Celtic Dragons

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “I know.”

  “Your father wouldn’t have been open to it,” Kean pointed out. “He was a good man and a great leader, but he wouldn’t have gone down this path.”

  Ronan smiled slightly, shaking his head. “No, he wouldn’t have. But there’s a reason for new leadership that goes beyond the necessity that death creates. Innovation. Inspiration. We have to keep growing and adapting. It saved our ancestors from dying because of a curse that was supposed to turn them into monsters, and instead they became us. Now it’s our turn to adapt and make something even greater.”

  Impulsively, Kean grabbed Ronan into a brotherly hug, clapping his back. “You had my loyalty and respect before, but now you have it tenfold,” Kean said, stepping back from Ronan with a grin. “I have to go find Dhara.”

  “Get out of my office, you sap,” Ronan said, chuckling and waving Kean away. “Go, go, go.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Dhara

  It was getting easier to work during the day. Her new job had given her a leave of absence, and she had the next few weeks to gradually recover from her ordeal, but the worst thing Dhara could do was lie in bed all day, staring at the ceiling, reliving her new memories, and dwelling on the despair and darkness that had almost overcome her.

  Instead, she busied herself with various tasks that she could do at home—like getting a realtor to sell the house that she had loved but that would always now represent the beginning of her ordeal. When she wasn’t working on that, she was going through her research and trying to trust herself to still be the scientist she had always been.

  She had a new perspective on her work now that she knew there was such a pervasive paranormal world out there, and she wondered if it would take her research in new directions. If she thought about it the right way, it could be an exciting proposal.

  As she sat at the desk that Kean had set up for her in his apartment, where she had been staying since they had gotten back from Santa Fe, she heard the key turn in the door and turned around. She hadn’t been expecting Kean home for some time, but it was a pleasant surprise. She missed him whenever he was away, and the one thing that had remained constant from her previous conception of her life to her new one was how much she adored the man who had been there with her through it all.

  Kean opened the door, and the smile on his face was so infectious that she immediately smiled back, standing to greet him.

  She was thrilled to see him, but he seemed even more excited than she was, and he ran over, sweeping her into his arms and spinning her around as he kissed her passionately.

  “Kean!” Dhara gasped, laughing as he spun her again. “You’ve only been gone a few hours! What’s all this?”

  “I love you,” he said, setting her down and cupping her face in his hands. “I love you, and I have to tell you something.”

  “I love you too,” she said, wrapping her fingers around his wrist, unable to keep from smiling under the influence of his unbridled enthusiasm. “What’s going on?”

  He led her over to the couch, pulling her down into his lap. “I haven’t wanted to spring too much on you for the past few days, because I know that you’re still recovering. And there was always going to be time to talk about us.”

  “Us?”

  “Yes.” Kean stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I decided in Santa Fe that I didn’t care about any obligation I had. I couldn’t ever be with anyone but you, Dhara. I just don’t have it in me. Even as some kind of…arrangement. I can’t do it. I won’t.”

  Dhara felt her heart flip over in her chest and tears came to her eyes. “Oh, Kean.”

  “Did you doubt it?” he murmured, looking into her face. “How could I ever look anywhere else, after knowing what I have with you?”

  “But…the clan,” she said, the words still not sounding totally natural to her. “Your whole life is about that. What will they say?”

  Kean squeezed her hand. “That’s what I went to talk to Ronan about today. He wanted to see how you were doing, so I went to his office, and before I could even lay down the law with him about being with you—he said it himself. He said that it’s time for us to adapt. That we need to grow beyond ourselves. That he wants you and me—you and me, Dhara—to be the clan’s first try mating with humans. I don’t know if it will work, but I want to try over and over again.”

  Her jaw dropped, and she had a hundred different questions that all competed for attention in her brain but wouldn’t actually come out of her mouth. “Me?” was all she managed. “He wants me to be your mate?”

  “That’s right,” Kean said. “But more importantly…I want you to be my mate.” He kissed her with such sweetness that it warmed her from the inside out. “And whether or not we can ever have kids or whether this is the thing that changes the clan from the inside out—I don’t know. And I don’t care. If we can contribute, great. But mainly…I just want you with me for always.”

  Tears slid down her cheeks, her emotions still vulnerable after the past few weeks. “Are you proposing to me?”

  “No,” he said, then quickly explained when she looked hurt. “Not yet. Not right now. I want to do it right. Something special—with a ring. But I don’t want you to go another minute thinking that there’s any chance that we might not be together.” He looked deep into her eyes, brushing a tear from her cheek. “If that’s what you want, Dhara…”

  Throwing her arms around him, Dhara laughed in amazement. “It’s all I want. I love you so much. I just…I need you to be sure. You could be giving up a lot for me, and I’m not…”

  “If you’re about to say you’re not worth it, just stop right there,” Kean said, pulling back to look at her. “Your past changes nothing at all. You are still the woman I fell in love with.” He smiled at her, everything about him beaming happiness. “And you’re going to be my wife someday. My one and only mate.”

  “Your one and only mate,” Dhara whispered back, biting her lip to try to keep the grin on her face from splitting her cheeks wide open. “I’ll be part of the Celtic Dragon Clan.”

  Kean laughed. “Our first human member, and it’s all you, sweetheart. It’s all you.”

  Epilogue

  Kean

  “Come on!” Kean called, pulling Dhara with him as he ran through the clearing deep in the forestation outside of Boston. “Keep up,” he teased her. “Why so slow?”

  “I’m not superhuman!” she said, laughing as she tried to go faster, then stumbled, forcing him to catch her.

  Ahead of them, Moira, Ronan, Siobhan, Eamon were already well into the clearing, and all of them were stripping down. It was so common for Kean that he hardly even noticed as they did it, but he laughed when he saw Dhara blush. “Oh, don’t be shy,” he said, pulling her to him and kissing her. “Feel free to get naked too…”

  “Ha.Yeah, right,” she said, pushing at his chest, her eyes dancing with amusement. “That’s for when we’re alone.”

  “Thank God for that,” Siobhan called over as she folded her shirt neatly on top of her pants, standing in just her underclothes. “I don’t want to watch you two getting it on.”

  Kean made a face at her and kissed Dhara again. It was the first time that Dhara was out with all of them when they were going to go flying. It had taken several weeks for the others to get used to the idea of letting Dhara in on their private world, but each had made the effort, and Kean was grateful for that. He knew it had been hardest on Eamon, who was a naturally private person, beyond the level of any of the rest of them. But he was trying to warm up to Dhara, and Kean made sure his friend knew how much that meant to him.

  “Come on, beautiful,” Kean said, stepping back and stripping off his own clothes. His friends were already in the air, the darkness covering them as golden dragon circled red dragon into the sky. Ronan was as jet-black as the night and needed no additional cover. Only Eamon’s brightwhite scales stood out against the dark sky. But there was nobody around for miles, and there was an extra thrill in
taking the risk.

  Kean jumped into the air, transforming before he hit the ground, his powerful wings spreading out to their full glory. Though his eyes were now slanted and yellow, when he looked down at Dhara, he knew they held the same warmth and love that they always did when he looked at her. She was his soul mate, and as she reached her arms up to him, letting him carry her into the air with one sweeping movement of his wing, he knew that she trusted him completely. That her love was as complete as his was. And that they would have a lifetime together.

  He settled her on his back and took off at top speed, catching up to the others. It wasn’t a night for work or fighting or defending any innocents from forces of evil. It was just a night for them to have fun, let loose, and enjoy the fact that they could fly through the air, rest on clouds, and see the whole world stretched out below them. It was a night for them to unofficially bring Dhara into the group, making her the first to ever witness the Celtic Dragon Clan frolicking.

  It was a night to be happy, and Kean was. He was happier than he could ever remember being.

  BOOK TWO

  Prologue

  He hated Grady Princeton. He hated the man’s handsome face, his big, successful company, his cute little pictures in the newspaper as he posed with girlfriends and his sister and his parents, all of whom were just beaming with pride as they gazed at him. He hated that Grady was so completely inferior to him, yet seemed to have everything that Darren would never have.

  People were afraid of Darren. Even his own parents were afraid of him. They’d kicked him out, rejecting him completely. They had brought him into this world, and then they’d just turned him out of their house, sending his two brothers along with him for Darren to look after.

  Grady’s parents would never do that to him, because Grady was normal and successful and oh-so-wonderful.

  Darren sneered as he clicked away from the website that was featuring yet another story on Grady Princeton. Ever since Darren moved to Boston, Grady had been on his radar. He was looking for a victim, and Grady’s face was everywhere, just begging for Darren to target him.

  And he was going to do exactly that. Grady might live a life of fortune and family, but Darren lived a life with no rules. That was the tradeoff he’d been given, without being consulted. No family, but also no rules. He was unstoppable, his power so immense that even he couldn’t fathom all that he could do with it. He’d banded together a little group of followers just like him—although, of course, they could never be as powerful as he was—and he was going to use them to finally obtain the life that he deserved.

  He deserved those millions so much more than Grady ever had or would. Darren didn’t have to know Grady personally to be absolutely certain of that, primarily because Darren didn’t think anyone deserved anything more than he did. Grady might think that he could secure his riches away in underground vaults, but he wasn’t taking into account Darren Baxter. Nothing could stop him—not security guards, cameras, or underground hideaways. Nothing.

  Darren was going to make a game out of robbing Grady blind. After all, it was about the journey more than the destination. He wanted to draw it out and bewilder the spoiled, mollycoddled man. He wanted to mess with Grady’s mind, taking small amounts at a time from his precious underground vault and whispering them away, leaving not a trace of evidence behind.

  The game would be almost as much fun as the money.

  And then, when he was all the way done, he would kill Grady. The world had too many rich white men in it anyway, so surely nobody would miss him. And Darren did enjoy a good kill. Depending on how his little band of followers handled the mission he was going to be giving them, he might have to kill them too. There was only one person safe from Darren’s erratic, impulsive, murderous wrath, and that was his brother, Callum, who had always been his brother in spirit as much as in blood.

  Darren turned back to the computer screen, scrolling through the article on Grady again. He couldn’t help the smile that broke out over his face as he considered all the ways that he was going to mess with Grady’s mind. It had been a long time since he’d had a fun project, and he intended to relish it. After all, he’d hardly have time for projects once he became a millionaire. He would be too busy spending his money.

  “Darren?”

  Turning, Darren barely registered his youngest brother, Cade, and the pathetic look on his face. “What?” Darren snapped. “I’m busy.”

  Cade was his brother in blood, but he was different than Darren and Callum. He had a conscience. He wanted to use his powers for good. It disgusted Darren, and all that had kept him from ending his youngest brother’s pitiful life years ago was some archaic connection to the concept of family. It was his least favorite thing about himself.

  “You keep looking at articles about that man. I know what that means. Leave him alone, Darren. We don’t need anything more than this house and a quiet life.”

  Darren barked out a laugh, rolling his eyes at his brother’s utter simplicity. “Get out. I don’t have time for you.”

  But Cade didn’t leave; he just shook his head sadly. “Why, Darren? Why do you have to do these things to other people? Just tell me why?”

  That was a simple question—so simple that Darren found it puzzling that Cade needed to ask it. He didn’t even bother to look at his brother as he spoke, focusing instead on the face of his next victim. “Because I can. That’s why.”

  Chapter One

  Moira

  Sometimes parents just didn’t know when to back off.

  Moira Brennan was twenty-eight years and one hundred ten pounds of grown-ass woman, and she had been confident since the day she had come flying into this world, protesting her discomfort at the top of her lungs. She didn’t take anything from anyone, and she never had.

  But her father, Liam Brennan, challenged that policy, as evidenced by the fact that she was sitting in her kitchen listening to him lecture her about something she hadn’t even done. Her one act of rebellion against him was her posture—slumped in her chair, feet on the table, head leaned back, eyes closed.

  She really didn’t know how to make it more clear that she wasn’t interested in continuing this discussion, but her father had never been one to take a hint.

  “Furthermore, Moira,” he was saying. “It’s part of who we are to make sacrifices in this life. Do you think that your mother and I wanted to end up tied to each other the way that we are? You know there’s never been any romantic love between us, and you know that we’ve both had feelings for other people throughout the years—people whom we would like to be with that way. But we’re of the Dragon Clan, and we have responsibilities to live up to the standards that our ancestors held for us. How else are we going to preserve our way of life? Just because we now live in this newfangled generation where everyone thinks they get to make whatever choices are best for them, regardless of societal—”

  “Dad!” Moira had reached the end of her rope, standing up as she interrupted her father. “I love you. I always will. But please stop talking now. Your problem isn’t with me. It’s with Kean, who’s the one living with a human, and with Ronan, for allowing it. I don’t want to listen to their lecture, Dad.” She shrugged a shoulder, but it wasn’t with any sort apology. “I just don’t, okay?”

  “I’m not lecturing you, Moira.”

  “You are.”

  “No, I’m expressing concern about what your generation is doing to the Boston line of the Dragon Clan,” he said, as though that was different in more ways than just semantically. “I had high hopes for Ronan as he was growing up. His father was one of the greatest leaders of our line. But this is very disappointing.”

  Sighing, Moira pushed her vibrant red waves back from her face, the ends of the strands brushing against her shoulders. She had the kind of hair that couldn’t go unnoticed, inherited directly from her mother. They were both the most stereotypically Irish women in their line of the Dragon Clan, with their flame-red hair, pale, freckled skin,
and dazzling, green eyes. Distinct though her look was, Moira loved it, even though it got her a lot more attention from men than she would have preferred. It was a direct connection to her lineage, which she was every bit as attached to as her father, regardless of what his lecture was implying.

  “Dad, I have to go to work,” she said, knowing that they weren’t going to make any headway on the discussion they’d been having off and on ever since Kean, despite being a shapeshifter, had fallen in love with a human woman, revealed their secret to her, and begun living with her as his mate. Kean was one of her best friends, and her loyalty to him was strong, even if she wasn’t entirely free of concern regarding the direction that Kean and Ronan were taking the clan.

  They had always mated only with each other. It was tradition. She had a mate out there amongst the other lines of the Dragon Clan, waiting to be paired with her, and it would be her duty to make a life and a child with him, in order to bring about the next generation.

  But she wasn’t so impractical that she didn’t realize the problems that would naturally occur if the Dragon Clan continued in that way. They would run out of mates eventually, and sooner rather than later.

  “Are you going to talk to Ronan?” her dad insisted. “You’re of his generation. It’s just the five of you—Ronan, you, Kean, Eamon, and Siobhan. The burden is on your shoulders, Moira, to make sure that you help Ronan lead the clan in the right direction.”

  Grabbing her purse, Moira placed a kiss on her father’s weathered cheek. He meant well, even if he was frustrating in his presentation. “I’ve talked to Ronan plenty, Dad. And I trust his judgement. I’ll see you later, okay? Let yourself out the back whenever you’re ready.”

  Without waiting for his reply, Moira hurried out the backdoor of her little house on the outskirts of Boston’s metropolis. She didn’t like living in the city the way some of her friends did. She much preferred to be out in an area that was a little more open—not that anywhere in New England was all that open—and had more privacy. It meant a longer commute to work, but she didn’t mind that either. She only wished that she could run to work rather than having to drive. Moira loved the feel of wind rushing through her red waves and pulling at her clothes. She was faster than the wind, but she ran along with it, enjoying its company in the morning.