Chapter 1
ONE
CARINA
I should have left a week ago. I don’t know why I haven’t already. I need to be on the road and heading to a little tourist town I heard about called Shiverborn.
From the research I’ve done so far in the past two weeks, one of them being here in my hometown, I’ve found that it is built between mountains about five hours from here. I’d have packed up and gotten the hell out of town, but it seems my brother is determined to keep me here longer than I intend.
Sure, it’s been great being around all of them. I even got to meet Evelin, Fire’s mate. She’s pretty awesome and hilarious. Her mom, though, freaked me out. I never thought I’d meet a woman who was a Valkyrie.
I hadn’t expected to meet so many awesome people, and watching my brother celebrate with his mate was pretty awesome.
The place was packed, but it wasn’t overly packed.
Cason, or as everyone else calls him, Inferno told me that some of his brothers were out on a run for the club and would be back in about a week.
Today, I’m supposed to go out there and hang with him, Francie, and some more. Seems the two of them are intent on keeping me here as long as they can. But I’m not staying any longer. I’ll tell them and the grandparents this afternoon I’m heading out.
Tonight.
I’ve been in this town long enough. Sure, it’s been fun being around my family. I’ve definitely missed seeing them every day, but this isn’t my life. Not anymore.
“You seem deep in thought.” I’m jerked out of my thoughts at the sound of my grandfather’s voice.
Blinking, I look up from my computer screen.
“Sorry, Baba.” I smile, calling him the name I’ve called him since I could speak.
Even Cason had switched to calling our granddad Baba because of me.
Just as I’ve called our grandma, Bamba. When I was younger, I couldn’t get the G sound out well enough.
So, they became Bamba and Baba. “I’m just working on some research for the next article I’ll be doing. ”
“Where’s this one going to be about?” Baba asks, taking a seat at the table across from me.
“Shiverborn,” I answer.
“I’ve heard of it.” He nods. “Roughly five hours, five and a half tops. Supposedly, it’s a great place to be in the winter.”
“Yeah, some say it’s like a Hallmark scene there, but we’ll see.” I shrug and bite my lip.
“When do you leave?”
I meet Baba’s eyes and give him a small smile. “Should probably head out tonight.”
“You know, time’s changed around here. You don’t have to keep running from your roots.”
“I’m not running from anything.” Okay, that’s not a total lie.
Baba leans forward, eyes intense. “You can’t hide from what fate chooses for you.”
“Fate is what I make it.” I no longer trust in the fates of any origin to see me through anything in this life. “I command my own destiny, Baba. I might have a mark that claims I’m a dragon’s mate, but that doesn’t mean that’s what I want,” I tell him as my phone rings.
I pick it up and sigh at the unknown number.
This is the tenth time in the past week since coming home that I’ve gotten these calls.
Usually, it’s only one or two a week. This is getting out of hand.
I want to answer and scream at them to leave me the hell alone, but my grandfather, sitting across from me, keeps me from doing just that.
I don’t need or want him to know about the calls.
Sending the call to voicemail, I return my attention to Baba, waiting for him to say something. Instead, he watches me intently.
Finally, he speaks, voice gruff, “You have your mother’s passion and father’s stubbornness. You’re going to have to learn that you can’t fight everything in life. Not even when it comes to the dragons in your life.”
“I’m not fighting you or Cason,” I mutter, straightening in my seat and closing my laptop. “I just don’t see why a mark on my wrist seals my fate in anything in life.”
“You used to be honored to carry the mark you do,” he reminds me, jerking his chin toward my wrist. The very wrist I now have a tattoo covering said mark.
Well, it’s more or less blended into the tattoo of a dragon breathing fire.
The mark blends in with the fire while the dragon curls around my arm, its wings spanned out, and its tail curls around my elbow.
It’s a pretty sick piece and not the only tattoo on my body.
I have one on my shoulder of a rose encased in fire, burning.
Another on my hip, opposite the arm that has the mark.
It’s a dragon, its head facing my pelvis.
My artist was damn precise in making the dragon match the two together.
I don’t know why I had to have the dragon, but I figured since I refuse to be the mate to a dragon, this is my way of honoring the mark that I refuse to acknowledge any longer.
“Baba, I know you want only what’s best for me, but you have to understand what it was like for me here. I left for a reason.”
“I do want what’s best for you, beautiful girl, and that’s why we’ve all left you to do as you please.
We won’t stop you, but one day you’re going to wonder why you keep running away when you should stand strong and fight.
You might not be a dragon, but you carry the heart of one as well as the blood. ”
Doesn’t change the fact that I’m not one and never will be.
“How about we go for a ride?” Baba suggests, standing to his feet.
I grin at his question, knowing it’s not a question or a suggestion. He wants to fly but doesn’t want to leave me alone.
“If you insist.” I get to my feet and follow him outside. I haven’t ridden on Baba’s back in more than a decade. I think the last time was when I was seventeen, and now, I’m nearly twenty-eight. “What about Bamba?”
“She’s off doing her book club and errands,” Baba remarks and strips his plaid flannel off.
If he weren’t my grandfather, I might ogle him because, for his age, a lot of women would think he’s sinful.
“Come on,” he says just before shifting, becoming the remarkable beast I’ve always known him to be.
My grandfather’s dragon form is a beautiful blue and black hue of colors, shimmering with the sun beaming on his scales. It’s absolutely beautiful to see. Staring at him now, I think about all the times when I was younger, and he’d take me up whenever I would be upset. Flying always made me happy.
“Climb on,” Baba commands in my head. If we didn’t share blood, I wouldn’t be able to hear him telepathically.
Only mates and those who share blood can hear each other.
But even still, with mates, you have to be bonded for it to work.
At least that’s what I’d been told regarding dragons.
I’m not sure if it’s the same for all those who are supernatural.
Without a word, I do as he tells me and grip his scales to climb up his massive back. Once I’m settled, legs on either side of his neck, my booty on his shoulders, I find purchase and hold on to him as he takes off, flapping his wings, taking to the sky.
Sighing heavily, I close my eyes, and for the first time in so long, I allow myself to be. Be in the moment. Enjoy flying above the world. Baba roars and shoots flames into the sky, making me laugh.
Shortly after, two more dragons joined us. I recognize one of them as Cason. I didn’t see him shift but a few times, but I knew his coloring was similar to our grandfather’s.
The second dragon, though, I didn’t recognize, but I knew the coloring of it as well as the look. It’s the same as the one I have tattooed on my body.
Oh no.
No. No. No.
When the dragon’s eyes meet mine, I see the fire burning within them and feel myself being drawn in, unable to look away.
I finally manage to fight the pull of his gaze and look upward into the sky before curling into my grandfather’s scales. My heart is racing. My mind is spinning. My body is demanding I betray what I’ve told myself for so long.
This can’t be happening.
I did not just meet the one meant to be my mate.
The one above all else.
I seriously need to get back on the ground and get the hell out of here before it’s too late for me and I find myself married to a dragon.