Lead Dragon (Dragon Guard of Drakkaris) Read online

  Lead Dragon

  Terry Bolryder

  Copyright © 2017 by Terry Bolryder

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Awakened Dragons Boxed Set

  Terry Bolryder Reading Guide

  Chapter 1

  Lead set aside his dumbbell, wiping sweat from his forehead as he studied his reflection in the mirror at the front of the home gym they’d installed in their basement.

  This was how people stayed “fit” and muscled on Earth, and while dragons were naturally muscled and didn’t really need exercise, he found it released stress and helped him stay calm when things were intense.

  Which was basically all the time since he and his entire dragon guard team had left their home planet of Drakkaris and were trying to adjust to the idea of being on Earth and taking human mates.

  It had only been a few weeks, and Lead felt more lost than ever before.

  His life had always been established. He’d worked hard almost from birth to get into the dragon guard, and he’d taken on countless missions in his career, until he’d become captain of the most elite dragons on his planet, maybe in the universe for all he knew. His crew was highly trained, disciplined, and, most importantly, driven by honor and the need to protect those who were weaker.

  Which was basically everyone.

  The past few weeks, they’d been confined to the mansion, which had been outfitted admirably with everything they could need, except women.

  The reason he and the other dragons of Drakkaris had been brought here was two-fold. Earth needed help in a war that was threatening to break out between shifter factions, and the lack of mates on his planet meant that most of his crew would succumb to the poison circulating in their blood before they found compatible partners.

  So now they were on Earth with hundreds, if not thousands, of women in every city, and the dragons were getting restless that they hadn’t yet been allowed to interact with them.

  He understood the oracle was concerned they would mess up and reveal themselves as either aliens or shifters or both, but how were they supposed to get used to human women if they couldn’t meet them?

  Still, he felt bad for any woman who had to encounter the six hungry dragons at the mansion. Honorable, yes. Kind, yes. Protective, of course.

  Horny as hell? That, too.

  Mostly just desperate to start experiencing the world they’d been promised and to save their own lives by finding someone to mate, someone who made them love hard enough to seal the poison in their own hearts. Someone who gave them a reason to go on.

  Here on Earth, they’d been pleased to find the poison was already somewhat slowed, perhaps because there was nowhere near the presence of external metals that there was on Drakkaris.

  But they still couldn’t wait forever, and the longer they went without something to do, the more he felt they were just trying not to go crazy.

  Everyone had adopted their own ways to stay busy. Cobalt spent his time in the library. Arsenic tried to cook and watched war movies. Chromium had found video games. Zinc spent a lot of time in his room alone, but that was usual. Cadmium tried to keep people’s spirits up and also tried to learn about human women online.

  Lead just liked spending time alone and working out. Being in touch with his body, trying to improve himself, always made him at peace.

  All of the dragons would join him at times, but none worked as often as he did, and they’d all commented at one point or another on his obsession, except for Zinc, who had always been loath to judge.

  Lead leaned forward off the weight bench he was sitting on and was about to pick up the dumbbell again when the door to the gym pushed open, revealing the blond-haired cadmium dragon.

  “Thought I would find you here,” Cadmium said, amusement in his brown eyes as he folded his arms over his chest. He was wearing the clothes they had all been learning to adapt to. Tight, thin tops called “tee shirts” and restrictive, thick bottoms called “jeans” that were usually a shade of blue.

  Humans were so odd.

  Lead was currently wearing a “tank top” and a pair of “shorts,” an uncreative name for pants that were simply short, going only to the knee.

  “Hmph,” he said to Cadmium, lifting the dumbbell again.

  “So pointless,” Cadmium said, striding over and looking down at him, raising an eyebrow. “You know you don’t need to do this. You should come upstairs and spy on human women with me.”

  “You really shouldn’t be doing that,” Lead said. “You aren’t supposed to be interacting with them.”

  “I’m not,” Cadmium said. “I’m not using my picture, and I’m not actually responding. Much.”

  Lead rolled his eyes. “You better not.”

  But if anyone could probably be trusted not to mess things up, it was Cadmium. He’d always been the smoothest, most diplomatic among them. And the most woman-crazy. He’d been excited about coming here, and his enthusiasm for wanting to meet human women was contagious.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to get you,” Cadmium said. “Message from the oracle. Apparently, she has some kind of job for us.”

  Lead looked up, curious. “A job?”

  “We are at her beck and call, after all.”

  “She hasn’t asked much of us so far,” Lead said.

  “Right, except to be bored out of our minds,” Cadmium said. “And not to mess up.”

  “Well, we owe her,” Lead said. “She was the one who arranged breaking the treaty to let us be here, and we have to do as she says.”

  “So good at being the obedient dog,” Cadmium replied. “As usual.”

  “No one’s dog,” Lead said, standing and wiping his hands on his shorts.

  “Of course not, Captain,” Cadmium said, only slightly sarcastically. Cadmium had had the hardest time adjusting to the rules in the mansion and was the most restless, so Lead’s sullen acceptance of everything seemed to get on his nerves.

  But Lead wasn’t as enthused about following a bunch of orders as everyone seemed to think.

  He’d always been honorable. Always lived for something greater than himself. And he hadn’t resented it—until he’d had to give up the woman he wanted to a much less honorable man.

  A man who had improved, but a dishonorable man nonetheless.

  Now that woman was living with the oracle, and even a mention of her made a sharp discomfort bite at him.

  “You all right?” Cadmium asked, cocking his head. “You overdoing it again?”

  “No,” Lead said, rolling his head to the side to crack his neck. “I’m fine. I’ll be up in a minute, after I shower.”

  “Uh, she’s on projection right now.”

  Lead sighed. He loved his shower after his workouts. Loved his routines in general and hated when they were broken. But right now, he had no choice.

  They owed the oracle everything. This was their second
chance, and so far, she’d asked them about everything she’d provided, let them give input.

  Still, part of what he’d looked forward to on Earth was being free to pursue what he wanted, not just being a foot soldier living for everyone but himself.

  Maybe at some point, he guessed.

  “I’ll be right there. At least let me change.”

  Cadmium nodded and disappeared through the door, leaving Lead alone.

  The way he’d always been, when he really thought about it. Would it ever really change? Was there really someone for him out there? Beyond the missions and the constant fighting?

  As he threw his tank top and shorts on the ground and changed into a tee shirt and jeans he’d brought with him, he walked to the door to follow Cadmium up the stairs.

  As they reached the door to the office where the oracle met with them, he overheard the other dragons already talking.

  “So what, you want us to form a SWAT team?” That was Cobalt.

  Lead cocked his head, unsure what his friend was talking about.

  Lead opened the door to see all of the dragons sitting in their usual chairs in front of the large desk where the oracle appeared when she projected.

  The oracle, who was projected in front of them, clapped her hands in glee. “A dragon SWAT team. I like that.” She was sitting on the edge of her desk, a magical, full-sized figure who was only slightly transparent. She was a curvy, older woman with sparkling, misty-gray eyes that shimmered in white or lilac.

  Lead didn’t dislike her exactly, but she could be harsh and abrasive and, like many leaders, treated soldiers like a means to an end.

  “What are you even talking about?” Cadmium asked, brushing his blond ponytail back over his shoulder. “Swat what? A fly?”

  “No,” Cobalt said, running a hand through his short, blue-gray hair. His vivid blue eyes flashed as they always did whenever he shared some bit of information. “Special weapons and tactics. When the police need to do a more specialized, dangerous job, like something involving hostage rescue, they call on their SWAT team. It’s an acronym.”

  “What?”

  “You know, a word made of letters that stand for other words,” Cobalt said. When Cadmium rolled his eyes, Cobalt continued. “You know, considering we can read and speak English, it wouldn’t hurt you guys to pick up a book.”

  Chromium, who’d been holding a video game system in his hands, looked up and shook his head quickly, then went back to his game.

  He was Cobalt’s cousin and looked a lot like him, except for having pure-white hair that went past his shoulders and light, blue-green eyes the color of the sea.

  The oracle looked at Chromium with a frown, but Cobalt shook his head.

  “Trust me. He’s getting whatever you say. He’s always listening.”

  Chromium put up a hand without looking away from his game, and Cobalt high-fived it.

  Only a few weeks and they were already starting to behave like the humans they all watched on TV every night.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Lead interjected, sitting in a chair next to the others. “What were we talking about?”

  The oracle looked over at him with a thoughtful expression. “Lead. How are you doing?”

  He shrugged. What did she care? “Fine.”

  She gave him a glare that said she didn’t believe him, but he ignored it.

  “So what is this mission we are swatting?”

  “It’s an acronym—” Cobalt began with a frown, but the oracle put her hand up, silencing him.

  “We’ve discovered a number of dragon-hearts that have been taken hostage by our enemies. There were some a while back, but they were rescued by the double dragons in their regions. However, when the wolf tribunal decided to declare war on the dragons, I guess they decided to start making backup plans again.”

  “What is a dragon-heart?” Lead asked.

  Zinc, the heir to the throne of Drakkaris, looked over at Lead with a nod, wondering the same. Zinc’s gray hair and dark-gray, silvery eyes were striking, even on Drakkaris.

  Zinc was probably the first one who needed a mate, and Lead knew the poison in him was overtaking him faster than he wanted to let on.

  “The double dragons mate with them, usually,” the oracle said. “They are human women who have demonstrated remarkable bravery in some way.”

  “How did they get captured?” Cadmium asked. “That sounds really vague.”

  “Well, if it’s like before, wolves simply watched human news for signs of women completing extraordinary acts, then abducted them.”

  “Evil,” Lead said, folding his arms as anger rose in him at the thought of goodhearted people being rewarded by capture.

  “That’s what we’re dealing with,” the oracle said. “It’s why Marina and Mercury are here with me now, helping look into this. Marina’s visions have gotten stronger, and I think she will be able to help locate these dragon-hearts, with time. But for now, we have an informant who has told us about our first one.”

  “And you want us to go save this person?” Lead asked, leaning back in his chair.

  “Yes,” the oracle said. “But more than that. These women, they will need to be kept safe until they are either claimed or their memories erased, depending on if they are dragon-hearts and whether they want to stay in our world.”

  “So we have to rescue and guard them?” Cadmium asked. “And what are we supposed to do with them? Can we mate them?”

  The oracle put a hand to her head. “I’m always underestimating your desperation to be mated.”

  “You would be desperate, too,” Cadmium said, folding his arms tightly. “Besides, we don’t have that much time.”

  “You know your poison is moving more slowly,” the oracle said. “But yes, I understand you didn’t leave your home planet for nothing.”

  Zinc nodded silently. Lead knew leaving had probably been the hardest for him. Deep in his bones, he still felt Drakkaris was his responsibility.

  In some ways, all of them did. But they’d already agreed to a life on Earth, if it was what their mates wanted.

  “This can work for you all as well,” the oracle said. “You can’t interact with regular human women yet because I can’t risk you revealing you’re shifters or aliens. But these women will already be aware of the shifter world. In protecting them, you can interact with them, become more aware of them, and they can teach you how to be better in the human world when you do go out there.”

  “Can we mate them?” Cadmium asked again, stubbornly.

  The oracle sent Lead a glance, wordlessly asking for his help. “These women may be traumatized. They’ve just been kidnapped, may have been attacked. They need men who will keep them safe, not come on to them. I’m not saying they can’t take a liking to you, but please be polite, kind, honorable.”

  Lead nodded. “We will be. Right, guards?”

  Reluctantly, all the dragons nodded. Lead knew that each was too honorable to ever think of wanting to make a woman uncomfortable. But each probably thought himself too smooth to ever do something like that. Lead would keep them in line.

  He understood their reluctance, because being around an unmated female, their first human female, would be an odd experience and perhaps a temptation for so many hungry dragons.

  But even if it was hard for them, they could do it. They’d done harder things.

  “When you retrieve the first one, get in touch. I will project a message and see how she feels about this.”

  “She gets six dragon protectors,” Arsenic, his second-in-command who had been quiet so far, said dourly. He brushed back his black hair that was streaked with white, and his emerald eyes flashed. “What is there to dislike?”

  “She will probably be terrified,” the oracle said. “But you six are my best shot, and I know that none of you would hurt her. I’m going to trust you like I’ve never trusted any of my other dragons.”

  “Well, obviously,” Arsenic said. “We’re more alpha than any of
your Earth dragons.” He sent a grin at the other dragons, and they shared a laugh.

  “You’ll also be my first dragon team,” the oracle said. “So I’m putting a lot of trust in you.”

  “Seriously?” Cadmium asked. “We’re doing this?”

  “Of course we are.” Lead eyed him with a warning glare. Cadmium had always been more up for fun than work, but surely he understood why they had to go along with this.

  Someone needed them, someone who clearly deserved their help, and they’d given their help in the past, even to those who didn’t deserve it.

  Zinc let out a snort. “All right. So when do we get in contact with this informant?”

  The oracle shook his head. “I don’t know if you will, but he relayed the location, and I’ll send it over to Cobalt right now.”

  Cobalt’s phone beeped, and he pulled it out, looked down at it, and nodded.

  “Good luck,” the oracle said, slowly starting to fade.

  “Wait. Should we use our powers? Should we—” But before Lead could ask any questions, she was already gone.

  “Well,” Cadmium said, “that means no rules. We can do what we want.” He cracked his knuckles and looked around the room. “I’m sure we could all use a good fight.”

  Lead heard laughs and saw the other dragons nodding in assent. He couldn’t blame them. Even now, the warrior in him was awakening, ready to act whenever called.

  Cobalt got their attention with a wave. “I have some more details here. The pick-up is tonight, and we’ll need to do some research on these wyverns we’ll be facing, but other than that, we’re good to go.”

  Cadmium smiled, looking at Lead. “Ready to lead us Captain?”

  “Always,” Lead said.

  Chapter 2

  Brittany sat on the padded cushions of the bench in her cell, trying to focus on the oddness of her prison rather than the harassment of the men in front of her.