Dragon Tamer

When I woke up, I found the flask Giles had given me last night on my nightstand, filled to the brim with his concoction. I didn’t have the need for it this morning, though. I was a little achy, but the wounds had closed during the night. Still, the gesture warmed my heart.

Smiling, I peeled the bandages off and changed into riding pants and a baggy cotton shirt. Instead of letting it remain baggy at my sides, though, I found some pins and tightened the fabric so it revealed the curves I had been unintentionally hiding. Aunt Patricia would enjoy tailoring my wardrobe to flatter me more, I’m sure.

I skipped down the stairs, taking Kaden’s wonderful cooking into my nose. Man, the woman he married was going to be very lucky. I hope they expect us to visit for dinner a lot.

My brothers, Dad, and Prince Camden were around the table, mowing on some bacon and bread. Casper took one look at me and choked on the mouthful of bread he’d just torn from his loaf.

“What?” I demanded of him as I joined them and stashed some food on my plate before it all disappeared into their bellies.

He pounded his chest then swallowed with a sip of water right behind it. “You-you’ve grown.”

I looked down at my breasts of which he must be referring to since my tight shirt was all that was different on me.

Harry’s face went pink. “What did Amelia do to you last night?”

Prince Camden snorted. “You can’t seriously mean you’ve never noticed your sister’s breasts growing in?”

“She always wears baggy shirts,” Kaden defended. He narrowed his scrutinizing eyes on me. “You’ve done something to your shirt.”

I flushed. If they were going to react like this to a simple change I didn’t think anyone would notice, maybe I should take the pins out.

“You look nice today, Kali,” Dad said with a soft smile. “Ignore these idiots.”

Tallinn snorted with an eye roll. “Yeah, she looks nice for the prince.”

My face flamed and I did everything in my power to not look at the snickering prince and focused my rage on my evil brother. “Am not! I just wanted to do something different today, is all!”

Screw breakfast, if this was how I was going to be treated--in front of Prince Camden, no less. “Come on, Prince, we’re going.”

He gave me a drawl look, not moving an inch. “I’m going to finish my breakfast, thank you.”

“I’m the guide, and I say we’re leaving.” The sooner we started his training, the sooner he could leave and I could no longer be embarrassed by my brothers.

“And I’m your prince and I say I’ll do what I want. You can’t order me around, woman.”

My brothers snickered, taking sneak peeks at each other in anticipation. This was it, who was going to win the bet.

However, I had no compulsion to cry and I didn’t feel like reaming the prince out at this early hour. I wanted to slap him. My hand burned and told me to do it. The only thing holding me back was Dad’s look of warning, because he knew I wanted to hurt the prince.

I stole a deep breath then released it. “Fine, Your Highness. I’ll be outside when you’re ready.”

“Good.” He stuck his chin up at me then continued eating, like I’d been dismissed.

Growling the whole way, I marched out the house and slammed the door behind me. Elesor had been waiting eagerly for me to show myself and when I did turn up, she hopped over to me, wrapped her tail around me, and pressed her muzzle against my chest. My rage died away and I held her face, scratching the tip of her chin where she couldn’t get to properly with the small horns in her claws’ way.

“I told you I’d feel better today, didn’t I?”

She sniffed my back for any sign of blood. Content, she puffed white smoke over my head.

“What are you doing?” Prince Camden ridiculed me on his way out the door. He wore the same riding pants and scale jacket he wore yesterday, no doubt expecting to ride a dragon today. Not with his attitude this morning. He’d be lucky if a dragon wanted to be near him.

“I’m greeting Elesor,” I told him, taking the higher road and not continuing to insult him. “Elesor, this is Prince Camden. Prince, this is my best friend.”

He exchanged a dubious look between us. “I thought you were joking when you said your best friend was a dragon?”

“I wasn’t,” I replied curtly, turning my attention back to my friend. “Elesor, this is the jackass I warned you about. We’re stuck with him for the time being, so don’t blow smoke up his ass.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny.”

I peered back at him. “I wasn’t joking. Elesor is very aggressive towards people I don’t like. I have to hold her back.”

He rolled his eyes. Elesor broke from our embrace and leapt in front of him, releasing a dangerous growl from the back of her throat right in his face. He staggered back and fell on his butt, face pale.

“Elesor.” I tapped her hind leg. “Leave him alone. He’s going to be a Dragon Prince.”

She snorted, purposely letting snot shoot out her nostrils and splattering the ground at his feet, then swung around in a big motion of fluttering wings and wide tail swishes. She sat behind me, curling her tail around my feet protectively.

Grumbling, he stood up and dusted himself off. “Let me guess? She doesn’t like me?” His tone was too mocking for me to be happy someone actually believed they could tell what a dragon was thinking by their actions.

“No, she doesn’t. Let’s go.”

I spun on my heel for the village.

“Where are we going?” he demanded, quickly falling into step beside me. He peered up at Elesor warily, making sure it was okay for him to be this close to me. If she didn’t stop him by now, he was safe.

“We’re going to the nests so we can find you a dragon and get you out of here as fast as possible.”

“Lovely. At least we can agree on something. The sooner I get away from you, the better.” He brushed a hand through his hair indignantly, shoulder brushing against mine as he did it. Ugh. Could he walk any closer?

Sidestepping him, I patted Elesor’s shoulder as we approached the river. “Go up ahead. We’ll meet you on the other side of the village.”

She peered at me then to Prince Camden and flattened her wings against her back while she glared at him. I patted her side again in comfort.

“Don’t worry, I can take him.”

Rolling his eyes, he grunted and drifted away from me so there was a good two feet between us with a look that suggested he might catch a deadly disease if he was any closer to me.

She leant into me then jumped into the sky. I was prepared for the gust of wind that followed the powerful thrust of her wings, but he was not and stumbled back. I caught his elbow and yanked him upright.

He brushed my arm off with a short growl. “Was that necessary?”

“You get used to it,” I told him. “She didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I’m sure,” he snided, glaring at her as she glided over the village.

Well, maybe she did.

I held back my remarks and looked around the streets as we walked through them. My eyes particularly caught the loaf of bread Sammy was selling at his bread stall. He wore a dark shirt with a leather vest and light pants. His pale, pale skin was a right contrast to his pitch black hair. However, freckles dusted his nose and cheeks adding a splash of youth to his features. When we were younger kids used to make fun of his buck teeth, but he appeared to have embraced them now and gave me a toothy smile. He winked at me, eyes falling to my chest. “Mornin’, Kal, you look good today.”

I smiled at him and tossed a coin at him. “Thanks.”

He handed me the biggest warm loaf he had, face lit up like a bonfire as he inclined his head towards me.

Prince Camden rolled his eyes on our way down the street. “What? You’re not going to deck the guy for ogling you?”

I gave him a sidelong glance and shook my head, disappointed he thought I went around town beating guys up for looking at me too long. “There’s nothing wrong with him liking the view.” It was actually quite flattering Sammy liked what he saw. He, like everyone else, didn’t really see me as anything more than a girl with five tall-ass brothers and a scary-ass father. I’d take being checked out when I could get it. It was as far as it was ever going to get anyway. “Your brothers didn’t seem to mind it, either,” I remarked.

His face went red. “Please, my brothers have more class than to gawk at a wild thing.”

Disregarding his comment on me being a wild thing, I waggled my eyebrows at him. “Whatever helps you sleep at night. I’m new. Exciting. Everyone wants a piece of this.” Except everyone’s too afraid to admit it.

“Really? Because that’s not what Amber tells me.”

My hand clenched around my loaf too much; a piece broke off and landed on my foot. “I wouldn’t take what Amber says to heart. She has a tendency to stretch the truth.”

A glimmer flashed across his eyes in the sunlight; they were a striking green this morning, like a leaf held up to the sun. His hair appeared to have tufts of gold in it too, it wasn’t all pale. “Of course she does,” he replied stiffly. “Amber will say whatever she can to get attention. I’m new here, but I’m not naïve. People have tried to manipulate me for my money and power all my life; she’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“But you believe the things she says about me?” I asked indignantly, glaring at him. Could he possibly get any worse?

He watched me a moment, eyes unrelenting and calculative. “I haven’t decided if I should believe her or not yet. Some of the things she said are, well, believable from what I’ve seen far.”

“Like what?” I might as well figure out what lies she was feeding him and squash them if we were going to spend a lot of time together.

He scratched the back of his head and turned his gaze forward just when a couple of kids ran in front of us, chasing each other with sticks. I remembered a time when that used to be me and my brothers, running around town hunting down whomever was “it”. Casper was usually the one we chased, since he was the oldest and tallest, needing some advantage against the five of us searching the town for him, then chasing him with our sticks when we found him.

The prince frowned. “She said you used to beat other kids growing up and lord over them that you got to share a house with princes, that you were special and they were worthless.”

Of course she said that. I sighed. “I only beat kids up in self defense. They used to gang up on me for being different, so I kicked their asses. I never lorded anything over anyone. I know other tamers are jealous because your family clearly sees talent in mine, why would I rub it in their face? I don’t get anything off doing that to people.”

“Hmm.” He pressed his lips in a tight line, thinking on it.

We walked in silence for a while as he decided on what to think of me. I stopped by the butcher to grab some jerky for the dragons to entice them to say hello to the prince, since I had a feeling he was going to need all the help he could get if Elesor--the most human-tolerant dragon I knew--didn’t like him.

We had just passed the last of the houses on the other side of town and were about to meet up with Elesor in the wildflower field when he stopped, clearly not ready to leave the boundaries of town just yet. The breeze blew his hair to the side, adding curls to the tips of his dusty blonde locks. Some might say the wind-blown look on him was rather fetching, but the scrutinizing look on his face when he regarded me ruined it for me. “Amber said that no man wants to be with you because you turn them down and laugh in their face, that you’re too good for any man.” His tone was harsh, accusatory, and a little vindictive, no doubt remembering what I’d done to his groin when I first met him; he was hoping to get a rise out of me for poking a soft spot.

I didn’t give him the satisfaction and gazed at him with a blank face. “No man wants to be with me because my body is ugly, I’m tougher than most men in this village, and they’re all afraid of my father. I wouldn’t laugh in a man’s face for asking me out, even if I didn’t like him, because at least he had the balls to ask.” I nodded over to Elesor who was stretching her wings to their full length. If it weren’t for the fact she was moving, her matte green scales in the sun made her look like an immaculate stone statue. She was always poised elegantly, ready for whatever I had planned for the day. “Are you done listening to a lying slut?” I asked the prince impatiently. “Elesor’s waiting.”

His eyes rolled to the heavens and back. “You ladies really don’t like each other, do you? What did she ever do to you to deserve this treatment from you?”

I baulked at the audacity. “Me? You think I’m the antagonist?” Why did it hurt so much that he thought I had started our feud, that she’d actually be nice to me if it weren’t for the way I treated her? “If you’re stupid enough to actually believe a word she told you, then I’m not going to waste my breath on you.”

He crossed his arms and put all his weight on one foot, making a point that he wasn’t moving. “See, maybe if you weren’t so aggressive I wouldn’t believe her, but it’s not that hard to see where she’s coming from at the moment. Maybe if you smiled more instead of sneered, I would think differently.”

I scoffed a laugh. “Of course you’d like that.” All men wanted women to sit pretty and smile at them. Too bad for them. I was here to spice things up.

“Yeah,” he agreed sharply, “I would. Believe it or not, I like to see my people smile and be happy.”

Oh. Well, now I looked like an asshole.

Clearing my throat, I spun on my heel and headed for Elesor again. “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt me to smile a little more then--but not for that bitch. Nothing I do will ever make her happy.”

After a moment, he caught up to me, eyes forward all business-like. “So, if you’re not the antagonist, what did you do to make her hate you so much?”

“I don’t think she hates me; she just doesn’t like me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m different from my fellow villagers. She thinks my difference is shameful, so she reminds me every day what a freak of nature I am.”

He scoffed, shaking his head disappointedly. “You’re not that different. Sure, your occupation is a little more dangerous than most women’s jobs, but you. . . you clean up nicely.”

It was my turn to scoff. “Tell that to Amber--except don’t. Don’t tell anyone I wore a dress at the castle.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t want Dad getting any ideas of shipping me off to my Aunt Patricia to become more womanly. I love my job and I wouldn’t change it for anything.” I came to a stop in front of Elesor, refusing to look at the prince. I’d told him something I’d never told anyone and the power to take the life I’d fought for away. I couldn’t bear to look at him to see if he was scheming or not.

Elesor lowered herself down so I could hop onto her back. Prince Camden took in her size doubtfully. She stood straight, tail pointed while she glared at him, not impressed by his judgy eyes. I patted her neck in comfort, sorry she couldn’t roast him like I knew she wanted to. “Can she fly with both of us?”

“Not for long,” I told him honestly, which earned me a glare from the dragon for admitting her flaw. “She can get us most of the way there, otherwise it’ll take a good chunk of the day getting there.”

Nodding, he climbed up behind me and wrapped his arms tightly around me without hesitation this time.

Elesor jumped into the sky, wings spreading wide to catch a current. She angled for the looming gap between Mount Dora and Mount Asher where our dragon colony nested. She got us to the top of the hill, panting for breath.

Prince Camden hopped off first, shaking his legs out while he looked around cautiously. I didn’t blame him for thinking I’d taken him somewhere secluded so my dragon could eat him; the dark, rocky mountains and seemingly deserted trail did feel ominous. If he listened, he would hear the dragons socializing over the ridge, which only made it more unsettling for someone who wasn’t used to being around unfamiliar dragons.

I rubbed my face against Elesor’s. “Thank you, girl. You can rest here if you want. I’ll be okay in there.”

Nodding, she curled up and faced down the length of the trail, a silent promise to guard the nest’s exit, as unnecessary as it was.

Prince Camden raised his eyebrows at me. “Is there any reason we wouldn’t be okay in there?” He pointed at the crest of the ridge, which was very clearly the nest’s entrance.

I shrugged. “The dragons aren’t so welcoming of strangers during breeding and hatching season, but both of those have passed and all the dragonlings are being trained in the Pen right now.” Where I would be if Dad hadn’t asked me to guide the prince. My job was to get the dragonlings used to humans and to the way we did things in Plum, while their mothers watched. Kain and Spence were the other two dragonling tamers--the only other two humans the females completely trusted with their young, and that was only after I hand picked them for their gentleness and introduced them to the mothers.

“Here.” I tossed him the bag of jerky I’d bought earlier. “Dragons love jerky.”

He peered inside dubiously then frowned at me. In the shadow of the mountains, his hair was almost white. He looked older, but not in a bad way, the youthfulness--and the raw beauty--of his features still holding true. “Thanks?”

I nodded then began the trek up the rest of the hill. He followed close behind, holding the bag tightly at his side. “So these dragons we’re about to meet, they’re tamed?”

I couldn’t help overhearing the nerves in his voice. As much as I wanted to tease him for being nervous, meeting unfamiliar dragons could be terrifying and it was probably even more nerve wracking when he thought about finding a partner in one of them. He’d waited his whole life for this moment. I would be excited and nervous too. So I let him keep his dignity.

“How many are there?” he added after my confirmation.

“We have two-hundred-and-twelve in our colony,” I told him levelly, “but they won’t all be in the nest at once. Depending how today goes, we might have to find them in the mountains. I’ll have to teach you how to fly, if we do.” I came to a stop at the top of the mound and looked down the canyon. There was a good handful of dragons here today, mostly young ones Elesor’s age. They were playing, snapping at each other and whipping their tails in their sides.

Eager to see the look on Prince Camden’s face at the sight of their play, I turned to him with a shit-eating grin. “You ready to find your partner?”

Wary of my look, he inched up the mound to join me. His mouth dropped open. “Huh, are you sure we’re safe?” he asked as Jerimiah nipped at Preston’s side.

“You’re the safest person in the valley when you’re with me,” I told him truthfully, though he, and many other people, doubted it. The cocky grin on my face probably didn’t help instill any confidence he had in me.

I whistled at the dragons. All fifty of them whipped their heads around to look at us. Preston leapt away from Jeremiah and the other dragons and landed in front of us, kicking up dirt. The prince would have fallen if I hadn’t caught his shirt and yanked him to my side.

I’m going to have to work on that. Dragons weren’t exactly elegant. He was going to have to get used to being bombarded by large gusts of wind and jostled by the shaking ground.

I held my hand out to the prince, demanding jerky. He slapped a piece into my palm with a steady hand. I had to give him credit. The man had balls. If he had expected the impact of Preston’s arrival, he would have held his ground defiantly. Whether he was scared shitless on the inside or a stubborn fool, I would never know. Impressive.

“This is how you feed a dragon.” I tossed the jerky over Preston’s head. The dragon swung his head up and snapped his jaws shut, swallowing the piece. A gentle hum vibrated through his chest, and the dark blue-and-black dragon lowered his head so I could pet him; his humming grew louder at my rough scratches.

I glanced back at the prince. “Do you want to feed or pet him? He won’t hurt you.”

He screwed his face up, put off by the very idea of treating a dragon like an ordinary pet. “Amber was right about one thing: you are a crazy dragon lady.”

“As long as they like it, I’ll continue to be crazy,” I replied hotly. If the dragons enjoyed my company, what else mattered?

I grabbed more jerky from him and double tapped Preston’s jaw. He opened his mouth, drool dripping off his teeth. I placed the piece on his tongue and double tapped his face again so he knew my hand was clear. “That’s how I feed a dragon.”

At the sight of more jerky, the other dragons came closer, becoming more aggressive as the gap shrunk. One of the bigger males body-checked a female into the cliff wall and shoved his way to the front. Jobe. He could be a real big bully when given the chance. . . like right now.

He took hold of Preston’s tail between his teeth and pulled him back, away from us.

I stepped away from the prince and clapped loudly, yelling to catch Jobe’s attention. He snarled at me, baring his teeth.

“Hey!” I barked back. “Don’t give me that sass, buddy! Back of the line!”

He snarled again. Heart pounding harder than a dragon’s wingbeat, I stomped my foot and looked him straight in the eye as a challenge. Any sane tamer--so yeah, I guess I was a little crazy--would never give direct eye contact to an aggressive male like this, but they didn’t have my trick.

“If you keep giving me that look, you’re not going to get any jerky, you big buffoon! Only good dragons get treats!”

He stopped growling and narrowed his slit eyes on me. Oh yeah, he understood. There were only two ways to get treats from me now: he can behave and wait his turn, or he could kill us and take his claim--and face the wrath of all the other dragons who I’d bonded with. I grew up alongside these guys. I was just like any other sibling to them. And he knew that.

Prince Camden laughed incredulously from behind Preston. “You’ve got to be kidding me. They’re not dogs. Who cares about a chunk of beef when you’re that big? He’ll kill us!”

Ignoring him, I focused on Jobe. “What’s it gonna be, big guy?”

The gray dragon puffed black smoke out of his mouth, but he bowed his head and flattened his wings against his back in apology.

“That’s what I thought.” I relaxed and released the breath I’d held. The gamble had worked for me this far, but I knew how easy it could be for a dragon to decide he didn’t want to obey me. It was all thanks to everything Elesor had taught me that had kept me alive and I really hoped it would continue to do so.

Wiping sweat off my brow, I gestured for Prince Camden to come to my side. The dragons had calmed now and waited patiently for their jerky. He stood beside me, eyeing Jobe like he thought the dragon was going to swallow him whole at any moment.

“You want to find your partner? Here are fifty dragons. Have at ’em.”

He scrunched his brow at me. “How do I do that? What do I do?”

“Introduce yourself. Tell them what you’re here for. They’ll talk in your mind if they want to be your partner.” At least, that was what I’d gathered from my brothers. All they’d said was that he’d know. Was I going to let the prince know I didn’t really know what I was doing? No. Definitely not.

Since he didn’t want to feed the dragons and get to know them, I snatched the bag of jerky from him and dangled it tauntingly in front of them. There were various hisses, croons, and rumbles at the sight of the bag. They all started drooling.

Stepping away from Preston’s pile of drool with a grimace, the prince cleared his throat and inspected the dragons one by one as we passed them, not bothering with introductions despite my suggestion. It was like we were at a horse show, not looking for his life long partner.

Grinding my jaw, keeping my thoughts about him ignoring my advice to myself, I waggled the jerky about to get the dragons to open their mouths.

His frown deepened and he grew more frustrated the further down the line we went. “Don’t you have bigger dragons? My brothers’ dragons are huge.”

I pouted, disappointed in him. The size of the dragon wasn’t everything. The smaller ones were more nimble and faster. The bigger ones had more brute strength but not necessarily power if he was after a dragon that would give him strong abilities. “These guys are only twenty years old or younger,” I replied dully. “If you want a bigger one we can look into finding an older dragon in a mountain. They’ll be less likely to Bond with you, though.”

He tore his gaze away from a red female to look at me and crossed his arms. “Why?”

“Dragons don’t like change. A younger one will be more willing to adapt, however; they’re not as set in their ways.”

Grunting, he turned his attention back to the dragons, sizing them up a little less critically, but I could tell he had an idea of what he wanted from a dragon in his mind and he wasn’t finding it here. Honestly, if I could pick it up from him, any of these dragons could too. None of them want to be partnered with a human who only wanted them for their power or size.

He’s going to be here forever.

I concealed a heavy sigh, playing it up as a yawn. “I think we should call it quits for today, Prince,” I said, noticing I was all out of jerky. Thankfully, I’d gotten to everyone. Unfortunately, that also meant none of them had picked Prince Camden and his frown had turned into a nasty scowl.

“Whatever. I’m not getting anything here. Are you sure there isn’t something I have to do? My brothers said finding a dragon was the easy part.”

Your brothers also had an open mind and didn’t see dragons as power houses.

I shrugged because I knew my casualness would piss him off. “It’s supposed to be the easiest part, yes. Clearly not for everyone.”

He curled his lip up at me. “You know what I think? I think you’re purposely sabotaging me. When we get back, I want to talk to Grant.”

I laughed. “Why? You think he’s going to slap me on the wrist and tell me to try harder? I’m not the problem.”

“We’ll see once Grant tells Tallinn to guide me.”

“Tallinn’s grounded. He can’t do it.”

“Then one of your other brothers. Someone who knows what he’s doing. Not some worthless dragon fucker!”

And there it was. What he really thought of me. It hurt more than I would ever show. Why did it hurt more coming out of his mouth than anyone else? Was it because his family had worked with mine for generations peacefully and I’d grown up with his brothers? Or maybe it was because I had faith in him, that I could somehow break through his mentality towards dragons and that I’d find a decent person underneath all that assholery. But I was wrong. There was nothing underneath.

Frustrated with him and angry with myself for hoping he was a better man than he let on, I clenched my fists, envisioning all the things I wanted to do to him for making me feel like a fool. Sacking him again. Punching his pretty nose until it was crooked and would never look the same again. Pound his face into the ground. Let the dragons hissing at him eat him.

However, he was saved from whatever fate I’d decided for him. A furious roar rented the air.