Rogue Dragons Series: Box Set Books 1-5

by Hartley, Emilia

  Nellie didn’t have to use horrid magic for Gavin. She didn’t have to sully her soul for him. Gavin could protect her like he’d promised. He would make sure she landed safe and sound if it was the last thing he did.

  You don’t have to do this! He wished he had a way to tell her. She didn’t have to sacrifice any part of herself for him.

  He could be more than he’d ever been. He could overpower his father and take him down. Gavin would make sure she never had anything to fear ever again.

  Zander squirmed, but he could not escape Gavin’s iron grasp. Still, Zander’s form flickered beneath Gavin. Nellie’s spell still tore at the beast, so in the last second, Zander flung her away from himself.

  She arced through the air. Her wide eyes found Gavin, but they weren’t afraid. Instead, they bore sorrow and regret. Gavin would be damned if she died with either on her mind. He kicked off his father’s now-solid body and threw his wings wide open.

  You’re a witch, woman. Use your magic to save yourself!

  He didn’t know what had happened to make her so resigned to dying. Gavin refused to let it happen today. They had years and years ahead of them that no one could take away. Not even Zander.

  A thunderous boom sounded below. Gavin didn’t spare even a moment to witness his father’s impact. From the sounds below, Gavin’s clan had surrounded Zander, leaving Gavin to focus on his mate.

  His leap put him above her. She fell at an alarming rate. Gavin tucked his wings into his body and fell toward her. Closer, he could hear her scream and how it revealed her will to live. His heart leapt when he caught her. He threw open his wings to slow their descent.

  Nellie clung to his talons, her arms wrapped around them. When the ground slowly came toward them, Gavin pulled the reins on his beast and landed on his human feet with Nellie cradled in his arms. She pressed her face to his chest and refused to look up at him. He thought perhaps she still thought they were in the air, but as the minutes stretched on, he realized she was hiding from him.

  He kissed her cheek and softly whispered in her ear, “I need you to do something for me. If you can help me, then we can end today without bloodshed.”

  Gavin wanted to kill his father. He wanted to force the man to relive every cruel thing he’d ever done to anyone else. Gavin couldn’t indulge in his rage, though. Besides, he knew a more fitting punishment.

  He set Nellie down onto her own feet. Still she wouldn’t look at him. His heart clenched and threatened to burst. Would he have to win her all over again? He didn’t mind the idea of wooing her again, so long as they had the time to do so.

  That meant making sure his father would never threaten them ever again.

  Gavin tucked a finger under Nellie’s chin. “I need you to finish what you started. Relieve my father of his beast so he will finish his life as a mere human.”

  Her eyes widened and her lips parted. “You want me to…do it?”

  He nodded.

  “And when I’m done? Will you cast me out or will you burn me?”

  “Hell fucking no,” he said. “You are the love of my life. I trust you with every ounce of my heart. Just because you are capable of a monstrous thing does not make you a monster.”

  Her trembling lips pressed together. He thought she would reject him, then a wry smile graced her features. She grabbed him and pulled him close before whispering:

  “Then the same goes for you.” She stole a quick kiss that left his head spinning then turned toward their prisoner.

  Gavin didn’t know how he felt about seeing his father on his knees. The man had been the epitome of power in Gavin’s life for so long. Now, he’d been reduced to a quivering mess. Zander stared, wide eyed, up at Nellie as she extended a hand toward him.

  “For your crimes against your clan and mine, I sentence you to life without your beast,” Gavin declared.

  A round of hushed whispers passed through the crowd around them. He hadn’t realized how many had gathered to witness this punishment. Everyone here had suffered under his father. Though Gavin wanted to hide his mate away from their prying eyes so they could not judge her for what he’d asked her to do, he knew these people deserved to stand witness.

  Nellie did not have to touch him to complete her spell. Gavin made sure Zander couldn’t attack her in the middle of it, either. He didn’t have to stand guard for long because Nellie’s spell bent Zander. The tyrant dropped face first to the ground and whined.

  Nellie’s hand collapsed back down by her side. Gavin pulled her into his arms while the crowd around them cheered for the end of a war. No one bothered to watch what Zander would do next. They left him face down in the dirt, for he was no longer a threat to anyone.

  When he faced the gathering crowd, Gavin found Tyler standing at the head of them. Dirt and blood marred the man’s face, but he still held his chin high. The man had managed to lay low and escape not only Zander’s wrath but Gavin’s attention, too.

  “Do you want to punish Zachary?” Tyler asked. He gestured to the man kneeling on the ground, staring daggers at Nellie.

  Nellie stiffened in Gavin’s arms. Her tremble worried Gavin. Had she spent all her magic for him again? She needed something to eat and a safe place to rest. They didn’t have time to handle this matter, so Gavin bent his head and told Tyler that he trusted him to mete out a proper judgement.

  Tyler was clearly crafty. Gavin wondered who Zander had kicked out when he dealt with his supposed rebellion. Clearly, he’d missed a few upstarts. That only further proved that Zander never should have had power, and that Tyler had earned it.

  “We will head home,” Tyler said. “Our doors are open to you and your clan should you want to visit. We are allies now. Never forget that.”

  As if on command, Tyler’s clan retreated. They poured back into their cars, their prisoners restrained. Their motorcade rumbled down the twisting mountain roads, prompting Gavin to let loose a sigh of relief.

  Gavin didn’t spend much time considering what the alliance might mean. His attention was on Nellie and his clan. The war had ended. They could move on with their lives now, but that meant they all needed to take time to heal.

  “Clean yourselves up!” Erik shouted to his clan. “I ordered pizza. It’s going to be here in forty minutes, so we need to erase all signs of a supernatural war, pronto.”

  80

  She woke in the middle of the night again. Her breath was ragged, and sweat dampened her skin. Gavin wondered what his mate had seen in her dreams. He hadn’t been able to spare her from the horrors of war, and it had taken a toll on her psyche.

  She grasped in the dark for him. He brought her close to his chest and listened to the thunder of her heart. It beat so fast, he thought it might burst. Slowly, second by second, it slowed. Her breathing returned to normal while her cheek pressed against his skin.

  He wanted to ask what happened, but he didn’t dare make her relive it if she wasn’t ready.

  Nellie must have needed to get it out of her because she said, “Falling. I was falling again.”

  He nuzzled her hair. “Don’t forget, I’ll never let you fall.”

  His words seemed to ease her shaking. She sucked in a deep breath and slowly let it out while he rubbed her back.

  Gavin’s beast had wanted someone to protect. Gavin himself had loathed the idea of responsibility, but it didn’t seem so hard when it came to those he loved. Holding Nellie after her nightmares, helping her sell the old house, funding Casey’s business, helping Isabella and Dillon prepare for their newest addition…none of it seemed like a chore.

  He gladly helped out, knowing that his family would do the same for him. They had fought in a war he’d started, after all.

  “I didn’t know…” Nellie began.

  He knew what she would say. They’d gone over it every night since the end of the war. He didn’t mind. He would remind her every chance he had. No one in this house was a monster. They were all good souls struggling to get by.

  �
��I love you, Nellie Hayes. I love every ounce of you, inside and out.”

  She let out a choked sob. He smiled, glad that his words had reached her. She didn’t have anything to fear, not even the threat of losing him. His beast had loved her the moment she’d stepped out of the smoke and cast her spell over him. He’d never been more enamored with any other woman before. His mate could do anything, a fact that made him proud.

  “There will never be a dragon who can reckon with you,” he whispered in the dark. “Because they will never get past me. You won’t have to do anything like that ever again.”

  “You promise?”

  “I promise,” he breathed.

  Nellie turned her eyes up to him. Even in the dark, he could see her soul bare in them. All her pain and fear and passion revealed to him. “I love you, too, Gavin Masters.”

  * * *

  The cabin bore char marks, evidence of the fight not too long ago. Casey and the others were working hard to fix the damage, but fire was a tricky thing to fix if they wanted to do it quickly and thoroughly.

  “Watch where you’re swinging that!” Erik shouted.

  Ford unceremoniously dropped the lumber he’d been carrying. “Fine! I don’t have to do this. I have no idea what I’m even doing here.”

  Erik mumbled something under his breath that could have been for fuck’s sake before gathering up Ford’s lumber and pushing it back into his arms. Instead of berating the man, Erik led Ford over to the damaged exterior and began walking him through what needed to be done.

  The Erik Nellie had met when they’d first arrived wouldn’t have been so patient. Erik would have lost control, and his green dragon would have lashed out. Now, he took the time to help his clanmate out.

  Ford, too, had changed. Daphne had confessed Ford’s previous reservations regarding clans. He’d spent a chunk of his life being on his own and answering to no one. Now, he had a family around him and had to be careful with them. Not because they might turn on him, but because he just wasn’t used to having others to think about.

  The air hummed with warmth. It radiated off the dragon men, not just because of the fires burning inside them, but because of the brotherhood they’d established. Nellie loved to listen to them work because it reminded her that the fight had been worth it.

  Nellie hung the wreath on the cabin’s front door. A red ribbon made the shape of a five-pointed star in the middle. She’d made sure to tuck several ward talismans into it. The cabin was not only huge, but housed people Nellie loved. She had her work cut out for her, but she was determined to safeguard it to the best of her magical ability.

  Mama cat twined between Nellie’s ankles and purred. Nellie still couldn’t get over how quickly she’d bonded to the feline. She suspected there was a familiar bond between them, but she hadn’t yet found time to explore the magical ramifications of such a thing.

  Nellie had been wildly distracted by another sort of bond. The russet-haired man of her dreams walked out of the woods. He wore nothing more than a pair of loose jeans that hung low on his hips. Her mouth watered at the sight of him. She had witnessed him win a fight to the death, and still she couldn’t find it in her to be afraid of him.

  Looking back, she realized just how silly her aversion to him had been. Gavin didn’t have it in him to hurt her. He would do anything to protect her, yes, but his hands had been made for loving her, and she’d enjoyed them every night since they defeated Zander.

  Gavin appraised the wreath and gave it an appreciative nod.

  Nellie opened her arms to him, and he stepped into them without hesitation. Holding him close filled her with a sense of rightness. Nothing else made sense. Had her mother felt the same when she found her dragon man? Nellie shoved the thought away. Thinking about the woman who’d abandoned her still hurt.

  This new family would not leave her. They had seen the worst side of Nellie, and still they remained. They loved her despite her darkness, the same way she loved Gavin despite his fearsome strength. They all had a little less to worry about so long as they were together.

  “The house sold today,” Gavin informed her.

  She jerked back, surprised. She’d expected her family home to remain on the market forever. It needed more work than most homeowners were willing to put in. She’d been kind of sad to see her old home go, a fact that surprised her. Though her family had hurt her, she’d put so much of her heart into that old Victorian.

  “Who—”

  Before Nellie could finish, Casey’s truck pulled up. He hit the brakes and kicked up gravel. Evangeline slid out of the passenger seat before he’d even put it in park. She waved a stack of papers in her hand while rushing toward Nellie.

  “I’m a homeowner!” Evangeline crooned.

  Nellie’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t!”

  Evangeline grinned, devilish. “I did.”

  Nellie fumbled over her words, wanting to ask why.

  “Casey and I needed something bigger than our apartment,” Evangeline explained. “He needed an office to run his business out of. I need something to keep my hands busy because my dragon is restless. I figured Casey and I could put our heads together and fix the house up.”

  “T-that’s amazing!” Nellie’s heart fluttered. She couldn’t imagine her old home going into better hands.

  “Besides,” Evangeline said, slyly. “We’ll need the extra bedrooms for when we start our family.”

  Nellie balked. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

  Gavin groaned behind her. “Please, I can only handle one pregnant woman at a time.”

  Evangeline cocked her head and pinned Nellie with an intense, questioning stare. Nellie shook her head fervently.

  The door of the big cabin swung open and Isabella leaned her head out to shout at Evangeline. “I’m the pregnant one, dummy.”

  Evangeline went inside, bickering with Isabella all the while. Nellie turned to look up at her mate. The biggest and baddest of them all, Gavin set her at ease. She leaned into him and breathed deep, happiness unfurling inside her.

  “Do you want to try?” he asked.

  Nellie thought about it, about her own relationship with her mother. While she would like to be a better parent than hers had been, she wasn’t ready to split her attention yet. She wanted to spend her nights with Gavin, with him between her legs.

  “Not yet,” she said. “Someday, yes. I’d like to be a cool aunt first.”

  Gavin kissed the top of her head. “Whatever you want. I’m ready whenever you are.”

  Besides, they already had a huge family. No one here would vanish in the night. They wouldn’t try to instill fear in one another. They weren’t interested in power games. Their new family loved one another unconditionally.

  She suspected that was more than either her or Gavin ever expected to have. Sometimes, family was more than blood. It came from bonds built over time and bonds forged by fate.

  More By Emilia Hartley

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