Cruel Daddy Dragon (Candara Dragon Ops #3)

Chapter 1 - Rufus

The crisp, brisk wind glances over the top of my scales, carrying with it the scent I’m hunting. Eclipse… My muscles tense as I prowl, keeping low to the ground as I wind around the snow-covered trees. Then, he comes into view. A black dragon coils around the trees, also smelling the air. But I’m downwind of him; he won’t smell me. I stalk behind him, treading lightly so the snow doesn’t reveal me. Soon, I’m close enough for his tail to almost hit me. Then I strike.

The dragon snarls and claws at me as I hit his back—but it’s already too late. I sink my teeth into his neck and tear. Blood fills my mouth, and he falls limp in a moment.

“That’s for destroying Soleilus’s base,” I growl to the corpse as he falls.

We, the Candara team, weren’t there to protect our own home when it was attacked and destroyed, sending our members fleeing to Greyson Ridge. This is the next best thing. I suppose there’s a possibility it couldn’t have been Eclipse, but considering all they’ve put us through, there’s no doubt in my mind.

As I spit the blood from my mouth, a voice rips through the air behind me: “Rufus!”

It's the Alpha tone. A chill moves through my body before I turn to face him. Cyrus lands by my side, glaring at me.

“What are you doing?!” he snarls, “We’ve talked about this!”

His tone sends another chill down my spine, and a touch of adrenaline scatters through me.

“Sorry, Alpha,” I answer automatically, “But I was sure that he was moving threateningly toward Greyson Ridge.”

“That doesn’t matter! That—” Cyrus breaks off with an annoyed sigh that turns into a growl, “Never mind. I’ll burn this corpse, and we’ll get back to the Miller Mansion before you can jeopardize the plan anymore.”

He does just that, and all evidence that there was a dragon in this forest sizzles away into nothing. With that, Cyrus turns another harsh glare on me.

“Let’s go,” he grunts.

I bow my head, and Cyrus takes flight. I follow after him. As we glide through the air, Cyrus sweeps closer to me in the air and asks, shouting over the howling wind:

“Rufus, do you understand what we’re doing here?”

“Yeah, I do,” I answer.

“Then why are you attacking Eclipse members when we’re supposed to be keeping a lower profile than ever?” Cyrus snaps, “We need to be giving them the impression that Soleilus is weakened after our base was attacked. We need them to think that we’re hiding in Greyson Ridge for no other reason than to lick our wounds—we need them to think we’re not a threat right now!”

A growl slips past my teeth, and the Alpha cocks his head at me inquisitively.

“I’m sorry, it’s just killing me that those bastards are slithering around here like they own this territory!” I grumble.

“I know,” Cyrus admits, “I can barely stand it either. But we’re losing the battle to win the war. If Julie and Lena can finish that map to all the keys they’ve been making, then we’ll have access to powerful enough relics to get our strength back and then some. Then, and only then, Eclipse will get what’s coming to them.”

Another growl of frustration escapes my throat, but I know he’s right. The amount of power dragon shifters, and, by extension, our dragon clans, have depends on the number of relics made of charged metals we have in our possession, and there’s powerful magic in Greyson Ridge. Since we’ve come down, so many magical things have been happening—humans like Lena and Julie have discovered latent powers and started having visions, dragons have suddenly mate-bonded with humans, and even Naga seems to have come back… All signs of powerful magic.

He’s also right that our best move is not to tip off just what we’ve found to Eclipse. They clearly know something is here, but I think if they knew exactly how much is here, they wouldn’t be satisfied to prowl outside the borders, leaving us alone in the human portion of the town. No, they’d descend like a force of nature and take us out, the Council and risk of being spotted by humans be damned. I know Cyrus is right in his orders to hunker down, allow his and Kaius’s psychic mates to find the keys to the more powerful relics, and do everything in our power not to let Eclipse know that we’ve found something.

I know he’s right. But smelling them everywhere is driving me insane…

“Rufus,” Cyrus says, distracting me from my thoughts, “I need to know that you’re going to stick to the plan. No attacking Eclipse members unless they attack you or if they’re threatening someone in the middle of the town. If you can’t do that, then you can’t go on patrols anymore.”

“I can stick to the plans, Alpha,” I promise begrudgingly.

“Good. I need my team on the same page,” he replies, “Once we have those keys in hand, we’ll be able to put everything right.”

I nod at him, and we continue onward to the Miller Mansion—that place we thought we’d stay in temporarily before going home, but after the attack on our base, has now become the only home we know.

As we swoop down toward the mansion, the talking and laughter reaches us before I can see who’s laughing. When we get closer, I can see the clusters of different people, all spread out in the warm afternoon sunlight. Battle with the Eclipse member aside, it’s a lazy, pleasant day. When we get lower, I can distinguish the perfect split between the people, with groups among the different halves. Amelie and the other dragons from Soleilus are still much more comfortable with each other than any of the Greyson residents. On the other half, closer to the back porch of the mansion, is the book club: Julie and Lena alongside Georgia, Peyton, and… Sarah…

My eye is drawn to her immediately, taking in every curve of her smooth face as she talks and smiles with her friends. She tosses her glossy blonde ponytail as she throws her head back and laughs a pretty, surprisingly delicate giggle for her strong demeanor. As she leans forward to answer, my eyes drift down to her lips… her rose-pink lips…

I shake myself off and keep looking around. The other members of the Candara team seem to have set up ax-throwing again. Kaius and Orion throw the axes, and Milo and Evander lounge on the porch in easy conversation.

Lena is the first to spot us, and she stands to greet us. It’s only been a few months, but she’s already showing significantly. Someone would assume she was five months at least, but I suppose that’s what being pregnant with an Alpha’s baby does to a human. Cyrus shifts back into human form as Lena walks over and hands him a pair of pants. He pulls them on without a word with a wide smile on his face I rarely saw before Greyson Ridge. Cyrus reaches forward and winds his large arms around Lena, pulling her in.

I look away. It’s strange to see him like that. It’s like he transforms when he’s around her. He’s so happy. I’ve never seen anything like it from him. On the one hand, I wonder what that feels like—such overwhelming feelings for someone else that it would transform you, but on the other, it makes my skin crawl to imagine being possessed by love like that.

Again, that is.

Memories start flickering behind my eyelids, threatening to come to the surface. I force my gaze away from the happy couple and head over toward the sounds of ax-throwing. Milo spots me and smiles as I get closer, and Evander greets me with a nod.

“Hey, Rufus,” he says, “You both took your time. We finished our patrols ages ago!”

“Yeah, well,” I just grunt non-committedly.

I know if I told them that I attacked an Eclipse member, I’d be in for the exact same lecture from Evander that I just got from Cyrus. I’m not in the mood. Milo raises his eyebrows a little as he looks at me.

“You want a beer?” he asks, “I was going to get another.”

I crack a half-smile.

“Sure,” I answer.

Milo gets up from the porch and goes back inside the mansion. There’s a crack from nearby, and Kaius cheers at the same time Orion groans. I spend a second watching the ax-throwing match before Milo comes back.

“Who’s winning?” Milo asks.

“Kaius, but just about,” Evander answers.

Milo chuckles and hands me a glass bottle. It’s cold, and condensation rolls down the side—but there’s some kind of sticky residue on there, too.

“What’s on the bottle?” I ask, alarm underlying the question.

“Hm? Oh, I’m not sure.” Milo pops the cap on his own bottle, “It’s fine though, Rufus.”

He hands me the bottle opener. It’s also oddly speckled. Have they been sharing this all evening?

My skin crawls, and I walk inside.

“Be right back,” I call over my shoulder.

“Oh, for god’s sake,” Evander sighs.

Milo laughs.

Once I’ve washed everything off, I come back out. It looks like the ax-throwing match has ended, and Kaius and Orion are walking back. Evander looks over at me.

“Orion won while you were being a germaphobe,” he says, “Are you going to play the next match?”

“Sure, once I’ve finished my beer,” I answer.

Kaius and Orion reach us, and Kaius only gives me a small nod before jogging over to where Julie is sitting on the bench nearby. Since Lena left, she’s gotten involved in a book, but she drops it when Kaius comes over, and they start cuddling. I wrench my gaze from them again and realize I’m not the only one looking. Eventually, it’s Orion of all of us who speaks first:

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” he says.

The ice breaks, and I feel like I can finally say it:

“It is!” I exclaim, “I thought it was just Cyrus and his mate—I thought it was a once-off, but now Kaius has a human mate, too?”

“Yeah,” Milo says, “But there’s so much magic here in Greyson Ridge, and it’s clearly connected to dragons somehow . Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that we keep finding our fated mates here.”

“Maybe,” Evander replies, “We don’t exactly have a home to get back to outside of Greyson Ridge anymore, so the fact that they’re humans isn’t the problem it once was. I’m starting to wonder if all of this is fated.”

Once those words hit the air, they hang like a sword over my head: all of this is fated…

I don’t want a new mate. I’ve never wanted one since…

Milo’s voice thankfully interrupts my thoughts:

“So, who’s next, do you think?” he teases, “If we’re all going to meet our mates here?”

“I think we all know it’s you,” Orion answers, looking at Evander.

“Me?!” Evander asks, “Why me?!”

“We all see how some of these women look at you,” Orion adds.

“Do we?” Evander challenges.

Milo gives a small laugh. I look at Orion, and he catches my eye. I grin.

“Yeah, you know, O’s right,” I chime in, “I’ve seen some of these ladies looking at you with some real googly eyes. It’s probably just a matter of time.”

“What?!” Evander demands, “Who?”

“If you haven’t noticed, then you’ll have to figure it out yourself,” I reply.

There’s a rattle of laughter among the group. Evander scowls for a moment, looking around at all the other ladies present in this casual meeting suspiciously as if one of them was ready to jump him right now. But then something catches his eye, and Evander chuckles.

“Wait,” Evander says, “I think the real couple of our lifetime is about to be reunited.”

“What?” Orion asks.

“Who’s that?” Milo says.

Evander gestures with the neck of his bottle, and I follow my gaze to where he’s pointing. My heart drops when I see it.

That damn trash panda!

Roscoe pads across the garden as if the smug little raccoon owns it. He sits back on his haunches halfway across our backyard and takes something out of his mouth. He starts fiddling with it in his grubby hands. I see a glint and a pulse of rage rolls over me.

“Wait,” Evander laughs, “Rufus, is that—?”

“It is!” I snarl.

I sprint to the side of the porch and vault over the side. I hit the ground and start sprinting after the hairy beast.

“Give me back my ring, you little bastard!” I howl.

Roscoe claps my ring back in between his teeth and scurries away. He doesn’t give me a chance to get close; he knows better by now. Soon, he’s gone.

I stop, my chest heaving and my heart pumping. I turn back toward the porch:

“Kaius!” I roar, “Your rabid trash monster took my favorite ring! If I don’t get it back, you’re BOTH dead!”

I can hear Kaius cracking up with laughter from here.