Gold (Date-A-Dragon Book 1) Read online

  Gold

  Terry Bolryder

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  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

  Epilogue

  Sample of Bear Claw Security Boxed Set

  Terry Bolryder Reading Guide

  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.

  Author’s Note

  Hello!

  This series is a spin-off of my Rent-A-Dragon series, and I recommend reading that one first as the characters here appear there, and you’ll get some much needed back story!

  Steel (Rent-A-Dragon 1)

  Iron (Rent-A-Dragon 2)

  Titanium (Rent-A-Dragon 3)

  All three are still on sale to give readers a chance to get caught up before this series.

  Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy these new dragons.

  Sincerely,

  Terry

  One

  Dante Gildenstern, highest of noble metal dragons, superior to both measly humans and those coarse metal dragons, found himself in an unexpected situation.

  When he’d walked into a trap all those hundreds of years ago and an avalanche had sent them all into a deep sleep, there hadn’t been time to think of regrets. Things he hadn’t done and wouldn’t get to do.

  And honestly, he never had given much thought to the future. He’d lived in the moment, whether collecting wealth, holding balls, wooing women, or enjoying the privilege he’d been gifted at birth.

  Waking up in this new world, with everything he was accustomed to gone, he and his team had fought hard against those they thought were responsible.

  But they’d been wrong and relatively helpless in this new modern world where gold wasn’t easily used as currency and everything was a million times more complicated.

  Being taken in (more accurately, captured) by the good guys meant Dante and his team had gotten a better crash course in modern living and adjusted to many of the prevailing rules and conveniences.

  But that didn’t make his current situation any less untenable.

  He was collared—well, bound by a ring that made it impossible to shift—at the beck and call of an oracle he’d never even met, until it could be proven that he would stand up for humanity.

  He was also expected to find a human mate.

  Citrine, a gemstone dragon tasked with guiding them, was currently pacing in front of them, hands clasped nervously behind his back, his long, dark hair swishing against his shoulders, gold eyes flashing.

  Dante and Citrine had similar eye colors, except Citrine’s were warm, like sunshine on yellow flowers, and Dante’s were cold, like gold with a layer of frost over it.

  He’d been told he was cold. Sometimes he felt cold inside; sometimes he felt he’d never had a reason to be otherwise.

  He doubted a human could change that.

  “I don’t understand why we’re doing this,” Adrien, the silver dragon and his second in command, shifted in his chair, slouching slightly. Adrien’s usually light silver hair had been dyed black to blend in a little better. It made his unusually bright silver eyes look even brighter.

  Adrien was the youngest, though not by as much as his handsome, sneering baby face led people to believe. Dante thought most women would guess Adrien to be a human male in his mid-twenties.

  “Running a service where women can hire out dates?” Citrine asked.

  Adrien grunted.

  “Well, you can’t do handiwork, and that’s what worked for the other metal dragons to help them come in contact with human women.” Citrine cocked his head. “I can’t risk you going in and ruining someone’s plumbing or something.”

  “Tch,” Adrien said. “As if we would. It’s not that we can’t do it. It’s beneath us. As is selling ourselves for dates.”

  Citrine glared at him. “So how else do you plan to meet human women? Or were you planning to stay alone?”

  “I’d be fine alone,” Adrien said. “I have no great love for humans.”

  “That’s putting it lightly,” Sever muttered.

  Citrine crossed to Adrien and grabbed him by the collar, holding him up. Adrien seemed to test Citrine’s typically calm and patient demeanor more than anyone else.

  “Almost all of my friend’s mates are human women. They are some of the kindest, most amazing people I have ever met.” Citrine released Adrien with a shove. “I can’t wait to see you fall for one and eat your words.”

  Adrien folded his arms and turned away. “As if.”

  “What about you, Dante?” Citrine asked. “You going to make this hard for me?”

  Dante shook his head. “No. I want my dragon form back. I have my doubts about falling for a human.” Falling for anyone, really. “But I can’t imagine wearing this ring forever, so if I want to escape this servitude, I must do as you say.”

  “We’ve been preparing for this for months,” Citrine said, rubbing his forehead. “I am trying to help you. Do you want to wind up in a dungeon?” He lowered his head, muttering under his breath.

  “What was that?” Dante asked.

  “I said, ‘Why can’t these guys be half as easy to work with as the coarse metals were?’”

  “Because we have brains,” Adrien said. “And we’re used to having free will.”

  Sever looked over with a wry grin at that and then went back to his stoic moping.

  “I saw that,” Citrine said. “Sever, you need to come out of your shell.”

  “I’m not in a shell,” Sever said, slightly defensive. “I just don’t have much to say a lot of the time.”

  Of all of them, Sever had undergone the greatest shock in the new world. He’d gone looking to avenge his mate, only to find out she either didn’t exist and was a powerful hoax or had betrayed him.

  Sever also looked the least different now. He’d kept his long braid, but with his square jaw, handsome features, and huge build, he pulled it off.

  Dante saw the biggest difference in the mirror. He hadn’t felt any regret over chopping off his golden locks to better blend into the real world. In the past, women had fawned over his long, masculine mane, but in the modern world, short hair was more admired.

  And Dante liked to be admired.

  Which wasn’t uncommon. Dante Gildenstern was beautiful. He always had been, always would be.

  “Dante, pay attention,” Citrine said. “Don’t zone out. There still hasn’t been any sign of Mercury, and the oracle is keeping an eye on that. So right now we need to focus solely on getting you all mated. Tonight is our first open house. Are you ready? Any questions?”

  Dante knew Citrine probably had three petulant dragons glaring at him right now.

  Citrine sighed, putting a hand up to his forehead. “Look. We’ve done plenty of training. You know modern rules. You should understand modern women.”

  “Human women.” Adrien scoffed.

  “Right,” Citrine said. “And if you want to never be in your dragon form again, never feel air under your wings, then stay jerks and ruin everything. See if I care.” He threw up his hands. “I’m
going to go let the women in.”

  Adrien looked at Dante. “What’s bothering him?”

  “You,” Sever said.

  “Shut up, both of you,” Dante said, straightening the crisp suit he wore. A light gray, it set off his tanned skin.

  All they had to do was please women. That was easy. He would be the example for his team, show them how it was done. “Let’s all behave for the sake of our freedom.”

  “Impossible,” Adrien muttered. “I can’t mate a human.”

  Sever just shrugged his heavy shoulders and looked uncomfortable in his tailored suit. They’d had to go custom because designer suits just weren’t made for hulking men who stood between 6’3” and 6’6”.

  Sever’s gray eyes went to the large double doors and then darted away.

  Dante stood, squaring his shoulders. He’d always handled things admirably in his time, whether that was wooing women in the village, visiting merchants or dignitaries, or chasing off rogue dragons who threatened their territory.

  He expected he would be just fine now.

  Citrine was at the doors now, taking a deep breath. “Good luck to us,” Dante heard him mutter.

  Dante grinned. They wouldn’t need luck. They were the noble metal dragons.

  Ella Stanton set down her book, a particularly juicy romance novel, to look at the text that was dinging and lighting up her phone.

  She reached over for it with a groan and sighed when she saw who it was from.

  Her sister. Her perfect, beautiful, about-to-get-married sister.

  And she still didn’t have a date for the wedding.

  Ella flopped on her back, her unruly curls making a frizzy halo around her head. She didn’t want to go to this thing. All told, it’d be around a week with her family. Which she didn’t mind. She could almost look forward to that part.

  But it was being back in her hometown that she dreaded. The last thing she wanted was to go home alone.

  But all efforts at looking on dating websites were in vain. Ella just didn’t want to start a relationship to go to a wedding. That wasn’t fair to the other person, and besides, she had long ago given up on any hope of romance.

  She didn’t need it. She had her job as a business consultant for struggling companies, and she was good at it. Whether it was helping with marketing or representation or product management, she’d always been able to make a positive difference.

  And then she could come home to her bird and her books and have a quiet night alone. With some wine and good food.

  Life was just fine, thanks, and she didn’t need some dude coming in to mess it up just because she needed company for a week.

  She downed her glass of wine, feeling only slightly warm and not at all tipsy. She never drank to excess. She plopped herself on the spinny chair in front of her computer and opened Google.

  Shouldn’t there just be someone she could pay for this? She giggled as she typed in “buy a date” and her city and hit enter. As results popped up, her eyes went to the first result.

  Date-A-Dragon.

  Weird name.

  She clicked on the website and gasped at what she saw. The design was simple, amateur even, but they didn’t need any fancy marketing materials.

  The men sold themselves.

  Literally, she guessed.

  There were three of them and they were beyond gorgeous. She’d never seen anyone as gorgeous as any of them in all her years on this earth, and seeing them all on one page in close proximity was enough to make a girl fall off her spinny chair.

  She poured herself another glass of wine and downed it quickly, reading whatever details she could find. Apparently, there were open houses where you could meet the men, or you could set up an appointment. They had only just opened.

  Would there be reviews?

  One man in particular, with blond hair, had set her heart racing like an Arabian horse over the desert. No, calling him blond was like calling the sun warm.

  His hair was a gorgeous mix of golden colors, almost looking as if it were made of metal itself. His face was too gorgeous for movies. Too gorgeous for modeling.

  She snorted. He was probably short.

  She clicked back to the search results and saw there were reviews already.

  Interesting.

  She clicked on the review summary and gasped when she saw the average. 3.2 stars. Not great.

  She set her glass down and leaned in to read the top reviews. They were a mix of virulent hate and slobbering admiration. What exactly was going on with this place?

  She clicked on the top review:

  I’ve never met a more arrogant man in my life than Adrien. Who does he think he is! I’d give zero stars if I could.

  Another one:

  I went out with friends, hoping to get along with some hot guys and see if we wanted to hire them. Instead, multiple members of our party ended up in arguments with these jerks, and we had to go somewhere else for our bachelorette party.

  She clicked another one, a three-star:

  Not the worst. I met with Sever. He wasn’t really into talking, but he wasn’t a jerk like some mentioned in these reviews. He’s hot, but they all are. I guess he’s probably the best one to hire. Dante is super hot if you can stand him. Stay away from Adrien.

  Ella went back to the page with the beautiful men on it to match them up with their names. Adrien was a frowning, classically handsome man with striking silver eyes like mirrors and dark, tousled hair going in all directions. There was almost something otherworldly about him.

  Sever had dark-gray hair, and she couldn’t make out if his eyes were dark blue, gray, green, or some mixture. His hair seemed to be short on the sides and pulled back on top. He was handsome in almost a Viking warrior sort of way. Kind of an odd contrast to the others, but she supposed variety was key with this kind of service.

  She giggled again as she scrolled to Dante, the one with gold hair.

  So gorgeous.

  She went back to reviews, this time checking the positive ones.

  Oh my gosh. These men are so hot. Who cares if they are rude! I’d pay hundreds just to look at them.

  Ella grinned. That would probably be her. She wasn’t looking for romance anyway. She didn’t need the delusion that these men liked her.

  Oh hell, I love Dante. He makes panties drop just walking across the room. I swear I’ve never gotten as—

  Ella clicked away from that one, as it got a little too graphic.

  I don’t know if I agree with the other reviews. Sure, Sever is a little standoffish, and Adrien is an outright douche. But Dante isn’t terrible, if you can deal with the ego. My guess is they’d behave on a date. But if not, oh my gosh, you will never find hotter men than this. Ever.

  Ella could deal with that. If she was going to hire someone to take home, she might as well go for the gold, as it were. And maybe the negative reviews were just exaggerated.

  She clicked back to them.

  This place should be called Date-A-Douchebag! Never coming back.

  Or maybe not.

  She leaned her cheek on her hand, thinking. Clearly, this place had the right men, but they were going to run themselves into the ground if these reviews kept happening. They needed a manager and some damage control with PR and some training. Her business consultant brain was already working without her asking it to.

  That was it! This could be win-win. She was pretty stingy, and this could be a way to get one of the men for a week (since she was sure the cost would be insane for such gorgeous guys). She could offer her consultant services to fix the business in return.

  As long as Dante behaved himself.

  She winked at his photo as she went back to the bed and opened her book. Tomorrow, she’d call Date-A-Dragon and set up an appointment to meet with them.

  The first thing that had to go was that weird name.

  Dante walked toward Citrine’s office with a sense of foreboding he couldn’t shake. The usually quiet dragon could be ext
remely angry at times, and he had been, due to the bad experiences the club was having so far.

  Citrine had been ranting lately about their reviews while holding his personal electronic device, and Dante didn’t see what the big deal was.

  They were doing their best, and there was a learning curve to this catering-to-humans thing. They’d never had to cater to anyone. Having their powers locked up, being forced into this situation, wasn’t helping anything.

  He opened the door to the office and saw Citrine working behind his desk, looking at the screen of his computer.

  Computers were such interesting things, but Dante didn’t have much interest in them for the time being. He was aware you could learn almost anything from one of them, but he was a dragon and didn’t need to worry about such human matters.

  He could get what he needed from books, and he felt much more at home doing so.

  He sat in a chair in front of the desk, crossing one leg over the other.

  Citrine sat back, running a hand through his long, silky hair. Dante was jealous for a moment, remembering his hair. But given how much the human women already had trouble restraining themselves, he guessed they didn’t need any more temptation.

  “Tell me something,” Citrine said. “What can I do to help you? What can I do to help you see this is for you?”

  Dante uncrossed and crossed his legs again, trying to stay casual, despite the tingle of frustration rising in him. It wasn’t like he was happy with how things were going either. He was used to things being easier, and this was anything but. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean this is still going terrible. And Adrien, you need to control him.”

  “He is arrogant,” Dante admitted.

  “That’s an understatement,” Citrine muttered. “But it’s more than that. It’s his disdain. He has literally made women cry.”

  “That wasn’t his fault,” Dante said. “We are here to meet women, not let them put hands on us.” He shook his head grimly. “Adrien has every right to be disgusted by unwanted touch.”

  “I know,” Citrine said. “But there is another way of dealing with it.”