Sold To The Dragons (A BBW Paranormal Romance Book 1) Page 3

  I'd thought he might get irritated about my cluelessness. But instead, he chuckled, surprising me.

  "I suppose I do have some explaining to do. But if you don't mind, maybe I'll get to that in the car. It's getting late, and we still have a good hour or two of travel left to go before we reach home."

  Home. His home that was now my home. I was still wrapping my brain around that fact.

  We quickly finished our meal, had a few bites of a delicious apple tart, and left the mansion. Almost immediately, we walked into a scene like something between a dream and a nightmare.

  Against a backdrop of a midnight blue starry sky, some great dark shape was descending, heading toward the house. The shape was massive. It was winged. And suddenly, not even a split-second after I glimpsed it, it breathed fire.

  Another dragon was behind it, seeming to be chasing it. All around me, the mansion guards were actually turning from human men into dragons in the blink of an eye. But I didn't have long to process this. Tom and I were now much closer to the car than the house, and he began pushing me across the remaining distance with a hand on my back.

  "In the car. In the car, Kira, now!"

  He didn't need to tell me again. After he'd yanked open the door, I hopped right in, and he closed the door behind me - right before running from the car, turning into a dragon, and lifting into the air. Watching him, I blinked slowly, trying to shake off a feeling of complete surrealism. Because I knew this was all real. This was my new reality.

  Heart pounding, I actually locked the car doors. Probably pointless, I immediately realized, since I figured that with their massive hands and claws, it was unlikely a dragon could open a car door, locked or unlocked. I figured one would more than likely just step on the car, smashing it, if one really wanted to hurt or kill me.

  Even inside the car I could hear crashing and roaring noises, obvious sounds of a fight somewhere in the distance, in the air. I looked out the window, seeing flashes of fire light the dark sky every so often. After a minute or two, I began shivering, despite the fact that the September night was actually on the balmy side. Wrapping myself in the soft gray blanket, I wondered if I was going into shock. I figured seeing men turn into dragons could probably do it.

  I felt near-hopelessly confused. As crazy a thing as it was, I got that Tom and his guards were some sort of man-dragon hybrids. It seemed impossible, and yet I'd seen it with my own eyes. So, I couldn't not believe. I couldn't not accept it. Doing so, I knew, would serve no purpose. And I'd never been one to shy away from reality. Even when reality seemed strange. Or even very, very strange, as it did now. But what I couldn't comprehend, what had me near-hopelessly confused, was why, if the dragons were all his family or people, one of them had seemed to be attacking the house, forcing him to put me in the safety of the car.

  I didn't have to ponder this for long, though. Mere seconds after the distant roars and fighting noises had died down, two dragons, massive and dark, landed on one side of the driveway and immediately shifted back into human form, fully dressed. The fact that they were instantly fully dressed almost got me more hung up than the fact that they'd shifted into dragons in the first place. I knew that was kind of silly, but I couldn't help it. It just seemed like actual magic. Not that seeing men shift into dragons and then back into human men didn't seem like magic, too.

  The two man-dragons were Tom and the driver of our car, and they both came over and got in. Tom immediately began asking if I was okay, and I nodded.

  "Yeah, fine. And all of you?"

  My question seemed to amuse him.

  He sat back in his seat with his eyes twinkling. "We're all just fine. That was just one rogue spy one of my guards caught, and we took him out with no problems."

  "Some distant cousin mad that he wasn't invited to Christmas dinner or something?"

  While the driver pulled out of the driveway, Tom looked at me with his eyes twinkling once again. "I think I have some explaining to do."

  For the remainder of the drive to the city of Ashcrest, he did a lot of explaining.

  He told me that while his family members were creatures called dragon shifters, not all dragon shifters were his family members. "Does that make sense?"

  While we bumped down an unpaved road, I said that it did, and he continued. He told me that dragon shifters had come into existence around the time of The Freeze, and that at first, they'd remained in one large group. However, they could only mate and produce offspring with human women, being that there were no female shifters, and so, they had started kidnapping human women and mating with them by force. They'd also begun killing humans and terrorizing towns just for sport.

  This didn't sit well with the shifters who didn't participate in these acts, to say the least, and so, eventually, the group had broken apart into two different factions. Tom's ancestors, the non-terrorizers, had razed the ruins of Chicago, built a new city, Ashcrest, in its place, and had become the first dragon lords. They'd come to refer to the shifters they'd broken away from simply as The Destroyers, and they still did to this day, several hundred years later.

  Tom glanced out the car window, sighing. "And I'd like to say that The Destroyers aren't still causing us trouble all these years later, but that would be a lie. The shifter we killed back at the outpost was one of their spies."

  Turning his face back to me, his expression unreadable in the dark, Tom continued. "You see, once my ancestors formed Ashcrest, we began protecting all the cities and towns in what used to be called the Midwest, which were and still are the only remaining cities in the world post-Freeze. This is why dragon attacks stopped not too long after The Freeze. We Ashcrests made sure of that. And for a while, The Destroyers more or less did their own thing, in their own city, a few hundred miles south of Ashcrest.

  “They had a sufficient supply of fertile women from all their raids at this point, and so, they seemed content to let things be. For a few hundred years, even. But recently, over the past several decades, as the fertility of all women everywhere has continued to wane, and for reasons nobody really understands, they've begun causing problems again.

  “In addition to trying to kidnap women directly from Ashcrest, they've also begun attempting attacks on all the Midwestern towns again, which has kept me and my men very busy with protection and defense, while at the same time, trying to ensure the long-term future of our people by bringing more fertile women into our community. And in a more civilized way, we think, than dragging women off by the hair, as The Destroyers would do."

  I hadn't exactly liked standing up on an auction block, but I had to admit it was preferable to being subjected to violence.

  I asked a few questions, and Tom explained a few more things and filled me in on more Ashcrest history, both family and city, until eventually, twinkling lights in the distance, far beyond the car but still very visible, caught my attention. The road had also suddenly become very smooth.

  Tom looked toward the twinkling lights with his mouth curving in the slightest grin. "And here's the city, still some miles up ahead. As you can see, we have no problems with electricity; we have our own power plant just a bit to the west. This plant provides power to the thousands of homes, manufacturing centers, and businesses in Ashcrest.

  We also have a state-of-the-art medical center, with technologies that surpass even those before The Freeze. However...the living accommodations for the royal family, where you'll be living, aren't quite as modern."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, we still have electricity, plumbing, and all other modern, pre-Freeze comforts, but it's the actual physical structure of the royal residence itself that isn't quite as modern. In fact, if you did any studying in school about a time and place called medieval Europe, it might bring that time and place to mind.

  “And that's because the royal residence is a castle. My ancestors had a bit of a flair for the grand and the dramatic."

  Just then, the outline of a structure very large and well-lit, looming a
bove the city, came into focus, and my heart nearly skipped a beat.

  "I think I see it. And it's absolutely gorgeous."

  It really was. As we continued to get closer, I could see lights twinkling at least ten stories high.

  There was something awfully exotic and romantic about a castle to me, outright sexy, even. I'd never dreamed I'd ever see one in person, of course. I'd never dreamed that any still actually existed anywhere in the world.

  Tom and I both fell silent while the driver, separated from us by the partition, continued to bring us closer to the city. I thought about how kind and courteous Tom had been to me. I thought about how lucky I surely was. I wondered if I might ever be able to fall in love with him, despite not feeling even a single spark of any romantic chemistry between us.

  I wondered if there was any way I'd be able to enjoy lovemaking with him, at least a little. Despite the fact that he was now feeling very, very much like a father figure to me.

  Soon, seeming to read my mind, he suddenly spoke. "You do know I didn't bring you here to be my own, don't you? I'm far too old for more children. And I already have two sons, besides.

  “They're who you'll be trying for children with. You'll be working for a baby with both of them. And the one who you conceive with first will become your husband."

  I couldn't really respond. All at once, my mind was processing far too much information and going in way too many different directions to form coherent thoughts. Or speech.

  With his face illuminated by the approaching glow of the city, Tom softened his normally-stern expression just long enough to give me the briefest of sympathetic smiles. "I know this is a lot to take in. And I didn't mean to make it sound as if the three of you will at once be...." Suddenly clearing his throat a little, he trailed off and didn't finish the thought.

  "Well, I imagine Steven and Blake will be visiting you individually at first. Though whatever the three of you decide as to arrangements after that...well, of course, that's up to the three of you to privately decide. You see, I'm sure you realize just how rare fully fertile, beautiful young women like you are. Although...."

  He paused to study me for a moment. "Then again, you don't seem at all vain or conceited, so maybe you don't. You honestly strike me as the kind of woman who doesn't fully realize her own beauty. However, the auctioneer in your town certainly did, and he sent me an advance report informing me that the next auction would feature a young woman of rare beauty and grace.

  “And then, when I informed my sons about this...well, they're somewhat competitive and not exactly the types to flip a coin. So, we decided that as I'm very eager for grandchildren, and as they're both very eager for children...we'll let fate decide whose child you'll ultimately bear and who you'll ultimately marry.

  “Which may not sound terribly romantic, but my late wife and I came to the altar in a similar fashion, and after a very long and happy marriage, and after several of our family members were matched by strokes of fate similarly, we came to believe that fate seems to have a way of creating lasting unions in our family.

  “And so, to fate we'll leave it. Whichever brother you create a child with first, you will marry. As for the other brother, back to the auctions I'll go next year."

  "But...if I become pregnant, how will it even be possible for us to know whose child I'm carrying?"

  Tom gave me another very brief micro-smile. "Our royal doctor and our scientists will be able to determine that with a single drop of blood from your finger, shortly after you conceive."

  We both fell silent once again. With my question answered, my mind began wandering in a different direction. Specifically, in the direction of Tom's two sons. I wondered if they were courteous and kind like he was.

  I wondered what they looked like, and if they were strong and handsome. And, with my pulse accelerating a little bit, I wondered if they'd make love to me one at a time until I became pregnant, or if, after intimate "introductions" were made, they'd actually make love to me both at once, as Tom had hinted they might. A little rush of heat rose to my face at the mere prospect of this.

  Though I'd never actually made love, I'd had one semi-serious boyfriend, and we'd done more than a fair amount of touching and "fooling around" during the course of our relationship. And though I'd ultimately decided this boyfriend wasn't the one for me and I didn't want things to go any further with him, the relationship had taught me that I was a woman who very much enjoyed physical pleasure and intimacy.

  Since then, I'd thought about physical intimacy frequently, so frequently at times, in fact, that I could feel as if I were going insane. Late at night, locked in my room, I'd think about different intimate acts I'd like to enjoy, and often thinking about these acts would get me to thinking about different fantasies I had.

  One of which was a fantasy involving being pleasured by two men at the same time. But whenever I'd dwell on this particular fantasy, my own touch, even if I touched myself to release, seemed to only frustrate me more.

  Just after we entered the city and became surrounded by all its twinkling lights, my face began feeling not only warm, but uncomfortably warm.

  Tom pulled something from his pocket that resembled a telephone, though it was much smaller than the phones we had back in Quincy. And it had no long, curly cord that a person would need to plug into a wall. Nonetheless, he began pushing some of the buttons on it. "I'll send Steven and Blake a text message right now so they can meet us very shortly after we arrive at the castle, because something tells me you're just as eager to meet them as they are you."

  *

  The castle was, without a doubt, the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life, both outside and in. From the outside, its loftiest stone peak seemed to reach up and literally touch the stars. Golden light twinkled from many of the hundreds of windows carved in the granite face. Tall, domed marble columns lined a long walkway to the front door, which was carved in intricate designs and was at least twenty feet in height and width. A coal-gray flag with a lighter gray dragon silhouette in the center flapped in a light breeze atop a silver pole nearby.

  Inside, plush, velvety rugs covered nearly every inch of walking surface, and tapestries in rich shades of green, blue, and red, many of them in dragon motifs, decorated the walls. Tom gave me a very brief tour of the ground floor, which included many libraries and other common areas, and every room we stepped inside had vaulted ceilings, some of them painted with murals depicting dragons in battle. Gilded fireplaces with crackling fires added a warm glow to the light from electric lamps present in each and every room.

  I had to remind myself several times not to leave my mouth hanging open like some backward girl from some backward little town, which I now realized that I absolutely was.

  While we visited the last room on the tour, a large library with lofty shelves of books, two long mahogany tables, and no fewer than four gilded fireplaces, Tom explained to me that fires were kept burning almost continuously from September to about April, as the stone walls of the castle could make things a bit chilly and damp, and the winds that continually tore across the city could make people feel a bit chilled when coming and going from the castle, as well.

  He also briefly explained cellular telephones to me and then gave me a rundown of the different things they could do, including sending and receiving text messages.

  Not a moment after he'd finished explaining, a little beep came from his phone, and he suddenly glanced at the screen and swiped a finger across it. "And here's an incoming text message right now. It's from Steven. He says he and Blake are waiting for the elevator. And they'll be going down any minute now."

  I exhaled a fluttery little breath, suddenly more than a bit nervous. This was somewhat unusual for me, as I was normally confident and hard to ruffle. At least, I liked to think so.

  Seeming to pick up on my nervousness, Tom began pointing out a few interesting books on the shelf nearest us, probably trying to distract me. I smoothed my long, brown hair while he d
id so, hoping that the two brothers would find me as good-looking as their father and the auctioneer seemed to think I was. Hoping I'd find them good-looking.

  I didn't have to hope and wonder long, because within a minute, Tom looked up at the library entrance with his serious expression softening a bit. "My sons. Please come in."

  I looked up at the library entrance myself and just about fell down. Upon seeing the two brothers striding in, my knees had become instantly rubbery.

  Good-looking was so inadequate a term for the two men as to be laughable. Devastatingly handsome might have been more fitting, though even that didn't do them justice. They were the most attractive men I'd ever seen in my life. By miles. By thousands of miles.

  They both stood several inches above six feet tall and had long, muscular, chiseled physiques. One of the men, who might have stood just an inch above the other, had hair so dark brown it was nearly black and eyes that appeared to be dark gray. The other brother had dark hair as well, though maybe more of a chocolate brown than a black, and he had eyes that seemed to be a deep blue, like my own.