Dragon Royalty (Dragon Shifter Academy Book 1) Read online

  “Did you kiss?”

  I have to resist the urge to hide my face.

  Is he seriously asking me this right now?

  “Ty kissed me, yes.” My cheeks heat and I squirm in my seat.

  “How was it?”

  “How was the kiss?” I need to clarify that is the question he’s asking.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I don’t have a kiss to compare it to,” I drawl. “But I can’t imagine it gets any better than that.”

  “That’s because you haven’t kissed me yet.” Damon shoots me a look, obviously waiting for my response.

  Yet.

  Oh, my goodness.

  My heart races in anticipation and Damon smirks at me, as if he can hear my heart racing. I know he can’t, but certainly he knows I’m reacting to his words.

  “This isn’t normal, you know,” I point out.

  “What isn’t normal?”

  “You asked me how my date with another guy went.” I cast my gaze toward the ceiling and huff out a breath. “And you don’t even seem jealous that I kissed him.”

  “I’m not jealous,” he says, the pauses. “Well, I guess I’m a little jealous that he kissed you first, but I’m not jealous that you kissed him.”

  “Why not?” I shift in my seat to face him a little more. “I mean, if you kissed another girl, I would be so jealous.”

  “I won’t kiss another girl.”

  “But that’s not fair of me to expect that,” I protest. “I can’t just tell you not to date anybody else while I have feelings for two other guys. It isn’t fair to you.”

  “How about you let me decide what is fair to me.” His tone is firm, but gentle as he replies, making it hard for me to protest again. “There are things that I wish I could explain to you, but I promised Victoria I’d let her do it. Until then, just know that Ty, Kade, and I are not in a competition.”

  His words relax me, but they also worry me.

  What if I am way more into them than they are into me?

  I’ve never had that problem before. Guys always seem to like me. It’s just… I’ve never liked them back.

  Maybe it’s karma—the one time I have feelings for a guy, he doesn’t return them.

  I can think of no other reason that the three of them would be fine with the fact that they are sharing my affections. Maybe this is all just a big game to them and they’re messing with me.

  Whenever Victoria told me not to break Damon’s heart, maybe she should’ve had the same conversation with him.

  “Don’t overthink things,” Damon says. “I can literally hear the wheels turning in your head.”

  “I’m a girl. Overthinking is what I do.” I shift my body to face forward again as I heave out a sigh.

  He pulls the car up to the front of the country club and the valet are making their way over to our car.

  “Don’t overthink. Just trust that the guys and I know what we’re doing.” Damon reaches over and squeezes my hand.

  I have no choice but to trust them, because the only alternative is saying goodbye to them all. Even if at the end of this, my heart is broken, I know I can’t walk away. I don’t want to.

  I have friends.

  When we walk into the private back room where we always have brunch, Victoria looks over my outfit, nods her head, and says nothing to me. I guess that’s her way of approving my clothing choice, but I feel silly about the whole thing.

  Kade is already there, so I sit beside him and Damon sits on the other side of me. I feel giddy at the thought of sitting between these two boys.

  “How was your date?” Kade asks.

  Really?

  I didn’t even know that Kade knew about the date, but the fact that he’s asking about it… it’s just weird.

  “It was good,” Damon answers for me. “They kissed.”

  Kade smirks. “Of course Ty kissed her first.”

  “We don’t have to talk about my date with Ty,” I grumble.

  “She thinks it’s weird that we’re not jealous,” Damon tells Kade, once again talking about me like I’m not sitting with them.

  “Ah,” Kade says. “I guess that’s understandable, considering she doesn’t know.”

  “I don’t know what?” My voice raises slightly.

  He smiles at me. “It’s nothing.”

  I let out a huff.

  This isn’t frustrating at all.

  “By the way, you look beautiful today,” he murmurs.

  Stupid butterflies.

  I’m supposed to be upset at him, but it’s hard when he looks at me like that.

  Like…

  I’m the only girl in the world.

  “You make me feel pretty,” I say.

  When I realize what I said, my face grows warm.

  “Soon, it will be my turn.” Kade grins, leaning into me.

  “After me,” Damon adds.

  I turn to Damon, raising an eyebrow.

  What? Are they seriously taking turns?

  “We drew straws,” Kade admits.

  “You… drew straws?”

  “To see who could kiss you first,” Damon says. “Ty won.”

  I take a moment to let his words process.

  They drew straws to see who would kiss me first.

  Are they serious?

  “It’s the only reason I haven’t kissed you yet.” Damon’s voice rumbles in his chest as he explains, irritation lacing his words. “I had to wait for Ty to make his move. I didn’t realize he was going to take his sweet time.”

  Should I be upset over the fact that the drew straws to decide who would kiss me first? Oddly enough, I’m okay with it. But it’s maybe a little weird that they all seem perfectly fine with the fact that they all want to kiss me.

  I haven’t dated, but I know that dating doesn’t work like this.

  Girls I’ve worked with have dated two guys at once. It always ends up with a lot of jealousy. The girl will have to choose very quickly in the end, or she will end up losing both guys. I know that’s coming, but I can’t even fathom choosing right now.

  “Can we not talk about this?” I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and drop my gaze to the table. “It’s… weird.”

  Damon and Kade both grin but agree to drop the subject.

  “How were your first couple of days at Dragon Academy?” Kade asks.

  Our school is called Dragon Academy—even our school mascot is a dragon. It’s weird, but then again, I think most private schools do have weird names.

  “Surprisingly good.” I turn my attention toward him as I answer. “I’ve actually made friends. Gemma, Courtney, and Piper seem pretty cool. They say they want to hang out this week. I’ve never had girl friends before, so I’m excited.”

  “Why haven’t you had girl friends?” Damon asks.

  I shrug. “Girls don’t really like me. And… well… guys like me too much. Before coming here, I was a loner. I would’ve said it was by choice, but it wasn’t. Not really. Now that I’m here and I know what it’s like to have friends, I’m kind of sad about the years I missed out on not having friends.”

  I don’t know why I’m telling them all this. I probably seem lame, but I want to be honest with them. And I want to be brave.

  “I’m glad you’re here.” Kade’s fingers graze my shoulder.

  “Me too.” I shoot him a smile.

  Even though the circumstances of me coming here sucks, I feel like it was fate for me. Meeting Damon, Ty, and Kade, making friends, all of it—it feels so right. It feels like this is where I was supposed to be all along. The only thing that would make it better is if my mom were here.

  I wonder why my mom raised me in St. Louis. I knew she was from Vegas. That was never a secret. She moved to St. Louis for a fresh start, at least that’s what she told me. I don’t know if that’s true, at least not anymore. I doubt her story.

  I didn’t know that my mom had any family at all.

  “I kind of wish I would’ve been raised
here,” I muse. “It would’ve been cool to know all of you when I was younger.”

  “I’m kind of glad you weren’t here to see me going through puberty.” Kade seems horrified by the idea.

  I snort out a laugh.

  Okay, maybe I’m glad too.

  Not that I was super awkward through puberty. I never had to get braces, and I never had that transition phase where I didn’t know how to do makeup. I feel like I woke up one day with boobs that came out of nowhere. My mom taught me how to fix my hair and do my makeup. Plus, I was homeschooled, so that eliminated a lot of the weirdness too.

  “We’ll just have to make up for all the things you missed out on,” Damon says.

  “Like slumber parties?” Kade perks up. “Cause I’m down for a slumber party.”

  I laugh so hard that Victoria and the other adults look our way. I cover my mouth to stop myself. She glares at me for a second before they all turn away.

  “I didn’t mean for that to sound as perverted as it did,” Kade whispers.

  “We can have a slumber party,” I say. “I mean, Victoria might not allow it to happen.”

  “She won’t care.” Damon shrugs. “We’ll invite Ty too.”

  A slumber party with three guys?

  Now my mind is going to perverted places.

  “Why are you smiling?” Kade asks.

  “Just a funny thought,” I clear my throat. “We should have a slumber party. That actually sounds fun.”

  “We’ll have a slumber party, then,” Damon agrees.

  I grin.

  For the first time in my life, I have friends.

  Well, the guys are a little more than just my ‘friends,’ but saying friends in my head sounds a lot less complicated.

  Do you believe in fate?

  After brunch, Damon asks if I want to go swimming.

  We have a pool that I haven’t used yet. I don’t know why I haven’t gone swimming. It’s something I love doing, I just wasn’t super comfortable leaving my room when I first came here, so I haven’t checked out the pool yet. I’m excited. I put on the bathing suit that Victoria bought me for Kade’s pool party last weekend. I put a baggy t-shirt over it to head downstairs. I don’t know why, but I feel like it would be weird to walk through the house wearing a bikini. Maybe because I’m still getting used to this house. Or maybe because I live in the same house as Damon.

  Shouldn’t I be more weirded out by the fact that Damon’s dad is my uncle? I mean, I know we’re not related, not really. But it’s not weird at all. And nobody else acts like it’s weird. If anything, Kade and Ty are probably jealous that I live in the same house as him. Like, they probably want to move in too.

  When I walk out the back door, Damon is already in the pool. I throw my shirt onto a nearby chair and jump in. Since it’s been so warm outside, the water isn’t that cool, but it’s not super hot today—it’s only ninety.

  Wow. Am I really getting used to the Nevada heat that I now think ninety isn’t that hot?

  “I can’t believe I haven’t been swimming yet,” I say. “This is nice.”

  Victoria has a very nice backyard. Attached to the house, there is an outdoor kitchen with a bar. I imagine that Victoria has thrown a lot of parties, she seems like the type. But under the covering sits a huge outdoor sectional that looks super comfortable—I imagine sitting out here in the fall and winter, when it’s not too hot, just to look at the massive pool and waterfall. There is even a hot tub, which is covered right now. I imagine it’s nice in the cooler months though.

  “The great thing about living in Vegas is that we keep the pool filled year-round,” Damon explains. “It gets a little cool in winter, but the pool is heated for those times.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  That’s awesome.

  “Do you like to swim?” He swims closer to me.

  “Yeah. I love the water.” My arms move along the top of the water. “The subdivision my mom and I lived in had a pool and I spent most of summers there as a kid. Not so much as I got older, just because guys started getting creepy about the time I turned thirteen or fourteen.”

  Damon doesn’t say anything, but I can tell that he wants to.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” he says.

  “Don’t say nothing. I know you wanted to say something.”

  He sighs. “I just can’t believe your mom didn’t explain anything to you. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to be a kid one day and then the next day you have guys checking you out.”

  I shrug. “What? Puberty? She explained things to me.”

  “It’s more than that, though.” He frowns. “I really wish Victoria would talk to you. I hate keeping secrets from you.”

  “Then tell me.” I urge him to just do it because him keeping a secret from me is super frustrating.

  “I can’t.” He lets out a sigh filled with emotion and run his hand around the back of his neck, his eyes pleading with me to understand. “I promised her I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t explain it right anyway. I think she would do better. I’m just… upset that your mom didn’t tell you.”

  Now I wonder what my aunt is going to tell me. What could she have to say that is so important?

  “You know, my mom left while I was at work,” I say.

  “What do you mean?”

  I haven’t told anybody what happened—not even my aunt. But I want to tell Damon.

  “In St. Louis, I worked at a local coffee shop.” I grab onto the wall of the pool behind me. “Just to earn extra money. We only lived a quarter mile from the shop, so I walked to work. When I got home, the car was gone. I didn’t think anything about it. I thought Mom was just going to get groceries or something. But a few hours passed, and she still wasn’t home. I called her, but she didn’t answer. It wasn’t until super late at night that I checked her room. That’s when I found the note on her bed. She left. She told me not to look for her and to call Victoria. I didn’t even know I had an aunt.”

  “Wait… your mom left?” Damon’s eyes widen as he processes what I’ve told him.

  I nod.

  “I didn’t know that.” He blows out a breath. “I thought she just sent you here for the year to learn about our culture or something.”

  “No. She just left. While I was gone, she took the time to pack her bags and write that stupid note.” My face warms with anger when I think about it. “I don’t know why she left. I thought she was happy. We were happy. I mean, it had always been the two of us. But now I wonder… was she miserable? Did she leave cause I made her unhappy?”

  “That can’t be it,” Damon says, swimming over to me. “There has to be another reason or explanation for her suddenly leaving. She wouldn’t do that to you unless it was absolutely necessary.”

  “I can’t think of any reason to abandon your kid.” My voice trembles and tears press at the back of my eyes. “What good explanation is there, Damon?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t know why I told you that.” I let out a breath. “I haven’t told anybody. I’ve been too scared to say it out loud. I guess telling you means it’s true. My own mom left me. She didn’t want me.”

  Damon puts an arm around me pulling me closer to him. He’s only wearing swimming shorts and I’m in my bikini, so we’re skin on skin. Thoughts of my mom dissipate.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I promise that I won’t ever leave you.”

  But how can he promise me that?

  We’re only seventeen.

  Actually, I think he’s eighteen, or at the very least will be soon.

  But still… we’re too young to make these kinds of promises to each other. We still have so much growing to do and so much learning. To promise forever… it’s not fair to either of us.

  His words are so confident though. He doesn’t waver. And there is a rightness to what he’s saying. I hope it’s not just me wishing for something that isn’t there. I want it to be true. I
want Damon and me to last.

  “Do you believe in fate?” I ask.

  “Of course.”

  “I think it’s fate that I came here. Even though the situation surrounding why I’m here sucks, I know that this was meant to be,” I say. “So I could meet you.”

  Damon pushes me into the corner of the pool, not speaking a word. I’m about to ask him what he’s doing when his lips touch mine. Softly at first. Once I kiss him back, he deepens the kiss. I gasp as the intenseness of it all.

  I didn’t expect him to kiss me. Not today of all days. But I’m glad that he is.

  I wrap my legs around his waist, the need to be closer to him nearly overwhelming, and he holds me up, which isn’t hard to do in the water. This kiss feels intense, not just because it’s Damon, but also because we’re both half naked and there is so much skin touching skin. I love how warm he feels against me—my body feels like it’s on fire.

  I am the one to pull away because it’s just too much in the best possible way. I just… I want to do more than kiss him, but I can’t think about that right now. Before I can think about that, I have to choose just one of them, and I can’t choose right now. Instead, I’ll wait.

  “I thought you said you’ve never kissed anybody before,” I gasp out, trying to catch my breath.

  “I haven’t before you.”

  “You’re a really good kisser.”

  “So are you,” he murmurs, moving close once more.

  “That was amazing.” I blink, still feeling daze from our kiss.

  And then because I want to, I kiss him again.

  Deep inside, I can’t help but think that Damon Arrington is mine.

  Monday, August 26

  Why choose?

  I had problems sleeping last night. Mostly because I’m stressed out—I went from kissing zero guys to two guys in a two-day span. It’s not so much the kisses that have me stressed. The kisses were good. The problem is the feelings that I have for both the guys—not even taking into consideration the third guy. Nope, not even going to think about Kade right now because that would just make everything far more complicated.