Mistakenly Married The Dragon

by Selene Griffin

  Maia nodded and went to help. They got him up, supported and balanced between the two of them before starting off back the way they had come. It was strange they hadn’t run into a single guard or armed agent their entire time inside the building. But then again, when there were two dragons attacking just outside, it was pretty unlikely anyone was going to stick around inside just to play hall monitor.

  The roar of chaos became almost deafening when they burst from the building and into the thick of it all. As they ran, or hobbled along with Mateo in tow, they looked up to track where Ignacio and Rafael had gone. Both were circling low overhead, prompting Erica to call out for them. Time to air lift their way out of here. As Rafael swooped around to come towards them, they were able to see that his front leg (his left arm) had been shot somehow and seemed to be badly injured.

  The girls made a run for it as best they could, closing the distance between themselves and where Rafael had come into land while Ignacio circled overhead to provide cover-fire. Just as they reached Rafael, Maia tripped and went down hard causing Erica and Mateo to stumble. In her attempt to get back up, she realized she’d twisted or sprained it.

  “Of-fucking-course,” she snapped. “I’m in the middle of a daring, fire-bathed rescue of a fucking DRAGON from some government prison… and I get taken down by a MOTHERFUCKING ROCK!”

  She reached out from where she sat on the ground to grab the fist-sized rock that had become her nemesis. Turning, she chucked it as hard as she could towards the men who Ignacio was currently showering with flame. It landed, nowhere near anyone, with a thud in the dirt and she growled.

  “How fucking ridiculous does my luck have to be?” She asked no one in particular as she slowly struggled to stand, somehow managing to forget about the chaos around her as she complained. “Of all the stupid ways I could hurt myself… this is the one I get. Ridiculous.”

  “Maia! Get over here!” Erica yelled.

  She had managed to get Mateo hoisted up onto Rafael’s back with a little help from the golden dragon and now she had to get Maia up there as well. She met Maia halfway and helped to hurry her up back to Rafael. Once both Maia and Mateo were up and secure, Erica cried for Rafael to take off into the air again. Now it was time for Ignacio to land and pick up Erica. They managed to switcheroo rather well and Erica managed to get airborne again without further injury to anyone else in their party.

  As he beat his massive, blood-red wings against the night’s sky to gain altitude, Ignacio paused. Drawing a deep breath, he let loose an intense stream of heat and fire from his maw, for the second time leaving the bunker a smoldering, scorched mess.

  Chapter Ten

  They made their triumphant, if not silent return before the sun had even began to rise and once Rafael and Ignacio had transformed back and slipped into some spare clothing, so smartly hidden in the gardens, they all carried Mateo up and into the house.

  They had hoped to return without being noticed and get Mateo up and into a secured room where Erica could watch over and tend to him while the rest of them handled Stroyer. Unfortunately, as they carried Mateo back into the house, they were greeted with a horrible, yet not all that surprising sight.

  Camilla, Elena, Lucia, and Manuel all sat on chairs in the center of the massive Greeting Hall. Each one of them had been tied down and gagged and Stroyer was standing behind them with a cocky look of triumph on his face. The look shook Rafael to his core. Somehow, it all hit him at once that he had utterly failed at protecting his family. He had left to save one family member… and in the process handed four others over to the arms of the devil.

  “Welcome home, folks!” Stroyer said, an unnerving hint of insanity in his tone. “How does it feel to be official enemies and fugitives of the United States? You know, now I could kill you right where you stand, and no one would bat an eye.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” Rafael growled, taking a step forward despite his obvious injured arm.

  “Wouldn’t I?” Stroyer asked, laughing. “Though to be honest, I would much rather just have you all surrender to me willingly. It would be far less messy. I wouldn’t have to kill the rest of your family here…”

  They all chorused a similar sentiment that all boiled down to a basic answer. No. No, they would not surrender to him so easily. Even with their various injuries, every single one of them seemed ready to engage Stroyer.

  Rafael and Ignacio went at him without further warning. Oddly enough, they remained human as they jumped into this fight. The reasons were long, but mainly neither of them felt it would be fair, or honorable, for them to transform to take him down. No, this man would be killed by their hands, not their claws or fire.

  Their initial thought was that two against one wouldn’t be much of a contest, however, they vastly underestimated the skills of a life-long agent who had spent the past 5 years preparing for this very moment. Stroyer was fast and had no issue whatsoever fending them both off. Even when Erica joined the fray(of course, after setting Mateo down gently out of the way), Stroyer seemed to only become more enraged and fought harder. Erica knew it was because she was fighting not only against him… but on the side of a family of dragons he had imagined some deep-seated grudge against.

  Kick after punch was thrown and yet Stroyer blocked or deflected most of them. He saw his chance and managed to break away from the three of them, swinging around behind Camilla once more before drawing a pistol and putting it to her head. He held her chin, so she couldn’t move, and the fear in her eyes stopped Rafael like he was a statue.

  “I swear to fuck I will put a bullet in her brain if you don’t surrender right now!” Stroyer screamed at them.

  Seeing his wife, the woman he loved despite his cold nature, held at gunpoint and threatened like that, set off a fire inside of Rafael he had never felt before. Pure, white-hot anger exploded from him and he lunged forward with a burst of rage. Not expecting such a reckless move from the normally stoic Rafael, Stroyer was thrown off and stumbled back a step. Rafael managed to knock the gun away from him and then grabbed Camilla, pulling both her and her chair out of harm’s way as quickly as he could manage.

  Erica took this as her chance to jump in and offer them a hand. She engaged Stroyer directly, keeping his attention distracted long enough for Ignacio and Maia to get the rest of the family untied and out of the line of fire. As they fought, Stroyer and Erica begin to scream and argue with one another. Trading blow for blow and scream for scream.

  “You whore!” Stroyer shouted as he threw a punch at her face. “You cheating, untrustworthy, lying whore!”

  “You’re insane, James!” Erica screamed at him dodging his punch and throwing one of her own towards his chin. “You always wanted to control everything about us, about me!”

  They went back and forth for a heated minute until Erica managed to get the upper hand, quite literally, and twisted Stroyer’s right arm hard behind his back. He grunted as she pulled his arm harder, pressing herself against his back to bring her lips close to his ear.

  “I’m so sorry, James,” she whispered, a hint of pain in her voice. “I never wanted it to be like this. I’m sorry.”

  With quiet motion, Erica pulled a hunting knife from the waistband of her pants and rammed the blade hard between the ribs at his back. She held it and him as still as she could, pressing hard against the knife as she pressed her cheek against his. James let out a soft, short sigh as the knife punctured his lung, a look of anguish frozen upon his face as life slipped from his eyes and he died in Erica’s arms.

  Gently, she lowered him to the floor, closing his eyes as she held him for just a moment. When she felt the others slowly coming together around her, she stood up trying not to look at the stain of James’ blood on the front of her shirt.

  Rafael stood holding Camilla tightly, gently kissing the side of her head as if kissing her for the very first time ever. Their body language alone sent a clear message that whatever tiny, near-dead ember of love
that might have been between them had been fanned into the flame it should have been all along. The smile upon Camilla’s face as she stood safe in her husband’s arms spoke volumes to the world around them.

  Maia and Ignacio stood nearby, speaking softly to one another as they ensured they were both alright and mostly unharmed. Elena watched, her heart softening as she finally realized that they are meant for one another and that she had assumed wrong of Maia this entire time. Slowly, Elena approached them, her eyes cast down to the floor as her hands fidgeted with one another.

  “I… I am sorry,” she said, softly. “To the both of you. You are a far better match than I ever guessed.”

  They both looked at her with a mixture of pity and kindness as she spoke, though it was what she said next that really threw them off and left a look of shock upon their faces.

  “I’m calling off the engagement, Ignacio,” Elena said, the words coming far easier than she had thought they would. “You two are meant to be with one another… and no one should stand in the way of that, let alone me.”

  She finally looked up and gave them both a smile. Maia, returning that smile, went a step farther and took Elena into her arms for a deep hug. She whispered a soft thank you against Elena’s ear before letting her go and giving her a look that said thank you in so many ways. Wiping her eyes, Elena slipped away from the little family she was never meant to be a part of. She had packing to do… and a new life to start.

  Erica stood off to the side, watching as everyone came together to give comfort to one another. She fought with every fiber in her being not to let her eyes linger over the body of James on the floor nearby, but the guilt ripping at her chest kept forcing her eyes back to his lifeless form. She could not help but feel badly for what she had done. She had loved him once, after all. But, despite her guilt, she knew that she was finally free of him now. Free of the worry of what he might do or who he might hurt next in his quest for revenge.

  She stood, hugging herself, lost in thought as she stared at James’ body on the floor. Had she done the right thing? Was there another option she could have taken that would have left James still alive, yet out of commission? She would never know the answer.

  A soft hand on her shoulder stopped her train of thought and she turned. The sight that greeted her had her heart leaping from her chest in pure joy. Mateo, haggard as he was, stood beside her with a sleepy little smile on his lips and a look of love and gratitude in his eyes.

  “Thank you,” he says to her softly, smiling a smile that crept into his eyes.

  She returned that smile, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close for a tight hug. She would be damned if he was going to get away again.

  The Afterward

  Two letters arrived at their intended destinations, both finding their targets right where they were always to be found—one settled in her lawn chair just outside of her apartment door… the other behind a Formica countertop at a truck-stop shop. They arrived with no fanfare or fancy announcement. Just another letter lumped in with the junk mail and bills.

  It was the return address and names that made those envelopes special to those who received them… and it was what had been written within that meant the most. Both Cecelia and Johnathan read their letters with broad smiles and bright eyes. Maia and Ignacio had taken the time to write to them both, explaining all that had happened and ensuring that everything and everyone were just fine now. Maia thanked Cecelia for everything she had done from the first moment they had met. Cecelia had been like a grandmother to Maia and she would never in her life forget her for it.

  Ignacio thanked Johnathan for playing a very similar role in his own life. He thanked the old man for being a friend, a mentor and someone he could talk to when he felt alone all of those years living in the desert. Without Johnathan, Ignacio might not have lasted long enough to meet Maia… and he couldn’t thank Johnathan more for that simple gift.

  The End

  About The Author

  Selene Griffin is from Forest Hills, NY in the borough of Queens. She lives there today, alone, for no other reason than she likes it that way.

  Following college, Selene went on to have a variety of jobs, but it is for writing that she has always held a passion.

  Her first novel, Mad About The Dragon: Dragon In My Heart Series Book 1, is a steamy paranormal romance adventure, specifically with dragon shifters. It is her dream, to continue to write many more stories, releasing the power to make others happy in the process.

  When she has free time, Selene enjoys traveling, vegan dining, movies, reading books, astrology, crystals, numerology, dancing and listening to 90s R&B music.

  If you'd like to receive regular updates on Selene’s publications, freebies, discounts, other romance novels and more, then click here to join for her exclusive mailing list.

  P.S. Readers

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  Have a great everyday of life <3

  -Selene Griffin