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  Over Easy

  The Dragon Born Academy 2

  T.L. Christianson

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  * * *

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact us at:

  https://www.tlchristianson.com

  * * *

  Copyright © 2020 by T.L. Christianson

  Edited by Kjirsten Territ

  Cover by Raquel Lyon At Crooked Sixpence

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

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  Prologue

  Ashe

  I thought I knew what love was.

  I thought I knew what lust was.

  I never thought they’d be so tightly entangled and come in the form of a sassy mouthed teenager...

  I’d woken up that cold day in January, prepared to take my girlfriend out to dinner at the fanciest Italian restaurant in the nearby mountain town—which really wasn’t much, but it was enough.

  I’d bought the ring, a round cut diamond in a gold band.

  It was traditional and expected. Lacy was loyal, from the right family, and she deserved my commitment after years of wavering on my part even though I’d always known that she wasn’t ‘the one.’ I wasn’t a big believer in ‘the one’ until I stepped through that door in the guest house and saw her—Sydney.

  She sat in a pool of white blankets—her sun-touched skin barely covered by a pink lace top and the covers bunched up around her waist. Her hands were raised in a stretch before she ran them through her messy blond hair. One long, bronzed leg hung off the bed, her graceful foot arched, toes skimming the wood floor.

  I stood frozen in place, staring.

  I’d experienced desire before, but never a primal hunger like what she brought out in me.

  My dragon Eondian whispered in my ear, Cross the threshold. Take her. Now.

  When a smile played at the edges of her pink lips, I wanted to close the space and...

  But all my discipline held me in place—kept me away from everything my primal self wanted. I was a soldier, a candidate for Dragonborn Prime Leader, an honorable man.

  This was a student.

  I was an intruder in her room.

  Angry at my own reaction, I barked an order at her to get dressed.

  Yet I stood there, my feet rooted to the spot, unable to break our connection.

  Thankfully, at least she had the good sense to kick me out.

  This wasn’t me—fawning over some girl. Strategy and logic guided my life. I wasn’t some lust ridden teenager. As I paced the hall, I tried to make sense of what I’d felt, but there was no logic to this situation.

  All that day, I couldn’t think; I couldn’t even eat. Sydney haunted my every thought, leading me back to her as if by compulsion.

  So when I learned she was having the Awakening Ritual for the first time, I was shocked.

  No one had the ritual this old. No one.

  It was performed at a pliable young age for several reasons, including safety and efficacy. I knew how this would end—the ritual would fail, and the girl would be turned away from the academy.

  But I had to see it for myself.

  I couldn’t walk away.

  Lacy was helping with the ritual, so it wasn’t too difficult to get myself invited.

  During the entire journey to the cave, Eondian shifted and squirmed over my skin in his tattoo form. He’d never acted this way, snorting smoke and pressing my control to keep him locked.

  I thought I must’ve affected him. My reaction to the girl had been unexpected and maybe something about it ruffled his scales.

  Maybe I was having cold feet.

  Everyone knew about the upcoming proposal. Secrets don’t last long among the Dragonborn. Lacy knew. Her students probably knew. I’m sure our mothers had chatted and giggled over the forthcoming news.

  Was this just an excuse? Cold feet?

  Maybe, I thought.

  But an inner compulsion drove me to see this thing to the end.

  Then, when Lacy told me the ritual had failed, I wasn’t surprised. I was disappointed and a little relieved, but not surprised.

  The girl would leave and everything would go back to normal.

  Only Eondian had been like a dog with a bone… or more like a dragon with its treasure. He burned on my skin, his mind swirling with dragon thoughts that I couldn’t comprehend.

  I kept him in check for a while…

  This girl, Sydney, radiated something powerful. Headmistress Angeven and I could sense it—the only two Primes in the group. So it was decided to try the ritual again.

  The veil was thin here. The tincture we drank helped us to pierce into the dragon realm and forge a bond if there was one to be had. We sat in the sacred cavern once more, over the girl, saying the words to the ancient ritual. My heart began to race in excitement.

  I continued to struggle with Eondian. The beast wanted free and tested my control. My dragon had never, ever acted like this before, and it scared me… there was something about the girl.

  What is wrong with you? I chided him.

  Need, need, need, he’d grunted, throwing me off balance. Eondian was aloof and not one to chatter, but his one-word growls alarmed me. I never lost control over him …

  Until a momentary distraction started a chain of events that would change the course of Dragonborn history.

  I’d been watching the blanket slide off Sydney’s leg, the ritual garment riding high on the creamy skin of her thigh… That’s when Eondian, the bastard he was, slipped my restraint and went for her.

  Eondian roared in my head, his intentions clear. He was trying to break the barrier, finish the ritual.

  “No! The girl is too old, and the veil is too thick,” I shouted, trying to block his way.

  Yet, Eondian would not be deterred and knocked me away with a flick of his forepaw.

  Laying there, half in the cave spring, I cringed when the beast slammed her to the ground. If he killed the girl, it didn’t matter if he broke the barrier or not.

  But, Nygharra, the Headmistress’s Prime dragon, stopped me with her words, Wait… Don’t you feel it? Eondian might be our only chance to break this great power free. He’s careful. Her hiss in my ear kept me in place.

  I watched… still skeptical and ready to step in again in case things went too far.

  Then, shocking us all, a large blue-green Prime dragon emerged from the girl, and the cavern went deadly silent. Only the bubble from the spring and a drip from the ceiling pierced the quiet.

  The possibility of the girl having a wyvern had been slim… but a Prime—one of the most powerful and cove
ted beasts within the community—inconceivable.

  I dropped to my knees, overwhelmed with what had just happened and overcome by the geyser of yearning from Eondian.

  The Drake dragon shimmered, appearing blue and then green before she snorted a fountain of smoke and pitched toward Eondian. They circled each other, playfully nipping at one another and splashing in the hot stream, splattering those of us nearby with drops of sulfur smelling water.

  My mind became lost in the moment—swimming in a potent cocktail of emotions, some mine, some Eondian’s.

  When Eondian mounted the other dragon, I gasped, knowing it meant starting a dragon bond with Sydney.

  Looking back at this moment, time and again, I wondered if I could’ve stopped it.

  The answer is that I didn’t want to stop it. The thought never entered my mind.

  And I wish that this would ease my guilt, but it only made it worse.

  I was the adult.

  As that beautiful, flaxen-haired siren lay there broken and bleeding on the mat, I wanted her.

  Unable to stop myself, I closed the space between us, knelt, and pulled her into my arms.

  However, my eyes found Lacy across the cavern. She stumbled, trying to take a step away in disbelief, her mouth hanging open and eyes wide as she took in the sight of my dragon mating with the new Prime.

  Kurt Daniels, another teacher, was just as shocked, but there was no accusation in his expression, only understanding. He wrapped an arm around Lacy and began leading her away.

  I couldn’t keep away from Sydney, her eyes glazed with the overflow of sensations from the dragons, she gripped my tunic until her fingers went white, her pale garment smeared with dirt and blood, only making me more possessive and more aroused.

  A soul bond between us had begun—an almost mythical union between two Primes.

  I gritted my teeth as Sydney arched her back in response to the dragon’s mating frenzy as if offering herself to me there on the floor of the cave.

  Shakily and by the skin of my teeth, I held my ground—resisting…

  Until I could resist no more.

  My mind was not my own, much like that fateful day in this very cave when I’d become united with Eondian.

  Only this time, Sydney’s strange, but exotic life began to unfold for me in images and emotions. She was happy and wild and full of fire. There were places I saw through her eyes, places that I only dreamed of in my younger years.

  The bond blocked everything else out as our deepest selves were exposed to one another.

  The experience lasted into the early morning of the next day. Afterward, Syd slept in my arms, and I vowed to take her with me when I left the academy. We would live in the family housing at the base where I was stationed, and I’d make love to her every chance I could get.

  But somewhere in the back of my mind, I must’ve known that she was too young for all my plans.

  I should’ve known when Lacy pulled me aside and said, “I’ll wait for you to get over this, whatever this is.” She tried to give me a comforting smile, but it was tight and fearful instead. “I already forgive you. I’ll pretend it never happened, and then when you’re ready, you can come back… to me.”

  But we were already over, and I told her that, whispering, “I never meant to hurt you. I’m sorry.”

  I was sorry for hurting Lacy, but not sorry to be ending our relationship.

  Things were now clear, and my mind was made up.

  The journey back to the academy went by in a daze—my mind on completing the bond once Syd and I left Idaho.

  Back at the guest house, I lingered in the room where she’d slept, even lowering myself so much as to sit where she’d sat, holding the blanket to my nose to breathe her in.

  I was turning into a horrible melt—a spineless love-sick fool.

  The funny thing was that I knew my little siren intimately… but not at all. We’d barely spoken a handful of words to each other, and yet I was ready to dive in headfirst.

  Even wyverns who had a bond only formed it after years of being together.

  What was this?

  Primes usually never had dragon bonds. They were powerful and dangerous.

  Not sure what to do next, I called my dad. Together, he helped me plan the steps to take. We’d wait to complete the bond until I could speak to her parents.

  But my plans fell apart when Sydney told me she was only sixteen. Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. Disbelief and nausea filled me.

  We would have to wait for years instead of days.

  I was twenty-three, and she was… a child.

  But there had to be a solution. I had to figure this out. It was illegal to separate bonded mates, but what were we?

  My chest tightened, and my stomach roiled.

  What had I been thinking? How could I not have considered this a possibility?

  Her mind hadn’t felt like that of a sixteen-year-old.

  I’d mistaken her for an adult… I’d seen what I’d wanted to see. Because I wanted her, I’d overlooked the little things, like the fact that I saw no boyfriends or lovers when we’d connected.

  I’d ignored the images of a worn stuffed animal with button eyes.

  Shame burned through me and I felt torn between my need to be with her and the disgust I felt at myself.

  1

  Sydney

  The mind is a funny thing.

  We can believe the world is one way, have lived in it, and think we understand, only to find out that reality is much different.

  I’d grown up knowing who I was and my place in the world. But after the last two months and everything that happened at Balaur Academy, or as I refer to it—the Dragonborn Academy, my life had become one big question mark.

  I’d been lied to and manipulated by my father.

  Important things had been kept from me—like the fact that my dad, George Miller—wasn’t even my real dad.

  The truth was that dragons existed.

  Bonded mates existed.

  The ritual still haunted me: Ashe’s massive black dragon, Eondian, filling the dim cavern, the beast’s sharp claws snatching me up and slamming me against the floor of that cave, my body, bruised and beaten, finally giving way to Aaraeth, my own dragon.

  The joining with Ashe.

  We were now unbonded dragon mates, and to seal the connection, we had to… seal the deal, so to speak.

  Only, Ashe refused.

  His reason? I wasn’t ready...

  But he was wrong.

  Everyone's a little afraid of new things, of changes, and I could handle it. But I wasn’t holding my breath. When Ashe promised something—he did it.

  He’d promised to take me to visit my dad—George—and he did.

  Afterward, in New York, we stood at the gate where my flight was boarding and gazed sorrowfully at each other. Ashe had to return to the base where he was stationed in Colorado. I had to return to the Dragonborn Academy in Idaho.

  As I started to turn away from him, Ashe grabbed my arm and pulled me into his embrace.

  In his arms was the one place I truly belonged—the one safe place.

  My tears dampened his sweater, and a sob escaped my lips.

  Ashe was my rock, and when he tilted my face up to meet his gaze, the pain was there too. His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared with emotional breaths.

  “It’ll be okay, I promise,” he whispered, pressing a kiss on the knuckles of my hand.

  I couldn’t speak. I could only nod.

  I wanted him to kiss me, but Ashe, being Ashe, held himself back. So, going on tip-toes, I planted a light kiss on his stubbled jaw.

  That had done it. I’d broken my soldier’s restraint. His hands snaked their way up to frame my face before he took my mouth with his own, conveying all the things I knew he’d left unsaid.

  Then it was over all too soon, and I had to walk away and leave him.

  As the plane soared into the sky, the ache inside my chest grew with th
e distance from my would-be mate. Our bond stretched, ached, and pulsed with each mile.

  My hand pressed against the small window as if I could reach out to him.

  Spring break had ended, and my quest for answers had begun.

  I was ready to bring the past into the light, and the Academy was the perfect location to do so. Since starting school a few months ago, I found that Balaur housed the most extensive collection of records and documents about the Dragonborn in North America.

  However, my high energy enthusiasm was quickly tempered to resolve when I realized that nothing was computerized in the Dragonborn section of the ancient library.

  Pulling open the card catalog’s first drawer, I went into a sneezing fit before coughing and having to blow my nose. The cabinet itself was clean and polished, but some of the drawers hadn’t been opened for years—or so the dust would imply.

  Between a cough here and a sneeze there, I flicked through the cards until finding a book that looked promising Lineage and Connections of Modern Primes.

  Rechecking the call number, I wound my way through the stacks to the far wall—the entire basement was the Dragonborn Section.

  Running my fingers over my bottom lip, I searched for the book. Finding it, I slid out the tome and laid it on the slanted table below. Sitting down, I lifted the heavy cover.

  The book’s spine cracked as I laid it flat to examine lists of names. I traced my finger down each column until I found it: Lambert—page 28.

  I had begun flipping through the pages when a noise startled me and I turned to look behind me. Down the book-lined walkway, Logan Brooks met my eye. He was one of a handful of dragon Primes here at the school.