By the time he made it in there, though, he could hear the sounds of Owen’s shower going in his room. He settled in to make breakfast, but then decided to keep it simple this morning with some food on the go. They had a big day ahead of them.
CHAPTER 7
“We need to get going,” Connor told Owen as his older brother entered the kitchen from his bedroom, tossing him a bagel with cream cheese to eat on the go.
“Listen, I’ve been thinking about this all night, Connor. The old man is right. We can’t take this to the Council,” Owen told him.
“What? You’d protect that old man’s family rather than defending the honor of our own? You know what Aiden did. He claimed that our father was mixed up in some sort of shady business and was killed by some miscreant when he got in over his head. He made out like Dad was a criminal and left us to defend his honor the best we could when he killed him all along.”
“I’m not saying he should get away with it, Connor. I’m saying that he robbed our father of his place as leader, and thus robbed us of our place as his successors.”
“He robbed you of that,” Connor said. “I’m not next in line. You are.”
“Perhaps so, but you know that you would have been right by my side. We’ve always had each other’s backs and always will.”
“So, then, what are you saying? You want to take down Aiden and take his place?”
“Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying. He should suffer the same fate as our father.”
“Look, Owen. You’re my big brother and I love you, but Aiden is stronger than anyone in this clan. I don’t think you can beat him.”
“You’re right,” Owen replied. “I can’t beat him right now, but I can get stronger. I can train, and you can help me.”
“I don’t know, Owen. You’re risking your life. Let’s let the Council take care of it.”
“What are they going to do, Connor? It’s just accusations. We have no proof. Plus, you heard Donnelly. He was right about one thing: they won’t do anything to him. They are just as afraid of him and what he would do to them or their families as everyone else.”
“We can get the old man back here to testify.”
“No. We can’t. Even if he has taken his entire family and fled, as he should have, he will either clam up, or Aiden will make sure he doesn’t get that far.”
Connor sighed loudly and looked into his brother’s eyes. He knew that look – that cold, gray steel that clouded Owen’s eyes when he was determined. There was nothing and no one that could dissuade him from whatever he had set his mind to do when he was like this. Though he loved his brother very much, Connor was aware of how cold Owen could be. He knew that his brother felt a certain numbness to life that might never pass.
Owen had not been the same since, Margaret, had died. He had stayed by her side, night after night, holding her hand as she drew ragged breaths that never seemed to quite fill her fragile lungs. One day, they had been planning a high school graduation party, and the next, she had been trapped in a fire that left her badly scarred, and her lungs hopelessly damaged. Her subsequent death had changed him somehow. Connor feared that Owen would be alone forever, unable to let go of the ghost of his lost love.
“Okay, Owen. If that is what you want, then that is what we will do. We will keep our mouths shut about this and work on getting you ready for taking on Aiden yourself, but you should know that I don’t want you to do this. I won’t think any less of you if you back down from this fight after you’ve thought it through a little more.”
“No. I won’t be backing down,” Owen replied angrily. “We are dragon shifters and we have grown afraid of our own leader. Not just us, but everyone in this clan. Look around us, Connor. Can’t you see the difference in the people here since Aiden has taken over as leader? We should be fierce, powerful. We shouldn’t be afraid of one measly dragon shifter.”
“You’re right, Owen. I just have other things going on, I guess. I never imagined we’d be planning a take-down of the leader,” Connor replied woefully.
“I’m sorry, Connor. You don’t have to involve yourself in this. You deserve to be happy, and I wouldn’t dream of taking that away from you,” Owen said, seeming empathetic for a moment.
“No, no,” Connor said. “That’s not what I’m saying. You know we are in this together. I just hadn’t planned on things taking such a huge turn.”
“No one ever plans for something like this to happen, do they?”
“I guess not, brother. I guess not.”
“Then it’s settled. I know Emily is coming back today, so I’ll let you two catch up. I’m going to go check out some things and work on a plan for all of this.”
“Sure. I’m going to spend the night at Emily’s, so you’ll have the house to yourself tonight. Go wild,” Connor teased.
“Right. Like I always do,” Owen said sarcastically.
“No. ‘Like you always do’ would mean you are in bed and asleep by nine o’clock. Plan what you need to, but get out and have some fun, too. Have a few drinks. Dance. Meet a girl, perhaps,” Connor encouraged him.
“I met a girl once. I don’t think I ever will again,” Owen said in a tone that was heartbreaking, no matter how many times Connor had heard it before.
“You never know, brother. You just never know,” Connor replied, clamping his hand down on Owen’s shoulder for a moment before heading out the front door to buy Emily some flowers for when she arrived.
His thoughts bounced from Owen to Emily, and back again, drawing correlations that he wished didn’t occur to him. It might be the first time in his life that he completely understood what a great sense of loss Owen must feel over Margaret. To not only lose her, but to also feel he was somehow responsible for it must be maddening for him. Connor could feel pain over just the thought of losing Emily, so it wasn’t so hard now to understand the devastation that Owen continued to feel.
Now, he was facing what seemed to be a very real possibility of losing one or both of them. If Owen did this and was not successful, then his brother would die, and Aiden would come after him and Emily. He knew that he would most likely come after their mother, as well. Somehow, he had to make sure that Owen was ready for this fight. At the same time, he had to consider he might fail, and contemplate how to protect those Owen might leave behind.
The day seemed to crawl by as he counted the hours until Emily would return home to save him from his own dark thoughts. With Owen deciding not to go straight to the Council, at least he would have a little time to sort things out in his head, and she could help him with that. He smiled again at the way she seemed to understand what he needed and support him so readily. Finally, it was time for her train to arrive, and he went to pick her up at the station and bring her home, his heart and head full of nothing but good thoughts at spending the evening with her in his arms.
CHAPTER 8
“He’s going to do what?” Emily whispered as she and Connor sat curled up on the sofa together later in the afternoon.
“I know. He’s hell-bent on it. I just hope he can become strong enough to pull it off.”
“Owen is fierce, but I don’t know about him taking on Aiden.”
“Doesn’t matter what we think, my love. He’s as stubborn as they get. He has made up his mind.”
“I just hope he’s ready for it when the time comes. Aiden is a brutal opponent. I’ve seen him in action.”
“As we all have. The day the Cravon clan tried to take our land, he took down half of them alone. In fact, that was the last time anyone tried to move in on our territory,” Connor recounted. “Wait. I thought you just met Aiden when you came here. When did you see him in action?”
“A few weeks before I came here, he was in Dublin. There was a spat between him and some of my friends in the pub. A few days later, a group of us came down to the Mournes to hike, and we just happened upon him. He was angry that we had disturbed the land and attacked one of my friends. They were on each other, tearing
at one another. The rest of us morphed to help, but he suddenly morphed back to human and told us to stop.”
“What? Why? Was he being defeated?” Connor asked, confused as to why Aiden would have backed down from a fight.
“No,” Emily said. “He had my friend pinned down. He would have killed him had he not stopped. I don’t think we could have saved him even if we had all jumped on Aiden.”
“What did he say when he morphed back?”
“He said that he made a mistake. Claimed that while he had my friend pinned down, he recognized a symbol he bore on his neck as that of distant kin. He apologized and left. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even recognize him when I met him here. I only saw his human form for a few minutes that first time, but he morphed here the other day as part of a demonstration for some schoolchildren, and I instantly knew his dragon form. It’s pretty hard to miss.”
“Yeah,” Connor said. “Not many lime-green and gold dragons who look like they are pumped up on steroids floating around.”
“Definitely not. I still don’t know what the symbol was and our friend wouldn’t tell us. Do you know?” she asked curiously.
“Could be a number of things. They usually have to do with certain family traits. Who knows?” Connor replied. The truth was that he had a vague idea. His father had possessed the same mark, but neither he nor Owen did. It was something that didn’t carry from generation to generation, but skipped around indiscriminately in certain family lines. It wasn’t something he wanted to get too in depth with at the moment.
“Strange. Anyway, what is going to happen if Owen gets in trouble? If he is defeated?”
“You know what will happen, Emily. I won’t stand by and watch my brother be killed.”
“You would have to. Neither of you can take leadership if you gang up on Aiden,” she replied fearfully.
“We won’t be challenging him for leadership,” Connor said. “Owen will be avenging our father’s death and, if need be, I will be jumping in to help him. The fact that we have a personal debt to settle with him trumps any rules about challenging for leadership.”
“But you said that Owen intends to take his place as the new leader.”
“It’s like this: Owen wins, he becomes the new leader as a result, but that is not why he is doing it. So, there are no clan laws that say I cannot defend my brother and assist him in ending the dragon that killed our father. If he were challenging Aiden for the sole purpose of becoming leader, then I would not be able to help him. That’s simply not what is at stake here.”
“This whole thing frightens me. What if I said I don’t want you to do this?” Emily asked, an unspoken plea in her voice.
“I would tell you that I have no choice, if it comes to that. He’s my brother, Emily. I love you beyond measure, but he’s my brother, and what he is doing is right. I support him fully in this decision and will do what I have to if, and when, the time comes.”
“I know. It’s just that I love you so much. I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to you,” she told him softly, reaching out to run her hand along his arm as she cuddled closer to him.
“We’re dragon shifters, Emily,” Connor said. “We weren’t born to lead the life of canaries in a cage. We’ve been lucky enough to have had so many quiet years, but it has come at the price of tyranny, at the hands of a murderer that no one has dared to cross,” he said seriously.
“You’re right. Of course you are.” She smiled, reaching up to touch his face softly, though her eyes spelled out just how worried she was about all of this. Perhaps he shouldn’t have told her, but he didn’t know how to keep secrets from her.
“It will be okay – Owen, me, us. It will be fine, even better than that, perhaps,” he told her, though he wasn’t sure he even believed that himself at the moment.
“I hope you are right,” she told him quietly.
“It will be. Anyway, enough about all that for now. Do you have any idea how much I missed you?” he replied, changing the far too heavy subject.
“I was only gone for two days, Connor,” she teased, twirling a lock of her long red hair between her fingers.
“Only two days? Are you sure? It felt like an eternity to me. Did you not miss me at all?” he asked, feigning a pout.
“Nope. Not at all,” she said, trying to sound indifferent despite the telling smile on her face.
“Not even the tiniest little bit?” he replied, jutting his lip out a bit further.
“Okay. Maybe I missed you just once, for a few seconds.” She laughed and wrinkled her nose at him.
“You hurt me, my love. You have cut me so deeply with your words of indifference,” he said, continuing his mock pout.
“Will freshly-baked cookies heal your wounds?” she asked, looking into his eyes.
“Are you going to bake me cookies, or are you just trying to twist the knife you’ve stabbed into my heart?” he asked playfully.
“I never joke about cookies,” she said in her most serious tone.
“Can I have milk, too?” he replied, feeling a bit like a small child at his excitement over cookies.
“Don’t push your luck!” she said with a giggle as he pulled her close, kissing her lightly on the lips.
“I have a better idea,” he told her, scooping her up into his arms and carrying her toward her bedroom. “Who needs cookies when I have the sweetest treat already in my arms?”
“My aunt wouldn’t approve of this,” she teased.
“Good thing she decided to stay behind in the city for a few more days, then, isn’t it?” he replied.
“I can’t complain,” she said, giggling as he carried her through the hallway.
“I would hope not! So, don’t,” he said, laying her on the bed.
Climbing in beside her, he leaned over her, stroking his fingers delicately along her bare arm and up toward her neck. He paused, breathing softly against her neck as he kissed his way down it and pushed the strap of her tank aside to continue along her shoulder. They quickly became consumed with their need for one another, lost in the taste and smell of each other.
His body pressed against hers, pinning her down against the bed. His hardness pushed into her hip as he raised her hands over her head, covering them with his own. Tilting his head sideways, he pushed her hair aside with his face, kissing her softly at the nape of her neck while lingering there, enjoying the sweet smell of the plumeria shampoo that she always used. She was intoxicating, just as she had been from the first day he saw her.
He pressed against her harder, enjoying the way her body felt against his. He could hear her heart. It was beating wildly against his chest as he leaned down closer to her, letting his lips drag their way slowly across different parts of her neck. The subtle scent of her increasing wetness became apparent as the air suddenly filled with undeniable lust.
“I haven’t been able to think about anything but you since you left,” he said in her ear, his vocal cords vibrating seductively across her eardrum in a way that he knew left her weak.
“Who are you again?” she teased.
“Just some guy who’s in love with you,” he replied.
“I love you, too, Connor,” she said softly.
His mouth found hers again, and he enjoyed the delicious tango their tongues did as they danced in one another’s mouth. His mouth was hot and hungry, probing her for an answer to his passion. She returned his kiss, seemingly just as lost in her own desires. Every nerve ending in his body danced with pure delight as he pushed harder against her and began undressing her feverishly.
“Yes, my God…I want you in the worst way,” she whispered against his chest as he slipped her shorts from her body, dragging her underwear down her legs with them in one fluid motion.
Within a matter of sexually-charged moments, they were both naked and exploring one another with their hands and lips, eager to learn every nuance of each other’s body. His lips found their way to her firm breasts, and he kissed each of them g
ently before his natural aggression kicked in. He began softly sucking and nibbling at them as he traveled toward each delicious nipple. She gasped as he pulled one of her hardened little points into his mouth, biting it and pulling it outward before encompassing it with his mouth and sucking at it roughly.
“Please…please, don’t stop,” she said, succumbing to his eager exploration of her soft curves.
His erection was pushing into her abdomen, throbbing for release. He could feel the moisture on her thighs as a flood of excitement gushed forward in response to his rough handling. His hand found its way down to her center and onto her clit, massaging the aching nub back and forth as he continued to tease her nipples, now rock hard with need. He brought his mouth back up to hers and kissed her passionately, continuing his skillful manipulation of her pink folds. He couldn’t wait to be inside of her, to once again claim the woman that he dreamed of each and every night, the woman he wanted to be his wife soon.
He pulled away from her slightly, looking down into her eyes, watching the waves of pleasure cross her face. He began to increase his strokes against her clit, bringing her quickly to an orgasm that rocked her entire body. Her moans were loud enough to be heard throughout the entire house, and probably beyond. His mouth moved toward her ear, nibbling at it lightly as she thrust her hips upward into him, sending more electricity racing down his spine.
“I want to be inside of you,” he whispered quietly in her ear. It was enough to put his body right back into overdrive as she panted a simple response into the open air.
“Please,” was all she could manage, as he cupped her ass in his hands and pulled her up into him harder. He never took his eyes off hers as he nudged her legs apart with his own. Then he was inside of her, filling her with every inch of his powerful erection. Her walls hugged his throbbing cock as he began to rock slowly back and forth, creating the most intense friction between them. She leaned back on her elbows, enjoying the sight of him sinking deep inside her again and again.
Betrayed by a Dragon: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Exiled Dragons Book 1) Page 6
