Shades Of Dragon (A BBW Dragon-Shifter Paranormal Romance) by Catherine Vale Page B

the forest cautiously, their eyes scanning the copses of trees for any approaching sentries. It didn’t take very long before they encountered someone – two dragon shifter males, dressed in black and purple dyed clothing, a uniform of sorts with an emblem of black flames emblazoned across the center. They dropped down from the trees and directly into the path in front of them, and Tegan heard two more drop down from behind him.
          Ciara stiffened visibly, and Tegan placed a reassuring hand against her back, fully prepared to move her out of harm’s way, if need be. “Who are you, and what business do you have in this forest?” One of the sentries, a blonde with brown eyes and a slender build asked sternly. His eyes were not unkind, but Tegan knew that if he made a wrong move, the sentry wouldn’t hesitate to attack.
          “I’m here to see Dageus Blackfire,” he said. “My name is Tegan Stoneclaw of the Redwater clan.”
          “I’ve never heard of you,” the sentry said, his frown deepening. “The Redwater lives to the south of us, and we have no dealings with them. What could you possibly want with our Alpha?”
          “I believe he’s my birth father,” Tegan snapped, unable to keep his anger from spewing forth. “And I’ve come seeking his assistance.”
          The sentry’s eyes widened in shock for a moment, and then narrowed again. “That’s impossible,” he said. “The clan Alpha doesn’t have a son like you. If he did, I would know about it.”
          “And why is that, exactly?” Tegan asked, annoyance rising in his tone, even though he expected that the dragons wouldn’t believe him, or at least not initially.
          “Because,” the sentry spat back, “I am his son.”
     

Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    Ciara couldn’t help but think that things were going from bad to worse as they were dragged, bound hand and foot, into a large cabin that was no doubt the home of Dageus, the Alpha, and also Tegan’s potential birth father. First, Tegan and the sentry who had proclaimed himself to be the Alpha’s son, had engaged in a heated argument about the validity of Tegan’s story, which had mostly consisted of vehement denial from Garrison. Eventually Garrison had ordered his men to bind them and drag them in front of the Alpha to be punished for their insolence and their lies, as he had put it, because there was no way that Dageus could have another son – he had been mated forever, as far as Garrison was concerned, and had been faithful to his wife in every way up, until she’d died a few years ago.
          Ciara scowled as she was forced to her knees, and it took a supreme effort for her not to topple into the harsh and unforgiving floorboards, nose-first. Gritting her teeth and fighting against the urge to shrug the sentry’s hands off her, she waited for Dageus to enter the room. She had to admit it was a nice room, with hand woven tapestries of dragons flying and fighting covering the walls, and a nice granite mantle against the wall to her right that was large enough for her to sit in. The furnishings were of very nice quality as well, and she suspected that the Blackfire clan likely traded well with nearby human villages in order to obtain their finer goods.
          Next to her, Tegan was not faring much better. His brows were drawn into a fierce scowl, and if looks could kill, she imagined that the guards would be dead by now. His hands were fisted behind his back, his wrists raw beneath the rope, and she had the feeling he’d been trying to wiggle out of them since the moment they’d been tied, or at least loosen them so that he could engage in a fight, if things got even worse.
          “And just what is the meaning of this?” A deep, stern male voice asked. The owner of the voice soon followed into the room, dressed in an ornate black and purple tunic, and Ciara sucked in a breath. There was no doubt in her mind that