Hidden Dragons (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 2
Ed had no idea why those bastards had it in for them because his kind weren’t into harming others, but there always seemed to be evil willing to take down anything good. Maybe next time he or one of his kind encountered one of them, they should take them so they had the answers of why the hunters wanted them gone, but so far they’d been elusive. As far back as he could remember, Ed and his dragon kin had been warned about the hunters seeking them.
Hundreds of years ago his kind had been protectors of humans, but as the population grew it had become too dangerous to constantly watch over them. Of course they stepped in whenever there was danger to the human species to protect them, but mostly they kept to themselves and stayed hidden in their lair.
Ed entered the kitchen to find it packed full. His dragon brothers were all sitting around the massive table stuffing themselves with food. Just as he sat down, his flight kin Elijah Griffin and Erwin Sheer walked over and sat on either side of him.
Lance DeLuca was the oldest living dragon in existence and although he was unmated, he was nearly two thousand years old. That was an enigma to all of his kind because unless a dragon shifter found a mate, they usually died by their thousandth year. Plus, Lance’s flight kin were no longer living. It was unheard of for a dragon to continue to live if his flight brothers were deceased, too, but Ed had a feeling their patriarch only lived to guide and care for the rest of them.
“I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this,” Eli grumbled as he began to load his plate with bacon, eggs, pancakes, and sausages.
“If I don’t get some relief soon, my dragon is going to win our power struggle.” Erwin sighed, scrubbed a hand over his face and shifted in his seat.
“I hear you, but we have no idea where she is.”
Lance plonked more platters of food on the table before taking his seat at the head of the table near Eli.
“You’ve been dreaming of your mate,” Lance stated.
“We have.” Ed sighed. “For the last six months.”
“We can’t take much more, Lance.” Eli reached for his knife and fork.
“You need to open yourselves up totally. You’re letting your minds rule.”
“What do you mean?” Erwin asked with a frown.
“You need to trust in fate. You’re still holding back. You need to let your minds go and let your dragons and hearts free.”
“They are too aggressive,” Eli said in an abrupt angry voice.
“Of course they are,” Lance replied calmly. “They want out so they can find their mate.”
“But what if we can’t control them? What if they end up hurting someone, or our mate? What if we can’t find her? Will we be able to change back?” Ed asked.
“Ye of little faith,” Lance muttered, but since they all had enhanced hearing and senses, Ed and his dragon kin heard every word. When he realized that no one else was talking, he glanced up to find all eyes turned to them with curiosity. Nothing was a secret when they lived in a shared, hidden lair.
The den had been bleak damp caves in the beginning, but over time, each generation of dragons had burrowed into the rock beneath the surface of the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. Now each flight trio had their own apartment of rooms with every luxury they needed to live a comfortable life. The only exception was they had to keep hidden from the humans and hunters. The hunters were the bane of a dragon shifter’s existence, but so far this generation hadn’t encountered any of them and he was beginning to think that they had died out. But right now he was more worried about finding his mate and trying to deal with an angry dragon.
“How do you know that our dragons won’t take over?” Erwin barked out his question.
“You’ve been angry before,” Lance began. “Did you harm anyone while feeling ire?”
“You know we haven’t,” Eli said before stuffing a piece of pancake into his mouth.
“And you won’t this time.” Lance stared at each of them.
“You can’t be certain—ˮ
“Yes I can.” Lance cut Ed off. “I have been alive for nearly two thousand years. Do you think I’ve never seen the mating heat of a dragon pod before? Do you think I am here out of the goodness of my heart?”
“You mean you’re not?” Rex Humphries said with a smile. His flight kin, Russ Charge, and Randy Holmes elbowed Rex in his sides, making him grunt.
“Well not just that.” Lance smirked. “I was appointed guardian to you lot before your sires and dams were killed by the hunters. It’s my job to make sure you’re fed and know everything there is to know about your heritage, your skills and such. If I hadn’t taken up the offer as guardian, I would be long dead, but that’s of no consequence. What’s important is that you listen to me, but more importantly you listen to your dragons.”
“But we don’t know everything yet. Do we, Lance?” Eli asked.
“No. I wasn’t allowed to reveal all until the first of you reached the mating heat. Now that the oldest of you have, I can tell you everything.”
“But—ˮ Eli said before Lance cut him off.
“There is no but. If the hunters and that bitch of a witch hadn’t killed all of your parents they would still be here to guide you, but since they’re not, you need to listen. You might be hearing what I’m saying, but none of you are really listening to a word I’m saying. Do you want to find your mate or not?” Lance asked in a hard voice.
“Of course we do,” Ed answered emphatically.
“You and your flight kin are the leaders of the lair and as such will mate first. After you have your female by your side, the rest of the dragon pods will find their fated mate.”
“Why does it have to be in order?” Andre Carr asked.
Lance shrugged. “It just seems the way the fates work.”
“Tell us more,” Aiden Tittle, one of Andre’s pod kin, demanded.
“When the erotic dreams begin, your dragon will know that your fated one is close. Denying your inner beast will just make things so much harder. The anger will grow until you feel like it’s going to consume you.
“The only way to find peace is to let your dragon fly free, but you must make sure you only do that in the darkness of night. Even with the ability of reflection, a hunter can still spot the anomaly and know you’re there. The sky has a shimmer just like when heat is rising from the black asphalt in the desert sun. Plus, they seemed to have an inbuilt radar where our kind are concerned. The only time a dragon is free to fly without being detected is the cooler hours of night. But again there is still no guarantee a hunter won’t find you.”
“I thought the hunters were just stories of myth,” Alex Trump said.
“Like dragons?” Lance asked, making everyone chuckle.
“Okay. I get it, but why haven’t we seen any of the hunters in our lifetime?”
“How often have you entered the human world?” Lance asked.
“We’ve been out often enough,” Eli said. “We had to buy the computers, security systems, and furnishings for the lair.”
“Yes, but you’ve taken turns to acquire what was needed. If you’d visited town more than a couple of times a year each, the hunters would have felt your presence. Plus, we’ve acquired things over a three-hundred-year period. Most of the furnishings you salvaged were from your sires and dam’s lair. “
“But why? Surely if the hunters are as attuned to our kind as you say they are, they would sense us even on one trip?” Rex asked.
“No, they may be able to sense an anomaly in the air, but it takes time for their built-in sonars, if you will, to lock onto your personal heat signatures,” Lance explained.
“So they need to feel us more than once to be able to sense us and latch on to our dragon’s body heat and spirit?”
“In essence. Yes,” Lance answered.
“But if we let our dragons out in search of our mate, won’t that be putting her in jeopardy? It might take us more than one night for our beasts to find her, and if that’s the case, if the hunters are
around, we could be putting her and everyone in the lair in danger?”
Lance sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Yes, it is a risk, but you all only have one fated mate. The hunters can’t fly like you can, nor can they breathe fire. You have far more enhanced skills than they ever will. But if you deny your inner animal from finding the other half of its soul, you will all end up going insane.”
“Fuck!” Erwin frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “So you’re really saying we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t.”
“Pretty much,” Lance replied. “There really is only one choice. You need to find your mate and convince her to join with you, but you need to take care to make sure the hunters don’t find her while you’re courting her. I wouldn’t put it past those assholes to use your one to get to you.”
“What do they want with us?” Eli asked.
“To eradicate all of our kind,” Lance answered.
“But why?” Ed frowned.
“Because we are the only species stronger than they are, and if they were able to kill us all off, they will be able to take over rule of Earth.”
“This is about power?” Aiden asked.
“Yes. Power and wealth.”
“Well damn.” Ed leaned back in his seat.
“You’re going to need to be careful,” Lance said. “The hunters can kill us, but the only way is if they have the spears made from obsidian glass. That glass is so hard it’s able to slice through the toughest dragon scales, but we all know the only way to kill us is if they can get to our dragon’s heart. If you are injured with an obsidian-tipped spear it will take longer to heal than normal. I’m not sure why. The only thing past dragons could come up with was that the glass has certain minerals or properties in it that slows the healing process. If you do get wounded by a hunter’s spear, you’ll be more vulnerable until fully healed again. Blood loss can weaken a dragon just the same as a human.”
“Fucking hell.” Aiden growled. “Maybe it would be best if none of us met our mates.”
“Do you really believe that?” Ed asked. He wondered if any of his lair brothers had been having dreams of their fated mates. “Have any of you been dreaming at night?”
All of his comrades shook their heads.
“The craving to meet your one is like a piece of you is missing,” Erwin said.
“The dreams are erotic, and no matter how much you think you can ignore the hunger, you can’t.” Eli shifted in his seat.
“We’ve been dreaming of our mate for nearly six long fucking months,” Ed explained, frustration creeping into his voice. “Those dreams leave us tied up in knots and so damn fucking horny it’s painful. No amount of jacking off relieves that aching desire.”
“Our dragons are antsy all the time and I’m sure you’ve all noticed how irate we’ve been.” Erwin raised an eyebrow and the rest of the men sitting around the table nodded.
“That anger is nearly all consuming at times and it feels like we’re going a little crazy.” Eli frowned.
“What? You mean you weren’t already?” Andre said with a smirk.
Ed and everyone else burst out laughing. It felt good to relieve a little tension with humor. But he also knew he and his flight pod weren’t going to put their beasts off any longer.
In the early hours of the morning, he and his two friends were going to find their mate, but what they were going to do when they found her was anyone’s guess.
How do you court a woman if you have to stay hidden in daylight hours?
“Lance, can the hunters detect our dragons when we’re in our human skin?”
“They used to be able to, but I’m not sure now. The last time we encountered any hunters was the early 1700s. Our kind never nested in populated areas and when we went out, it was always in our animal form with our protective reflection shield up. We were self-sufficient back then, making our own furnishings, growing our own food and hunting for meat. We’ve stayed hidden as much as possible.
“Way back when the first dragon shifter was created, magic was used prevalently and evil was easy to detect. The wizards and witches have all but died out and magic doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
“The only way you will get relief from your dragons is to find your mate.”
“Then I think we need to find our mate and then court her in our human form.”
“Can the hunters be killed?” Eli asked.
“Yes,” Lance answered. “Dragon fire turns them to ash. If their hearts are pierced or they are beheaded, they will die. They do have regenerative healing, but it isn’t as fast as ours. They can die from blood loss as well as grievous injuries, but the best way is dragon fire. They are reduced to ash quickly and there is no way they can heal from that. “
“Then it should be easy to get rid of them,” Andre said.
“They always travel in groups of ten or more,” Lance said. “Or at least they used to. Just because they are more human than we are, doesn’t mean they will be easy to kill. You have to remember that they have years of training from their predecessors. They were always great tacticians, and with today’s technology and all the martial arts and military training, I wouldn’t underestimate them.”
“What skills do they have?” Alex asked. “Do they have magic as well as enhanced senses?”
“The earlier generations always thought so, but I’ve never seen it if that was the case, but never discount anything. It just may save your lives.” Lance rose to his feet and began to collect the dishes. “What they do have is speed beyond your imagination. As to the magic, I don’t think so, but they have unbelievable strength and senses. You will need to be vigilant at all times.”
Ed and the rest of his pod helped take the dishes into the kitchen. It was going to be the longest day he’d ever endured, but he was eager to let his dragon out now that he knew his animal would be able to find their mate.
Meeting their mate after dreaming of her for so long was going to be the highlight of his nearly three-hundred-year existence, and from the look of his flight brothers smiling faces and tense muscles, they were just as eager as he was for the night to come.
Chapter Two
Bid was exhausted by the time she got home from a long day working at the Rock Springs City Hall. Her boss Wallace Core, or Wally, as the staff preferred to call him, had barked out orders like he’d had a stick shoved up his ass. She felt like she’d run from one end of the building to the other searching out archived records, and as soon as she handed whatever Wally had wanted over, he’d sent her off on another wild goose chase. He was acting way out of character, and she wondered if he’d had a fight with his girlfriend or something. Usually Wally handed her a list of things he wanted and she would search them out and then hand the whole lot of documents over at once, but not today.
He’d been flustered, angry, and impatient, so the opposite of his calmer irritable, snarky demeanor. When she’d first met him, she’d thought he was a very handsome, burly man, but over time her opinion of him had changed. Oh, he was still handsome and buff, but when he smiled his eyes seemed to remain cold and expressionless. There was just something about him that wasn’t quite right. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but he acted really strange at times. Today was a real eye-opener, and she had an awful feeling Wally could be downright evil and violent.
Bid shivered as she moved through her small cottage-style home heading for the shower. After spending the day doing Wally’s bidding she felt sweaty, grimy and downright dirty. But not just on the outside. She felt almost violated somehow, but didn’t know why she felt that way. She’d caught Wally looking at her a few times and she felt like he was looking right into her soul but not in a good way. It had been downright creepy.
With a sigh and a nervous chuckle she stripped out of her clothes and after starting the shower, she stepped in. The warm water helped ease some of the tension from her muscles as she stood under the reviving flow and she started to wash herself.
Running to and fro today wasn’t the only reason she was feeling so drained. The dreams had been consistent every night for nearly six months and she didn’t know how many more broken nights of sleep she could endure. If she didn’t get a good night’s sleep soon she just very well may end up going crazy
When she was finished washing, Bid turned the water off and stepped out to dry off. She stopped and stared at herself in the mirror and sighed when she saw the dark smudges beneath her eyes now that she’d washed her makeup away. They were so dark they looked almost bruised and her face was paler than normal, and even though she was worried about not getting enough sleep, she didn’t really care what she looked like. She had no one to impress and no family to visit or worry over her.
Her mother had been a child when she’d had her and given her up for adoption, and even though she’d been lucky enough to be adopted by a very loving older couple, they had died when a truck had lost control on an icy road and killed them instantly. She’d been about to turn seventeen and start her last year of high school, and although it had been hard for her to finish her high school education, she’d done it.
Her adoptive parents had bought this house when they’d first got married and had paid it off pretty quickly. There had been a life insurance policy which hadn’t been huge, but was enough for her to pay her college education as well as the household bills. By the time she’d had her business degree there had been little money left, but Bid had found a job straight out of college at City Hall and had been there ever since.
Although there were other employees she interacted with, most of them were a lot older than her and had their own families to look after, so she didn’t socialize with any of her coworkers.
Most of her previous fellow students had left town heading for the big cities hoping for opportunities that smaller towns didn’t offer, and so Bid spent most of her spare time alone. She liked her own company well enough but she got lonely just like anyone else, and in those times she missed her adoptive parents so much.