“Their lands and titles were taken, as were their treasure hoards, and they were left to fend for themselves without the protection of the Alliance,” Caesar added. “That is what happens when you break dragon law.”
“I think we’ve been doing well for ourselves,” Hank said with a raised brow. “So, you kicked us out of your little club. What the hell are you doing here then?”
Balfour’s face turned grave. “There are people—humans—out there who want to destroy us.” He looked at the other shifters. “All of us. I know you’ve already encountered them and that they tried to destroy your town.”
“The Organization,” Jason said, his hands curling into fists into his sides. The anti-shifter group had tried to blow up the entire town of Blackstone a few months ago.
Balfour nodded. “They call themselves The Knights of Aristaeum. Few know who they are. They were named after a wizard who sought to destroy all shifters.”
“Wizards?” Matthew asked.
“Yes. Humans used to know how to wield magic, but they lost the ability over time. It’s a long story, but basically, this secret society has existed for the past three centuries, and their main goal is to destroy all shifters.”
“Then what do you want with us?” Hank asked.
Balfour looked around uneasily at the other men behind him. Caesar frowned, but nodded. “We seek an alliance with you. And invite you to once again join the Dragon Council.”
“And why would we do that?” Matthew said.
“Because, The Knights of Aristaeum will destroy us all,” Caesar stated matter-of-factly. “All shifters of all kinds. And they already have the means to do it. A magical weapon.”
“What?” Hank’s voice rose. “What are you talking about?”
Balfour looked around apprehensively. “Blackstone Dragon, before we go any further, we must ask that you meet with the Dragon Alphas.”
“All right, I’ll bite,” Hank sighed. “Dragon Alphas?”
“They are the leaders of the various dragon clans around the world, and the protectors of their territory and people under them,” Balfour explained. “Much like you are the protector of Blackstone. If you grant them permission to land in your territory, then we can sit down and talk about how we will stop The Knights.”
“I think the idea has merit,” Jason said.
“But, can we trust them?” Matthew interjected.
Hank seemed to consider his sons’ words. “How do we know this isn’t some trap?”
“What?” Caesar scoffed. “What would we have to gain from trapping or betraying you? We are dragons, just like you.”
“We don’t exactly know you,” Hank pointed out. “You show up here and then spout all this bullshit, and we’re just supposed to believe you?”
Caesar looked offended, but Balfour spoke up. “We swear to you, on the grave of our ancestors, that we only speak the truth. Besides, you know how territorial dragons can be. The moment you tell us to leave, we will be compelled to do so. It is our nature.”
Hank huffed. “All right. Tell them they can come. But none of this Cloaking nonsense. They wanna come here? They better show themselves to me.”
“Of course.” Balfour bowed. “Thank you.” He looked back at the other members of the council. “Please, call your alphas.”
Sybil wasn’t sure what she was expecting when Balfour told the other dragons to “call” their Alphas—maybe take out their phones and text message?—but certainly, she didn’t think they would all just close their eyes and go perfectly still. What the heck—
A strange sensation passed over her, and there was a force in the air she couldn’t describe—like electricity crackling. It filled the atmosphere around them, threatening to spark and explode at any moment. Then, they all looked up.
The sounds of beating wings filled the air. The brightness of the sun prevented Sybil from getting a better look, but she could make out four large shadows overhead. Each one looked different—one of them had two legs instead of four limbs, another had scales like uneven rock—but from the way her own animal reacted, she knew they were all dragons.
One by one, they swooped down, transforming smoothly into their human forms. Sybil was taken aback when she realized that they were all wearing clothes. When shifters changed into their animals, their clothes didn’t shift with them. She herself tended to remove her clothes and leave them somewhere safe or take them with her, clutched in her claws. But these dragons didn’t need to do that. Huh.
All four stood behind the Dragon Council, their stances confident. It was obvious why they were the alphas. Power radiated from each of them like a beacon. And, much to her chagrin, all of their eyes zeroed in on her.
Sybil gulped. But she had to admit, she was curious, too. She had never met a dragon she wasn’t related to. And attractive ones.
Like most shifters, they were all tall with muscular physiques; good-looking in their own individual ways. The one with icy blue eyes and white-blond hair stared at her with such intensity she thought his gaze would burn a hole right through her. The other three looked at her curiously, as if trying to catch her eye.
Her own inner dragon, on the other hand, scoffed and swished its tail in disdain, not caring for their attention. Choosy much? she huffed at the creature. But then again, her dragon had never shown interest in any male, shifter or not.
“Ahem.” Caesar cleared his throat and all the alphas snapped their attention back to the council.
“What’s going on? Who are those men? Where did they come from?” Amelia asked.
Sybil startled, not realizing that she and Mason had come back from their walk. “Apparently, they’re the Dragon Council.”
“Dragon Council? I didn’t know you guys had a council.”
“Neither did I.”
“What do they want?”
That was the million-dollar question. “Some sort of alliance. I don’t know. They—the five guys with Dad—just kind of … appeared out of nowhere. They had some sort of cloaking tech,” Sybil explained.
Amelia pointed her chin at the alphas. “And the other four?”
“The Dragon Council called them the Alphas of the different clans or something. They asked permission to enter our territory, and Dad said yes. They flew in and landed. And—get this—when they shifted back, they had their clothes on.” Sybil turned her attention back to the council.
“… And so, Hank Lennox, Blackstone Dragon, we thank you for granting our five Dragon Alphas permission to land in your territory.” Balfour bowed his head. “And now—”
“Four,” Hank interrupted.
“Excuse me?”
“You have four Dragon Alphas. Not five.”
Hmmm. Sybil looked around. Where was the fifth one?
Balfour did a double take. “Where is His Highness?”
The other Dragon Alphas spoke. Sybil couldn’t hear them, but it looked like they didn’t know or care, judging from their body language.
Balfour turned to another man from the council. “Dmitri, where is your prince?”
“I-I-I don’t … I mean …” Dmitri wiped his balding, sweaty head with a handkerchief. “Maybe he—”
The sound of water rushing made everyone freeze. The din was almost deafening and whatever was making it sounded very big. A humongous wave cut through the lake and Sybil let out a gasp as something burst out from the water.
Oh.
Sybil’s inner dragon perked up when the winged creature flew up into the air. It was large, about fifty feet long and covered in beautiful, shimmering blue-green scales. Its bat-like wings were long and delicate, but strong enough to propel it through the air. It didn’t have any other limbs, but its back was spiked with dorsal fins, and its tail was shaped like the fluke of a dolphin, but matched the rest of its body and wings. As quickly as it rose up, it dove back into the water.
“What the hell is that?” Mason said. “A snake?”
“A dragon.” Sybil’s throat went dry.
As he strode out of the lake, shaking the water from his longish, light brown hair, Sybil felt the beating of wings inside her as her inner dragon flittered excitedly. Flittered? That was strange. It had never done that before.
“Finally,” Caesar said dryly.
Dmitri took a step forward. “Ahem. May I present, His Royal Highness, Prince Aleksei of the Northern Isles, Jarl of Svalterheim, Dragon Protector of the—eek!” He nearly tumbled over when he was pushed aside.
Prince Aleksei didn’t acknowledge the presence of the other alphas, the council, or even Hank Lennox. Instead, he moved forward with purpose. Sybil glanced around, wondering where he was going. And then she realized where he was headed.
Oh. Her inner dragon began to get even more excited, fluttering around inside her, its wings beating a mile a minute. Or was that her heartbeat?
He stopped in front of her, and his dark blue-green eyes shifted colors as they stared down. Sybil’s inner dragon stilled.
“Hello, mate.”
Mine. Mate.
Sybil nearly jumped out of her skin at the volume of her dragon’s voice. This was her mate?
Chapter Two
His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Aleksei of the Northern Isles, Jarl of Svalterheim, Dragon Protector of the Eight Seas, Admiral of the Great Dragon Navy, Lord of the Barents Islands, Chieftain of the Seven Tribes, Guardian of the Moors and a bunch of other useless and forgotten titles, stared down at his gorgeous mate in disbelief. There was no other way to describe how he felt except stunned.
When he’d woken early this morning, he’d felt different. Aleksei couldn’t quite describe it, except that he had awakened from an amazing dream. It felt like he was being warmed by a fire after a long, cold day. That in itself was strange to him, because Water Dragons didn’t exactly feel cold, nor did they need the comfort of a roaring hearth, even after spending hours in the freezing sea.
He dismissed the silly feeling and concentrated on the task ahead. Today was the day he was making his journey to Colorado. While his wings were unable to fly him very long distances, his water dragon’s body allowed him to swim for extended periods of time and breathe underwater. He swam from the Northern Sea, all the way to the Sea of Cortez, then up the Colorado River. It was supposed to be a quick flight into Blackstone town and the castle, but apparently, the Blackstone Dragons were not at home.
And then, that idiot, Matthias Thorne, Alpha of the Air Dragons, thought it would be funny to neglect to tell him that they were meeting elsewhere. Aleksei wanted to smash Matthias’ face in until his nose bled onto his immaculate white suit. It was a good thing, though, that they were actually near a body of water, which meant he easily caught up once Dmitri had sent him the mental message about the change of venue.
He hadn’t known what to expect when they arrived. There was a chance that the Blackstone Dragons would not even hear them out. Mountain Dragons were known to be stubborn, at least that’s what the lore said. Since they were cast out of the Alliance, no one bothered to keep up with them; in fact, it was like their clan had simply been cut off, with no one recording their history or feats. It had been generations ago, though perhaps for the Water Dragons, it was like it was yesterday. The sting of Anastasia Lennox’s broken engagement to his ancestor, Prince Haardrad, was still fresh in his family and people’s minds.
The irony, of course, was not lost on him. But, perhaps fate was a jester, making Anastasia’s great-great-great-great grandniece his mate. The moment he rose from the lake, everyone else faded away. She was like a beacon, shining in front of him. Calling him and his dragon.
Mine. Mate.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Sybil Lennox was exquisite. Silvery gray eyes looked at him without blinking. Her pink, rounded lips were made to be kissed. Skin as smooth as marble, but he knew would be warm to the touch. A lush body made just for him, the curves barely hidden in her short red dress.
And of course, that dragon. It roared back at him, full of possessive fury. He could sense its power and the fire burning deep within Sybil. His own dragon reveled in it, proudly preening at the thought that this amazing creature was their mate. It didn’t hurt that Matthias was standing a few feet away, watching it all unfold. His dragon flicked its tail and tossed its head, reveling in the envy of the other alphas. He’d not only found his fated mate, but she was a female dragon to boot.
The silence in the air was deafening, until she spoke. “What?” Dark lashes blinked up at him, casting shadows down her delicate cheekbones.
“You are mine,” Aleksei said. “My mate. Our dragons know it.”
“Mate?” The Blackstone Dragon Alpha, Henry Lennox, exclaimed. “Is this true, Sybil?”
“I—”
“Of course, it is.” How could they doubt it? “Sybil Lennox is my mate.” He stared down into her wide silvery eyes. “You will be my princess and will rule with me as the future Queen of the Northern Isles,” Aleksei stated. “At last, you will rid your family of the shame Anastasia Lennox has brought upon you by breaking her engagement to my ancestor and mating with a common bear. You will bring yourselves the honor—”
“Excuse me?” Her voice rose and she seemed to be displeasured.
He frowned. “What is the matter, my mate? Are you not filled with joy that—”
“How. Dare. You.” She poked at his chest to emphasize each word. While the first touch of her skin on his made his flesh tingle, he couldn’t ignore the way her eyes burned with the heat of a thousand suns. And not in a good way.
“What is wrong? Why are you upset?”
“Why am I upset?” Her voice trembled as she spoke. “You just insulted my family! My ancestors, my cousins, and everyone in between.”
“Insult?” Now he was confused. He’d just offered her the world and she claimed he had insulted her. There were dozens of women back in the Northern Isles who would kill to be in her shoes. Maybe she was sick and delirious. “How did I insult you, mate?”
“Don’t call me that,” she hissed.
“You don’t acknowledge him as your mate?”
All heads swung toward the source of the question. Of course, Aleksei fumed silently. Damn Matthias Thorne. The alpha was staring at them with those eerie light eyes, his face expressionless.
“What?” she asked, the fire in her momentarily dying down.
“Do you acknowledge the Water Dragon as your mate?” Matthias’ voice was like a stiff breeze in the dead of winter. He was the one person who dared to not call him by his title.
“She does!” Aleksei’s inner dragon roared a challenge at the other alpha. Matthias merely smiled at him.
His mate looked flustered. “What do you mean, acknowledge?” She looked around. “Are you going to force me to marry him?”
“Of course not.” It was Caesar, the Air Dragon representative to the Dragon Council, who spoke up. He looked positively appalled. “My dear, what do you think we are? Savages?”
“I thought that was what you were trying to do to Anastasia Lennox?” Jason quipped. “That’s the story, right? Her family was forcing her to marry some prince?”
“Perhaps that’s the version you were told, but it’s incorrect.” Caesar scoffed. “There was an agreement between the clans. She was already betrothed to Prince Haardrad, and she broke dragon law by running away from the engagement without so much as a by-your-leave.”
“But you don’t forbid dragons fro
m mating with other shifters?” Matthew asked.
“We highly encourage matches between dragons or powerful human allies.” Caesar straightened his shoulders. “After all, we must look after the survival of our species, since, as you know well, we can only produce dragons with other dragons or human mates, if at all.”
“What my esteemed colleague is trying to say,” Dmitri began, “is that our kind looks at the best matches possible to strengthen alliances, mates or not. When Anastasia ran away to her bear lover, the kingdom of the Northern Isles demanded justice for the insult, and so the Dragon Council banished the Lennoxes and stripped them of their title of Mountain Dragon.”
Smoke curled out of Sybil’s flared nostrils and then turned to Aleksei. “So, it’s your family’s fault my family was ‘dishonored’ in the first place?”
There was no denying her accusation, but he couldn’t control his anger either. There was more to it than just a broken engagement, of course, but obviously she was not informed of all the details. “Well, it was your ancestor’s fault for falling in love with a common bear.”
A deep growl came from her throat, and the fury of her dragon was evident. “You conceited piece of—” She whipped her head around. “There’s no way I’m going to be with you.”
Rage burned inside him, and he was barely able to leash his dragon. In an instant, Matthias appeared beside Sybil, his mouth curling into a feral smile. “If she doesn’t accept him, then she is fair game.”
“I’m—what?” Silvery eyes grew large as boulders. “Wait a minute. No one said—”
“It is true.” Caesar added. “Until the female acknowledges Prince Aleksei as her one fated mate, then she is open to entertaining other suitors.”
The other Dragon Alphas looked at each other, then turned their sights on Sybil.
“What?” Sybil’s tone was incredulous. “I’m not—but I didn’t—” She let out a half strangled scream. “This isn’t what I wanted.”
The Blackstone She-Dragon: Blackstone Mountain Book 8 Page 2
