Pregnant by the Dragon Shifter
A Paranormal Romance
By Jasmine Wylder
Copyright © 2016 Pure Passion Reads
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2016 by Pure Passion Reads – All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
THANK YOU so much for downloading this book!
As a way of showing gratitude I wanted to extend a very special offer to you. I’m giving selected readers access to my VIP Mailing List. As part of this group you will receive notifications about promotions and new releases!
Are you ready to read more romance stories full of Adventures, Passion and Emotions every week?
Click the “Get Access Now” link below to join today!
GET ACCESS NOW
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter One
The sun was shining full on his face but the wind was cold coming off the water. David relished the chill.
“You’ll catch your death out here without a coat.”
David turned to find a stout ferryman staring at him.
“How much to take me over to Fraser Island?” David squinted at the other man.
“Fraser Island isn’t open to the public. It’s a private island, very private.” The ferryman blew out a plume of smoke. His jacket was bright orange and his face wind burned.
“I have business there.”
The ferryman looked David over, “I’ll take you no charge. Never been there myself, always wanted to go.”
The ferry felt strangely large and empty with David as its only passenger.
“What’s your business with the Fraser’s? I’ve only seen the older one a few times. They mostly keep themselves to themselves.” The man’s orange jacket made a funny rustling noise when he moved his arms.
“I keep myself to myself, too.” David’s eyes flicked to the other man. The ruddy face only looked put off for a moment.
“Cousin of mine says the daughter is something else. Big girl and sour as a tart cherry, but a fine piece of work.” The man showed with his hands the invisible large ass of a woman then laughed the hacking laugh of a lifetime smoker.
David rolled his eyes. He should have just stayed in town for another night.
He’d arrived in the waterfront town a day early and couldn’t bear the thought of spending another twenty-four hours among tourists. He was on edge among people who seemed so unaware of themselves. The whole town teemed with them in the summer and early autumn. He had to constantly quell the urge to shout at them to get out of his way, to stop walking four abreast down the street, or to notice when someone was forced to stop abruptly behind you because you were too busy looking at your damn cell phone.
“You can see it now,” The man pointed a sausage like finger and David saw the island. “Four miles across, two miles wide.”
“And that?”
“Didn’t you know?” The man’s throaty laugh burbled again. “That’s the Fraser castle. Moved here stone by stone from Scotland by the man himself.”
David watched as the stone façade of the castle became clearer.
As he watched his attention was caught by a figure darting over the horizon. David moved so he had a better view. The hair on his arms prickled and the reason for his visit pushed itself to the forefront of his mind.
The figure moved fast, it stopped, then went back in the direction it came from. David studied the figure for a long moment then leaned back against a railing.
“Anything else I can do for you?” The ferryman was looking around from the dock. David took out some cash and handed it to the man.
When he turned a large dark haired man advanced. David took his bag and walked down the dock toward the approaching figure.
“You’re here early,” The man had thick brows, a full jaw, and tufts of thick hair sprouting from his head.
“David Kilgore,” David put down his bag and extended his hand to the man.
“I know who you are, just as you know who I am,” Coll Fraser looked David over without touching the proffered hand. One eye seemed to move a bit slower than the other David noticed.
“You’re not as big as I thought you would be. How tall are you?”
“Six foot even sir, is that a problem?”
“I just thought you’d be larger,” Coll turned and began up the hill that led back to the castle. David picked up his bag and followed.
The lands were wild, beautiful. There were gardens but they’d grown into their own unkempt sort of mini islands. Plants of all colors grew in abundance around the castle walls.
“This was my family home, over four hundred years in the Fraser blood lines, I couldn’t leave her behind.” Coll looked up at the stone walls as if they were the strong arms of a woman.
“Why did you leave Scotland?” David couldn’t imagine a reason good enough for a man willing to transplant a castle.
“A question for another time.” Though he may have left Scotland, Coll certainly didn’t sound like he had. His thick brogue was difficult for David to understand. Coll walked along a garden path and extended a hand out to the East.
“My daughter Iona,” Coll turned to David. “She’s the reason you’re here.”
David looked in the direction of Coll’s hand. A heavy head of thick curly dark hair met his gaze. She was large, her body strong, and big. David immediately understood the ferryman’s hand gesture. She was poised with a bow in her hand facing away from David. Her arrow was pointed straight at a human like figure. A target. It was the figure David had seen moving from the ferry.
Iona paused with the bow and arrow taut for a long moment before she released. Her aim was perfect. She turned before she’d even seen the arrow hit its mark.
“Iona is a world class archer,” Coll smiled and David could hear the affection in his voice.
Her face was pale set off by high cheekbones, perfectly round lips, and the same dark brows her father had. She was beautiful in the same wild way as the island itself.
“Who is this?” Iona’s eyes looked over David and he felt suddenly on the defensive. She held herself to her full height. Her raven eyes looking into him.
“This is David Kilgore, he’s to be your bodyguard for Toronto.”
“I told you that I don’t need a bodyguard.” Iona pulled an arrow from her holster, set it, then let it fly. The arrow hit the target, making a perfect match to the other.
“I’m not having this discussion again,” Coll’s voice dropped.
“Nice to meet you,” David said as Iona turned away from him again.
Coll led David into the thick fortress walls of the castle.
“My dearest jewel,” Coll said with an affectionate look on his face and David wondered if some of Iona’s bad temper weren’t caused by Coll’s determined devotion to his daughter.
Coll stopped abruptly by a large staircase. “You will be in
the second room on the right. Jinx will take you up. Dinner is at six thirty sharp.”
Coll walked away into the house leaving David in the dim light of the foyer. Jinx it turned out was short for Jackson. A man of about fifty-five who tended to the needs of Coll and Iona while his wife, Lettie did the cooking and cleaning. They had their own boat and went back and forth from the mainland daily.
David was happy to find a modern room awaiting him. He’d immediately begun to imagine another dully-lit room surrounded by hundred-year-old furniture, but the room was clean and simple. A television was in the cabinet, a tidy bathroom with a large shower.
He’d begun sweating through his clothes during his voyage over and now he took a quick shower to rid himself of the day.
When he’d finished David walked out of his room and made a brief survey of the other upstairs rooms. Some were modern like his own and a few as he had imagined before, old tapestries, four-poster beds, and brown polished wood. The castle was made to be a gathering place for fancy parties and a myriad of guests but it only took one look around to see that there were no such parties happening in its recent history.
He supposed the family rooms to be on the third floor. The downstairs was void of modern conveniences, not a television to be found. Only old armor, large paintings of stern looking men and women, and feet growing from every piece of well-polished furniture met his gaze.
“Glad to see you dressed for dinner,” Coll said with a discriminating glance at David’s old faded tee-shirt and jeans.
“This is what I always wear.”
“I’ll have to order you something more suitable for Toronto.”
David took the seat that Coll indicated and the two men sat waiting for Iona. The sound of Lettie humming to herself in the kitchen reached the quiet dining room and David looked at the clock.
It was ten past the allotted time when Iona walked in, though Coll seemed not to notice her time infringement. David assumed the same laxity would not be granted for himself.
Jinx brought the dishes out to the table as might have been done in 1800, his face alone lacking the severity of the other two dinner guests.
“Are you always so formal?” David was beginning to wish he had stayed on the mainland for another day after all, he could be eating a cheese burger right now.
Coll ignored the question and Iona only raised her eyebrows.
“So David, where did you bodyguard before this?” Iona’s voice held a certain disdain for the word bodyguard and David could feel the heat of his body against the chair.
“Don’t be impertinent,” Coll said to his daughter without any real sincerity.
“Is it impertinent to ask about the man hired for me?” There was something about the way she said, hired for me, that rubbed David the wrong way. His fist clenched but he forced himself to release it.
“I worked for one of your father’s friends, I believe.”
“You believe? You don’t know if you worked for him or not?” Iona put her glass down as Jinx set out a thick halibut chowder in front of her.
“I am certain who I worked for but didn’t mean to presume friendship on your father’s behalf,” David’s voice held an edge he was having a hard time controlling.
“David comes highly recommended,” Coll said with finality.
Iona began to eat her soup but her mind seemed to be elsewhere. David looked at the two spoons on his side and chose the largest one, hoping for the best.
“And how did you become a bodyguard?” Iona’s dark eyes leapt with a challenge to David.
“I was sort of… born into it.” David felt sweat roll down his back. He took his water glass and drained it trying to turn down the heat he could feel swelling in his body.
“What about you?” David said trying to divert any more questions away from him. “When did you start with archery?”
“I watched the Olympics when I was a six, I knew then that I wanted to be an Olympic archer.”
“And, have you won many tournaments then?”
She turned her attention back to her food ignoring David’s question.
“Iona hasn’t participated in any tournaments yet. She hasn’t left the island since I brought her here as a small child,” Coll said from across the table.
David took a large spoonful of chowder as he contemplated this. The thick creamy soup was fresh. Perfect. If he couldn’t scarf down a burger at his own convenience at least he would have something to make up for it.
“So Toronto will be…”
“Will be my first,” Iona cut him off. “I’ve had some of the best archers in the world as my teachers. We bring someone new out to the Island every year.”
Because they refuse to come back again, David thought to himself before asking aloud, “…And what about school?”
“I had tutors,” Iona put down her spoon and sat back in her chair. “Toronto will be my first qualifying tournament, there will be two more in the next few years to qualify me for the Olympics.”
David nodded, “Very impressive.”
Iona looked at David carefully before turning to her father.
“I’m not feeling very hungry,” she pushed her chair back from the table and stood. “I’ll be in my room.”
“Very well dear,” Coll watched his daughter’s retreating figure then stared at the table for a long moment.
David was certain he was meant to feel something close to guilt at Iona’s leaving, but he felt only a satisfied relief. With the sweat on his back dry he finished every last bit of his soup before putting his own spoon down.
Chapter Two
Iona had spent a sleepless and hungry night. She knew that Lettie had made her favorite, steak pie, and the thought of David eating it all made her mad with jealousy.
A great fog had fallen overnight and Iona looked out her window into the morning. She’d woken early to the sound of seagulls and now felt groggy and irritable.
She went first to the kitchen but there was no sign of any leftover steak pie from the night before. Saturdays were a late breakfast day on Fraser Island and the thought of waiting another three hours for food made Iona feel like clawing at the walls. She looked ruefully at an overripe banana before stepping out of the kitchen and into the morning air.
A walk. She needed fresh air and to clear her mind. A good distraction from her hunger pains was necessary for everyone’s survival. She took the long path around the castle walls then disappeared into the brush.
Iona had spent her entire life on this Island, there wasn’t one part of it that she didn’t know. Sometimes she imagined what her life in Scotland must have been like, what her mother must have smelled like, but it was only her imagination.
On occasion she even let herself imagine what life would be like if she were just a normal American girl, going to school, having boyfriends, trips to the movie theater. But she only let these imaginings go so far. She knew that her father would never allow her a normal life and it was only painful to dream about something she couldn’t have.
She pushed her way along the rocky coast, wrapped inside the fog. A noise came from her right and Iona turned off her route. The ground was soggy and she was glad she’d worn galoshes.
The noise changed and Iona turned just in time to see David running out of the fog and directly into her.
“Whoa,” David tried to correct himself before impact but it was useless. The two hit the ground, Iona’s backside taking the majority of the impact.
“Ouch,” Iona groaned as a sharp pain sprang up her tailbone and spine.
“Are you ok?” David’s hands were around her as if even now he could save her from falling.
“Get off me,” Iona turned her body away from him and began to stand up. She could still feel David’s hands on her arms and back trying to help. “I said, get off.”
She pulled herself out of his reach and stumbled her way to a standing position.
“What in the hell were you doing?” She brushed herself even thou
gh she knew the mud that now marked her was going nowhere without washing.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you with the fog, I really didn’t think there would be anyone out this way.”
“I thought you were supposed to be some sort of bodyguard, you didn’t hear me walking?” There was some satisfaction to be had from the fact that he didn’t hear her and she had, in fact, heard him.
PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Pregnant by the Dragon Shifter (Shapeshifter Protector Pregnancy BBW Romance) Page 1
