Fire Dragon's Baby (Dragon Shifter Scifi Alien Romance) (Elemental Dragons Book 1) (6 page)

“I am prepared to do what needs to be done,” she said solemnly.

He couldn't have her fear him. For her to become open enough for her body to accept him, it would require her complete surrender.

“Bring me my son,” Salvatt said to the nanny standing to attention beside the door.

The nanny carted the baby’s hover carriage into the sitting room and extracted the child from within. The tiny little thing was set in Salvatt's arms, wiggling and soft like a small helpless animal. He held the child in his arms and gazed down into the baby’s dark, trusting eyes. Its little fist grabbed and yanked at his beard.

“My son is strong,” Salvatt said, jet eyes glittering fondly.

He held the child out in front of him, taking in the little creature’s face and form. The baby giggled and reached out to his mother. Salvatt stood from his chair and carried his son across the room where Celeste sat nervously drinking her tea. Salvatt sat beside her and handed her the baby. Shiloh was visibly happy to be in his mother’s arms again.

Celeste coed at the baby and in return the baby cooed back at his mother. Salvatt was dumbfounded by the display. He had never seen anything so touching or so beautiful in all of his long life as the Prince of the South.

“My son is bonded to you,” Salvatt said.

Celeste looked up at him and met his gaze, a slight smile tilted at the side of her mouth.

“I love him more than all the systems in all the galaxy in the universe. He’s my heart.”

She kissed the baby's head and rocked him in her arms. Salvatt marveled at the beauty of their combined love. He couldn’t rip his eyes from the image of them bonding with each other. His heart was full of a warm glow that ached inside him. It made him want to get closer to the woman and the child.

“The two of you bring joy to my heart,” Salvatt said.

Celeste looked up at him with her shy eyes and nodded.

He didn't understand why she was still so put off by him. During her long journey across the galaxy, she was supposed to be bonding with him in her own heart. All of the materials for her to do so had been provided from the beginning of the trip. She should have a greater affection for him at this point.

“If I may, I would like to go rest in my chambers,” Celeste said. “The child and I are tired.”

Salvatt rose from his seat, feeling rejected in a way that a Prince of Galaton should never feel.

“Of course,” he said “The chamberlains will take you. In the morning, we will take our meal together and discuss preparations for the mating ritual. As you know, we cannot wait any longer.”

She shot a glance at him that looked horribly to be a mixture of terror and loathing. But she quickly looked away and back at the child. He had never anticipated his bride would fear him. He’d been told that over the last year she would have grown attached to him. But clearly that was not the case.

So much time had been wasted, and he was at the end of his ability to cope with his impulse. He had to claim her.

Backing away, he gave her a slight bow with his hand to his heart.

“Until tomorrow,” he said. “I take my leave.”

She only glanced at him as he walked out the door. Salvatt left his mate and child in the sitting room and strode down the hall to the elevator at the end. He took it right down to the sparking ring.

He had to blow off some steam. To find his mate so repelled by him was a deep blow to his sense of himself as a prince and a ruler. He stepped into the sparking ring through the underground tunnel. There were a few nobles left in the fighting rings and there wasn't a single dead body on the floor.

Salvatt put his hands to his hips and looked around the arena for a fight. There didn’t seem to be one. A strong hand clapped him on the back.

“Your mate is a real beauty,” Admiral Ikoro said.

“That she is.”

“And why is the prince of the fire lands down in the fighting pits when he should be mating with his princess?” the admiral asked, a challenge in his voice.

“The princess and the child are fatigued. They must take their rest. The woman must prepare herself for the mating ritual. It is known to require a great deal of strength from the human female.”

“Indeed. You are the first on Galaton on to be mated, and you are an example to us all,” Admiral Ikoro said.

“I must prepare myself as well,” Salvatt said. “My bride and I will be utterly exhausted for the next several days during our mating ritual. I bid you farewell.”

Salvatt marched out of the fighting ring, into the elevator, and up to his suite. He needed to clear his mind. His dragon's incessant roaring to claim his mate was already beginning to distract him. The distraction would only grow worse.

5

T
he nanny escorted Celeste through the ornately decorated hallway to an elevator at the end. They sped upward to a much higher floor and then took another wide hallway to the sliding door of her suite.

The inside of her suite was at least three times larger than the apartment she’d had aboard the Rising Phoenix. It was an entire living space equipped with all of the modern conveniences one would find on either Earth or Draconia. Beyond the large front room, she spotted a balcony that looked out on the lush jungles of the fire lands.

The nanny followed her inside and stood to attention. She looked up at him, wanting him to leave.

“What are you doing?” she asked him.

“I’m here to help you with the child,” he said.

She’d trusted him enough on the landing pad because he’d come with a hover stroller. But she didn’t want him to stick around. She was used to taking care of her baby by herself.

“I’ll be fine.”

“I’ve been extensively trained.”

“I’m sure I’ll have use of your skills in the future. But tonight, I’d like to be alone with my son.”

“As you wish.”

He placed his hand on his heart and bowed slightly before turning to go. When the nanny had finally gone, she let out a deep breath and carried her child further into the room.

Celeste found a comfortable place to sit with Shiloh and tried to relax. Since she’d been excused to her chambers, fear and anxiety would not let her go. She felt as if she might be violently ill at any moment. Not wanting to be sick on her child, she put him in his hover cradle beside the couch. It began to rock softly and soon lulled Shiloh to sleep.

Celeste stepped through the chamber, her long flowing gown billowing out behind her. She walked out to the balcony that overlooked the vast jungle below and listened to the sounds of birds and animals calling from the tropical forest. The air on the side of the fortress facing away from the volcano had more moisture in it, and she took a deep breath, filling her lungs. The vast green landscape reminded her so much of home. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and began to slide down her face. She sniffled and wiped them away.

She would never see Earth again. She was stuck in this place with these barbaric people. As hard as she had tried to maintain her composure throughout her first meeting with Salvatt, the attack on the landing pad had shaken her to the core.

She had watched her mate jump into the sky and decapitate a dragon right in front of her.

Not only that, he’d already had a smear of blood across his cheek, from some previous battle. The man had been fighting, killing even, just before she had arrived.

How was she supposed to live in this barbaric place? Murder and mayhem were rare on Earth in the modern era. People simply did not go about killing each other. The struggle for power and dominance upon Galaton was completely foreign to her. There hadn’t been violence or war on Earth since the Mulgor attack twenty-five years ago. Celeste had only been Shiloh’s age at the time.

Fear pulsed through her body, numbing her limbs and clenching her heart. Her mate was the ruler of these lands. She had learned enough about Galaton to know exactly what that meant. There had been a clear display of it right outside on the landing pad.

Salvatt was the most brutal, most dangerous dragon among them. That was what it meant to be Prince of the South. It wasn't a distinction that was given to him without a fight. The dragons of Galaton had become increasingly violent in the last several decades since their dwindling population of females had begun to die out. Now that no females were left, the males of Galaton were out of control. Yet her mate continued to dominate the fire lands.

Celeste was the only female to set foot on the planet since the last one had died a year ago. She felt as if her soul was being ripped apart inside her body at the thought. Nothing in her life had prepared her for a place like this or to be mated to a man who ruled here.

All the time she had spent traveling across the galaxy to Galaton, she had been watching the videos and still images of Salvatt as she rubbed the special mating cream over her swelling body. Even after her child had been born she'd been instructed to continue using the lotion. And each time she gazed upon his picture and spread the cream over her skin, she felt more bonded to him than she had before.

But now that she was here and she had met him in person, she realized that all of the feelings she had accumulated over the months of travel had been a fantasy. This man was nothing like the one she had been expecting. She had been well aware that he would be a warrior but she had somehow fooled herself into believing this wouldn’t bother her; that he would be different.

He had been nothing but civilized to her. But his display of power and dominance on the landing pad frightened her so completely that she didn't know if she could ever allow him to touch her.

Even though she knew all he was trying to do was protect her from a threat, the violence of it was imprinted on her mind. Celeste had never seen someone killed. She had never seen death dealt right in front of her. And it was something her consciousness rebelled against accepting.

She turned away from the view of the forest and walked back into her chamber, her padded steps silent on the cool tile floor. She pushed the hover cradle into the bedroom and set it beside the big soft bed that was waiting for her.

Celeste slipped out of her formal gown, finding her clothes already unpacked in her closet. She wished she’d brought something else with her to remind her of the life she had once lived on Earth.

Compared to Galaton, Earth was a civilized and peaceful place. Everyone was equally taken care of and humans and Draconians lived in harmony. Galaton was the exact opposite. There was no harmony among the Draconian males, only a constant struggle for dominance.

Salvatt believed that the birth of his heir would bring an end to the power struggle. But Celeste knew he couldn’t guarantee that. If one of these enraged males was able to get close to her and her son, they would no doubt kill them both in an attempt to gain control of the fire lands.

Celeste pulled on her favorite pair of red flannel pjs and climbed into the bed. She looked over at the hover cradle sitting beside her bed and laid her head against the pillow. Watching her baby sleep, she tried to calm herself and think about the good things that might happen between her and Salvatt here on Galaton.

He was her child's father. There was no denying that. She wanted to bond with him for the child's sake. That was the reason she had come here in the first place. He was her fated mate and therefore perfect for her in every way. That’s how it was supposed to be anyway.

She pressed her eyes closed, squeezing out more tears that dropped on the pillow. She wanted to believe that Salvatt could really love her and that she could really love him back.

But all she could see as she tried to sleep was him jumping into the air and decapitating a dragon right in front of her. The shock of it still reverberated through her blood, and she couldn't manage to rest for hours.

Celeste woke the next morning to the light of the sun shining through her window. It had been a year since she had been on the surface of a planet and had felt the rays of real sunshine on her skin. She pulled herself out of bed with new resolve. She had come to Galaton to be the bride and the mate of the prince of the South. It was her duty and her destiny. She would not fail.

She picked up little Shiloh and carried him into the kitchen of her apartment. There were already bottles of Draconian formula prepared for her in the refrigerator. All she had to do was put it on the warmer for thirty seconds before it was the perfect temperature for her baby.

She took her child and the bottle into the living room and sat at a sitting area to feed him.

He sucked hungrily, looking up at her with the most trusting, loving eyes. She absolutely adored little Shiloh. In the three months between his birth and their arrival on Galaton, Celeste had learned that she was capable of a whole new level of emotion. Her love and adoration for Shiloh were boundless.

Having him had given her almost everything she’d longed for before she’d left Earth. Shiloh was her heart and her soul, and she wanted more than anything to have a similar connection with his father. Shiloh deserved to have parents who loved each other and who looked at each other with the same level of adoration she felt for their child.

She thought of Salvatt as she gazed down at her baby who sucked away at his bottle. The fantasy she had created about Salvatt over the long months aboard the Rising Phoenix had been destroyed. The truth was that the barbaric man she had originally been terrified of really was the person she found waiting for her on Galaton.

He was a warrior, a chieftain, of this barbaric tribal civilization. She knew how much strength and courage it took to do what Salvatt had done on the landing pad. His abrupt decapitation of the dragon terrified her, but he had saved her and her baby. She should be grateful.

Shiloh finished his bottle but he still seemed hungry. Celeste stood from the couch, carrying her child. She took the empty bottle back to the kitchen and prepared them a second one. Shiloh was growing bigger every day and was becoming a curious young dragonling. He would have his first shift by age two. By then, she would be even more grateful to have his father in their lives.