The Heat of the Dragon's Heart: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Fantasy Romance (Harem of Fire Book 2) Read online

  The Heat of the Dragon's Heart

  Harem of Fire Book 2

  Willa Hart

  Contents

  About This Book

  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

  Afterword

  Excerpt from The Flame of the Dragon’s Heart

  About the Author

  About This Book

  They saved her life. Can she save theirs?

  My guys saved me from a deadly attack by enemy dragons, but that doesn't mean we're out of danger. Not by a long shot.

  For the last five years, I hated them, but I've learned to trust them. And not just with my life, but with my heart as well. I don't understand how I can be so drawn to each of them equally, but whenever we're together I feel so...complete.

  It's a mystery.

  As is why a rogue dragon from Romania wants to kill me. At first I think he's simply crazy, but when I learn the truth about what he's done, it's me who wants to kill him.

  Bummer that he's an all-powerful dragon and I'm just a measly human. But as my connection with my guys deepens, my dragon keeper powers grow. Will it be enough to save myself and those I love?

  The Heat of the Dragon’s Heart is the Book 2 in the Harem of Fire series. Find Book 3 here ➡ The Flame of the Dragon’s Heart

  Don’t miss the FREE PREQUEL, The Glow of the Dragon’s Heart, on your favorite ebook retailer.

  Chapter One

  Darkness shrouded the room, the only source of light coming from a wrought-iron, rather brutal-looking fixture suspended from the ceiling, over the center of the chamber. The fixture held seven candles, three on each side and one in the middle, which remained unlit. The candlelight flickered, casting shadowy shapes to dance along the stone walls. It was no crystal chandelier, that was for sure.

  I didn’t recognize the room, but it felt familiar in a way I couldn’t have explained even if someone was holding a blowtorch to my head. It looked like the secret meeting room of some ancient society — windowless, with the pungent smell of earth and moisture and age filling the cramped space like a fog.

  Underground, I thought. Not just from that peculiar scent, but the air felt different. Pressurized. Dead. No airflow from any direction, no sound penetrated the thick rock walls.

  How did I get here? I wondered as my eyes adjusted to the dim light. More importantly, how do I get out?

  Fear shot adrenaline into my system and my heart pounded so loud I could barely hear my own internal dialogue. But something managed to make it past the thud-thud-thudding. A voice. A familiar voice that calmed me immediately, even though it took a minute to recognize it. Then more voices joined the first.

  The figures were hard to make out at first, but as my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, they materialized into human shapes. Six men sat at an absolutely massive table, roughly hewn into the shape of a crescent moon. The heavy wooden chair in the middle of the curve sat empty.

  I knew without a doubt the chair belonged to Maximus Novak, my great-uncle by marriage. He’d left Los Angeles a week earlier, and no one had seen him since. Well, no one except me, but that had only been in a vision. Sort of. More like Facetime without the smartphones. Still, I knew instinctively he was meant to be here for whatever was going on, right in the center position. Since Uncle Max was the casique — the leader — of the local dragon weir, I had a pretty good idea who the other six men were.

  The council of elders must have called a meeting, though judging by the sour expressions on their faces, it looked more like an interrogation. I followed their intense gazes to the center of the room, where another man’s figure resolved in my hazy vision. He stood in the center of a stark white circle of marble, wearing a pair of well-loved sweatpants, a black hoodie and running shoes. His hair was a jumbled mess, and not in a purposeful way. It looked more like a serious, and very sexy, case of bedhead.

  My nipples hardened before my brain realized who I was looking at, mostly because I’d never seen him in anything other than a perfectly pressed power suit. But there was no mistaking Kellum Novak, the oldest of Max’s five great-nephews and the first I’d ever met face-to-face. Why was he here, looking as if he’d been dragged out of his bed?

  For that matter, why was I here?

  And exactly where the hell was here anyway?

  As I glanced around the chamber, I wondered if I actually was here at all. No one seemed to notice me, not even Kellum. My body ached to rush to him, hold him, tell him everything would be okay. But I didn’t know that, primarily because I had no idea what was happening. I took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and focused on what the elders were saying.

  “Yes, I know what time it is, Kellum,” said a very handsome, middle-aged man with dusky skin. Candlelight glinted off his steel-gray hair, then highlighted his equally steely gray eyes. He sat in the chair immediately left of Uncle Max’s. “But the other elders have tasked me with interviewing everyone involved in the…incident.”

  “I understand that, Lazlo,” Kellum said, “but couldn’t it have waited until morning?”

  Lazlo Aurelius was the owner of Drakonis Security Systems and the man who’d lured away Max’s nephews from Maximus Investigations. I’d never met the man, but I’d heard plenty from Max — mostly unpleasant. Then again, he’d harbored some pretty severe resentment against the dragon for poaching his nephews. Of course, since meeting the nephews in question, I’d learned a lot more about the situation than Max had ever admitted. Namely, that the boys had left so Max wouldn’t go broke paying them.

  “Kellum, I would suggest that the weir’s safety is of utmost importance, no matter the time of day or night. Wouldn’t you?”

  Kellum’s lips pressed into a hard line as he nodded, a silent agreement to be interviewed.

  “For the past two hundred years, our weir has lived in almost unprecedented peace,” Lazlo announced grandly, for all to hear. “Now the time has come to acknowledge the threat in our midst.”

  “Perhaps we’ve grown complacent regarding our place in this world,” agreed the ancient relic sitting to Lazlo’s left.

  A slightly younger relic, this one with long black hair and olive skin snorted his disdain. “Peacetime makes sitting ducks of us all, Almeric. Tybalt, what say you?”

  Tybalt sat on the other side of Max’s empty chair, a portly man with a salt and pepper crew cut and a bulbous red nose. “I say you shouldn’t be such a grump, Gerard.” He leaned back and turned his piercing gaze back to Kellum. “But more to the point, how can we control an outside attack if we can’t keep members of our own weir in line? And maybe someone could tell me where Maximus might be? As our casique, he should be here. I hope he doesn’t think he’s too important to attend these meetings, especially when his own blood is involved. Did you try reaching out to him, Percival?”

  The man next to him, the youngest of the six, looked positively insulted. “Of course! But I’m afraid I couldn’t locate him.” He pulled his round glasses from his nose and polished the lenses furiously, as
if that was a way to distract himself when he was nervous. Shoving them back in place, he scowled at Tybalt. “I’m certain Max has a perfectly reasonable, um, reason for not being here.”

  “Maybe we should start by asking the young man before us where his great-uncle might be,” said the last of the elders.

  He reminded me of old portraits of the founding fathers, with his ruddy complexion, bright blue eyes, dull gray curls secured back in a low ponytail, and pompous way of carrying himself. He looked like the kind of man who would carry a musket rather than a handgun. How the hell did he survive in the modern world? Even Max was more with-it than this guy, and that was saying something.

  “I wish I knew, Elder Bob,” Kellum said in an even tone.

  I snorted at the fact the George Washington impersonator was named Bob. Bob! I quickly slapped a hand over my mouth, but that’s when I realized it really didn’t matter. No one heard me. No one saw me. I was here and not here. It was like a dream, where I watched the scene unfold but wasn’t able to interact. I was a silent, invisible spectator of a sport I had no business playing. And Kellum was the star player. More than anything, I wanted him to know I was there, supporting him, but he didn’t seem to need it. If anything, he appeared to be annoyed by the theatrics of the meeting.

  Lazlo leveled a penetrating look at Kellum. “As I said, I’ve been tasked with leading the investigation to what happened in Ventura County, Kellum.”

  I bristled at the announcement this time. Now that I understood what was happening, I wanted to storm up to Lazlo and scold him. Uncle Max was the casique, not him. But since no one could hear or see me, I swallowed my irritation and tried to pay attention.

  “I gave you, your brothers and your cousins time away from Drakonis to help with your uncle’s latest case. I did that out of courtesy to our casique, as well as to help one of our most prestigious families. My understanding is that Bertram Trinkas hired Maximus to find his wayward brother, Enoch.”

  “And we found him,” Kellum said, head held high.

  “Yet, now he’s dead. Explain.”

  Bile rose in my throat recalling Enoch’s terrible death at the hands…correction, flames of enemy dragons. I’d been cradling the man in my arms when he took his last breath and faded out of existence. Tears sprang into my eyes again, reliving the horror of that day. And now Kellum, who’d led the fight, was being questioned as if he’d killed Enoch himself, instead of doing everything in his power to save him. Even at a distance, I could see his jaw tense up as he tried to control his own emotions.

  “We followed the clues as best we could, all of us working around the clock to find Enoch and bring him home. All while covering our cases at Drakonis, I might add, Lazlo. Unfortunately, when we finally tracked him down to Ventura County, it was too late. Ash and Hale Campbell were interrogating him in his hideout when the Romanian dragon Titus attacked.”

  This time my jaw clenched. I’d been the one interrogating Enoch, but considering the setting, I understood why Kellum left that out. Max would have understood why I’d taken the lead. These walking corpses? Not so much.

  “My brothers and I arrived very quickly. We fought hard to keep Titus and his crew from doing any more damage, but there were only three of us in the sky and five of them.”

  “And where were your cousins? Why didn’t they join the fray?” grouchy Elder Gerard asked.

  Kellum took a deep breath. “They remained on the ground to protect Enoch and Favor. When it was clear we wouldn’t win the air battle, we flew down and formed a protective dome around them.”

  “Dome?” Elder Bob asked, looking utterly confused.

  “Yes, we encircled them and spread our wings, creating a sort of dome. As it turns out, it was more like a fortress because the flames from our enemies ricocheted off our wings and back onto them. That’s what stopped the attack and sent them packing.”

  The council fell silent, staring at Kellum as if he’d just said bears don’t shit in the woods. Finally, the frailest of the bunch, Almeric, spoke up. “Tell us more about this ricochet.”

  “I’d rather hear about this Favor person you mentioned,” Percival interrupted. “Who’s that?”

  I shivered at the sound of my name, my stomach twisting into knots.

  Lazlo held up a hand to silence the others. “Favor Fiske is the great-niece of Maximus’s human mate.”

  “Why was a human female present during the battle with the Romanian?” blustered Tybalt. “Is she the reason why Enoch Trinkas died?”

  Kellum glared at the chubby elder, clenching his fists at the accusation. “Actually, she’s the reason my brothers and I even knew to come to battle. She called to us.”

  Two of the elders scoffed at the claim, but Percival leaned forward, curious. “Called to you? How?”

  Kellum licked his lips, and I could feel his hesitation. He was afraid no one would believe him, yet he barreled on anyway.

  “She has the ability to contact us with her mind. Me, my brothers and cousins, as well as Max. Even from a great distance.”

  “Hogwash,” snorted Gerard. “A human girl, capable of telepathy with a dragon, much less multiple ones? Hogwash!”

  “No, sir,” Kellum said with respect. “In fact, she’s the last of us to have spoken with Max since his disappearance.”

  “Is she his par’tia, his dragon keeper?” Lazlo asked.

  Kellum hesitated again, and I knew why. “That hasn’t been determined yet.”

  “Then how? Only par’tias — and only exceptionally powerful ones at that — have the ability to communicate with their dragons at a distance.”

  “All I can tell you is what she told us. She saw him in a dream or vision. He spoke to her, gave her vital information she could not have known otherwise, and directed her to find Enoch at all costs. Favor was instrumental in the entire process.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a dragon keeper,” Lazlo said coolly. “Sounds like a human girl with lofty aspirations to be like her father.”

  “I knew the name Fiske sounded familiar,” good ol’ Bob said, slapping his hand on the table. “Franklin Fiske, right? He was a powerful keeper.”

  “As is Favor,” Kellum said, taking a step closer to the table. “She’s smart and clever and beautiful. So what if she hasn’t found her dragon yet? She has the insight of a keeper, pushing us in the right direction time and again. We never would have found Enoch without her.”

  Kellum and I had shared an intense connection when we first met, but I’d never heard him speak so fondly of me before. Coming from a man in his position as a respected private investigator, I couldn’t have been more flattered that he thought of me as smart and clever, and of course I didn’t mind in the slightest that he thought I was beautiful. In fact, I thought he was all of those very same things. To hear it with my own ears — even if it was only through some developing dragon keeper skill — caused my entire body to flush and my chest to hitch with emotion.

  “Aww,” I sighed, unable to contain myself.

  To my shock and horror, Lazlo’s head whipped in my direction. I froze and my heart stopped, or at least felt like it. I thought I was invisible, that they couldn’t hear or see me. Since he was the only one to turn my way, that was probably the case, but I didn’t like the way he was staring my way. Not at me, exactly, but in my general direction. No way was I ready to be discovered eavesdropping on a super-secret elder meeting, so I closed my eyes and sort of clenched. Every part of me.

  The claustrophobic chamber faded away, then I sat up in my bed with a gasp. Cold sweat slicked my forehead and my pulse pounded in my temple as I blinked into the darkness of my bedroom. I hoped Aunt Shirley was sleeping soundly enough in her and Max’s room down the hall that she didn’t hear my gasp. Not even Zoe flinched, and she was lying in bed next to me. I couldn’t help smiling at her slumbering form, recalling how I’d kicked the ass of the guy who’d roofied her a few days earlier. It had felt good to protect my best friend like that.

&
nbsp; It had also felt good to hear Kellum singing my praise. Really good. All-the-way-down-to-my-toes good. As in, lying in bed next to my best friend while feeling all warm and fuzzy and turned on was totally and completely awkward as hell.

  A quick glance at the clock on my bedside table told me the alarm would go off in about five minutes. I flicked it off and slid out of bed quietly, the remnants of my vision hanging on like honey sliding down my skin. Maybe a cold shower would help.

  An hour or so later, Zoe left for our accounting class at the local community college, promising to take notes for me. After the week I’d had, I decided to skip class. Besides, I really wanted to know how Kellum’s meeting had turned out after I disapparated, or whatever I did. I made a mental note to text our friend Alisha Taylor for her notes instead, not that I would tell my bestie that. Zoe Walsman had a good heart, but she didn’t have a head for accounting. Of course, first I needed to set up the new phone Kellum had brought for me after I misplaced my old one somewhere. Despite the ease of downloading all your info from the cloud, switching phones was still a pain.

  “Wait, the entire elder council was there?” Ash asked me.

  All my boys, minus Kellum, sat around Aunt Shirley’s kitchen table, munching on bagels and chugging her incredible coffee. Shirley was busy whipping up a massive batch of scrambled eggs, which made my mouth water thinking about them. The woman was a culinary dynamo, always offering the most incredible comfort food anyone could ask for. Having spent most of my life skipping breakfast or simply grabbing a handful of stale cereal out of a box at various foster homes, home-cooked meals were still a luxury for me.