Dragons Don't Love

Dragons Don’t
Love

D’Elen McClain

Fire Chronicles: Book
II

Dragons Don’t
Love

D’Elen McClain

Fire Chronicles: Book
II

Copyright 2015 D’Elen
McClain

Edited by Michelle
Kowalski

All rights reserved
including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in
any form.

This is a work of fiction.
ALL characters are derived from the author’s
imagination.

No person, brand, or
corporation mentioned in this Book should be taken to have endorsed
this Book nor should the events surrounding them be considered in
any way factual.

Chapter One

Hera’s Curse

One hundred thousand years
I curse your kind

Each century you will
find

One human woman, not your
mate

This curse is now your
fate

Laryn

I risk my life for one glimpse of a
treasure so precious it’s worth the danger. I’ve heard Bastian’s
rumbling when I enter his territory and my heart breaks for our
destroyed friendship. The blame is on me and no one else. I stole
his mate, Acasia, who at the time was Bastian’s most valued
possession. It doesn’t matter that I released her or that a
dragon’s very nature covets the greatest treasure of others.
Bastian hates me. Now Acasia has become dragon and the two guard
the first dragon egg laid in thousands of years. I only want a
simple glimpse to wash away a small bit of the loneliness that
endlessly eats my soul.

I miss Tahr and Sarn too. My friends
forsook me after I kidnapped Acasia. It’s been over a year now and
they still don’t trust me. I know they understand my grief over the
death of my bride—they’ve lived it. They would have kidnapped the
human Acasia too and they know it. But none of these thoughts take
away the fact that I can’t be trusted around their
women.

The sun heats my mighty wings as I
soar quietly closer to Bastian’s lair. “What are you doing here,
Laryn?” Acasia’s weary voice enters my mind.

My heart thumps faster. “I need to be
close.”

A long sigh preempts her speech.
“We’ve been over this before, Laryn. Bastian doesn’t want you here.
He’s not a dragon to mess with right now and neither am I. Go to
Sarn and Tahr and ask them to resume their monthly card
games.”

“
They don’t want me near
their brides; you know this.”

This time her voice is
tinged with steel. “Go. Away. Laryn.”

It’s her wariness not her anger that
makes me return home. What else can I do?

***

Six months
later…

The clouds shroud the glow of the two
dragon realm moons making this night perfect for my needs. I must
see the egg… just once. I’ve waited until midnight to make the
journey. My hope is that Bastian and Acasia are exhausted from
their vigilance and they won’t notice me.

I hear nothing as I streak through the
sky. Suddenly, I collide with another dragon. It’s Acasia, and my
substantial teeth painfully clamp together at impact. Her talons do
little damage to my scales as her tight grip and downward attack
send us hurtling toward the ground. She releases me seconds before
I hit the sharp rocks. She somehow manages to avoid impact and fire
erupts from her throat that ignites the sparse vegetation around
me.

Her voice blares into my pain-filled
mind. “You stupid dragon. What are you doing here?”

I pick myself up and shake my head to
try to rid my brain of the cobwebs that now fill it. I’m not so
shook up that I can’t beg. “Please, Acasia, just one glimpse. Only
one. I won’t touch the egg.”

Fire shoots over my head as she roars
her displeasure. “I should kill you, Laryn. My dragon’s instinct is
screaming for your blood. The fact I was once human is the only
thing that saves you. Bastian will kill you!”

I hear the emphasis on “will” and the
thought scares me not at all. Death is preferable to the hell I
live in. I hang my head and try again. “Talk to Bastian. I swear I
just need to see it once and I will leave you alone. I would not
harm a child, especially one unborn. I beg you.”

“
You’re pathetic, Laryn.”
She breathes heavily as she flies around me in circles. “I’ll see
what I can do, but stay away until you hear from me. If Bastian was
awake tonight, you’d be dead.”

Hope flutters within my chest. “Thank
you, Acasia.”

Her harsh laughter isn’t reassuring.
“Don’t thank me yet.”

She flies away with a heavy flap of
her majestic red wings. I’m alone again. Alone in thought and
spirit.

***

Two weeks
later…

For two weeks, I roam the halls of my
castle and barely sleep. My human servants stay out of my way as
much as possible because my temper is on a hair trigger. I nearly
took my manservant’s head off for dropping my morning food
tray.

I’m currently lounging in my human
form on the large couch in my great room when a tentative knock at
the door spikes my anger. “Enter,” I bark.

Peter, the one unfortunate enough to
drop the tray, walks in without looking at me and places his hand
out. A small slip of paper rests on his trembling fingers. I grab
it. “Get out,” I yell. He turns and runs to the door as fast as his
spindly old legs will carry him.

I unfold the paper.

Come an hour after the sun
goes down.

Do not be late.

Acasia

I stare at the short note and reread
it several times as adrenaline pumps through my veins and my palms
go sweaty. “Fuck,” I yell as I jump up. I need a shower. And, for
the first time in months, I have a voracious appetite. I slam my
demands into Peter’s head and run for the bathing chamber. I must
ready myself.

Two hours later, a strange sense of
worry fills me as I fly closer to Bastian’s lair. My spikes bristle
and my scales harden in response to an unknown threat that never
materializes. I fly to the top of Bastian’s large tower and rest my
talons at the edge. Even after eating a full meal, I have a
fluttery empty feeling in my stomach.

During my childhood, I heard stories
of dragon eggs. There were several eggs in gestation at the time. I
was told I couldn’t go near them because dragons are unpredictable
and quite possessive of their young. I was curious but young, and I
spent little time thinking of procreation and all it entails. Two
centuries later, all but four dragons were dead. Now, thousands of
years have passed and only a glimmer of the stories hold a place in
my memory.

Ever so slowly, I peer over the side
and behold the grandest treasure of my life. I gasp at the sight of
the egg’s dazzling brilliance. It shines halfway up the high tower
walls—swirls in every shade of red.

Acasia, in human form, gazes up at me.
She appears incredibly tiny as she kneels by the nest. “Fly to the
upper perch, shift to human, and walk down the stairs,” she orders
in her no-nonsense voice.

I don’t question her command and
quickly drop from the ledge and fly to the perch. I brought clothes
with me and scramble to dress myself after shifting. The stairway
circles the inner tower walls and my feet skip three steps at a
time as I run down.

When I reach the bottom, Acasia’s hand
comes up with her palm toward me. Her voice resonates loudly
throughout the chamber. “Stop where you are.”

I don’t move a muscle or even
breathe.

The glow from the egg causes Acasia’s
almost silver hair to shimmer. She stands and takes a defensive
stance with her hands on her hips. I feel her magic. She is only a
pint size bit of fluff in human form, but I don’t doubt her ability
to shift to dragon and end my life. A female dragon with child is
fearsome and I have no intention of testing her.

She blinks slowly. Her blue eyes are
now an amber fire and flash hotly. “If you obey my rules, you may
visit once a month. If you disobey my rules, I will tear you limb
from limb, save your bones, and feed them to my child when he is
born. Do you understand?”

I take a breath and place my trembling
hands in my pockets to lessen her apprehension at having me near
the egg. “Yes, thank you for allowing my visit. I will follow each
rule.” I’m also in shock that this will be more than a one-time
event.

She gives no sign that my words
register at all. “First rule—in dragon form you will never get
closer to my child than the ledge atop the tower or I will kill
you.” After a slight pause, she continues. “Number two—in human
form, you will stay ten feet away from the egg or I will kill you.
Three—fifteen minutes per visit is all the time you have. If you
refuse to leave when your time is up… I will kill you. And four,”
her stare penetrates my soul with its intensity. “Most likely,
during one of your visits, I shall kill you. Prepare yourself for
death, dragon.”

I can no longer handle her red,
glaring eyes. I turn my attention to the egg and look away from the
death sentence I see in her gaze. Acasia is a different person.
She’s always been strong, but now the dragon side of her makes her
fierce. I nod and still don’t look at her.

“
May I ask a
question?”

Her voice lowers just a bit. “Your
fifteen minutes started the minute you landed on the upper ledge,
so be quick.”

“
Bastian doesn’t know I’m
here, does he?” I dare to peek at her from the side of one
eye.

Her nostrils flare and a thin stream
of smoke rises from them. I’ve asked the wrong question.

“
Yes, Bastian does,” Bastian
shouts from above and a mighty roar fills the tower. Bastian’s red
eyes sizzle with hatred. “You have five minutes of your allotted
time remaining. Use it wisely.”

The strange feeling I had when
entering Bastian’s territory makes sense now. He was behind me, not
in his castle. Acasia’s power was so strong it overpowered my
senses and I didn’t know it was Bastian.

My eyes travel back to the egg. Its
glow is iridescent. What’s strange is that it doesn’t hurt my eyes.
I can see just the outline of the small dragon form beneath the
almost translucent shell. The red glow comes from the child
within.

Without taking my gaze from the egg, I
speak softly. “Does it move within the shell?”

“
All the time.” Acasia’s
voice is lower still as she too looks at the miracle before
us.

I keep the rules in mind as I take two
steps closer. I ignore the loud grumble from Bastian and kneel in
order to have a different view. The piles of soft cloth cradling
the egg shimmer with the glow from the child. A tear rolls down my
face. I don’t bother wiping it away. I’m not ashamed. “He’s
beautiful, Acasia. I’ll come back next month. Thank
you.”

She remains silent as I turn and walk
back up the way I came. It’s hard to describe my feelings. One part
of me is in complete awe and rejuvenated with the one small glimpse
at a new life. The other part… the purest form of my dragon… wants
to grab the egg and run—take Bastian’s child and keep him for
myself. We are born with the undeniable instinct to possess
treasure. At this moment, the egg resting one-hundred feet below me
is the greatest treasure of all.

“
I will kill you slowly,”
Bastian says with deadly conviction. He knows exactly how I
feel.

I give no response; it’s pointless. I
strip off my clothes and leap from the perch. I shift and
immediately pull myself upward. Bastian’s red eyes glow as bright
as the egg. I will return next month. Even if it means my death, I
cannot stay away.

Chapter Two

Twenty-four years
later…

Laryn

I admire my nakedness in the looking
glass, flex my muscles and watch them ripple with undeniable power.
I am more than a mere human. I’m
faster—stronger—deadlier.

I am dragon.

“
Why are humans so
inferior?” I ask myself aloud. Their weak bodies give them no
advantages. And they are ugly, even their females. Their puny
appearance and sickly skin tone only enhance their frailty. At
least some of the women are decent companions if they don’t nag too
much. I grumble loudly. Chances are I’ll be stuck with a whiner
again. I’ll not put up with it and I’ll quickly teach her to fear
me.