Mere Passion (5 page)

Though dragons learned mere-song as a second language in school, they had no ability to speak underwater. So instead Kai nodded. Hans shrugged, while Sven remained impassive. The dragon appreciated the blond and barrel-chested twins’ silence. It made him fell less excluded from the conversation.

A bark bounced off the floating blocks of ice. Alara swiveled in the direction of the sound. Kai followed her beating tail as she moved to a large iceberg and speared up to the surface between several huge chunks.

Kai followed, breaching the water’s surface to see a polar bear cub pace sadly on top of a fifteen-foot diameter platform of snow. As gently as he could, Kai caught Alara’s tail in his jaw, and dragged her back to the safety of the water below.

She sang out a shock wave that knocked him back several yards. In reply he roared, unable to otherwise communicate his concern for her safety.

Alara appeared to compose herself. She sang, “That cub will starve to death if we let him drift off to sea.”

He roared again, this time adding a growl.

“Yeah, yeah. I know, dragon. I should just let nature run its course right? Survival of the fittest?”

Alara pressed her shoulder against the iceberg, attempting to push it back toward the glacier. Rolling his eyes at her persistence, Kai bent his neck and placed his head flat against the ice. Alara’s men took position next to him. Together they pushed.

* * * *

The black dragon’s force so overshadowed that of the mere that the ice kept spinning. He roared to her and her men, a clear suggestion for them to move back and allow him to do this alone.

Hans and Sven swam back a distance to give the dragon room, but Alara refused to relinquish control. When the dragon heaved forward, she attempted to stabilize the ice and stop it from rotating to the side. Sharp pieces scraped and tore at her shoulder and her back, but she pumped desperately with her tail. Even with the dragon’s strength, they made little headway.

She swam under the reptile’s dark scales, and tugged at his claws to get his attention, shaking her head and singing that their efforts were not working. Time to implement plan B.

She looked at the sky through the waters’ surface. With a mighty pulse of her tail, she launched out and landed on the iceberg. Her body shifted immediately to human form and the cold hit her skin like electric current. Despite being approximately her size, the cub crouched away, frightened by Alara’s sudden appearance. She shuffled toward him, bare feet freezing against the packed snow. The dragon’s head poked out of the water. He let out a high, quick roar, almost like a question. Then great huffs of steam rose from his nose.

Using mere-song to calm the cub, she hauled it into her arms as gently as possible and moved to the edge of the ice. Thick white fur obstructed her view. Her toes didn’t reach the water’s surface when she sat at the edge. Damn it, she’d have to plunge, and that would scare the hell out of the bear. The dragon rose further out of the water, so the ridges of his back were at the surface. He rubbed his head up against her extended leg, suggesting she climb onto his back.

Alara’s pride bristled at the notion of being carried like some damsel in distress. She rose to her feet and, bear cub in arms, took a running leap off the edge of the iceberg. Kai’s huge scaled body swept between her legs as she fell. The little animal clawed at her in fear, scraping her arms and shoulders, but it calmed as the dragon gained speed.

Rippling water reached to her knees on either side of the dragon’s raised back. The bear’s warm fur blocked the wind. Hell’s wheels, but Kai was fast! He sliced through the water like a warm knife through butter. Heated scales pressed the insides of her legs. She’d never felt dragon’s scales before. The smoothness more resembled a snake than a lizard. His long, black body shone with iridescent green.

Moments later, they approached the edge of the glacier and saw a large female polar bear pacing on the ice. The huge mammal rose on her back legs and sniffed the air. Now came the hard part. The cub had caught wind of its mother and barked and squirmed in Alara’s arms. Soon the female on shore roared back, and huffed in frustration, then dove into the water. The bear doggy-paddled toward the sound and smell of her young, and the princess tried to maneuver the dragon by kicking at his sides. Once the mother reached just a few yards away, Alara threw the baby toward her. The cub hit the water with a mighty splash, and the princess slid off Kai’s back into the water.

Her tail pumped once, then twice, before the dragon caught her in his jaw and shot off like a cannon. Water swept her hair in her face and flapped her tail back and forth. His teeth pinched, and Alara knew she’d have marks the next day. He didn’t release her till they were at least a mile from the glacier, and close to the Murrough Island walk-out. She pumped furiously to display her speed, not even looking to see if the dragon followed.

On the beach, she waited patiently for Kai to shift to human. As soon as a naked man stood before her instead of a forty-foot dragon, she laid into him.

“What the hell was that?” She pointed her finger out toward the water before using it to poke him in the sternum.

Kai shivered in front if her, looking extremely cold and very uncomfortable. But at that moment, she didn’t give a shit. “I am in charge here. I don’t need you dragging me around in your teeth like some overgrown Godzilla!”

The dark skin of his face pulled into an angry grimace. His lips curled back from gleaming white teeth. “The bear could have mauled you.” His voice was calm and low and measured, which only served to piss her off.

“I would have been fine, Your Excellence. Just like I was fine before you arrived, and I will be perfectly fine once you leave!” His eyes shifted to the side at the last part of her statement. Whether he was hiding something or just internally debating her statement, she couldn’t tell.

His voice dropped lower. “Princess, if you would like to continue our discussion, I request that we put on some clothes.”

Her angry gaze had been trained on his face till that moment, but suddenly it took all her power not to scan lower. His eyes held hers, but when he blinked, she registered his temptation to look down too.

“You could say you’re sorry!” Alara shouted.

“And you could say thank you!” He glared at her, jaw grinding.

She turned abruptly and walked to the changing rooms, muttering under her breath. “In your dreams, dragon.”

* * * *

The moment Kai entered the darkened, wood-paneled room and heard the pulsing beat he regretted his choice. He knew of places like this, where humans and mere came to become inebriated and act poorly. Of course dragons also had places to eat in groups, but those generally revolved around a large carcass.

Olaf and the boy’s friends led him to the bar and urged him to sit on a stool. The males ordered a round of something called “shots” and when the tiny glass of strong-smelling liquid arrived he threw it into his throat and swallowed against a cough.

The young mere next to him laughed at the look on his face. He leaned close and shouted over the blaring noise. “So waddaya think of Alara. Super hot, right?” The man next to him slapped Olaf across the back of the head, bellowing, “Show some friggin’ respect!”

Kai smiled at the young men. They reminded him of new recruits in the Council’s army. Kai had always been too busy training or studying to pay much attention to the antics of those playful youths. He more often reprimanded frivolity than joined in it.

As Olaf could not be dissuaded once he set his mind to talk, Kai was unsurprised when the youth continued. “It was a compliment! Plus, everyone knows it, so it’s not some big secret!”

Kai felt a grin form in response to the boy’s antics. Olaf ordered another drink with something called a “back” and Kai watched with interest as the lanky mere drank both with great haste before continuing. “You heard what happened when she was a kid, right?”

The boy’s friend looked tempted to strike him again, but Olaf shoved him off before the blow could land. “Shuddup dude, it’s a cool story. Just shows how awesome she is.” Kai’s amusement at the young male grew. Clearly this mere hero-worshipped his female leader. Kai understood the feeling. He had once felt similarly toward the previous Council Chair—minus, of course, the physical attraction.

The boy leaned in conspiratorially, and feeling a bit lightheaded from the noise and the alcohol, Kai allowed his excitement to rise. “Well, it’s like this… When Alara was a kid, the dragons had just abandoned the island—no offense.” Kai nodded, letting his new friend know he didn’t mind him speaking freely. “So things were chaos. The coal mine had slowed production already, but without the dragons’ connections in the human world, it closed altogether. The dragon-run businesses shut down. Everyone lost their jobs. Not to mention the Queen had recently died, so the triton was a mess. The island was
broke as shit
. Nothing to eat but seals and seaweed, when they were lucky!”

Kai nodded again, saddened for the princess, but feeling vindicated in his belief that the mere needed the dragons’ protection.

“So that was when the shark-shifter raids started.” His joyful red face sank at the mention. “Murrough had fuck-all to steal at that point, but the pirates took whatever they could. Well, those assholes got so bold, that one day they snuck into the castle and took the princess right from her bedroom in the middle of the friggin’ night.”

Kai’s heart skipped a beat. Perhaps her hardship explained some of her fierce strength. “How old was she?’

The boy’s eyes widened. “Twelve. I know dude…Seriously. It’s fucked up.” Olaf fell into a type of slang communication. However, he understood the sentiment.

“Well, no one knows exactly what happened. She was gone for eight days. They demanded money, but the triton couldn’t pay the ransom without bankrupting the island altogether.”

A snarl filled Kai’s voice. “What happened?”

The boy peered around, clearly enjoying the spotlight. Several more listeners had joined the circle. “Well, eight days after she disappeared she swims up on shore. Her hands are still tied behind her back and she’s got cuts all over…but in her hands—the ones that are still tied, right? In her hands she’s got a friggin’ head! I kid you not. She somehow managed to get the head off one of the motherfuckers and dragged it all the way back. She kept it in her room for a while, till the triton made her get rid of it.”

A collective groan rose from the group, and men smacked each others’ shoulders and argued over which parts of the story were real and which parts weren’t. Kai sat back and raised a new drink to his lips, wondering how much to believe. One thing was for certain: the princess had good reason to hate the dragons.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the female herself appeared, standing near the front of the room. The music stopped, but the loud din of the bar continued. Despite the shouting of mere and the rowdy conversation, his eyes riveted to her. She wore a light gray T-shirt and jeans. Her small, high breasts jutted forward, and the blue jean material hugged the generous curve of her hips. She wore a bold expression, bordering perhaps on belligerent.

“Oi! Shaddup, you assholes!” The bar went silent.

“I’m here to remind you all that we’re holding Games this weekend, so lay off the drink.” A hum of approval met her admonition.

A shout rang out. “You competing this year, your highness?”

At the question, her eyebrow rose, and the corner of her mouth turned up. “Yes.” A roar of glee met her response. She disappeared behind a throng of men, and he craned his neck around to watch.

Chapter 4

Alara plopped down in her seat next to Kaylee and grabbed her beer. She felt Kai’s eyes on her and smirked.

Kaylee, her strawberry-blond curls bobbing around her face, followed the line of Alara’s glance. “By Odin, I am so totally in love.”

Alara rolled her eyes. “I thought you were in love with Johan.”

Kaylee’s powder-blue eyes took on a faraway look. “Yeah, him too.”

“And you accuse me of being a slut!”