Dragon Royalty (Dragon Shifter Academy Book 1) Read online

  “Here’s the thing,” Ty says, as he gives me a tour of the house. “There isn’t a lot of room with all the people we have coming, so I hope you don’t mind sharing a room.”

  “That’s fine.” I shrug. “With who?”

  “Um… Damon, Kade, and me.”

  All three of them?

  “That’s fine,” I repeat, my heart racing at the thought of being in the room with all of them.

  Damon and Kade take all the stuff to our room and Ty and I walk outside to the beach. I want to talk to Ty alone and somehow, Kade and Damon seemed to catch onto that. Or maybe Ty wanted to talk to me too and told them. I don’t know.

  “You live an insane life,” I tell him, as I look at the houses that line the beach front. The neighbors’ houses are equally huge, and I feel extremely insignificant. “Before I moved here, I lived in a two-bedroom house with my mom. We shared her car, but mostly I walked everywhere. We weren’t hurting for money or anything, but we definitely weren’t like this.”

  “This is just stuff,” he says.

  It’s easy for somebody with lots of stuff to say it’s ‘just’ stuff.

  “I want to talk to you.” Ty rubs his hand along the scruff on his jaw.

  I look at him when I hear the serious tone in his voice.

  “What was said on the plane…” his voice trails off.

  “Don’t worry about that.” I reach out and touch his arm gently. “What you did before you met me really isn’t any of my business.”

  “It really is, though.” He sighs. “I knew someday that I would meet you. I knew it. My whole life my parents have told me. My dads tell me the story of how they met my mom all the time. They tell me how special it is to find your mate. And I would roll my eyes at their stories. I thought it was all exaggerated and stupid. I thought that what I did wouldn’t matter. I almost resented the fact that I would someday meet somebody and my choice would be taken away. But I see now that it’s not like that. Even if I had a choice, I would still choose you. Every time.”

  “Why wouldn’t you have a choice?” I blink at him, wondering what he means.

  He sighs. “It doesn’t matter. I just… I need you to know that I am sorry for what I did before I met you. I wish that I could take it all back.”

  “I don’t care what you did before we met.” My voice softens, and I speak quietly. “All that matters, is that we’re together now.”

  “Do you mean that?”

  “Maybe I’m a little jealous of those other girls.”

  “You shouldn’t be jealous of them,” Ty says, his tone urgent. “Because the day I met you, those other girls ceased to exist for me. My thoughts are consumed by you and my heart is full of love for you. You’re everything to me, Reign. I hate the thought of hurting you. It’s why I’m so mad at myself. I know I should’ve told you. I hate the way you found out. But I thought you would be mad at me if you knew the truth.”

  “I’m not mad. Would you be mad if I had been with other guys?”

  “No,” he says. “I actually assumed you had been for a long time… until I found out you hadn’t even been kissed. I mean, why haven’t you? I’m sure a lot of guys have tried.”

  I shrug. “It just never felt right. I had this feeling that I was waiting for something bigger.”

  “You were right.” Ty heaves out a sigh. “Which makes me feel even worse because I’ve known my whole life what I was waiting for. I’ve been told since I was a kid. And I still messed everything up. You didn’t even know and still waited.”

  “You didn’t mess everything up,” I tell him. “You’re perfect to me. Just the way you are.”

  “Thank you, Reign. You’re far better than what I deserve.”

  I shake my head. “If anything, you deserve better.”

  “Not even,” he says, then grins. “Let’s go inside. I bet the guys are hungry.”

  “I’m starving too.”

  Ty grabs my hand and we walk inside together.

  I can’t believe he thought I would be mad.

  As if I could ever be mad at him.

  Mate?

  The house is packed, but I’m currently in the master bedroom with Ty, Kade, and Damon. I pulled out my laptop and turned on one of my favorite movies while we eat the pizza Ty ordered earlier. None of us are really paying attention to the movie though. We’re just hanging out.

  “We can hang out with everybody else,” I offer, once we’re done eating. “We don’t have to stay in here all night.”

  “I’d rather hang out with you,” Kade says.

  “Same,” Ty pipes up. “I kind of wish I had told everybody else that the weekend was canceled.”

  My heart warms.

  They’d rather hang out with me than with all their friends. Not that I want them to give up their friends, I don’t. I just… I like that they want to hang out with me tonight. I want to hang out with them too. We have all weekend to spend time with all our friends.

  Well, not that my friends will be here. Earlier Gemma texted me and told me that her and Piper are going with Courtney to visit with her family this weekend. They invited me to come with them, but I told them I was already here. I’m a little bummed about that, but I probably wouldn’t have gone with them anyway. The thought of being too far from the guys makes me a little nervous.

  “Are we all going to sleep on this bed?” I ask.

  The bed in a king size. It’s big enough for the four of us, but just barely.

  “Yeah,” Damon says.

  Ty and Kade both nod.

  “Do you think the other kids will think it’s weird?” I ask. “I mean, that I’m in here with three guys?”

  “Who cares what they think?” Ty shrugs, like it’s no big deal.

  I shouldn’t care, but I admit I do care a little bit. I don’t want people to talk bad about me.

  “Soon, everybody will know you’re our mate so it won’t matter,” Kade points out.

  “What exactly does mate mean?” I ask. “You guys keep using that word.”

  “It’s kind of like… a spouse. Except it means more,” Damon explains. “A mate is more than just a vow that can be easily broken.”

  “I thought you were going to say girlfriend or something,” I say. “A spouse… isn’t that intense? We’re teenagers. And even if we weren’t young, we met a month ago. Isn’t it too soon to think things like that?”

  “I wish your aunt would have that talk with you,” Kade grumbles. “She was supposed to a long time ago.”

  “What talk?”

  “We can’t explain,” Damon says.

  “Not yet,” Ty adds.

  “But soon, you will know everything.” Damon grins, gazing off. “Until then, nothing will really make sense. Just know that… what is going on between us means everything. And soon we will announce it to the world.”

  “I wish we could tell everybody now,” Kade says.

  “It’s killing us all to wait.” Ty sighs.

  Yeah, that clears things up…

  “Does this mean I have three boyfriends?” I ask.

  The three of them start laughing.

  “Reign, we are so much more than just your boyfriends,” Damon says. “But for now, I guess you could say, yeah, you have three boyfriends.”

  I grin at his words, but then frown. “Wait, what if you guys get jealous?”

  “We won’t,” Ty assures me. “The three of us have known since we were kids that we would be sharing a mate one day. That’s what this symbol means.”

  Ty pulls up his shirt a little and shows me a… tattoo? There is a gold circle with a black dragon on the inside. The black dragon has brown eyes and there are flames coming out of its mouth. In the gold, there are tiny patterns.

  “That tattoo must’ve taken forever to get.” I reach out my hand and graze my fingers over it before I realize what I’m doing. I yank my hand back.

  “It’s not a tattoo.” He grins, pulling his shirt back down.

  “We all ha
ve them,” Kade explains.

  “Can I see them all?” I ask.

  “You just want us to take our shirts off,” Damon teases.

  My face grows warm.

  I mean… I wouldn’t complain if they all took their shirts off, but that is not why I said it.

  Kade shows me his tattoo first, then Damon. They are both identical to Ty’s.

  Well… I guess it’s not a tattoo.

  But I don’t understand what that means.

  I don’t understand what anything means.

  One thing is certain… the second I get back home, Victoria and I are going to have a talk.

  I’m tired of all the secrecy.

  Saturday, August 31

  Cute.

  I wake up with my head on somebody’s chest and more than one set of arms around me. As my mind starts to clear a little more, I realize that my head is on Kade’s chest and Ty and Kade both have their arms around me. Damon is on the other side of Ty, stretched out. He’s taking up way too much of the bed. No wonder Ty, Kade, and I are basically lying on top of one another.

  I honestly don’t even remember falling asleep last night. We all stayed up pretty late talking. I must’ve passed out. Light streams in from the window, and I look at the clock and see that it’s after ten in the morning. Wow, I never sleep this late. I slept really, really good.

  Kade’s hand moves on my back, so I glance over at him and see that he’s awake.

  “How are you this pretty even when you first wake up in the morning?” he murmurs.

  I hadn’t even thought of that.

  My hair is probably a mess.

  “You’re sweet.” I snuggle in closer to him and just enjoy the way they make me feel.

  How do I feel so beautiful, even this early in the morning? Even before I’ve taken a shower or fixed my hair. But that’s exactly how I feel.

  “I can’t believe we all fit in the bed,” I say, laughing. “Damon is hogging up half of the bed himself.”

  Kade grins.

  “Some of us are trying to sleep,” I hear Ty mumble.

  I turn over to look at him and see that he’s smiling at me. I’m glad he wasn’t being serious.

  “Damon, you’re a bed hog,” Ty grumbles, pushing Damon over a little.

  It doesn’t faze Damon though. He just rolls over and goes right back to sleep.

  “Do you want to go get breakfast this morning?” Ty asks.

  I nod. “I wanna get a shower first.”

  To get out of the bed, I either have to crawl over Ty and Damon, I have to crawl over Kade, or I can just crawl off the end. I get on my knees and scoot over to the end of the bed, but somehow my foot ends up tangled in the blanket and I go face first off the end of the bed.

  “Ow.”

  I hear all three guys laughing at me.

  “A little help,” I call out.

  They laugh harder, but I feel somebody pull my foot free of the blanket and somebody grabs me around my waist and puts me up right.

  “Thanks.” I look sternly at all three guys. “And don’t laugh at me.”

  “You’re unbelievably adorable,” Ty says.

  I don’t respond, I just turn and walk into the bathroom. Then I walk back out when I realize I forgot to bring clothes.

  I go to my duffle bag and then turn around. “What all are we doing today?”

  “Breakfast and beach,” Kade answers.

  Cool.

  So a chill day.

  I turn back around a grab a bikini and a cute coverup.

  When I walk into the bathroom, I take a second to just breathe.

  I have three boyfriends.

  Three.

  What did I do to be so lucky?

  I will always protect you.

  The four of us get breakfast at a small diner about half a mile away from the beach house. When we get back, it seems that everybody in the house is awake, but we head down to the beach. There are a ton of people in the pool and wading in the ocean. A few people are even trying to surf. Everybody is having fun and doing their own thing. It’s kind of cool.

  I take my coverup off and wade into the ocean. Kade, Ty, and Damon all take their shirts off and follow. I can’t help but notice their matching tattoos. Or… not tattoos? I’m not sure. It looks like a tattoo, but they told me it’s not. They said it’s how they knew that they were all destined for the same mate.

  I think about the dragon tattoo and the dragon poster that Kade had on his wall.

  What if dragons are real?

  Even the thought seems too absurd, so I push it from my thoughts. But I still wonder…

  Water splash up on me, and I let out a gasp at the coldness. Ty and Damon are both splashing each other.

  “You’re getting me wet.” I raise my voice slightly so they can hear me, wiping water from my face.

  They both turn to me with a mischievous smile on their faces. They nod at each other before stalking toward me. I dash behind Kade, but he’s of no help. Ty grabs my ankles and Damon grabs my wrists. Together, they swing me back and forth a couple of times before letting me go. I squeal as I fly through the air for only a split second before going under the water. When I come up, they’re both laughing.

  “Kade!”

  “What?” Kade grins. “I had nothing to do with that.”

  “You were supposed to protect me,” I pout.

  “I will always protect you,” he says.

  My heart swells.

  “But not from your own mates.”

  I shake my head. “Is it always going to be three against one?”

  They laugh, but nobody answers.

  Honestly, the thought of spending the rest of my life with these guys while they tease me like this makes me really excited.

  After about an hour of swimming, we head back to the beach and sit on the huge blanket we spread onto the sand earlier. Kade goes to pick up some food for lunch, just some sandwiches. We’re going to have a picnic on the beach, which is another first for me.

  While we’re waiting for Kade to come back, I notice a girl walking our way. I’m nervous when I see her coming over, but I try to stay calm. I mean, I’ve made friends with girls now, so maybe I can make more friends. But the closer she gets, the more I realize she’s not looking at me. She’s looking at Ty. Ty isn’t paying attention though. Not even when she walks up right in front of us.

  “Hey, Ty,” the girl says.

  Ty looks up, now noticing her.

  “Hi,” he says, then turns his attention back to me.

  “Do you want to hang out for a while?” the girl asks. “I feel like we haven’t talked in forever.”

  Ty sighs, looking back up at the girl. “I’m with my girlfriend. Sorry.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She looks so sad as she walks away, which makes me feel a little bit guilty, but…

  He’s my mate.

  And he called me his girlfriend, so my stomach is fluttering with excitement.

  “Sorry about that,” Ty says in a quiet tone, grabbing my hand.

  “About what?” I cant my head to the side as I study him.

  “That girl.” He nods his head toward the girl walking away. “If a guy came up to ask you to hang out, I’d probably beat him up for even looking at you.”

  “I’d help,” Damon calls out.

  I roll my eyes. “I highly doubt that. Besides, I’m quite capable of turning down the attention of a guy. I’ve been doing it my whole life. Or, at least since puberty.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better,” Ty says.

  “I’m just saying that I’m committed to you. To all of you.” I squeeze his hand and look him directly in the eyes. “And I trust you all. Even if you wanted to talk to that girl, I wouldn’t care. I’m sure she’s your friend and has been for a long time. I mean, I might care a little and be a little jealous. But I know nothing would happen.”

  Ty grins. “Why would I want to hang out with some other girl when I could hang out with you? You’re everyt
hing to me.”

  Oh, my word.

  These boys.

  How do they always know exactly what to say?

  I turn and see Damon and I worry.

  Should I be concerned about jealousy? I know they said not to, but we’ve also kept our dating separate. What will happen when I kiss one in front of the others?

  “What’s wrong?” Damon asks.

  “I’m just worried,” I answer honestly. “What if I flirt with Ty in front of you, or Kade in front of Ty?”

  “We’ve already told you, we’re not jealous,” Ty says.

  “Yeah, but it’s one thing to not be jealous in theory. What if I kissed Damon right now? Would you be jealous?” I ask.

  “No. As long as you also kiss me too and make time for me, why would I be jealous?”

  Damon seems genuinely baffled by my question.

  I keep forgetting—this is normal to them. I’m the one being weird about it.

  I lean over and kiss Damon on the cheek, thinking that there is nobody as lucky as me.

  Why is she here?

  Our day on the beach was perfect.

  This entire weekend has been incredible. The only thing that would make it better is if my friends were here too.

  Tonight, we’re going to hang out with everybody else in the house. I don’t even know who all is here—I recognize them all from school, but kids at school don’t really talk to me. The look at me. They stare. Sometimes they point. But they never come up and try to speak with me. Though, to be fair, I don’t try to talk to them either. Maybe tonight I’ll try. Maybe I have been judging these kids all wrong. Maybe they’ll get me, like Gemma and my other new friends have.

  When we walk into the house, Ty is holding one hand and Kade is holding the other. Damon walks in front of me, which I like. I can hide behind him if I’m feeling scared. But right now, I need to be brave. Whenever Damon does step out of the way, I catch sight of a few girls glaring at me. Well, more specifically, they’re staring at my hands.

  “You guys can go hang out with your friends,” I offer.