by Julia Mills
Guarding Her Dragon
Dragon Guard Series #17
by
Julia Mills
There Are No Coincidences.
The Universe Does Not Make Mistakes.
Fate Will Not Be Denied.
Copyright © 2016 Julia Mills
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictional manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
NOTICE: This is an adult erotic paranormal romance with love scenes and mature situations. It is only intended for adult readers over the age of 18.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Edited by Lisa Miller, Angel Editing Services
Edited by Amy Pro
Proofread by Tammy Payne with Book Nook Nuts
Cover Designed by Linda Boulanger with Tell Tale Book Covers
Formatted by Charlene Bauer with Wickedly Bold Creations
DEDICATION
Dare to Dream! Find the Strength to Act! Never Look Back!
Thank you, God.
To my girls, Liz and Em, I Love You. Every day, every way, always.
Index of the Original Language of the Dragon Kin
Guarding Her Dragon
Mo chroi’……….My heart
Mo ghra’……….My love
Mo stór……….My treasure
Mo maité……….My mate
Mo Dragon……….My dragon
Is brae liom tú……….I love you
Mo Elf beag……….My little elf
Mo stóirin……….My little treasure
Also by Julia Mills
*****
The Dragon Guard Series
Her Dragon to Slay, Dragon Guard #1
Her Dragon’s Fire, Dragon Guard #2
Haunted by Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #3
For the Love of Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #4
Saved by Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #5
Only for Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #6
Fighting for Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #7
Her Dragon’s Heart, Dragon Guard #8
Her Dragon’s Soul, Dragon Guard #9
The Fate of Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #10
Her Dragon’s No Angel, Dragon Guard #11
Her Dragon, His Demon, Dragon Guard #12
Resurrecting Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #13
The Scars of Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #14
Her Mad Dragon, Dragon Guard #15
Tears for Her Dragon, Dragon Guard #16
Her Love, Her Dragon: The Saga Begins, A Dragon Guard Prequel
*****
The ‘Not-Quite’ Love Story Series
Vidalia: A ‘Not-Quite Vampire Love Story
Phoebe” A ‘Not-Quite’ Phoenix Love Story
Zoey: A ‘Not-Quite’ Zombie Love Story
Jax: A ‘Not-Quite’ Puma Love Story
Heidi: A ‘Not-Quite’ Hellhound Love Story (Magic & Mayhem Kindle World)
*****
Kings of the Blood
VIKTOR: Heart of Her King ~ Kings of the Blood ~ Book 1
ROMAN: Fury of Her King ~ Kings of the Blood ~ Book2
ACHILLES: Soul of Her King ~ Kings of the Blood ~ Book 3
The Dragon Guard
We soar the skies
Free to a certain extent,
As long as we stay hidden
From prying human eyes.
Our scales differ in color
Our defensive weapons,
Tails, horns, talons and all,
Are never the same.
We are one with nature
We blend in with nature
The wind helps us soar high in the heavens
While the earth grant us healing strength in our hour of need.
We are one with the world
We are the guardians of our kin
When evil conspire to maim and hurt
We are protectors of this human race.
As majestic animals of fairytales
We share our beings with great men
They walk in honor and the grace of Fate,
Fate that we cannot deny.
Copyright © 2016 Melanie Williams
- This Poem is based on the Series, The Dragon Guard by Author Julia Mills.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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
EPILOGUE
HER DRAGON TO SLAY
CAUGHT: A VAMPIRE COURTESAN ROMANCE
ACHILLES: SOUL OF HER KING
HEIDI: A NOT-QUITE HELLHOUND LOVE STORY
ABOUT JULIA
Prologue
“One day I’m gonna figure out why the heck we chose to live in the Godforsaken Arctic Circle.”
“And when you do, let me know, because I’m still trying to figure it out almost a century later.”
Elsa laughed out loud at her sister Mona’s reply. Not because it was especially funny but because it was the sad and honest truth. Generation after generation of their kind had happily lived in one of the coldest places on earth. Mona, being the oldest, was just about to celebrate her two-hundredth birthday of freezing temperatures and dark days. It had originally happened out of necessity, to save their population from their dark cousins, the Gnomes. Later, as the enemies against those considered ‘special’ grew in numbers, the Elves simply stayed in the frozen land where few others dared to tread.
Although they only got three months, if they were lucky, of sunshine and one of those months, usually July, where the temperatures actually rose above freezing, it wasn’t so bad. It was, after all, all that Elsa had ever known and most days she was okay with that. But the older she got, the more she wanted to experience something different, something new... something not frozen.
“Hey, stop your day-dreaming,” Mona teased. “If we don’t get this tree home before dinner, Mom is gonna blow a gasket.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a shame we didn’t have a brother to help do all the hard labor.”
“A brother? Now, I know you have frostbite of the brain,” Mona laughed.
“Pfft,” Elsa groaned, stomping over an odd shaped snow drift just to waste a few more minutes before heading home. It wasn’t that she wasn’t excited for the holidays, it was just that it always seemed like Christmas when you lived in the frozen north. There was nothing really so awfully special about it except for the presents and the food and even that had grown tiresome.
Standing at the apex of the snow mound, the elf looked across the mountains to the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean. Due to the season of the year, it was basically dark all the time but since it was still before four in the afternoon, Elsa could actually see a colony of penguins, who had either been transplanted or had transplanted themselves from Antarctica or maybe flown in a very special sleigh, splashing into the icy water as they slid down the drifts and farther out on the water, also a herd of walruses diving for fish to feed their young who were happily floating on a huge chunk of ice.
She had to admit, compared to all the pictures she
’d ever seen in books and on the internet, her home was the most beautiful place in the world, but the one thing that stopped it from being perfect was the lack of anyone or anything not Elven. Kicking the ice that had formed under the newest layer of snow, Elsa’s toe hit a large sharp metal corner of something, that not only ripped the toe of her boot, but made her foot hurt so bad, she was hopping around and howling like a loon.
“What happened?” Mona screamed, racing towards her.
Plopping down on the snow bank, Elsa shook her head and cried, “I think I broke my toe.”
Kneeling beside her, Mona looked at Elsa’s boot, pushed her finger through the rip and sighed, “Only you. What the hell did you kick?”
“How should I know? I was just looking at the penguins and walruses and…”
“And goofing around because you don’t want to go home,” Mona harrumphed, slapping the top of Elsa’s boot before adding, “I’ll get the duct tape out of my pack. That’ll get you home without frostbite.”
Feeling like an idiot with her butt beginning to freeze through her snowsuit, Elsa saw something glittering through the snow where she’d just been kicking and true to form, her curiosity got the best of her. Digging through the snow and ice with her gloved hands, the elf felt a surge of unfamiliar magic dance along her arms and hang in the air around her. Not sure what to make of it and unsure of its origin, she continued to dig, ignoring the feelings of dread that grew within her with every swipe of her hand.
“What are you doing now?” Mona’s bellowed retort took Elsa by such surprise that she slid down what she had assumed was a snow drift uncovering the top and part of the side of a huge silver box covered with magical runes, the likes of which she’d never before seen.
Unable to answer her sister’s question because of her excitement, Elsa jumped back to her knees and swatted at the snow, eager to uncover the rest of the box and see what was inside. It wasn’t long before Mona joined in and within just a few minutes they’d completely unearthed what looked like a seven-foot-long sterling silver coffin with a lock the size of Elsa’s head holding it shut.
Looking at her sister, then back at the coffin, then back at her sister, Elsa opened her mouth to speak just as Mona whispered, “Do you feel that? Something isn’t right. The magic surrounding that thing feels wrong…dark…scary.”
Nodding her head, Elsa replied, “Yeah, but underneath it all, I feel something good, almost pure, trying to battle his way out.”
“His?” Mona asked, grabbing Elsa’s arm to keep her from moving any closer to the box.
“Huh?”
“You said ‘trying to battle his way out’. How do you know it’s a him?” Mona was no longer whispering and her tone said she was just about to play the ‘big sister’ card and order Elsa to come home with her. So, the little elf did the only thing she could think of to finish what she’d started. Jerking her arm from her sister’s grasp, she pulled off her gloves, rubbed her hands together and called on the High Magic she’d inherited from her mother.
Warm green light burst from her hands as she recited the words, “Mother Earth to whom we owe all things, lend me your power that I may open what is locked and save the being who is suffering,” over and over until her Elven Light literally hummed with power. Leaning forward, she touched her hands to the box, and added, “Pour your power into this metal. Free who has been imprisoned.”
Shades of blue, red and brown mixed with the green, creating a kaleidoscope of colors, flowed from all around Elsa into the lock. Smoke rose from the tarnished metal. It popped and cracked. The mystic runes began to slither across the silver, hissing and sizzling before blinking out of sight.
Mona screamed. “Stop it, Elsa! Stop it, now! You’re going to get hurt!” But the elf would not be moved, she was determined to open the box and save whoever she felt struggling to survive just under the lid.
Pushing more and more of her magic into the padlock until her arms ached and her throat was raw from reciting the spell so many times, Elsa was just about to give up, when the box began to shake. The top, bottom and sides bowed out and back in like the metal itself was taking large heaving breaths. Then the one remaining rune, the biggest of all, rose from its place in the center of the lid to Elsa’s eye level, spun around in circles before exploding in a shower of soot and ash.
Elsa’s Elven Light blinked out as the box gave its final shudder and the lock fell to pieces at her knees. A split second later the lid flew open with a loud boom. Taking a deep breath, the elf leaned over the high sides of the coffin and gasped. Jumping to her feet, she took three quick steps back and screamed, “Oh my Goddess! There’s a man in that box!”
Chapter One
“But he has a heartbeat. It’s faint but it’s there. We can’t just leave him out here to be eaten like road kill by whatever creature with fangs and claws is hungry enough to hunt.”
“No, Elsa. Just no. We are not taking the frozen man in the box home with us. I don’t care if he has a heartbeat. I don’t care if he gets up and dances the jig.” She yelled, putting her fists on her hips. “Get a grip! What if he’s a mass murderer…or on the run from the police or…”
“Or has been trapped in this freakin’ coffin forever?” Elsa had to interrupt, her sister was driving her nuts with all her hemming and hawing around. “Good Heavens, Mona, look at him. He can barely even be considered a man. First of all, he’s frozen harder than a popsicle, and from the looks of it has been for a really long time. Secondly, his hair is all long and scraggly and matted. He’s got a beard down to his chest and look,” she pointed at the left side of his chest where his cloak had fallen behind him before freezing in place. “His skin is all saggy and you can…you can…” She shuddered. “See his bones.”
“That doesn’t mean he couldn’t just jump out of there and eat us both.”
Putting her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes, Elsa asked, “So now he’s the boogie man?” Shaking her head, she added, “Make up your mind, either he’s a murderer or a monster.”
“Maybe he’s both,” Mona accused from where she stood about ten yards away, unwilling to come any closer.
Sighing and kneeling back down, Elsa put her hand in the box and touched the strange man’s hand. An electric current shot up her arm and made her heart skip a beat before landing squarely in her womb. Sensations unlike any the elf had ever felt made her tingle all over and heat rise in her cheeks.
Bowing her head to keep Mona from seeing, Elsa cleared her throat and quickly continued arguing with her sister, “Well, I’m not leaving him out here, all alone…to freeze to death.”
“I am,” Elsa mumbled to herself because she didn’t want to admit that she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. It didn’t matter that he looked like one of the walking dead, to her he was beautiful. She could see his aura and although the deep dark red that said he was really, really angry was a bit intimidating, it was the strong blue of his masculinity combined with the passionate light red, mixed with the royal purple hues, then highlighted by the orange of his confidence, with the strong foundation of rich, earthy brown all wrapped up in brilliant white that made him absolutely irresistible. His soul was calling to hers. She had to help him. There was no way she was leaving him and Mona could just pound snow if she thought otherwise.
Hesitant to stop touching him but needing to figure out a way to get him home, Elsa pulled back her hand and in doing so just the tip of her glove touched the edge of the silver box. A loud pop filled the air as a foul-smelling smoke rose all around her. Jumping up and back, the elf had barely kept her balance when Mona screeched, “Oh my goddess, look at your glove! Look at your glove!”
Whipping her hand around, Elsa gasped as she saw scorch marks covering the tip of the bright red material protecting her fingers from the cold. “What the…?”
“I told you! I told you!” Mona was dancing from one foot to the other and screaming to drive her point home.
“You told me what?” Elsa asked. �
��You never said the box was going to attack. You said he was going to jump up and get me.” She shook her head and stepped forward, “And as you can see he is still laying there like a block of ice.”
“But, I…”
“But you have done nothing but tell me what not to do and what won’t work.” Elsa huffed, so mad that she shook. “Why don’t you try being part of the solution for once. This man,” she pointed, careful not to make contact with the box again, “is special and you are being a pain in my butt!”
The instant the words were out of her mouth, Elsa wanted nothing more than to call them back and erase the last ten seconds, but that was not going to happen and Mona had already taken two steps forward with her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed.
“He’s what, Elsa?”
“Nothing,” the youngest elf quickly answered, turning on her heel and heading to her large pack to see what she could use to get the man in the box back to her house and in from the cold.
“I heard what you said. You said he was special.” Mona’s voice got louder as her boots crunched through the frozen snow, heading towards Elsa.
Unwilling to listen anymore, the little elf jumped up, spun around and with her finger wagging at her older sister, growled, “I said he is special. I don’t know how I know but I just do.” She took a breath and kept right on going.” I can feel it here,” she laid her hand over her heart. “He is a good man who has been trapped by…Oh my Goddess! That’s it!”
Not finishing her sentence, Elsa pulled the large thermal blanket from her pack, ran around her sister, headed straight for the box, and once there laid the blanket on the side closest to the ground. Then running back to the other side, plopped down, butt-first in the snow, lifted her feet and put the thick rubber soles of her boots on the side. Taking a deep breath, she summoned all her strength and with one big push shoved the box onto its side making her mystery man fall out of the coffin and onto the coverlet with a loud crack.
