Saved By Dragons: (A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance)

by Starr, Maia

  “You know, if you told me sooner you had felt caged up here, I would have found a way to ensure you could do something fun, but when it comes to your safety and being here,” I paused trying to find the right words to convey sternness and still not offend Hailey at the same time. It was a difficult place to be, to say the least, “I think it would be ideal if we went out after dark, when there is less chance of someone else seeing us,” I explained. She didn’t seem upset by this. Actually, she seemed a little relieved by the offer.

  “Wow, I mean, I just didn’t want to make anyone feel weird and out of place. It’s been fun being here, and I really enjoy spending time with all of you. I didn’t want anyone to feel left out or like I wasn’t grateful. I truly am,” she replied. I was happy to hear she cared about our feelings, but I felt a pang of annoyance toward myself. Had any of us made her feel like she couldn’t vocalize her wants? Sure, I was a commanding person, but I didn’t want to force anything from her. I wanted her to submit to my will because she yearned to. Because she wanted it.

  “Hailey, I promise you that everything will be safe. I can ensure you are safe ,and I promise you nobody else can give you that guarantee at the level I can,” I affirmed. She smiled at me and gave a nod, clearly happy with the promise I had issued her, “It’s not too much longer until nightfall and then I’ll really show you the beauty of the wilderness,” I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and squeezing her tightly into my frame.

  About an hour later, I walked out to the front of the yard to begin the morphing process. I didn’t know why, but for some reason Hailey stood in awe as I knelt down, my muscles quivering as I focused my mental prowess upon the goal I had in mind: shifting to dragon form. I glanced at her, my eyes beginning to grow and glancing downward, I felt the emission of light expelling from my body and the swirling whoosh of the wind as the light began to wrap around my body. My fingers dug into the ground, nails digging deeply as my bones began to snap, the sound echoing across the yard as my skeletal structure began to change. Moments later, I expanded my massive wings, lowering my skull to the ground as a cue for her to mount me. Indeed, I wanted her to mount me in more than one way, but this was merely the beginning. I had decided earlier when she mentioned going out that we would go to the closest bar and spend some time dancing and enjoying a couple of drinks.

  Bars were not something that were on the island where we lived, though, which was why flying was necessary. The scattered islands close to the large land mass that humans knew as the Americas were scarcely populated, but there will still some patches that humans, wolves, and even dragons had erected places of entertainment, giving it a lighter feel than the way I heard it had been just after the wolves had become a plague upon the human race.

  I figured it might get her mind off of things for a while. I couldn’t have been more wrong, but at first, it seemed like everything was going precisely as I imagined it would; fantastic. We strode into the bar, and Hailey smiled as if she were back in her natural element. “Wow, this place is pretty cool. A drink doesn’t sound too bad right now, either,” she said, approaching the bartender and looking at him with a smile. “Care to help a lady out tonight?” she asked casually. The bartender looked her up and down and snorted slightly, and I instantly felt the fire surge through my veins. Did this SOB honestly think I was going to allow him to treat her that way? Especially when all she wanted was to pay the bastard who was running a paying establishment for a little bit of refreshment. Customer service was something these rats needed a lesson on, far as I could see it.

  “There a problem? Lady wants to get a drink,” I added. He shrugged.

  “Newcomers, eh? Fine. What’ll it be?” he asked. This pissed me off, and I cut him off there.

  “You know what? That’s fine; we’ll see ourselves out,” I said, grabbing Hailey’s hand and leading her back out the door, “It’s cool,” I explained, “I got some local spirits and a place where we can enjoy some private dancing. Would that suit you?” I asked her. She smiled and glanced at the bartender long enough to shoot him the bird.

  “You could learn a thing or two about service, jerk-off,” she hollered over her shoulder. I chuckled; spending time with Hailey was really all I cared about.

  I pulled Hailey into me, swaying gently with her head against my shoulder. The sound of crickets in the night serenaded us as we swayed beneath the moonlight. Hailey was having a hard time standing but laughed maniacally as I caught her.

  “You really liked that wine, didn’t you?” I asked her, taking care to hold her tightly against my chest so she didn’t fall over from intoxication. And then, our perfect moment was disturbed. It started small; I sniffed the air as an unknown scent signature hit my nostrils. My ears instantly perked as I listened to the brush moving softly just a few feet from us. “Did you hear that? Get behind me now, Hailey,” I ordered, placing my arm in front of her and waiting for the intruders to make themselves known, “I can smell you! Come out, now!” I barked. The shrubs and small bushes rustled slightly, and I snapped my head to the left of us to see the first of two men emerging from the tree line. They sneered as one of them noticed Hailey.

  “Aren’t you the one that was here with Cree? And now you stand like a bitch in heat with this son-of-a-bitch?” the first one spat at her, looking past me with a hint of venom in his eyes. I stepped forward, balling my hands at my sides, ready to punch the dude’s teeth right out of his pathetic skull right before I beat it into smithereens too.

  “Who the hell do you think you are talking to her like that? Least of all, in front of me,” I growled.

  “The one looking out for my friend’s honor! This is our territory, and she’s a traitor to her chosen mate!” he roared, glaring at Hailey still, his own fists balling at his sides.

  “No,” Hailey tried to interrupt, attempting to step in front of me, “It’s not like that. I’m with all of them. I am with him, and I am also with Cree!” she groaned worriedly. She looked at me and shook her head, and I could instantly see the terror as it rested upon her face. I wasn’t about to abide it, not for one second. I stepped in front of her once again sternly and barked the order at her.

  “Get behind me and stay there! Now!” I growled.

  “You admit you’re a whore and are betraying Cree, see!” the man bellowed at her. I couldn’t stand my ground and bare it any longer, and I roared loudly as I stomped my foot in front of him.

  “You will not talk to her like that in front of me! Me and mine will not tolerate it!” I knelt down, and the process began yet again, the eerie snapping and cracking of bone and sinew filling my ears as the light began to expel from me, but this time I roared with full force as soon as my claws extended, tearing from my nail beds to produce giant talons, talons I was ready to tear these bastards apart with. The thunderous roar I had issued served as a call to my own clan, and in moments, other dragons began to land beside me. The two offending men stood in shock, their mouths agape, as they stood beside me. I could hear the telepathic thoughts of some of them as they pushed into my mind, ‘What is going on here, Weston?’ was the most prominent of things being pressed into my mind. I knew I had no choice then, but having chased the offending bastards away from Hailey, I returned to my human shape to confess. “This woman,” I sighed, waving toward Hailey. “We found her and saved her, and she has connected with each of us in a way I cannot accurately describe, but I will allow nothing to happen to her. I cannot,” I admitted.

  There were times in life when you had to make difficult decisions, but the only way for me to keep things running smoothly was to tell the truth. My clansmen all peered at me in silence, and I knew that things might never be the same again. But one thing remained steadfast: Hailey being kept safe and Hailey maintaining the beautiful smile that I had witnessed so many times that night. It was the only thing worth treasuring at all in my eyes.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Malick

  We knew the rules and we knew the dangers, and yet
none of us listened. It wasn’t natural, according to the laws of our kind, and yet we chose to do it anyhow. One of us needed to mark her, to claim her as their own, and if we didn’t, a war for the right to her would break out. It wasn’t a question of possibility. It was a question of when they would finally strike and how hard the fighting would get before any resolution came from it. There was a protocol to things, and we had acted selfishly according to that protocol, but in reality, we had acted in the best interests of Hailey.

  I chuckled to myself darkly; I was going to have Hailey no matter what the cost. I had had her, and when sharing her, I actually found it to be enjoyable. If her reaction was any indicator, she had too, but then Weston whisked her off her feet and took her off to play with all by his lonesome. It put a sour taste in my mouth, and I understood why the other dragons would soon be on our tail, but I couldn’t disagree that we all had good reasoning.

  It pissed me off to think she was off alone with Weston, and if anything happened to her I wouldn’t be there to protect her. I decided I wasn’t having it after about four hours of the two of them being missing and took it upon myself to go out looking for them. I knew there was a chance I might come across something I didn’t want to see, but that didn’t matter. Getting to Hailey and making sure nobody else did was what mattered.

  About thirty minutes later, I soared over an open clearing near what I knew to be Cree’s territory. There was a group of dragons staring down at Weston with Hailey standing right behind him. From the looks on their faces, none of them were too pleased. I swooped down and landed right beside Hailey, but kept to my dragon form, at least until I figured out what the hell was exactly going on. Hailey’s eyes widened as she looked over me, and I wondered if she had learned to recognize us while in dragon form. My questioning abruptly came to an end when she bellowed out loud in recognition, “Malick?”

  I gave a curt nod and lowered my head beside her, listening to the conversation ongoing between Weston and his clan.

  “You have violated all of the rules, Weston. I demand that you release the human woman to my care. It is in the best interest of the clan.” The elder dragon’s voice was like a booming echo in my head, and I snarled at his commands, placing my skull in front of Hailey. I peered back at him and snorted as I focused my sights on him.

  “Hailey is not going anywhere with anyone by any command,” Weston replied, his eyes turning darker as he spoke. He too had remained in dragon form, and I knew Hailey couldn’t understand most of what was happening. I’d explain it to her later.

  “If you do not hand over the woman, you are risking punishment and possibly death, Weston. Do you truly want to do this?” the elder dragon asked again, his words becoming sharper and sterner with each utterance, but Weston didn’t seem to care. I chuckled at his display of dominance. He sure as hell wasn’t about to give in that easily. He lolled his skull slightly, snaking out his tongue and flicking it across the air as if to taste the tension and savor it.

  “Punish me, I dare you. And you’ll never get close enough to kill me,” Weston declared, snapping his tail suddenly and causing a heavy tremor to roll through the ground. It knocked Hailey off her feet, and she landed backward near the tree line, and I knew it was time. The elder dragon lunged forward, closing the gap between himself and Weston, his talons reflecting in the moonlight as he reached for Weston’s throat. Weston slid his head downward, his chin resting atop the ground and just missed being slashed by the talons. The elder dragon, surprised by this, was then sent backward when Weston lifted his head forcefully, jutting the horned ridge of his head into the elder’s throat. It wasn’t a fatal wound, but it was a symbol to every dragon watching, and even Hailey seemed to know what it meant.

  She went running toward the forest and came back dragging a long tree limb, ready to knock out anything that came her way. She rushed into the fray, making her way toward Weston, and that was when I knew I had to react, but not before Hailey ran up to the elder and smashed the limb into the side of his face, fragments of bark and wood splintering into his eye as she beat the branch into his face. I lunged forward and lowered my head before her, indicating it was time to mount and fly, and Hailey seemed to get the action far better than words. She climbed atop my head, and I lifted to soar into the sky. Normally, I’d have fought too, but I knew this was Weston’s battle, a battle I would soon enough have to face, but for now, what mattered most was keeping the one person we all cared for safe.

  Hailey leaned forward, watching the elder dragon and Weston as they continued to take slashes at one another, snapping at each other’s faces and swatting the ground to cause tremors even more.

  “No!” Hailey cried aloud as she watched Weston take on a pretty massive hit to the face, “Let’s go! We need to run, now!” she called to him as we circled around the fight perimeter. Weston lunged into the sky and began flying ahead of us, and I took that as a cue to follow onward. I knew things were far from over, though, when two of the other dragons in Weston’s clan swooped into the air to track us down.

  “We’re not going to make it too far without them on our asses,” I projected into Weston’s mind. He was in agreement, and his projection solidified that.

  “They’ll chase us to the end. We may very well all lose our clans, Malick,” he said. “Speed up. Don’t fly straight back to the house. We need to find a way to make a plan.” Normally, working together with him wasn’t my cup of tea. My clan was different, darker, and even somewhat crueler, but Weston was no pushover, and the display of an alpha he had just made to the elder would reverberate through the entire island. It wasn’t every day that a dragon chose to go against his own, and clearly Weston, just like myself, had.

  The dragons chasing us were young; I could tell because they lacked the sense to know how to fly through cloud structures and use them to hide in. This was to our advantage, as they soared right past us. I didn’t know where the hell we were going to hide. The island was only so large, but for now, the sky was our sanctuary, and we had a moment to come up with a plan. As of yet, I hadn’t attempted to form a mental connection with Hailey, but Weston put the thought in my head with his next question.

  “Calm her down. I’m still too into fight mode to do so myself,” Weston stated matter-of-factly.

  “I’ve done what I can. I’m not sure how to at the moment,” I projected. Weston didn’t miss a beat.

  “Mentally project it to her. She won’t know our ways if you do not teach them to her,” he explained. I groaned inwardly. I had never attempted projection with any creatures except our own. I had heard some humans could be receptive to it. But how would I know if Hailey was?

  “You just try it,” Weston said, clearly still lingering in my head and scanning my thoughts. I snorted.

  “That’s rude, West, but alright,” I projected yet again. I focused my mental faculties on Hailey and attempted what I sure hoped wasn’t impossible, “Hailey?”

  She flinched atop my head and glanced over at Weston he soared through the air right beside us, “What? Who said that?” she asked, still not sure of what was going on.

  “I did,” I projected, “I wanted to tell you about what happened down there,” I explained.

  “You can talk in my head?” she asked. “Whoa, maybe I’m a little crazy,” she muttered aloud. I found it funny that she was responding to everything audibly, though half the conversation was going on in her head, and her statement made a lot of sense. I chuckled slightly as a response. “Are you laughing at me?” she asked accusingly.

  “No,” I projected. “Of course not, but the elder dragon leader of Weston’s clan made a request you need to be aware of,” I explained to her.

  “What sort of request?” she asked.

  “He wanted him to turn you over to their clan because we have violated dragon laws,” I projected.

  “What? What laws have you broken? What does this mean?” she asked me. There were so many questions to answer but a few I felt Weston should answe
r himself, and I shook them off in the best way possible.

  “Weston will have to explain that to you, but there are rules about marking and mates here on the island, Hailey. Rules that the other dragons will both kill and die for,” I responded. I half expected Weston to say something by this point, but he seemed to want to remain silent for the remainder of our flight. I wasn’t sure where we were going to rendezvous at, but I knew for the moment staying under the radar was the number one priority. Hailey leaned forward and sighed softly, resting her head atop her hands as she leaned into my skull, and I smiled inwardly. At least I had provided her with enough comfort to get her to relax a little more. That was what West had asked me to do, and for once, I was actually listening, but working together was becoming an obvious necessity and differences no longer mattered. All of it centered around Hailey.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Malick

  Flying around aimlessly in the sky, that’s what we had spent a couple of hours doing. We knew going back to the house was a stupid idea, but the other two guys were still back at the place, and we needed to get them to the group so we could make a new plan. Weston and I had Hailey safe; truly, I had Hailey safe as she tucked in close to my face to soar through the air. I spotted a secluded are and projected to Weston to ask him if it was suitable.