Dragons Don't Forgive (15 page)

The energy builds, but this time I
feel Sarn’s energy too. His body begins to glow with a dazzling
purple light. If my body wasn’t craving release so bad, I’d stop
just to watch the beautiful colors swirl under his skin. My dragon
is beautiful and I will never be able to put what I’m feeling into
words. The Goddess might be able to take his wings, but Sarn will
always be dragon.

Chapter Seventeen

Sarn

She is my true mate. My power builds
and my violet light passes from me to her until we are one flashing
glow of perfection. Her wolf’s power blends with mine in seamless
harmony. I have never felt this degree of rightness. I could only
share a small part of this energy with my brides. Nothing like what
is taking place right now. Sierra’s cry floats on the wind and my
shout follows. The light explodes around us. It reaches over a
hundred yards in all directions and the ground shakes with the
power of our release. We are mates. We are one. We are
forever.

I hold her long after our bodies calm.
The glow around us dissipates slowly. If we were in the dragon
realm and she my bride, she would have already transcended to
dragon. It matters not. She is my mate—a wolf with a dragon’s
heart.

“
I love you,” she says
against my chest.

“
And I love you. I’m sorry
it took the extra days to get here. I had to say
goodbye.”

“
I am sorry for everything
you’ve lost.” She’s leaning up gazing at me with my purple light
spilling from her body.

I smile when I see the new color of
her eyes. They are a perfect match to mine.

She lifts her arm and a trail of that
light follows as she moves it. “This is glorious,” she says with
the most exquisite smile.

I place my finger at her lips. “Yes,
it is glorious. It can only happen between dragon mates. There will
be no more apologies between us. What we do from this point
forward, we shall do together. We have an eternity of happiness to
live and I want every moment to be better than the one
before.”

She nips my finger then snuggles back
down against me. “Will the light happen every time?”

“
Yes.”

“
My father will love that,”
she says with a slightly wicked laugh.

I laugh too. “I must build us a castle
to hold the light in when we make love.”

“
I don’t care if the world
sees. They will only be jealous that it isn’t them. Love me again,
Sarn.”

“
As you wish.”

***

Sierra

So many years wasted, but we make up
for them. We stayed in bear territory for a month. Then we traveled
to my father. He and Sarn became great friends. Part of the key was
my father seeing me so happy. My brother and Derrick came to visit
also. We spent three months in the southern territory before
visiting Marcus and Amy. It was just over the border of their
territory that Sarn purchased land and built our castle, or as he
calls it, our lair. As the mate of a dragon, I no longer needed a
vampire to give me eternal life. I am truly Sarn’s
forever.

We have no knowledge about how things
work when a dragon and a wolf shifter mate. I still feel sad at
times that Sarn no longer has his dragon form. He never feels that
way, though. He is happier than I’ve ever seen him. Part of that is
me, but I suspect the largest part is that he finally forgives
himself.

I am the happiest woman alive. I have
dragon in my soul and the love of my life in my bed. As Roxy told
me, there is no greater love than the love of a dragon. And I have
that forever.

Chapter
Eighteen

Tahr

I lay on the bed with Meagan in my
arms. Somehow she has survived longer than any previous bride. Her
will to live leaves me in awe. Her cloudy eyes are open and peering
into mine. I see the lines of pain that furrow her once-flawless
skin. I smile gently to ease her worry. This is the end and we both
know it. I have been up with her throughout the night. She only
hangs on because of me.

“
I wish to see the sunrise,
Tahr.”

I lift her almost weightless body from
the bed and carry her out the huge doors that lead to the landing
perch. I hold her in my arms as she looks out over my realm with a
soft smile on her lips.

It’s a long moment before she expels
her next breath.

“
Go in peace, my love,” I
whisper against her hair as she takes one last shaky
breath.

My roar of fire seems endless as I
scream my wrath over the land below. I finally carry her back
inside and lay her upon our bed. I don’t lie down beside her. If I
do, I will never rise. I adjust her nightshift and comb her hair
until the thin gray strands surround her beautiful face. I kiss her
cooling lips one last time. Then I wrap her tightly within her
favorite blanket. I carry her back out to the perch and shift. My
silver wings spread wide and I lift her in my talons. I hold her
gently and fly to the ocean. I release her in the deepest water
like I have so many brides before.

I am the last of the damned. I am also
the youngest of the four dragons originally cursed. They have each
found a mate. I am the only one without left alone. There’s a good
reason for that. It’s the reason the curse of one-hundred-thousand
years will bring me pain until those years have passed.

I am the last direct descendant of
Drakon, the dragon who caused the curse. My father was his brother.
I alone should pay for Drakon’s sins, but the Goddess is vengeful.
I’ve watched all the dragons die but the four of us. Then watched
my three remaining brother dragons suffer with the pain of losing
their brides again and again.

It’s fitting that I loved Meagan so
deeply, and I will love my next bride in the same way. Fire rises
in my throat and I let it slice over the water that has accepted my
bride as gift. Now the long years of loneliness begin
again.

And I will survive because dragons
live forever.

Tahr’s story, Dragons Live
Forever, the conclusion to the Fire Chronicles, coming
soon…

D’Elen Gets Real,

You made it and I want to thank you
for allowing me to shred your heart with Sarn and Sierra’s story. I
know you have questions because my editing team has inundated me
with them. Can Sarn and Sierra have children is number one. You
must remember that dragons can only pro-create in their natural
form and it must be with another dragon. Harsh but true.

When I first dreamed about these
characters and developed their world in my head, I had a plan. I
still have that plan and a lot of questions will be answered in the
conclusion to the Fire Chronicles: Dragons Live Forever. And
speaking of the last book (no screaming, yelling, and fit throwing,
please) I’m hard at work on the series finale. You can bet you left
tit it will have a few surprises. And yes Kathie, I know I promised
you a green dragon but that will be down the line and possibly a
new series. It depends on where my imagination takes me.

I balled my eyes out while writing
this book. It reminded me of a dog who died in another story I
wrote under one of my pseudonyms. I get very involved with my
characters. Their struggles become mine and my emotions take over.
I’ve always loved a book that touches my heart and that’s my goal
when writing for you. Kleenex (or a roll of TP) is my
friend.

Please, please, please
leave a review for this book and the earlier ones if possible. I’m
an Indie author and
every
review helps tremendously. It’s how most readers
take notice of me. If we ever meet, I promise you a big sloppy kiss
even if you don’t want it!

You can also find me on
social media:

Blog –
www.wickedstorytelling.com

Twitter –
http://twitter.com/mywickedstories

Facebook –
http://facebook.com/delenmcclain

Or email me at
[email protected]
I
love to hear from readers.

Peace and love,

D’Elen

Sneak unedited peek of
Dragons Live Forever

Chapter One

Tahr

Alone.

You would think this would be easier
after losing so many brides but each only presses harder into my
soul. I walk through the halls of my castle and remember Meagan’s
sweet giggles. I can’t believe she’s been gone six months now. Even
at her advanced age at the time of her death, her humor lightened
my life. I think I miss her laughter most.

I hear a noise to my right and turn. I
catch a glimpse of a young human woman I know only as Pepper. I
recognize her because of the crazy gold headpiece Meagan gifted
her. The poor girl/woman lost large sections of her hair as a child
before she left the earth realm. Some type of cancer treatment
caused patchy baldness to cover her scalp. The cancer treatment
didn’t work to end the cancer so she came to my dragon realm. Here,
she lives a long life free of cancer and pain.

I swear she’s part wood-nymph. I’ve
never caught more than a flash of clothes when she’s about. Meagan
spoiled my humans. She loved the human children and spent too much
time in their section of the castle. No matter how long and loud I
complained she refused to give into me on this point. She was
determined to educate them and make sure their lives were as
comfortable as possible.

I caught her rolling her eyes at me
once when I explained for the hundredth time that the humans wanted
only to serve me. Their lives were pleasant because they took
delight in making me happy. It was their good fortune to have their
life saved by a dragon and they knew it.

What I didn’t say was that my humans
lived a normal lifespan unlike the eternal life of dragons. For
that reason I refused to become attached. Losing a bride each
century was almost impossible to bear. Forming friendships with
humans would only add needless suffering for me when they pass.
It’s easier this way.

My complaints fell on Meagan’s
selectively deaf ears without changing her mind at all. And when
you add her attitude to the fact that the humans are mute; I’m
lucky I’m not insane. She communicated with them in crazy hand
signals that were beyond my understanding. She had no problem
telling me of their needs and of course I gave into each demand,
though I grumbled obsessively. I considered the humans her pets
even when she hated me saying so. I sometimes tempted her wrath
because it was so much fun to watch her face go pink with anger and
her small fists clench. Making up was the best part of her fits of
temper and she could never stay angry at me for long.

With these thoughts, my mood darkens.
I would give anything for Meagan to drive me insane and make a
demand or two for her humans. Remembering her causes such a deep
ache that pain swells low in my gut and my head pounds worse each
day due to sleepless nights. When I do manage to sleep a few hours
I wake up from chaotic dreams to find her gone and her side of the
bed cold. That’s the pain is at its worst.

And, I have twenty-three more years of
this torture.

***

I lie down in bed with a resolve to
keep Meagan from my thoughts and sleep through until morning. Not
that I truly believe it will work but I must try. I need some
rest.

I wake to Meagan’s hand traveling
lightly across my chest. I turn toward her warmth and nearly fall
from the bed. After rubbing my eyes, I look around the room. Why
would I roll away from Meagan? She always slept on the other side
of the bed and not near the bedroom door. Her touch seemed so
real.

I’m awake now and from the glow of the
moons through the large window, it’s somewhere around three in the
morning. I know I’ll have trouble falling back to sleep so I step
from the bed and open the double doors that lead out to the landing
perch that overlooks my kingdom. My room is located at the top of
one of four castle towers and high enough to see for miles. Each
tower has a perch at the top for me to land and launch from. I
rarely use the one in the tower that holds the rooms to the humans
but for some reason it’s where I wish to visit.

I call the magic that transforms me to
dragon and feel the thrill as the power runs through my blood. My
dragon bursts from my flesh and the silver in my wings reflects off
the moonlight as I spread them out wide. Everything is more alive
in this form—colors, smells, even touch. My scales are soft and
sensitive to the world around me unless I’m in danger and then they
turn harder than steal.

I launch from the perch and with a
mighty flap of wings and fly around the tower. I head toward the
opposite perch on the other side of the castle and shift to my
human form after landing. The door is unlocked and I enter a dark
hallway. Even in my human form, I can see clearly through the
shadowed hall.

The top floor is the single men’s
ward. Single women live a floor below and married couples the next
floor down. The children brought from the earth’s realm are housed
on the ground floor so there are no falling accidents. The children
are assigned caretakers until they are old enough to sleep in their
proper ward. All the children are recovering from some catastrophic
illness when they arrive. The crossing into the dragon realm takes
away the pain and disease but they are usually weak from their
lengthy illness. The adult humans here don’t procreate. It’s
something about this realm or maybe it’s their childhood illness.
It’s not something I think about often.