Smolder (Clan of Dragons Book 3)

by Nancy Lee Badger

  “Be you well, brother?” Wynn asked and patted Dougal’s shoulder.

  “Aye. You?”

  “I be fine, and wish to find Kera. Besides hoping Vika gives birth this night, me bed awaits!” Wynn’s sly grin made Dougal suddenly wish for the same.

  To hold Fiona in his arms, in a proper human bed, would be a dream come true. “The hell with hoping for a dragon mate!”

  “I be glad you be no longer under Cliona’s spell.”

  Dougal glared at him, but then hung his head. “Aye, the vixen took me for a fool. She be dead and buried, and I have a future, now. Tell me what has happened, since last we met in battle.”

  Wynn puffed out his chest. “Earlier, Kera and I found a broken section of the fence in the shadows behind the tavern’s stable. I shifted back to me dragon, and pulled up enough trees to help the villagers repair the breach in the wall. Never fear, I kept to the shadows. Let them think the fairies helped. The tavern keeper and several villagers had already blocked the hole with wagons and barrels.”

  “And the pirates?”

  “Several pirates attacked me behind the tavern, but I scared them away. I took to the sky and followed them. Many have returned to their ship. More be out there, possibly roaming the forest. Be happy we blocked our caves, before we came to Morbhan.”

  Dougal nodded. “Aye. If they had found a way in, our treasure hoards would be at risk. I found Orin, and sent him to Vika. He and other lads have the village covered. Isobel was attacked, but the lads and I threw the pirate over the wall.”

  “I passed Fiona, but where be Isobel?”

  “She left the village center for parts unknown. The lass be an otherworldly, but nothing like us. She shall be fine.”

  I hope.

  “We shall join the others in their vigil in Vika’s chamber, now that the village be safe and secure. I’ve a feeling Kera be there, with Vika.” Wynn headed toward the tavern.

  They entered the tavern to find most of the mess had been cleaned up, but the stench of blood lingered. The elder they’d met earlier, asked the villagers to gather around him. A large warrior stood beside him, facing the crowd. Unna and Blackie stood behind the counter, and Toal stood at the foot of the stairs, smiling at Dougal.

  “Be that Toal MacMorgan?” Wynn whispered. “Shall we kill him?”

  “Nay, brother. The man has acted exceptionally in me presence, and helped both Vika and Fiona.” The man had kept his mate safe from harm. “Everyone must have the opportunity to earn a second chance. He has, this night.”

  Wynn muttered beneath his breath.

  Dougal understood his brother’s yearning to hurt a man who hurt his mate. Wynn loved Kera, as much as Evan loved Vika. The sudden image of Fiona, her belly rounded with his progeny, made him gasp. Slapping his hand over his heart, he closed his eyes, and took in several calming breaths. When the blood roaring through his ears subsided, Wynn was staring at him.

  “Brother? Shall we listen to the villagers, and then check on our females?”

  He nodded. The elder spoke, and he turned his attention to the older man.

  “An attack on our village be never a pleasant occurrence, but their attempt to ruin our spiritual celebration of this holy passing of Beltane has proved unsuccessful.”

  Cheers went up, and the women kissed their mates. The elder’s raised hands quieted the crowd.

  “Our warriors have resumed their posts. A breach in our wall was miraculously repaired. Our injuries were minor, and the pirates retreated. The captured pirates be tied up in the stables, and will be dealt with, once all of us have had a chance to continue our celebration.”

  More cheers filled the tavern.

  “You strangers to our village,” he said, nodding toward Dougal and Wynn, “have acted admirably, and helped to save our village and its residents. An excellent job. We be blessed. The night be nearly over, but I have asked for the bonfire to be fed, and for Master MacFingan to have his people return to their tasks. Food and drink for all!”

  The roar was louder, and Dougal smiled. Wynn elbowed him, ignored Toal, and ran up the stairs. The humans of Morbhan were a likeable lot, and he would not mind sharing in their celebration, but his ears picked up another sound.

  A babe’s cry.

  EPILOGUE

  A babe’s cry meant only one thing, and Dougal walked toward the staircase. Wynn hadn’t waited for him to follow, but his concern for Kera, as well as Vika made him head past a snickering Toal. Dougal was no longer fearful that Toal would force himself on any female, either human or shifter. Fiona said he’d protected her and Vika. Whether Kera could forgive him, was another story.

  “Might I join you?” Toal asked.

  “Why?” Dougal reached the top of the staircase, and glanced down at him. Toal slowly climbed up the stairs. When he reached the top, he looked deep into Dougal’s eyes.

  “Vika and I have a history. I loved her, once.”

  Smoke seeped from Dougal’s nostrils.

  Toal’s eyes widened, but he did not move away. “I know your true nature, dragon. I accept that your kind live among us. I be nothing more than a lowly human, but I have discovered I have much to give. I pledge me assistance in any way I can. I did save your life, if you recall.”

  Dougal nodded. If the man had changed, fine with him. “True, but if Fiona, Vika, or Kera wish you gone…”

  “I will comply with their wishes,” Toal whispered.

  “Guard the hallway. Be advised that if you wish to stay, I suggest you make amends to our females, especially Kera.”

  Toal visibly shivered, and wrapped a hand around his neck, where the scars from Kera’s fangs were still apparent.

  Dougal laughed, and knocked on the bedchamber’s door. When it opened, Evan grabbed him, pulled him into the room, and hugged Dougal with such force he could barely breathe.

  Dougal pushed him away a hand’s breadth. “I heard a babe’s cry. Be everything fine?”

  Evan nodded, and walked to his mate’s bedside. Vika looked pale, but smiled up at Evan. When she noticed Dougal’s presence, she blushed.

  “Be you well, sister?” he asked.

  “Aye. Dougal. All be well. Meet our son.” She pointed to the healer, who cooed as she cuddled the babe swaddled in a purple and black plaide.

  He made his way across the room to where the healer stood with her precious cargo. Wynn and Kera joined him from the far side of the bed.

  “Why be Toal standing on the threshold?” Wynn whispered.

  “Guarding the hallway. Kera, please do him no harm until he has a chance to apologize.”

  Kera grabbed the swath of plaide over Dougal’s chest. “I don’t want to kill him, I want to eat him alive!”

  The healer gasped at Kera’s outrageous outburst.

  “Kera, calm yourself and welcome our new babe,” Vika called to her.

  Vika was smart to try to calm the shifter. The healer held the babe, but she knew their secrets. He sensed she had more fairy blood in her than she even suspected.

  “Where be Isobel? I wish her to meet our bairn, as well,” Evan asked Dougal.

  As Dougal walked closer to the healer and the bairn, he spied Fiona at the window. Was she crying? The healer handed the wrapped bundle into his arms, and he glanced down at a human male. He was bald, with deep green eyes, and a bow-shaped mouth currently suckling air, as if he was feeding.

  “Isobel has something important to do, but I do not expect her back. I pray she stays safe,” Fiona answered for him, yet continued to stare out into the night.

  The healer gathered up her supplies and headed toward the open door. “I will leave you now, Vika dear. You look fine, and need to rest, but there be villagers and a pirate or two in need of a healer.”

  “You plan to aid in healing a pirate?” Toal asked.

  Dougal glared at him. “Toal, all life be precious, and we might learn a thing or two from a living pirate. Stay in the hall.”

  “This be how you treat a man who save
d your life, and that of your lass?” Toal stood on the threshold, and glared back at Dougal.

  Vika struggled to sit up, then raised her arms for the babe. “Dougal, hand him to me. Fiona, come see the babe.”

  “In a moment.”

  Dougal sensed the hitch in Fiona’s voice. Glancing at her from the corner of his eye he was sure those were tears streaming down her cheek. After placing the bundled babe in Vika’s arms, he walked up to Fiona and offered her his hand. Her tear-filled eyes met his.

  Into that one glance he poured the love and hope he felt for Fiona and their future. Widening her large doe eyes, she choked back a sob, and he pulled her gently toward the bed.

  “Fiona, please hold the babe?” Vika said.

  “Nay! I know not how to!” Fiona’s eyes widened as Vika placed the tiny bundle into her arms.

  “Nonsense. All females have it in them to care for and protect their offspring. Someday you shall understand this,” Vika said, gazing lovingly at her newborn son. “Have you seen Unna? Be she well?”

  Dougal chuckled, and answered Vika. “Aye, she fought well, and both a farmer and a warrior showed interest in her well-being. Hopefully, she will enjoy kissing one of them, and stay away from pirates.”

  “I must apologize to her. I was supposed to work with her, but I disappeared many times,” Fiona said, gazing down at the bundle in her arms.

  “I pray with good reason?” she asked.

  Fiona’s cheeks reddened.

  With the babe cupped in the crook of her elbow, Dougal gripped her other hand, and brought it gently to his lips. Murmurs surrounded them, until the voices faded into nothing. All he could hear was the beat of his heart. All he smelled was the fresh scent of a newborn babe, aired linens, and Fiona’s fragrance.

  “Spring rain and heather,” he said.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer. When Kera walked over, Fiona gratefully relinquished the babe, and returned to her shadowy spot by the window. He joined her, lowered his head, and nibbled on the petal-soft flesh along her neck. She trembled under his touch, the vibrations passing through his lips straight to his groin.

  He loved her with everything he had, and could see no future without her. He’d felt something similar with Cliona, but realized, finally, that what he’d felt back then was lust. These feelings were much stronger, and he needed to convince her to stay, and to live with him and their clan. Without another word, he stepped back, and kneeled beside her.

  ***

  What was Dougal doing? “I thought you kneel to no one,” Fiona whispered, as she wiped her tears away with the back of her good hand. She stared down at Dougal, and waited for an answer. Hadn’t he stated to a pirate’s face that he knelt for no one? Miracle upon miracle, he knelt beside her, gazing up at her with such longing, she wanted to rush into his arms, and kiss him until the sun came up. In a room full of humans and shifters, this was not appropriate.

  “Brother?” Wynn asked, his arm locked around Kera, who continued to eye Toal with raw malice, while holding the newborn babe in her arms. “Why be you kneeling?”

  Dougal growled, and ignored his brother. He seemed to only have eyes for Fiona, but she grew worried. He was acting contrary to his character. His smoldering eyes had captured her attention, but she was curious. “What be on your mind, Dougal?”

  She wanted nothing more than to stare into his eyes, but this wasn’t the growling angry Dougal she knew, so she waited.

  ‘Tis too bad that I love him more than life itself.

  He’d said words of love in the heat of passion, but he would never love her the way he had loved Cliona. At least, Cliona was able to carry a babe.

  “Dougal, why be you on your knees? Be you unwell?” she asked, louder.

  “I be sick in me heart for not realizing how much you mean to me, love. Please stay with me, love me, live with me, and be me mate. Forever.”

  Fiona’s mouth dropped open, but she couldn’t say a word. Instead, she dropped to her knees and cupped his face. Ignoring the pain in her burned palm, she settled her gaze on his expression. He looked in pain, as if kneeling, or having said words of love, were killing him.

  “Why do you say this? Please explain…”

  “I want you with me, under me, in me life. What can I do to make you love me?”

  Fiona smiled, and kissed him. It was harder to ignore the fluttering in her chest than the cheers coming from the others in the room. Dougal loved her, and wanted her in his life. She pulled her face away, and gazed into his fiery orbs. A small tendril of smoke twisted in the air between them, adding to the delicious scent she had come to know as her dragon.

  “Be you certain you want the likes of me in your world? I be barren, and most likely cannot give you what you need,” she whispered, lowering her gaze to where her breasts rested perfectly against his chest. Heat radiated from his hard, muscular chest, and she wanted to ravish him then and there, but a room full of others was the only reason she held back.

  “No matter, love. While a babe with you would bring me great joy, Evan and Wynn have given our clan of dragons hope. You and I must believe that life will go on. It might find a way, if our love be true. Besides, I be an uncle. Wed me and you shall dote on your nephew, at me side.

  She nodded, he kissed her, and time stood still. Tonight was the magical eve of Beltane. All the blessings of the Celtic festival, and its expectation for a fruitful future, gave a dragon and his mate hope.

  The End

  Dear Reader;

  I hope you have enjoyed reading SMOLDER, the third book in my Clan of Dragons series. An author loves to hear that her work is appreciated, and other readers rely on reviews. Your opinion counts, so please take a moment to leave an honest review wherever you purchased this book.

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  FREE EXCERPTS

  Spark, Book #1, Clan of Dragons

  Chapter One

  Evan stared into the heavens while a gust of bitter wind ruffled the scales along his tail. The morning sun was making its way slowly upward, forcing the stars to disappear, while a heavy fog hid the earth, far below his perch. A heaviness filled his scale-covered chest, as well, because the news hurt. The future of their kind was in jeopardy.

  Days earlier, Cliona had died. When in the form of a red doe, a human hunter had brought her down with his deadly arrow, ending Dougal’s chance at happiness. Dougal and Cliona were lovers, and his oldest brother had only recently realized that she carried their unborn dragon offspring.

  Two lives lost.

  Two very important lives.

  Cliona was the last breeding female of their kind, and their offspring would have meant that the dragon clan of the Scottish island of Skye would endure.

  From a peak somewhere above Evan, Dougal roared. The deep mournful howl reminded him of rolling thunder, which was probably what villagers would assume caused the sound. Evan and his remaining brothers hid from humans in the stony perches of Skye’s Black Cuillin Hills. They lived in caves beneath the sharp peaks that rose west of the Scottish Highlands surrounded by the sea, and across the narrow channel of the bay. The hills were home for more years than Evan could recall. Their numbers had dwindled due to the weather, accidents, and the occasional hunter. To his knowledge, no humans knew they shared this area of Skye, but they crossed paths when in their other forms.

  The freedom to shape-shift into forest animals meant a lot to his brothers. Dougal enjoyed shifting into a red stag, and running free though the trees and meadows. Wynn was partial to wolves, whose numbers had decreased as steadily as their dragon clan. Their environment was changing too fast, and dragons faced an uneasy future. “We be on the brink of extinction.”

  As Dougal landed beside him, his talons scraped along the bare rock surface, and the mountain shook. Large pebbles rained down on their middle brother, Wynn, who gro
wled but did not move from his lower perch. Dougal sighed, and Evan kept silent. Letting his brother talk first was safer. Dougal’s eyes glowed like angry flames, as red as his scales. His mood was as black as the wings he slowly folded over his back. Dougal’s newfound hatred toward humans was teetering on all-out war. Evan didn’t feel he was in the wrong, but talking with his brother while Dougal was in pain was dangerous.

  Below them, Wynn shook dirt and rock from his folded white wings. His green scales usually melded with the nearby forests and meadows, but stood out on the black cliffs and rocky summits. The fog would keep them safe from prying eyes for a while longer. Evan was just as bright against the hills, with his purple-tinged scales. To help hide from humans on infrequent sunnier days, he clasped his brown wings around his body, making him blend in with the treeless crag.

  As the sun rose higher in the sky, his brother’s silence was scarier than waiting for him to start a conversation, so he jumped. Landing with a thud beside Wynn, he furled his wings once more, gazed up at Dougal, then nudged his brother’s shoulder.

  “Evan, keep quiet,” Wynn whispered, as he glanced up at Dougal. “What ails our brother today? Cliona died days ago.”

  “Dougal be inconsolable. Cliona’s meaningless death has filled him with guilt. He says her death be all his fault because he neglected to warn her of the approaching hunting party. When they headed to their cave to sleep, a storm was brewing. If he had not decided to sleep late, he would have gathered their breakfast and fed her in the safety of their cave. He had no idea she wished to run through the rain in her deer form.”

  “I can understand why he feels like he does, but she must have seen the signs. Even if she had not heard their approach, she should have smelled the humans.”

  “Aye, they have their own unique odor.”

  “For that reason, the blame be on her, but I will not confront Dougal with that. He would gain nothing from a negative opinion from the likes of me.”