Mated to the Earth Dragon (Elemental Mates 2)

Tilly had of course heard about the strange earthquakes that had happened at Iceland’s busiest tourist sites.

“I’m so sorry you were hurt,” she said through the phone Autumn clutched. “Really. Don’t worry about me. Just get better quickly.”

“I’m so sorry,” Autumn said miserably. “It’s nothing bad, but walking is a little difficult and my mom was so anxious...”

“I completely understand.” Tilly still sounded worried. “I hope you’ll still come back. But I’ll understand if this left a terrible impression—”

“Oh no, I loved it!” Autumn grimaced, hating the lies—but she couldn’t very well tell Tilly that they’d been hunted by fire dragons. “And I will be back as quickly as possible. I promise! I still want you to teach me to ride on your ponies. I’m really sorry I had to postpone our plans.”

“I’m the one who’s sorry,” Damon said earnestly when she ended the call a few minutes later. “And I promise that I’ll personally fly you over to your friend, as soon as this is over.”

Autumn gave him a small smile. Then she took a deep breath, trying to change the subject. “Do you have a kitchen in this mansion of yours?”

Damon grinned in reply, leading her into large, light-filled kitchen.

After long hours on dragonback, and their nerve-wracking escape from the fire dragons the day before, Autumn was ravenous—and Damon no less so.

“My dragon usually gets a snack or two while flying,” he explained as he expertly used a giant, fancy espresso machine to make Autumn a latte. “Just dip down, wait for the perfect moment, and grab a nice, juicy tuna right out of the ocean. But we were in a hurry—and also, the water’s very cold and I didn’t want to splash you by accident.”

“Dragon sushi,” Autumn said and laughed, a bit surprised by how much at home she felt in the large, light-filled kitchen.

She was sitting in a dragon shifter’s mansion, in a small town hidden between hills many miles from the next highway, filled with all sorts of shifters and a doctor who was also a crocodile—but for some reason it felt like the most normal thing in the world right now.

Maybe because the latte

she was clutching in her hands was just really damn good.

But also, there was something incredibly reassuring about the way Damon moved, a smile warming his entire face every time he turned to look at her.

He made her feel right at home, just by the way he looked at her. Maybe that was dragon magic, too. Or maybe that was just because he was Damon.

She got a cursory tour of the mansion—a place that really seemed too big for one person alone, with so many bedrooms and bathrooms that one could probably raise an entire horde of dragons there. Then Damon took her hand and led her outside. And although he’d been excited before, by the smile that covered his face it was clear that this was what he considered the real highlight of his tour.

“We’re a bit early for the rhododendrons to flower,” he said as he led her into a maze of large, green bushes that seemed to stretch all around them. “And I usually don’t do this—there’s nothing quite as rewarding as watching nature do its magic in its own time. But I’ve never wanted to show off for a visitor quite as much before, so...”

Before Autumn could ask what he was talking about, Damon took a deep breath. His eyes took on the by now familiar metallic sheen again. Power seemed to concentrate around him, and Autumn gasped as she saw daisies pop up from the grass all around them.

Then he knelt and touched his hand to the ground, and a moment later, Autumn felt something incredibly powerful and alive vibrate through her.

As she watched, wide-eyed and breathless, the green bush to her right suddenly blossoming until it was covered all over with large, yellow flowers. Every single flower was bigger than her hand, giving of a sweet smell.

Then another bush sprouted buds that unfurled into orange blossoms. Another followed, and another, until Autumn found herself turning and turning again, nearly dizzy from the scent of flowers and the incredible sight of an ocean of color stretching all around her.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Damon said softly. “That’s a part of the earth as well. Not just rock and stone and metal—as precious as gold and jewels are to us dragons. But this is a part of my dragon’s power as well. Fertile soil, everything green and growing. Everything fire can destroy. But what those fire dragons don’t realize is that even if you burn down a forest, shoots will sprout and trees will grow again. The earth is more powerful than fire. It’s always been that way, and it will always be.”

“Incredible,” Autumn breathed.

What had looked like a simple maze of green bushes before was now revealed to be an intricate pattern of yellow, orange, red and blue, circles of color spreading all around them.

“It’s my favorite part of the gardens,” Damon said proudly. “Every year, I look forward to the morning when I’ll wake up and look outside to find that overnight, the earth has worked its magic. My grandfather planted them. Every year when the rhododendron blooms, we’d invite everyone from the town and have our own little festival up here. My grandfather would raid his wine cellar, my grandma would bake a huge cake, and the sheriff manned the barbecue.”

“Is the festival going to be early this year because of me?” Autumn asked, amused.

Damon looked taken aback “I... didn’t even think of that,” he admitted sheepishly. “I just wanted to show off, I admit. I wanted you to see this place at its best.”

“It’s gorgeous,” Autumn said. “You know that I’ve never known anyone who had his own park?”

“I’ve got a lake as well,” Damon said promptly, giving her a grin. “With swans.”