by Eva Chase
Dragon’s Joy
The Dragon Shifter’s Mates Christmas Novella
Eva Chase
Ink Spark Press
Dragon’s Joy
Book 5 in the Dragon Shifter’s Mates series
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
First Digital Edition, 2018
Copyright © 2018 Eva Chase
Cover design: Covers by Juan
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-989096-24-6
Created with Vellum
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Next from Eva Chase
A Study in Seduction excerpt
About the Author
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Chapter 1
Ren
Naturally, the string of Christmas lights I’d been unraveling and hooking along the hedge ended exactly five feet before the hedge did. I glowered at the string and at the hedge, as if that were going to convince one to grow or the other to shrink. Unfortunately, neither gave a damn what the leader of all shifter kind would have liked.
I stepped back into the courtyard of the avian estate and considered. Worse to leave a gap in my decorations or to have to go searching for another extension cord?
The damp chilly wind swept over my hair, flicking strands across my cheeks. It wasn’t the biting cold I was used to from New York winters growing up, but at least in New York we’d have had a little chance of seeing snow. Aaron had told me it hadn’t snowed in December here by the west coast in as long as he could remember.
Good thing I had three more Christmas celebrations after this to cover all the bases.
Footsteps tapped across the courtyard, and my avian alpha’s sister, Alice, came to a halt beside me. She cocked her head at my handiwork.
“We do have estate staff who can handle this kind of thing for you, you know,” she said in a slightly teasing tone. “There’s no reason our dragon shifter should be out in the cold, hanging lights.”
I made a face at her. “It’s not really a strain stringing lights on a hedge. I’m staying off ladders as promised.” The dampness in the air filled my lungs as I dragged in a long breath. “All these celebrations were my idea. I wanted to show how much I value the support I’ve gotten from the kin. I’m not sure that’ll really come across if I sit back and make them do the work for me.”
“I think they’d understand. You’re eight and a half months pregnant. Which no one with eyes would be able to miss, even if all shifter kind hadn’t been celebrating the news since you announced it.”
I rested a hand on my rounded belly. As if in answer, my daughter prodded my bladder with an elbow or a heel—something knobby. She had an awful lot of knobby bits, I’d discovered over the last few months of squirming and kicking.
Not yet, I reminded her. Sleep in there a little while longer. Not that I wasn’t looking forward to having all of her out where I could cuddle her without my internal organs getting bruised.
“I’m fine,” I said, waving Alice’s comment off and patting my belly. “We’re a team effort. Believe me, I’ve already promised at least ten people that I’ll put up my feet the second I start feeling worn out.”
Alice gave me a skeptical look, but she didn’t prod any further, just walked with me back to the front of the courtyard by the avian estate’s massive house, where I’d left the last string of lights. Possibly I waddled more than walked. Even my dragon shifter reflexes couldn’t completely offset the extra weight in front of me. It wasn’t a struggle to carry my growing child, but it did require a bit of a balancing act.
“Have you decided on a name?” Alice asked. “Not much time left.”
My daughter squirmed again, and I smiled. “I’ve thought about it,” I said. It was hard not to, with all those months feeling her grow inside me. “But I don’t think I’ll know what’s right until I’ve actually gotten to meet her.”
“Fair enough. But you know all the kin will be waiting with ears perked for that announcement.”
The wind settled down as we moved along the last hedge. We’d just positioned the last of the lights when a golden eagle soared by overhead.
My heart leapt at the sight of my mate. Aaron dipped down around the side of the house—probably to land on the balcony of his bedroom.
A few minutes later, the avian alpha strode out the mansion’s front doors in slacks and a wool coat. I hurried over to meet him. A pleased light lit in his bright blue eyes as he leaned in to kiss me, his hand coming to rest over mine where my fingers had instinctively smoothed over my belly again.
“How are you?” he asked. Not exactly an unusual question, but I’d swear I’d been hearing it ten times more from the moment my pregnancy started showing.
“Ready to kick things off,” I said. “Did you get everything set up out there?”
The corners of his eyes crinkled with his smile. “Following your precise instructions.”
“All right then. I think we can start letting people in.” I turned to Alice. “You want to help me see about some wine?”
Aaron’s sister grinned. “Absolutely. Especially if I get to drink for both of us.”
As the kitchen staff helped set up the beverage tables, the avian kin who’d responded to my widespread invitation to our Christmas festivities trickled in. By the time Alice finally got to partake of her first glass, the courtyard was buzzing with eager voices.
I stepped back to survey the crowd. The faces of the assembled shifters were as bright as their voices. And more than a few bellies as big as mine showed in the crowd. A swell of sorrow-tinged happiness filled me at the sight.
For the sixteen years before my return, with their dragon shifter missing and their alphas unmated, none of my kin had been able to have children of their own. I hadn’t seen any youngsters at all when I’d first toured the territories. They’d had to wait so long, but now there would be a whole lot of shifter children returning to our community alongside my own.
A pair of large hands came to rest on my waist. I leaned back into the familiar brawny form of the man who’d come up behind me, and my bear shifter mate’s arms rose to encircle me just above my belly.
“Keeping warm enough?” Nate asked in his low rumble of a voice.
“I definitely am now,” I said, resting my arms over his and hugging them to me.
“They really do get the best of all possible weather here, don’t they?” Marco said, sauntering up beside us. The feline alpha ran a hand through his spiky black hair and gave a shudder to match his mildly sarcastic tone. “Cold and wet.”
“Poor kitty,” I said with an arch of my eyebrow, and he laughed.
“Just as long as none of it touches my darling princesses,” he said more tenderly, giving my cheek a peck and my belly a brief caress.
West had ambled over at my other side, his lean arms loosely folded over his chest. “I think our dragon shifter can withstand a slight chill.” The canine alpha’s dark green eyes softened as he studied my face. “As long as you’re comfortable?�
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I swatted him. “I’m fine.” But as irritating as the constant check-ins could be as the end of these nine months approached, I couldn’t deny that the way my four mates had been doting on me brought a flutter of pleasure into my chest more often than not.
We didn’t often get to spend this much time all together, rather than each handling his own kin’s business while I traveled wherever I was needed most. For the next five days—the four leading up to Christmas and Christmas itself—they were all mine. Barring any emergencies, of course.
The wolf shifter’s gaze traveled over the crowd of avian kin, the twinkling lights around us catching on the silver strands in his auburn hair. “Should we be heading out?”
“Soon,” I said. “I think if you leave when we set off, you’ll get there right in time to meet us.”
Nate’s embrace tightened. “Are you sure the flight won’t be too much of a strain when—”
I turned to shoot him a look before he could even finish expressing that worry, and he hung his head apologetically. The alpha of the disparate kin still needed occasional reminders to rein in his over-protective nature. I rumpled his thick brown hair and bobbed up on my toes to press a kiss to his lips.
“I’m a dragon,” I said gently. “I’m made to fly. And our daughter is too.”
Aaron joined us, his pale cheeks and the tips of his ears flushed from the cold. “That’s everyone,” he said. “The last stragglers just came in. Do you want to give the directions, Serenity?”
“Yes.” I gave Marco and West a quick kiss for good measure. “I’ll see you three in a bit.”
Aaron’s staff had set up a platform at the edge of the courtyard, similar to the one I’d stood on to meet this kin group when he’d first introduced me as his mate. A hush spread through the crowd as we climbed up on to it. The avian shifters turned to see what I would say.
“Joyful greetings to you all, avian kin!” I said, pitching my voice to carry. “It’s been an honor to work with you and for you over the last year, and I think after all the challenges we’ve overcome, every one of you deserves a fantastic celebration. What’s here is only the beginning. We’re creatures of flight, and I’d like the chance to fly with you all. Please shift with me and follow my lead to the main site of the festivities. There are warm clothes waiting for you there.”
Eyes glimmered with interest, and curious murmurs carried through the crowd. I shed my jacket and knelt down in the dress I’d picked precisely because I didn’t care if it got ripped to shreds. My mates had raised a rather strong objection to the idea of me stripping down totally naked in this weather.
The shift flowed through me as naturally as breathing. My body expanded, my neck lengthened, and hard scales sprang to the surface of my skin beneath the scraps of falling fabric. Fire smoldered in my throat. Vast wings flared from my arched back. And deep in my now much larger belly, my daughter somehow seemed to snuggle even closer to me, as if eagerly anticipating the ride.
All across the courtyard, hawks and falcons, seagulls and pelicans, sparrows and doves emerged from crumpling clothing. I launched myself off the platform toward the darkened sky, and a flurry of wings followed me.
Aaron, his golden feathers gleaming as brightly as his hair did, soared up over the estate right beside me. I reveled for a moment in the sensation of the wind buffeting my wings. Then I swooped over the forests to the south with a vast flock of avian kin surrounding me. The sound of all those wing beats carried through the air around me like a sort of music, and a grin stretched my dragon lips.
The broad field I’d picked out lay just a few minutes’ flight from the estate, still within the property that belonged to the avian alpha. As it came into view, my breath caught.
Aaron and the people he’d asked to help had set up the lights exactly as I’d sketched them—and they shone even more spectacularly than I’d imagined. Strands of them hung between posts set up across the field in interlocking lines, forming a pattern like a vast sparkling snowflake, one you could only fully appreciate from far above.
I glided over it and circled around, wanting to drink in the sight for as long as I could. The avian kin followed me, keeping up with my leisurely pace. Right now, we might as well be the same kind of being, united by this act of propelling ourselves through the air and the love of the feelings that came with flying.
My wings flapped easily against the damp air. These days, I could hold my dragon form for hours at a time without the faintest prickle of fatigue. But hundreds of bird shifters were wheeling over the field with me, and their feathered bodies didn’t come with quite the same inner heat source.
I drifted through one last circuit of the field, and then I dove down to the grass at the end by the lodge.
That building’s windows were already beaming with light. Stacks of clothes arranged by size stood on tables on either side of the door, which stood open wafting heat and the scents of the feast awaiting us.
My three mates whose animal forms didn’t come with wings were waiting for me. I shifted as I dropped the last short distance, landing on the wooden boards of the porch with my human feet, and Marco wrapped a thick velvet dress around me. Nate was ready with a long wool coat to drape over that. West tugged a scarf around my neck and gave me a tender smile I’d never seen him offer to anyone but me.
“This is some light show, Sparks,” he said.
The avian kin had descended all around us. After they’d dressed on the porch with the ease of people who had to make quick changes on a regular basis, we poured into the broad open room on the other side of the doorway. I scooped roast beef and mashed potatoes and carrots drenched in butter onto my plate and then headed back outside to eat under the lights.
The display was pretty spectacular even from below, if I did say so myself. I meandered deeper into the field, swiveling on my feet between bites and taking in the sparkling patterns all around me, even brighter against the stark black of the sky. The music Aaron had suggested was playing—the first lilting tune in an album recorded by a band composed of avian shifters. The speakers around the field pitched the spirited melody across the entire open space.
The avian kin explored the field around me, murmuring to each other with unrestrained awe. Another grin I couldn’t contain crossed my lips.
I’d pulled it off—everything I’d wanted this celebration to be. And I could see the pleasure it had brought this group of my people reflected in every face.
But this was only the beginning. No getting cocky yet, not when I had three more epic revelries to pull off.
Chapter 2
Aaron
As the stacks of cleared plates along the edge of the porch grew, more and more of my fellow avian shifters got caught up in the rhythm of the music and started to dance. Watching them dip and spin under the arcs of glittering lights brought me back to the first celebration my kin had enjoyed with Serenity—one they’d organized for her instead of the other way around.
It was hard to believe that had happened less than a year and a half ago. We’d all come a long way since then.
I caught a glimpse of my mate whirling in the midst of the crowd, her dark brown hair streaming around her, one arm resting protectively over her belly. Beautiful, as always. I would have gone to join her if one of my attendants hadn’t hurried over to me just then.
“She’s here,” he said, with a twitch of his head toward the far end of the field. “You wanted her to wait for you?”
My pulse skipped with both nerves and relief. “Yes. I’ll go speak to her right now.”
“Do you need company?” the attendant asked respectfully.
“Did she bring any?”
He shook his head.
“I think I’m well covered then,” I said. My sister had already caught sight of us talking and was weaving her way through the crowd. Alice knew about the arrangements I’d made, and she did enjoy her role as bodyguard. I didn’t want to give the impression of distrust, not when the trust we�
�d managed to build so far was still somewhat fragile. “Thank you.”
I skirted the edge of the field, and Alice fell into step beside me.
“Do you think she’s really going to go through with this?” she asked.
“I can’t see why she’d have bothered coming at all if she changed her mind.”
“The fae aren’t exactly known for their transparent natures.”
I had to laugh. “Fair enough. I suppose we’ll just have to see, then.”
My sister rubbed her bare hands together in the chilly air. She’d never liked wearing gloves, even when we were kids. “I’m surprised you went for this idea at all. Mysticism and secrets aren’t usually your thing.”
No, they weren’t. And that was why my stomach was knotting as we made our way toward the stretch of forest beyond the lights. But I kept striding on regardless. Because…
“We can prepare in all sorts of practical ways as well. This mysticism served us awfully well last year. I can’t see how it hurts to prepare that way too. And I think it’ll mean a lot to Serenity.”
Alice dipped her head. “That’s true. You don’t think we still need to be wary of the fae?”
“Oh, I doubt it’ll ever be wise to trust them blindly. But they have proven themselves true allies since that battle with the vampires.” I glanced at my sister. “I wouldn’t be letting you join me if I didn’t think it was best to err on the side of caution and have a bit of back-up along.”
“I’d like to think I’m more than a bit of back-up,” Alice said loftily, and bumped me with a playful elbow I returned with a chuckle.
