He raised an eyebrow. “Human males are just as randy as dragon-shifters.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
Neither one of them mentioned how dragon-shifter females still couldn’t legally mate human males. Of course, knowing his Evie, she’d find a way to make it work if Eleanor fell for a human.
Touching his daughter’s head, Bram met Evie’s eyes and they shared a moment. There was something extremely intimate and precious about spending time alone with his mate and new daughter as Eleanor nursed.
His dragon growled. Don’t forget about Evie’s surprise.
Taking out his mobile phone with his free hand, Bram broke the silence. “Once Eleanor’s fed, are you ready for your surprise?”
“Do you really need to ask that question?”
He shrugged. “Hey, you’re the one who said she might be tired after half an hour. I’m just looking out for my mate.”
Evie shook her head. “Sometimes, I wonder how I put up with you.”
He leaned over and gently kissed her. “Because you love me.”
She sighed. “Yes, it’s true. But I have my limits. I want to know what you’ve been hiding from me.”
Bram sent a text message and then looked back to Evie. “Give it ten minutes, love. Feed our daughter and then I can take her whilst you enjoy the surprise.”
Evie studied him a second before saying, “You’re a tease, Bram Moore-Llewellyn.”
“Bloody right I am. But you love me anyway.”
As he and his mate smiled at one another, Bram only hoped Evie wouldn’t kill him later. In time, she’d appreciate his surprise. In the short term, however, she might smack him in the bollocks with a cricket bat the first chance she had.
~~~
When Eleanor was fed and burped, Evie handed over the baby to Bram. “Well? Where’s my surprise?”
“It’s waiting next door.”
Bram held Eleanor against his shoulder with one hand and opened the door. Exiting the room, Evie’s heart thumped inside her chest.
Once upon a time, she’d hated surprises. Mostly because every surprise up until she’d met Bram had been a disappointment. Finding out she wasn’t compatible to sacrifice herself to a dragon; losing most of her so-called friends after joining the DDA; or, most importantly, her parents’ decision to move to Spain years ago because of the threats they’d received because of Evie’s DDA job.
But she trusted Bram. He would never do anything to hurt her. Hell, he’d executed a rescue mission to save her from the dragon hunters earlier in the year. He would die rather than cause her pain.
Right, Evie. Get a grip. After taking a deep breath, Evie opened the door to the adjacent room and was greeted by the sight of someone she hadn’t seen in over five years. “Mum.”
A woman in her late fifties with red hair streaked with gray turned toward her and gave a weak smile. “Hello, Evie.”
Evie looked from her mum to Bram and back again. “What? How? I don’t understand.”
Bram nudged her with his shoulder. “Just give your mum five minutes. If after that, you want her to leave, Kai will escort her away. I’ll be waiting just outside the door.”
Before Evie could do more than blink, Bram had closed the door behind him and Evie was alone with her mother.
She clenched her fingers as she tried to figure out what to say to the woman who had ran away to Spain and never looked back.
Evie’s mum, Karen, reached out a hand and then retreated. “You have quite the persuasive husband, Evie. He really does love you.”
“He’s my mate. And yes, he does.”
“Evie...”
She put up a hand. “Don’t, Mum. Just tell me why you’re here now. I haven’t heard from you since you left the country five years ago.”
Her mum clenched a fist over her heart. “I wanted to come, I did. But your father was dead set against it. He’d lost his job, his friends, and nearly his life because of your career choice. The harassments and death threats never ceased and would’ve continued if we stayed in England.”
Evie shook her head. “That’s not an excuse. I asked several times if you could handle what would happen if I joined the DDA, and both of you assured me that you could.” Her throat closed up and Evie closed her eyes a second before she continued, “We were never really close as a family, and I’d accepted that. But father disowned me and said you two didn’t have a daughter anymore.” Evie opened her eyes. “And that hurt.”
“Believe me, love, I tried to change his mind. But you know how your father is. His word is final. Not even you and your arguments could ever persuade him to alter his decision.”
Memories of heated arguments filled her mind and Evie forced them away. “And now, Mother? What did he say about you coming?”
Karen took a step toward her. “He forbade me to come. He didn’t want me to risk my life.”
“Then how are you here?”
Her mother took another step toward her. “I’d had enough. I wanted to see my daughter and grandchildren. He wouldn’t allow it, so I left him.”
Some of Evie’s anger melted away. “Oh, Mum.”
Tears filled Karen’s eyes. “It took me a long time to realize and accept that he’d changed from the man I fell in love with. I finally did what was right and chose you, Evie Marie.” Her mum opened her arms. “Will you forgive me?”
She paused a second before replying, “That depends. Are you really going to stick by me and my new family? It won’t be easy. Our clan is at the forefront of trying to change the status quo for dragon-shifters and that brings danger.”
Her mother nodded and lowered her arms. “I’m here for good this time, Evie. As long as you accept me. Those were Bram’s terms.”
“What terms?”
“I can have permission to stay on Stonefire for as long as Bram allows it.” Karen patted her jacket pocket. “I have the paperwork right here. All it needs is Bram’s signature.”
Evie tried to digest everything that had happened. If her mother had permission papers, then Bram had been working on bringing her mother to Stonefire for a while.
As she stared at her mum’s pale, round face and bloodshot eyes, Evie could tell the decision to come to Stonefire hadn’t been easy. A small part of her wanted to envelop Karen Marshall in a hug and never let go.
But Evie didn’t want to put herself or her children through heartbreak. She needed to be certain of her mother’s intentions first. “If you stay, then you’ll rarely be allowed off the clan’s lands without a dragon-shifter escort or two. Any friends or family you have will need to go through the Home Secretary’s office to obtain visitation passes. And, most importantly, if you run back to Dad, Stonefire won’t offer you any protection. You’ll be on your own.”
It might sound a bit harsh, but Evie needed to protect her clan first and foremost. They had become her family.
Karen tilted her head. “If that means I can get to know my daughter better, then it’s worth it, Evie. I will go through any test you toss my way. I’m staying for good this time.”
Her mother’s tone was confident. Evie couldn’t remember her mother speaking with such conviction since Evie had been a child.
Karen opened her arms again. “Come here, my little angel. I’ve missed you.”
At her mother’s pet name for her as a little girl, tears pricked her eyes. Rushing into her mother’s arms, Evie hugged her tight and whispered, “Please don’t hurt me again, Mum. I don’t think I can take it.”
Karen leaned back and took Evie’s face in her hands. “Never again, Evie. Never again.” Her mother smiled. “Now how about you show me my grandchildren? And, hopefully, somewhere to stay. I’m not sure if dragon-shifters like to sleep outside, but it’s bloody cold out there. All I want is a warm fire, my daughter, and my grandchildren for Christmas.”
Evie smiled. “I may threaten Bram with sending him to sleep outside from time to time, but dragons hate the cold. Well, at least, my dragonman hat
es the cold.” Evie wiped her eyes. “Bram, I know you can hear me, so come in.”
Karen blinked as Bram opened the door with little Eleanor asleep in his arms. Her mate looked at Evie and her mother before asking, “So? Is my surprise a good one or a bad one?”
Evie gave her mum one last squeeze before turning toward Bram. “Since you heard every word, I’m not sure why you’re asking. Gloating isn’t good for you.”
Bram put on a fake look of innocence. “I can’t read your mind. Can’t you tell me?” He changed his voice into a mock female one. “Oh, Bram. It’s the best present ever. I’m going to have to find many ways to reward you.”
Evie walked over to him and smacked his side. “I don’t sound like that.”
Karen jumped in. “Pardon, but how could he hear us?”
Evie lightly patted Bram’s chest. “Dragon-shifters have supersensitive hearing. Unless a room is soundproofed or encased in thick steel, they can hear most conversations.” Evie looked back to her mother. “So, be careful what you say. Dragon-shifters gossip worse than humans, in my opinion.”
Bram chuckled. “Keep telling yourself that, love. Maybe someday it will actually be true.”
Evie gently took Eleanor from Bram and whispered to her daughter, “Promise me you won’t take after daddy. You know you want to be level-headed like me.”
Bram snorted, but Evie ignored him and walked over to Karen. Her mother touched Eleanor’s cheek and started crying. “She’s beautiful, Evie.”
Evie barely kept herself from crying. “Eleanor Rose, meet your grandmother.”
Karen asked, “Can I hold her?”
As if Eleanor could understand the importance of the moment, she let out a sound that only meant one thing—a dirty nappy. “If you take her, you change her.”
Karen nodded. “I can do that. Let me hold her.”
As Evie handed her daughter over to Karen, Bram appeared at her side. “My master plan is working. Now I won’t have to change so many nappies.”
Karen smiled. But Evie beat her mum to the reply. “Just for that, Mum and I will take half of them and you get the other half.”
Bram frowned. “That’s unfair.”
Evie grinned. “Then you’ll just have to find a way to convince me to change the percentages.”
Bram pulled her close. “I think I can do that.” He gave a long, lingering kiss before he whispered, “But most of that is going to have to wait until your mum isn’t in the room.”
Evie laughed and turned her head toward her mother. Between the warmth of being in her dragonman’s arms and the sight of her mother holding her daughter, Evie was bursting with happiness. There was only one thing missing. “Mum, come home with us. You can stay with us until everything’s settled. After you change Eleanor, we’ll pick up your grandson, Murray, and you can meet him, too.”
Karen’s eyes were full of hope. “You want me to stay with you?”
Evie nodded. “For a little while, at least. I could use the extra help.”
Bram squeezed Evie gently. “So, you still haven’t answered my question. Do you like your surprise?”
She looked back into Bram’s light blue eyes. “It’s definitely in the top five best surprises.”
“Top five?”
“Well, finding out I was your true mate was the best one, Bram. None of this would’ve happened without it.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “I think I like that answer.”
His lips descended on hers. Not caring that her mother was in the room, Evie melted into the kiss.
She thought mating her dragonman had been the best day of her life. But with each passing day, her life became happier and her love for him grew stronger.
It seemed that with Bram, her happy ending wasn’t found in a day. No, it was for an entire lifetime.
*~*~*
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The next Stonefire Dragons story will be about Nikki Gray and should be out May 2016 (Surrendering to the Dragon). I already hear the screams of “nooooo!” from here. However, there is another dragon book before then, but it will be about Clan Lochguard (the hero is Fergus MacKenzie) and should be out February 2016. If you haven’t read the first Lochguard book, The Dragon’s Dilemma (available on Amazon / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Amazon AU / Amazon DE), you can turn the page for an excerpt. You can also check out some of my other series. I have two: Asylums for Magical Threats and Cascade Shifters. Click here to see all of my books.
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The Dragon’s Dilemma
(Lochguard Highland Dragons #1)
In order to pay for her father’s life-saving cancer treatment, Holly Anderson offers herself up as a sacrifice and sells the vial of dragon’s blood. In return, she will try to bear a Scottish dragon-shifter a child. While the dragonman assigned to her is kind, Holly can’t stop looking at his twin brother. It’s going to take everything she has to sleep with her assigned dragonman. If she breaks the sacrifice contract and follows her heart, she’ll go to jail and not be able to take care of her father.
Even though he’s not ready to settle down, Fraser MacKenzie supports his twin brother’s choice to take a female sacrifice to help repopulate the clan. Yet as Fraser gets to know the lass, his dragon starts demanding something he can’t have—his brother’s sacrifice.
Holly and Fraser fight the pull between them, but one nearly stolen kiss will change everything. Will they risk breaking the law and betraying Fraser’s twin? Or, will they find a way out of the sacrifice contract and live their own happily ever after?
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The Dragon’s Dilemma is a full-length book and is available on Amazon / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Amazon AU / Amazon DE.
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Excerpt:
Chapter One
Holly Anderson paid the taxi driver and turned toward the large stone and metal gates behind her. Looking up, she saw “Lochguard” spelled out in twisting metal, as well as some words written in a language she couldn’t read.
The strange words only reminded her of where she was standing—at the entrance to the Scottish dragon-shifter clan lands.
Taking a deep breath, Holly willed her stomach to settle. She’d signed up for this. In exchange for trying to conceive a dragon-shifter’s child, Clan Lochguard had given her a vial of dragon’s blood. The money from the sale of that dragon’s blood was funding her father’s experimental cancer treatments.
All she had to do was spend the next six months sleeping with a dragon-shifter. If she didn’t conceive, she could go home. If she did, then she would stay until the baby was born.
What was a minimum of six months of her life if it meant her father could live?
That’s if you don’t die giving birth to a half-dragon-shifter baby.
Readjusting the grip on her suitcase, Holly pushed aside the possibility. From everything she’d read, great scientific strides were being made when it came to the role dragon hormones played on a human’s body. If she were lucky, there might even be a way to prevent her from dying in nine to fifteen months’ time, depending on the date of conception.
This isn’t work. Stop thinking about conception dates and birthing babies. After all, she might luck out and never conceive at all.
Holly moved toward the front entrance and took in the view of the loch off to the side. The dull color of the lake’s surface was calm, with rugged hills and mountains framing it. Considering she was in the Scottish Highlands in November, she was just grateful that it wasn’t raining.
She wondered if it was raining back in Aberdeen.
Thinking of home and her father brought tears to her eyes. He was recovering well from his first course of cancer treatments, but her father’s health could decline at any moment. If only dragon’s blood could cure cancer, then she wouldn’t have to worry.
/> But since cancer was one of the illnesses dragon’s blood couldn’t cure, surely the Department of Dragon Affairs would grant her another few weeks to help take care of her father if she asked.
As the taxi backed down the drive, Holly turned around and flagged for the driver to come back. However, before she could barely raise a hand, a voice boomed from the right. “Lass, over here.”
She turned toward the voice and a tall, blond man waved her over with a smile.
Between his wind-tousled hair, twinkling eyes, and his grin, the man was gorgeous.
Not only that, he’d distracted her from doing something daft. If Holly ran away before finishing her contract, she’d end up in jail. And then who would take care of her father?
The man motioned again. “Come, lass. I won’t bite.”
When he winked, some of Holly’s nervousness faded. Despite the rumors of dragon-shifters being monsters, she’d followed the news stories over the last year and knew Lochguard was one of the good dragon clans. Rumors even said the Lochguard dragons and the local humans had once set up their own sacrifice system long before the British government had implemented one nationwide.
It was time to experience the dragon-shifters firsthand and learn the truth.
Pushing her shoulders back, Holly put on her take no-crap nurse expression and walked over to the dragonman. When she was close enough, she asked, “Who are you?”
The man grinned wider. “I’m glad to see you’re not afraid of me, lass. That makes all of this a lot easier.”
Before she could stop herself, Holly blurted, “Are you really a dragon-shifter?’
The dragonman laughed. “Aye, I am. I’m the clan leader, in fact. The name’s Finn. What’s yours?”
The easygoing man didn’t match the gruff picture she’d conjured up inside her head over the past few weeks.
Loved by the Dragon (Stonefire British Dragons Book 6) Page 6
