Dragon Betrayed: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Dragon Gladiators Book 2) 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: May 2018

  Cover art by Sara Stewart

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Quotes

  Prologue

  Chapter I

  Chapter II

  Chapter III

  Chapter IV

  Chapter V

  Chapter VI

  Chapter VII

  Chapter VIII

  Chapter IX

  Chapter X

  Chapter XI

  Chapter XII

  Dragon Beloved July 2018

  Note from the Author

  About the Author

  By Zara Stark

  Dedication

  Dedicated to Luke, the best dog in the world. The sweetest, smartest and calmest dog ever. The dog who adopted stray kittens. The dog who befriended everyone he met. I will miss you so much buddy. Please watch over us.

  Dedicated to my husband, thank you for being my rock and talking me down from all of my craziness. You are so strong, I love you so very much. Also thank you for feeding me delicious carbs during the writing of this book and dealing with the emotional rollercoaster I was on. Thank you for always supporting whatever I do. You are my savior.

  Dedicated to my toddler, thank you for the laughs and love. You make me want to be better.

  Quotes

  “You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death.” -Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend

  “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

  -Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

  “Fair is foul and foul is fair: Hover through fog and filthy air.” -Shakespeare, Macbeth

  “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster...for when you gaze inti the abyss. They abyss gazes also into you.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

  Prologue

  “It’s my nature to eat you, the spider said to the fly,” Raiden began, reciting my favorite story to me.

  Around the age of twelve, Raiden entered the period of teenage angst and arrogance, too cool to be seen around the neighborhood with the likes of a nine year old and three six year old’s. We followed him around everywhere he went, we thought he was so cool. He never gave in, always trying to shake us off of his trail, out peddling us on his bike, climbing the trees with too tall branches we couldn’t hope to reach. When he was around eighteen, we became acceptable to be seen in public with again but during that six year gap, the only time I saw Raiden was during our sleepovers. Old fashioned ones, where we sat around the living room, putting flashlights under our chins with one hand and doing exaggerated gestures with the other, trying to terrify the others with our stories.

  Raiden’s story was always my favorite. Could a predator help its need to hunt? Could prey become the hunter instead of the hunted? Dangerous concepts for a young child but the way Raiden spun it had me clenching my blanket with white knuckles and grit teeth.

  He told a tale of all-powerful gods sitting in a golden castle atop the clouds catching prayers whispered to the wind. Of nymphs swaying in tune with meadow flowers with a warm summer breeze. Of giants coming from the sea with crafted lightning bolts. Of trees that grew golden apples that blessed those that dared to take a bite of their topaz flesh with eternal life. Of dragons whose wingspans dwarfed mountains, who hoarded more gold than anyone could possibly fathom, stealing anything that shined or refracted light. People knew that when the light was blocked away mid-day, a dragon was flying overhead, to leave any treasure and run, praying to the gods for mercy. It was too bad that the gods didn’t have mercy. Dragons can’t help their love of treasure, Raiden would explain, a dragon is an apex predator, they cannot help their hunger, their need to dominate. It was in their blood, in their creation. Every living being on the earth knew to run if a shadow passed over head, a dragon was near and not even the warm sunlight could penetrate the thick-scaled membrane of a dragon’s wings blotting out the blue of the sky.

  The Gods hated humanity. Humans were the only creatures that had free will, the ability to choose whether they could be good or bad, exemplary or mundane. Even the Gods themselves were denied this rite and they hated humanity for it. Humanity was crafty. The Gods sent floods, they built boats. The Gods sent plagues, humans invented medicine. The Gods sent famine, humans invented agriculture. The dragons were the most magnificent of the God’s creations, finely crafted killing machines designed to display the wrath of the gods on the humans. It worked very well, humanity on the brink of extinction. But as the human population waned, so did the powers of the Gods. Gods had no power without prayer, humans were the creatures they hated but oh so needed.

  They turned on their own creations for becoming too powerful but dragons had magic of their own, they couldn’t simply eradicate their finest creatures. They couldn’t fully destroy them. They could temporarily trap them in the confines of human skin, force them to walk on two legs as man. But they couldn’t be magically confined for their long lifetimes. The Concilium was created, the contract was signed. The Gods would stop hunting their young and they would force every dragon to participate in a thousand fights to the death. Only the worthy, only the strongest and the bravest would survive and regain their draconic forms. Eventually other creatures that angered the gods were forced to join, the contract expanded. Dryads who stretched their tree roots too deep, giant wolves who amassed packs the size of armies. Raiden at this point in the story would frown. The gods dared to create these creatures only to eternally punish them for the ingredients they put into their recipe.

  I knew as a child, I should have feared every single aspect of this story. The Gods themselves and the dragons. Maybe it was the way Raiden spoke, maybe it was my natural empathy that followed me through life but every single time, the end of the story would make me burst into tears.

  Dragons forced into human skins, separated from clans and family, forced to fight against each other to the death. A thousand battles didn’t leave anyone unscathed, dragons went in born as monsters and left as worse ones that the games had created.

  At this point, Raiden’s eyes would soften, Cobalt would grumble like he wanted to be anywhere but there, Nevada wouldn’t say a thing but his hand would slip into mine and give it a squeeze and Azar was pleasantly clueless, not caring one way or the other about the story.

  His tale was always the last of the night, before their father would turn out the lights and tell us to go to bed. Cobalt and Raiden would turn over in their sleeping bags and go to sleep. My eyes were always so heavy by that time of night, while Nevada and Azar would stay up and whisper, I always fell into a deep sleep. Dreaming of dragons flying high in the sky and shuffling cards in my hands

  Chapter 1

  The air was hot and humid in the magical marketplace outside of our castelli. The low song of crepuscular cicadas t
old me it would soon be dark. A salty sea breeze drifted lazily in from the West, rustling through the merchant carts that hung dried herbs of juniper, thyme, laurel and sage. The aromatic scent to the air almost lulled me into a relaxed state but I managed to stay alert. I had too. I was out alone. Not even a month ago, a woman with monster claws had pretended to want to rescue me only to rake those claws against my skin. She had wanted me to go off alone with her, to do what to me, I didn't know. It was nothing good because a day later a man broke into our castelli and tried to murder us in our sleep.

  The magical side of Ancient Rome was undeniably dangerous. Which made me glad that I was completely invisible and intangible to everyone and everything.

  My Alpha of Shields card secured between my thumb and forefinger, the dark protective shadow shield clung to my skin like a latex cat suit.

  I weaved in and out of the crowd out of pure habit, if a person ran into me they wouldn't feel it but I sure would.

  I window shopped, enjoying my time away. Things had gotten intense the last few weeks. Still reeling from Cobalt's betrayal and defection, Raiden bad thrown us into an intense training regimen. Intense for me at least, just a simple human with a touch of magic. The guys were dragons in human form and the last month had probably been easy for them.

  My body was sore in places that I didn't even know could get sore. I was developing a nice bit of muscle definition I could never obtain back home with the availability of so many delicious sweets. Living off of fresh fruits and vegetables was definitely working in my favor, even though I chased those healthy fruits and veggies with plenty of fresh bread.

  Though my card magic was versatile, I still needed to build more stamina, doing distance runs, sprints every day and a sick, twisted version of dodgeball where I frantically rolled, ducked and weaved to avoid the guy's attacks. It reminded me of that comedy movie I always loved to catch on rerun on TV, the five D’s of dodgeball. Dive, duck, dip, dive and dodge. Just the thought of the movie made my lips quirk up into a smile.

  Before Cobalt left, he had started to train me with weapons, we hadn't gotten far but I was still determined to practice. Cobalt was a metal dragon who could not only turn into different metal elements but he could manipulate it at will. He could turn his arms into swords, there was no better person-- dragon? -- To train in weapons with than someone who could literally turn into one. But Nevada had taken over that training, even if his strongest ice swords were no match for my Emperor of Spears, a sword that could cut through anything. We had to be careful to just practice our sword forms and not actually touch our blades. It's how we had spent every day of the last month, training from sunup to dusk then relax in the giant hot tub in my room well into the night.

  We were all determined to be ready for our next tournament. We only had eight battles left until we earned our freedom and could return to our own time. This next tournament would knock out half of our remaining battles. We had a lot of modern amenities in our castelli though. The Powers That Be and the Concilium that fulfilled their every whim, gathered dragons from every inch of the Earth, every time period and I heard the rumor of alternate dimensions as well but nothing substantial just Nevada’s conspiracy theories. But still we had only necessities like clean drinking water and plumbing.

  I had already decided that the first thing I would do when we got back home to our modern time was eat a pint of ice cream or six and binge watch TV for a month when I returned home. I would not move from my couch or take off my comfy leggings. I would live off of delivery pizza and enjoy my rest.

  I leaned against a stone wall and sighed, letting my head rest against the worn stone. Tomorrow we would find out who the latest member of Team Bumblebee was. I was sure most of the frustration that discolored the atmosphere of our castelli and team was Cobalt's betrayal but a lot of it had to be the uncertainty of who we would be stuck with for our remaining eight battles.

  Azar and Nevada had been extra tense lately but Raiden had become far more draconic than man lately, filled with rage. It came from the sense of powerlessness he felt over the whole Cobalt situation. The fact that he hadn't been able to stop Cobalt from leaving or that he had even planned to do so. The last thing Raiden liked was to feel powerless. He had never been powerless until now.

  Raiden had been increasingly hard on us, pushing us to our very limits. The times that I came alone to the marketplace were my one reprieve but it just drove a wedge between us because Raiden thought I was looking for Cobalt.

  Admittedly, I really was hoping to catch a view of Cobalt.

  I hadn’t been able to find him yet but I wasn’t surprised. Cobalt wasn’t a social guy, the marketplace was the Ancient Rome equivalent of hanging out at the mall and Cobalt was not a mall guy. He was the hides in a lair in the woods sharpening his knife collection kind of guy. It sounded creepy but when someone knew another for more than twenty years, even their weird parts become endearing.

  I heard a voice that sounded familiar. I lifted my sore and weary body from its leaning place on the stone wall and looked around. Sure enough, a familiar dragoness, Mab, the faerie dragoness, tall and willowy with long dark hair and golden eyes. A unique expression was always plastered on her face, a mix of dreamy and zoned out and sassy confidence. She seemed like she never paid attention to anything but I knew she was a lot sharper than she let on. Our team had battled her during my first tournament in the second battle, she had picked a fight with Nevada, figuring the pretty boy was an easy target but had paid the price for judging a book by its cover. Part of her right cheek and ear were permanently a mottled mix of scarlet and aubergine from Nevada’s frostbite. She was lucky to have even lived, the only way a loser left the arena was as ashes from the funeral pyre or on the brink of death. It didn’t detract from her appearance, only made her eyes seem a more startling shade of copper.

  She walked down the marketplace and my curiosity got the best of me, I followed her. I knew losers were resorted onto other teams but in her everyday armor, plain dark gray tanned leather, I couldn’t tell who her new team was.

  After our last tournament win, we upgraded from our basic leather armor of tan and brown to a soft dyed navy leather. I wasn’t sure why the guys finally felt the need to upgrade, after all they had won many tournaments before I joined them. I couldn’t help but think Raiden felt bad that his mate had to wear armor every day, that he could at least have his destined mate wear nice armor. The muted blue color popped against my deep tan and I couldn’t help but check out my reflection when I caught it in a rare looking glass. Mab was wearing the basic armor but the gorgeous faerie dragon surely looked good in anything, a fact I was more than a bit jealous of.

  She meandered around the marketplace, as listless as I had been just a bit ago. Looking for nothing, looking for something. Every now and then she would peak over her shoulder, if I didn't feel the thick magic cloaking every inch of my skin, I could have sworn her amber eyes were looking directly into mine.

  Mab was about to turn a corner and I pumped my legs harder to keep up and follow when a hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me into a narrow alleyway.

  No one should be able to grab a hold of me! I was both invisible and intangible.

  “Gods Above, I hope that’s your wrist,” A deep, rough voice as sharp as knife’s edge grumbled in my ear. His deep and rough voice dripped in honey. “I can’t feel a thing.”

  Cobalt! My heart raced, finally, after a month of looking I had found him. No, better yet, he had found me.

  He pulled me into the abandoned area and leaned me against the alley wall. “Rabbit?”

  “Yes?” I asked, my heart pounding with excitement. I could hardly believe it. My eyes trailed up and down his tall, muscled form. He didn’t look any worse for the wear, being away from us. Though not as tall as Raiden, he had a bulkier muscled form than the rest with a deep bronze tan and intricate dark symbols tattooed all over his bare chest and arms that I desperately wanted to trace with my fingers and broa
d shoulders that I would call doorway wreckers. His dark hair was still long, half loose and half an artful mess of dreads and braids with golden beads decorating it. His eyes shone like rubies in the daylight. He truly was a sight for sore eyes. My heart fluttered like a baby bird, I had somehow missed him more this last month than I had in ten full years. Maybe it had been because I had just gotten him back only to lose him again.

  “What are you doing out here alone?” Cobalt asked, his rough voice colored with concern. He eyes me up and down, the concern for my safety and well-being obvious in his eyes. My heart lurched again. “I hope you weren’t looking for me.”

  “Of course not, just out for an afternoon stroll,” I laughed nervously.

  “Why were you following Mab? She can see right through your magic you know,” Cobalt growled. “Of all the dangerous and stupid things to do. They let you go out alone and you do the dumbest thing you can think of.”

  Oh hell no! Anger burnt through my relief in seeing him. God! Had I really thought for a minute that Cobalt would be nice? Cobalt was either making stupid jokes or being a total ass. Some things never changed.

  “Excuse you? Let me go out? I come and go as I please because I’m an adult, thank you very much, what gives you the right to question any of my decisions?” I snapped back to him and his lips curled into a satisfied smile.