Dragon's Darling (Fablestone Clan Book 3) Read online

  Her weapon.

  I leap forward, launching myself at her back. I have to stop her. I know I’m too slow, too late, because the dragon howls in pain as he falls back. She shot him with some sort of dart, I think, but she’s on the ground now and I’m firmly sitting on her back. The weapons are long gone, tossed into the darkness with her fall.

  “What the fuck did you do to him?” I yell, screaming. I’m losing control right now, but I don’t even care anymore. “What did you do?”

  Nicole laughs, and it’s all I can do to keep from kicking her in the head. I don’t know what she shot him with, but he seems hurt. He howls over and over again, and then something starts to happen.

  He starts to shrink.

  “What the actual fuck?” I whisper.

  “Didn’t know he could change, did you? Most people don’t know that about the dragons. They aren’t monsters at all. Not really. They’re more than that.”

  She’s right.

  As much as I hate this bitch and don’t want to give her anything, I know that she’s right because I can see him changing before my very eyes. The dragon shifts into a man, and he’s naked on the ground.

  “He’s a prick anyway,” she grumbles. “They all are.”

  “Not another word,” I say.

  I have to figure out what I’m going to do. I’ve got her pinned and her weapons are gone, but I have to figure out a way to tie her up or otherwise incapacitate her. I’m no killer. I’m not going to hurt her. Not like that.

  I do need to figure out how to help this guy, though, because he looks like he’s in some serious pain.

  “Oh, stop being such a baby,” Nicole says. “The pain isn’t that bad.”

  “What did you do?” I ask again, pulling on her hair.

  “Ouch!”

  “Tell. Me.”

  She sighs loudly, as if I’m being completely dramatic. “If you must know,” she says. “I just gave him something to keep him from shifting. He’ll be human now, at least until he’s due for another dose.”

  “How long does the medicine last?”

  She looks at me sideways. “Long enough for us to call for backup. He’s going to need help from my team.”

  I dig my knee into her bag and slide my backpack off. I’ve got rope in there, and I pull it out. I might be a huge fucking nerd, but I can tie more knots than I know what to do with. Thanks to my time camping as a teen. I was in this girls group that focused on outdoor skills and learning to tie knots for a variety of reasons.

  The man groans. He doesn’t seem to be aware of his surroundings anymore. I don’t know how I can help him, but I’m going to do my fucking best as soon as I tie up this bitch. I secure Nicole’s arms behind her back. I go full BDSM-style and tie the rope up to her elbows. I’ve never tried that before, myself, but my roommate into college was a Domme and she taught me a few things about ropes. I make sure I don’t do anything too tight. I’m interested in keeping her in place: not damaging her body.

  Once I know she can’t move her arms, I secure her legs.

  “This hurts,” she complains. “Why are you doing this? This is a mistake. There’s been some sort of misunderstanding.” I ignore her and finish tying her. When I’m finished, Nicole is lying on her side, and I move to the man. I feel completely uncomfortable attending to a naked man that kind of just fell into my life in the middle of the woods, but hey, I’m not going to just leave him to be hurt here. Not alone. Not on my watch.

  I move to the man. Now that I’m looking at him up close, I’m surprised by just how…normal…he looks. I don’t suppose I’ve ever spent much time thinking about dragon shifters and whether they’re real or not. Here he is, though. In the flesh. Here’s a real-life dragon and he’s…yeah, he’s just super naked right now.

  He groans as I near him, but he doesn’t speak.

  “Are you okay?” I ask.

  “He can’t talk,” Nicole says.

  The man is very still on the grass now. He can’t be comfortable. Before I cover him with a blanket or anything like that, I need to make sure he’s actually not really injured. I can see the spot where she shot him. The dart is still sticking out of his skin. I pull it free and he almost whimpers, but I try to ignore his noises and I examine the dart. There’s nothing visible on it. I’m not a scientist. I don’t know anything about poison or darts or weapons or how any of that works.

  I do, however, know that if it has poison in it, the dart could be giving him more and more. Removing it was the proper choice. He’s not bleeding and he appears otherwise unharmed.

  “Do you want a drink of water?” I whisper.

  His eyes are closed, but he makes a grunting noise. I pull a water bottle from my bag and come back to him. I’m not sure how to make this not-weird. No matter what I do, it’s going to be awkward, and I hate that. That’s me: awkward penguin for the win. No matter what I do, no matter where I go, I can never seem to escape the reality.

  So I just ignore it.

  I ignore that he’s naked and I carefully lift his head. I bring the water bottle to his lips and he drinks.

  “Thank you,” he whispers.

  “What’s your name?”

  This time, he doesn’t say anything, and I turn back to Nicole.

  “What the fuck did you do to him?” I ask.

  She just closes her eyes and pretends she can’t hear me.

  Chapter Six

  Lawrence

  Being lost in the woods isn’t how I planned to spend my week. No. My mission was simple: get to the stone tower, sit around for a night, and then come home. When little Julie appeared, I wasn’t worried. I knew she wasn’t a shifter. She wasn’t in trouble. She was just a random human who happened to be camping at our spot. She could be easily ignored, or so I thought. It turns out, however, that I was wrong about her.

  So, so, wrong.

  Julie is much too brave and friendly for her own good, and that bravery may have inadvertently gotten me shot. I don’t know what the fuck Nicole dosed me with, but it’s nothing like anything I’ve ever felt before. I can’t shift, for one thing. I can barely move, for another.

  When Julie gave me water, it took every ounce of me not to scream. She smells amazing and she’s behaving so sweetly. I could hear her heart fucking racing when she neared me. She’s nervous about helping me. I think it’s because she’s never seen a dragon before.

  Either that or she’s impressed by my dick.

  Not that she looked.

  She probably didn’t look.

  I should have known Nicole and Bernie were with Lucky. At least, Nicole was. Her friend is most definitely dead now and I’ll probably never learn the truth about who Bernie is. For all I know, she could be some random stray Nicole picked up at the start of her journey, but my real theory is darker.

  I’m certain Bernie and Nicole were both with Lucky, sent into the forest to do dragon knows what, and Nicole turned on Bernie. Bernie didn’t realize she was to be the bait. Either that, or they both believed the other would be the bait when the time came.

  None of that matters now because Nicole got the jump on me and I’ve been shot. Apparently, my hunting skills are out of practice because everything hurts. Everything feels tight and tension clings to my body.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Julie whispers, and then she strokes my hair. My inner-dragon calls to her, wanting her. We’ve never been taken care of like this before.

  “He’s not going to shift back,” Nicole says, not-helpfully.

  “Fuck you,” Julie says. “And stop talking.”

  I feel a rush of contentment knowing someone is standing up for me, but it’s soured by the knowledge that this might be it. Julie is sweet, but she’s no warrior. Nicole is conniving and shrew. Worst of all, if I can’t shift, then there’s no way for us to get to Fablestone. It’s still dark out. The night isn’t even over.

  What if my clan doesn’t come for me?

  What if they can’t find me?

  I
open my mouth to speak, but no sounds come out. I can’t tell if there’s something permanently wrong with me or not. Then Julie starts talking, and I realize I may have underestimated her.

  “Let’s see what this little guy’s symptoms are,” she murmurs. I take offense at the term “little guy,” but whatever. There’s nothing “little” about me.

  “What, you going to play doctor now?” Nicole asks. I can hear the malice in her voice. I can’t turn my head or open my mouth to speak, but I can sense that she doesn’t like the fact that Julie is still trying. “Let me call my team. My radio is back at my camp.”

  Yeah.

  That’s so not going to happen.

  “He can’t speak,” Julie says. Then she runs her hands down my jaw line. I shiver indiscernibly. Her hands are soft, but firm. “Nothing’s wrong with his mouth. Not just his mouth. It seems to be all of him. Some sort of paralysis poison, maybe.”

  Nicole’s breathing gets huffy. She doesn’t like having her work analyzed.

  Too bad! My inner-dragon is pissed at this entire situation.

  “You couldn’t have done anything permanent to him with just a dart,” Julie muses.

  “That’s not true.”

  Now it’s Julie’s turn to laugh.

  “You don’t work as a teacher and not learn how to tell when someone’s lying, honey,” Julie says. “And you, sweetie, are completely full of shit.”

  “I am not!” Nicole spews off a string of profanities, but Julie doesn’t seem bothered at all.

  Teacher?

  She’s a teacher?

  How random is it that we’re both teachers?

  Maybe it’s not random at all. Maybe it’s fate.

  “I’ve seen a lot of movies in my day,” Julie continues speaking as she touches and pokes my body gently. I’m not sure what she’s doing. Maybe she’s trying to see if there’s anything obviously wrong with my body or perhaps this is just another attempt to piss off Nicole. Either way, I’m not complaining that her hands are on me.

  She has a soft touch, and it’s been a long fucking time since I’ve had a woman touch me.

  Not that there’s anything wrong with women.

  Not that there’s a problem with them touching me.

  It’s just that things at Fablestone have been a little…crazy…for awhile now. Besides, I have to focus on being a good teacher. That’s why I’m still there. I’ve been lonely for a long time, but teaching makes me feel like I’m actually doing something that matters. It makes me think that maybe, just maybe, I’m not going completely crazy.

  Maybe I’m not wasting my life.

  “And one thing I always notice in movies is that when someone gives another person a poison, whether it be through a dart or a pill, there’s some sort of antidote.”

  Suddenly, her hands are off me.

  “Don’t touch me,” Nicole says, and then I don’t hear anything else. I strain myself, trying to hear what’s happening. Did Julie just sock her? Did she kill her? I can’t tell, and it’s driving me nuts. I hear a rustling and a bit of a scuffle. Then Julie comes back to my side.

  “Sorry about that, Mr. Dragon,” she says, running her hands up and down my arms. “I couldn’t take anymore of her smart mouth, so I had to gag her.”

  Mr. Dragon?

  “I went through her pockets and I found this.”

  She’s obviously holding something up, but my eyes are closed now. I think if I tried really, really hard, I could open them. Then again, maybe not. Everything feels hard. My entire body seems like it’s weighted down by some invisible force holding me here.

  If only I could shift.

  In my dragon form, I process poisons and food and toxins quite quickly. It’s not easy to get a dragon sick, which is one of the reasons Lucky is such a dangerous organization. They’ve devoted their entire organization to hurting dragons and shifters as a society.

  Worst of all: they’re good at it.

  Now Julie is standing beside me and she may have found an antidote for whatever they gave me.

  I just hope she’s brave enough to actually give it to me.

  And I hope I’m strong enough for it to work.

  Chapter Seven

  Julie

  It could be a bad idea to give this guy a potion I don’t really know anything about, but we’re kind of out of options here. What am I going to do? Camp indefinitely in the forest with a paralyzed dragon shifter and a tied-up evil bitch? How long would we even survive?

  Fuck, are we even going to make it through tonight?

  I don’t know what my responsibilities are regarding the man, but he looks so fucking helpless. Plus, I mean, he did kind of try to come to my rescue. If Nicole hadn’t been so quick with her weird poison dart thing, he definitely would have saved me.

  Now I have to save him.

  When I fucked with her pockets, I discovered Nicole had a weird ointment. It was labeled with a smiley face. There was also a dart gun – the one she used on this man – that was labeled with an X. There were a few darts in there, too. If this man belongs to a group of dragons, maybe they have someone in their organization who can analyze the darts I found.

  I don’t like knowing this woman and her buddies are going around hunting dragons.

  It’s just wrong.

  What do they do with them, anyway?

  Experiment on them?

  Maybe using this cream on the dragon guy is going to turn out to be a terrible choice, but there’s only one way to find out.

  “Here goes nothing,” I mutter, and I pull the cap off the tube. Instantly, the scent of peppermint fills my nostrils. The man’s own nostrils flare, almost indiscernibly. There are so many unique things about him. I can’t help but find myself wondering if he’s going to want to talk to me after all of this. Like, are we going to hang out and get coffee sometime?

  Don’t be stupid, Julie. This random forest guy isn’t going to want to chill with you.

  I know it’s dumb, but I’m already developing a bit of a little crush on him. It’s totally inappropriate and not called for at all, but there you go.

  “Okay, so here’s what I found,” I tell him. He can’t reply. I get that. He still deserves to know what’s about to happen to him. One of the biggest things I teach my students is that they’re the ones in charge of their own bodies. No one else is. They have the right to say yes or no to being touched, even if it’s something as minute as hugging a relative. Here I am, though, about to touch this dude against his will – possibly – and he can’t do anything about it. I hate that feeling. I wish there was a way for him to tell me this is okay.

  “It’s a cream,” I continue, taking a deep breath. “It has a smiley face on it. The other thing I found was the dart gun and some other darts. That unit has an X on it. I don’t know if you have other dragons you live with. Maybe if you have a tech guy…”

  My voice trails off because this is all just so overwhelming.

  What if this cream does nothing?

  What if it makes things worse?

  Pull it together.

  “The cream…” I continue. “Maybe your guy can analyze it. I’m going to start putting it on you. Hopefully it will help bring some of the feeling back to your body.”

  I take a little drop of ointment and place it on each of his cheeks. Then I rub it in carefully. He can smell it. That much is certain. Maybe having this close to his nose will help increase his feeling in his face. Maybe he’ll be able to talk.

  Two more drops of ointment go on the inside of his wrists. It’s the same spot my aunt always puts her perfume. Just a little bit there. I rub it into his skin, trying not to think about how I’m touching a very attractive, very naked man in the forest. There’s a ton of ointment left, but I don’t want to waste it by using the whole thing. Maybe this is good for several uses. I don’t know. I mean, why does Nicole even have the antidote? Is it in case she shoots herself or a friend? It’s not like they’d be able to use it on themselves. Not if they
were paralyzed.

  I feel like the harder I think, the more questions I have.

  The man’s face squishes up, suddenly, and I look at him sharply.

  “It’s working,” I whisper.

  He opens his mouth.

  Closes it again.

  No sound comes out, so maybe it’s not working as fast as I hoped. Still, though, a little movement is better than nothing. Nicole is wiggling on the ground, but I ignore her. She’s bound and gagged. I probably should have blindfolded her, too.

  “Stop wiggling,” I hiss at her. There must be something in my voice that tells her I’m not fucking around because she stops, and I turn back to the guy.

  It’s impossible not to notice his abs. They’re perfectly fucking carved into his flesh. I reach out and run my hands over them. No longer able to resist, I touch his stomach. His eyes open and he looks at me with blazing orange eyes.

  “I hope this is okay,” I whisper quietly.

  He blinks.

  I guess that means yes.

  I run my hand over his skin. There’s still some of the ointment on my hands, so maybe it’ll help a little bit. I’m not sure. I know his skin feels smooth, though. Irresistibly smooth.

  “Ointment,” I whisper. “You need more. I think it’s starting to work a little bit.”

  He blinks again.

  “Your eyes are open now, and you moved your mouth. That’s good.”

  I don’t want to tell him that if he doesn’t get it together quickly that a giant animal could come eat us all.

  Or worse.

  Nicole’s little group could find us.

  She probably has some sort of tracking chip implanted in her. It’s the ultimate evil corporation fallback plan. It would be cliché, but I won’t be shocked if we’re suddenly surrounded by evil dudes in black dropping out of helicopters.

  Focus.

  I remember when I was sick, my mom used to put Vick’s on my feet and then cover them with socks. Maybe it’ll work the same with this guy. I move to his feet, carefully ignoring the abundant manhood he’s sporting. I’ve seen my share of dicks, but his is ridiculously beautiful.