Loyalty: A Dragon Shifter Menage Serial (Seeking Her Mates Book 4) Page 9
None.
“I see,” he continued, keeping the sentiment to himself. “And so this group—the Stranieri—is bent on taking them down.”
“Yes, though that name, which has been thrust upon us, has never been my favourite. The Strangers, as though a dragon-hunter is an automatic foreigner, and a dragon an automatic friend.”
“And since you seem to know so much,” said Conor, “Tell me. Who are you?”
“I am one of them, these Strangers that you label so coldly. Your mates have seen me only in my déor’s form: that of a large bird. A Roc.”
Conor’s eyes widened. “You were there, the night of the assault, when I was feverish, near death.”
“I was. Prepared to take you away from all of it, to help you to heal.”
“Help me? But your friends seemed to want us all dead.”
“Not at all,” said the man, wandering now, admiring the armour, a finger caressing this piece and that, his mind marvelling at the craftsmanship. “But we knew that your companions wouldn’t let you go without a fight. And when I was outside of your window and could see you in my mind’s eye, that you were recovering, I knew that you too would put up a fight. That you wouldn’t understand why I would take you from Lady Lilliana and Lord Ramsey.”
“But why would you help me? Am I not your enemy? I thought…”
“You, an enemy? Certainly not. You belong here, with us. You are our greatest ally, whether you know it or not.”
Conor drew a hand through his thick hair and laughed, his other hand going to his chest as though to check and see that he was awake and alive. “All right,” he said. “You have me baffled. And I can’t read your thoughts, so I’m going to need you to be very clear with me. What are you talking about?”
“The armour around you, all of it, is yours. This place is yours.”
“That’s splendid. It’s excellent to know that I possess a castle with a large assortment of metal outfits for bears.” Conor turned and began to walk away. “Well, it was nice meeting you, Mr…Roc.”
“One second, my Lord Dunbar,” said the man, raising his voice so that once again it echoed through the large space.
“I am no lord.” Conor turned and glared. “Least of all yours.”
“Ah, but you are. It is your birthright.”
“Well, if I am somehow your leader then tell me this: who is the leader of the Stranieri?”
“Why you are, of course.”
The words hit like bullets. They were ridiculous; unfathomable. And yet all of a sudden the scenes that had worked through his mind began to fall together in a sort of interwoven tapestry; a puzzle assembling at last.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “How is that possible?”
The man approached and stood before him, Conor’s equal in height. “The Stranieri formed many centuries ago, under cover of darkness, and was made up of members of a secret society who congregated in hidden places. For a time—many years, in fact—they went quiet; many thought they had even disbanded. But in the fifteenth century they sprang back to life, inspired by the cruelty of the dragon lords. It is they who work to this day to preserve our way of life and to guard it from oppressors.”
“You still haven’t explained how I’m somehow their leader.”
“Let me show you,” said the man. “If you’ll indulge me for a moment.”
He turned to his right and Conor followed his gaze, which seemed fixed on a piece of bare wall between two of the suits of armour.
A moment later a scene began to spread across the space, another sort of film, but this time Conor knew that it wasn’t in his mind: it was being conveyed by the Roc shifter to him; the man was showing him using some trick of his own mind.
The scene depicted a great field spreading in every direction, and covering it were shifters of all sorts; cats, birds flying low, hounds and wolves. But the largest of them were the bears, clad in silver and gold armour, preparing for war.
In the foreground was the most impressively enormous of them all: A dark bear with eyes of two different colours: one aqua, the other gold flecked with brown. He wore a suit of armour made of silver so bright that it shone white in the sunlight.
All eyes were on him as he seemed to communicate silently with his army.
And then the sky erupted in a sea of flame and flying, scaled bodies of every colour: emerald green, sky blue, silver. Their leader was an enormous dragon, menacing, coated in red scales.
In seconds the dragons were attacking, and the bear leader reared up protectively, his army behind him as he took on their greatest threat.
And then what seemed like a screen went dark and the pictures ceased.
“What…what did you just show me?” asked Conor.
“I showed you your fate. And now I will show you more.”
“I…”
The man didn’t speak again. Instead, he backed away to the center of the room, where he stood, his arms spread outward, seeming to reach for the far corners of the cavernous space. In a moment a gigantic bird stood before Conor, its wings unable to spread fully despite the size of the chamber.
As he watched, it lunged at him, threatening, aggressive.
And inside Conor, his déor took over. There was no time to think; only to act.
In an instant he had changed into the creature whom he hadn’t inhabited since fighting the shape-changer and her companion in the woods, defending Lilliana out of love and loyalty.
The Roc backed away, luring Conor forward slowly until he found himself next to a particularly shiny piece of armour, bare of engraving, its side smooth, a perfect mirror.
And then the Roc shifted his own eyes towards the armour. Conor understood and looked in the same direction.
In the reflected surface he saw his déor at last: an enormous bear, dark-coated with an aqua eye and a golden one, flecked with brown.
Large enough to take down even a dragon lord.
Afterword
Teaser from Book Five, Dragon Wars (coming in June)!
Lily’s eyes opened to reveal that she was standing on the edge of a large field, empty, green and lush. Peaceful.
It took her a moment to recognize its rolling hills from the painting, where they’d shown bloodied bodies lying scattered, the refuse of war.
This was the battleground, the stage set for the showdown that would occur between the armies. A conflict that she must at all costs prevent.
Also by Carina Wilder
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Seeking Her Mates Book One:
Torn
Book Two of Seeking her Mates: Escape
All of Carina’s individual books are available FREE on Kindle Unlimited for a limited time!
Before Seeking her Mates came the Sought by the Alphas serial, which tells the story of Lily’s mother, Gwynne and her mates:
The five-book boxed set is available here: Sought by the Alphas Boxed Set
Individual books:
Encounters
Rituals
Trial by Fire
Kinship
Dragon Queen
The first four books in the Wolf Rock Shifters Series (these are complete stories and can be read out of order):
Winning the Alpha
Bearing Up In Wolf Rock
The Right to a Bear's Arms
To Lie With Lions
The Billionaires and Curves Serial:
Billionaires and Curves (Taken With You) Trilogy
Taken With You
Crazy About You
The Way to You
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