Dragon's Claim

Chapter 1-1

Chapter 1

The meeting took place in the depths of Snowdonia. Five dragons met on the first floor of an ancient tower that leaned ever so slightly as if tired from its own age. A tall red headed man stood back from the group, his eyes still shadowed from the events of the past week. Wesley’s mate was tending to his mother’s broken heart, a human woman new to the world of dragons and now charged with the responsibility of holding two people together in the face of grief.

Another dragon, a very pregnant female who seemed to carry steel in her spine sat at the table and nursed a cup of tea while she studied Wesley, the heir to the red dragons. Rhiannon could have led the red dragons, could have swooped in and stole the position from Wesley if she weren’t expecting her first child. She chose her child over the group and no one blamed her, but she wasn’t going to stand aside and let her new family falter. Not now.

Not ever.

Beside her sat the newest addition to the family. Farida was an outside voice of power in this intervention, a stand meant to shake sense into Wesley. Layla wasn’t sure how she felt about her brother’s new mate yet. Apparently, the woman with dark skin and black tresses was royalty. At least, that was how it worked where she came from. Their dragons believed in a truly monarchal system and passed the power to rule from blood to blood.

Here, things worked a little differently. Wesley had the blood right, but if another was deemed fit to rule then Wesley wouldn’t be able to take the role. It was clear, by the face of everyone in the room, that no one wanted that to happen. They wanted Wesley to rise to the occasion and assume his position.

If only the death of his father hadn’t cut him in two. Layla knew that the father and son duo had never been particularly close, but losing one’s father can hurt. She knew, even if she’d been young when it happened. Now, Wesley was a grown man with pieces of his life missing forever.

The last dragon, aside from herself, was a man invited from America. There, the system worked more similar to theirs. Honor bound their world, defined their ranks, and declared their leaders. She studied the profile the dragon man cut in the rare moment that he wasn’t watching her.

His mahogany colored hair was held back with a tie. The way he pushed it back said that he was probably overdue for a haircut. His jaw was square and strong, bearing his roman nose easily. When his head tilted toward her and his blue eyes caught hers she paused. She hated the feeling that passed through her, that electrical jolt that hit her when their eyes met.

It was weakness. It had nothing to do with the creature she’d become.

Layla knew why everyone was here. She knew that these three leaders were sent to Wesley’s door to knock some sense into his head, but she didn’t know why she was here. Sure, her future was still in their hands. It had been Drystan’s decree that she leave with the American dragons, putting her in place to help establish another embassy on American soil. It was up to Wesley to rescind his father’s word. She wished she could have a moment alone with him to bully him into taking it back.

Her eyes flicked back to the American Dragon.

Drake.

The leader of the largest group of dragons in the States, a position that he had carved for himself by creating the first family of dragons. She had a feeling that he would not leave without her and that put a knot in her plans. He’d managed to situate himself in her vicinity as much as possible since he arrived. Some nights, when it was quiet and it was just the two of them, she found a small bit of peace in his presence.

But, when the sun broke over the horizon and the world lit with sound and violence once more, she could barely stand him. He was a solemn creature full of soft smiles and unspoken encouragement. She didn’t need that. She didn’t need him. Drake would only become a crutch if she let him stay near. He would make her weak again and she could never let that happen.

“Alright,” Rhiannon began, her frazzled nerves clearly reaching the end of their rope. She scanned the room before turning to face Wesley. “If no one will be brave enough to open their mouths and say what needs to be said, I’ll be the one to do it. You, sir, need to get yourself together because if you don’t the family will fall apart or someone will come in and steal your position from you.”

Wesley pushed off the wall, his hands fisting at his sides and his eyes burning with anger. Steam and smoke began to radiate from Wesley’s form. The air around him wavered with the force of his anger’s heat. “Are you insinuating that you’re going to steal my right to lead?”

Rhiannon pushed away from the table and forced her increasingly large belly into a standing position so that she could meet Wesley’s fiery gaze with her own. By all rights, Wesley should have backed down. Layla knew that tension was high, knew where her loyalties lied, but still she pushed away from where she was standing, ready to break up a fight. Wesley shouldn’t have even tried to intimidate the pregnant woman. No one would threaten a mother or her child. But, the two of them stood as close to nose to nose as they could, given the size of Rhiannon’s ever growing belly.

“I want nothing of the sort and you know it. You’re too busy being a whiny boy to step up and deal with the problems at hand. Are you done crying? Are you done with all this self-pity?”

“Am I not allowed to grieve anymore? When was that right stripped away from me? I don’t think a bloody one of you understand how this feels. A part of me was lost.”

Rhiannon didn’t balk. She pressed forward, undeterred. “You’re not the only one dealing with pain, if you haven’t noticed. I was bloody kidnapped as a child and raised by a man who then tried to kill me. I think, if anything, I know pain. I think Farida knows pain because she has to watch her father die. Layla knows pain.

“Do you see any of them burning down houses around them? No, they’re standing here, waiting for their leader to stop brooding.”

Layla smiled to herself. Everyone that Rhiannon had singled out was female. It was the women who were standing strong. Then again, they didn’t know what kind of pain Drake ever had to endure. By all means, he seemed to have lived a perfect life if only because he refused to talk about himself. When he spoke, it was to give an order, lay down a casual joke, or words of his family waiting for him in the States. He exposed nothing he didn’t want the world to see.

Her eyes were drawn away from the verbal argument. They fell on the back of Drake’s head. Why him? Why’d Drystan want to send her away with this particular dragon? There were a number of them scattered all across Europe, so much closer to home, that she could have been sent to. They needed embassies and ambassadors, too.

“Lead us,” Rhiannon said, her voice immovable. It left no room for argument. Layla worried for Gareth’s child. Perhaps, knowing Gareth’s recklessness, she should be worried for both child and mother. She’d heard that Gareth had camped out on Rhiannon’s back porch while she was still a GOE agent in his protest. It was going to be a wild ride for both of them from here on out.

Yet, Layla wouldn’t be here to see that happen.

She would be in the States.

Her own hands curled into fists until her nails bit into her palms and drew crescent moons that beaded with blood. Drake must have scented it on the air because his head spun around and his bright, blue eyes pinned her to the wall. She didn’t meet his challenge. Instead, Layla retreated to the sink and went about making herself a cup of tea, his gaze burning holes in her back.

She could feel movement in the room, the moving air carrying the scents of her cousin and the American dragon as they exited the room. From her position at the kitchen window, she caught a glimpse of Drake pulling Wesley aside. She could not hear their words, but slowly, Wesley seemed to crumble. The radiating heat that had shrouded Wesley, that strength, flickered and disappeared. The rough exterior he’d built came crashing down and the big man let himself fall onto the other man’s shoulder.

Through the window, Drake’s light gaze met hers. Layla was frozen for a moment. She fell into the softness in his gaze, the unexpectant set of his jaw. He didn’t ask anything, only waited. It spurred a soft feeling in her chest, much like the initial feeling when one’s head hits the pillow right before sleep. Then, she found herself and a frown brought down the corners of her mouth. She would not be the soft thing she was before.

Not like Drake was doing to Wesley. The man had found his strength, had made himself unbreakable, and then he’d let Drake sweep in and break it all over again. Layla found a sneer pulling her lips back.

Eventually, when they returned to the tower’s kitchen, Wesley, despite the redness of his eyes, did his best to set aside his grief and sat down at the table. Drake tried to catch her eye, to convey something, but she ignored his presence. The others advised Wesley, like a council, on what his next moves should be. Each one offered valid points and allowed him to do with them what he saw fit. It was the right way of doing things. All Wesley had to do was make the right decisions.

That was all on him.

“Something needs to be done about the rest of the white dragons,” Drake acknowledged. “If you allow them to remain nearby, they could cause trouble out of spite. We have disposed of two of their leaders now.”

Wesley nodded, absorbing the information. “We should set up perimeter posts. Invite the white dragons to the Embassy if they’re willing to barter for territory. If not, we use force.”

“I’ll take up the first shift,” Layla said from where she stood by the sink.

All eyes turned on her. The monster beneath her skin stared out, dead pan. It sized them all up, saw them for the power houses that they were. She met Wesley’s eyes and challenged him to call her out, to call out the trauma she’d suffered not too long ago. By all appearance, she had fully healed. No one needed to know that late in the night, when her monster slept, she still cried and screamed.

Layla was strong.

She had to be.

Drake’s gaze burned across her, but she did her best to ignore it. At least, she could until he spoke.

“I’ll take shift with you then. There’s said to be power in numbers.”

She whipped her head toward him. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

Drake shrugged, face somber. “Doesn’t matter. You’re getting it anyway.”

It was her brother’s mate, Farida who broke the tension with her words next. “Should we hold another intervention? One to keep you from getting yourself killed by your reckless desire to be in the fray all the time? Is that what you want? To die? I will not approach my mate and tell him his sister killed herself, no matter the means.”

Layla didn’t justify the woman’s prodding with an answer. Instead, she set her cup of tea on the counter and left without another word. She didn’t need someone new to the family questioning her. She didn’t need Farida trying to unravel her.

Layla did what she did so that the monster inside of her would be appeased. So that it knew they were still strong enough to survive. Even without her dragon.

The beast she’d lived with had been silent since the attack, since the white dragons beat her senseless in the forest of Snowdonia. Layla didn’t know what happened or where her beast went, only that the monster had risen to take its place. Gone was the purring cat-like beast and now she lived with the monster that thirsted for blood.

Layla feared what she might become if she let the monster out. Would her dragon be there, or would her form morph into something else? A creature that she was not yet ready to see? So, she stayed in her human body for as long as she could to avoid whatever truth moved beneath her skin.

Her footsteps fell in line behind. The wind was blowing the wrong way, but even without his scent, she knew who would be behind her.

Drake.

“They agreed to let you take the first perimeter walk. They drafted a schedule and I brought you a copy.”

She didn’t respond.

“I’d thought you might want to spend as much time with your brother as possible before you had to leave. Didn’t think you’d want to spend your time prowling the woods in search of a few assholes.”

She couldn’t help it, a bark of a laugh escaped her.

“Rhys is too busy humping his mate. I don’t want to get in their way.”

Behind her, Drake laughed. It was a soft release of breath in the shape of a laugh. The burn of his gaze travelled over her body again. Why could she feel him so acutely? Why Drake?

*