The Billionaire Dragon Shifter's Mate: BBW Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Read online

  The roar sounded again, so close she covered her ears, and she heard a voice that was unmistakably Gus, but furious as she couldn’t have imagined him. Get away from her!

  She heard the beat of great wings, and then a silver-gray dragon, even bigger than Ilie, was dropping into the clearing like a hawk diving at its prey. The dragon’s claws were extended, his mouth open to show enormous teeth. He was throwing himself straight at Ilie, who was backing away, trying to make himself small, crying out in Cara’s mind, Gus, please!

  Cara didn’t think. She threw herself in front of Ilie, spreading her arms wide as if she could shield someone the size of an RV with just her body.

  Gus’s dive turned to an awkward tumble at the last second as he reversed direction to avoid hitting her. He came so close she could see every individual tooth and his gray eyes, wide with fury giving way to horror. He hit the ground so hard that it shook, and Cara stumbled back against Ilie as Gus righted himself. There was a frozen second where no one moved, and Cara could hear herself and two dragons breathing, and Mouse whining near her feet where he was cowering against Ilie’s body.

  Then Gus roared again, and under and over the deafening sound she could hear him saying, She’s mine! Don’t touch her!

  Cara flushed with fury and threw the only thing she had in hand—the bouquet of flowers, which hit Gus and shattered against his dragon snout into a hundred bits of bright orange and pink and green. “She’s right here! And how dare you attack Ilie when he was just talking to me!”

  Gus reared back, looking down at her like he was shocked that she’d dared to argue with him, and Cara couldn’t take it anymore. She turned away from both of them and ran up the trail as fast as her legs could carry her, and Mouse ran by her side, his usual happy barking silenced.

  From behind her she heard the sound of enormous wings. She tore off the trail into the trees and ran blindly into the woods where nothing as big as a dragon could follow. Her headlong flight seemed to go on and on, but she knew she hadn’t gone very far when she had to stop, gasping for breath and clutching a tree to stay upright.

  What had just happened? How had she gone so fast from feeling like a princess down in the town, thinking about marrying a man she’d just met, to meeting a dragon to throwing herself between two dragons? And one of them was Gus? She felt tears stinging her eyes as she struggled to catch her breath.

  Mouse came to lean against her leg, whining softly again. Cara dropped down to her knees to hug him. He’d been scared, too, but he’d stayed beside her.

  Cara?

  Cara jumped to her feet, but Gus was nowhere in sight. His voice sounded soft and hesitant, apologetic.

  I’m so sorry, he said gently. Will you come and talk to me?

  Cara looked around—and up—but didn’t see a sign of either the Gus she knew or the huge gray dragon. She thought about telling him to leave her alone, but she wanted to understand what had happened. And, she realized, she had no idea where she was.

  “Where?”

  Mouse will bring you, Gus told her.

  Cara looked down. Mouse’s ears pricked forward, his tail coming up from its fearful tuck. He looked up at her and then started picking his way through the trees. It wasn’t his joyful race toward Ilie, but he wasn’t hesitating, either.

  “I’m coming,” Cara said. “And you’d better be ready to explain some things.”

  Anything you want, Gus promised, and then Mouse barked and darted ahead of her a little way. Cara realized they were coming up to another clearing.

  For a moment she thought Gus was there already, sitting with his wings spread in the middle of the open space. But as she came closer she realized that this gray dragon was made of stone. She walked over to it, barely noticing when Mouse trotted away.

  It wasn’t only a stone dragon—there was a sculpture of a woman perched on the dragon’s foreleg, sheltered under his wing. The carving was beautifully detailed, life-sized. Cara felt she was looking right into a person’s face, a woman maybe twenty years older than herself, and she could recognize the woman’s resemblance to Gus.

  Was this his mother? And the dragon—his father?

  She heard wings, and saw Gus land at the edge of the clearing. She stayed where she was, under the stone dragon’s wing, and watched him walk closer.

  He was a little awkward on the ground, his wings and tail bobbing, his head held low. She had no doubt he could have covered the distance in a single leap, one flap of his wings, but he walked slowly to her, giving her time to study the softly shiny gray of his scales. She could see a fine, glittery line of gold around the base of his neck that seemed to be the same chains she’d seen around his neck in human shape; there was a tracing of gold around his foreleg too.

  Of course he loved shiny things. Of course he hoarded them. Gus was a dragon.

  When he’d reached her he curled down small—well, as small as he could. He brought his head down low enough to look her in the eyes.

  I want to thank you, first, he said. For stopping me from hurting Ilie. I never would have forgiven myself.

  It wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. “Oh. Well. Anyone would—”

  No, he said. Anyone would run the hell away from two full-grown dragons. Anyone would scream and hide from the monsters in front of her. Anyone would assume one dragon could hold his own against another and get herself out of the way. You were incredibly brave.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked, shaking her head at the thought of herself being brave, instead of just impetuous and half-crazy. When she left her safe life behind, she’d never expected to go this far in the other direction.

  “Why would you attack him? He’s your little brother. You love him, I know you do.”

  Gus ducked his head, his wings coming forward in something like a shrug, or maybe like he wanted to hide himself with them, before he lowered them again.

  He was too close to you. I—the dragon in me—I recognized you as my mate from the moment we met. It makes me need to know you’re mine—but you’re not yet. My dragon can’t stand the thought that another dragon might steal you away. I know better, but I’m not always good at acting like a civilized human being—or any kind of human being. Not when it comes to my dragon instincts.

  There were a hundred other questions she should ask, and at least half of them were just Dragons?!

  But Cara said, “If you knew for sure that I was yours, would you calm down? You said you wanted me to meet him, was that just—wishful thinking?”

  Gus shook his head quickly. Once I’m sure of you, I’ll be sure—mated dragons are much calmer in general. Even without a mate to fight over, my brothers and I can’t be around each other too much these days. If we were all mated, we could all live in town and never fight.

  Gus made another little shrugging motion, and his mouth drew back in a dragonish smile, teeth glinting. Not like that, anyway.

  Cara couldn’t help smiling back. “What would it take to make you sure?”

  Gus shook his head harder this time. It’s a big decision. There’s a lot to talk about.

  “We’re talking, aren’t we?” Cara said. “I don’t have anything else planned for today.”

  Gus heaved an enormous sigh and nodded.

  Hold on, he said. I need to change for this.

  Then he curled in on himself—not just curling up but shrinking, Cara realized, when the sight began to really bend her brain. She shut her eyes and shook her head, trying to make the impossible sight fall into place. When she looked again Gus was standing there, naked except for the glitter of gold around his neck and curling up his left wrist.

  He walked up to her like he hardly noticed his own nakedness, and he sat down in the grass at the feet of the stone dragon. She sat down facing him, at the feet of the woman. She noticed, when she sat, that the statue woman was also adorned with something shiny. There was a thick gold bangle around one ankle, more than an inch wide and sized so that it obviously couldn’t come off over
her foot. Cara couldn’t resist touching it gently.

  “It’s the same one she wore when she was alive.”

  Cara looked up sharply, but Gus’s gaze was fixed on her fingers where they touched the anklet.

  “Your mother?” Cara asked, though she knew already.

  Gus nodded without looking up. “My father took it from her ankle after she died—death freed her of her promises. He buried her with all her favorite jewels, all the treasures he loved most, but not that. That was only for her memory, once she was gone, so he placed it here.

  “Once the funeral was over he transformed,” Gus looked up at the dragon above him—his father, surely as recognizable to him in that shape as his human mother. “He never changed back. I became mayor, though he still kept the peace among us boys for that last year. But he couldn’t live without her, and it wasn’t long before he followed her. That’s what it means, for a dragon to take a mate.”

  Cara felt herself reeling at the idea of Gus pining away for her. She was horrified at the idea of his death, even if it was after her own. “Is that—do you not want…”

  Gus looked up for the first time, meeting her eyes with a startled look. “No, I—a life without a mate—without you—would be half a life. But you should know what you’re agreeing to.”

  Cara nodded slowly. “Is that the worst of it?”

  Gus shrugged stiffly, looking away again. “It depends on what you want. I—I want children.”

  “I know,” Cara said, and suddenly she couldn’t bear not touching Gus while having this conversation. She scooted close enough for her legs to cross his, and set her hand on his knee. He immediately set his hand over hers.

  Cara said gently, “The nursery is awfully empty, isn’t it?”

  Gus glanced over, meeting her eyes, and nodded before he looked away. “Is that—do you…”

  “I want a family,” Cara said. “You know I was an only child, and I’m not close to my parents or the rest of my family. I want more than that. I want to make a family with someone—with you.”

  Gus’s hand tightened on hers, and he said, “Dragons usually have only one or two children—my pack of brothers is kind of a fluke. And the children you have—they’ll be like me. Dragons.”

  “Your mother wasn’t?” Cara asked, though it seemed obvious.

  “Perfectly human,” Gus said, and he lifted her hand up and curled forward to press a kiss to her knuckles. “Like you.”

  “Did you love her less because she wasn’t a dragon? Did she love any of you boys less?”

  Gus shook his head hard. “That isn’t—I don’t think you wouldn’t love them, but their lives might not be like you imagined.”

  “They might be like Ilie, you mean,” Cara said, and the real meaning of it struck her for the first time since she’d realized who the dragon was. “He’s a dragon all the time. He can’t change back?”

  “I think he could—my father told me once that he could force Ilie to shift—but he doesn’t. The younger a shifter is when they first change, the stronger the dragon is in him. Ilie was four months old. I remember standing over his crib—I was two or three, so it was around the time I first shifted.

  “We would play together like that, trying to fly in the nursery, tussling around. But he shifted more and more often as he grew up—being a dragon always just felt right to him. And when he was thirteen he changed for good.”

  “And?” Cara asked, looking up again at the sculpture they sat under, woman and dragon together. “Did that break your mother’s heart?”

  Gus smiled down at their joined hands. “Not that I ever saw. I think Ilie was her favorite. But it’s—it’s something you should consider.”

  “Gus,” Cara said. “I’ve considered things carefully for my whole life. I was always cautious. I always did the smart thing, every time. I got good grades so I could go to a good school so I could get a good job, and that job was boring and a little soul-crushing, but it was safe, and steady, so I kept doing it. I stayed with it. I didn’t date sketchy guys, I didn’t drink at parties, I didn’t go out alone at night—I didn’t take the chance, okay? I never took the chance.”

  Gus watched her in silence, his gray eyes intent.

  “But being careful has meant being alone,” Cara went on. “Having no one to hold me in one place. No one to hold me in my life, nothing to keep me there at all. That’s why I ran away, that’s why I’ve been on this road trip, because there’s nothing for me anywhere.

  “I wanted to take chances, I wanted to—swing boldly. And you weren’t there to catch me, exactly, but you were there to pick me up and dust me off after I fell on my ass, and I knew the second I saw you, the same as you knew as soon as you saw me. I didn’t know it was possible, but that’s what I want. I want to belong with you—belong to you, if that’s what you want. I want this. If it’s hard later—we’ll be together, won’t we? We’ll face it together.”

  Gus leaned closer and closer as she spoke. He kissed her when she’d finished, pushing her gently down onto the grass as he straddled her. He went on kissing and kissing her, and she was really, really aware now that he was naked.

  Also his mom was watching.

  “I love you,” Gus whispered against her lips. “God, Cara—you’re so brave, and I love you so much.”

  “I love you too,” she whispered back. “So how do I convince you that I mean it?”

  Gus picked his head up, and his expression was decidedly rueful. He was actually blushing a little. “It’s…there’s a kind of ritual, for mating, when you’re ready to really mean it. It’s very…traditional.”

  “Traditional?” Cara repeated, picturing a white dress, a church.

  “Dragon shifter traditional,” Gus explained. He was definitely blushing a little now. “Every dragon shifter’s mate is his princess, in a certain way. Do you know how princesses usually meet dragons?”

  It was Cara’s turn to blush, but the heat flashed from her face to her stiffening nipples to her pussy. “I’m…starting to have an idea.”

  “I can show you,” he said hesitantly. “Where, and—what’s involved. If you don’t want to do this today…”

  “I want you,” Cara insisted. “Show me.”

  Gus kissed her again, long and lingeringly. He stood, pulling her up to her feet as he did. “It’s a long walk, but a short flight. I could carry you, if you want.”

  Cara looked up involuntarily at the wings of the stone dragon, and back to Gus. “You—you could carry me? Flying?”

  Gus grinned. “Would that be bold enough for you? I promise not to let you fall this time.”

  “Yes,” Cara said, because there was no other possible answer.

  Gus kissed her one more time before he turned and ran out into the open space of the clearing, his arms flung wide. They stretched impossibly wide, and then they weren’t arms, they were spreading wings. His fair skin was gray scales, neck stretching and tail unfurling.

  He turned back to face her and he was a dragon, and he curled his wings tight to his sides.

  All aboard.

  “Oh, God,” Cara said, her eyes roving over him. “Where…”

  The next thing she heard from Gus wasn’t words but a sort of sudden, vivid mental image, showing her exactly how. He extended a foreleg for her to climb onto. He boosted her up that way, onto his back, between the huge expanse of his wings. She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around the base of his neck.

  Ready?

  “Sure,” she said unsteadily.

  Cara screamed in delight and wild rollercoaster fear as he leaped into the air with no more warning than that. His huge wings beat steadily, taking them up, up above the clearing, above the trees.

  The view of the mountainside and the valley below were even more beautiful from here, but Cara was mostly conscious of the power of Gus’s body beneath her. She could feel the bunch and flex of muscles and the beating of his wings. And that was to say nothing of the fact that she was flying on the back of a
dragon.

  She’d barely gotten her head around it before Gus was gliding down to a gentle landing in another mountainside clearing. There was a small building in this one, looking like nothing more than a solidly built shed.

  The time it took Gus to transform back was enough for her to notice that it did seem to have a very sturdy door, but the door opened at a touch from Gus. He obviously wasn’t hiding a key anywhere. The shed’s interior was dim, but Cara could see that it contained only a few things. There was a row of shelves, from which Gus took a pair of pants and slipped into them.

  He led her to a staircase descending underground in a tight spiral.

  “I’ll go ahead of you again,” Gus told her with a smile, and as soon as he stepped on the first stair, she saw lights turning on below. The lights seemed to be welcoming them into whatever was down there.

  The stairs went down through a few full turns, enough to leave her a little dizzy at the bottom. That was definitely her excuse for leaning into Gus as soon as she got there, kissing him for a few long, slow moments before she looked around.

  They were in some kind of tunnel; she could see arched openings on either side.

  “Oh my God, caves,” Cara said.

  “Well, like I said,” Gus grinned, “dragon traditions. We do keep a lot of our treasure in banks and things these days, but we like to keep some shiny stuff close.”

  “And by some,” Cara said, as Gus took her hand and led her down the tunnel, “you mean…”

  “A lot,” Gus admitted. “I mean—eight generations of magpie hoarders, this stuff adds up. The one I’m taking you to is the oldest, the first—the heart of the hoard.”

  Cara tightened her hand on his, and he looked over at her and smiled.

  “I would think there would be more locks,” Cara said. The openings of the caves to either side didn’t even have doors; she could see shiny glints inside as they passed. “Or, well…”

  “A dragon guarding it all?” Gus asked. “I mean, that’s traditionally how it works. And that’s still how it works—there’s kind of a supernatural alarm system. If someone other than a dragon tries to come in… We’ve set it up now to mostly just scare people, because once every generation or so some kid from town gets the idea to try to sneak in and figures out a way past the lock on the door—”