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CHRONICLES OF THE EGREGOROI
Page Nine Hundred and Twelve
Hunted and forsaken by the goddess who created them, the dragons took to the shadows. As the war with the Hunters continued to rage on for centuries and the humans learned to fear them, the souls of the dragons started to harden.
While Gwendolyn had given her beloved dragons a great capacity for love, they did not want it.
However, mates are ever curious creatures. Because a dragon who mated for duty was a dangerous thing, but a dragon who mated for love could bring an entire civilization to its knees.
Chapter 1
DALLAS THE DESTROYER had landed in Hell, and the security was a fucking nightmare.
Even from his position on the edge of the castle’s tallest tower, the noise level in the yard below was giving him a headache, worsening his already dark mood. Head of security and training, it was Dallas’s job to make sure the day went smoothly and the dragon queen was kept safe.
They prepared for a wedding, for fuck’s sake. They were dragons. They mated. It had been that way for thousands of years, but now, because the king’s chosen mate was human, the Elite Guard—Dallas included—were expected to attend and be pleasant for the couple.
Pleasant. Just the word gave him a migraine.
There were too many people milling about, winding their way through the gardens and surrounding woods. He and his men had tripled-checked the clearance on all of them, but it didn’t stop the itchiness from crawling up his spine. Too many people. Too many non-dragons.
Shifting his emerald dragon wings, he scanned from one end of the island property to the other as the work crew finished the last minute decorating. His senses in his dragon form were more tuned in to the nature surrounding the isolated castle.
Even Dallas had to admit the setting was striking.
The castle grounds looked like something out of a fairy tale. Daniel Ashborne, king of dragons, had given his mate Shelby free rein in planning and decorating, as long as Dallas was able to make any needed adjustments to account for the security measures.
Shelby had chosen dusk for the ceremony, and there were fairy lights twinkling in every tree as far as the eye could see. Planters of various sizes, hosting varieties of red and pink blooming roses, lined the rows of pristine white chairs and black gauze-topped tables. The large black arbor the dragon underlings had erected was laced with more roses in blood red and pure white.
While the air above the grounds was a no-fly zone normally, Broderick, the techno geek of the king’s Elite Guard, had rigged a signal jammer to go into effect thirty minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to begin, which would no doubt send the paparazzi into fits of rage. When the jammer had done its job, Broderick would cut the Wi-Fi and scramble all cellular circuits. There was no way to stop guests from taking pictures of Shelby, but Broderick made it as difficult as possible. For added protection, Dallas had stationed lesser ranked, but still trusted, dragons every few feet around the grounds to stop the most desperate fans and reporters from getting anywhere near the king’s mate.
From his perch on the south-side turret, Dallas scanned the thin crowd. Because of Shelby’s A-list status in the upper Hollywood echelon, the stars would be coming out in droves to watch her marry the enigma that was her husband-to-be.
Disgust settled hard in Dallas’s gut when another large black SUV drove over the bridge and onto the king’s private property. He’d been conditioned since birth to avoid emotional attachments. He didn’t understand the lure of spending the rest of time with one person. It was a weakness, liabilities and danger waiting to happen.
The passenger door of the latest vehicle popped open, and a great pair of legs swung out, followed by a petite brunette with hair the color of mahogany and enough curves to kill a dragon.
The back of his neck itched, right between his horns, and he was considering shifting into his human form to scratch it when she moved to the back of the large SUV, opened the back hatch, and tried to lift out a flower arrangement that was bigger than her. He chuckled at the glare she sent the bouquet while trying four different angles to leverage it out of the trunk space.
“Shelby will be pissed if you miss the wedding because you’re off banging a starlet in the gazebo. You know that, right?”
With a shimmer of iridescent green, Dallas shifted into his human form, snorting at Broderick’s dry voice. He straightened and crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze still tracking the brunette’s movements. She’d found a dragon underling and put him to work hauling the flowers out for her. Dallas smiled. For someone so tiny, it was cute the way she bossed the young dragon around.
He shook his head and focused on Broderick’s voice. Not even Dallas was asshole enough that he’d miss Daniel and Shelby’s big day. At least not now. He’d done some seriously stupid and bastardly things in his life. Like use Shelby to lure out the scariest Hunter in existence.
The entire dragon world owed Shelby everything. She’d stepped in and saved their king when he’d been spiraling downward, and then not only had kept their secret but accepted them absolutely. Completely.
There wasn’t anything any of them wouldn’t do for her in return. Including Dallas keeping his cock in his pants where it belonged until after the reception.
Broderick cleared his throat. “One more thing.”
His left eye twitched at those words. “I’m listening.”
In a move that blackened Dallas’s mood, Broderick reached out to grip Dallas’s shoulder to prevent him from doing anything stupid.
“Lily Cage is here.”
The ticking under his eye worsened as he tried to process the information. He snarled violently and hopped off the turret. “Daniel is letting a fucking Hunter into his wedding?”
“No,” Broderick said calmly, “he’s letting a friend, who happens to be the florist, into his wedding. She has Hunter blood. She’s not a Hunter.”
“Same fucking thing!” he roared, beyond pissed off. “What the hell are they fucking thinking?”
“That this is their wedding, and they can invite whoever they want to invite.”
“Bullshit.” He shoved past Broderick and hopped off the roof in a single fluid movement, landing in a warrior’s crouch in the shadow of trees. Because of his magic, he didn’t even flinch when his feet hit the ground. He wasn’t going to stand around and watch a fucking Hunter pretend to care about something as ridiculous as a wedding. Hunters didn’t have feelings.
Thanks to the dragon healer, Seren, the whole dragon-Hunter thing was a mess. The first dragon in history to mate to a Hunter and give birth to the first hybrid baby. And Seren hadn’t just picked a Hunter. She’d mated to the Hunter, Adrian Cage. The one who’d torn the Hunter world apart in his effort to become leader and protect his people. It was bad enough that Daniel had formed a tentative truce with Cage in an effort to stop the three millennia-long war. Now, with Cage missing, they didn’t need a Hunter taking notes and giving their secrets to the new Hunter leader.
Ryuu. The dragon curse word echoed in his head. Dallas had protected and fought at the king’s back for more than two millennia. He wasn’t going to fall down on the job now.
A petite blonde stepped into his path. With a foot and a half size difference between them, she had to tilt her head back so her furious pale green gaze could meet his.
Shelb
y Kincade crossed her arms over her chest. ”Where do you think you’re going?”
His eye ticked again. “To get my weapons. There’s a Hunter on the property.”
“You can’t kill her. I adore her, and if you kill her, I’ll cry and that will piss Daniel off. You do not want to be the reason I cry on my wedding day. It will not turn out well for you.”
“Fine. Then I’m out of here.” He took back all the nice things he’d said and thought about her since they’d met. Leave it to a woman to use tears against him. How didn’t she understand he was trying to protect her? He leaned down and growled in her face. “Move, Shelby, or I swear to the gods I will move you myself.”
One dainty shoulder lifted in a shrug. She held his gaze dead-on, unwavering. “Go ahead. I want you here for this, and I’m not going to let you leave.”
She called his bluff. Not even he was bastard enough to hurt her feelings on her wedding day.
“Fine,” he snapped, “but you better make sure they keep her away from me, Shelby. I won’t be responsible if she gets in my face and bloodshed ensues.”
She winced. “You’ve never met Lily, I take it.” She gave him a quick thank-you hug. “Trust me, Dallas. It’s going to be all right.”
He snorted as he headed back to the wedding area, leaving her standing there. Nothing was ever all right, and it hadn’t been in over a thousand years. He had seen the devastation the hunters left in their wake. No amount of spilt blood would ever erase those images from his head. And no amount of Hunter blood he spilled could erase the images from his head of the devastation the Hunters could leave in their wake.
* * *
THE SECOND THEY were in the castle’s sprawling back yard, Lily Cage grabbed a champagne flute from a passing server. Amusement sparkled in her dragon guard’s eyes when she downed it in two large swallows.
“Feel better?” Bain asked.
“Not yet. Give me yours, and I will.”
He laughed and handed her his flute. “How’s that?”
She drank his, too, and shook her head once, her perfectly crafted up-do threatening to fall apart with the motion. She tucked a wayward curl behind her ear and sent him a grin. “Better, actually. I may almost be brave tonight.”
“Not too brave,” he laughed. He hooked his arm around her neck and hauled her in for a quick hug. For a member of a species known for their tempers and possessiveness, Bain was always quick to smile and hug when he thought she needed it. “You don’t want to do anything you’ll regret in the morning.”
Lily grinned wider, grateful the champagne had loosened some of the knots in her shoulders. For once she wanted to do something she’d regret. She was a good girl. She kept men—all of them—at a distance that kept her comfortable. It was a skill she’d honed over the last fifteen years.
But her brother, Adrian, was gone, missing or dead somewhere, so she couldn’t keep pretending the world was safe. So if the world wasn’t safe, why should she fight so hard to do the safe thing?
She shook her head again, the effects of the champagne making her woozy. She nearly swallowed her tongue when the most gorgeous guy she’d ever seen walked around a copse of weeping cherry trees. His black suit—black pants, crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and black vest— clung to his ginormous body like it had been made for him, and considering his massive size, it probably had been. Like every other red-blooded woman, she could appreciate a male in a suit. It was such a rarity in her world.
Lust bloomed low in her belly the longer she watched him, and for the first time in her life, she considered jumping a man’s bones. Not just jumping his bones. She wanted to climb him like a tree. He was that hot. Long, light brown hair hung to his mile-wide shoulders, and he had to be at least seven inches over six feet tall. He moved with the predatory grace of a dragon, as if the power in him was coiled tight and ready to spring at any moment. That same power shone in his soft, green eyes. A five o’clock shadow covered the lower half of his face, and never in Lily’s life had she thought she’d ever find a beard on a male attractive. But the whole picture of him was just…
Yummy.
Dimly aware of a hand grabbing the top of her arm, she couldn’t take her eyes off the man as he started across the clearing to where the chairs were set up for the ceremony.
“Lily.”
“Hmm?”
Bain jerked her around suddenly and growled at her. “What is wrong with you?”
But she’d already craned her neck so she could keep watching the delicious dragon over her shoulder. Her heart had taken a long, slow dip to her stomach, and she couldn’t figure out why. “Who is that?” she murmured, not bothering to care if her voice had gone husky. This was new territory for her, and she fully planned on enjoying it.
Just then, the man’s eyes scanned the crowd and locked on hers. Time spun out until she lost track, and as Lily was about to do the unthinkable and step toward him, a murderous rage flashed over his face.
Bain cursed quietly. “That’s Dallas. The Destroyer. Stay away from him.”
Chapter 2
NO WAY.
No.
Fucking.
Way.
This was not happening. He was not lusting after a fucking Hunter bitch.
Ryuu. Cage’s sister was hot. For a moment when he’d connected with her vivid green eyes across the clearing, he’d been sure his brain had finally snapped and he’d been imagining her. She was hot when he’d seen her from the castle tower, but too far away to notice details. Now… No way was any female that goddamn gorgeous.
She was so petite that Bain, who was the smallest of the dragons at six-foot-five, looked like the Hulk next to her. She had twisted her long, mahogany hair into one of those sexy-as-hell knots that managed to be messy and innocent at the same time and framed a knockout, elfish-featured face with wide, round eyes, a pert nose, and perfect bow-shaped mouth.
Confused by the sadness in her eyes, he dragged his gaze from her face only to go rock hard when his eyes scanned over her jaw-dropping body. He had the barest glimpse of generous cleavage beneath the royal blue bodice of her slinky dress, a slender waist, and killer legs. He swallowed hard before he remembered what he was drooling over.
His lip lifted in a snarl, and no longer caring that Shelby would have his head if he killed a wedding guest, he started across the clearing toward her. Bain’s body went rigid, and he shoved the woman behind him, putting himself directly in Dallas’s path.
“Back off, Dallas.” Bain held his gaze. “She’s not here to cause any trouble.”
“Then she shouldn’t have come.”
“Yes, I should have,” a soft voice sounded from directly behind Bain, though Bain’s arm prevented her from moving out from behind him. There was the faintest hint of temper laced through her words. “Daniel is my friend, and he and Shelby invited me.”
Dallas sneered. “I knew this was a bad fucking idea. Hunters don’t have emotions. They don’t have friends.”
“Don’t be an ass,” Bain snapped as he grabbed Dallas’s arm when he started forward. “Daniel will gut you if you walk out of here before the ceremony.”
Dallas turned and got in Bain’s face. “Why the hell am I the only one who remembers the damage and devastation the Hunters have left in their wake? We’ve all lost someone to their mindless killing sprees.” At the very creation of the Earth, the goddess Gwendolyn had created both species. While the dragons had been created to protect human-kind, the Hunters had been created to keep power-mad dragons from enslaving those they were meant to protect. Over the last couple of centuries, the Hunters had become nothing more than mindless killing machines. “They are bred for war and death. Our people are dying out because of them. They’re nothing more than fucking killers.”
He’d tolerated Cage because Daniel trusted him, and Dallas trusted Daniel, but everything from the moment Cage went missing had felt wrong. Like the dragons were being set up for something big, something that was going to
tear them all apart. The Hunters should have declared open war and come at them with everything they had. And it set his teeth on edge that they hadn’t.
But no one listened to him. They let his Hunter sister in and welcomed her with open fucking arms while ignoring his warnings. It royally pissed him off. There was something going on behind the scenes that he feared would end up destroying them all.
So no. He didn’t give a shit how goddamn hot Lily Cage was, or how his heart ached at the sadness in her eyes. Like his brain somehow thought he should get involved and make her life better. She was Cage’s sister, a Hunter, and this whole situation was fucked seven ways to Sunday. Even if she was in as much pain as her eyes suggested, he had no interest in being the one to make it better for her.
Behind Bain, she murmured loud enough for him to hear. “It’s alright, really. I’ll go see if Shelby needs any help, and I should check on Seren.”
Bain shook his head, his gaze never leaving Dallas’s face. “You’re not going anywhere, Lil. It’s fine.”
Dallas sneered, then turned and stalked away. Whatever. He didn’t need this shit, anyway.
If no one was going to listen to him, what the fucking hell did he care?
* * *
LILY PEEKED OUT from around Bain to see the Destroyer walk away. She was breathing fine. Just because she’d been soul-wrenchingly attracted to a man who obviously wanted her head on a stake didn’t mean anyone was going to let him get close enough to allow it to happen.
As if sensing her distress, Bain crouched in front of her, his jaw working violently. “Lil, I’m not going to let him hurt you, all right? You know that. He’s just an ass.”
“I—” She stopped talking as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say, then straightened and squared her shoulders. Adrian’s disappearance had reinforced her childhood fears of how bad the world really was, and she wasn’t sure how to get on even footing again. Her instincts had never been this off. “I’m, ah, going to go find Seren.”
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