Dragon's Oath Read online

  “Good morning, beautiful,” Cameron says. He doesn’t even turn around. He just instinctually knows I’m here.

  “Good morning.”

  “Come in,” he looks over his shoulder at me and his eyes hungrily roam my body. A seductive grin spreads over his face.

  I’m not wearing anything, either.

  Natalie

  My bag is packed, but I’m not ready to go.

  How could I ever be ready to leave all of this behind?

  Fablestone has been perfect. Amazing. Incredible. It’s been everything I could ever want in a home, and I hate knowing that I’m about to leave all of this behind. There’s a little voice in the back of my head asking what I’m going to do if I never come back.

  What if I never return?

  I can’t think like that, though. That kind of thinking is non-productive and non-beneficial. Right now, my clan needs me, and I have no choice but to leave in order to save it. If there was anything else I could do here, I would do it, but my knowledge only extends so far, and this is much too big for one girl.

  This is much too big for me.

  I hoist the heavy backpack on and take one last look at my tiny home. It’s perfect in every way, except for my ailing father in the first floor bedroom and my desperate mother sitting beside him. She’s waiting, watching. Whether it’s for him to recover or for him to die, I don’t know.

  All I know is that Fablestone only has one chance at surviving this sickness.

  There’s only one man who can save us, and it’s up to me to find him.

  I sign my name on the note on the table: the note that’s going to tell my mother where I’ve gone and why. It might not be better to ask forgiveness than permission, but in this case, I don’t think I have much of a choice. I rarely leave the depths of this forest, but if Fablestone is to have a chance, I’m going to have to go into the mountains and find the one man who can save us all.

  I’m going to have to find the man who left Fablestone behind many year ago.

  I’m going to have to find Donald.

  THE END

  Want more Fablestone? Find Dragon’s Breath (Book 2) on Amazon.

  Author

  Sophie Stern loves cowboys, soldiers, and shifters. When she’s not busy writing, she’s got her nose buried in a book. Sophie lives with her husband and two little boys who are always keeping her on her toes.

  You can connect with Sophie through her website or on Facebook.

  Make sure to sign up for Sophie’s mailing list here! You’ll receive updates when new books come out and be the first to know when something goes on sale!

  Readers!

  If you enjoyed this book, will you do me a favor? Reviews are one of the best ways you can let authors know what you loved – or hated – about a book. Would you consider leaving me a review on Amazon or Goodreads? Thank you!!!

  More shifters!

  Need more dragons? Bears? Wolves? Check out one of my other shifter stories.

  Dragon Isle

  Stepdragon (Dragon Isle)

  My Lord and Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 1)

  The Dragon Fighter (Dragon Isle Book 2)

  A Dragon's Bite (Dragon Isle Book 3)

  Lost to the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 4)

  Beware of Dragons (Dragon Isle Book 5)

  Catching the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 6)

  Cowboy Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 7)

  Dark Heart of the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 8)

  Once Upon a Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 9)

  Polar Bears of the Air Force

  Staff Sergeant Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 1)

  Master Sergeant Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 2)

  Airman Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 3)

  Senior Airman Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 4)

  Red (Wolf-Shifter Romance)

  Red: Into the Dark

  Red: Through the Dark

  Red: Beyond the Dark

  Honeypot Darlings

  The Bear's Virgin Darling (Honeypot Darlings Book 1)

  The Bear's Virgin Mate (Honeypot Darlings Book 2)

  The Bear's Virgin Bride (Honeypot Darlings Book 3)

  Honeypot Babies

  The Polar Bear's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 1)

  The Jaguar's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 2)

  The Tiger's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 3)

  The Wolfe City Pack

  The Wolf's Darling (The Wolfe City Pack Book 1)

  The Wolf's Mate (The Wolfe City Pack Book 2)

  The Wolf's Bride (The Wolfe City Pack Book 3)

  Thank you for reading!

  Alien Beast

  He's a war hero.

  She's a virgin.

  He's broken.

  She's perfect.

  When he finds her in the midst of an alien war, Luke takes Willow for himself. He can't help it. He's never taken a prisoner alive before, but Willow is different. He needs her. He wants her. Most of all, he craves her.

  Willow is a human who has the worst luck in the world. When the tour ship she's on malfunctions and crash-lands on the wrong planet, she's thrust into the middle of a war: one she has no desire to be in. With people dying all around her, Willow tries to hide, but it's too late.

  She's captured by an alien beast unlike anything she’s ever seen before.

  And the worst part is that after awhile, she's not so sure she wants him to let her go.

  Chapter 1

  Willow looked around the tiny room she was going to call home for the rest of the month. The bed was smaller than she expected, even for an interstellar cruise ship, and there were no windows. That’s what she got for trying to skimp on her trip, though. The cost of the excursion was already so high before adding luxuries like windows or extra-large beds that she had chosen not to spring for those things.

  Willow had been saving for years to take this trip. She didn’t want to waste any extra cash on things she didn’t really need. Only now, as she stared at the tiny, plain space, she wondered if she had made a mistake. She’d seen Ashley’s room. It was big. There was a large, double bed covered in soft pillows and blankets. The in-room bathroom was huge, too. It was almost as big as the suite itself with a bathtub and a shower.

  Willow couldn’t believe it. Her family had money, but Ashley’s was positively loaded. Willow couldn’t imagine something as spectacular as a bathtub on her trip, but then, she might as well not even think about it. She would be sharing a bathroom with several other females in her hall. She didn’t even have the pleasure of showering alone, and Ashley had a bathtub.

  Placing her bag on the tiny bed, Willow walked around the room once more. It wasn’t as horrible as she thought it was at first. It was plain, to be sure, but there was a large floor-to-ceiling mirror and a little desk she could sit at when she wasn’t sleeping.

  Not that Willow planned to spend much time in her room.

  No, her time on the ship would be spent at the on-board night club or wandering around the many different dining facilities. This was an all-you-can-eat vacation with lots of on-board activities, so Willow planned to take advantage of all the free stuff she could.

  After all, she’d paid enough for the cruise itself.

  A monotone voice came over the speaker announcing that the ship would be leaving Mars in the next five minutes. Anyone who wanted to watch the ship take off should proceed to the top level.

  Willow didn’t really care about saying goodbye to Mars. Colony 12 would be just fine without her. As a human child, her family had left before Earth died, before it was completely obliterated. She could barely remember the planet at all. Mars was her home now.

  Oh, she’d have to come back home in a month, of course, but there was nothing for her there now. There was nothing and no one waiting for her, not since she’d turned down her mother’s “suggestion” that she marry Anthony Weathermore.

  It hadn’t really been a suggestion, Willow knew. It had
been an ultimatum: one Willow didn’t appreciate. She could marry Anthony Weathermore and secure her family’s position in Colony 12, or she could fuck off.

  She had taken the second option.

  She didn’t want to think about it, though. This month was about having fun, about finding herself. This month was about meeting new people and maybe hanging out with Ashley a little bit.

  Willow stripped out of her day dress and changed into a black tank top, black shorts, and black sandals. It was a lot of black for someone so pale, she knew. Her mother always complained that Willow dressed a little like a vampire, but that was how she liked it. Black was her favorite color.

  Besides, she liked the way her skin contrasted with the dark fabric.

  She applied some lip gloss and brushed her hair, then grabbed her room bracelet and slipped it on. The thin metal bracelet was the only way to access different areas of the ship, so she didn’t want to lose it. Hers was programmed to open her bedroom door, as well as other areas she was allowed to access.

  The bracelets were how underage travelers were kept out of the club and adults-only area, but were also how the staff members kept track of kids for the on-board children’s programs. The bracelets also enabled you to buy things on the ship. When she had boarded Ship 449302, Willow had added credits to her bracelet that would last her for the duration of her trip.

  At least, she hoped they would last. Things were already turning out to be more expensive than she had hoped. Who knew vacations could be so costly? Sure, it was her first solo trip, but at this rate, Willow wouldn’t be able to take another vacation for, well, ever.

  Hopefully she wouldn’t run into Ashley when her friend was in a shopping mood. Willow liked Ashley a lot, but not enough to go into crazy debt for. When she went back home to Mars, she’d need to figure out some sort of future for herself. Willow didn’t want to. She’d much rather travel around like this, exploring the world, than go sit around some boring colony.

  Too bad we don’t always get what we want, she thought glumly.

  Stepping into the brightly-lit hallway, she closed the door to her room and waved her bracelet in front of the circular panel to lock it. A bright yellow light let her know the room was now locked. It was secure and she could go explore without worrying that anyone was going to take any of her meager belongings.

  “Tricky, isn’t it?” A voice sounded from beside her. Willow turned and looked up at a tall blonde man who was smiling at her.

  “I, um, suppose,” she agreed, even though it really wasn’t that hard to figure out. Was he serious? Locking her room was by far the easiest thing she’d done all day.

  Figuring out how to get through the decontamination tunnels to actually access her room had been tough. This was a piece of cake compared to that. She shivered involuntarily as she thought of the way the sticky goo had covered her body in the tunnels, then the sucking room she’d had to go through. Vacuum-like robots had sucked the pink slime from her body, along with all the contaminants she carried on her body from Mars.

  Interstellar travel was hard enough without spreading foreign germs everywhere. At least, that’s what the brochure said. People chose Ship 449302 because it was so clean, because it was guaranteed not to spread diseases between planets. When people traveled on a cruise ship, they wanted to have fun jumping in Trocklee ponds, not coming down with Iteliansalei Fever.

  The blonde man saw Willow shiver and obviously mistook it for cold because he nodded knowingly.

  “Chilly, I know. You’re human, right? I know the first time human females travel through space it can be difficult to adjust to the temperature. You know how you can solve that, right?”

  “Um,” Willow looked around, but to her dismay, the rest of the hallway was empty. She was basically stuck with this guy. “No, I don’t know,” she said, turning to start walking down the hall.

  “Why, a man, of course,” he said. The man followed close behind her, much to her dismay, and placed a hand on her lower back. Was this guy serious? Willow wasn’t especially confrontational, but this was ridiculous. Just because she was traveling by herself didn’t give him the right to get all handsy on her.

  “Excuse me,” she murmured. “I have a girlfriend, so if you’ll be so kind.” It was a lie, but he didn’t know that. She motioned to his hand, but the man didn’t seem to take a hint.

  “Oh, that’s no trouble to me,” he said eagerly.

  “No, I mean move your hand,” she pushed his hand away, and he frowned, but pulled his hand back to himself.

  “As I was saying,” he continued, following her down the hall. “A man can help you warm up, you know, in more ways than one.”

  “Too bad I have a girlfriend,” Willow repeated noncommittally. She passed several small doors that were identical to the one for her room, then turned a corner. Around the bend, she spotted a central set of elevators and began to walk toward them.

  “Are you going to the roof for the farewell ceremony?” The man asked. He stood beside Willow as she waved her bracelet in front of the elevator’s circular side plate to call it. With her luck, she’d be waiting half an hour to get away from the creep.

  She wasn’t sure why she felt so uncomfortable with this man, yet she did. He was obviously, human, like her. Was he a resident of Mars? Was he from Colony 12? Something about him made her feel vulnerable and unsure of herself: two things Willow never felt. Ever.

  Luckily, she was saved from having to answer by a couple of rowdy females who came from another hallway. They were laughing loudly, giggling and pointing at things. Were they drunk already? Maybe they’d boarded early and gotten some special refreshments. Willow heard the petal juice on the ship was to die for.

  “Oh, are you waiting for the lift?” One of the girls asked, pointing to the elevators.

  “Yes,” Willow answered quickly.

  “Did you scan your, um, thingie?” The girl lifted her bracelet and pointed to it. “You have to scan it next to that, you know.” She pointed to the round metal piece mounted on the wall beside the elevator. “It’s just like the bedroom doors.”

  “She knows, Jenny,” her friend said, rolling her eyes. “Sorry about my friend,” she turned to Willow. “She’s a bit, well, you know.”

  “It’s okay,” Willow said with a smile, happy she didn’t have to be alone with Sir-Creeps-a-Lot any longer.

  “Is this your first time on a space cruiser?” The girl asked.

  “Yes,” Willow told her, but didn’t offer any further information. The girl didn’t seem to need it, though, because she began talking at warp speed.

  “Oh, you’re going to just love it,” she said. “You must visit the water center on the 15th level deck. There’s a hot pool and a cold tub and a rainbow tub that has water from four different planets!”

  “Why do they call it a rainbow tub?” Willow couldn’t help but ask. Her curiosity was piqued.

  “It’s a rainbow tub because the water from different planets doesn’t mix. So the water from Taneyemm, for example, is clear. The water from Orchid, on the other hand, is bright purple. It’s beautiful.”

  “And it’s safe?” Willow asked, but the two girls just laughed.

  “Just don’t drink the water,” Jenny said.

  “Why not?”

  Just then, the doors to the elevator opened and the women squeezed inside, along with the blonde man from the hall. Willow cringed as his body touched hers in the narrow space. The elevator was a small, round area that really only should have fit two people, yet somehow the four of them managed to squeeze in.

  “Top,” Jenny said loudly. Nothing happened. “Top,” she repeated. Finally, she turned to her friend. “Lily, make it work,” she whined.

  Lily sighed, then spoke. “Top deck,” she said loudly, and the elevator whooshed off. Willow did her best to stay standing perfectly still. She didn’t want to touch the strange man any more than she had to. Finally, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Jenny and Lily hopped off,
followed by the man. He turned back to say something to Willow, but she quickly said “Close,” and the elevator doors shut immediately.

  “16th deck,” she said before the man could open the doors again. Immediately, the elevator began moving down, and she breathed a sigh of relief. It shouldn’t be so horrifying to be stuck with a strange man, but there was something weird about the blonde that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

  There was something strange about him.

  Taking a deep breath, Willow stepped off the elevator at the 16th floor and took a look around. The elevator opened into a large lobby-like area with several hallways shooting off in different directions. She took a look at one of the maps posted on the wall.

  Just one floor down was the water floor. That was the floor Lily had talked about with the rainbow water. Willow wanted to see it, but not right now. Right now she wanted to eat. Call her fat or dorky, but she needed food. Any food.

  She noticed there was a dining area down one of the halls, so she followed it, passing many different looking people on the way. Some of them were obviously rich and well-to-do. People like Ashley, she thought. They were all dressed in gowns and formalwear. Most of them simply ignored Willow and her strange outfit, but a few people actually lifted their noses at her.

  She saw why when she reached the dining area at the end of the hall. It was a formal dining room where a ball gown was required. Damn. Willow sighed and turned to go, but the woman at the hostess booth smiled at her.

  “Hungry?” She asked knowingly.