Under Fyre Read online

  UNDER FYRE

  (Alien Dragon Shifters 1)

  Cara Bristol

  Betrayed by her people, does she dare trust a dragon?

  The alien dragon shifters who discover Earth come in peace—at first. Then, inexplicably, they threaten to attack. In an attempt to show goodwill and appease the dragons, Earth sends a human woman to become a concubine to one of the Draconian king’s sons, Prince K’ev.

  K’ev would sooner give up his ability to breathe fire than accept a human, but when he meets Rhianna, sparks fly, and his dragon realizes she’s his mate.

  Rhianna falls for the hot-blooded prince, unaware she’s a key link in a desperate scheme to defeat the dragons, a strike that could backfire with devastating consequences. Will she figure out what Earth has planned in time to save her dragon mate? And if she does, will K’ev be able to save her planet from an angry king’s retaliation?

  Title: Under Fyre (Alien Dragon Shifters 1)

  Copyright © May 2019 by Cara Bristol

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  eISBN : 978-1-947203-07-5

  Editor: Kate Richards

  Copy Editor: Nanette Sipe

  Cover Artist: Sweet ’N Spicy Designs

  Formatting by Wizards in Publishing

  Published in the United States of America

  Cara Bristol

  http://www.carabristol.com

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Epilogue

  An excerpt from Alien Mate (Alien Mate 1)

  Other Titles by Cara Bristol

  About Cara Bristol

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  “Take a human? As a mate?” K’ev had guessed the news wouldn’t be good when his father, King K’rah, had summoned him, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad. Humans were so…human.

  An image of a fearless child with ice-blue eyes and hair blazing like the sacred flame in the Temple of the Eternal Fyre flickered in his mind’s eye. When other children had fled in terror, she’d held her ground. Due to short lifespans, humans quickly matured into adulthood. The girl child would be a woman now. What would she look like? Did her hair still blaze? Were her eyes still as clear as ice floes? Had she grown into the perfidy so second nature to her race?

  It didn’t matter what had happened to her. She meant nothing to him. He doused the image.

  “Not a mate,” the king corrected. “Dragons and humans can’t mate. Humans have no fyre. Taking one as a consort, however, is a different matter.”

  “Why me?”

  “You’re the one most familiar with humans. You have studied them, and you’re the only member of the royal family to have visited Earth.”

  “Because you ordered it,” K’ev said. Fifteen years ago, relations with Earth had been cautiously amicable. He hadn’t wanted to go to Earth at all, and visiting had cemented his unfavorable opinion. With the exception of the little girl, he hadn’t met a single human he’d liked. But, as much as they repelled him, they fascinated him in the way a catastrophe attracted onlookers, so he’d eavesdropped on their electronic signals to learn about their culture. If he’d realized his curiosity would lead to this…

  The king grimaced and leaned back in his throne. “I don’t like it any better than you do, but it has been suggested a more intimate, personal relationship between a member of the royal family and a human might foster detente between Draco and Earth and restore an alliance.”

  It wasn’t like the king to retreat from a course of action he’d set. After discovering signs of mining operations on Elementa, Draco had severed relations with the blue planet and placed them on notice that any further incursion would result in decisive consequences.

  “Who suggested it?” K’ev asked, racking his brain to figure out which advisor could have been so bold—and misguided.

  “What is done is done.”

  “Why seek an alliance at all?” he persisted, trying to wiggle out of the inevitable. “They are thieves and liars. You can’t trust anything they say.” It was almost impossible to fool a dragon. Deceit had a strong, distinctive odor. Most humans stank, period. Bring one into his personal space? He shuddered, and his dragon growled.

  “They will not be stealing from us anymore.” His father’s eyes flashed. “I want this matter settled. As much as I personally prefer a decisive outcome, the truth is, war would be a distraction from the critical problem facing us.”

  Their home world was dying. Geologists had forecast in a mere thousand years Draco’s molten core would cool beyond an ability to sustain life. Draconians had been searching for a new homeland for eons without success until discovering Elementa a few years ago. Dragons required heat and fire to thrive, and most planets in the habitable zone were too cool. On his tour of Earth during its “hot” season, K’ev had damn near frozen to death.

  Elementa was very similar to what Draco used to be, with hundreds of thousands of active volcanoes, underground magma pools, and lava rivers winding over the surface. Draconian scientists had been monitoring the planet’s geology to verify its suitability as a replacement homeland.

  And then a recent scan detected mining operations.

  “You’re certain Earth removed the metals?” K’ev didn’t doubt it, but he thought he’d better ask.

  “Our flag disappeared, and we found one of theirs.”

  His dragon roared in outrage. Staking a flag was the first step in galactic protocol to claim ownership of a planet. “Why are they doing this? They can’t inhabit it. Elementa’s atmosphere is toxic to them.”

  “Obviously, they desire the precious metals.”

  While Elementa’s wealth of natural resources had immense value, nothing mattered more than life. They needed the planet if they were going to survive—which made the change of direction incomprehensible. Dragons didn’t ask or coax, and they never surrendered. While the passage of time had tempered their aggression somewhat, they remained warriors born of the sacred fyre. They fought. They claimed what was rightfully
theirs without apology.

  They didn’t instigate conflicts, but they finished them the Draconian way.

  K’ev disliked humans; his father despised them. Nothing in the years since K’ev’s visit had given them reason to revise their opinions. Rather than confront directly and honestly, humans lied and sneaked and plotted. They would kill while smiling. They weren’t even intelligent. Technologically, they’d advanced little beyond infancy. If Draco hadn’t pointed out the fold in space giving them a shortcut to the rest of the galaxy, they still would have been wandering around their solar system, searching for life in the rocks on Mars.

  “We will try this,” his father said. “The humans have one last chance to repair the broken trust. The president of one of their nations has agreed to send his daughter to become your consort.”

  “I doubt they’re doing this to make amends. They have some ulterior motive.”

  “Of course they do. As do I. You know the old saying, ‘It is better to have an enemy inside the hall breathing fire out, than outside breathing fire in’? The president’s daughter is one of his closest advisors. I believe we could use her.”

  “Use me, you mean,” he said.

  His father’s neck frill flared. “Remember who you’re speaking to. You are my son, the fifth child of my beloved mate, but I am the king, and you serve me. I do not serve you.”

  “My apologies, Your Majesty.” He bowed his head. No one defied the monarch and lived, which indicated the incongruity of the decision. Draco wasn’t the offender. Earth was. No conciliation on Draco’s part was required. They should swoop in and eliminate the problem.

  Big ice-blue eyes. Hair like a flame. That smile. The child, now a woman, would die if Draco settled the problem the way they should.

  “Of course I will do whatever you command.” Why me? Why now? Although five siblings had mated and had produced eighteen granddragons among them, his youngest brother was unmated and had no regular consort, either. And while his oldest brother, T’mar, had taken three dragonesses as concubines, what was one more added to the harem? Why not one of them?

  “You are unmated and directionless.” Sometimes K’ev feared his father could read his thoughts. The king had been chosen by the priestess of the Eternal Fyre. Who knew the power she had conferred upon the monarch when she crowned him? “You lack a consort of any consequence or longevity. Your relationships have been meaningless, short-term dalliances.” His lip curled with disapproval.

  In truth, K’ev hadn’t found a woman who could hold his attention for long, so, until his fyre chose his mate, he wished to remain free to do as he pleased.

  “Since the president’s daughter is only a consort, you can still take other concubines,” he said in a softer voice. “They will betray their motives soon, and the arrangement will be annulled. Worst-case scenario—it will last only the length of the human lifespan, so you won’t be bound to her forever.”

  “How old is she now?” Humans lived to be about eighty, one hundred max.

  “Twenty? Thirty?” The king shrugged.

  Fifty to sixty years out of eternity amounted to a mere blip until you were the one tied to an unwanted, perfidious, malodorous human. Then it seemed like forever. Two hundred fifteen years old, K’ev would still be young when this ordeal ended, but that afforded little consolation.

  The urge to shift burgeoned. Talons extended from his fingertips, and he had to forcibly retract them. His tail twitched with the tension coiling inside. “What happens if I join with her and then meet my mate?”

  Arising out of affection, friendship, simple lust, or, in this case, an interplanetary treaty, a consort relationship was, at best, a tepid one. A mating? The red-hot, consuming, possessive bond united two fyres into one flame. If he encountered his mate, all others would cease to exist for him. Nothing was stronger or more revered than a mating bond. If he mated, what would happen to the precious treaty?

  “Given how many females you have…sampled without finding a suitable mate, the likelihood of that happening in the near future is remote, but if it occurred, it would nullify the treaty, and the consort would return to her planet.”

  How many females he’d sampled? Had his father been keeping track? K’ev frowned. There hadn’t been that many.

  It was said when a dragon found his mate, a second without her became an eternity. A second with a human would be an eternity. Red hair and bold blue eyes as deep as infinity itself flashed. He blocked the image from his consciousness and focused on his father’s voice.

  “In the event of a mating, rightful termination of the consort relationship has been written into the contract. Earth was advised of the possibility—but informed it was highly unlikely.”

  “When will this happen?” Maybe he still had time to change his father’s mind, or at least track down the advisor who’d convinced him this was a good idea and singe his neck frill.

  “An envoy departs the day after tomorrow to rendezvous with the president’s daughter and escort her to Draco.”

  This entire situation had been decided before his summons. He’d never had any say. King K’rah didn’t ask, he commanded. Still, it rankled. K’ev would do anything for Draco, but he wanted to be asked, not commanded.

  Showing his true emotions would enrage the monarch who wouldn’t hesitate to have his wings clipped. “Very well.” He bowed his head in a gesture of respect and obedience. The thought of consorting with a thieving, smelly human was unbearable.

  “I’m glad we were able to reach an understanding. You’re dismissed.”

  K’ev pivoted and marched across the stone floor toward the exit. Blood heated as he prepared to shift.

  “K’ev?”

  He halted and turned. Please, no more.

  “You never asked her name,” his father said.

  “One human is the same as the next.” He stalked out of the rotunda, desperate to be free. As soon as he cleared the wide-spaced pillars supporting the massive stone dome, he shifted. Facial bones assumed their inborn triangular shape atop a long neck snaking out of a body that doubled in size then doubled again. Scales hardened. Massive leathery wings unfurled.

  Human consort? The enemy? He roared, spitting flames.

  In a crouch, he pushed off with muscular legs and leaped, bringing his wings down to lift himself into the air, rising into a scarlet sky fragrant with smoke and sulfur. Freedom beckoned. He left the royal palace compound, circumvented the Temple of the Eternal Fyre, and headed for open land where mountains still belched fire, and rivers of molten rock flowed.

  Swooping low, he flew over Lavos. Only a thin, winding stream remained of the once large and mighty lava river. Draco used to be alive with hundreds of thousands of volcanoes, but, over the eons, its core had cooled, magma hardened into rock and soil, and the hazy vog coloring the sky a fiery red at starset dissipated with every solar rotation.

  Only a few hundred volcanoes remained active, and more went extinct every year. He mourned the loss. His planet was dying.

  And he would be shackled to a human.

  Chapter Two

  “Don’t sacrifice yourself. There must be another way.” Rhianna sank onto the silk duvet covering the canopied four-poster. From the gilded antique furniture, fine linens, and exquisite artwork, you’d never guess the bedroom was located in Bunker One deep underground, and not in the presidential mansion. “Your father will come through for you—”

  Helena peered into her antique jewelry armoire. “Who do you think came up with the plan in the first place?”

  “No! I don’t believe it.” Rhianna dropped her jaw. “He loves you more than anything in the world. He would never do that. The public doesn’t expect it. You’re the first daughter, the only child of the widowed president.”

  “It’s our last hope to prevent an attack. It’s my duty.” Helena dangled a heavy gold necklace. “Do you think I should bring this?”

  “Stop it! You’re scaring me.” Rhian
na leaped up, grabbed the necklace, and shoved it into the drawer. “You’re acting like you’re packing for a vacation at a five-star resort instead of being asked to sacrifice your life.”

  “Not my life. Just my freedom.” Helena closed the armoire. “You’re right. I won’t need much jewelry. The dragons are loaded. They have plenty of gold.”

  Shock. Shock and fright are making her act this way. This deadpan, unemotional woman wasn’t the vivacious, fun, albeit slightly spoiled and entitled friend she’d roomed with in college, who’d taken her under her wing.

  Raised by loving, working-class parents, Rhianna had studied hard and won a full scholarship to an elite private university. But, among the country’s upper crust, she’d felt awkward and out of place. She’d half expected someone to demand to see the scholarship letter proving her right to be there. She had been sneaking out of a sorority rush, having decided she’d never fit in, when Helena had spotted her.

  “My doppelgänger! Where have you been all my life?” Smelling of spiked punch, Helena had grabbed her in a big hug like they were best friends.

  “Excuse me?” Rhianna had said. “I think you have me confused with somebody else.”

  “We’re twins. Don’t you see it?”

  Only in the most superficial, generic way. While she and Helena were about the same average height and slender build, and both redheads, similarity stopped there. Helena’s muted-auburn face-flattering hairstyle had cost more than Rhianna’s entire head-to-toe outfit, and her carrot top blazed with a wildness neither comb nor twisty-tie could tame. Helena had rich-emerald-green eyes; Rhianna’s were a blue so pale, some people described them as eerie. Both had worn basic black, Helena in an elegant off-the-shoulder designer original. In the greatest embarrassment of all, Rhianna’s dress was a box-store knockoff of the same dress. The differences between them couldn’t have been more stark.

  Although she had a strong sense of self-worth—her academic achievement had earned her a scholarship—next to the well-heeled socialite, she’d felt a bit like her dress, a cheap imitation of the original.