Adored by The Dragon: (The Dragon Lord - Book 3) (The Dragon Lords)

by K. T. Stryker

  Or she could have had a mini stroke.

  That seemed unlikely

  “Ed,” she said as she followed the scent of food cooking and found him at a stove swirling a broad wood spoon in a frying pan, “I’m not feeling well.”

  The man motioned for her to sit at a table that she vaguely remembered and put a plate of food in front of her. She poked at it, but she wasn’t hungry. The grogginess she woke with hung on her like a shroud and a sense of foreboding pervaded her thoughts.

  “I’m not surprised,” he said in a breezy tone. “You’ve had a hell of a past couple days. But I do need to take you to Abalon today.”

  “You say he’s a dragon?”

  “Yes.”

  “My dragon?”

  “You are his seneschal. It’s a long overdue meeting.”

  “So I haven’t met him before.”

  “Oh my, that little bang on you head must have had more impact than I thought. Dana, dear, you learned quite recently that you are a seneschal, one of ancient race of humans with special abilities to communicate with dragons. You are an especially powerful seneschal and you belong with a powerful dragon.”

  “And what am I supposed to do?”

  “Talk with him. Get him to take a more reasonable viewpoint with relations with the humans. He wants to start a war. You’ll convince him it is a bad idea.”

  “I don’t know how I’ll do that.”

  “You will,” said Ed confidently. “One of the abilities of the seneschals is to persuade hard headed dragons from their more destructive choices.”

  “I’m not really hungry,” she admitted.

  Ed shrugged. “Then let’s go.” He stood and tossed a huge robe over his shoulders, which trailed after him and slung low on his chest. With a few movements under his clothes he oddly removed his shirt and slacks

  He offered his hand to her. She wasn’t thrilled about taking her hand, but she did and followed him though his residence and onto a rocky ledge besides a very tall waterfall.

  “Stand back,” he said. Before her unbelieving eyes the air shimmered and before her stood a red dragon.

  Now Dana was more shocked than before. Did she know he was a dragon?

  Come, Seneschal, said the dragon in her head. Climb my leg and sit on my neck.

  Hesitantly, Dana did as Ed said and he snorted as she settled in between to spiky spines that protruded from his neck. The cape he wore covered this area as well and she understood now why the neck was so loose around his human form.

  As soon as Dana’s rear hit his back he flapped his wings and they were in the air. They rose high enough that the volcano looked like a small dot in the ocean.

  And then they fell.

  A strange sensation of deja vu hit her. Thought she should be screaming in terror this felt familiar, so she rode out the lack of oxygen and the cold that surrounded her.

  A rush of air buffeted her body as they burst into the dark atmosphere. Dana reasoned they must be halfway around the world and here it was night. The atmosphere wrapped her in its chilly embrace at they moved under a sliver of yellow moon. But she sat as the dragon’s body moved between her legs, and his great wings moved on either side taking in the thrill of flight. If only…

  If only what? She thought. Dana want someone else here to share this grand experience, not this strange dragon whose plans for her future that she did not agree to. And why was she so willing to go along with him in the first place? Dana sensed her current actions worked against her character, but she could place how or why.

  Her life currently was a series of disjointed acts and missing pieces. Dana suspected this old dragon had something to do with that.

  She wondered if Abalon could help her get things straightened out. Ed called him “her dragon” but that felt wrong.

  Very wrong.

  What the hell did he do to her?

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Quinn

  “And this is?” said a regal looking woman at the head of the table.

  “Quinn Morgan, my lady,” said Calvin Porter.

  “Morgan, Morgan? Ah, the lost one.”

  “Yes, Lady Reanne,” said Porter with a bow.

  “Welcome, Quinn to Dragon home. This place is the ancestral lair of our people. Please sit next to me here so we can talk.” She spoke graciously and with a smile and another of time of his life before he met Dana he would have found her enchanting.

  Not today. Just the thought of sitting next to another woman made Quinn chafe at the thought. He wanted to be with his mate.

  His mate. In his whole life, he’d never thought he’d refer to a woman like that, but it was the term the dragon in him preferred.

  Yes, mate, rumbled the intractable beast.

  She indicated a chair at the left of her at the head of the broad table, while Calvin took a place at her right. Quinn spotted Hibley sitting at the other end of the table while Evan sat closer toward the head. Evan glanced surreptitiously toward Reanne and then to Quinn and frowned. Immediately Quinn figured out that Evan was much more interested in the lovely Reanne than as a ruler.

  “So, Quinn,” said Reanne. Servers place plates of food in front of them interrupting her, but she just smiled and waited until they left. “Quinn, tell me about yourself.”

  “Not much to tell. The state raised me until I was eighteen and then I had to fend for myself. I went into the Marines.”

  “Marines?”

  “A branch of the armed forces in the United States,” supplied Porter.

  “Ah yes. You are a warrior then?”

  “I haven’t finished training, ma’am. So not yet.”

  Reanne frowned. “Brother, you don’t have to call me ma’am or any other title. I am regent for my, I mean, our mother, that’s all. And I disagree you are not a warrior. Captain, you will see to his training.”

  “Of course, my lady,” said Porter.

  Quinn digested this information. He and Reanne were brother and sister? Then is Rhea was his mother? This was an unwelcome shock. What did that mean for him? What was his place here at Dragon home?

  “Tell me about this “state” that raised you. I have not heard of that.”

  Quinn studied her eyes and concluded she told the truth. She did not know this mechanism of the outside world. How much did she not know about the outside world?

  “When a child has no family, the government provides for the child’s basic care. They are sent to foster homes or group homes until they reach adulthood.”

  “Sounds lonely.”

  “It was.”

  She smiled brightly. “Well, you have us now. And when did you learn you were a dragon?”

  “Three days ago.”

  “So soon? So, I’m sure there is much you don’t know.”

  “You could say that. The trip here was an education.”

  She turned her head to Porter. “Did he fly here himself?”

  “No, my lady. The commander bore him here.”

  She looked at Hibley. “Is this true?” she said.

  “Yes, my lady.”

  Reanne frowned again but then smiled at Quinn and patted his arm. “Well, we will teach you this, as well as work on your warrior skills. We can always use more warriors.”

  “Excuse me,” said Quinn. “Do I not get a choice in this? I have a unit to get back to, training to finish—”

  “Quiet,” snapped Porter irritably.

  “I think,” said Reanne in a soothing voice, “it is better for you here. If the humans know you’re a dragon, they will not want you in their fighting forces, is that not true?”

  “I’m not sure about that.”

  “I’m quite sure about it,” spoke up Hibley. “Unfortunately, Morgan made a mess of things and he can’t go back.”

  “See,” said Reanne, you cannot go back.

  Quinn’s jaw set. No way was he going to stay here and hang out with these shifty dragons, not when another had his mate.

  “I have unfinished busine
ss, anyway,” said Quinn. “Another dragon took the doctor working with Hibley, your commander there. I fear she is in danger.”

  “Another dragon,” she said. “What dragon?”

  “He called himself Primus Edgar Gentrix, if I remember correctly.”

  All conversation in the room stopped and Quinn felt the stab of all eyes on him. The crowd on the table gave him questioning looks, though Hibley stared at him in outright hostility. What was that about?

  “Edgar?” said Reanne.

  “He said he was my, I mean our, grandfather.”

  A look of shock spread over Reanne’s face. “He took the human doctor?”

  “She was a seneschal,” sneered Hibley.

  Reanne shot him a frosty glare and the mood in the room shifted from happy calm to prickly hostile. The people at the table fidgeted in their seats and whispered to each other.

  “What difference does that make?” said Reanne.

  “A seneschal shot our queen.” Hibley said defiantly.

  “But not this seneschal.”

  “They are an abomination created by Primus!” declared Hibley.

  “Stand down,” ordered Porter.

  “Created by Primus? What did this mean? How did the old dragon create seneschals? Quinn’s mind swirled with questions. And with the hostility and alarm that registered in the dining room Quinn grew very afraid for Dana’s safety.

  “Quinn, Porter, Hibley, my chambers now,” snapped Reanne. She rose from the table and Quinn stood and followed her. The topic of conversation included Dana and he did not want to be excluded from that.

  The other men followed him and soon they stood in a room tenanted with two carved sofas and four chairs with thick cushions. A desk hugged the wall to the right. Reanne’s eyes flashed when she cast her gaze on Hibley.

  “Did you withhold this information deliberately?” she demanded.

  Hibley stood there with defiance on his face.

  “I should arrest you and put you in the dungeon. How dare you?”

  “Arrest me, if you want, Reanne. We all know you aren’t following the queen’s policies. And a number of us aren’t comfortable with you as regent.

  “Too bad. Go back to your human assignment,” she said “Leave now. And I expect reports on every dragon you find regardless of where they are. If you do not, I will jail you, where you will remain for at least a century. Go!”

  This last she hissed so fiercely that even Quinn wanted to leave the room.

  “Tell me about this seneschal. Is she your mate?”

  Reanne’s gaze fixed on him as if willing an answer. Which answer would get him and Dana in the least amount of trouble? He was warned that Rhea would harm Dana. But he wasn’t dealing with Dana, but Reanne. She radiated warmth and trustworthiness. He did not know if this was some sort of dragon magic or her authentic self. But he could not rescue Dana on his own.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Damn!” she snapped. “And you sure it was Primus?”

  “I never met him before this time. I took him on his word. But you got a sense of great age coming from him.”

  “Yes. That’s the wily old dragon. What is he up to now? Captain, you will go search Quinn’s Dana. Take him with you. And make sure Edgar doesn’t much up things more than they already are.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Dana

  The dragon under her spiraled toward the ground in long leisurely circles. His head crooked downward as if he searched for a specific spot. Peering into the darkness over the dragon’s shoulder Dana spotted the lights of a small town. Ed banked and flew even tighter spirals downward. The lights below rushed toward them and the dark outline of a mansion formed under them.

  They landed in a greenway of the garden running out from the mansion. Dana assumed was the backside of the building. He huffed and extended his foreleg.

  Disembark. Ed’s voice rang in her head and she slid down the large body and stepped away.

  Ed shifted, and the cape fell about his to cover his naked body. Now she understood the large neck opening of the cape on his human form.

  “This way,” he said stepping toward the mansion.

  Dana looked around her, but found no good way to escape. She was in a foreign country without a visa or her passport. A tale of kidnapping dragons would probably get her thrown in jail. She could only hope that Abalon would be more reasonable and help her get home.

  She followed Ed in the dark stumbling on the grassy lawn. Dana cursed and hurried to get closer to Ed who now was taking stone stairs that led to a stone laid patio. Security lights came on, and dogs barked, but then Dana heard a voice ordering the dogs quiet. The French doors opened and a large man walked out. He was tall, and dark haired, and he looked familiar but she couldn’t place how. Then she placed the few pictures she saw of him in the news. Prime Minister Abalon.

  “Primus,” the man said in a rumbling voice. “I felt your arrival soon enough to turn off the security precautions, but you have no business here.”

  “Abalon, how are you?”

  “Well, enough,” said Abalon gruffly. “And who is that with you? She smells,” he sniffed. “Human,” he sneered.

  “This is Dr. Dana McGarrity. I thought you could use some help with the humans.”

  “I don’t need help, old man. Get yourself and her away.”

  “Please, Prime Minister,” said Dana. “Can I speak with you? Alone?” She flashed a glance over her shoulder to Ed.

  Abalon stared at her with a fierce gaze that threatened to slice her open to her core. “What are you?” he snarled.

  Maybe, with his dragon magic, he could see into her. These past few days had been an education. She knew much less about dragons than she believed she did.

  “I’ll leave you too alone,” said Ed. His eyes glittered in the harsh light of the security sconces.

  “Don’t you go anywhere, old man. What the bloody hell?”

  Dana turned her head to Ed’s direction but the dragon was gone.

  “You cannot stay here,” said Abalon.

  Dana laid her hand on Abalon’s arm.

  “And I do not want to stay. Prime Minister, Ed took me from home in the United States. I don’t belong here. I came with Ed because I was trapped where he took me. Please, can you get me home?”

  Abalon’s lip twitched when Dana put her arm on his and he eyes softened.

  “You are a seneschal,” he said.

  “That’s what Ed said. I’m not sure what it means.”

  “Come inside,” he said in more solicitous voice, “and I’ll get you a drink. Maybe you are hungry? I’m sure you’ve had a difficult time hanging around that old dragon.”

  Abalon moved close to her and took her hand gently almost lovingly. This one eighty turnaround in attitude jacked Dana’s worry. Why was he being so nice to her now when he was hostile when she first arrived?

  He led her into a room appointed with antique furniture and walls of highly polished paneled wood and to one of two chairs in front of a fireplace.

  “Have a seat here,” he rumbled. “I have some very nice sherry.”

  Okay. Now Dana was getting freaked out. He was too nice now. And she had heard of the ruthless things Abalon did to his own kind—outlawing dragons, imprisoning them, and signing death warrants.

  This was one twisted dragon if he could do that to his own people.

  He brought her a small wine glass of sherry.

  “Here you go,” he said. His words almost sounded like a purr.

  “Thank you, Prime Minister.”

  “Please, call me Robert.”

  “Okay, Robert.”

  Robert stared into the small fire.

  “I know why he brought you here, seneschal.”

  “Oh?”

  “Years ago my mother, well, let’s not talk about that.”

  He looked very sad then and stared into the wine of his glass. His eyes darkened and a storm swirled through them as sudden as a storm squall on a
summer’s day. Abalon stood and flung his glass into the fire.

  “It will not work! No one can replace her!”

  Dana sat stock still in her chair. She wasn’t sure how unpredictable Abalon’s behavior could become. But she was a psychiatrist. A researcher, to be sure, but she did her rotations in clinical counseling. And she recognized the signs of trauma.

  “Is that what you think I’m doing?” she said.

  He whipped toward her. “Aren’t you?”

  “No. I told you. All I want is to go home.”

  “But he brought you here. Why?”

  “Maybe because, well, I help people with problems like yours, Robert. It’s what I do—what I trained for.”

  “Well, I’m not a person,” he boomed with a deep voice. “I’m not human. How can you help me?”

  “I don’t know, Robert. And maybe I can’t.”

  He huffed at this, but Dana found being as truthful as possible helped to lay the groundwork for trust. She studied his face, and it was full of conflict and struggle. He had so many emotions stuffed inside that she wondered why he hadn’t exploded yet.