Dragon Beloved: A Reverse Harem Dragon Mythology Romance (Dragon Gladiators Book 3) Read online

  Copyright (C) 2018 by Zara Stark and Sara Stewart

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First edition: July 2018

  Cover art by Sara Stewart

  Edited by Clovermango Editing

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Quotes

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Author Note

  About the Author

  Dedication

  Thanks to everyone who supported me during the writing of this book! Writing a book can be a very solitary journey but knowing you have people in your corner, rooting for you is an amazing thing to have. I’m very blessed.

  Special dedication to the readers of the Dragon Gladiators series, thank you for sticking with me and reading my stories. I promise all of the pain we’ve been through so far will so be worth it for Team Bumblebee in the end. I like to make my characters earn their happy ending.

  Dedicated to my husband for, as always, putting up with my insanity and supplying plenty of food and alcohol during the stress of writing this book or should I say the stress of real life getting in the way of writing this book? You’re my real life superhero. Thanks for all of the My Hero Academia and Forged in Fire episodes.

  Dedicated to my toddler even though you decided you were ready for potty training three days before this book was due and kept taking off your diaper and going potty around the house. Potty training you while writing and editing this book felt like I was Gandalf fighting the Balrog.

  Quotes

  “You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

  ― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

  "She is a mortal danger to all men. She is beautiful without knowing it, and possesses charms that she's not even aware of. She is like a trap set by nature - a sweet perfumed rose in whose petals Cupid lurks in ambush! Anyone who has seen her smile has known perfection. She instills grace in every common thing and divinity in every careless gesture. Venus in her shell was never so lovely, and Diana in the forest never so graceful as my Lady when she strides.”

  -- Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac

  “Oh, I am fortune's fool!”

  ― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

  Chapter 1

  “Well here goes everything,” I chuckled, rolling the small six-sided die over the top of my fingers like I had seen people do with coins before, I caught it at the end between my pinkie and palm. I felt the familiar but oddly alien feeling magic spark to life in my palm. My four Aurelius dragons stood around me, bracing themselves and prepared for the worst. Some of my card tricks ended up in explosions or insta-death so we couldn’t be too careful when it came to dice. My number one dice was a blinding white light, what would number two do?

  Raiden, our leader and the eldest of us, wanted me to wait until I was healed up more. But a broken arm didn’t really interfere with my magic, so instead of using it as an excuse for being lazy, I clumsily put on my armor and followed them to the training arena to try out my new ability. If Azar got to go with his broken leg, a broken forearm sure as hell wasn’t holding me back.

  Using my left hand for everything made for clumsy motions. I had spent my entire life perfecting cards tricks and flips and thought they had nothing to do with using my magic, I loved the little extra pizazz they gave me.

  I was practicing cool tricks with my die, the best so far had been rolling it over the top of my fingers. I had been set to just shake it in my hand but after showing Azar and Cobalt my number one die and the oddly reminiscent of a hand-job motion, all four of my dragons had died of laughter. Though clumsy with my left hand, I was working on it.

  The set of dice were strange. Six dice, each with swirls in a specific number. I had used the number one dice so far to create a brilliant white light. While waiting for my new cards, I planned to test each and every one of them, if Raiden stopped clucking around me like a mother hen and Nevada would stop staring at me like I was a science experiment, I might be able to learn about each one before our next and final tournament.

  Forging my new deck would take time, so while Cobalt was hard at work creating new metal cards I had plenty of time to work on my dice.

  “Zar, maybe you should stand back,” Raiden warned, a dangerous spark lighting up his pale blue eyes. Siberian husky eyes, the girls around our childhood neighborhood used to sigh and whisper as he walked by, not that he gave any of them the time of day. You would think the combination of blonde hair and such pale eyes would wash him out but somehow they contrasted beautifully together. Raiden for some odd reason hated that he was a beautiful man and loved to shave his hair short and show off all of his battle scars, the most prominent one carving up one of his high cheekbones in a slicing pink line.

  “No way!” Azar growled at Raiden. I rolled my eyes, here we go again, I thought. Azar was just as volatile as his element, fire. Even in the noontime sun, Azar was the living embodiment of fire, his hair was varying shades of red, burgundy, gold and orange feathered around his head in haphazard spikes. His eyes were an arresting shade of aged whiskey, gold, and amber all in one but circled in a ring of dark fire pit ash. Out of all four of my dragons, Azar was the most unique in his looks. Just like fire he was alarming and beautiful all at once, you couldn’t look away.

  “Oh did that sound like a request? It wasn’t. It was an order, back the fuck up,” Raiden snapped. “You might think your leg is fine but I want it healed up in time for our next tournament and your activities last night with Octavia last night sure didn’t help it.”

  “I’m a dragon, I’ll be plenty healed up by next week you old worry wart,” Azar scoffed, he looked away from Raiden and his gaze landed on me, they gently traced the flame symbol on my neck. “Nice mark, Tavia.”

  I graze the fingers of my broken arm over it and smirked. “Oh, this old thing?”

  The other guys groaned, they hated Azar and I’s cheesy banter. I couldn’t blame them but Azar just tended to bring out the cheeseball in me.

  “I just don’t think--” Raiden started before giving me a very confused look.

  “What? You don’t think what?” I asked, just as confused as he seemed.

  “Tavia,” Raiden sighed in exasperation. “You’re floating.”

  I looked down and sure as he had said, I was floating a few inches off of the ground.

  “Well look at that,” I chuckled. It wasn’t far off the ground so it didn’t feel very different but as soon as I looked down, my body shot up a couple feet into the air.

  “Woah!” I squealed, my legs kicked out, I squeezed the dice hard in my good hand.

  “Die numero uno is a blinding light, die numero dos is low air density or anti-gravity maybe? Channeling her own non
-gravitational field would be my guess.” Nevada’s voice permeated the cloud of panic that was forming in my mind. I looked down and his handsome, almost pretty, features were twisted in a look of deep thought. His muscular arms were crossed over his chest and he gazed up at me, the sun hit his sapphire eyes, making them look an impossibly deep blue color.

  “Anti-gravity? She’s flying,” Raiden growled at Nevada.

  “No, it’s messing with gravity, if she was flying she would have more control and be going side to side but she’s floating as if she is defying gravity but I think it’s just messing with her density, like how Helium is lighter than air so balloons float,” Nevada gave Raiden a long-suffering look, his soft, dark curls tumbled into his eyes. “She’s floating because the dice is changing her density, making her lighter than the air around us.”

  “If that’s not what every woman wants to hear, I don’t know what is,” I laughed from the air. I tried to do a swimming motion with my one good arm side to side but it didn’t work. Guess I could just go up like Nevada said, I didn’t seem to have control of it even up and down.

  “Tavia, you’re going a little too high,” Raiden warned.

  “I kind of noticed that, you’re starting to look less like men and more like ants,” I laughed nervously. “Um, how do I come down? Not keen on breaking any more bones today.”

  “Can you slowly release the magic?” Raiden asked.

  “Doesn’t work like that,” I shook my head. “My magic is either activated or deactivated.”

  “Just deactivate it, we’ll catch you,” Cobalt scoffed, his arms crossed over his muscled chest.

  “So you four can all run for me at the same time and ram into each other Three Stooges style?” I sighed, floating higher and higher, not only were the guys looking small but it was getting harder to hear them below me.

  “Kind of your only option, Tavia, unless you plan on sprouting wings and flying away that is,” Nevada smirked up at me.

  “Okay, alright, I’ll do it,” I groaned, he was right, I really did have no other option. The higher up I went, the cooler the air got. I was a total sucker when it came to the cold, if I didn’t deactivate it soon, the die would deactivate itself from my lack of concentration on the die and my focus on the cold.

  I had been using cards since I was a small child and it took very little concentration to keep one or more activated, especially if they were just the pip cards that went from two to ten but my die were a whole different game.

  Just like any muscle, my magical aptitude grew stronger the more I worked it out. A lifetime of avoiding all of my cards except my healing cards did not prepare me for the Dragon Gladiator Games. I had spent the last few tournaments and interims in my own magical boot camp, forcing my magical to new heights.

  With half of my deck gone and no exact date when Cobalt would be done forging my new ones, I had no other choice but to force myself to become adept with my dice. Luckily I still had most of my attack and defense cards, I just now lacked the ability to heal, which would really hurt my team in the upcoming tournament.

  I looked at the die in my palm, the two little swirls on each side of the bone white cube. The magic thrumming from the die was so alien to me. I had discovered my ability to use cards on accident as a small child. I had gotten angry during a game of Go Fish with my four dragons during a sleepover and felt my first flare of magic from a card ever and flooded their entire living room with water.

  I wondered why I had activated with cards so young but never felt magic from a dice before.

  I turned the die in my hand and peaked down at my guys.

  “Ready?” I asked as I clenched my broken arm closed to my chest.

  There was no doubt in my mind that one of my dragons would easily catch me but free falling through the air was still a nightmare.

  “Just do it already,” Azar laughed, grinning up at me.

  Raiden rounded on him, jabbing his finger at him. “Oh hell no, you are not catching her.”

  “My leg is broken, not my arms,” Azar rolled his eyes and stepped closer to the other guys.

  Raiden quickly stepped over to block his path and glared. I sighed from up above them, watching them. Raiden and Azar both had very aggressive personality types, even though they were the farthest apart in age and had similar elements, lightning and fire, they always managed to butt heads.

  “What part of taking it easy is not getting through that thick skull of yours?” Raiden asked, his voice deceptively calm.

  “Easy is not in my vocabulary, I’m always hard,” Azar sneered at Raiden.

  The training field grew quiet for a moment before all of us but Raiden burst into laughter.

  I laughed from the sky, feeling tears of laughter well up in my eyes.

  “In my experience, he isn’t wrong!” I shouted down at Raiden, spurring the other three dragon males to devolve into more laughter.

  Raiden blinked up at me and raised his hands to rub at his temples.

  “I think I hate all of you,” Raiden grumbled.

  “You love us!” I yelled down, giving him the prettiest smile I could from high up in the sky, trusting his sharper vision to catch it.

  “Honestly, you wouldn’t know what to do without us, if you didn’t have something to bitch about,” Nevada rolled his eyes at Raiden.

  “If you’re all done, I would like to see Octavia on planet earth again instead of in orbit,” Raiden glared at Nevada.

  “Satellite Octavia, crashing down to Earth in three--two--one!” I released the magic from my die and plummeted back down to earth, the air rushing around me. I held my broken arm tight to my chest and clenched my eyes shut tight.

  I landed in a pair of strong, heavily muscled arms. A sharp and earthy scent, like violet leaf, assailed my sense, embracing me in the warm cocoon that flood my senses. It was Cobalt who made the catch.

  I opened my eyes and grinned up at him.

  “You’re far too light, you’re not eating enough,” Cobalt noted, looking tenderly down at me in his arms, his wild dark hair hung like a curtain around us, blocking everyone from seeing him gaze at me with such a soft look in his eyes. Tender from Cobalt was not one would often associate with Cobalt. Some men were described as rough around the edges, Cobalt was just rough all around. Tender from Cobalt would be a borderline vicious look to others. But looking into his hooded garnet eyes with dark eyebrows looming overhead, I had known him for so very long, I knew just how tender that look was from him.

  “Ugh Cobalt, you missed the perfect opportunity to say nice of you to drop in, when you caught her!” Azar yelled. “That’s it, we have to do it again!”

  I hopped out of Cobalt’s arms and padded over to Azar and sprung up onto my tippy toes so I could pat the top of his head.

  “It is okay firebug, when your leg is better I’ll let you catch me and you can make all of the obnoxious jokes you want,” I grinned at Azar and pat his head, feeling his surprisingly soft hair run through my fingers. Even his hair was hot and fiery to the touch, to the point it was almost painful in the best of ways, like a scalding hot shower after a bad day.

  Azar yanked me into his arms roughly and squeezed me tight, nestling his face into the crook between my neck and shoulder, nuzzling his nose there.

  I leaned into his touch, letting him consume my senses. There was something about Azar, despite his wild personality that just put me at ease. Maybe it was because I had met him first, back in pre-school, our meeting was no longer a memory having been so long ago it was now just an impression of happy feelings, maybe that was why Azar felt like home.

  My stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, making the guys around me chuckle.

  “Told you,” Cobalt quipped and I swung around to stick my tongue out at him at which he only gave me a devious grin. When Cobalt grinned, most people ran for cover. When Cobalt grinned at me, I melted inside, true smiles from him were rarer than diamonds.

  “Might need to start eating something more
substantial than bread, Tavia,” Nevada added in, stepping close to Azar and me.

  “Nope! Carbs are life,” I shook my head, they would have to bury me with bread when I died. I loved bread. All bread. I could eat it all day. I could it eat it for the rest of my life and never ever get tired of it.

  “Come on you raving group of idiots, let’s go back to the castelli and get Octavia full of bread,” Raiden stepped over, placing a hand on my shoulder, his grip firm but not punishing. He pulled me over to him and knelt down from his much taller height and look me in the eye. His gaze was searching, waiting for me to lie. I swallowed hard.

  “Octavia, why didn’t you eat breakfast?” He asked, his pale eyes narrowing.

  Okay, I was tired of this babying stuff. I’m a grown ass woman.

  “Because I chose not to, using my dice makes my stomach really upset so I chose not to eat this morning, I’m a grown woman and I don’t have to answer to you. I appreciate the concern but honestly, you don’t need to baby me,” I crossed my arms and glared right back at him. I’m sure I was terrifying. A foot shorter than him with wild windblown hair that didn’t know if it wanted to be brown or blonde and my freckled nose curling in irritation.