Seed of the Dragon: A Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (19 page)

I had a man who loved me and a lovely son, I had friends and family who I could count on and dreams that I was going to fulfill. I had a reason to wake up in the morning and look forward to the day after the next. I had a reason to feel my heart pound heavily in my chest as I realize that I have truly and utterly fallen for this man and him for me. I realized that today was a day to celebrate because everything was absolutely perfect.

Sleep threatened to pull us into its embrace. I felt the day’s events weighing down my tired body but I felt fulfilled. Shawn squeezed me closer to him and his form brought warmth to mine. He nuzzled his face into my neck and spoke.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too,” I replied.

We reveled in each other’s embrace and warmth. It was amazing to finally be together like this. It was amazing that I had someone that I could utterly trust with everything, someone that I knew would never dare lie to me. This was a man that even if he left me, I would be content with the time that he gave me because it was the best time in my life.

I didn’t think that Shawn would leave me; in fact, his vows proved that if he even thought about it I would know. I just knew that the time that I had with him then was  the happiest I have ever been in my life and I truly hoped that it was the same for him. I wanted to be with him forever, he was my love, my security, my warmth, my truth, my everything.

He was the rock that saved me from the storm. He was  the voice of reason when I got carried away in nightmares or dreams. He was  the thing that kept me tethered to the earth while my world fell  apart, even if sometimes he was  the reason for it.

I could  only say that I was so glad that fate led me to this. I can only say that I was so happy that life played out the way that it did and that I was  truly happy with the outcome of all these coincidences.

I snuggled into Shawn’s form, seeking more warmth. Shawn hugged me tighter and began to pet my hair like he had done before. I felt all the tension release my body as I became as light as a feather in Shawn’s hold. He began to hum some sort of lullaby, which lulled me further towards sleep. It was so wonderful to know that I loved this man with all my heart, and he loved me.

THE FINAL
CHAPTER

“Michael”

“Catch me if you can!” Luna yelled as I flew after her.

I wasn’t able to fully shift but I finally got to the point where I could use my wings to fly me places. I chased after the hawk around the forest, dodging the trees and weaving through bushes.

“I’m much faster than you!” Luna taunted as I barely missed her.

“Come back here!” I said playfully.

Luna laughed and continued to weave through the overgrowth.

“Luna! Mom and Papa will get angry if we go any further!” I warned as we reached the edge of the forest.

She looked out beyond the trees and then back to me. She quickly maneuvered herself to fly just out of my reach so I still wouldn’t win our game of tag.

“Doesn’t matter that you’re a dragon, I’m still faster!” Luna exclaimed as she flew back into the forest.

She was flying back to where our  parents were settled for a picnic celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary. She quickly perched herself on our mother’s shoulder and looked at me triumphantly.

“How was your game of tag?” Mom asked.

“Luna cheated,” I pointed at the hawk.

“How so?” Papa asked.

“She said we were only allowed to partially shift to make it fair but then she went full on hawk!” I exclaimed.

“That
is
cheating, Luna,” our mom said.

“Told you so!” I shouted.

Luna went behind our mother and shifted back. She began to get dressed as she put her tongue out at me. I groaned in defeat as both our parents laughed at our bickering.

“So cute,” our mother commented.

“Adorable,” our father added.

Both Luna and I frowned at the cutesiness.

“I’m already ten years old, why can’t I fully shift yet?” I asked my father.

“It happened to me too, so don’t worry,” he said.

“What if I’m one of those shifters who can’t fully change? What then?” I asked.

“Then you are. Why are you so worried about this? All that matters is that you are you and you can chase whatever dreams you want,” my mom answered.

“Rachel, you have such wise words,” our papa complimented.

“I am a wise person you know,” our mother replied.

“Yuck!” my sister and I said in unison as our parents kissed.

What lovebirds.

***

“Rachel”

For the first time in five years, I felt that terrible feeling in my gut once again. I was with my husband, son, and daughter having a picnic celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary. I looked at Shawn with worry.

“Shawn, we need to leave,” I said.

“Why, what is wrong?” Shawn replied.

“I have a feeling something bad is going to happen,” I explained.

Shawn instantly understood. “Kids, get your things, we are leaving,” he said but it was too late.

He looked off into the distance and saw the beginnings of what looked like a forest fire. The smoke was tumbling down towards us and we knew then that we would have to head to the city down south. I picked up Luna and motioned for Shawn and Michael to follow us as I led the way down south. A woman was waiting for us down the path but I didn’t recognize her.

“Ma’am you should head back! There’s a forest fire!” I shouted at her.

She gave me the heebie-jeebies. I looked at Shawn and realized he recognized her. “The phoenix shifter,” he whispered under his breath.

My eyes widened. This was the woman who  brought Sub-Dublin to its knees and  nearly killed thousands of people. This was the woman who  separated Shawn and I for those terrible weeks and had nearly murdered him.

“Leave!” I shouted at the woman as my stomach protested my courage.

“I’m ready for a rematch, Dragon,” she said angrily.

Michael and Luna looked up at their father in confusion. They didn’t know the things that he and I had went through in the past. They didn’t know about the fall of Sub-Dublin or that this woman nearly ended their mother’s and father’s lives.

“Please! Let us do it another time! Not while my wife and kids are in danger,” Shawn replied.

“Then you will run away again since you are that type of cowardly,” said the red haired woman.

“I promise I won’t run away!” Shawn shouted back.

“I don’t believe you,” said the phoenix.

She began to change in front of us. Her clothes ripped and burned apart as her fire feathers grew where her skin once was. She grew and grew in size until she towered over us. Shawn motioned for us to step back and shelter ourselves as he too began to shift. Scales grew atop his skin and his bones broke and mended themselves until his form became a large crimson dragon.

“Wow I’ve never seen Papa fully shift,” Michael said in wonder.

Shawn spread his large wingspan wide as if to challenge the phoenix. It cawed and gurgled as if it was cackling.

“You think you can win this time?” the bird taunted.

“I won the last fight,” Shawn said.

“That was simply luck, this time,
this time,
I will end you!” she shouted as her large fiery form lunged forward.

Shawn stayed in place instead of dodging because he was probably worried about our safety. He took the brunt of the phoenix’s attack and wrestled her back. She suddenly took off into the air but Shawn remained planted in front of us. The phoenix began to breathe fire towards us but kept missing. I was confused until I saw that she was just spreading the forest fire and easing its course towards us.

“We need to get out of here!” I said to Shawn.

Luna started coughing, as did Michael. The smoke was now surrounding us and we could not stop ourselves from breathing it in.

“Grab my tail!” Shawn said as he swished his tail beside us.

I instructed the kids to hold on tight and to follow us in flight if they do accidentally let go.

“Ready!” I shouted once we were situated.

Shawn took off into the sky and flew away from the red haired woman and the forest fire. I looked on in disbelief at the massive amount of damage she had caused trying to corner Shawn. There were acres of burnt trees and foliage just beyond the horizon.

We flew further and further south, past the city and towards a clearing. The entire way the phoenix followed us until we finally landed somewhere safe. The two large shifters faced each other once again but now the kids and I could evacuate somewhere safe.

“Be safe!” I called out to Shawn, “Find me!”

“I will!” he replied before turning to the phoenix.

***

“Shawn”

I looked at the woman. She was completely healed from our last battle, not a single scar remained.

“I guess what they say about you is true,” I spoke.

“And what is that, pray tell?” the woman asked.

“That you arise from the ashes of your former life, too bad you haven’t made anything better of yourself in this one,” I answered.

“You have no right to lecture me about my lifestyle,” the woman bit back.

“You simply put innocent people’s lives at risk for what? The chance of a
thrill
?” I spat.

We glared at each other.

“How dare you insult me!” she screamed as she lunged forward. She tackled me to the ground and began to spit fireballs. My scales were heat resistant but constant high temperatures would get through to my flesh. I felt the heat start to sear me so I tried my utmost to get out of her sticky hold.

My large body meant I was stronger and weighed more than her, but now she was faster than me. I began to swipe my tail at her but she dodged every hit with minimal movement.

“You’ve been training,” I noted.

“And you haven’t,” she replied as she tackled me once again.

We rolled on the ground but I was able to get on top so I went to bite her neck. She pecked at my eye, which shot pain through my spine. “Agh!” I yelled.

“Still too slow!” she commented.

This wasn’t like the last battle where she only got the better of me because my emotions were completely out of order, now she was literally on par with me physically and mentally.

“What do you even gain out of winning against me?” I asked.

“Gain? I don’t gain anything,” she answered promptly, “I just like it.”

“Why don’t you train with other shifters then?” I asked, “You could become a master.”

“None of them are as powerful as I. They simply admit defeat and put up no fight, which is no fun,” she explained.

We exchanged swipes and blows as we spoke, neither giving the other any wiggle room. We had to keep our entire focus on the fight, otherwise the balance would be completely thrown off.

“Why don’t you train in your human form?” I asked.

“Human form?! My human form is weak, and why would I fight in it when I have the access to
this
form,” she said.

“What if one day you’re unable to shift, then what? You’ll be left completely defenseless!” I replied.

She seemed to stop for a moment because of a thought,  so I took that chance to land a swipe of my claws on her face. “Agh!” she yelled, “that hurt,you bastard!”

“You said you wanted a fight, so I’m giving you one!” I said.

It continued like that for hours. We exchanged hits and words until finally we were both out of breath and energy. Neither of us could sustain our shifter forms anymore so we returned back to being humans. We both heaved breaths in and out. Suddenly, the woman burst out in laughter and tears. She held her stomach as her head bobbed up and down from it.

“What are you laughing at?” I asked between breaths.

“I never thought that I could train in my human form, but now that I think about it, how am I supposed to beat you now?” she said.

“That’s true, I could easily beat you now that we are both unable to maintain our other forms,” I said.

She slapped her forehead and continued to laugh. “I’ve finally found it,” she said, “the perfect rival.”

“Rival eh?” I repeated. “How about you first try not to kill innocent people first.”

“That might be a bit hard,” she said.

“I won’t be your rival if you don’t stop,” I said with a frown.

“Fine, fine, I won’t hurt innocent people,” she said.

“Good, now what’s your name?” I asked.

“Jasmine,” she answered.

“Nice to meet you Jasmine, I’m Shawn,” I held out my hand to her.

She shook it firmly.

“I’ll give you my phone number and you can call me whenever you want to fight,” I said.

“Thanks,” Jasmine replied.

I wrote down a set of numbers on a piece of paper and passed it to her. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find my family,” I said.

Jasmine was interesting, but I wasn’t sure if I could forgive her for almost killing so many people for the sake of fighting. For now I would just have to accept the fact that this was the easiest way of keeping people out of violent hands. This way she wouldn’t hurt those around me every time she got a hankering to throw a few punches and spit a couple of fire balls.

***

“Rachel”

“What happened?” I asked as Shawn returned to the apartment covered in just newspaper.

“She just wanted a fight, so I fought her,” Shawn answered. “It was weird, I’ll explain it once I shower and get dressed.”

“Okay…” I replied.

Shawn went into the bathroom and started the shower. I was in the kitchen cooking something for dinner. I was happy nothing seemed to have happened to Shawn. Lots of weird things tend to happen to us since we are a shifter and human couple (the only one in the world). You could say I lived a very interesting life.

Since we moved to Dublin officially we’ve had a second kid and are thinking about having a third. Our daughter was a hawk shifter, taking after Shawn’s mother’s bird side while our first, Michael, was a dragon shifter like his father. We’ve had numerous people ask us to train and teach Michael but we’ve refused all of them except Kathleen’s recommendations. We were worried someone would try to kidnap Michael like what had happened with Shawn’s old boss. Now all of that was behind us, though.

We were living happily as a family. We were supporting each other and loving each other through the bad and the good, through the thick and the thin. No matter what Michael and Luna wanted to do with their lives, we would support them because that’s how we wished our parents and teachers treated us while we were kids. Shawn and I had reached an agreement on how we are going to tackle life and it has gotten us far.

I truly trusted him. I believed in him.

“Rachel”

“So you gave her your
phone number
?” Kathleen exclaimed. “Oh my god you are a crazy one.”