The Island Of Dragons: A Paranormal Shifter Romance Read online

  She was back in less than a minute, actually, bearing a tray loaded with eggs, bacon, fruit, toast, and no fewer than three tall glasses, two filled with water, and one with juice. There was coffee as well, which smelled so good to me the scent was almost intoxicating.

  After a quick sip or two, I realized what I was thirstiest for was cool, clear water. While Melody did some tidying in the room, I was halfway through my second tall glass when Warren strolled in the room, thumbs in the pockets of his battered jeans.

  He came to a stop bedside and surveyed me with the same faint twinkle in his eyes that had been present earlier. “Being an attorney must be thirsty work.”

  I set my nearly empty glass on the tray with a slight bang. “Please leave.”

  “Certainly. I’d hate for you to take legal action against me if I don’t. But, ‘Please leave’ who? I don’t believe I heard my name at the end of that request.”

  I spoke through gritted teeth. “Please leave, Lieutenant General Chief Warren James Knight.”

  “That’s better. Once you’re a bit more hydrated, I’ll be back to talk again. Until then, Miss Eleanor Christine Elizabeth O’Brien, esquire... have a pleasant day.”

  With that, he turned and strode out of the room, giving me a glimpse of his tight rear, which was displayed to its very best advantage in his low-slung jeans. His fitted t-shirt, which was a pale dove gray, also did a fine job of showing off every ridge and muscle in his broad back.

  I went back to my water, telling myself that he disgusted me because of what he’d accused me of being. He disgusted me so much that I couldn’t get the image of his shoulders and rear out of my mind, and I soon became so engrossed in wondering when he’d be back to talk to me that Melody had to repeat herself when trying to get my attention.

  *

  Melody laughed, living up to her name, because her laughter, soft and musical, could definitely be described as melodic. “Hello, Ellie? You still with me? I’ve said your name twice now, but you look like you’re in some sort of a funny trance.”

  I pulled myself out of it, setting my water glass down and turning my focus to her. “Oh, sorry. I’m still here. Just a little...”

  I couldn’t really think what the heck I was.

  Melody set a stack of clean towels on a closet shelf, shut the door, and turned to face me, smiling. “Dazed?”

  I lifted my shoulders in a weak shrug, determined to put all thoughts of Warren out of my mind. “Maybe a little. I’m fine, though.”

  Melody came over and took a seat bedside, her expression one of sympathy. “Well, who can blame you if you are a little dazed? After all, you’ve recently almost drowned; you’re in a strange, new place where you don’t know anyone; and from what I’ve heard, you saw dragon shifters for the first time last night. And I’m sure there were many other quite rattling experiences you went through yesterday.”

  Dragon shifters. I absolutely could not believe that they hadn’t crossed my mind at all that morning. Not even once. Not even for a split second. That’s just how thoroughly disgusted I was by Warren. I was so disgusted by him that that the feeling had even crowded out all thoughts of dragon shifters from my brain.

  I nodded at Melody, lifting my coffee mug. “That’s it—being so stunned from seeing dragon shifters for the first time last night. That’s exactly what has me so spacey this morning.”

  Leaning forward in her chair with her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, Melody gave me the smallest of smiles. “So, Chief Knight hasn’t contributed the tiniest amount to your spaciness? Just, on top of everything else? I’m just wondering because the two of you seemed to be involved in some sort of a very intense discussion when I came in. It seems clear that the two of you have gotten to know each other well enough to know each other’s full, complete names. I didn’t even know Warren’s middle name was James, and my husband Joshua is his best friend and second-in-command.”

  I sighed, swallowed a sip of coffee, and set the mug on the tray. “He accused me of being a spy and an ‘enemy combatant,’ Melody. He actually believes that’s a real possibility. Which makes me... well, let’s just say he’s not my favorite person right now. I don’t appreciate being accused of things that are completely absurd the very day after I almost lost my life.”

  “But the reason you didn’t lose your life was because of Warren. Who, by the way, you’ll notice I call both Warren and Chief Knight alternately. See, I’m one of the few people in the village allowed to call him Warren, but I called him Chief Knight for so many years that it’s just a hard habit to break. Anyway, the reason you didn’t lose your life was because of Warren. He saved you from drowning.”

  I sighed again, realizing she was right. “Well... that’s true. I’ll thank him sometime for that, because I am grateful. But I’m still very irritated with him for suspecting me of being a spy.”

  Pausing, I picked up my coffee again but then, having a sudden thought, I set the mug right back down. “Oh! Guess what else? He even told me I’m his prisoner here. His prisoner. As if I’ve done something wrong. And as if he’s the absolute say-all, be-all, end-all of every single thing that goes on around here.”

  Melody gave me the same little smile she gave me before. “Well... as our chief, he sort of is. Actually, not even sort of. Everyone’s grateful and happy about that. As isolated as we are here on the island, we need a strong leader in order to survive and be a functioning community.

  We tried complete and total democracy at first, with every single person in the village, which is to say all the shifter men and all us regular human women, all being equal ‘co-leaders,’ but... that didn’t exactly work. So since then, Warren has been our chief, with the help of the council, which is made up of four other men and each of their wives, including Joshua and myself.

  For the past several decades, this one-leader-assisted-by-a-council model has worked pretty well. Warren’s a strong, commanding leader, but he’s also fair and good, and he’s always made decisions that are best for the community.”

  “Like holding outsiders as prisoners until they can convince him that they’re not spies?”

  “Well... I hate to say it, because I know you’re upset, but, yes, exactly. I know it’s irritating to be suspected like that, but he’s just trying to keep everyone safe. Here on this island, we have to be a little suspicious of everyone. Don’t worry.

  I think you’ll find Warren’s treatment of you as a prisoner is going to be pretty kind. And I also think he’ll come around to thinking that you’re not a spy, soon. Maybe after I give him my two cents about the whole situation. See, I know you’re not a spy or any kind of enemy.”

  “Well, I appreciate that, and I’m really not, but... how are you so sure I’m not?”

  Melody leaned back in her chair with her golden brown eyes sparkling in a slant of sunlight coming in through a window opposite her. “Well, you said some things while you were knocked out last night. You said a lot of things, actually. Things that gave me a feel for your story, and it didn’t seem to be the story of a spy.”

  “What did I say?”

  “Well, some of it was hard to understand, but you did say a few things that were fairly clear. You said, ‘Stupid singles cruise’ and ‘Don’t let me fall overboard,’ and ‘What the hell’s a wormhole,’ and then, ‘I really wanted that cheesecake,’ over and over, a couple different times. Which, I’m not sure what that was all about, but then you went back to begging not to fall overboard and not to drown... like your parents, you kept saying.

  You were kind of whimpering, like, almost really crying, and I just didn’t get the feeling that you were some sort of cold, calculated spy or assassin. And then, when I helped you into your pajamas, I became sure of that.”

  I sat up a little straighter in bed, intrigued. “How?”

  Melody gave me a little smile. “Well, I don’t know of many ruthless assassins who have a teeny-tiny pair of pink toe shoes tattooed on their upper back, right behind their
heart.”

  I chuckled weakly. “Oh. Right.”

  While I started eating my breakfast, Melody asked me to tell her something about my life in dance, and my life in general, and then about my parents, but then I had some questions for her.

  The first one was simply how everything about the island was possible, from the wormhole Dalton and I had traveled through to get to it, to the fact that it was populated in part by men who could shift into dragons.

  “Oh, and also... you said a second ago that Warren has been chief for ‘several decades.’ But he looks like he’s in his mid-thirties or so... so, how is that even possible? Although for some reason, I suppose I can see him ordering people around even as a five-year-old.”

  While I continued eating, Melody told me the entire condensed version of how the island, and shifters, had come to be. It had started in the eighties as a government experiment to create shifters from human men with the intent of using them as weapons of war. They created wolf shifters, bear shifters, and dragon shifters to join a group of wolf shifters already on the island.

  Shortly after creating the shifters, the scientists had abandoned the island, and shortly after that, everyone else discovered that they couldn’t leave. Any boats they made would eventually circle back around to the island, regardless of what the currents were doing.

  However, it was discovered that island leaders, one from every shifter group, and them and them alone, could leave through special portals that were likely wormholes. After being voted chief of the dragons’ village, Warren eventually discovered that his portal was a particular massive boulder located just to the north of the village.

  He merely had to touch it and he would immediately travel through space and time somehow to arrive at a specific point inside Central Park in New York City. In this way, he could come and go as he pleased, bringing back supplies for the village, and even the occasional visitor or two if he wanted, such as when a specialist doctor was needed in the village.

  Melody explained that she was the only nurse in the village, and they only had one doctor, a general practitioner, who was a woman named Dr. Benson, so at times another doctor was needed. “Especially with several hundred people here in Knight’s Shore, making us the biggest village on the island,” she said.

  “And also especially since we’ve had somewhat of a baby boom here in the past year after a long period of fertility troubles for many women. So now, sometimes specialist obstetricians are required. Although, it’s not always easy to find them. They have to be individuals who are willing to be discreet, and who kind of already believe in the supernatural, like I’m guessing maybe you always have, just because you don’t seem nearly as rattled about the existence of shifters as I’d expected.” I set my fork down, nodding. “I guess I kind of have always believed in supernatural things... at least as far as thinking there’s more to our universe than most people think. But, shifters...” I paused, exhaling in a rush. “I don’t think I’ll pass out again like last night, but still, it might take some time for me to fully get used to all this.”

  Melody’s eyes suddenly developed a bit of a sparkly glint.

  “Well, maybe a ride in the clouds on Chief Knight’s back sometime might help.”

  I cleared my throat, fighting not to picture Warren’s handsome face, his broad back and tight rear again. “No, thank you. Moving on. So, tell me about the time thing... How Warren’s been chief for decades, but he only looks about thirty-five or so.”

  Melody went on to explain that there were definitely many mysteries about the island, the time thing being one of them. Not even the residents knew exactly how it “worked;” all everyone knew was that despite counting years in regular three-hundred-and-sixty-five-day calendars, they all aged very slowly, maybe only a year or so for every five that actually passed.

  “See, Chief Knight was about thirty when he got here decades ago. Now, like you said, he only looks about thirty-five. But this time thing certainly isn’t the only main mystery of the island.”

  “What’s the other?”

  “Well, the other concerns the lake the island is named for—Black Lake. Here’s the short version. Black Lake used to be this small, murky lake in the middle of the island. Shortly after the scientists left, it became clear that the lake was dangerous. It had... well, just weird things about it. Things like weird currents, even though it was a lake with no inflow or outflow. These currents would pull people under and kill people, and when that happened, the woman or shifter who died would become something known as a Gray Form. Which is to say a shadowy, zombie-like being with a desire to hurt and kill people.”

  A sudden chill crept over me, even though the room was warm and bright sunlight was streaming in through the windows.

  Now done eating, I grabbed a white throw blanket from the foot of the bed and wrapped it around my shoulders. “Where are these Gray Forms right now?”

  “All dead. Please don’t worry at all, and I should have said that first. They’ve all been completely destroyed.”

  “Well, good. And the lake?”

  Melody leaned back in her chair, crossing one long leg over the other. “Filled in with tons and tons of rocks about a year ago. That’s part of the mystery... the mystery on top of the mystery, really. See, the first mystery is that no one really knows the origins of the Forms or the lake that created them, though that is kind of irrelevant now. But the current mystery is why the lake won’t stay filled with rocks.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Picture it this way. Picture the lake as an hourglass with the bottom half of the hourglass buried under the island. The men put the rocks into the top of the ‘hourglass,’ meaning the lake, but within weeks, days, and sometimes even hours, the rocks just slip right through the sandy lake bed somehow, as if there’s some buried half of an ‘hourglass’ below.

  That’s how Josh, Warren, and some of the other shifters working at the lake have been thinking of it, anyway. They’ve been thinking that at some point, the rocks have got to ‘stick.’ The ‘hourglass,’ or underground cave, or whatever the heck it is, has to be filled. It’s just not happening.

  And no one’s really in a hurry to try to physically enter beneath the lake bed to find out exactly what’s going on, because no one’s really in a huge hurry to become a Form, if it’s still possible that the lake can do that. Which... well, it definitely might be. Being that no one even understands how the lake came to be and how it was able to ‘create’ Forms, it is entirely possible that it still has some dark magic up its sleeve, so to speak. So, I think the men are wise not to dig beneath it.

  Then lately, things have been getting weirder and worse. Lately the lake has been filling up with a bit of water here and there... The same kind of dark, murky, smelly water that used to fill it completely before the bear chief’s future wife blew up the lake with dynamite.”

  “And no one knows exactly why it’s filling up with water again?”

  Melody shook her head. “No clue. Like I said, nobody even knows what made the lake the way it was in the first place.”

  I sat for a long moment, thinking. “Well, I know someone who might know something. Dalton, the scientist responsible for bringing me here when he made me fall off the top deck of the cruise ship with his wormhole-creating vibration device. See, not that we exactly had much time to chat while we were both trying not to drown in the ocean, but Dalton seemed to have some insider knowledge about this island. And I mean... well, he had to, being that he knew the precise coordinates of the spot where he needed to open the wormhole to get here.”

  Melody frowned. “And unfortunately, this is exactly why Warren suspects you both of being some sort of spies. Spies maybe sent by the original scientists who opened the first wormhole to create this island, if any of them are still alive. Because you have to admit, it does look somewhat bad how you and Dalton arrived here.

  We’ve had maybe one or two people over the years come to the island from the U.S by acciden
tally ‘falling’ through a village leader’s wormhole portal in New York and then being deposited on the island through that leader’s ‘exit portal.’

  How you and Dalton came via the ocean like that, when the ocean isn’t any island leader’s portal... Well, it was obvious to us all that the two of you had to have created a wormhole of your own. It seemed to me initially like some sort of a spy mission gone bad. And that’s why as irritating as it is to be accused of something that isn’t true, you should maybe cut Warren just a tiny bit of slack, just because of the way things appear to him.”

  A tiny bit grudgingly, I nodded. “Well... all right. Maybe. But if his suspicions persist longer than today, all slack will be revoked. I just don’t like being told I’m anyone’s prisoner.”

  I really didn’t. I’d always been fairly independent and completely in charge of my own life, and even just the very word prisoner rankled me.

  Just then, Dr. Benson, an older woman with a shock of short, spiky red hair, bustled into the room, saying that she’d heard I was awake. She soon gave me a brief exam and then a clean bill of health.

  She maybe wasn’t quite as friendly as Melody, but friendly enough, and she told me that Dalton was also awake and doing fine, and she seemed genuinely glad about that, as if she wasn’t entirely convinced that we were both spies or up to some other nefarious intent. After checking my pupils one final time, she told me I was free to leave the clinic and then bustled back out of the room to check on Dalton.

  I turned to Melody, feeling a bit anxious. “I’m glad I’m free to go now, but I don’t exactly know where I’m free to go to. I mean... is there a village jail here where Warren will be keeping me or something? Because... well, I just refuse. I’m just not sitting in some jail like a criminal. And if Warren does put me in jail... I’m going to break out; I swear it. I might need your help, though. Might need you to bring me a pie with a file hidden in it or something.”