Billionaire Dragons' Fated: BBW Paranormal Dragon Shifter Menage Romance (6 page)

Jade

Jade yawned to herself, still trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. It was impossibly early, and they’d already been travelling for a while. As far as she could tell, no one was really interested in telling her where it was that they were going. So, it was no wonder that when the black stretch limo she was cooped up in pulled up at a private airstrip, she had more than a little cause for confusion.

“C’mon, green eyes, time to roll,” Apollo said, shoving the door open and hopping out with the grace of a seasoned predator.

Alexander followed him with equal ease, giving Jade a cryptic look on his way out. All Jade could do was glance from one beefcake to another, hang onto her disposable cup of coffee and haul herself out of the car with plenty of questions but no real energy to spare to ask them. She pulled her bass case out along with her, Michelle giving it a slight push when it caught stuck behind one of the plush seats.

“So, um, what’s going on?” Jade asked between yawns, shielding her eyes with her hand from the rising sun sweeping across the airfield.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Michelle mumbled, lighting a cigarette and glaring at the Goldplains brothers.

They were hard at work unloading suitcases from the limo, not letting the driver lift a finger, when Jade noticed her two ragged cases as well. She wasn’t even aware they’d been brought along. All that she’d been told in the morning was that she needed to get up, NOW, and so she’d done. Of course, getting out from between Apollo’s sheets had been a struggle and a half, but to her credit, she’d only taken one lengthy inhale before she got down to brass tacks. It was unfair how damn good they smelled, and a girl was allowed a tiny bit of indulgence, right?

“Isn’t it obvious?” Apollo asked with a wolfish grin that begged to either be kissed or smacked off his face. “We’re going on an adventure! Aventura! All that jazz.”

Alexander just snorted and slammed the boot shut.

“No, we’re not going on an adventure. Michelle, I’m sorry we woke you up this early, but we figured if we got so close to the airplane, you couldn’t kill us before we could make a run for it.”

Jade frowned, taking a sip of her coffee and begging the caffeine to bring her faculties back to her. Whatever was going on, she got an urgent feeling that she was better off knowing what exactly was transpiring in her immediate presence.

Michelle’s well-kept brows curled into a threatening lightning cloud of impending irritation, and she took a long drag of her cigarette, her eyes narrowed.

“I’m listening,” she said, with a voice that told Jade that Michelle was not a woman in any mood to be fucked with. In general, Jade thought that any man who could match that spitfire had to be
some
man. Phew. Scary.

Just please don’t let her get pissed at me,
Jade thought to herself, inching closer to Alexander and Apollo. Though Michelle looked like she could put on a hell of a battle, Jade figured it was safest to side with the dragons when given the option. They
were
dragons, after all. And such fascinating ones at that.

“We’re going to have to push the next two dates. And before you say anything, this is important,” Apollo said, raising his hand before Michelle could let out a cry of protest.

“Really important,” Alexander stressed. Jade noticed the way he glanced at her, and her stomach churned. It could have been the fact that she hadn’t had breakfast or the strong coffee, but who was she kidding – it was Alexander. A look or a touch from either of them sent her body in a tailspin of wanting that was hard to get a grip on, no matter how she tried.

“We haven’t told Tayo or Clay, so you need to tell them as well. It’ll just be for a few weeks, then we’ll be back on the tour, and we promise we’ll make it up to the fans. Whatever we need to do,” Apollo was quick to add, as Michelle’s cheeks were getting that oh-shit-we’re-in-trouble red.

“Do either of you two knuckleheads want to explain to me what the FUCK is going on here or do I have to take off these Manolos and use them as an ice pick to get an explanation out of one of you scaly pricks?!” Michelle roared, her cigarette discarded on the pavement. Inadvertently, Jade gulped. Apollo, on the other hand, only grinned a little – brave man.

“We can’t. The less you know, the better. It’s… dragon business,” Alexander concluded, stealing another glance at Jade and sending her blushing. She wasn’t even sure why.

“Wait. Does she…” Michelle started, looking between Jade and the towering forms of the Goldplains brothers.

“She knows we’re dragons, yeah. Sorry, she figured it out on her own. Not our doing,” Apollo said, chuckling at the plethora of emotions that were going over Michelle’s expression in rapid succession. Michelle seemed to ponder this for a moment, still looking like a storm about to descend on some hapless village, before her anger cracked and she sighed tiredly, nodding her head.

“Fine. A break it is. We’ll say Apollo got laryngitis or something.”

“Hey,” Apollo protested.

“Shut up. If I have to tell thousands of fans their concerts are going to be pushed, I’m at least going to do it my way, capiche? But what does Jade have to do with your ‘dragon business’?” Michelle asked, making air quotes with her long fingers, heavy with eye-catching jewelry.

“Yeah, I’d like to know that too,” Jade said meekly, peering over the rim of her coffee cup. While she was usually all fire and brimstone when the moment called for it, this particular situation, combined with the royal clusterfuck from last night, left her feeling a bit deflated.

“That’s a dragon secret,” Alexander said with a barely concealed smirk, receiving glares from not only Michelle but Jade as well. Lords know she was sick and tired of dragon secrets.

“And that’s all I’m going to get?” Michelle asked, clearly exasperated. Both of the golden-haired twins nodded, but Apollo at least had the decency to look a bit sheepish about it. Jade had to admit that it looked good on him. But dammit, didn’t everything?

“We’ll call you when we get to Gold Way. For now, please don’t let anyone know where we’re going. If we’re right, everything should be over in three weeks tops. For better or for worse. Okay?” Alexander asked, or more like stated. Michelle pursed her lips, shifting her iron gaze to Jade.

“Question is, are you okay with this, Jasmine?”

Jade balked. Their attention veered to her and stayed there. Apollo and Alexander’s blue eyes seemed to gaze through her, right into her soul, and her body felt tingly with heat and expectation. Michelle, on the other hand, looked every part the role of the seasoned professional, who could take every hit without batting a lash or even being all that surprised.

“I… um. Do I need to go with you? Did I do something wrong? I’m really sorry about last night,” she mumbled, feeling like a little girl put on the stand again. She didn’t revel in the feeling, but at least Apollo and Alexander’s presence made her feel more at ease. Apollo stepped closer to her, and when he put his hand on her lower back, she relaxed a little. There was no tension in that touch, no aggravation.

“Yes, you do. And no, you didn’t do anything wrong. There’s nothing to fear. We just want to make sure that you’re safe, Jade,” Apollo said, his voice almost a purr that trembled through her.

Whatever this was, it posed no danger to her, and that was all she really needed to know. Jade had decided to trust her health and safety with these men because she believed they were good and reasonable. Now, when they were asking her to trust them, how could she say no?  Slowly, Jade nodded, seeking out Alexander to confirm that Apollo’s words were also true for him. The way he looked at her left her no doubt of that. In fact, if anything, it made her feel that the sooner they left, the better.

“Okay. Yes. I’m okay with this.”

“Alright. What can I say then? Bon voyage,” Michelle said with a bemused smirk, looking resigned, yet not entirely surprised.

What are they plotting…
Jade wondered as the Goldplains said their cheerful goodbyes to Michelle, picked up the suitcases and headed to the private jet with Jade in tow. Well, whatever it was, she could be sure that she’d never get bored with Apollo and Alexander around. If even Michelle, who’d worked with them for over a decade, couldn’t see their twists and turns coming, what hope did Jade have?

Jade

Gold Way was absolutely breathtaking. It was a sweeping sight. A long, wide valley nestled between towering mountains, looking down upon seemingly endless wheat fields and a wide, impossibly clear river snaking through it – it truly was one of those beautiful, hidden American gems. Jade also spied a small town right at its center, clustered around the narrowest part of the river.

“Oh my god, it’s spectacular,” Jade murmured as they went down the mountain roads and she got her first glance of the Goldplains’ private oasis.

“Thank you. We think so too,” Alexander chuckled, expertly handling the large white SUV they’d picked up at the airport.

Jade was nestled in the passenger seat, being allowed the courtesy of the best possible view. And it was certainly worth it. The wheat was just about ready to be harvested, heavy heads bowing the long stems and the intense golden color of the fields giving the whole valley a gorgeous glow.

The river that ran down along its center came from high up in the mountains, bubbling down in a happy blur and spreading out amongst the fields.

“The river, aptly named Goldsnake, used to be flush with gold. We still wash gold out of it to this day, but not as much as we used to,” Apollo said, sounding a bit wistful as he leant over the backrests of the front seats.

Apollo pointed out a few nooks in the river with sand washing mills. His arm brushed against her, and her heart jumped a little.

Oh god, don’t get any closer. If he does, I might just stop looking at the valley completely and just sink into his eyes,
Jade thought, squirming a bit in her seat.

Apollo flashed her a smile, and Alexander chuckled a private laugh. When she cocked a brow, curious as to what was so funny, Alexander and Apollo just shared one of their ‘twin looks’ and didn’t explain themselves at all – typical men, keeping her guessing.

And that was exactly what they were doing to her now. As soon as they’d got on the airplane for the short flight from New Mexico to Colorado, Jade had started shooting questions and guesses at them. The Goldplains brothers seemed to take some pleasure in teasing her, letting her concoct ever more preposterous assumptions as to where and how they were going to be hiding out in Colorado for a week, and why she had had to come along.

Not that she minded, hell no. She’d found herself rattling off questions and just talking through the flight to distract herself from the fact that she was staring at two of the hottest men in existence, and damn if it wasn’t driving her a little bit batty.

  “After the gold started waning, we figured it was time to diversify. So that’s where the wheat came in. You might not know this, but the Goldplains happen to be one of the foremost wheat kings in the country,” Alexander said, obviously pleased with what his family had built.

“I’d never pegged dragons for farmer types,” Jade noted with a snort.

“Oh, we’re not. But we’re great at managing,” Alexander said, grinning. “A few generations ago, one of our forefathers, Atlas, put down the first fields right here in Gold Way. Centerville, the little town in the middle, used to be a gold town, but now it’s a gold and wheat kind of place. We’ve been expanding since Atlas’s time.”

“Hell, we own half of Kansas at this point, I think,” Apollo added with a leisurely shrug.

“And North Dakota,” Alexander finished.

Jade watched the brothers share another satisfied look amongst themselves, the men practically beaming with self-satisfaction. She smiled to herself. It shouldn’t have surprised her to find that dragons took their wealth very seriously. They were dragons, after all.

“Ares seems to be in a hurry,” Apollo said, looking out through the windshield.

Jade looked in the direction of his gaze and gasped, seeing a large, golden-white dragon take flight off the roof of the mansion down in the valley. The sun glinted and gleamed off of him, throwing rays of pure gold around him as he sped up into the cloudless skies, powerful wings carrying him upward.

Unlike the Blackscales, he didn’t have a thin, arrowed tail, but instead sported something more akin to a bulky mallet of thick scales and muscle at the end of the long appendage. His creamy white underbelly looked almost the color of the whitest clouds as he started disappearing from sight, letting out a last, parting roar that made the skies tremble around him.

“Wow,” Jade muttered, her heart pounding quickly in her chest.

The gold dragon was spectacular. While the black dragons she’d seen had made her stomach knot and twist with fear, this one just made her stop in awe. Funny how big the difference was. She knew that she’d have nothing to fear from a dragon like that – an emotion that she certainly didn’t feel when she saw the deadly Blackscales.

“That’s our younger brother, Ares. It was his turn to guard the hoard,” Alexander explained.

“The… hoard?”

“We’re dragons, green eyes. There
has
to be a hoard,” Apollo said, giving her a wolfish grin.

“Oh. Is that… Is that how dragons usually do it? Round-robin guarding it?”

Alexander shrugged, making the car careen around another sharp curve before finally hitting the flatlands. Within moments, the car had disappeared into a sea of tall, bowed wheat. It was relaxing. It almost felt like home to Jade, who had spent much of her childhood in North Dakota.

“Depends. Most don’t. Dragon families have pretty rigid hierarchies. Usually, it’s the elder’s task to guard the main treasure. But, as I am the official elder, at least until the triad is complete, and I can’t really stay here much, we alternate with our younger brothers. They’ve been surprisingly okay about it, though, as you can see, they take every opportunity to take a break from it.”

Alexander pointed at the tiny golden speck in the sky that was Ares flying away. Something else caught Jade’s attention, though.

“Triad?”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll explain everything in due time,” Apollo rushed to add, and then he distracted her just as swiftly with a tale about how the great Atlas had gone from being a gold hoarder to a wheat hoarder.

What’s with all the secrecy…

Jade had plenty of time to ponder that as the brothers drove her through Gold Way, telling her tales and joking the whole way through. They just nicked past Centerville, the town in the heart of the fields, before speeding on towards the looming castle of a mansion they called home. It was tucked away close to the pocket of mountains that closed the north side of the valley, and once again, Jade’s breath was knocked right out of her chest.

There was no other way to put it, the house was huge.

“Don’t you guys do
anything
small?” Jade asked with some exasperation in her voice.

“Nope,” Apollo confirmed quickly.

The car rolled to a stop in front of the pristine whitewashed mansion, a circular driveway lined by well-kept hedges leading up to it. The mansion had three floors and, for the most part, a slanted roof, except for about a third of it that Ares had used as a takeoff site. The windowsills and covers were painted gold and the door was a heavy, golden behemoth. Jade wasn’t entirely convinced that it wasn’t pure gold – wouldn’t have surprised her, though.

Alexander and Apollo jumped out, and Apollo opened the door for her as well, helping her out of the car. Touching his hand as she climbed down made her skin heat up, and without noticing, she was biting her lip again.

Apollo leant in to her, just a tad too close to be considered friendly, and whispered in her ear, “Welcome home.”

If she was going to be there with the Goldplains, hell yeah she could call it home. Jade smiled a little as Apollo pulled away, moving to help Alexander take out the suitcases and their gear from the back of the full-sized SUV.

The heavy door was flung open, and Jade spun around quickly to make out the excitable figure of a woman running to hug both the brothers. A twinge of jealousy went through Jade, an emotion that hit her completely out of the blue and made her feel off kilter for a moment. The woman was tall and elegant, her hair in a short, wheaten blond pixie cut and her hazel eyes dazzling with happiness as she embraced both of the men individually.

“You should have called that you were coming! I almost fell off my seat when Ares said he sensed you two nearing!”

“Sorry, Ria, things are a bit hectic right now. We didn’t want to draw too much attention on us,” Alexander said, smiling broadly.

Jade wasn’t sure how that was supposed to be possible. Wherever the Goldplains brothers went, excitement followed. The two towering, strapping men were hard enough to miss amongst other rock gods, but in a small town in Colorado, they
had
to be a spectacle. At least that’s what Jade would have guessed.

“And who is this?” Ria asked, turning her warm gaze to Jade and making her feel woefully unprepared again.

What was she supposed to say? ‘Hi, I’m the willing captive of these two gold dragons, pleasure to meet you!’ Actually, that would probably have worked.

“I’m Jade. I’m the new bassist for the Gold Dragons,” Jade said, extending her hand to Ria and getting a hug instead.

“Pleasure to meet you, Jade! Any friend of the Goldplains is a friend of mine,” Ria said, her hug impossibly warm and safe.

It seemed everything around the Goldplains was like that. The woman stepped back from Jade and gave her a curious look-over. Jade almost felt like having to twirl, as if being inspected, before Ria gave a knowing look to the Goldplains.

“Is she…?”

She didn’t finish her sentence, but Jade noticed the way both Alexander and Apollo nodded slightly and then shared a hidden smile with her. Those bastards, couldn’t they just
tell
her what they were plotting!?

“Am I what?”

“Our very special guest for as long as we stay here,” Apollo finished smoothly, slinging Jade’s bass over his shoulder. “Now come on. I’ll show you to your room and then we can go grab some dinner. I’m absolutely famished.”

Deflected as usual. Jade stared after him with her mouth open as Apollo grabbed a few suitcases along the way and marched into the house, chatting away happily with Ria. Okay, now that was just being impossible. She scowled slightly, but Alexander’s hand sliding around her shoulders and giving her a gentle push forward made that glowering look turn into a smile.

“Go on. We’ll explain everything soon. I promise.”

“Promise?” she asked, not sure whether she actually needed the confirmation or she just wanted to keep the conversation going.

“Promise,” Alexander confirmed, looking like a man she would be a fool to mistrust.

Okay then, on with the mystery.