Mated to the Ocean Dragon (Elemental Mates Book 3) Read online

  Mated to the Ocean Dragon

  Elemental Mates #3

  By Zoe Chant

  Copyright Zoe Chant 2018

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: Liana

  Chapter Two: Timothy

  Chapter Three: Liana

  Chapter Four: Timothy

  Chapter Five: Liana

  Chapter Six: Timothy

  Chapter Seven: Liana

  Chapter Eight: Timothy

  Chapter Nine: Liana

  Chapter Ten: Timothy

  Chapter Eleven: Liana

  Chapter Twelve: Timothy

  Chapter Thirteen: Liana

  Chapter Fourteen: Timothy

  Chapter Fifteen: Liana

  Chapter Sixteen: Timothy

  Chapter Seventeen: Liana

  Chapter Eighteen: Timothy

  Chapter Nineteen: Liana

  Chapter Twenty: Timothy

  Chapter Twenty-One: Liana

  Epilogue: Liana

  A note from Zoe Chant

  More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant

  If you love Zoe Chant, you’ll also love these books

  Special Sneak Peak: Mated to the Earth Dragon

  The Elemental Mates series

  Mated to the Storm Dragon

  Mated to the Earth Dragon

  Mated to the Ocean Dragon

  Mated to the Fire Dragon (forthcoming)

  This book stands alone. However, it’s part of Elemental Mates, a series about powerful dragon shifters finding their mates and protecting the world. For maximum enjoyment, it’s recommended to read the series in order.

  Mated to the Fire Dragon is forthcoming. If you’d like to be emailed when it comes out, please click here to be added to my mailing list.

  Chapter One: Liana

  “Can’t we do it next weekend instead?” Liana Robinson said into her phone.

  She stared into the mirror in despair. Her braids were already escaping from the bun, and the new lipstick she’d bought suddenly didn’t look quite as glamorous as it had looked when she’d tried it in the shop.

  “It’s my birthday. You promised,” her sister Clairice said and laughed. “Also—and this was supposed to be a surprise—but I’ve got a hot date for you.”

  There was a softer giggle in the background—one of her sister’s friends, who’d probably all already gathered for a night out at one of the glitzy clubs her sister liked.

  Her sister who was a successful lawyer, even though she pretty much never had an hour off.

  Meanwhile Liana was a programmer. She worked on a game popular with twelve-year-old girls, where kids could breed colorful dragons, decorate them and let them compete.

  She loved working in the gaming industry, and she loved the ridiculous, colorful little game she was working on—but she didn’t like her boss, and she also didn’t like the pitying looks people gave her when she admitted just what sort of game she was working for.

  It’s fun—most days—and it pays the bills. And also, at 5 p.m. I get to go home and do whatever I like with the rest of my day. Unlike all those successful lawyers who work past midnight and are back at the office at 7 a.m. sharp.

  “All right, I’ll be ready in half an hour,” Liana said, biting back her sigh.

  She gave her wardrobe a critical look. Work had given them all shirts with their favorite dragon last month, when they’d hit 1 million downloads. Would they let her into a club in that?

  Probably not.

  Liana pulled out her favorite shirt and held it up to her chest in the mirror.

  A Star Wars shirt. Which had glitter on it. Glitter was clubwear, right?

  With a sigh, she dropped it. She could already hear her sister laughing at her.

  Which left just one option.

  From the back of her wardrobe, she pulled out the shirt her sister had given her for Christmas. It was golden, with a swirling pattern of white flowers.

  She had to admit that it looked pretty stunning against the tawny brown of her skin—but all the same, it made her a bit uncomfortable. She didn’t like standing out, and this shirt definitely called for attention.

  At least it hugged all of her generous curves in just the right way, which most shirts didn’t.

  You’d think the fashion industry would eventually catch up to the fact that some of us have curves, she thought as she gave a sparkly Star Trek shirt a dark look.

  She’d bought it at a convention a year ago in the hope that she’d fit into it if she’d just work out a little.

  Which hadn’t happened so far. But then, there were so many other things to do in the evenings...

  Like catching up on her shows and her books. And working on the game she hadn’t told anyone she was working on.

  Her boss had been adamant that Dragon Heights was just about breeding dragons, period. He’d outright laughed at her suggestion to add unicorns, pegasi and griffins.

  But it’s what the kids keep asking for. And I’m sure it would be successful.

  She hadn’t made much progress yet, between her day job and other distractions, but she knew her game could be successful if she did it right. She’d simply need an investor who cared about what children wanted to play, instead of thinking only about how much money could be made with it.

  Half an hour later, she was standing in her sister’s expensive apartment, Clairice’s friends tutting at her.

  “The shirt is nice,” one of them said critically, “but what is your eyeliner doing?”

  “It’s perfectly fine eyeliner,” Liana protested, even as she was pushed into a chair.

  Clairice’s friends descended on her like a pack of giggling hyenas, and Liana held on to the chair for dear life as her face was pushed this way and that, pencils and brushes and paint coming out everywhere she looked.

  When she was allowed to stagger out of her chair ten minutes later, she gasped as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

  She didn’t even recognize the woman who was looking at her.

  She was Liana Robinson—just another curvy geek girl. No one who’d ever asked her out on a date had stuck around for long.

  Which honestly was fine with her because then she could stop being anxious about the date and get back to catching up with her shows.

  But now she looked—different. Whatever the girls had done to her face made her look as if she was a top model about to slink along a catwalk. They’d painted her lips a red she’d never dare to use. They’d put fake eyelashes on her that made her eyes look enormous, and there was golden eyeshadow and eyeliner applied in what Liana had to admit was a way more professional line than the smudged mess she was usually satisfied with.

  “Wow, that is...” she breathed as she gaped at her reflection.

  She could barely believe that it was truly her in the mirror. She looked amazing.

  Maybe tonight would be different. Maybe she wouldn’t feel so awfully exposed in the club.

  Most of the time when she’d allow her sister to drag her along she felt like the ugly duckling, while everyone else felt right at home. And it wasn’t as if she didn’t like dancing, because she did.

  Liana just wasn’t a part of the champagne-drinking, designer clothes-wearing crowd that hung out in Clairice’s favorite clubs. And she was pretty sure that everyone who took one look at her knew that, too.

  “He’d better be hot,” she said to her sister. “After all this trouble.”

  Clairice smirked. “Just you wait. He’s a client of ours—rich, mysterious and handsome. And he asked me if I had a single sister. What are the odds?”

&nbs
p; “Huh.” Liana wasn’t quite sure what to think about that. Rich, mysterious and handsome never went for the curvy black geek girl, in her experience.

  But maybe she’d get a fun night dancing with a handsome stranger out of it, and who knew—maybe he’d be really interested in the latest bugs of a dragon breeding game for kids.

  Chapter Two: Timothy

  Timothy Drago, the dragon of water, member of the council of elements, one of the most powerful dragon shifters in the world, had a problem.

  It wasn’t the fact that the council was in a constant state of alarm, due to the threat posed by dangerous fire dragons, who’d recently reappeared.

  No, his problem was much simpler. The master of the council, the ancient chimera Gareth, had ordered him to find his mate as quickly as possible.

  And to make matters worse, Timothy had been saddled with the task of babysitting their captive fire dragon Braeden at the same time.

  Things couldn’t get much worse than that.

  Braeden was unable to shift into his dragon form or access his powers, because they kept him dosed with dragonsbane, and the chimera had fitted bracelets of obsidian around his wrists that kept his powers locked.

  Still, having a fire dragon commenting on his so far rather unsuccessful attempts to find his mate had quickly become extremely irritating.

  “Why don’t you just give up?” Braeden said with a smirk. “I can already tell you that there’s no way a human woman would ever want to live with you.”

  Timothy briefly considered throwing his phone at the dragon, but then kept swiping through the pictures in the tenth dating app he’d downloaded.

  It would have been bad enough to try and find his mate among shifters—but a human mate? There were millions of them out there! It felt rather like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack—but he’d be damned if he’d give the fire dragon the satisfaction of admitting to that.

  “That’s because you have no idea how women work,” Timothy said blithely. “Last summer I went on a cruise where they shot for a new fashion collection. Within a week I’d gone on a date with every single model on that ship.”

  He smirked at Braeden, who in turn gave him a disgusted look.

  “No wonder you’re not finding anyone. I’d rather date a frog than you, if I were a human woman.”

  “Ha, I bet a frog is the only creature on this planet who’d date you, fire dragon,” Timothy said pointedly. “What with wanting to destroy us all. Not a good look on the first date.”

  “And leading all those women on is?” Braeden snorted, then demonstratively turned away.

  In turn, Timothy threw himself down onto the couch, idly swiping through the app some more. “We’re all just having fun. You should try that some time. Oh, I forgot—you can’t.”

  The truth was that while Timothy had been a bit of a party animal in his youth, he’d quickly grown out of it. But pretending that he was off dating ten supermodels at a time infuriated Damon, the prim earth dragon, and so Timothy had kept up the stories. It was an image he was comfortable with, even though the truth was that most of the time, nothing happened apart from some good-natured flirting.

  His exploits on the cruise had been more like a business arrangement at the time. The models liked the paparazzi attention and free PR that came from being seen in his company, and he in turn liked the attention it brought for the fundraiser he’d run at the time. But the truth was that even supermodels had to get up early in the morning for work, and Timothy had long ago outgrown the disappointing pleasure of casual sex.

  Which didn’t mean that he’d stopped wanting to enjoy himself. But you could have fun going out for drinks and dancing with a gorgeous model without going home with her afterward.

  Not that he’d give Damon the pleasure of admitting that.

  “Anyway, I’ve already got a date for tonight,” Timothy said with a smirk. “I don’t have one for you, sorry. But you’ll still have to come along. It’s what the chimera decided, remember.”

  “He didn’t decree that I was to witness your... your debauchery and wantonness,” the fire dragon said prissily.

  Timothy laughed so hard he almost dropped his phone. “Debauchery! That’s a good one. Anyway, you’re supposed to get a better idea of human life, so you’re coming to that nightclub with me. Get a good look at how humans party.”

  The fire dragon scowled. “From what I’ve learned about humans so far, I know that I like them way better than I like you. You, I wouldn’t mind burning down.”

  “Pity that you can’t.”

  Timothy idly waved his hand, and a small amount of ocean water splashed into Braeden’s face from out of nowhere. “Now go dry yourself and get ready. We’re heading out in ten minutes.”

  “I hope you’ll never find your mate,” Braeden said darkly. “I hope you go insane and they’ll put you out of your misery. I’ll be there clapping when it happens.”

  “I think I’m going to take you to a goth club tomorrow. You’ll feel right at home.”

  Timothy smirked when Braeden angrily retired into his own room, then sighed and started to get ready himself.

  He couldn’t even say why he’d asked one of the lawyers working for him if she had a single sister.

  It had seemed like a good idea at the time—or rather, so far he hadn’t been able to find his mate no matter what he’d tried, so by this point any approach seemed fair.

  He’d make sure her sister had a good time. He’d be charming and buy her expensive champagne and make her laugh, and in the early morning hours, he’d slink back to his apartment all alone and disappointed, because none of the hundreds of women in the nightclub had turned out to be his mate.

  Maybe the earth dragon was right after all. Maybe it was a stupid idea. But what can I do? We can’t all be as lucky as air and earth and just run into our mate by accident.

  Maybe in the end Timothy would be the one who couldn’t find a mate, despite all of his natural charm. Maybe he was the only one of them fated to go insane and die.

  And wouldn’t the fire dragon like that.

  Timothy glared at the mirror as he shrugged on a shirt and buttoned it up.

  There was more at stake than just his life.

  A mysterious, fourth plinth had appeared in the council chamber. A plinth marked by the element of fire. Which meant that finally, a fire dragon had appeared who was master of the element itself.

  It was that dragon who had to be their enemy. The most dangerous one out of the bunch that had recently reappeared.

  And to defeat him, the council needed to be at its most powerful. Which meant that Timothy, as the last unmated council member, needed to be mated to access his full powers.

  His phone flashed with new notifications from one of the many dating apps he’d installed, but he ignored it. Tonight, he’d try finding her the old-fashioned way. Surely she had to be out there somewhere.

  Chapter Three: Liana

  When they got out of the cab, he was already waiting for them.

  Liana knew it was him the second she saw him. He was white, in his early thirties, with an easy smile and lightly tanned skin that made her think of island resorts and beach parties.

  Her sister hadn’t lied: he was tall and handsome. His dark hair was just long enough to curl against his forehead, and he was wearing a black silk shirt and tight, dark designer jeans, which probably cost more than she earned in a month.

  A guy like that would never look twice at her.

  Even so, she got out of the cab in a daze, following along behind her sister as she went straight up to the sexy, mysterious stranger.

  “Timothy! I’m so glad you made it. This is my sister, Liana.”

  Liana stared at the man like a deer trapped in the headlights.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said automatically, holding out her hand.

  She couldn’t look away from his eyes. There was something strange about them. They were filled by a light she’d never seen before, b
lazing a deep, mysterious blue. It was like staring at the ocean on a sunny day, or like seeing a jewel catch the light.

  “Nice to meet you, Liana,” he said softly, taking her hand. “I’m Timothy Drago.”

  Liana felt something inside her flutter, as if her heart had suddenly grown wings and wanted to escape her chest. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.

  All she could see was the blue of his eyes. They were the blue of a deep pool of water she was sinking into. She could hear the sound of waves lapping at the shore, the musical trickle of a waterfall...

  She’d never felt anything like it before.

  His handshake was firm, and his touch kindled a strange heat in her. It was like an electric shock ran from her hand through her entire body.

  Have I seen him before? Is he some kind of celebrity?

  She couldn’t look away from his eyes, and she only realized for how long she’d held on to his hand when her sister giggled behind her.

  “Well, seems like you two hit it off. Shall we head in?”

  “Who’s your sexy friend brooding over there?” one of Clairice’s friends asked teasingly. “Won’t you introduce us?”

  Timothy blinked, as if he’d been just as lost in their encounter as Liana had been. Then he took a step back and nodded to a man Liana hadn’t even noticed.

  “That’s Braeden. He’s, ah, not from here. He’s from... Iceland. Never left his sheep farm before, so everything here’s very new to him. Be kind.”

  He winked at Clairice’s friends, who cooed in delight and had the stranger surrounded in seconds.

  Which Liana was completely okay with, because that left her and Timothy without their audience.

  Timothy took hold of her hand again, and Liana almost gasped when the electric tingle made the hair at the back of her neck stand up.

  What is this?

  She didn’t let go of his hand when he led her into the club. She didn’t think she could have, even if she’d wanted to. There was some weird force in place—almost like a magnet, drawing her to him.

  Maybe it’s just because he’s hot and I haven’t had a date in ages. Maybe I’m coming down with a cold or running a fever or...