Driven by Dragonblood (Ebook)

The scent of rain lay heavy on the wind, sighing through the trees over my head. Laughter rang out from the children on the playground across the grass from where I slumped on the hard ground, knees pulled to my chest.
Picnic tables sat between me and the laughing youngsters, families with loved ones packing up what was left of their lunches they had enjoyed in the fresh air now threatened by an incoming storm.
Two people lay on a blanket a few feet from me, cuddling each other as though they didn’t have a care in the world about what went on around them. Let the winds blow, the downpour soak them. They lived in a bubble of perfection where nothing could touch them.
Sighing, I tore my gaze off the lovers.
Two photographers hurried a couple in wedding attire back toward a waiting limo, their smiles almost as bright as the warm winter sun that had been taken over by clouds a few minutes earlier.
Sweetness from nearby flowers wafted past my nose, and I breathed them in deeply as I’d been doing since flying southward enough that the snow-covered Tetons were nothing but a distant memory. I’d hunted for my fated mates by air in dragon form for days on end, anticipation of a sense of connection that would lead me toward my alpha and beta, but no such feelings had swept through me while in flight. And I’d stretched my wings wide and soared over the entire state of Arizona.
Defeat had sent me permanently to the ground a couple of weeks earlier, and I’d taken on my human form, hoping that mingling with people more closely would allow me to find the connection I yearned for. But so far, I’d been unlucky, which caused my heart to wilt in my chest. At least I wouldn’t run out of funds anytime soon, thus being forced to return to the mountains.
On the day I had turned eighteen, my human grandmother had added me to her bank account, one richly donated to by my grandpapa, who had recently found out I existed. A debit card allowed for motels and hotels, much less accommodating and comfortable than the cavern I’d grown up in, even if the amenities of my childhood home were severely outdated.
And the noise…
Engines, radios, humans chattering—vastly different than the solitude of Grand Teton and the quiet wildlife interested only in surviving.
Thunder rumbled, and I lifted my face skyward, hugging myself a little tighter. Darker clouds lay on the horizon, promising cleansing rain to the arid land and sustenance to the thirsty plants struggling to survive the dry winter.
But the people enjoying the unseasonably warm afternoon in the park didn’t seem to care about the danger on the horizon.
My loneliness sharpened while watching parents and children as well as lovers being affectionate with one another.
Soft touches.
Kind words.
Secretive smiles.
Sweet kisses like those shared by the couple on my left.
I wanted those same interactions but had no experience or knowledge of how to go about finding such things.
For the first time in my twenty-two years, I began to question how my grandmother had raised me. She’d kept us cooped up in the mountains, far from civilization and others who might seek to harm us. I’d been sheltered, hidden away, and now, tears stung my eyes over all I had missed out on.
Even though fated mates awaited those with dragonblood in their veins, I could have experienced a fuller life, such as school with my peers and perhaps even a tender young love or a first crush, even if it wouldn’t have lasted for my lifetime.
At least I would have been better equipped to deal with the humans now surrounding me, those without inner voices my dragonblood gift would have allowed me to communicate with.
The ache in my chest hurt almost as much as it had on the morning I’d buried my grandmother beneath stone and dirt. Returning to our cavern home alone that afternoon had been brutal, but I felt an absence of connection now more than I did that day, among people who had purpose and a reason for living. They had others they looked to for either nurturing or partnership, while I was a single star in my life’s sky, attempting to prohibit darkness from overshadowing my heart and mind.
A tear slid down my cheek as the first pattering of rain hit the leaves above me, and my next inhalation caused a shudder to wrack through my huddled body.
The people around me, lovers included, scrambled to gather their belongings, rushing toward the safety of their vehicles while I sat alone, the heavens opening up faster than I’d expected. I couldn’t be bothered to move from where I sat, chest cracked wide, throat swelling shut, and eyes releasing the sorrow inside me.
Within a matter of minutes, I was once more alone, without a trace of humanity left behind except for a bit of trash beneath one of the abandoned picnic tables.
No more laughter.
No more smiles.
No more gentle caresses or chaste press of lips for me to envy.
Rain and cloudy skies surrounded me, a mirror of the heaviness upon my shoulders.
Sniffling, I tilted my head down, forehead on my knees, hugging myself tighter.
I’d fled the comforts of home even though I’d never truly felt a sense of belonging in the Teton Mountains. An urging deep inside, the whispering of my inner dragon, had insisted it was time to fly and seek out our fate. I’d left my newly met grandpop, Dolyn, behind with his alpha and female in the cavern of our ancestors, where they would mate and raise a family. Having seen their love and how they belonged to each other, I wanted nothing more than to experience the same. The thought of returning to the Tetons alone and having to witness their happiness made my stomach twist.
But where else would I go?
Stay.
My throat tightened as my inner dragon attempted to soothe my emotions. She’d been as silent as my human half for days on end, overrun by thoughts of despair.
“And do what?” I whispered aloud, since no one was around to accuse me of being mad from talking to myself.
Seek.
“That’s all we’ve been doing,” I stated, straightening to swipe my arm over my wet eyes even though rain continued to batter my face.
My dragon half went quiet once more.
The feeling of urgency that had sent me flying south through the winter winds to the warmer southern state had calmed to where I barely felt a hint of my dragon’s assurance we were in the right place.
So why didn’t I sense my mates?
Were they even of lesser blood than Grandpop’s alpha and female that I couldn’t perceive or communicate with their dragons? I was a Blood Born with the rare ability to hear all inner beings of those with dragonblood in their veins. Even the most minuscule from those I’d come into contact with on the few times Grandmother and I had gone into town for supplies before her death.
But it seemed no such creatures inhabited the southernmost parts of Arizona.
Perhaps I’d missed my fated mate by a mere mile. Flown past where they resided, their supernatural halves unknown or somehow hidden away from their consciousness. What if both my alpha and beta had managed to suppress what they didn’t understand, burying their true self deep enough our souls couldn’t call to one another as, according to the ancient texts I’d studied, fated mates ought to be able to do?
I lifted my face once more, eyes closed.
Rain sluiced through the branches overhead, soaking through the old-fashioned, large shirt and the long skirt that flowed around my ankles while I’d walked listlessly across the park in search of a sense of belonging. The material would stick to my legs now, clinging and itching, reminding me how much I hated the restriction of clothing.
North.
I sniffled but didn’t bother attempting to wipe the wetness from my face. “We can’t return to what used to be home,” I whispered, my heart aching for my mates.
The canyon.
Heaving a sigh, I straightened my legs, shoulders still slumped. “What about it?”
Let us soar over its beauty once more.
A huff of sad laughter escaped me. Thanks to Grandpop sharing his ability to cloak our true selves, my inner dragon had released and been able to fly during daylight hours, invisible to the human eye. Diving deep into the reaches of the Grand Canyon, shooting skyward in a rush of wind, rolling and tucking my wings to glide above the winding river at its base, was almost as pleasurable as winding through the peaks of the Tetons.
I had been in this form for far too long.
Standing, I stretched my back, filling my lungs. Three steps took me from beneath the semi-shelter of the tree, exposing me to the full force of the elements. Wind and rain buffeted me, whipping the soaked skirt around me.
But a torrential downpour didn’t compare to my stubbornness or my beast’s strength.
My mind’s desire to cloak myself from sight blinked me from visual existence. I removed the sodden clothing from my body and stuffed it into the drenched duffle bag I carried everywhere before straightening once more.
Communicating with my inner dragon came as easily as breathing, and the shift rippled through my physical body like a bend of light, morphing my human form into that of a pale golden dragon, the same color of my waist-length hair, scales, spines, and all.
Front claws of our left foot wrapped tight around our duffle, and we launched into the stormy sky, our grief-filled roar masked by the thunder rumbling around us.
We will locate them.
My human half held no such hope but gave over to the dragon side, a powerful flap of golden wings sending us into the dark sky. We shot through the rain, northward toward the canyon.
More than anything, we yearned for happiness.
But all we had learned thus far in our travels was that heartache proved much easier to find.

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