Dragon Star (A Shifter Football League Novel) (5 page)

“No.”

“Yes. You did. You talked to someone. You told them I was bad to you. How dare you.”

“No,” she said again about telling anyone. He was bad to her, but she hadn't said anything.

She wanted to throw the phone out of the window, wrap herself in blankets, and forget that she'd even picked up. This was a nightmare, right?

At some point, she'd have to wake up. Being at Nico's place, she almost came to believe that Jae would be out of her life.

“You're coming home.”

“But this is my job,” she pleaded. Now an anger rose in her. She would need to combat it, force it down.

“I faked an injury at our last practice. The guys think I pulled something in my shoulder. Went straight home, and I want you to come home with me to take a look at it. Once you're here, they won't send you back. I'll make sure of it.”

“What if I want to stay here? This is an interesting job, and I won't be actually working if I leave. I like working.”

“You'll like what I tell you to like. And that's being home. With me. Otherwise, you can forget about it...in fact…”

His voice had gotten rougher, hinting at a change. She got the idea that she'd made two men transform into their dragons in one night. Nice, Cass.

It sounded like he was smirking. “I can't do anything directly to you to punish you for what you've done. The team and the league are watching you now, and so is that other dragon, but your family, back home...no one is watching them.”

She grasped the phone so tightly that she thought she'd smash it into bits before she got the next word out.

“Don't you threaten my family.”

“I can be there in less than an hour. I know where they live. I'll torch the whole place while they're sleeping. I’ll come in under cover of night.”

“You wouldn't.” The phone shook against her now. Her body was so overwhelmed with anger that she could pass out from shaking.

“I would do anything for you.”

He would.

Even if it meant killing her whole family. In Jae’s twisted world that made sense.

What choice did she have?

“Not a word of this to anyone or I'll begin my plan. I've arranged a flight back for you to come with me. It should depart in three hours. If you leave right now, you can catch it.”

“Uh huh,” she said. She could hardly speak.

The room spun around her. Already, she would be flying back to be in that monster's arms?

This was a nice fairytale, for a few hours, but reality came calling.

Cass hung up the phone. Jae wouldn't be calling again. He already knew that she would be returning to him.

Cass would do anything for her family.

N
ico cut through the air
, coming dangerously close to the jagged rocks that jutted from the mountainside. In front of the mountain, he dove straight down at breakneck speed, the wind soaring past him and lifting his spirits.

This was fun. This was what dragons were made to do. To fly wherever and whenever they pleased.

As he neared the ground, he flipped in the air. Once landing, he tried to settle his vision. That dive had rocked him in the best way.

His dragon looked up at the mountain as shiny as polished coal reaching up to the sun.

One could entertain themselves for hours by being a dragon. He often liked to push himself and see how far and fast he could go. Dragon wings are absurdly strong, only being explained by the same magic that granted shifting.

Nico took off again. This time he was a dart launched from the ground right to the tip of that black mountain, his silver dragon scales shimmering like ice in this sunny yet cold evening.

He landed at the top of the mountain and swept his wings around, folding them up, watching as the tiny lichen and moss scattered in a circle. He sensed someone approaching.

It was Cass, clothed in some fur and gold, like some kind of Viking huntress. She dropped to her knees with her luscious lips pouting, her delicious bust shining in the light.

A growl rumbled from his gut. A horny growl.

Cass offered herself to him. She opened her arms. His eyes didn’t linger over the gold that she wore on her outfit, instead they were all over her curvy, arousing body, the true treasure.

He couldn't wait. She was his, and she was a treasure that he had spent his whole life needing but never knowing. Nico snatched her with his claws, carrying her in them delicately as he launched himself from the top of the mountain again.

A blur, then they were in his gold room, and he was human, carrying Cass in his arms.

They dropped to the gold pile with laughter that soon became a feverish rush to get closer. They grabbed and pulled and Cass swerved to rub herself against his hard crotch. He was hard, throbbing, wanting to push himself inside of her.

His lips crossed over her body before she thrust back, vulnerable and open to him, and he took it all in until the tiny skirt that she wore was pushed to the side.

Nico put his hard cock inside of her, loving how she was warmer than he was, even with his scorching blood. He pumped as she rode on top. She was so tight, so soft, each stroke sent him higher than his wings could go.

Her nails scratched into his back and she bucked. She lost control as she peaked and neared her climax. Nico took over by grabbing her ass and keeping her on his lap. He thrust with all his might, slamming into her sweet pussy.

Cass climaxed first. Nico was soon after. He came inside of her, and it was like they melted together, rings of fire twisting around their naked bodies while she clutched herself to him, lotus position on the ground.

Darkness closed in. Nico realized that while the sensations had felt so real, that the rest of what was around him was a blur. Like he was in a dream all along.

He tried to grasp Cass to feel her, but she turned to ash before his eyes. Ash that blew in the wind and was gone. He scrambled to catch her. By the first swipe, his hand caught nothing.

Gold turned to ash all around him. A soft breeze blew it all away.

He woke with a terrible jerk, sweat covering the sheets below him. Nico should've known it was too good to be true. Number one, he must've been out of his mind to fuck anyone in his gold room. Number two, nobody went in his gold room but him. And number three, he'd just been a complete prick to Cass, so having hot and wild sex with her made no sense at all. It had to be a dream.

His dragon stirred within him. It wanted to make that fantasy come true.

But a dull ache emerged in his skull when he thought about Cass and the gold turning to ash. That couldn't be a good omen. That was some Biblical shit.

Before all this, his life hadn't been this complicated, at least for the past fifty years...

He walked in his boxers over to his bed stand to have a glass of water. The cool water settled his mind. For a moment—then his dragon became unsettled again, alarming him of something going on outside.

Dragons didn't have the best hearing in the shifter kingdom, but it was pretty good. Ever since he'd met Cass though, he'd seemed more in tune than ever.

Could she be my mate? My fated mate?

The odds were very much against that, he reminded himself, still racing out of his room, flinging himself down the steps to catch her.

They met outside on the sidewalk at the same spot where he helped her out of the snow. She had her suitcases again, now headed in the opposite direction.

“Where are you going? You don't have to go.”

She stopped. Cass didn't turn around, not completely.

Why couldn't this be like his dream? Why couldn't he simply take her to the top of the highest mountain and make sweet love to her, to forget all this silly business that kept them apart?

“I'm not mad at you.”

“Then why are you leaving?”

He took steps toward her. She held her hand up for him to stop.

“Jae's been hurt. He needs me right now. I'm sorry.”

Cass began to move again, heading toward her car. She was only five paces away when he shouted, “No.”

His dragon had almost come out again. Nico didn't want to do that. The last thing he wanted to do was to scare her again; she needed to know how serious he was, how much she meant to him.

Cass tilted her head toward him as if asking him what he could possibly say to her. She lifted her eyebrows, waiting for it.

Nico didn't have anything planned. It all came spilling out of him. From his heart.

“I’m sorry about what I said to you. I didn’t mean to lose it. And I don’t want to make excuses for my dragon, how it has bonded with my gold isn’t healthy. It was wrong of me. I’m sorry.”

“A man apologizing. Wow. That’s not something I hear every day.” She kicked a clump of snow. “But it doesn’t change anything.”

“Jae doesn't care about you.”

“I know,” she said. “He only cares about keeping me. He only cares about himself.”

“Then why are you going?” He would do anything to win her over. “Leave him and stay with me.”

“Stay here? I can't. I'm sorry, I can't.”

Why was she so afraid?

“I'll protect you. I'll keep you safe.”

“Why?”

“I know what I want, and I want you.”

A tear ran down her cheek. She wiped it, smiled at him painfully, and then sniffled. “I've got to go. I'm sorry.”

Cass hurried to the car. When she got in, she kept her head down. Nico decided he wouldn't push it. He had laid it all out on the line for her. It wasn't like him to get in between a relationship, but if the girl was as special as Cass and the boyfriend as terrible as Jae, then it felt right to him, it felt just.

The car started, then pulled out of his driveway. It headed down the mountainside, vanishing from view while Nico wondered if that would be the last he ever saw of her.

He walked back to his house. Once inside, it should've been comfort that met him, instead there was a loneliness in his heart that he'd never experienced before.

Cass wasn't saying “No” because she didn't want to stay. She was only saying “No” because of Jae, and he knew it. It didn't take shifter powers to understand.

The more he thought about it, the more the walls of his home seemed to close in on him. He couldn’t sit and wait.

He needed to speak to Jae. It probably wasn’t going to be a friendly chat.

He ran outside and transformed into his giant silver dragon. After taking off, his huge home seemed small once again, like a piece to a mini train set.

Dragons could reach comparable speeds to jets. He knew that he would end up arriving before Cass, which was fine with him. It would let him talk to Jae alone.

By the time he was back it was late afternoon in California. He was exhausted but still pushed on.

He knew Jae sometimes stayed in a mansion on the top of one of the highest mountains, only because he'd seen him flying there once.

Nico wasn't used to seeing dragons flying about, at least in a very long time. Seeing Jae's red dragon in the sky, he understood why others were so intimidated.

His home came into view. Tall walls made the place resemble a compound. There was a huge drive way too where Nico landed, more like a parking lot for a superstore.

Jae walked outside wearing a polo shirt, khakis, and some loafers, like he'd just walked off the golf course. He stepped closer with no fear for the beast in front of him and clapped.

“That's impressive. It's not every day I get to see another dragon. Now will you please transform so that we can talk about why you've decided it's okay to fly past my walls?”

Nico snorted before he shifted back to human.

As soon as he was back in human form, Jae's expression turned to disgust.

“Why are you here?”

“It’s about Cass.”

“Cass is none of your business,” he snapped. His pupils changed, threatening to shift. Nico let his own flash. He wasn’t afraid to shift either.

A fight wasn't a good idea, however.

Shifters fighting one another was prohibited in most of the United States. Especially if those shifters could cause major collateral damage. The people of the United States didn't want to see dragons fighting over their neatly cut lawns, but on television? Give them a football and let them go. Even then, they weren’t allowed to shift on the field—it would be too messy.

“She's certainly not your business. You don't own her.”

Jae stepped closer. His lips twisted into a menacing snarl. “Then who does?”

Nico didn't know what to say to that. Cass was a human being. While she wasn't owned by anyone, Nico would certainly like to make her his—not in exactly the same assholish way that Jae had.

“Let her go. She's terrified of you. I can only imagine what you've done to cause it. She's a tough girl.”

“Go, and don't speak to me about this again.” Jae pointed outside of the walls. “You should know better than to intrude on a dragon's property.”

“Let her go. I'm not going to say it nicely again.”

“And I'm not going to tell you to leave nicely again.” His fingernails stretched, his veins popping. Before Nico could decide whether to try to calm him down or not, it was too late.

They were going to fight. And if they were fighting for Cass, it was going to be a fight to the death.

Coach wasn’t going to be pleased.

“What gives you the right?” Jae hollered. He kept repeating it as his chest puffed up. He beat it, and then he wailed like a banshee as he transformed into his dragon.

After Jae’s tail shot out from his body, Nico transformed as well.

He was looking eye level with another dragon—its sharp, golden eyes threatening him. Its crimson scale armor snaking its way back and forth with its tail.

Jae roared again, which should've signaled the start of the duel, except he had a better idea. A blast of fire rocketed right at Nico.

He slipped to the right. The stream of fire narrowly missed him, instead striking Jae's mansion walls and with the force of it, blasting it open and sending fiery chunks of concrete into the air.

Nico took his shot; he flew headfirst toward Jae after his miss. As he almost collided head on, he spun his tail around, crashing into the other dragon's chest and sending him tumbling. Jae’s back struck his roof before he righted himself.

His mansion would need new roofing. Nico smirked while he watched it crumble.

They were both in the air now, flying higher, keeping each other in their sights. Nico decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, firing off a blue-tinted stream of flame.

But it never hit him. Too far away. Nico ducked the next fire blast from Jae while attempting to get closer. He took a nose dive and made the red dragon give chase.

Come chase me, dragon dick.

Halfway down, he spun back and spewed fire.

Jae was quicker than he imagined and swooped out of the way, firing again, making Nico spin back before he reached the ground.

The fireball hit the intersection below them, blowing apart asphalt and toppling streetlights. Fires reached high into the sky beneath them, smoke covering the battle. Nico knew he would avoid firing at the ground; he couldn't stop to worry about what Jae would do.

He continued his attack, fighting for Cass, to free her and yes, to take her as his own, if she were to accept it. In his heart, he knew she was made for him and he for her, so when he flew right at the red dragon, he felt no fear, only sheer determination as he spiraled, narrowly missing blast after blast that Jae shot his way.

The old rope a dope technique. Jae was on the ropes now from spewing so much fire.

Nico rammed into him, tearing into his chest with his claws, trying to carry him forward. The momentum shot them both higher into the air. Jae latched on with his teeth and began to pull in the other direction. They twisted out of the sky, landing onto another street, this time, Nico rolling into an active construction zone.

Concrete crashed all around him. A large chunk struck him in the back. He knew even if he made it out alive he would be feeling that one.

He was lucky that he had landed in an empty construction lot. It could’ve been an office building.

If this continued, their luck might run out.

Jae roared desperately,
She’s Mine!

Mine!

Nico soared away from the site as another stream of fire melted the cement. The stream followed him up in the air. All around them, Nico could hear sirens and screaming.

It had been a long time since the citizens of this country had seen two dragons flying together. Tonight, they would learn why.

The screeching of jets was heard in the far off distance. Still, neither would stop. Jae and Nico clashed, meeting in the center again after dodging fire. Claws dug into hot flesh, blood pouring from Jae's wounds as Nico could also feel stabbing pain.