Claimed By the Shadow Dragon: Shadow Dragon, Book One (Dragon Shifter Romance) E-Book

Mac Flynn

• Herausgeber: Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Memories are important, as Elly well knows. All her memories before she was ten were lost to her, but she finds comfort in the future in the arms of her handsome painter fiance, Alec.

Happiness doesn't last forever, however, and one night she visits him to find him troubled by something. He rebuffs her attempts to speak with him, and with a spin of her heels she leaves him alone to brood. A single moment changes their relationship, and he's taken away from her forever. Or so she thought.

Elly's future has other plans than for her to mourn. She has a new beginning, and that starts with being dragged into a fantastical world of hidden inns, piggish men, and a pale stalker who has terrible plans for her. Her guardian in this new world is Shade, a mysterious man with an even more mysterious employer. Together they learn to survive this new world, and each other, and maybe, just maybe, her happily-ever after gets a second chance.

Leseprobe

Claimed By the Shadow Dragon

Shadow Dragon, Book One Dragon Shifter Romance

Mac Flynn

Copyright © 2021 by M. Flynn

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Continue the adventure

Other series by M. Flynn

1

Worlds alongside ours. Worlds of darkness and light. I didn’t know about any of that until that fateful night.

Or rather, I should say I’d forgotten all about it.

It wasn’t really my fault, but I’m getting ahead of myself. This story-my story-starts at the beginning, or what was the beginning of my life out in the big wide world. I had spread my wings from college and joined the ranks of the working class in the city of my birth and upbringing. It was just like any other city with streets, cars, and more people than you could count outside of a census. One of those people mattered more to me than even myself.

There I go getting ahead of myself again. Let me start on that warm day, a day that feels like so long ago.

“You’re looking at the clock again.”

I started out of my reverie and whipped my head around to the desk that shared my small, lifeless cubicle. A smiling woman of twenty sat there with a headset dangling from one finger and a grin on her brown-hair ringed face. The mischievous little elf, who went by the name of Roxie, leaned forward and her eyes sparkled with mischief.

“That’s the fourth time in ten minutes you’ve looked at the clock on your computer,” she teased me.

I spun my chair back to face my computer and shrugged. “I guess I can’t wait for the weekend.”

“It’s Wednesday.”

“I’m getting a head start,” I defended myself as I tapped away at a few forms on my screen.

The young woman rolled her chair over to my side and leaned an elbow on my desk. “‘Fess up, you have a date with that handsome sketcher of yours.”

“Painter,” I corrected her as another minute on the clock ticked away.

“I keep forgetting,” my friend mused as she tapped her lower lip with one finger. “How long have you guys been together?”

“Four years, right after we both graduated college,” I told her.

She furrowed her brow. “Didn’t he want to be a shrink and analyze your lost memory or something?”

“That was my first boyfriend,” I corrected my friend as I winced at those lost-suppressed memories. “And the less said about that relationship the better.”

“Weren’t you in that program to try to figure out what happened?” she wondered.

Some of my good humor fell away as my face fell. “Yeah, but I never could get my memories back from before I was ten. . .”

My friend clapped a hand on my shoulder and grinned. “Don’t look so down. What’s that old saying? Look forward or you’ll trip and fall flat on your face.”

I couldn’t help but snort. “Who said that? Socrates? Plato?”

“Roxie,” she informed me as she leaned closer and wagged her eyebrows. “So has your handsome painter painted you yet?”

I snorted. “You mean a la the Titantic? No. He prefers still objects and landscapes so I can be jealous of fruit and happy little trees.”

My friend winced. “He doesn’t say that, does he?”

Another minute ticked away and the clock proverbially struck the hour. A pity digital clocks were so quiet. “No, he has the same reaction as you when I bring it up,” I told her as I began to gather my things.

“He really should make his hobby his work instead of working that night-to-five job in that office,” she suggested.

I laughed and shook my head. “He can’t quit his day job until painting pays that much, and that’s going to take a while.”

“Well, maybe he could paint stuff people wanted,” she mused.

I slung my bag over one shoulder and shrugged. “He’s just not that kind of painter, but I really need to go. He gets off soon, too.”

We exchanged waves and I hurried from the vacuous office building that I called home for nine hours out of every weekday. Some days I wished I could run away from home and make a new life at my apartment. That is, before I was thrown out for not paying my rent.

I joined the throngs of office workers on the busy streets of the bustling city. Skyscrapers towered above us, dazzling we simple ants with their crystal-clean windows. The concrete jungle was swinging with taxis and cars as people hurried to leave its steel confines for the wide open spaces of suburbia and beyond.

I swam against the current to one of the larger buildings where the shimmering wall of glass held the man with whom I had fallen in love. The lobby bustled with last-minute work-a-holics and overachievers, while those like me crammed the front doors eager to leave.

I caught one of the few elevators going up and climbed to the midsection of this vast sailing vessel, powered not by wind but by cold, hard cash. Most of the high finances of the city passed through this building, as evidenced by the expensive furniture and exotic plants that decorated the hall as I stepped off the elevator.

My destination was a quiet little office tucked away in the far corner. I met a familiar face on the way there.

“Hello, Elly,” the man called to me.

I stopped in front of him and grinned. “Hi, Jeff. Teaching the kids art?”

He tucked a crayon deeper into his front vest pocket and chuckled. “Nothing gets past you, does it?”

“Just a few minutes with Alec will teach anyone to spot a colored pencil a mile a way,” I returned.

His humor faltered a little and he glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the tell-tale office door to which I was headed. “Have. . .have you noticed something odd about Alec lately?”

I tilted my head to one side and furrowed my brow. “Odd?”

Jeff nodded. “Yes. He seems rather distant today. I had to speak to him several times to catch his attention, and even then I’m not sure he was listening to what I was saying.”

I frowned. “I haven’t noticed, but I’ll talk to him about it.”

Jeff grinned and patted me on the shoulder. “I appreciate it. If he’ll listen to anybody, it’ll be you. Now if you will excuse me, I have some finger painting to admire.” He winked at me and continued on to the elevator.

My heart wasn’t so light nor my step so bouncy as I walked down the hall. The office door with the name ‘Alec Blackwell, Financial Adviser’ on the front was closed. I rapped my knuckle against the hard wood.

“Come in,” came a soft and tired voice.

I stepped inside and paused on the threshold to take in the view. The office was immaculate, with a perfect balance of simplicity and elegance. There was a filing cabinet, large, thick-legged desk, and a great view to my left of the streets below. One of the drawers to the filing cabinet just to my right held folders in perfect alphabetical order.

Alec Blackwell himself sat behind the desk. He faced the large windows and one leg was folded over the other. The sun settled on his perfect features and added a tinge of gold color to his otherwise jet-black hair. While others looked stiff and puffed up in their suits, he wore the creased pants and vest like another layer of skin. Then again, he always looked perfectly dressed, even in jeans and a t-shirt.

Or maybe he just looked perfect all the time.

A few whispered words passed over his lips. “Fear is natural. Your response is what defines who are you.”

I froze thinking my presence had been found out, but he didn’t turn to me. There was something sad about those words, sad and a little bit terrifying. Still, I mustered my confidence and leaned my arm against the door frame and smile. “Hello, stranger.”

Alec started from his reverie and whipped his head to me. His somber expression changed to a grin as he leaned back in his chair. “Have I ever told you you have a talent for catching people off their guard?”

“It wasn’t too hard with you,” I returned as I walked over and seated myself on the edge of his desk. “You looked like you were in another world.”

His smile faltered and he returned his gaze to the window. “Maybe I was. . .” I tilted my head to one side, but he shook himself from his reverie and leapt to his feet. He wrapped his arms around me and swept me into a long, passionate kiss.

By the time we broke apart I was all flushed and out of breath. “What was that for?” I asked him.

He cupped one of my cheeks in his hand and brushed his thumb against my warm skin. “I just want to remind you that I love you.”

I smiled and tapped the end of his nose with my finger. “How did I manage to catch you?”

“With both our lucks,” he teased before he glanced at the clock. “But what are we staying around here for? There’s a chicken salad in my fridge that’s waiting to be eaten.”

I snorted as he wrapped one arm around my waist and led me toward the door. “That wouldn’t happen to be the same salad that was there when I visited two days ago, would it?”

He grasped the door knob and flashed me his wicked grin. “Perhaps.”

“I hope it hasn’t gotten so bad that it’s held up the rest of the food for their condiment money.”

Alec bowed his head. “If it has, I’ll fend it off.”

A soft rumble made us pause, and Alec whipped his head toward the window. I followed his gaze and noticed a dark cloud on the horizon. “Looks like a storm, doesn’t it?” Alec didn’t respond, but I noticed he clenched his left hand so tightly that his flesh paled. “Alec?”

He shook himself and looked back to me. “What?”

I leaned back and examined his tense face. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I was just. . .just thinking, that’s all. Now let’s get to that grub.”

2

Alec was one of the lucky people to have a car in his company’s underground parking garage. In a few minutes he had whisked us away from the hectic life in the city and out to quiet, slower suburbia.

It was during that drive that I had my chance to examine my handsome man. He didn’t look quite himself. His face was a little pale and there were shadows under his eyes. Though he smiled, the corners of his lips were tense, like he was forcing himself to keep them up.

“Are you feeling okay?” I asked him.

He sheepishly grinned at me. “It’s that obvious?”

My pulse quickened. “You’re not sick, are you?”

Alec’s smile faltered and he shook his head. “I’m fine, I’ve just. . .well, I just haven’t been sleeping well, that’s all.”

“Nightmares?” I guessed.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” he replied as he turned us down a street lined with apartment buildings.

My face fell and I set a hand on his arm. “Even with me?”

“It’s. . .it’s really nothing,” he insisted as he reached over and gave my hand a squeeze. “I’ll be fine.”

There was something strange in his voice that told me it was more than nothing, but I dropped the subject and instead turned my attention to the night sky. The promise of stars had been spirited behind the ominous dark clouds we had seen at his office, and far off I heard another quiet boom of thunder.

By the time we turned into one among many parking lots the air was full of the smell of rain. A two-floor apartment building stretched out before us. The weathered decorative window shutters and gaudy green color bespoke its age, but the paint was fresh and the ground, what little there was, was well-kept. We climbed out and headed to the front door, a plain metal entrance with a single dead-bolt against the trespass.

The door opened and a kindly old woman stepped out. She wore a flowered dress and her hair was tied up in a plastic hair net. “Good evening!” she greeted us with watering can in hand.

I smiled at her. “Good evening, Miss Hazel. How have you been?”

The woman heaved a great sigh as she sprinkled the water over the flowers in the pots on either side of the door. “Oh, my dear, what a day it’s been. Most of my children-” I couldn’t help but smile wider at the name she had for her tenants, “-have been behaving, but I’ve had to tell little Tommy to put his tricycle away three times today. It just should not be in the hall or poor old Mr. Johnson will trip over it again, and you know he doesn’t bounce like he used to. But that’s enough about me-” She interrupted herself as she looked over us with her kindly smile. “You two look like you have plans for tonight, so I won’t keep you longer.”

She stepped aside, and with a knowing look that age grants let us go on our way. I followed Alec upstairs to his second floor apartment. There were only four rooms, but Miss Hazel had made them as neat and efficient as possible. The kitchen and dining room occupied one, with a living room, bathroom, and large bedroom occupying the others. The apartment was at the corner so that the living room and bedroom had windows that looked out on different sides of the building.

The thunder I had heard earlier returned, but with more gusto. It was also joined by a flash of lightning that lit up the sky a few miles away.

“Nice night,” I quipped as I shrugged off my coat.

“Yeah,” was the bland reply I received from Alec as he tossed his own coat over the back of the couch.

Mine joined his as I watched him walk into the kitchen. “Hard day at work? The boss didn’t reject your proposal, did he?”

“It was fine,” he assured me as he pulled a bottle of drink from the fridge. “Want a little pick-me-up?”

“Do I ever,” I replied as I plopped myself onto a dining chair. Alec pulled down a few glasses and popped open the whiskey bottle. “And put an extra ‘up’ in mine so I can get through the rest of the week.”

I noticed Alec paused for a moment as he was about to pour the alcohol into the cups. “Sure thing,” he replied as he poured out the alcohol.

I leaned my elbows on the table closer in his direction. “Are you sure everything’s alright?”

“Work’s fine,” he assured me as he added water and ice.

“That’s not what I asked,” I pointed out as he joined me at the table and held out my drink.

He took a seat opposite me and stared down at his drink that he cradled between his hands. His voice was quiet, and there was a reluctance in his tone that pulled at my heart. “How long have we known each other, Elly?”

“About five years. Why?”

A bitter smile slipped onto his lips as he shook his head. “It’s. . .I just feel like I’ve known you all my life. That you’ve always been there, and I can’t imagine being without you.”

I laughed. “I don’t plan on going anywhere.” When my words failed to wash away the bitterness in his face I moved to the seat beside him and set my hand atop one of his. “Seriously. I’m not going anywhere.”

His face hardened as he stared with laser focus on the table. “No. I’ll make sure of that.” I leaned back and blinked at him. He shook himself out of his strange mood and managed a strained smile for me. “I’m not very fun tonight, am I?”

“You’re worrying me,” I admitted as I gave his hand another squeeze. That’s when I noticed a strange bump over the skin between the thumb and forefinger. I lifted my hand and revealed a blackened scar in the shape of a dragon’s head. “Did you draw this on yourself?” I asked him as I rubbed my own finger on the figure. The image didn’t smudge like paint or marker.

Alec jerked his hand back and covered the marking with his other hand. “Y-yes. I was having trouble concentrating so I drew that.”

“It’s very pretty,” I complimented him.

“I guess. . .” he murmured as he looked away toward the living room. He pursed his lips before his next words tumbled out. “Have you ever thought about when you were a child?”

I blinked at him before understanding hit me. “You mean the years I can’t remember?” He nodded. I leaned back and folded my arms across my chest. “You know, Roxie was just talking to me about that this afternoon.”

His eyes darted to me and he arched an eyebrow. “And?”

I shrugged. “I just reminded her that I never could remember what happened. It’s all a blank. Where I came from, what my parents were like-”

“Just your name. . .” he finished for me as his voice trailed off.

I nodded. “Just my name. Elly.”

“And nothing more?” he persisted.

I raised my eyes to his inquisitive face and frowned. “No, but why are you bringing this up?”

Alec shot to his feet and strode into the kitchen. “Did you want something to eat?”

“Sure,” I answered as I looked at his untouched drink.

Another bolt of lightning stretched across the sky, illuminating the dark corners of the apartment, along with the darkened bedroom. The soft, cracking light made visible Alec’s easel on which I glimpsed a strange sight. The view was brief and made only to pique my curiosity. As Alec bent into the refrigerator I stood and walked over to the bedroom door where I flicked on the light.

The overhead light illuminated the large bed and dresser, and the tell-tale easel. An unfamiliar and eerie painting leaned against the wood frame. The landscape painting was of a dark woods etched with shadows and ancient trees. A stump of one massive tree stood at the forefront, its carcass abused by the duel cruelties of time and weather. The living trees that surrounded it stretched out their gnarled branches as though in supplication. Bare earth around its roots was the stump’s sole other companion.

A hand dropped onto my shoulder. I yelped and spun around to find myself face-to-face with Alec. His eyes lay on the eerie landscape his hands had wrought, and the look in them made me have a passing thought that the view was as alien to him as it was to me. The thought, however, was quickly shelved.

I clutched my chest over my heart and sheepishly grinned up at him. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Alec strode past me without a word and grabbed a sheet off his unmade bed. He draped the cloth over the painting.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him as I came up to his side. “I thought it was pretty good.”

He adjusted the corners over the sheet to make sure not a single edge of the canvas showed and bowed his head. “I don’t want you to see it. It’s. . .it’s not done.”

I arched an eyebrow. “But you let me see other unfinished-”

“I don’t want you to see it!”

His angry voice made me start back. He’d never yelled at me before. Alec closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way.”

I set a hand on his shoulder and was shocked at how badly it shook. “What’s wrong?” I questioned him as I tried to catch his eye, but he turned his face away from me. I grasped his other shoulder and turned his body to face mine. “Alec, even a blind man could see that something’s wrong. What is it?”

Alec’s eyes darted to and fro and I could see the gears working in the back of them as he searched for the right words. “Elly, I love you so much, and I-” He lifted his eyes to mine and grasped my upper arms. “You know I would never do anything to hurt you. You’re everything to me, and I just want to protect you.”

My pulse quickened. “Alec, what’s going on? What are you talking about?”

Another bolt of lightning scorched the sky and lit up the room with its violent light. Alec whipped his head up to the dark sky and his eyebrows crashed down. “Damn it! Why does it have to be so soon?”

“What’s so soon?” I pleaded as I grasped the front of his shirt. “Alec, what’s going on? Please tell me!”

He returned his attention to me and shook his head. “I can’t, but just know that I love you. No matter what, always believe that, okay?”

I stepped back out of his reach and shook my head. “How can I believe anything when you won’t tell me what’s going on?”

“You have to leave,” Alec demanded as he spun me around and nearly tossed me out of the room. He slammed the door shut behind himself, but that didn’t stop another peal of thunder from shaking the apartment windows.

Alec managed to push me to the door before I spun around to face him. I balled my hands into quivering fists at my sides and glared up at him. “Why are you doing this to me? Why won’t you tell me what’s going on?”

Alec froze for a moment, his eyes searching my face, before his lips slightly parted as though to speak. Just as his lips moved he winced and slapped his right hand over his left one. Over the strange mark. He turned away and shook his head. “Leave.”

I stretched out my hand. “But-”

“Just leave!”

I paused, winced against his harsh voice, and dropped my arm to my side. “Fine. I’m leaving.” I turned toward the door and grabbed my bag which I slung over my shoulder. “Don’t expect me to come back.”

I stomped out into the hall and closed the door behind me. Just before the lock clicked shut I heard Alec’s whispered voice.

“For your sake, I hope you don’t.”

Out in the quiet hall I couldn’t stop my tears. They flowed down my cheeks as I rushed down the corridor and stumbled down the stairs. The cool night air greeted me with a frosty kiss as I stumbled out into the darkness. I stood a few yards from the entrance, my body quivering as I tried to suppress my sobs.

A sound pierced the storm. My head shot up and my pulse quickened when I realized it hadn’t been thunder. The noise had been a single gunshot.

I spun around and looked up at the second floor. Alec’s apartment was on the other side. I couldn’t see if his lights were still on or off. I didn’t need to. The gunshot was soon followed by a piercing scream. A plume of smoke billowed out of the rear of the apartment building.

I rushed inside, my mind tearing through a long list of horrible possibilities. All memories of our one and only fight were swept aside as my love for him, and my terrifying fears, overrode all else.

I reached the second floor and paused at the top of the stairs. A group of residents were huddled about Alec’s door. Faint whiffs of smoke drifted down the hall and burned my nostrils with its pungent odor. It smelled like burnt paint.

I rushed forward. Miss Hazel stood among the crowd, and at my coming she grabbed my arms and tried to push me back. “No, dear. You shouldn’t-”

I shoved past her and into the living room. The smoke hung thick against the ceiling, but the fire was out. The open door to the bedroom showed that what had burned was the canvas on the easel. Only half of the picture was still intact.

A few of the male residents stood beside the bed shaking their heads. Then I saw the figure. Their body was draped over the bed. An arm hung close to the floor where a gun had been dropped after they-

“No,” I whispered, and my voice caught their attention.

“Get her out of here!” one of them shouted.

“Come with me, dear,” Hazel pleaded as she grasped my arms.

“No!” I screamed as I thrashed in her hold. A few other men in the building grabbed me and pulled me away from the scene. “Alec! Alec!”

But I didn’t have to see any more. I knew Alec was dead. Dead by his own hand. After our only fight.

3

Visions danced in my head. Shadowy forms sprang up from the darkness. Clouds parted and revealed a dead stump surrounded by trees. I recognized it then. The painting from Alec’s apartment. Only this time the lonely glade wasn’t so lonely.

A cloaked figure stood behind the stump. Their hood hid their face in darkness, but I somehow knew they were staring at me.

Lightning flashed overhead and for a split second illuminated the grove. My eyes widened as I beheld other shadows lurking at the edges of the clearing. Their faces were mere patches of darkness, but I could see eyes. Red eyes, and all staring at me.

“Hey,” a soft voice breathed at me.

I started awake and found myself looking up into Roxie’s concerned face. She tried to give me a smile that was more filled with concern than good humor. “You okay?”

I returned my eyes to the screen and shrugged. “I guess.”

“You were talking in your sleep,” she told me as she took a seat in the extra chair. “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“Sleeping or talking?” I teased as I forced my focus to remain on the screen. I didn’t want to look into her pity-filled eyes.

“Both,” Roxie replied as she set a hand atop mine. “I know what day it is for you. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m fine,” I insisted as I glanced at the computer clock. “I’ll be even better in five seconds.”

Roxie arched an eyebrow. “Why five seconds?”

“Weekend!” someone shouted from a nearby cubicle as the clocks struck the hour.

I gathered up my things and stood to face my friend. “Time for a little r-and-r.”

“Did you want to get a drink?” Roxie offered.

Those pity-filled eyes. I faked a smile and shook my head. “Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow, though.”

“Yeah, tomorrow. . .”

“Chin up,” I teased as I patted her on the shoulder. “We’ve got two days to get drunk and forget that we have to go back to work on Monday.”

Roxie squeezed my hand and smiled. “Don’t get too drunk, at least not without me.”

“I’ll be sure to call you when I open the bottle,” I promised.

She gave me a wink. “Just open a bottle of expensive wine. I’d know that sound anywhere.”

I laughed and shook my head as I scooted past her. “Just the cheap stuff for me, but later.”

“Later!” she called back as I strode down the hall to the elevators.