The Dragon's Christmas Treasure (Howls for the Holidays) Read online

  The Dragon’s Christmas Treasure

  Sophie Stern

  Copyright © 2020 by Sophie Stern

  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 publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Also by Sophie Stern

  Alien Chaos

  Destroyed

  Guarded

  Saved

  Alien Chaos: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Bundle

  Anchored

  Starboard

  Battleship

  All Aboard

  Abandon Ship

  Below Deck

  Crossing the Line

  Anchored: Books 1-3

  Anchored: Books 4-6

  Club Kitten Dancers

  Move

  Pose

  Climb

  Dragon Enchanted

  Hidden Mage

  Dragon Isle

  My Lord and Dragon

  The Dragon Fighter

  A Dragon's Bite

  Lost to the Dragon

  Beware of Dragons

  Cowboy Dragon

  Dark Heart of the Dragon

  Once Upon a Dragon

  Catching the Dragon

  Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 1-3)

  Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 4-6)

  Dragon Isle (Collection: Books 7-9)

  Good Boys and Millionaires

  Good Boys and Millionaires 1

  Good Boys and Millionaires 2

  Honeypot Babies

  The Polar Bear's Baby

  The Jaguar's Baby

  The Tiger's Baby

  Honeypot Darlings

  The Bear's Virgin Darling

  The Bear's Virgin Mate

  The Bear's Virgin Bride

  Office Gentlemen

  Ben From Accounting

  Polar Bears of the Air Force

  Staff Sergeant Polar Bear

  Master Sergeant Polar Bear

  Airman Polar Bear

  Senior Airman Polar Bear

  Red

  Red: Into the Dark

  Red: Through the Dark

  Red: Beyond the Dark

  Return to Dragon Isle

  Dragons Are Forever

  Shifters at Law

  Wolf Case

  Bearly Legal

  Tiger Clause

  Sergeant Bear

  Dragon Law

  The Fablestone Clan

  Dragon's Oath

  Dragon's Breath

  Dragon's Darling

  Dragon's Whisper

  Dragon's Magic

  The Hidden Planet

  Vanquished

  Outlaw

  Conquered

  The Wolfe City Pack

  The Wolf's Darling

  The Wolf's Mate

  The Wolf's Bride

  Standalone

  Saucy Devil

  Billionaire on Top

  Jurassic Submissive

  The Editor

  Alien Beast

  Snow White and the Wolves

  Kissing the Billionaire

  Wild

  Alien Dragon

  The Royal Her

  Be My Tiger

  Alien Monster

  The Paralegal

  Roses in the Dark

  Honeypot Babies Omnibus Edition

  Honeypot Darlings: Omnibus Edition

  Red: The Complete Trilogy

  First Shift

  The Swan's Mate

  Eternity: A Vampire Romance

  The Feisty Librarian

  Polar Bears of the Air Force

  Wild Goose Chase

  Star Princess

  The Virgin and the Lumberjacks

  Resting Bear Face

  Shifters at Law

  Seized by the Dragon

  The Fablestone Clan: A Paranormal Dragon-Shifter Romance Collection

  Star Kissed

  Club Kitten Omnibus

  Okami

  Savored

  The Dragon's Christmas Treasure

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Also By Sophie Stern

  The Dragon's Christmas Treasure

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Author

  Books

  Sign up for Sophie Stern's Mailing List

  Further Reading: Polar Bears of the Air Force

  Also By Sophie Stern

  Even dragons have Christmas wishes...

  Noam King has never liked Christmas. In his opinion, Christmas is the one time of year when people go out of their way to act terrible to each other. Whether it's fighting over Christmas gifts, arguing about standing in line, or harassing shopkeepers who can't keep enough items in stock, he's tired of the holiday and would be happy to never celebrate again. His mother tells him that he's nothing but a grouchy old dragonman who is acting out because he's lonely, but he doesn't think that's true.

  Heather has been alone for as long as she can remember. A single mother with a secret, she's been running for what feels like years. Christmas is one of the most stressful times of the year for her. Not only is she trying to keep food on the table, but she's trying to make sure that her son has a Christmas that's unforgettably wonderful.

  When their paths cross, Noam is forced to make a choice.

  Will he continue to despise the holiday?

  Or this year, will he take a chance if it means meeting his Christmas mate?

  After all, every dragon deserves a treasure.

  Make sure you check out the other HOWLS HOLIDAYS romance stories here!

  https://howlsromance.com/howls-holidays/

  Prologue

  “What do you mean he turned into a dragon? What does that mean?” Polly’s eyes grew wide as Heather kept grabbing clothes and shoving them into suitcases. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. None of this was supposed to happen.

  “I mean,” Heather said, “that my kid is a shifter.”

  “What the hell is a shifter?” Polly threw her hands up in the air. She obviously thought that Heather was totally, completely insane.

  “It’s like a werewolf, except that they can control it,” that was how Weston had described the shifting process to Heather long ago. It had made sense at the time, but when she said it out loud, it sounded strange on her lips. Uncomfortable. Fake.

  When they’d been dating, she’d been wildly caught up in the fact that her boyfriend could change into a freaking dragon. He’d been able to shift his entire body from its human form to something different. The first time it happened, Heather thought her drink had been spiked and that she’d been hallucinating, but soon she’d learned that the world was just a lot bigger than she’d thought.

  Now, the world felt smaller, and Heather thought she might suffocate if she didn’t start moving. Her kid was a dragon. He was an actual, shapeshifting dragon, and he’d shifted at school. When the principal had called her, it had been obvious that whatever had happened was a big deal.

  Rory had changed, shifting into a dragon for
the very first time, and he’d panicked. He’d run around the school, and he’d broken a bunch of stuff, and he’d scared all of the other kids. Now he was in trouble, and apparently, Heather was in trouble for not warning anyone. She’d had no way of knowing it would happen this soon, though. She hadn’t known it would happen like this.

  “It’s not supposed to happen this early,” Heather told Polly. She reached for a pair of socks she liked. She’d bring those. She’d bring almost everything she owned. The little rental she lived in with Rory was a month-to-month lease and leaving now meant she’d be forgoing her security deposit, but she didn’t care.

  They needed to get away.

  She’d been thinking about moving for a few months. Today was as good a day as any. Heather didn’t know much, but she did know that there was no way she’d be sending her child back to a school where he was going to be labeled as a total freak.

  No way, no how, no thank you.

  “What do you mean?” Polly wanted to know. Polly was nice, kind, and funny. She was Heather’s closest friend, and she’d helped her through some tough times after Weston passed away from cancer. His death had been unexpected, and it had been hard on Heather. Rory had only been two when his dad died, and now he was nearly eight. People always said things like, “time heals all wounds,” but it had been Heather’s experience that time definitely did not heal all wounds.

  Time did nothing.

  Time just marked the passing of life. She’d been caught up in raising her kid, and she’d let the years pass her by. She hadn’t really been living. She’d been hiding, and she’d been trying to cope, and she’d been trying to figure out what she was supposed to do. How was she supposed to raise a shifter child on her own? She’d been doing an okay job, but he wasn’t human. He needed to be around people who were like him, who could help him flourish.

  That was one thing Weston had always said to Heather. He’d always believed that shifters should be around other shifters. Even if it was just once in a while, Weston had said, being around shifters was important. Heather knew that her husband often felt lonely and isolated when he was around humans for too long. She didn’t want her child to feel lonely, too, but she worried now that it was inevitable.

  “I mean that shifters usually don’t come into their powers until they’re like, twelve,” she said. At least, that was how it was supposed to be. Shifters learned how to change once they were ready for puberty. She’d thought that they had time.

  “Twelve?”

  “Twelve.”

  Polly looked across the room at Rory. He was curled up on an armchair. He was already too big for such a sleeping place, and his arms and legs were hanging off at weird angles. Heather had never understood how Rory managed to sleep in such awkward positions without being bothered at all. Weston had been the same way, though, and he’d always told Heather that it was dragon magic.

  Dragon magic.

  That was what she needed right about now. She needed some magic.

  “Are you sure you have to leave?”

  “It’s what’s best for him,” Heather said.

  Heather had been researching different shifter communities. She’d been trying to find a place she could go when Rory was older: a place where he would be safe. She had hoped that she’d be able to find a place where he could relax and be himself. She wanted a home for him where he wouldn’t have to be scared of humans.

  There were many wonderful shifter communities. Places like Honeypot, Colorado were safe, quiet places where shifters could live far from prying eyes. There were islands and clans that were solely for dragon shifters, too. Places like Dragon Isle and Fablestone were safe havens for Rory’s kind.

  But Heather didn’t know the first thing about going to any of those places. She didn’t know the first thing about moving to them. What was she supposed to do? Call the mayor and say, “Excuse me, I have a dragon child I’d like to raise on your island”? Who did that?

  “Do you have a place yet?”

  “I rented a hotel room,” Heather said.

  “Where?”

  “It’s in Rawr County,” Heather told her friend. It was close to where Weston had grown up. His parents had passed away when he was younger, and Weston didn’t have any relatives left, but he’d spent summers in Rawr County and had always spoken highly of the area. He’d left Heather enough money that she didn’t need to worry about working, but she had.

  She’d saved every penny he’d left her. Now she was going to put that money to good use. She’d find a job in Rawr County and find a place for her to live peacefully with her son. Either that, or she’d get a job somewhere else, and they’d move again. She didn’t know what to do.

  Part of Heather knew that Polly was right. She didn’t really have to rush this. She could wait a week, or two weeks, or even a month, but she didn’t want to. Shifters weren’t unheard of in the human world, but they weren’t exactly liked, either. She didn’t want her kid to be a freak. She didn’t want him to be bullied.

  Perhaps most of all, Heather didn’t want anyone to get wind that there was a half-dragon, half-human shifter hanging out in the elementary school. What if someone tried to hurt him? What if a government rat came to take him and tried to do experiments?

  No.

  She wasn’t doing that. Not now. Not before Christmas.

  “We’re leaving first thing in the morning,” Heather said. She nodded, as though to prove her point, but Polly just shrugged.

  Heather knew it was crazy, but they had to get out of there.

  Chapter 1

  “You’re an old grouch,” Noam’s mother said. She waved a wooden spoon in his general direction, and she frowned at him.

  “Mother, I’m not a grouch.”

  “Then why do you hate Christmas so much? Hmm?” Mama shook her head, as though it was the simplest explanation in the world. If he wasn’t a grouch, he wouldn’t hate Christmas. He hated Christmas, so he was a grouch. It was easy, at least in her mind, but Noam disagreed.

  “Mama, you know just as well as I do that Christmas is the one time of year people love to be cruel to each other.” Noam had especially felt the pressure of the holiday this year. It had been a long year full of ups and downs, but mostly downs, and the people in the community were tired. They were worn out, and they were exhausted.

  “Christmas brings with it miracles,” Noam’s mother said simply. She shrugged and went back to her baking, leaving Noam to let her words settle deep within his soul. Was she right? Did Christmas bring miracles? He wasn’t sure anymore. He wasn’t really sure about much of anything.

  Noam and his mother enjoyed a wonderful afternoon together with no more talk of Christmas. That was good, Noam thought, because he had better things to worry about. For example, how was he going to make sure the school’s holiday play went off without a hitch? Noam was the principal at a small elementary school in Rawr County. His job was to make sure that not only did the students who attended his school have a safe, wonderful place to spend their time, but that they learned as much as possible before they grew up a little and were able to spread their wings, both literally and figuratively.

  Noam, like many others in the community, was a shifter. He was a dragon and a man. He wasn’t half and half, no matter what some humans liked to say. He was completely dragon and completely masculine. The form he took depended on what he was doing that day.

  Still, despite the fact that Noam lived in a bit of a shifter town, most of the townspeople liked to remain discreet about their abilities. Not everyone wanted the entire world to know that they could shapeshift. Noam was just fine with that. Many of his students knew he could shift into something, but very few knew that that something was a dragon.

  When he got home that afternoon, Noam settled down with paperwork and planning. A few of the teachers had been pestering him to plan something for the holiday season. Finally, they’d all agreed that a special Christmas play was the best thing to do. They’d have an entire evening w
here parents could come watch a special play that the students would put on. After, they’d socialize and eat cookies and drink cocoa and just have a nice time together.

  It sounded like perfection, Noam thought. It sounded like total and utter perfection. The families could come and see what their students had been working so hard on, and the teachers would get to see just how happy the parents truly were about all of the hard work and effort everyone had put into planning.

  A couple of the teachers wanted to expand upon the holiday event and add something like a gift exchange, but Noam hated the commercialism that had invaded so much of Christmas. Instead, he’d suggested taking donations for a local charity, and the teachers had been delighted. The Little Paw was an animal shelter that not only fostered animals in need, but that provided low-cost veterinary care for pets. The teachers agreed that it would be the perfect place to donate to, and so the planning had begun.

  “Let’s see,” Noam said to himself. He started sorting through the paperwork he had to deal with. He checked a few boxes, marking off tasks he had already accomplished and underlining things he still needed to tackle. He was going to be busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but that was okay.

  If Noam was busy, he wouldn’t have to spend too much time alone with his thoughts. He wouldn’t have to wonder whether his mom was right and he actually was a grouch. As it was, Noam was perfectly content to just sit and work on paperwork for the upcoming holiday event.

  “What do you think, Edgar? Am I a grouch?” Noam looked at his black-and-white kitty cat. Edgar was a proud tuxedo cat who wasn’t afraid to let Noam know when he was being an idiot. Edgar wasn’t a shifter. He was all cat.

  Meow.

  “Meow? That’s it?” Noam narrowed his eyes. Edgar started to purr. Then he happily wrapped himself around Noam’s legs. Noam reached down and scratched Edgar’s ears, and then the back of his head, and then he patted him a little bit.

  Edgar was a good cat, Noam thought, and he was suddenly feeling pretty positive about the school’s decision to make a donation to the animal shelter here in town. If the shelter had more funding, they’d be able to offer adoptions at lower costs, as well as better support for the community.