Fire in Her Eyes Read online

  Fire In Her Eyes

  A Fireblood Dragon Romance

  Ruby Dixon

  Copyright © 2019 by Ruby Dixon

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Photo by: Sara Eirew Photographer

  Cover Design by: Kati Wilde

  Edits: Aquila Editing

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  FIRE IN HER EYES

  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

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  More Books, You Say?

  WANT TO CONNECT?

  FIRE IN HER EYES

  For months, I've been chased by a red dragon. They're the females of the dragon shifter invaders, fierce and vicious and as ruthless as they are wild. She hunts me wherever I go, and I'm not safe even behind the walls of a fort. There's only one thing I can do to stop her…

  …And that's to take her as my mate.

  But to win the heart of a female dragon, I have to conquer her first. Not so easy for a human man...but Teva's worth the challenge.

  1

  TEVA

  The scent is back. The intoxicating one.

  It is male. Unmated. Exciting.

  I inhale deeply, breathing in the scent of it with delight. It smells so good, so strong and thick on the air that I can almost bathe in it. I preen at the male’s scent, because it’s like nothing I’ve experienced before. It is masculine and strong and other. The other part confuses me, but the rest is so appealing that I go to seek it out. I launch into the air, and something tells me to be silent about it. To be wily. To sneak.

  So I do.

  I fly toward the scent and then dip into the mass of empty ground nests that stink of humans and are strangely square. I crawl along the flat roads between them, careful to be stealthy. To be silent. It is fun, this game. I like it.

  The wind shifts and I am washed in the male’s scent again. My scales heat, my blood heats. Everything heats. This is an unmated male, and I want to challenge him. My talons curl into the rock of the roads, digging into the hard ground and my tail twitches. I need to have him claim me before another female tastes his scent on the air and decides he should be hers.

  He is mine. All mine.

  I slide forward a bit more, and then I can see someone moving in the distance.

  It is a human, not a drakoni. I bite back my disappointment. He must not be the male I scent, then. The male I smell is drakoni, powerful and masculine and alluring. This creature is in his two-legged form and as I watch, he throws an orange object into the grass. A black and brown animal rushes forward, following the bright orange and catches it in midair.

  The man, the human, laughs.

  And I am…intrigued.

  I like that sound. It reminds me of…other things. I blink slowly, trying to recall what those things are. Gone things, the fire in my belly says. Things you once had and can have no longer. All you have is me and I want to come out.

  Not yet, I tell my fire. I want to see what the male is doing.

  I ignore the flames licking at my throat and focus on the human before me. He stands in the tall grasses, and his face is creased in a bright smile that shows no sharp teeth.

  Puny, my belly fires scoff. A human.

  But he smells like drakoni, and the lure of him is irresistible. I continue to watch him as he squats and the black-and-tan creature rushes back to him, the orange object in his hands. The human stands and lifts it into the air—and then throws it far away from him again. Once more, the other creature goes after it.

  Confusing. Is he trying to tire his prey out before he eats it?

  Does it matter? Let us just kill him, my belly fires say. He cannot be your mate.

  The human male laughs again and it makes me sad and wistful. I like his sounds. I like the happy noises he makes. I want to make them. For a moment, I wonder what he will do if I go and grab the orange thing if he throws it again. Will he come and take it from me? Or will he expect me to bring it to him like a servant?

  And then you will just roll on your belly and let him mount you? Without any challenge? My belly fires are disgusted.

  They should be. A female who lets herself be taken with no challenge at all is unworthy. Shameful. But do we like him? Is he worth a mating challenge?

  Can you challenge a human male? Even one that smells as good as that one?

  I do not know the answer. There is only one way to find out.

  2

  GABE

  I see the big red dragon a moment before she bugles in triumph and takes to the skies.

  Her again.

  My ever-present pain in the ass.

  There’s barely enough time to grab Scooter—not easy considering the German Shepherd weighs almost a hundred pounds—and haul ass to the gates. Before I can get there, the bells are going off and on the roof of the old school, Rast rises into the air, all golden scales and bright wings. His back is empty, which means his human mate is somewhere inside the fort.

  “Dragon,” a woman bellows. “Everyone inside. Grab the plants!”

  Someone groans, and there’s no fear like there normally is, just annoyance and disgust. The guards—both women—close the gates behind me and then we’re all jogging to safety in the big old gymnasium. Once upon a time, Fort Shreveport was an elementary school, but now it’s just a fort and one of the last civilized places left in the world.

  And it’s my fault this one’s under fire.

  Dragons are a part of this new world. They attack like clockwork, and even though they’re wild and impossible to kill, they’re not too hard to predict. Usually. Unfortunately for me, this particular red dragon’s been following me for months now and she’s followed me all the way back to Fort Shreveport, my new home.

  Because she’s fixated on me, it means everyone’s in danger, and I know it. I’m not sure what to do about it, either.

  So I set Scooter down the moment I get into the gates. “Go inside,” I tell him. “Go find Benny.”

  The dog wags his tail and takes off, racing into the open doors of the school and past the woman ushering people inside. I make for the plants, grabbing the handles of two flatbeds and dragging them into the gymnasium as quickly as possible. Rast will hold her off, but if she’s in one of her crazier moments, that doesn’t mean we won’t get flamed.

  For a brief time, I’m one of many scrambling to get the plants into the gym and into safety, because those plants represent food for dozens of people and each one is important. I race back to the doors but they slam shut just as the dragon roars overhead.

  “That’s everything,” a woman announces. “All the plants are safe. Now we just wait it out. Everyone take a seat.”

  I suck in a deep breath, ignoring how hot it is inside the gym. Light filters in from a few unbroken windows near the ceiling, and I sl
ump against the wall. My throat’s parched and I’m sweating, but I just have to live with it. Everything waits until the dragon leaves.

  Scooter comes over to my side and flops down into my lap, panting. I absently rub his ears and scan the room for Benny, but it’s hard to tell in the low light. The leafy plants make a makeshift forest in the center of the floor, but there are people lined up against the walls. Nearby, a little boy huddles against his mother, and farther down, I see a woman who immediately looks away the moment we make eye contact.

  Everyone knows this is my fault. The red’s drawn to my scent for some reason, and she won’t be reasoned with. She’s crazy. Utterly insane, just like every dragon in the After.

  The dragon roars overhead, only to be met with a second roar from Rast himself. For a moment, I can feel a stab of…something…through my brain.

  Anger. Frustration. Need. That’s the female.

  Then I feel Rast’s response. His protectiveness. His anger.

  I try to blot it out, focusing instead on Scooter and his thick, shedding coat. The happy wags of his tail, as if it’s no big deal that a dragon’s overhead. For a moment, I want to be more like him. A little damaged in the head, a little slow, but happy.

  The female lets out another shriek and a blast of her thoughts. She’s furious at being chased off, but I can sense her defeat. She’s leaving soon enough.

  I shouldn’t be able to pick up her thoughts, her emotions. I’m a normal human man. Or I was before I had a blood transfusion from a dragon. Now, everything’s a little different, and I’m not sure what to make of it. All I know is that I can sense the female’s emotions as she leaves, her frustration, her unhappiness.

  Teva. Her name is Teva, even if she doesn’t remember it.

  Someone drops down next to me. I jerk in surprise, too lost in the dragon’s chaotic mind to notice the approach. It’s Benny, his teenage form lanky. He stretches long, skinny legs out next to me. “You feel it?”

  “Yeah.” Benny also got the dragon-blood transfusion a month ago, and it’s changed him just like it changed me. His eyes are now gold like mine. We’re immune to small sicknesses that crop up, and we’re susceptible to picking up dragon thoughts and emotions when they come through loudly. We didn’t expect to acquire a mind-link with dragons. I know Benny hates it. But the dragon blood was a last-ditch effort to fight off the plague, and since we lived? I’m calling it a win. I just need to learn to live with the new noise in my head.

  Benny rubs Scooter’s head absently, his expression troubled. “Katrina feels it too, but not as much as me.”

  I grunt. “Maybe because it’s a girl she’s calling out to guys.”

  “Maybe.” He scratches the dog’s muzzle. “Scooter’s the calmest one here.”

  “That’s because he’s dumb as rocks.” I rub the dog’s slobbery face and grin down at him. “Aren’t you, boy?”

  Scooter tries to lick my nose, excited. It sounds cruel to say my dog’s dumb as a brick, but he is. When I found him, he had blood crusted on his swollen head, the imprint of a boot-mark on his muzzle, and a collar that had been on for so long that it had cut into his skin. His tag said Scooter, so I kept the name. Way I figure, he was some kid’s pet that managed to survive the apocalypse and did a fine job of it until some shitbag nomad kicked the stuffing out of him. He’s a big dummy, but a loveable one. I scratch at the thick ruff of fur on his neck. “So is Katrina in here?”

  “Nah, she’s sitting inside with Charlie. I just knew she’s been hearing the dragons too because she told me the last time the girl dragon flew close. All those crazy thoughts in her head scared her.”

  I nod slowly, thinking. Katrina’s strong, and young. She’ll learn to cope with the noise in her head. Now Charlie—that’s another problem that needs solving.

  There’s one last pulse of emotion, and I can tell Benny feels it too, because he goes stiff. It’s a sharp pang of distress, and it makes me feel…unsettled. I know she’s looking for me, but I don’t know why. Wish I could talk to her. To Teva. To tell her that she’s terrifying the kids and she needs to calm it down. To tell her that we just all want to live quietly in peace.

  She won’t listen, though. Her sanity is completely gone. Rast and Liam have both tried to talk to her, to reason with her when she gets too close to the fort. All they got was a head full of gibberish and conversations that led nowhere. Just like all the dragons that came through the Rift, her mind has been torn apart by this world. They got her name and that’s about it.

  Teva.

  I like the sound of it. Makes me wonder what a dragon woman would look like. Is she all red scales and big teeth? Or is she pretty and soft like Rast’s mate Amy?

  Probably not. Amy’s completely human. Teva would be something different entirely.

  The bell clangs, indicating that it’s all clear, and a baby immediately begins to cry. I look up and the mother stares at me with accusing eyes even as she opens her shirt to nurse her kid. Fuck. I can’t even be angry.

  I know this is my fault, too. Guilty, I get to my feet.

  Everyone goes and grabs a cart handle, ready to pull the plants back into the sunshine for the rest of the day. I pull my carts out, then go back for more, even as my mind whirls. Benny’s chatting with me but I’m not listening. I’m too distracted. I keep thinking about Teva. About the baby crying, and the accusing eyes of its mother. I can’t stay here if I’m endangering everyone. We can’t live under a constant onslaught. One of the reasons Fort Shreveport is so safe is because Amy and her dragon Rast are here to guard over the people. Rast chases off the majority of dragons that head through our territory, but it doesn’t feel right that Teva’s going to dive-bomb the fort over and over again just because I’m here.

  Thing is, I’m not sure I can go, either.

  Men are few and far between and I’m pretty much the only guy in the fort under the age of sixty and over the age of fifteen. I know more about the streets and how to get around than most do. I know how to trap, I know how to hunt, and I know what to find in the buildings from the Before that a younger kid might not. I’m needed here. A month ago, I showed up with Charlie, Lester and Major and the handful of survivors from Fort Justice. I feel responsible for all of them, which means I’m the primary scavenger. I hunt. I go looking for drugs or medicine. Hell, sometimes it’s just helping out around the fort. Yesterday I tightened all the bolts on the toilets because no one could figure out why it was leaking, and there’s no plumber.

  I feel like I’m needed. It’s a good feeling…but I also hate that I’m endangering everyone.

  Fucking Teva. If she’d just leave…or at least let me know what the hell she wants.

  I mop my brow once the last cart is in place. It’s hot, the midday sun beating down on the broken blacktop that just devours the heat and makes it worse. I notice that most of the Fort folks already went inside, and Benny claps my shoulder like we’re bros and points at a shaded overhang, where a few people are lounging to get out of the heat. “Come on. Let’s get a drink. It’s hot as shit out here.”

  I don’t join him. The mom with the baby is there and I don’t want to see her accusing eyes. “I’ll catch up in a bit. I gotta do something first.”

  He flops down onto the concrete in the shade and someone offers him a battered plastic bottle full of water. I step over them and head into the school, where it’s almost as hot. There’s no breeze here but the interior makes it slightly cooler. Only slightly, though. Inside, there’s a fair amount of people, most carrying hand fans made of paper. I make a mental note to look for more of them the next time I head out, because that’s one thing we can always use.

  I head down the main hall, past the stripped lockers and colorful flowers that have been painted on the walls. I know Benny’s girlfriend Katrina wants to do some of her spray-paint art—tagging—inside, but she hasn’t been able to because the fumes are too choking and there’s elderly inside. That’s one of the things that makes Fort Shreveport so wel
coming—that they don’t turn away the elderly. That’s happened far too often in the last seven years for my tastes.

  “Oh, Gabe! There you are!”

  I inwardly cringe as Kayla approaches me. Her eyes are big and frightened and her long blonde hair is drawn into a braid that hangs perfectly over her shoulder. “You need something, Kayla?” I ask politely, but I don’t stop heading down the hall toward Amy’s private quarters.

  “I was just so frightened,” she says in a baby voice even as she clings to my arm. “I wanted you at my side so I’d feel safe.” She tugs on me, forcing me to stop—it’s either that or knock her down and drag her along with me, and that isn’t really all that polite. I force myself to stop and she blinks her big eyes up at me.

  “It’s a dragon,” I say politely. “Happens all the time.”

  “I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t get scared.” She bites her lip and then looks up at me. “Do you think you can sit with me for a bit? Just until I feel better?”

  That’s another problem on my plate. The fort here is awesome in many ways—they have enough food for all, they’re organized and polite, no one’s power mad, and the elderly are as welcome as children. There’s not a lot of men, though, and I’ve gotten uncomfortably aware at how a few of the women—those that don’t blame me for the red dragon on my ass—look at me like their next meal ticket.

  They’re nice girls, too. Kayla’s sweet and she’s pretty enough to turn heads. Good body. I have no doubt that if I let things progress, she’d be in my bed in a matter of days and I’d have acquired myself an apocalypse wife. She wouldn’t be with me out of love or any sort of tender emotion, but because I’m a good provider and I’d keep her safe.