wanted the gold for themselves, or hated the dragon’s pride and their fearsome power. The remaining dragons distrusted those around them even more, moving further into isolation. Some didn't even take mates so we became even less in number. The only items I have to remember my mother and father are my father's gold pocket watch and my mother's gold tiara, what they wore that night.”
Cass got to her feet. She hugged Nico. Even if he resisted, she couldn't help but show him some affection.
“I'm so sorry.”
He grinned up at her. “Thank you. I’m sorry I have a habit of spoiling things, it seems. I hope I didn’t ruin dinner.”
She pulled away.
“You'd have to try harder than that.”
Dinner ended there. They both went their separate ways. Cass headed to her room. Nico headed to his. He said he had work to finish.
His bedroom door closed, she returned to the room that was off limits.
There was no way after he’d been so mysterious about it that she wouldn’t check it out. She’d made up her mind a long time ago.
She’d been kept to one room for so long. She needed to explore. And she needed to know if she could trust this dragon.
The door was strangely open a crack.
She pushed it open, needing to use a lot of strength to do so. It creaked open with an alarming sound as she slipped inside.
The inside of the room glowed with a golden hue, which Cass understood once her brain caught up and processed the images before her, was because the room was filled with golden artifacts. At the end of the hall, there was a pyramid of golden bars sunken into coins. It seemed so deep that she could dive and swim in it. A song from a TV show played in her head Duck Tales, Woo hoo, as she thought about Scrooge taking a dive into his sea of coins, and she would’ve laughed, and almost did at the absurdity of the wealth, but she didn’t dare flinch when Nico turned around.
He was bathed in golden light. She didn’t see him at first as he blended right in with his treasure.
A rattling hiss emerged from him. His pupils were no longer human and round, but reptilian slits floating in a sea of burning gold and crimson. Scales broke over his neck, down his shoulders, onto his bulging triceps and forearms. His fists clenched and the hissing grew louder, growing into one epic roar.
He tore from his position as Cass faltered. She reached for the door but couldn't find it, instead her flailing hand was snatched by Nico, or what used to be Nico.
His rage crashed into her in strong waves, almost taking her to her knees.
“I told you never to come in here!”
His teeth were sharp now too, razor sharp, capable of shearing right through her flesh. Spots peppered her vision as she wondered how many seconds she had left.
He’s like Jae. And he’s going to kill me.
He let go of her wrist. Cass whirled back, striking the wall and then sliding down as she threw her hands up.
“Stop, please,” she pleaded with him.
He roared again. The dragon towered over her with claws at the ready. “Why did you enter this room? I should kill you for this.”
Would he? It sure looked like it.
Cass continued to shield herself with her hands, which might as well be paper when defending from the dragon's deadly claws. Then again, being minced meat from those claws might be a better fate than being burned alive.
“I'm sorry. I saw the door was unlocked. I wanted to make sure everything was all right.”
Her excuse sounded silly.
Cass, instead, decided to tell the full truth.
“Okay, I was curious. I wanted to see what was in here, because you were suspicious about it.”
“Why should I believe you?” he shouted, the roar shaking the walls. Gold pieces fell and scattered from the pile. One rolled across the floor, hit his heel, and then flipped haphazardly onto its back.
“Why else would I come in here?”
The dragon's pupils were like chunks of black rock floating in lava. “To steal. To take what's mine. Because you want it all.”
She had to try to talk sense into him. Before all of this, he'd been such a gentleman, a gentleman with a naughty streak, yes, but not a man that would be so controlling and possessive.
The worst of his dragon side was coming out. Unless she could get him to trust her, her ass would be roasted. Literally.
“You're just like the others...the others who hate and covet what isn't there's. You want it all to yourself!”
“No,” she repeated, unable to shake her head enough. Her feet began to kick, to slide her away, but she was backed up into the wall. There was nowhere to go.
If he wasn't going to trust her, she would have to try a different plea. A
plea to reason.
“How would I even take all of the gold out of here?”
He looked around, his heavy breathing slowing. “It's all mine. Every single piece,” he said, but it wasn't a roar this time. “Who sent you to finish the job? To take what little I have left?”
This was what he called little? It was a money pit, there was more gold in here than Fort Knox.
“And where would I go? I'm only human. You probably count all the pieces. I'm not stupid, and I know you're not. If I tried to leave, you would catch me.”
His pupils flickered. His muscles unclenched. Instead of waving her hands, she kept one hand outstretched for him to take. Nico turned his back, unwilling to accept it.
“I'm here to help you, remember. That's my job. That's why I'm here. To help.”
His back fully to her, his scales faded from his exposed skin, the waves of energy crashing into her subsiding.
When Nico turned around, he was fully human again, with pieces of his clothes torn.
Even as a human he could roar. “Go to your room and don't come out until I let you out.”
Once again, it sounded like she was being put in time out. It would be laughable if she wasn’t so afraid and hurt. Cass scrambled for the door. Her body wasn't moving very agilely and she almost slipped and fell, not the first time today. She wasn't going to leave without saying anything, though.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Go,” he roared before she slipped out of the room, rushing back to her own.
When she got there, she closed the door and locked it.
Staying there, not being let out, didn't seem like all that bad of a punishment. It meant staying away from Nico.
Her white knight come to save her was her captor again.
That night she received a phone call.
It wasn't a happy call from her family this time. They had no idea where she was. If she told them she was staying at Nico's house, they would probably lose their minds.
The number was blocked. She picked it up anyway, only to hear Jae's voice come over the other end.
“You pulled strings to get away from me.”
One angry dragon a night was enough, thank you very much. You’d think they’d be a little less…growly, with all the stuff they have.
“No.”
“Yes. You did. You talked to someone. You told them I was bad to you. How dare you.”
“No,” she said again about telling anyone. He was bad to her, but she hadn't said anything.
She wanted to throw the phone out of the window, wrap herself in blankets, and forget that she'd even picked up. This was a nightmare, right?
At some point, she'd have to wake up. Being at Nico's place, she almost came to believe that Jae would be out of her life.
“You're coming home.”
“But this is my job,” she pleaded. Now an anger rose in her. She would need to combat it, force it down.
“I faked an injury at our last practice. The guys think I pulled something in my shoulder. Went straight home, and I want you to come home with me to take a look at it. Once you're here, they won't send you back. I'll make sure of it.”
“What if I want to stay here? This is an interesting job, and I won't be actually working if I leave. I like working.”
“You'll like what I tell you to like. And that's being home. With me. Otherwise, you can forget about it...in fact…”
His voice had gotten rougher, hinting at a change. She got the idea that she'd made two men transform into their dragons in one night. Nice, Cass.
It sounded like he was smirking. “I can't do anything directly to you to punish you for what you've done. The team and the league are watching you now, and so is that other dragon, but your family, back home...no one is watching them.”
She grasped the phone so tightly that she thought she'd smash it into bits before she got the next word out.
“Don't you threaten my family.”
“I can be there in less than an hour. I know where they live. I'll torch the whole place while they're sleeping. I’ll come in under cover of night.”
“You wouldn't.” The phone shook against her now. Her body was so overwhelmed with anger that she could pass out from shaking.
“I would do anything for you.”
He would.
Even if it meant killing her whole family. In Jae’s twisted world that made sense.
What choice did she have?
“Not a word of this to anyone or I'll begin my plan. I've arranged a flight back for you to come with me. It should depart in three hours. If you leave right now, you can catch it.”
“Uh huh,” she said. She could hardly speak.
The room spun around her. Already, she would be flying back to be in that monster's arms?
This was a nice fairytale, for a few hours, but reality came calling.
Cass hung up the phone. Jae wouldn't be calling again. He already knew that she would be returning to him.
Cass would do anything for her family.
7
Nico cut through the air, coming dangerously close to the jagged rocks that jutted from the mountainside. In front of the mountain, he dove straight down at breakneck speed, the wind soaring past him and lifting his spirits.
This was fun. This was what dragons were made to do. To fly wherever and whenever they pleased.
As he neared the ground, he flipped in the air. Once landing, he tried to settle his vision. That dive had rocked him in the best way.
His dragon looked up at the mountain as shiny as polished coal reaching up to the sun.
One could entertain themselves for hours by being a dragon. He often liked to push himself and see how far and fast he could go. Dragon wings are absurdly strong, only being explained by the same magic that granted shifting.
Nico took off again. This time he was a dart launched from the ground right to the tip of that black mountain, his silver dragon scales shimmering like ice in this sunny yet cold evening.
He landed at the top of the mountain and swept his wings around, folding them up, watching as the tiny lichen and moss scattered in a circle. He sensed someone approaching.
It was Cass, clothed in some fur and gold, like some kind of Viking huntress. She dropped to her knees with her luscious lips pouting, her delicious bust shining in the light.
A growl rumbled from his gut. A horny growl.
Cass offered herself to him. She opened her arms. His eyes didn’t linger over the gold that she wore on her outfit, instead they were all over her curvy, arousing body, the true treasure.
He couldn't wait. She was his, and she was a treasure that he had spent his whole life needing but never knowing. Nico snatched her with his claws, carrying her in them delicately as he launched himself from the top of the mountain again.
A blur, then they were in his gold room, and he was human, carrying Cass in his arms.
They dropped to the gold pile with laughter that soon became a feverish rush to get closer. They grabbed and pulled and Cass swerved to rub herself against his hard crotch. He was hard, throbbing, wanting to push himself inside of her.
His lips crossed over her body before she thrust back, vulnerable and open to him, and he took it all in until the tiny skirt that she wore was pushed to the side.
Nico put his hard cock inside of her, loving how she was warmer than he was, even with his scorching blood. He pumped as she rode on top. She was so tight, so soft, each stroke sent him higher than his wings could go.
Her nails scratched into his back and she bucked. She lost control as she peaked and neared her climax. Nico took over by grabbing her ass and keeping her on his lap. He thrust with all his might, slamming into her sweet pussy.
Cass climaxed first. Nico was soon after. He came inside of her, and it was like they melted together, rings of fire twisting around their naked bodies while she clutched herself to him, lotus position on the ground.
Darkness closed in. Nico realized that while
the sensations had felt so real, that the rest of what was around him was a blur. Like he was in a dream all along.
He tried to grasp Cass to feel her, but she turned to ash before his eyes. Ash that blew in the wind and was gone. He scrambled to catch her. By the first swipe, his hand caught nothing.
Gold turned to ash all around him. A soft breeze blew it all away.
He woke with a terrible jerk, sweat covering the sheets below him. Nico should've known it was too good to be true. Number one, he must've been out of his mind to fuck anyone in his gold room. Number two, nobody went in his gold room but him. And number three, he'd just been a complete prick to Cass, so having hot and wild sex with her made no sense at all. It had to be a dream.
His dragon stirred within him. It wanted to make that fantasy come true.
But a dull ache emerged in his skull when he thought about Cass and the gold turning to ash. That couldn't be a good omen. That was some Biblical shit.
Before all this, his life hadn't been this complicated, at least for the past fifty years...
He walked in his boxers over to his bed stand to have a glass of water. The cool water settled his mind. For a moment—then his dragon became unsettled again, alarming him of something going on outside.
Dragons didn't have the best hearing in the shifter kingdom, but it was pretty good. Ever since he'd met Cass though, he'd seemed more in tune than ever.
Could she be my mate? My fated mate?
The odds were very much against that, he reminded himself, still racing out of his room, flinging himself down the steps to catch her.
They met outside on the sidewalk at the same spot where he helped her out of the snow. She had her suitcases again, now headed in the opposite direction.
“Where are you going? You don't have to go.”
She stopped. Cass didn't turn around, not completely.
Why couldn't this be like his dream? Why couldn't he simply take her to the top of the highest mountain and make sweet love to her, to forget all this silly business that kept them apart?
