The Dragon's Woman Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  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

  Epilogue

  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 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 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 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 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

  EPILOGUE

  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

  PROLOGUE

  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

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  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

  EPILOGUE

  The Dragon’s Woman

  Elemental Dragons Book 3

  Emilia Hartley

  © Copyright 2017 by 9591451 CANADA INC. - All rights reserved.

  The contents of this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Legal Notice:

  This book is copyright protected. This is only for personal use. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have be
en used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  The Dragon’s Woman

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Thank you!

  Mated to the Dragon

  Freed by the Dragon

  Seduced by the Dragon

  Protected by the Mountain Wolf

  Adored by the Mountain Wolf

  Mated to the Mountain Wolf

  Alpha Wolf Protector

  Alpha Wolf Guardian

  Alpha Wolf Champion

  Adored by the Alpha Bear

  Saved by the Alpha Bear

  Loved by the Alpha Bear

  The Timeless Curse of Lord Dabney

  AUTHORS NOTES

  The Dragon’s Woman

  Emilia Hartley

  Chapter One

  Noelle let out a heavy sigh, her arms crossed over her chest. Usually, she was all for picking a fight. She challenged authority on all levels, all the time. It was what she was best known for here on the Territory, but she could see in this moment how it wasn’t going to work.

  Marc had been standing in front of his father, his face stone cold, for what felt like forever now. It had only been five or ten minutes at this point, but the seconds dragged on in the silence that surrounded them. Dane stood back, letting his close friend have the moment he needed.

  “You could have done any number of things,” Marc growled into the silence. “You had a handful of choices and you chose to avoid your own children. You chose to make us think you were dead.”

  “I did what I had to do to protect those that were hurt by the Guardians of Existence. Don’t think that I didn’t want to see you every day we were free.”

  “You could have!” Marc threw his hands in the air. “You had years to send a message. You had years to show your face. Just once was all we would have needed. That’s it.”

  Hector Avila looked as if he might implode on the spot. His face was turning purple and his fists clenched at his sides, looking like the father of teenagers. Too bad he’d missed that stage of his children’s lives.

  Kenji and his broad shoulders stepped up beside Hector, casting a look that could only be a warning at Marc. The tall and bulky Japanese water dragon could have been an intimidating force if Marc had cared. From the bronze-skinned man’s stance, Noelle could tell he couldn’t care less. This wasn’t about Kenji.

  The Japanese dragon took another step forward, inserting his shoulder between Hector and Marc. The room stilled, as if the entire crowd held its breath in anticipation of the coming fight.

  “You would have been welcome here,” Marc said, his voice murderously low.

  Kenji looked like he might have agreed with Marc, but he stood where he was out of loyalty. He pressed in on the space between him and Marc, an unspoken warning to back up. Didn’t Kenji realize this was personal? This needed to happen. Marc needed to rid himself of all the anger he’d let build up since this family revealed itself.

  “Okay,” Luc announced loudly as he drew out the O in the single word. The other half of the Avila twins lurched forward, his body loose in comparison to his brother, and placed himself between father and son. Luc looked between his father and his brother. He looked lost for a split second, torn on both sides. The brother didn’t know which side he wanted to stand on in this fight.

  Noelle, on the other hand, knew this wasn’t what Marc needed. She took in the tall and lean Quetzalcoatl dragon man, his hair cut short against his scalp and his usually calm brown eyes burning with hatred. Hector had come specifically to spend time with his sons. This should have been a tender reunion. This should have been heartwarming. Instead, it was tense and they all knew why.

  Marc’s father, Hector Avila, had lied to his sons, the sons who’d been searching the country for him. Hector and Lucia had been free for years, decades even, but never tried to reach out to their children. Now, Lucia was back in the hands of the Guardians of Existence.

  Hector opened his mouth to spout some concocted excuse and Noelle stomped forward to grab Marc by the arm. The tension that had turned him to stone melted under her grasp and he allowed her to drag him out. On their way out the door, Noelle caught Luc’s eye. She would have thought the more foolish half of the twins would have been this angry.

  In truth, Noelle knew so little about her own mate.

  She didn’t turn toward the stack of shipping containers the twins called a home. Noelle didn’t want to intrude on a life she knew nothing about. Instead, she turned toward her own home, a small trailer with just enough space to sleep and eat. Past the door, she pushed Marc toward the narrow mattress in the one room space. He staggered back and let his knees give out beneath him.

  The look he turned toward her was full of emotion. There was pain and sorrow and anger and a whirlwind that turned them all inside out and upside down. Noelle wasn’t prepared to deal with another’s emotions. She could barely wrangle her own hot, hot fire.

  Marc’s mouth moved, searching for words. Perhaps he couldn’t find any. Perhaps all the worlds got clogged in his throat as they tried to come out at once. Before he could direct any of that emotion in his eyes, Noelle sank into a chair and faced her mate.

  “My parents came over to America for a new life. My father was a dragon and my mother was his human mate. Dad worked on the railroads, quietly doing his job so that no one would ever know what he really was. He didn’t want anyone looking in his direction, especially not anyone who might know who he’d been in China. Then, my sister and I were born and he needed to be even quieter.

  “There were dragon clans in China who wanted him dead. I can’t remember all of the story, only that he did what he thought was right and not many agreed with him. It wasn’t until my sister and I were nearly adults that he was found. The other dragon clans murdered him and my mother for their revenge. My sister and I were lucky to get away. I remember running through the mine shaft, how dark and eerie it was.”

  Marc watched her with wide eyes, the sorrow and pain leeching out of them word by word. Noelle swallowed. This wasn’t a story she’d told anyone and she found it harder to work through than she’d thought. It’d been over a hundred years ago at this point. It shouldn’t still grip her the way it did. She powered through it, unwilling to stop now.

  “Mary and I settled down. We made a life for ourselves off the things our mother taught us before she died. We made dresses and tailored men’s suits. It was okay until people saw we didn’t age the same as others. Then, we’d pack up and move somewhere new. We found a new trade, but kept our names. We never wanted to give up our names and lose the memory of our family.

  “It was the early sixties when we settled in the Mid-West. The neighborhoods were nice and clean. People still looked at us with apprehension, but that was because of the shape of our eyes and not the beast under our skins. No one knew about the beasts under our skins. At least, I didn’t think anyone did.

  “Mary was seeing a young man in the neighborhood at the time. I let it happen, let her go out with the idea that he could very well be her mate. There was a night when she didn’t come home. I wanted to burn the town to the ground, reduce it to cinders until my sister appeared. Yet, I kept my cool. I turned over every little stone in my search for her, but I never found anything.

  “Not even the man she’d been seeing could tell me wh
ere she’d gone. I could smell her all over the house, but there was no trace of her. He told me they’d spent time together and I could smell that it was more than just spending time together, but that she’d left after. He didn’t know where she’d gone after that.

  “Mary just disappeared. I searched the whole country, tearing it apart with the hopes that my sister would magically reappear. I gave up at some point. I hate myself for it, but I think it had to happen for my own sanity. Mary has been gone for decades now. Either, she’s somewhere in that family of dragons or she’s dead. Either way, there was nothing I could do to change that. I wasn’t enough to change that.”

  Marc watched her, waited a long moment to make sure her story was over. When she saw his eyes slip toward the window and his mind move back toward the man in Dane’s cabin, Noelle knew this wasn’t over.

  She sucked in another breath and reached for a story Marc needed to hear. She reached for the one he’d probably been waiting for.

  “Maybe I didn’t fully give up on finding Mary. When I joined this family, I saw it as an opportunity. I thought I was strong enough to be the mate of the dragon leader. If only I inserted myself into his life and challenged him from time to time, the bond would form. Then, with the leader as my mate, I could lead a new search for Mary. I’d have more resources, more support. In my mind, it was the perfect plan.

  “When it seemed like the bond would never happen, I started to get angry. I thought I deserved to be the mate of a leader by that point. It made me angry to think I wasn’t good enough. Then, I wondered for a short while if I could seize control of the family. Then, as the new leader, I could use the family to find my sister. I could have the power I always wanted.”

  Marc watched her now. He was rapt by her small speech. Her stomach churned as she waited for his response. When she found out about their bond, she’d been repulsed. It wasn’t what she thought she deserved. It didn’t give her what she needed to find her sister. Besides, Marc didn’t seem like the kind of man she could love. He was cool and collected and, to her, that almost read as emotionless.

  It turns out, Marc worked very hard at burying his emotions. She could see how they burned inside of him, screaming and raging against the cage that was his body. It gave her renewed hope for their bond, even if she regretted what happened to make her see it. This man was her mate and she should have given the bond a chance. Instead, she’d regarded it with anger and betrayal.

  Marc slid off the bed until his knees hit the floor in front of her. There really was so little space inside her home. His hands tentatively touched her knees, as if he was still wary of where he stood with her. She couldn’t let him in, not just yet, but she wished she had the guts to tell him she wanted to try. Instead, she looked down at Marc with a blank expression on her face.