Fire Dragon (A BBW Standalone Shape Shifter Romance) (Top Scale Academy Book 2)

by Amelia Jade

  Amber sighed in contentment and moved closer to him, seeking more of his never-ending warmth. The stones were beginning to cool beneath them now, and she had yet to put her pants back on.

  “Want to do it again before we go back inside?” Zeke asked, breaking the silence without warning.

  “I thought you would never ask.”

  Amber cried out in surprise as he rolled on top of her with incredible speed.

  Her grin matched his.

  ***

  She awoke the next morning with a start, scrambling to put her pants back on.

  Zeke had let her fall asleep outside half-naked!

  It was only when she encountered blankets around her legs and then fell off the couch that Amber realized at some point during the night, Zeke had brought her in, clothed her, and tucked her in to the makeshift bed.

  “Ow,” she said as her tailbone and elbows complained about the sudden drop onto the hardwood floor.

  “What the hell was that all about?” a cheerful voice sounded from behind her.

  “I had a minor disagreement with the couch,” she grumbled. “It won.”

  Quinn laughed and came over, giving her a hand to her feet, untangling her from the blanket in the process. “You should pick your battles better than that, ‘Ber, you’re a grown woman! At least make allies with the floor before you do.”

  She stared daggers at the other woman for a second, before dissolving into laughter at the bad joke.

  “Fair point. Now, care to explain how the hell you’re so chipper this morning?” she asked, stretching her arms wide as muscles protested the sudden movement.

  “Well, for starters, because it’s already past eight, sleepyhead. I have work to do!”

  “Ah shit,” Amber said, shaking herself fully awake. “I’m sorry, I said I’d help you do that today, didn’t I?”

  Quinn nodded. “Sure did. So get some breakfast into you and let’s get cracking!”

  “Coffee?” It hadn’t meant to come out demanding, but Quinn just laughed off her tone.

  “In the pot. I’m not pouring it though. You and your heathen ways. You’re gonna give yourself fits with that much sugar,” she admonished.

  Amber made a vulgar noise and shuffled over to the kitchen.

  “So, how was your night?” Quinn asked slyly just as she began to pour sugar into her cup by the spoonful.

  Amber started and the spoon clanked off the rim, dumping the contents entirely into her cup.

  Thankfully she preferred more than one spoonful, taking another as she studiously ignored her newfound friend.

  “Playing the quiet game?”

  “Maybe,” she replied.

  “Zeke’s a good guy,” Quinn said at last.

  “Yes, yes he is,” Amber replied, trying—and failing—to keep the dreaminess from her voice.

  “Now, come and tell me everything,” Quinn ordered as she finished making her cup of heavenly caffeine.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, like, did he kiss you? Not that little thing from earlier. But like, did he make a move?” Quinn asked with a wide smile.

  “Maybe…” Amber replied as noncommittally as she could.

  Quinn’s jaw dropped open. “Oh my God. You guys had sex last night!”

  Amber blinked. “How could you possibly know that?” she asked in disbelief. “There was absolutely not enough evidence for you to know that, unless…”

  “No, I didn’t hear anything,” Quinn replied. “I was, ah, occupied.”

  Now it was Amber’s turn to laugh as her friend tried to cover up her own escapades the evening before. The pair of them enjoyed the laugh and drank in silence for a minute.

  “Was that the first?” Quinn asked softly.

  Amber nodded. “Yes. He took me outside under the stars.”

  “In the cold?”

  She grinned. “He used his breath to warm the stones, then put a blanket down.”

  “Ooooooh,” Quinn said. “That sounds so lovely!”

  Amber smiled into her drink as she nodded, then took another long sip. “It was something else, I have to say. Very special.” She looked around. “They’ve all gone back to Top Scale, right?”

  “Yeah, they left a couple of hours ago, if my memories of when Asher stirred are correct. I was pretty sleepy,” Quinn admitted. Then she sobered. “So, are you going to be staying then?”

  Amber blinked. “That’s a pretty blunt question, don’t you think?”

  Quinn shrugged. “Your circumstances aren’t much different than mine were,” she said. “We’ll find a way to make it legal for you to stay. Somehow.”

  “I don’t know,” Amber said uncomfortably. “Is that the right choice? It’s all happening so fast.”

  “Trust me, I understand more than just about anyone could,” Quinn said, reaching to put a reassuring hand on her arm. “It’s so weird, and goes against everything I’ve ever been taught.”

  “I know. It’s only been a few days, and I already feel like he’s a part of me in a way I couldn’t describe. As if he’s—”

  “Your other half?”

  Amber nodded vigorously. “Yes, a matching puzzle piece. Whatever metaphor you want to use, we just fit together so seamlessly.”

  Quinn smiled and took another sip.

  “It’s so scary,” Amber said after a moment of silence.

  “Terrifying,” Quinn echoed. “Still is for me. It’s only been a few months, you know. I’m still getting used to the wholesale change in my life. Leaving everything I knew to start up a brand-new life here.” She smiled. “But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

  “What worries me,” Amber said, finally discussing it aloud, “is that I can’t help but shake the feeling that I might be getting forced into thinking this is the right choice because of external factors.”

  “Like the fact that if you go back, you’re going to be hunted by mercenaries who will try and silence you about this pipeline thing?”

  “Yeah, that might have something to do with it,” Amber said with a slightly hysterical-sounding laugh. Sobering quickly, she looked at Quinn. “I’m serious though. How do I know—” she couldn’t finish her sentence.

  Quinn looked at her. “How do you know…what?”

  Amber took a deep breath. “How do I know that what I’m feeling with Zeke is what you and Asher have?”

  “Ah. Well, hopefully it won’t go the same way as me, where you won’t know until you’re given no choice.”

  Amber frowned. Quinn hadn’t told her this part of her story. “What do you mean?”

  “I was initially taken by a gryphon,” she said, standing up at the same time and playing with her pants.

  “Uhh,” Amber stammered, wondering what she meant by “taken” now that she was playing with her pants.

  Quinn shot her a deadpan look. “I thought you were interested.”

  Amber looked around frantically for some sort of excuse to buy her time. She didn’t have a problem with women liking women. Who was she to care? But this was not exactly the sorts of signals she’d been getting from Quinn!

  Laughter interrupted her and she saw Quinn doubled over shaking her head. “I’m not trying to seduce you, though you are quite pretty,” she said with a wink. “This actually has to do with the story.”

  “Okay,” Amber said hesitantly, feeling embarrassed for being so gullible.

  “So like I was saying. Big bad gryphon dude. Not a nice man. I tried to get away, and he cut my leg open. Bad. It got infected.” Quinn shrugged at the look from Amber. “Anyway, I became delusional with the infection. No hospital around they could take me where things wouldn’t go bad. So Asher was forced to bond with me, without any sort of discussion.”

  “Bond?”

  Quinn pulled her pants down to her knees.

  “Holy shit!” Amber exclaimed, jumping from her chair.

  There, attached to Quinn’s upper leg, was a giant Frost Dragon scale, permanently adhered to he
r skin.

  “Yep. Crazy, right? But wait until you hear what comes along with his scale adhering to my flesh.”

  Amber walked over to her newfound friend, and when she was given the nod to proceed, reached out and touched the scale. It was hard, just like Zeke’s when she felt it on him, yet it rippled along with Quinn when she moved. It was the weirdest thing.

  “Does it, you know, hurt?”

  Quinn shook her head. “No, not anymore. If I hadn’t already had an injury beneath it, I’m not sure it would have at all. I don’t have any other experience to tell you whether it was the scale or the injury that still hurt.”

  “So, this bonded you to him? How?”

  “I can sense his emotions.”

  “You can read his mind?”

  “Not really, nothing quite so much like that. But I can sense how he’s feeling, and how his dragon is feeling. They’re kind of intertwined; it’s hard to explain. But I know if he’s happy, mad, etcetera. I can feel him now, very faintly, but there’s still a connection between us.”

  Amber ran a hand along her thigh. “That’s how you know he is serious about you though.”

  Quinn nodded. “He can’t lie to me, not that he ever would. I think he tried once, about not taking out the trash or something like that. I caught him right away. It was the funniest thing to see his face react to my thoughts.”

  The pair of women shared a laugh over that.

  “I don’t know though, Quinn. He’s such a great guy. But this is awfully fast for me to be letting him put a scale on me. That’s serious! How do I know that this is the right thing to do?”

  “You’ll have to take a leap of faith. One way or another. You’ll have to trust that this is, or isn’t, the right thing to do. Either way, you’ll never know until you do it. There are some pluses though.”

  “Pluses?”

  “Yeah. This little baby means I’ll never get sick or ill. And as long as Asher lives, so will I.”

  The look of wonder that washed over Quinn’s face at that statement was so powerful it practically reached out and ensnared Amber. As long as he lives? From just that one scale, it could give her all that?

  “How long is that?”

  “Oh, somewhere around another ten-plus centuries.”

  Amber’s jaw dropped open. “I’m sorry, what? Did you just say you’re going to live for another thousand years?”

  Quinn nodded excitedly. “Think of all the things I’ll be able to see! It still scares me, and I don’t know how I’ll handle it, but oh wow, what an opportunity.”

  “That’s something else,” Amber said, leaning back against a table. “So much to think about now.”

  “Take your time,” Quinn said reassuringly, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “There’s no reason you need to decide right now. No reason at all.”

  Amber nodded, but her mind was already elsewhere.

  Was she really ready to commit the rest of her life to a man she’d met less than a week ago?

  Chapter Ten

  Zeke

  “In you get!” Blaine ordered as Rhynne settled down next to them after releasing the thing she’d been holding.

  Zeke eyed the senior instructor cautiously.

  They stood outside in the afternoon heat in front of the Academy, a dry, slightly cool wind blowing dirt through the air. It was a warm day, but on the horizon to the east the clouds were quickly darkening. Zeke knew that by nightfall there would be rain, and it looked to be building into quite a storm. He didn’t envy anyone who would be caught out in it.

  “Sir?” he asked.

  “Got a problem?”

  “What’s the purpose of this?” Zeke asked, throwing caution to the wind as he eyed the contraption before them.

  It looked like a shed. A wire-framed shed with fabric wrapped around it to form walls, and something firm, but light, as a base. Perhaps a plywood sheet or something. The door appeared just to be a zippered entry, like a tent door. No actual structure to it. There were no windows or other viewpoints that he could see as he looked it over again. The black material would ensure the inside got nice and toasty as the day went on. It was an interesting-looking device.

  What it did not look like, was sturdy.

  “Must I explain everything to you?” Blaine said with an overly dramatic sigh.

  “Of course sir, we’re just recruits,” Asher chimed in with a smile.

  This was a scenario that had played out between them before.

  “You will get in the carrier. We will carry you to an undisclosed location. You will then make your way back here.”

  Zeke looked at his instructor. That didn’t sound very hard. Why they—

  “Without shifting, and without a compass or map.”

  Oh. Well that made it a little more difficult. They could probably use the mountains for reference though. That should be easy.

  “And if you’re thinking of using the mountains, well, have fun,” Blaine said with an evil grin.

  “Why do we have to do this, sir?” Dominick asked, puzzled.

  Zeke wanted to speak out, to remind his friend of his own experience with such tactics just a few days ago, but he couldn’t. Not in front of the instructors. They had been lenient once. Testing them again didn’t seem like the most prudent course.

  “Because there can be occasions, Dumb-inick, where you might need this sort of knowledge. We’re here to train you to be capable in many sorts of situations, to ensure you’re able to overcome any and all obstacles. Learning to find your way without assistance is a valuable one.”

  The other two cadets chuckled at the way he talked to Dom, earning them a mild glare from their friend, but none of them cared. They all went through the same rounds for different things. It was good-natured teasing. The instructors were hard on them, but they wanted their charges to ask questions and to learn, so that they would be better prepared themselves.

  “Now, any more questions? No? Okay, get inside,” Blaine said, waving them forward.

  Zeke shook his head, and followed Asher as they made their way to the door. This was just going to be good, he could tell.

  ***

  Several hours later, with nightfall in full force, they emerged from their makeshift transportation box.

  “Where are we?” Zeke said, immediately looking around. They were in a forest, of sorts. It was thick, overgrown, and very unused to any sort of traffic, not even animals. Tall pines with their multitude of branches were interspersed with spruce, cedar, and even a few big oak trees. But it was the dense clusters of brush that really made the space feel tight for someone so used to the unceasing horizon of the sky. The thickness of it all reduced their visibility to perhaps fifty feet at best.

  Overhead, the canopy had closed in, preventing them from seeing the sky and any trace of the moon. The weather still felt like it was going to storm, so Zeke had to wonder if the clouds wouldn’t be occluding the sky now anyway. He looked around the undergrowth one more time.

  They certainly weren’t in any of the forests around Cadia that he’d been in. That didn’t mean much, as Cadia was huge and he hadn’t explored it all, or even close to the majority. So they were somewhere new.

  “So, thoughts?” Dom asked as the three of them took in their surroundings before making a decision.

  “Well, we can’t see a damn thing here. The trees are so thick, climbing one would be unlikely to help much.” Zeke shrugged and looked over at Asher. “I would say follow the land and go for high ground. Try to find a clearing, a big hill, anything like that, that might provide us some insight as to where we are, so we can triangulate our way home.”

  There was no argument from the others, and they began to shove their way through the undergrowth.

  “This is annoying,” he grumped as they moved along, taking turns leading the way and dealing with finding a path.

  “Tell me about it. They didn’t even give us a chance to load up on food. I’m starved,” Asher complained.

  �
��You’re always starving,” Dom chimed in. “Ever since you met Quinn. I swear, she’s trying to fatten you up or something. The woman feeds you constantly. It’s not good for you, man.”

  All of them laughed.

  “Well, it hasn’t helped now that Amber is around,” Asher said, turning the tables. “She’s just as bad, and when the two of them get going, look out!”

  More laughter.

  “So, is she sticking around, Zeke?” Dom asked.

  Zeke hesitated. “I hope so. But who knows. She’s safe now, but things are so haywire. Don’t forget, there are people after her outside of Cadia, and if anyone found out she was here in Cadia, she’d be in a huge amount of trouble. So things are stressed.” He shook his head. “You know, there still hasn’t been any sign of the shifter who actually took her into Cadia in the first place. No more attacks, no nothing.”

  “Do we even know what kind of shifter?” Asher asked.

  “Not really. From what Amber has told me, a flyer, but not a dragon,” Zeke said. There were only three types of flying shifters, which left either a gryphon or Pegasus shifter. “But nobody else really seems to be asking that question. Or the other question bothering me.”

  “What other question?” Dom sounded intrigued. Their pace had slowed a bit, but they were definitely heading uphill at the moment.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?” Asher asked, shooting him a puzzled look.

  “Why take her and just drop her there in the first place? Why not kill her and be done with it? Instead, the shifter knocked her out, or someone working for her company knocked her out, and then dropped her into the middle of Cadia, and let her wake up? How does that make any sense?”

  Zeke watched as the other two contemplated that question, and failed to come up with an answer.

  “Did it hope she would be caught, and then killed for trespassing?” he asked, trying to talk it through aloud.

  “Or perhaps they didn’t bank on you defending her, and claiming that her story was the truth. Perhaps they thought she’d be blamed for the pipeline, which would allow her to disappear.” Asher ventured forth the explanation.

  “That’s the best answer I’ve heard yet,” Zeke said. “But it still feels like there is a puzzle piece missing somehow.”