Twin Dragons: Dragon Lords of Valdier Book 7 Read Free Page A

be against those that
sought to divide and conquer the three royal houses through deceit
and treachery.
    “I know,” Creon replied as he started down
the stone stairway. “But so are we.”
    *.*.*
    Present Time:
    “So, how long do you think we will be on
babysitting duty?” Calo asked as he rolled his shoulders to relieve
some of the tension, and soreness, from being around Carmen Walker
all day. “Remind me to volunteer for the night shift next
time.”
    Cree grinned at the look of suffering on his
twin’s face. “What did she do to you today?”
    “Besides kick my ass?” Calo ruefully
laughed. “She had me showing her some different moves. Lady Carmen
is a quick study.”
    “I know,” Cree said, holding up his knife.
“It took me a week to get this back. You’ve been showing her some
moves that we use. Keep to the ones that others use next time.”
    Carmen Walker was an enigma to the two men.
Creon Reykill, the youngest of the five Valdier Princes, had
assigned them as her personal guards. They had been slightly
insulted at first, especially when they first met her. Of course,
they should have considered it an honor to be asked to do something
as important as protecting the Valdier Prince’s true mate, they
just expected her to be… bigger… less fragile looking.
    Cree shook his head as he remembered their
first meeting. Both he and Calo had taunted her. They should have
heeded Creon’s warnings, or at least taken them more seriously. He
fingered the strands of slightly shorter hair on the side of his
head.
    Calo had an identical missing section.
Carmen had taken his knife from his waist and knocked them both on
their asses. To add insult to injury, Ha’ven Ha’darra, had joined
in. He and Calo had ended up with the Curizan Prince across their
chests, knocking them to the ground again, before Carmen had sat on
the three of them and taken a swath of each of their hair in
victory. Of course, the fact that she was in her dragon form had
helped.
    Since that day, both he and Calo had
developed a growing respect for the human female. Her intelligence,
skill, and a haunting sadness pulled at their need to protect her.
The only problem was, it also emphasized the growing emptiness that
their dragons were feeling.
    “She is an amazing female,” Cree murmured as
he slid his thumb over the carved dragons on the handle of his
knife. “I wish…”
    Calo sighed and rested his hand on his
twin’s shoulder. “I know. We have talked about this,” he said
quietly. “I can feel the darkness as well. My dragon is getting
more difficult to control. He hungers for a mate and refuses to be
satisfied anymore with the females I try to use to slake the
restlessness that is eating at me.”
    “Mine is the same,” Cree acknowledged. “It
is getting worse, Calo. I’m not sure how much longer I can control
him. I…” He looked away from his twin, ashamed to admit what he had
come close to doing.
    “It almost happened to me as well,” Calo
said. “I came close to fighting Creon for Carmen as well. Each day
gets harder. My dragon knows she is not our true mate, but he is to
the point he doesn’t care anymore. He is attracted to her
fierceness, to the sense of frailty that clings to her even though
she fights to conceal it.”
    “Perhaps we should tell Creon, just in
case,” Cree suggested before he ran both of his hands through his
hair and groaned as a shaft of pain swept through him. “Goddess, my
dragon is raking my gut. He needs a mate, Calo.”
    Calo closed his eyes as his own dragon
snarled and raked at him as well. A shudder went through him as it
pictured taking Carmen. As a man, he liked Carmen, but he was not
attracted to her in a sexual way.
    Want a mate, his dragon snarled,
pushing against him. Need mate. Take female.
    She is not ours to take, Calo snapped
back, pushing down on the restless creature buried inside him.
    His eyes opened when he felt the soothing
warmth of his symbiot as it pressed against