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The Dragon Prince's Second Chance
Separated by Time: Book Four
A Paranormal Romance
by Jasmine Wylder
Table of Contents
Other Books in this Series
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
About Jasmine Wylder
Other Books in this Series
The Dragon King's Prisoner (Book 1)
The Dragon Warrior's Baby (Book 2)
The Dragon Beast's Virgin (Book 3)
The Dragon Guard's Princess (Book 5, coming soon)
The Dragon Hunters' Temptation (Book 6, coming soon)
The Dragon Fighter's Witch (Book 7, coming soon)
The Dragon Villain's Prey (Book 8, coming soon)
Prologue
Penny
With six-month-old twins at home, Penny was just looking for a quick distraction. She’d pumped right before coming out and wasn’t going to drink a single drop of alcohol. Her housemates, Katrina and the new girl, Hazel (who had some sort of diplomatic position, as the house that they lived in was the hotspot for newly-discovered dragons), were watching Lisa and Mark. It was the first time Penny had left them alone except to go to work.
She was only going to be gone for a couple hours.
At least, that was the plan. Until the dark-eyed, dark-haired stranger sat down beside her, gazed at her with those sharp eyes and cocked a brow at her. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
Penny straightened from where she’d been hunched over her club soda. He did look vaguely familiar actually. She frowned at him. “You know, I think we have met.”
“I thought you looked familiar.”
Penny studied him, stirring the bubbles from her club soda. He was familiar. Achingly familiar. Strong jaw, dark eyes, sharp cheekbones. There was something unsettling in his gaze, something that made her shiver. If only she wasn’t so terrible at recognizing people! It had taken her almost a week to be able to pick out Hazel from a crowd and that was with the other woman’s flaming red hair. She was hopeless with recognizing this guy; she could have worked with him at her job as a nurse for years and he’d still only be vaguely familiar.
“Sorry, I can’t remember where I saw you before.” She leaned forward slightly. “I work at the hospital, maybe you’ve seen me there?”
“Doubt it.” He took a shot of whiskey and sipped at it. “I don’t go to hospitals. I’d remember if you treated me, anyway.” He winked at her, then downed his drink. He didn’t even flinch. “Can I get you anything?”
Penny shook her head blankly. No, she wasn’t going to get caught up with this… “I have babies at home,” she blurted. “I can’t drink anything, I’m still breastfeeding.”
“Ah.” He chuckled under his breath and waved away the bartender when he offered more whiskey. “Well, that explains it.”
“Explains what?”
The stranger’s gaze dipped to her exposed cleavage. “Why you’ve got that glow about you. So, your husband is watching them?”
“There is no father.”
His gaze heated.
Something heated inside of her. A tingle ran down her spine, and Penny suddenly wanted his hands on her. She knew the dangers of unprotected, casual sex. She was a nurse; of course, she knew it. But she’d never been one to shy from the risk. Hell, her twins came from a one-night-stand with a guy whose face she barely remembered. All her life, she’d been told that she wasn’t pretty, wasn’t desirable, because she was thicker than your average girl.
Sleeping around started in high school. She’d gone to a walk-in clinic and pretended to be an adult in order to get her first birth control pills. Penny had soon gotten the reputation of being a ‘slut’, and eventually it was that reputation that got her expelled. This despite her high grades and clean record. All it took was one incident where she refused to put heavy sweatpants under her knee-length skirt that her teachers claimed was distracting the boys, and she was out.
Penny knew all her life that nobody wanted her, except for sex. And she was fine with that, because if she could feel desirable for an hour here and there, what was the problem with that?
“My car’s outside,” she told the stranger, pushing her shoulders back to make her breasts look even bigger. She’d been blessed in that department since middle school, and as an adult, they’d only gotten better. “Want to go for a ride?”
The stranger slapped some money on the counter. “Let’s go.”
“Isn’t that a little fast?”
“What can I say?” He winked. “I’m an opportunist.”
Penny slid off her stool and took his hand, grinning. A distraction was just what she needed. True, she wasn’t on her birth control right now, but she was breastfeeding. That should prevent another pregnancy.
If she had known that it wouldn’t and that in nine months she’d have another son, she would have gone anyway.
Chapter One
Warmund
After a full year in this world without magic, this Earth, Warmund could no longer feel any heat from his fires. He’d held onto his ability to shift into a dragon for as long as he could, but every day had made it harder to do so. He’d even found a forest to live in for a while, staying in his dragon form for a few days before he woke up one morning human and naked and unable to shift.
It hurt more than he thought it would. On the plus side, though, nobody was trying to kill him anymore. That was certainly a benefit to living in this world, rather than the one he was born into. There were no greedy uncles or vengeful cousins who thought killing him would somehow hurt the father who’d banished him.
Warmund grunted as he fastened his thick coat against the cold. His co-workers on the construction crew laughed at him for needing something so heavy while it was still fall weather. Warmund wasn’t used to this, though, not even after a year. The first winter he’d spent here, he’d been living in the forest or on the streets. He’d nearly frozen to death, even with the sparks of flame left in his belly. This winter, with no internal heat, promised to be hell.
Well, maybe not. If all went according to plan, he wouldn’t be here for the winter.
A grin crossed his face as he strode away from the construction site for probably the last time. He’d done his time here. Worked hard, given himself a comfortable life and integrated seamlessly into this culture. Now it was time to go back to Byrelmore and do what he intended to do years ago. His father, the king, would try to stop him if he knew what Warmund was up to, but there wasn’t any way that he could know. Time passed differently in Byrelmore; this one year on Earth translated
to a hundred years there.
Besides, Indulf was too busy with his new mate and son to care about what happened to the son he’d already banished once.
Warmund snorted, pushing those dark thoughts from his mind. What did he care about Indulf and what he thought? They’d been on opposing sides long enough that Warmund no longer cared anything for his father. It didn’t hurt to be banished. It didn’t sting to think that nobody had come looking for him since he’d escaped from the Exiled Lands to Earth.
He had what he needed.
There might not be magic in this world, but there was science, and the scientific theory wasn’t so different from magic once he started looking into it. It had taken a while for his brain to wrap around all the jargon, but he’d finally figured it out. Using various papers he’d found on time travel and the multiverse theory, he had figured out a way to change the direction a portal between this world and Byrelmore would take.
And once he did that, he’d go back in time. Back more than twenty centuries, to when he lost everything that was most important to him. The day assassins had attacked the palace, killed his stepmother and kidnapped his sister.
Wildref was not going to be separated from her true life, her destiny. She was the princess and heir to the throne, and instead, she’d grown up in this world, without even a spark inside of her. Now, though they had found her, Indulf refused to do anything about it; refused to tell her, as though learning about her history would ruin her life instead of enriching it.
She was too heavily protected for him to tell her now, as an adult, who she really was. That guard, Thonis, had always been around her whenever Warmund had tried to find a way to talk to her when he first arrived. But, no matter. This was going to work. He was going to go back and stop her from being kidnapped in the first place. If possible, he’d save his stepmother, too, but Wildref was his first priority. He’d make sure that she grew up in the world she was meant to be in, not this cold, magicless place where she was just some ordinary girl.
If his father knew Warmund’s plans, he’d try to stop him. Just as he did before when Warmund first tried to use these time-travel portals to find Wildref. It was Indulf’s own fault for being so blind that Warmund rebelled against him in the first place; he’d had no intention of killing his father, just forcing him to step down so that he, Warmund, could do what was necessary.
He hadn’t been going to kill him, no matter what people thought.
Warmund shook his head as he got into his car and drove away. That didn’t matter. None of it. The past was over. Once he was successful in his mission, it will never have happened. Time itself would be changed. Yes, it most likely meant that his new little brother was never going to be born, but he never met the boy, and when he was finished with this, he wouldn’t even know things had changed.
Nothing was more important than getting Wildref back.
As he headed to the house that served as home base for dragons in this world, coming through with diplomatic missions or visiting their Earth-born mates’ families, he glanced at the device he’d built based on the theories he’d read. There was no telling if it would work until he actually tested it, but Warmund had been raised with a strong education in magic. He knew enough that he was certain this would work.
He was never a mage himself. Never taught to use magic besides the basics of being a dragon. He had spent a lot of time with mages, though. In fact, most of his lovers were mages, and he was always eager to hear what they had to say about magic. Besides that, he was a dragon. Dragons had a good amount of inborn magic.
Nerves twisted in his stomach. This was going to change everything and could very well kill him. There were certainly enough theories about what might happen when a single person existed at the same time but in separate spaces. Warmund really didn’t care, though. He wasn’t afraid of dying. For so long this guilt had clung to him—it was his fault that Wildref had been taken in the first place. If he had to die to correct the mistake, then so be it.
But there was still an itch at the back of his mind. If he was going to die in this mission, perhaps it would be wise to have one last night of carefree fun. He could go to a bar and pick up a woman, or two, and spend the night having passionless sex. He could utterly exhaust himself and quiet the few doubts in his brain. It was customary for a warrior to have a warm bed before a battle, after all. This wasn’t a battle in the purest sense of the word, but that hardly mattered.
It would be difficult to find a woman that wanted to be used in the ways he had in mind, though. If he had to hold himself back, which he would have to do with any casual woman, then it was best to just forgo the sex entirely. It wasn’t as though his prospective partners would miss what they didn’t know they could have.
Then again, perhaps there was another way.
A slight smile was on his face again by the time he pulled up to a spot across the street from the house he was looking for. He could feel a slight crackle of magic in the area; so many portals being opened up must have drawn magic into this world. Good. He picked up his special device, checking it. The moonstone he’d stolen from the center was starting to glow slightly. So, it was picking up on the magic of the area. Good. That meant it was at least working.
He looked up again, studying the house. Now he just had to get inside long enough to use the portal when it opened.
A woman came out, dressed in old, dirty clothes. She strode with determination to the beds of wilting flowers lining the building. Warmund leaned back, watching her. He’d seen her around a few times but never really got a good look at her face. She was the woman who had been there when he first came to this world. He’d been badly wounded, and she’d patched him up before he made his escape.
She was a beauty. All curves. Legs that tapered from thigh to ankle, hips and ass that gave a man something to hold onto in various sexual positions. A narrowed waist and large breasts. She wasn’t perfectly proportioned, really, but Warmund had never liked perfection in his women. This was a girl he’d be willing to settle with vanilla sex for. He had a feeling that even the most vanilla would be exciting with her. In fact, he was certain he’d had dreams about her before.
His loins tightened briefly, and he cleared his throat, forcing those feelings away. Now wasn’t the time to be getting horny! Maybe later, if there was time…
He got out of the car and jogged across the street. Just five minutes around the house would let him track the surges of magic here, allowing him to figure out when the next portal would be opened. There weren’t any cars on the street or in the carport; this curvy gal must be on her own. Warmund grinned as he approached. If luck was with him, he might even be able to convince her to let him in the house.
“Hi there,” he called.
The woman sprang to her feet and looked around. When her gaze fell on him, her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. Her gaze swept down his body, and a faint pink blush colored her cheeks. If he could still access his dragon and fires, he was certain he would have been able to smell the arousal on her. He’d always been considered an attractive dragon, broad shoulders and a strong body, but it seemed like the women in this realm were even more affected by him than in Byrelmore. At least, they allowed themselves to show that attraction more readily.
“I was wondering if you could help me,” Warmund said, slowing to a stop.
Just then, the front door opened, and a black-haired woman with skin the color of fresh-tilled Earth came out. “Penny, the twins woke up, and I can’t get Alex to stop crying.”
Penny’s shoulders sagged a little. She glanced at Warmund briefly before shaking her head. “Excuse me,” she said, skirting past him.
Warmund didn’t acknowledge her. His gaze was on the woman; Katrina, as she was known. Wildref, as he knew her. His sister.
Chapter Two
Penny
The handsome man who’d called out to her still stood on the lawn. Penny paused in the door beside Katrina and turned back to him. While social convent
ions told her not to trust strange men that came up to her like that, Penny had a strong gut instinct. It was the only reason she could get away with having as many one-night-stands as she had. This guy gave off serious bad-boy vibes but not dangerous ones.
“Sorry about that,” she said, meeting his eyes. “I’ll be back out in a minute if you want to wait.”
He jumped and turned his gaze back to her, then nodded.
Katrina closed the door behind them. She followed Penny to the spare room next to Hazel’s and gestured helplessly at the now sleeping baby Alex. “Your kid hates me.”
Penny bent over the cradle and brought a blanket over Alex’s feet. “No, he’s just a little grumpy pants when he’s tired. The twins love you.”
Lisa and Mark stared through the bars of their crib, both sucking their thumbs. At eighteen months, they were just starting to learn how to toddle about. Neither was steady on their feet, but both were in that stage where they would start screaming if Penny tried to carry them rather than helping them walk. Luckily, they were pretty good otherwise.
Three kids under the age of two. Penny never thought she’d be one of the girls that her parents always warned her about.
“You going to be alright here by yourself? I have a few errands to run.” Katrina had become Penny’s official nanny after Kat had decided to quit her job five months ago.
Penny didn’t know what she’d do without her. She laughed. “I don’t need you every minute, Kat. But if you’re going out, can you pick me up some peanut M&Ms?”
“Sure thing. Oh… and don’t let that guy into the house, okay? I know you’re Miss “Gotta help everybody”, but I don’t want to come home to your murdered body, mm’kay?”
Penny rolled her eyes. “He’s not going to murder me. But if you’re really that concerned, fine. If he’s still around, I won’t let him in the house.”
Katrina pointed at her. “I’ll hold you to that.”
The twins started to pull themselves to their feet and fuss, so Penny picked them up, one on each hip, and headed for the door with Katrina. The man was still out there, looking awkward and unsure with his hands in his pockets. He turned his face away when Katrina passed by him, then glanced up at Penny.
The Dragon Prince's Second Chance: A Paranormal Romance (Separated by Time Book 4) Page 1
