JASPER DRAKE
Emilia Hartley
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Chapter One
Cora knew he was on the other side of the door. Her mate. Her monster.
She couldn’t bring herself to open it. There was the rough scraping sound of his hand dragging along the outside of the door. She imagined his head pressed against it, a snarl on his lips because she’d never seen him without it.
“Don’t make me huff and puff,” he yelled through the door.
Cora only shook her head. She retreated further into the nearly empty house. It smelled of Griffin and his dragon-wife. Mostly of Griffin. It was a bit intrusive, but she never felt truly alone and that helped soothe her beast. Ever since she left the clan, she’d been alone. The warm comfort of family had abandoned her long ago, and she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it until she found it here.
Too bad she couldn’t find it with the dragons themselves.
They were a rowdy and wild bunch headed by a demon. Cora had no way of knowing what they wanted from her. She hid her secret deep down, revealing it only to Mina, the sweet dragon woman who’d crashed into Cora’s campsite. Mina had kept her
secret, apparently, because Jasper had not forced Cora into a marriage bond.
She grabbed a box of chocolate and peanut butter puff cereal from the kitchen and went back to the door. She hadn’t meant to.
Cora intended to hide in the bedroom, as far from the front door as she could manage, but her feet had led her back to Jasper. The crinkling of the plastic bag inside the box betrayed her presence.
The door creaked and groaned. She froze, thinking he was finally going to break it down, but then she heard the distinctive thud of someone hitting the ground. Jasper was sitting on the other side of the door. It wasn’t what she expected from the demon.
Ever since she’d entered Jasper’s mountain, he’d been inside her mind. She felt his crazed beast, the thing she’d dubbed the demon, and every sharp emotion it felt. The creature wanted to ravage the mountainsides looking for her. It wanted to vanquish all who’d ever hurt her.
This Jasper, the one sitting outside her front door, was not the demon she knew.
“What are you doing?” she blurted out.
His response was muffled by the door between them. “I’m attempting to be patient and understanding. Bear with me. It’s a
new experience.”
She laughed. It was so sudden and unexpected that cereal puffs rained on the floor when she clasped her hand over her mouth. She imagined him smiling on the other side, or felt it. She wasn’t sure which. The lines between her thoughts and his sometimes blurred when they were close. It was how he’d tracked her all across the mountains.
Cora threw up barriers in her mind. Thoughts of cute puppies, taxes, and sunsets filled the space between the two shifters until her mind became her own again.
“I’m officially the head of Aurum Bank,” Jasper began. “My youngest knight, Ashton, had been doing my work for me until he came home. The bank was failing. I didn’t know how my involvement would help, but I figured I had to try to do something.” He laughed to himself. “You wouldn’t believe the number of keyboards I went through in the first few weeks.”
“Did you do it? Save the company, I mean.” Cora stumbled over her words, even if there was a door between them. There was no surefire way to find comfort in Jasper’s presence. Her skin sang with it, prickling whenever he was nearby. Her mind slipped into his
so easily. Pulling back, she bit on the inside of her cheek until the pain brought her back to herself.
“Yeah,” he said. There was a bit of shuffling as he rearranged himself outside. She heard his back hit the door. “We found a couple of big shots draining money from the bank and funneling it into offshore accounts. Aurum bank went through a very quiet internal investigation and the two employees were given very stern severance packages.”
She could only imagine that a severance package delivered by Jasper included some bodily threats and otherworldly terror, especially for employees found stealing.
“No jail time?”
“We decided it would look bad for the bank’s image and kept it to ourselves. Aurum keeps the clan going. I couldn’t risk it any further.”
She smiled, despite her fear of him. “That’s quite noble of you.”
“The noble thing was me sitting at a computer at all.”
She inched closer to the door. Just so she could hear him better. Not because she could smell his spicy scent through the gap in the doorframe. Not because the tension between her shoulder
blades that had been there for months melted away in his presence. It was certainly none of those reasons.
Silence spilled over them. It wasn’t heavy or intrusive, but just a state of being. There were no insufferable growls from the other side of the door. She didn’t feel the need to scamper away and hide under the bed. It was…comfortable.
Cora almost wished she’d given up on hiding in the wilderness way earlier. But Cora refused to let the universe weave her into its preordained fate. The path she’d been given was cruel and desolate. When she closed her eyes, she could still see the clan leader’s face. She could feel his bone-breaking grip on her hand as he declared they would be wed.
Tears began to rim her eyes. There was a soft warning growl from outside. She quickly wiped the tears away and built another mental barrier between them. This time, she imagined bricks and unbreakable mortar. There was a soft chuckle outside, as if Jasper was watching the imaginary wall being made.
She’d never heard of a bond quite like this. There was no way she could deny that Jasper was her mate, though she’d long ago realized fate meant to torture her. This bond was its own unique kind
of torment. It gave her an inside look at the demon. Another horrible path plotted out by fate.
“I’ve said enough about myself,” Jasper said. “Tell me more about you. I want to know your favorite kind of birthday cake.”
“Isn’t birthday cake its own flavor?”
“Is it? I don’t bake, so I wouldn’t know.”
Cora rested her head against the door. “I don’t like cake all that much anyway. I always ate my ice-cream before I finished the cake.”
“If I’m not wrong, Griffin bought his mate a grocery store’s worth of ice-cream before they moved out. I doubt they thought to take it with them. You can have your fill tonight.”
The sentiment was…sweet.
Cora hadn’t expected it. Every time Jasper opened his mouth, she was surprised. Every expectation she’d set up for him was slowly knocked over. There were larger ones, born from the demon inside him, that he would never defeat. She’d seen his beast in action, watched it fly over grove like a hellbeast.
“I’ll go get myself some right now.”
She scrambled off the floor and retreated into the kitchen. Something had been happening that she didn’t like. She’d been
falling for him. It was a guise, a show he put onto get her to open the door. That was it. Jasper couldn’t be that nice of a guy. A good man would not house a beast like the one that lived in him.
Cora helped herself to the pints of ice-cream left in the freezer. She grabbed one with vanilla ice-cream and chunks of brownies and cookie dough, then curled up on the futon in the bedroom.
She wondered if coming here had been a bad idea. The walls that surrounded her offered some protection, but they’d become a prison as well. She couldn’t leave without running into Jasper. Once she was face to face with him, no doors or walls between them, he would drag her into his abode and force her to become his dragonwife.
Mate bond or not, Cora was doomed to one fate.
The scales of her beast had seen to it. She’d cursed the creature more than once, bemoaning her own existence. It wasn’t like she’d asked to be born this way. Cora did not want to be the most coveted woman for miles around. She didn’t want men watching her like she was a trophy they could mount on their walls.
Cora wanted, more than anything, a friend. She wanted to play video games with someone and truly laugh, to feel it in her soul. She
wanted to go out for coffee and not be terrified of every dragon shifter she passed. But, she’d been born with rare scales.
Like Jasper’s court, Cora had mineral scales. Hers weren’t metallic, but crystalline. When she shifted, her scales became quartz. They caught the light and reflected shades of pink, baby blue, and soft lavender. It would have made her proud if it hadn’t attracted the attention of Calvin.
Cal wanted her to be his and only his. He wanted her to bend over and bear his heirs, producing little beasts that looked like hers. All he saw in her was the chance to create more rare dragons. That was why she’d run away from her own clan.
She should have known they would come looking for her.
There was no way Cal would let her escape his clutches. She wondered if he knew about the bond between her and Jasper. If he did, would he still fight for her?
Cora knew the answer. Cal never gave up.
He stared at the door, the only thing between them, and hated it with every inch of his being. Fantasies of ripping it off the hinges and flinging it into the sun filled his mind, but he didn’t dare. Cora deserved better.
So, he flexed his fingers, clenching and unclenching his fists, and turned back to the main house. If she wanted space, he would give it to her.
The beast growled at his decision. It nearly took over, claiming Jasper’s legs and halting him mid-step. Jasper stumbled. A growl left him. As he stared at the asphalt, he and the beast battled for dominance. The creature had a mind of its own. It had a will unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
Fighting it back took every ounce of determination he had. Finally, when his body was his own again and the beast was locked in a cage, he climbed the steps to the main house. He set a path for the study, where he’d hid his whiskey from Ashton the annoying busy-body. Jasper thought himself ingenious for hollowing out every useless encyclopedia and replacing the pages with whiskey.
Snatching one from the shelf, he then poured a generous glass and drowned the beast’s voice in amber liquor. The creature’s voice grew softer before going completely silent. It was the only time
Jasper could escape the oppressive creature, for even in his dreams the beast reigned.
He crashed into the study chair, a leather contraption on wheels, and rolled to the nearest window. From there, he could see the guest house down below. It’d always been Griffin’s home. If anything happened, he knew Griffin was nearby to help. Now, Cora was sequestered under that roof. Where once he’d felt security, he now felt fear.
He lifted his gaze to the sky, expecting the other clan to come raining down on them at any moment. They’d been dogged about getting Cora back. He didn’t understand why, but he knew he wasn’t going to let them take her. She clearly wanted to escape them.
Jasper would stand by that decision, even if it took her far, far away from him.
The beast lashed out at him, but the creature was so distant Jasper only felt a small scratch. He downed the rest of his cup and felt the beast’s ire retreat even further.
He’d never told anyone, of course, that he and his beast were separate creatures. His court thought the beast’s voice was a new development, like a sudden schism that ripped Jasper in half. In
truth, he’d always lived with the second voice in his head. It had its own desires, own thoughts, own logic.
Other dragon shifters had another voice, but it was mostly instinct, a collection of primal desires. What set Jasper’s dragon apart was its ability to use reasoning. The creature was intelligent in the way that people were.
When it arose, Jasper’s head felt like a cacophonous battle arena. His beast’s voice would boom through his skull while he tried desperately to hold onto his own thoughts. The only time the beast was ever truly quiet was when it was simmering in rage.
Like the time he checked on Griffin.
Jasper hadn’t even seen Griffin’s mate in the bed. All he’d been able to see was the blood dried on his brother’s skin and the marks that had been in the process of healing. The beast had been quiet that moment. When Jasper left the room, the beast’s roar spilled out of him. For a second, his grief and the beast’s rage coalesced into one feeling.
In that moment, Jasper felt whole.
He hadn’t been able to think long on it, as he’d taken to the skies with the hope that he would come across the trespassing dragons. Now that he was alone with his thoughts and imbibed with
whiskey, Jasper shuddered. He’d always wondered what it would feel like to be whole. The events that led up to that moment were not ones Jasper ever wanted to repeat.
He was a lousy king. As much as he wanted to blame the monster living in his head and piloting his body on bad days, Jasper knew he was just as responsible. Fear of who he was kept him sequestered in his mountain home. He wasted his time replacing his parent’s furniture and décor instead of facing his people in Grove.
Who wanted a king who could barely control himself?
Not even his mate wanted him. She must have watched him tear through the mountain skies over and over like a demon on the loose. Cora refused to trust him enough to even be in the same room as him. She kept the door between them closed at all times.
The only time it creaked open was at night
Jasper hoped he’d drunk enough to offer her a reprieve. She’d been through enough. She didn’t need his beast in her head, too.
Chapter Two
“Are you afraid?” the demon asked. Its voice was gravelly, like rolling coals.
Cora shuddered. She knew it was only a dream. The demon had been invading her dreams since she entered the mountain range. No matter how she tried to stave off sleep, it always came for her. As soon as she drifted off, the voice rolled through her mind.
There’d been a week when she tried to sleep while Jasper was awake, but it left her drained after fighting for hours to even get to sleep under the high sun. After, she was forced to hike in the darkness. It’d been less than pleasant.
At least the demon could not hurt her in her dreams. All she had to do was keep it company for a short while. She could manage that if it meant she was physically safe.
“I’m afraid of many things,” she confessed.
The demon growled. A scene formed around her, colors and shapes coming to life. The demon was circling her. Its great gold body was like a pile of gold coins come to life, graceful as it slithered into existence, materializing around her. It turned molten eyes on her, regarding her in a way no beast had ever done before. It did not
look at her like a treasure, but as if it truly wanted to know what she was afraid of.
So that it could vanquish her enemies.
Cora wanted to collapse on the ground. She wanted to sigh, to sleep normally and not have to dance around the vicious thing that entered her mind each night. It was exhausting.
As she felt back, the demon lowered itself to the ground along side her. It rested its great head on it’s claws and regarded her with a long and inquisitive look. Cora almost laughed.
“You’re a lot less testy tonight. Normally you’re breathing fire everywhere.”
The demon purred. She thought she saw a slight smile touch the corners of its mouth. “I have no reason to rage because I know where you are. You will not be hurt by anyone on my territory. Not when you are so close to me.”
“But we’re both asleep,” she argued against its logic.
“Do you think sleep could keep me from you? I will be wherever you need me. I will always be at your side, between you and whatever danger arises.”
It was a chivalrous thought, but Cora wasn’t convinced. There would come a day when he realized what she hid, the rare scales of
her beast. Then he would not be so gentle. His greed would get the best of him. He would forget about the woman inside her and covet her glittering scales for his future generations.
The demon blew out a cloud of smoke. It was…laughing.
“I have scales of my own. Scales of my family.” His voice came from everywhere and from him all at once. “My kin will continue to bear gold for generations to come. It is the way it will always be.”
Cora was dumbstruck. Then, her brow furrowed with rage.
“Get out of my mind, you ornery creature.”
He blew out another puff of smoke and dragged his gaze away from her. Her breath was ragged, something she had not thought possible in a dream. The demon knew about her beast. It knew about her scales. And it decided to feed her comforting lies.
Dragons collected. They gathered the richest jewels, the most sought-after tech, the things everyone wanted. Cora was just another item in that long list. There would never be a dragon who did not want her for its treasure trove. The instinct was undeniable.
“Have it your way,” the demon grumbled. “You will find out soon enough.”
She regarded the demon for a long while. A thought occurred to her, that this was a dream and dreams could be shaped. She and
the demon were not the only participants in the dream. The demon was a part of Jasper. This was, in a way, Jasper’s dream, too.
“Can you let me speak to him?”
The demon’s eyes snapped to her. There was a moment when she thought it wasn’t going to let her, that it was going to covet its time with her. Then, the great dragon melted away and left a man in its place.
Jasper blew out a breath. A small cloud of smoke drifted away from his lips. This was her first time in the same room as him, if a dream counted as a room. His hair was nearly as gold as his scales, curling over his forehead. Amber eyes were serious, nearly emotionless. Then, they began to warm. The heat in them melted her.
She wanted to close the space between them, to get a better look at his face and memorize the way his lips moved. Yet, she stood her ground. Even if this was a dream, she had to guard herself. The demon made it clear that the veil between their thoughts was thinner here. If she was going to keep her secrets hidden from Jasper, she needed to be very careful about it.
“I never thought the beast would let me into one of these dreams,” Jasper told her.
She offered a small smile.
“Do you need a door? Would that make talking to me easier? I’m sure we could conjure one somehow and put it between us.”
“You think you’re funny,” she teased, finding a tiny spark of joy dancing in her chest.
“I don’t often get the chance to joke. I have to be all business with my court. That, or the beast is rampaging off into the distance and I’m locked inside it.”
She found herself pitying him. Being trapped in his own body couldn’t have been comfortable. How much had he been forced to live through? What things had his demon done that he would have stopped if he could?
Abetter man wouldhave thepower to stop himself, Cora thought.
She was not bound to a better man. Instead, she was bound to this excuse of a king. He was a man fumbling through a strange world, trying to make up rules as he went along.
“Are you okay? With this arrangement, I mean.” Jasper scratched the back of his head. “Is the guest house alright? If you need anything, just ask. I’ll have it sent over. Pots and pans, furniture. I hear cats can make great company.”
“Are you offering to buy me a pet?” Cora nearly laughed. He held out his hands, palms up. “If that’s what you want. It seems lonely over there. I don’t want you to feel trapped.”
Cora was trapped, though. She’d done it to herself, but the walls were a prison, nonetheless. If she left, she would either run into Jasper or find herself in Cal’s clutches again.
She shuddered. She didn’t want to think of Cal. She would escape him someday. She would run far away, so far that he could never follow her. Perhaps she would disappear into Morocco or lose herself in Tibet.
The idea was freeing, but she knew she’d never make it. The man across from her would see to that. His demon would hunt her down. It would not rest until Cora had been found and was returned to these mountains.
“I don’t need a cat, but it is kind of boring,” Cora confessed.
Jasper approached but didn’t close the distance between them. He lowered himself to the ground and crossed his legs, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Cora was grateful for the small bit of space between them. It was like his every move was calculated in terms of her comfort.
He never tried to touch her, not even in the dream. He didn’t try to convince her that he was right for her. They chatted about everything and nothing, avoiding all the hot-button issues that still lingered between them. She was grateful for the chatter. It didn’t matter that it was Jasper on the listening end, not right then. She was just grateful to have someone to talk to.
Chapter Three
Cora heard a knock at the front door. She waited, listening for the telltale sounds of someone on the other side. When she did not hear shuffling or breathing, she slowly approached. It could have been a trap. Perhaps one of Calvin’s beasts had crept onto Jasper’s territory. It would have been easier now that the metallic dragons had spread out over the mountains.
Feeling a small surge of bravery, she whipped the door open. No one stood on the other side, but there was a stack of boxes. One was massive, long and tall. She pushed aside a couple of other boxes to find that it was a television. Her brows rose and she scanned the courtyard, searching for the visitor that had left the gifts.
Cora half-expected them to be little Trojan horses. Once she dragged them all inside, they would break open and dragon shifters would roll out to kidnap her. The rest were too small to hide actual people. Once she was certain the biggest box couldn’t hide a person either, she dragged them all inside.
Setting up the television took the better part of the morning while she crunched on dry cereal. How long had it been since she
watched television? Cora couldn’t remember. Her last few months among her old clan had been filled with fear and duty. Once she escaped, she’d been in the wilderness, away from civilization.
Blasting day-time TV programs filled the house with sound. It comforted her, easing away some of her anxieties while people argued over petty things on reality court shows. In another box, she found a coffee maker. There were cooking utensils and tools, too.
She hated to tell Jasper, but she couldn’t cook. It made her an awful dragon-wife, but that was Cora’s reality. Everything about her made her an awful dragon-wife. She didn’t want to be locked inside, didn’t want to wait for her husband to come home and demand dinner. Cora wanted to have a life of her own.
She paused near a window and stared at the open sky. A sharp longing to spread her wings and fly filled her. Cora felt like she was finally stretching after months of being cramped in a box. The last step was to open her wings, but she couldn’t. Not while there were so many other dragons around. Once they saw her scales, they would know. Then she’d never be able to escape.
She pressed her knuckles to her chest and apologized to her beast. They could not fly today. Or tomorrow. Or the next day. The beast mourned but did not fight her.
Cora could do nothing more than collapse onto the futon she’d dragged out of the bedroom and lose her hours to reality TV. It was a small reprieve from the truth that hung over her head.
Prisoner.
Always a prisoner.
Jasper paced the floor. The other clan had sent him another message. He crumpled it in his hand, feeling flames lick the inside of his mouth. Instead of igniting the scrap of paper, he slapped it onto the desk and flattened it back out.
He’d woken early that morning and called Wyatt. His bronze dragon lived in town and could quickly deliver all the things he thought Cora would need in the guest house. While Wyatt hadn’t been all too happy to do Jasper’s bidding, he’d gone through with it because they both knew Jasper wasn’t going to leave Cora’s side. She might not want to face him yet, and that was okay, but he would not abandon her.
Not while the other clan fought tooth and nail to take her back. He wondered what it was about her that made the other clan want
her. Whatever it was, it wasn’t worth her misery. Jasper could see the way the months had weighed on her. She watched every shadow with open suspicion. He wished he could tell her no one would get past him but promises couldn’t always be kept.
The beast inside him growled defiantly. It would keep the promise until its last breath. He gave his noble beast a nod of acknowledgement. He only wished that the creature would see reason. People were not perfect. Jasper was supposed to be a great king and lead his people toward peace and happiness, but he couldn’t even do that.
Not while the creature inside him stirred a war. When this was over, what would his beast do next? Jasper worried that he wouldn’t be the man everyone expected him to be. He didn’t even know how to be himself.
Cora sat with her back against the front door once again. It was warm from the body sitting on the other side. Cora told herself she wasn’t drawn to the warmth, that she didn’t crave his scent, but here she was anyway.
Jasper did not growl. He did not bang his fists against the door. He didn’t even try to break through the walls. Instead, he sat
outside the door as if he was happy just being near her. Hours slipped by while he regaled her with stories of his childhood. She didn’t want to lean into them and hang onto every word, but she found herself falling into the tales anyway.
He told her about the time he and Griffin had leapt off a cliff face to see if they could shift before they hit the ground. There was a scar to prove it, he assured her. She could see it when she finally decided to open the door.
Cora didn’t want to like Jasper. She wanted to hold onto the idea that he was a monster, just like every other alpha dragon. The title of king was handed down from father to son without regard for who the son had become. She’d noticed that the son could be a spoiled brat. If he knew the title was his and that no one could take it, power went to his head.
Her mate spoke of days when he acted like that kind of brat, but she didn’t see it in him anymore. Cora didn’t know what had changed him. She didn’t think it was herself. They’d barely interacted. She’d done her best to avoid being anywhere near him until this point.
“Tell me about yourself,” Jasper asked.
The smell of whiskey drifted in the air. She tried to imagine him outside, with his knees bent and a hand dangling over one, a glass of amber colored liquid swirling inside.
Cora didn’t want to talk about herself. Looking back never felt good. It stung, like a wasp in her heart.
“Why are you drinking?” She checked the time. “It’s barely ten in the morning.”
His laugh was a barely audible chuff of air. “Whiskey is the only thing that quiets my beast.”
“The demon,” she breathed.
“Yeah, you could call it that.”
Her cheeks flamed. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. His response was gentler than she’d expected. There was no sign of his beast or the heat of his anger. If anything, Cora thought she heard a small laugh.
“Tell me about your camping experience then,” he pressed, clearly not willing to talk about the creature inside him.
She didn’t blame him. She didn’t want to talk about it either. Not when she knew both man and demon were mated to her for the rest of her life. The thought quaked her heart and stole her breath.
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He was silent for a moment. Then he said, as if thinking aloud. “Yes, I understand it now:
“‘Sole spark from God’s life at strife, With death, so, sure of range above The limits here ’
I never understood it before as I do now.”
And Cicely understood it too.
“Do you know,” he went on, do you know that it is just three years —three years this very evening—since I first saw you, Cicely?”
“The night little Charlie died,” she said softly.
THE END.
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO. LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.
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