Earth Dragon (Element Dragons Book 3) Read online

  Okay, that was it. Terran could rip him to shreds, and she’d sit there and watch.

  Terran didn’t let Hale keep talking. “You will not talk to her like that!” he bellowed, physically spewing flames from his throat.

  Hale spread his hands. “Stop me, beast. I dare you.”

  Terran roared and dashed across the room at the sorcerer. Hale turned his hands towards the dragon with lighting spewing from his fingers. The crackling electricity hit Terran full in the chest and spawned from there, striking nearby and popping up pieces of furniture with miniature explosions. Cassia, taken by surprise, jumped back to avoid being in the path of destruction. Terran was practically invincible, but Cassia was not as strong as him. Getting hit with Hale’s magic might have killed her.

  The room was too small for Terran to shift into his dragon from, so he kept running straight through the lightning, the electricity illuminating his muscles. Terran didn’t stop. Most men would’ve either been shocked unconscious or dead. Then again, most guys weren’t Terran. He was the Keeper of the Mountain and had the strength of Mother Earth and the Dragon King tied into his genes.

  Terran got ahold of the sorcerer and threw him like he was weightless, even while he was being electrocuted. Hale sailed across the room and slammed into the wall. He hit with enough impact to shake the artwork from the walls and rattle the glass décor from the shelves.

  Cassia couldn’t take the anticipation any longer. In one corner, you had Hale: quick, dangerous, doped up on magic steroids, and absolutely insane. In the other corner, there was Terran: powerful, strong, and had the ability to move mountains.

  And then there was Cassia. She was a dragon and was more powerful than humans and most enchanted beings, but she was no match for Hale or Terran.

  Cassia needed a stronger defense in case Hale came after her. Sure, she could use her strength and fire-breathing abilities, but there had to be something more. What could kill Hale? She snuck over to the kitchen nearby and looked for a weapon. Without looking, she wrapped her hand around a solid object hoping it was a gun.

  No such luck. The hard, metallic object was a frying pan.

  Well, at least it’s something, she thought, but was unable to convince herself that the pan would help her in any way.

  She heard the thud of flesh hitting flesh, and Terran skipped over the counter and smashed into the wall. He dropped like a stone before stumbling up. “Ow!” He wiped a hand across his mouth. When he pulled his arm away, he had blood on it.

  Hale’s voice rang out from over the counter. “How I suffered so you couldn’t have her!”

  Just keep talking, asshole, thought Cassia as she wrapped her hand around a pan.

  It was hefty. She stayed hidden behind the counter as Hale got closer. He was content in gloating over his strike on Terran.

  “I don’t know how you can tolerate her,” Hale said.

  Terran saw what Cassia was doing, but he didn’t say anything. He maintained eye contact with Hale.

  “You’ll never win,” Terran snarled as he stood.

  “Oh, somehow I—”

  That’s about as far as he got before Cassia popped up and swung the frying pan like a bro baseball player swinging for the fence.

  Wham!

  She put all her dragon force into it, meaning the pan actually snapped off at the hilt across Hale’s face. The strike sent a reverberation through Cassia’s entire body, from her hands down to her bare feet. Hale, meanwhile, looked like he’d been hit by a truck. Cassia had never actually been in a fight, so she didn’t know her own strength.

  Hale went down and came back up with that electricity. Aimed, unfortunately, at Cassia. She tried to dodge, but she didn’t stand a chance.

  Describing it as painful was the understatement of the year.

  The pain felt like her skin was ripping free of her body, that every cell on her body was on fire, and that she had jumped into a large barrel of hydrochloric acid. A scream of agony choked out from her hoarse throat, and she dropped like a ragdoll. No matter what she did, she couldn’t escape. The electricity followed her, inside her body and into her mind as though it was breaking her will along with her body.

  She writhed like a snake, batting at the lightning. Hale stared at her, eyes wild, angry, and crazed. His hands were pointed at her. Cassia couldn’t see Terran. He was likely behind her somewhere, coming fast. She met eyes with Hale, pleading with him to stop. He was killing her, and surely, the centuries they had spent together must have given him some sort of feelings for her. Even though he evidently despised her, he must not want to see her dead.

  Wrong.

  Green vines shot through the floors, snaked around Hale’s legs, and dragged him towards the wall. The rock wall formed hands and grabbed him. Before he could do anything, he started to get sucked into the earth.

  Then, abruptly, Terran was there with blood dripping down his face, hands out. “You will never hurt her!” he bellowed in an animalistic voice. “Never again will you touch her!”

  Hale snarled in rage and pulled free of one hand only to have another stream of rock come from the wall and wrap him up. “You don’t have the balls!”

  Terran stopped right in front of the crazed sorcerer and grabbed him under the throat. Hale bashed him with magic spells, all of which would’ve killed a human man.

  Terran snarled at him and exposed his dragon fangs. “Try me.”

  He threw Hale like a shotput into the wall. Hale had one brief moment to howl in rage before the wall gulped him down. The howling stopped. Hale was dead. The wall shifted as Terran moved him deeper and deeper into the stone surface, moving him down to the Earth’s core.

  Terran rushed to Cassia, dropping to a knee and lending her a supportive hand. He touched her as gently as he would a porcelain vase. His powerful fingers ran across her body as she shuddered from the fading electricity in her body.

  “Please,” he said, pressing his forehead against her shoulder with the urgency of a man losing something he cannot live without. “I beg of you…please be okay!”

  Cassia shivered and laid back on the ground. She coughed as her muscles contracted. “I’m okay,” she gasped. “I think.”

  She could do nothing but lie still and allow Terran to comfort her. She felt weak, and ripples of pain still coursed through her body, although the intensity of the pain was fading.

  The EDJ arrived minutes later.

  10

  It took Cassia about ten minutes to stop hurting and another ten to get the motivation to move. Finally, though, the EDJ’s paramedics convinced her to get checked out to confirm what she already knew: She was fine. She was safe.

  Terran took her to the couch where he sat down next to her. “I thought I was going to lose you,” he breathed.

  Cassia leaned into him. “So, what’s going to happen to me? I had nothing to do with it! The EDJ has to know that…”

  “I’ll pull some strings,” Terran promised. “Besides, it’s pretty obvious you had no knowledge of what happened. Hale has been causing problems for hundreds of years—much longer than you were with him.”

  “What about Sam, Ivan, and Igor?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. All I know is that a lot of Hale’s people are in deep trouble.”

  “Do you know why? Why did he kill the Chancellor?”

  Terran sighed. “The same reason he hated me. The Chancellor blocked some of his unscrupulous business deals, which cost Hale a lot of money. Hale didn’t like people getting his way.”

  Finally, Terran got a message from his men outside.

  “Your friends are here,” Terran said after hanging up the phone. “My men tracked them down.”

  Cassia felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

  When Cassia’s friends were escorted into Terran’s home, Cassia ran to them and hugged them tightly.

  Cassia took Sam aside to talk to her privately. “Are you okay? You got out in time?”

  �
��About an hour before all hell broke loose,” Sam said. “Don’t worry. We’re fine. We were questioned, but let go when they realized we had nothing to do with Hale’s crimes.”

  “What a relief!” Cassia exclaimed.

  “What about you?” asked Sam. “Are you all right? Will you be all right? The EDJ will likely seize all of Hale’s assets.”

  Cassia looked back at Terran, who was telling a story about an assassin to the Russian brothers. The brothers looked absolutely fascinated. “I will be fine. I’m exactly where I need to be.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Sam. “It’s a big decision. You don’t want to rush into something like this.”

  Cassia smiled at friend. “Sam, I know how it looks, but I’m not rushing into this. I’ve known him for eight hundred years.”

  Epilogue

  Cassia was exhausted, but the nine months of waiting and the excruciating labor was worth it. Cassia and Terran both looked down at their daughter with enough love to fill the universe.

  She was perfect. Her rounded nose looked just like Cassia’s, but her eyes were the same vibrant green as her father’s.

  “I’ve never been so happy in my entire life,” said Cassia as her daughter wrapped her fingers around Cassia’s pinky.

  Terran kissed his wife’s forehead before leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on the top of the newborn’s head.

  Should I go and grab Sam? She’s been pacing outside the door for hours waiting to hear the news.

  “Not yet,” said Cassia. “We have waited so long for this moment. I don’t want to share her with anybody quite yet.”

  Terran smiled widely. “What should we name her?”

  “Gila,” said Cassia.

  As she said the name, the newborn’s opened her eyes, as if expressing her approval.

  “That’s beautiful,” said Terran. “What does it mean?”

  Cassia smiled. “Eternal joy.”

  * * *

  THE END

  Other Books You Will Love

  Birch Mountain Alphas

  Dark Secrets, sexy romantic encounters, and alpha shifters who know how to take charge. This shifter box set is sizzling hot, and ready to be devoured!

  Element Dragons Box Set

  Four powerful dragon princes are in pursuit of their lifelong mates.

  Misty Woods Dragons: Shifter Romance Collection

  Six dragon princes and more in a hot shifter romance collection.

  Thank You!

  Receive a FREE paranormal romance eBook by visiting our website and signing up for our mailing list:

  SecretWoodsBooks.com

  By signing up for our mailing list, you’ll receive a FREE paranormal romance eBook. The newsletter will also provide information on upcoming books and special offers.

  About the Author

  Alexis Davie captivates her readers with stories that intertwine reality with fantasy, to provide an exciting escape. Davie has always had an affinity for dragons, vampires, werewolves and, of course, romance. One can truly see her passions come to life through her written words.

  When Davie is not writing, she hikes, practices yoga, and frequently travels with her son and husband to find the less-traveled paths. To help the voiceless, Davie also spends her time as a volunteer with animal rescues.