Dragon Rebel (Immortal Dragons Book 4) Read online

  Immortal Dragons

  Book Four

  DRAGON REBEL

  Ophelia Bell

  Thank you for buying this book! If you enjoy it and would like to learn more about Ophelia Bell’s dragon world, simply subscribe to the mailing list. Once you subscribe, you will be entitled to receive the first installment of two exclusive free stories: “RED” and “WHITE.” These are just the first of many steamy dragon stories Ophelia plans to release for free, exclusively to her mailing list!

  Contents

  Description

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Epilogue

  Books by Ophelia Bell

  About Ophelia Bell

  Description

  If Assana looked up the word “nymphomaniac” in the dictionary, she might expect to find her own image in place of the definition, especially after meeting the immortal red dragon, Gavra. The timing couldn’t be worse for her to discover the mate that Fate intended—the one she’d be willing to let go of her tightly bound hold on her deepest sexual desires for—the one who literally drives her mad with lust. Now that she needs her sanity more than anything to regain control of her race’s home from her insane mother, she’s faced with the inconvenient desire to lose control and be that primal nymph she keeps locked inside.

  Thank Gaia for Silas. The handsome young ursa male is blessed with magic that can calm the lust-filled madness threatening to consume Assana’s mind. She needs him more than ever now that she has no choice but to spend her days in close proximity to the dragon she desires, yet doesn’t dare touch lest she give in to that ancient, primal need all nymphaea are born with.

  For red dragon Gavra, he can only put off having the beautiful nymph maiden for so long, or the ursa male who Fate has promised him. Once Assana’s crazy mother is out of the way, nothing will stop Gavra from claiming and marking them both as his.

  Blood is thicker than water.

  Prologue

  My color had always acted as a lure to me, and the blood that emerged from the cut I’d made in the tender part of my wrist was no different. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

  Red. The color of my scales in my true form, the color of my breath, my fire. The color of my lovers’ auras when my nearness promised passion beyond the scope of their imagining. The thick liquid emerged like a subterranean beast, slowly at first. The pain was a red fire behind my eyes, beneath my skin.

  Red. All red.

  My color infused all these things—passion, pain, rage. Beneath their skin my brothers were no different from me; their blood ran just as red, their pain flared just as brightly. Their own auras were tinged with the same mixture of love for our sister, anger at our enemy, passion to do whatever it took to ensure the survival of our race, our children.

  Red.

  I owned this color and all the things it branded. The color was as sacred to me as the night was sacred to my Black brother, Ked, or the winter snows were sacred to my White brother, Aodh. I owned it and rejected the thought of sacrificing what belonged to me—not to the beast of a man who stood before us with his strangely shifting gaze that reminded me of shuttered windows with a secret resident hiding somewhere beyond.

  With that thought—that reversal of intent—my blood changed course, the flow running backward, retreating into the vein I’d opened.

  “No. This is not the way. There must be something else we can bargain for. Take my seed … take my entire body. I will give myself to you in exchange for Belah’s blood. Just don’t take our blood.”

  My brothers stared at me in wide-eyed alarm. Their own sliced wrists flowed red, their life’s blood draining into the open basins our enemy had provided. My basin remained dry and I backed away, raising my voice so my objections could be heard.

  “This is not the way. We must keep our blood—every drop. We cannot let … it … have that much power.”

  Ked gave me a pained look but didn’t cease his own bloodflow. “Our power is nothing compared to what he has with Belah’s blood. We agreed, brother. Please.”

  Our enemy turned his empty eyes on me. With one blink, his eyes were occupied by that thing that he’d become. Nikhil was no longer Nikhil. The thing that he’d become I only knew as unworthy.

  His lips twisted in a sneer. “If you dare break our bargain, you will never see your sister draw breath again,” he said, though his voice had a strangely high-pitched lilt that sounded nothing like the fearless warrior I’d faced countless times across the battlefield.

  “We must do this,” Ked said.

  “Come back, brother,” Aodh said.

  Both my brothers moved away from their vessels, their blood-covered wrists still dripping as they advanced on me, but this would not stand. I couldn’t let this happen.

  “It’s the wrong way! Not our fucking blood. It gives them too much power over us!”

  “This exchange takes away more power than it gives,” Ked said, his human shape expanding as he came nearer. Ebony scales emerged and massive black horns erupted from his head. His eyes flooded with darkness that was all at once empty and dense—a void that sucked in all feeling, all light. My brother may be no match for me in passion, but I was always impotent in the face of Ked’s cold determination.

  Red was the color of my terror when the darkness surrounded me and showed me how empty my life had become. I sent a silent plea to Aodh, who answered with a useless platitude: “It’s all right, Gavra. We agreed. Belah needs us to be united in this.”

  What did a few measures of my blood matter when I was empty inside already? I sagged and my brothers propped me up between them, dragged me back to the vessel that awaited its offering. Aodh held me still while Ked raised the blade—the one tempered by all three of our immortal dragon fires—and reopened the vein in my wrist.

  I watched in a detached haze as my blood flowed freely. Within moments, the bowl was filled but I didn’t have the presence of mind to command my body to heal and staunch the tide.

  “It’s for family,” Aodh said in my ear. “If there’s any cause worth shedding our blood for, it’s family. Nothing else matters … we sure as shit don’t have anything e
lse worth bleeding for, do we?”

  I knew he was right, but despite the exchange that day, our enemy’s relentless onslaught never ceased. In the end we retreated, hiding like thieves, forsaking all we had built and leaving it for our descendants to divide amongst themselves.

  Mother forgive me, I did love my sister, and her resurrection gave me hope, but I would always wonder if there’d been a better way to save her. One that didn’t require me sacrificing my truth.

  Red was the color of sacrifice, but what good is sacrifice when true love was not at stake?

  I vowed that day that I would find the love to make that ancient sacrifice worthwhile. Never again would I shed my blood for anything less.

  Chapter One

  Assana

  Assana clung to her sanity the way a shipwreck survivor clings to the last scraps of flotsam on the water. Her shaky hold on her own mind made it difficult to convince an insane immortal like her mother to do something rational, like not start a war with their allies.

  “Mother, don’t do this, please!” Assana’s repeated arguments fell on deaf ears. Her mother hadn’t ceased ranting about betrayals for the last two days, and that morning had raged her way through the Haven in full primal shift all the way to the deep pools of the Source, claiming she would make the entire Sanctuary pay for their mistake.

  Assana could do nothing but stand by and plead with her mother. The ursa’s sacred home would wither and die if her mother cut off their connection to the life-giving power the waters of the Source offered. The other higher realms belonging to the dragons and the turul wouldn’t be far behind.

  Nyx stood over the pools of the Source, her statuesque body clad in gauzy mist and green moss, with vines twined around her towering antlers. Her voice echoed through the entire Haven as she cast her spell to draw the barrier closed between their realm and the outside world.

  “Daughter, I will give you one chance to warn them. Stay here and let them rot outside, or go and remind them how they failed our alliance. If they wish to set things right, they must make the dragons pay.”

  “But Uncle Neph is still out there! Calder and Father will be stranded too. This is crazy!”

  Assana realized how ridiculous that word sounded when it came to her mother. In her true form, any nymph walked a tightrope on the edge of sanity—it was a side-effect of their deep connection to the River and its capricious nature. Its true power lay in its disregard for the effects it had on the world. It moved forward, a constant, inexorable flow toward the future.

  Her mother was every bit as mindlessly set on her goal now, which seemed to be finally and completely shutting down all access to the Haven, including the life-giving power the Source bestowed upon the entire outside world.

  “And when they do it? How will I get back in to tell you?”

  “You are of my blood, Assana. You know how.”

  Blood … Assana winced at the reminder of what her mother had done. Seeing her brother, Calder, mated to a dragon and an ursa had driven Nyx mad. That was when they’d learned that Nyx had done the unspeakable—she’d blood melded her Thiasoi soldiers and was mind controlling them to attack. Assana’s uncle Neph had stepped in at the last second, shifting into his powerful primal form and carrying the endangered trio away from the madness.

  To where, Assana didn’t know. All she knew was that he was likely in the drift, or would be soon if he attempted to return. But what would happen to him if her mother cast this spell while he was somewhere inside the River’s current?

  Eleven primal shifted nymphs stood guard around the Source now, stiff and mute. They were still under her mother’s thrall, and Assana had no idea how to break the spell.

  “How could you do this, Mother? They’re still out there! You’re condemning them to exile at the very least. Don’t you see what you’ve done?”

  “I have seen what is to come and must protect the Haven at all costs, daughter. When you find your mate and become a mother, you will understand—you will do anything to protect your home and children. The nymphs are all that’s left now. We must protect them.”

  “What of the ursa males who trusted us?”

  “They will do their duty and give us satyr children soon enough. We have enough ursa males here now for that.”

  “Many of them have chosen a mate already—they’ve committed and aren’t going to stray. They won’t allow themselves to be shared.”

  “Then go to the Sanctuary and find me a damn solution! The dragons for the Source—that is the deal. If they comply, then we can renegotiate our breeding exchange. This is your last chance, Assana.”

  Nyx waved her hands over the pools, thick mist flowing from her fingertips and settling thickly over the surface of the water. They may have appeared as placid tide pools scattered across the water-worn rocks beneath the waterfall, but they were in fact the source of the water’s power. Many of the pools were already locked beneath a layer of mist, but the largest—the one that fed the Sanctuary—was still exposed, Nyx’s magical barrier gradually coalescing in a swirling cloud above it.

  Assana had no choice but to go if she wanted to do anything to keep her mother from completely destroying the nymphaea’s alliance with the other races. She only hoped that the ursa would understand the ultimatum.

  Holding back a final, futile plea, she stepped to the edge of the pool, and in one fluid motion dove into the inky depths. Above her fog quickly blotted out the sky, and all she could do was dive down until the power of the River caught her and carried her to her destination.

  The River spat her out into a still pool. She swam to the surface, looking up at the dripping clifftop above her, and her heart broke. She was in the Sanctuary now, she knew by the clear blue sky and the wind rustling through the dense forests. But the unrelenting power of Gaia’s Falls should have been crashing down in a churning froth around her, and there was nothing. Only trickles of water filtered over the rocky ledge above.

  The water slowly receded as she swam to the shore. By the time she stepped onto the nearby path, the pool had completely dried up, leaving only a rocky bed.

  Sickened by the news she carried, Assana closed her eyes and drifted, finding no comfort in the constant thrum of the River’s connection to her mind. That power only gave her knowledge, and right now it told her there was nothing to do but move forward—just like the River did, and just like her mother’s madness.

  When she arrived in the gardens of the Stonetree lodge, she stood in the middle and stared up at the intricate face of the huge clock she’d first seen on her last visit.

  The still waning power of the Source filled the construct, which was clearly counting down to some future event. A series of brightly glowing stones at the apex of its face portended some significant occurrence all the races were on alert for—the thing that had put them all on guard when their enemy’s behavior had suddenly changed this past year.

  Frowning, she realized that the change had occurred shortly after the current brood of young dragons had awakened from their hibernation. Mentally casting about again, she found the past threads and tugged. Putting the pieces together made her skin prickle with understanding.

  The dragons were at the core of it, as well as a single human man who possessed powers beyond any that a human should possess. She’d heard his name—Nikhil—but he was only a legend to her, his stature increasing every time her mother’s frequent River-induced trances had caused her to mention his name. Only recently had Nyx’s strange recitations shifted from referring to Nikhil as “the Lamia’s favored pet” to “the dragons’ cursed champion”—neither of which were said with any reverence. Assana knew him by reputation alone, and he was every bit as terrifying as the Lamia herself—the corrupted nymph who stole the offspring of the higher races and conducted abhorrent experiments on them for some unknown purpose.

  Nikhil mattered less to her than the dragons did,
even if he truly was on their side and was no longer the monster her mother’s visions made him out to be. Only one dragon had the power to affect the balance of her sanity. He wasn’t just any dragon, either, but the oldest, most powerful red dragon in existence.

  Gavra. He was somewhere in the Sanctuary now. Ever since she’d set eyes on that glorious red-maned dragon male, she’d had a coiling ache in her womb that grew stronger every day. She’d managed to stay strong for the first week after meeting him, her goal of following through with the breeding pact she’d negotiated with the ursa driving her forward and keeping her focused. But in the last few days, she’d found it increasingly difficult to focus on the things her mother had done long enough to try to fix them.

  Her mother’s ill deeds were far too similar to an ancient betrayal of one of their own kind. Dragons were at the core of that event as well.

  Assana recognized it all now, with the clarity of hindsight, and it made her mother’s actions all the more atrocious. Blood melding was not the answer—how could her mother resort to the very thing their old enemy had done and risk getting herself banished from the Haven? The very thing she’d done to wield her power over the higher races, and even any unwitting human who fell into her trap?

  The six members of the Dragon Council were right to return to the world and seek out their mates. They may have been tied to those ancient betrayals, but they were also the core of the power that Assana hoped would ultimately prevail when the war this magical clock predicted began.

  “I don’t quite know how it works, either,” a deep male voice said, startling Assana out of her contemplation.

  She turned to see a burly man with a closely trimmed gray beard standing on the path leading from the lodge. He frowned up at the clock.

  “Why would you?” she asked him.

  “Because I built it. My wife … or mate, as you all say … asked for it. Had I known she’d spend her last breath giving it the power to run, I never would have built the damn thing. I’ll be damned if I let Emma put anything into it.”