Mated to the Earth Dragon (Elemental Mates 2)

He’d reacted in much the same way to Gregory’s human mate. Damon imagined that he’d grown up being told tales of the evil human knights who’d slaughtered all dragons in the Middle Ages. But if he still thought that this world was a world of peasants and evil knights, he was in for a surprise.

Not that the fire dragon would ever leave this prison, if Damon had a say in it.

“My name’s Autumn. Autumn Carter,” she said, giving the shifter a pointed look. “Nice to meet you.”

“Braeden,” the fire dragon said, his eyes almost comically wide.

Damon could just barely hold back a grin. He’d forgotten how satisfying it had been to watch Naomi scold their captive.

It was probably much easier to think of humans as stupid sheep to slaughter if you’d never actually met one face to face. Perhaps Jared had been right. Captivity certainly hadn’t done much to make their prisoner talk. But maybe a human woman was stronger than dragonsbane...

“Much better,” Autumn said, her amusement and relief trickling through the bond.

Apparently Braeden wasn’t what she’d imagined a fire dragon to be like either.

“Why are you here, huma—Autumn?” the fire dragon said again, catching himself just in time.

“I was curious,” she said, and then hesitated for a long moment. “Curious—and afraid. You see, five fire dragons attacked me.”

“So you wanted to see what such beasts are really like?” Braeden said with a bitter laugh. “Here I am. A captive monster.”

Autumn tilted her head. “You don’t look particularly monstrous. And you’re younger than I expected. But mostly you’re more human than I expected.”

The dragon shifter stared at her, his mouth open. Apparently her observation had startled him so much that he’d forgotten how to speak.

“Why do your friends attack us?” she asked. “Why did they attack me? I didn’t even know that dragons existed.”

“They’re not my friends,” Braeden said with sudden sharpness. “They’re kin. I owe them my loyalty. Friendship has no place in dragon culture.”

“Really? That’s sad,” Autumn said softly.

The fire dragon sputtered. “I don’t want your pity,” he snarled. “And I have no idea who attacked you, but I know why. Isn’t it obvious? They didn’t care about you. Thy wanted him. The dragon of the earth, Damon Drago himself. We're no longer hiding. We’re no longer content with the underground life you forced us into. For centuries, the council of elements has thought that they can rule all shifters. But that time is coming to an end. It’s starting now. And you can’t stop it. This will be the reign of fire. This will be our time.”

“Is that what you believe in?” Damon said, shaking his head in disgust. “Do you even want that? We’ve had long centuries of peace. And you want to destroy all that? You don’t even know the world you want to rule!”

“I don’t need to know it!” Braeden growled. “Centuries of deprivation, of hiding in caves, of licking our wounds. But no more of that. No more secrecy.”

“Really? Ruling the world?” Autumn gave Braeden an unimpressed look. “The world has changed a lot since the Middle Ages. Perhaps you should try living in it for a while before destroying it. It can’t be fun to rule over smoking ruins.”

The fire dragon stared at her again, then began pacing back and forth.

Damon felt a sudden twinge of compassion as he imagined being locked up for weeks without being able to shift and stretch his wings. But then, given the destruction the fire dragons had planned, it

was hard to feel too sorry for him. Braeden had brought it upon himself.

“Does that mean you’re here to let me out?” the fire dragon asked sarcastically. After the ensuing silence, he smirked. “Didn’t think so.”

“Do you really think you deserve freedom after what you’ve just said?” Damon asked. “This isn’t a punishment, not really, don’t you know that? We’re protecting innocents. Innocents you don’t care about in your mad quest for revenge.”

The fire dragon crossed his arms, his eyes going from Damon back to Autumn. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then pressed his lips together again.

“Do you believe that I deserve to die, because long ago, knights hunted dragons?” Autumn asked quietly.

“You don’t know what it’s like to grow up like I and my brothers did,” Braeden said sharply.

Autumn still looked distinctly unimpressed. “Oh, boohoo. You don’t know what it’s like to grow up like I did either. Moreover, you don’t care. We’re just here to be killed to make your plan of revenge come true, aren’t we? I don’t have any special powers like your people, but if I had, I’d curse you to live my life for a year. See how you like getting up at 6am every day, spending the day trying to help customers who blame you for every little thing that goes wrong, and shouting at you when an airline cancels their flights. And then at the end of the day, you take home just enough to pay the bills, and you scrounge for years to pay off the car you need for your job, which you need to pay off your car. And that’s what your life is like for years until you start to believe that all the things you’ve once dreamed of will never come true. And worse, that you’ll have to settle for a man who doesn’t even believe that you should have dreams—or that you’ll die alone, never holding your own child in your arms...”

“Hey,” Damon said softly. He ignored the fire dragon’s wide-eyed stare as he moved closer to Autumn, wrapping his arm around her waist. “Don’t let him rile you up. In the end, he’s wrong, and he knows that he’s wrong. How can you hate something you don’t even know?”