Read Online Lovestruck, a Dragon Story by Bonnie Vanak - Free Book Online Page B

Quickly her father explained about the gathering clans.
    “King Falmouth has sent an official declaration of hostility to King Jasper. He wants your clan here at noon to come collect you, and then they will fight,” Barlow told them.
    Anna glanced at the clock above the kitchen sink. “We have only minutes. We will have to fly.”
    They went outside and shifted into dragon, Barlow and Anna into their smaller red dragon forms, and Michael into his immense black dragon form. Rising into the air, they then flew over the treetops, hugging the mountain, until spying the majestic turrets of the Clan Tyrith castle compound.
    They landed inside the castle yard and shifted back to skin. Outside, there was a tremendous roaring sound, and dread skated down her spine.
    “Come,” Barlow said.
    They went through the castle and out the front doors.
    Only to find her clan standing in the parking lot, King Falmouth at the center, seated on a makeshift throne.
    A few hundred feet across from her king, hundreds of black dragons surrounded another man seated on a second makeshift throne.
    King Jasper, Michael’s ruler.
    The two clans were facing off. It was too late. Her worst fears were coming true.
    They were going to fight.

Chapter 8

    Anna sucked down a trembling breath and placed her hand on her father’s arm, while shielding Michael with her body. “Papa, make the king see reason. He will listen to you.”
    Barlow gently disentangled himself from her grip. “No, I’m afraid not, pumpkin. He is beyond reason. Falmouth is guided only by fear.”
    He stretched out a hand and white flames shot from his fingertips, burning the asphalt and melting it. “I am one of the most powerful dragons in the world, daughter. I have evolved to use white fire from my hands while in Skin. But even I cannot sway the king’s mind on this. I have talked and talked and he will not listen to reason. He believes Clan Fury wants his territory, and now that Michael has taken the seeds, he sees that as proof.”
    A tall, menacing red dragon detached from the snarling crowd of her clan and strode toward Michael. Monroe. Oh gods. The first battle move would be made by her clan. Grief filled her.
    “Please, go home, all of you! This is my business. He is my mate!” she told them.
    “This is dragon business,” Monroe snapped. “You cannot mate with a black dragon, Anna. He will taint our bloodline.”
    Remembering how Monroe had rejected her because of her human skin while in dragon, she touched her scaled cheek. “Stop being such a pig-head and start acting like a real dragon!”
    Monroe. The dragon her father had hoped she would mate with, the male who’d shunned her quicker than others once he’d seen her dragonskin. The same dragon who had spotted Michael’s aura and ratted him out.
    Monroe held a long silver dagger, and he headed straight toward Michael. This fight would be in Skin and her mate would get seriously hurt. She’d seen Monroe use the knife before on downed prey, and his skill was deadly. As Monroe drew back his hand to throw, Anna did not hesitate.
    Her stomach wasn’t Skin. It was shatterproof, better than the toughest bulletproof vest. Anna leapt in front of Michael, taking the dagger intended for him.
    The knife tip ripped into her shirt, but bounced off her belly without denting it. She picked up the knife and threw it with perfect aim at another red dragon poised to throw yet another blade. The dagger sank into his thigh and he screamed and dropped the weapon.
    “Don’t touch my mate,” she snarled.
    “Anna, stay here,” Michael ordered.
    “Please, do not fight them,” she begged.
    He touched her scaled right cheek. “I’m not going to fight. I’m going to try to stop them all from killing each other.”
    Michael shifted and the other dragons did as well. They rose into the sky to battle.
    Anna’s confidence fled. Damnit, she had to help him stop the slaughter. But one dragon, plus her father, trying to stop a