The Dragon's Tattoo: A Dragon Shifter Romance (Bluewater Dragons Book 1) Read online

  The Dragon’s Tattoo

  Bluewater Dragons: Book 1

  Roxie Ray

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Skylar

  2. Anthony

  3. Skylar

  4. Anthony

  5. Skylar

  6. Anthony

  7. Skylar

  8. Anthony

  9. Skylar

  10. Anthony

  11. Skylar

  12. Anthony

  13. Skylar

  14. Anthony

  15. Skylar

  16. Anthony

  17. Skylar

  18. Anthony

  19. Skylar

  20. Anthony

  21. Skylar

  22. Anthony

  23. Skylar

  24. Anthony

  25. Jace

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  The Dragon’s Fate

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  The Dragon’s Tattoo

  Prologue

  Anthony

  The room was full of dragon shifters and humans, mingling uncomfortably. My parents had done exactly as I’d asked, thank goodness. The decorations weren’t over the top, and they’d even hired a DJ.

  My best friend’s voice cut through my introspection. “Give it up!”

  I looked around, searching for Skye. I’d been looking for her for half the party. I hadn’t seen her since it started, but I’d been pulled aside several times by members of my clan, congratulating me on my sixteenth birthday.

  Normally these parties were clan only, but I’d insisted my human friends be invited as well. We lived as humans, in a human town, working jobs with them and going to school with them. It wasn’t fair that I couldn’t have all my friends at my party. When I’d put my foot down, my parents had caved.

  That gave me hope for the future of my parents’ acceptance of humans. I needed them to be open-minded.

  Moving around the large rec room, I smiled and talked to clan members. Several wished me luck on my upcoming first shift, though they did it quietly, so they didn’t freak out the human guests. I hoped this party would help with all the humans in Bluewater Coast thinking our clan was some sort of religious cult.

  Our clan knew about the rumors. That’s what made them stick so close together, ironically. They should’ve mingled more with the townsfolk instead of avoiding them. They’d made their own beds. I was going to be alpha someday, and Dad was always telling me to start thinking like one. So, I’d put my foot down about the party.

  If I hadn’t been able to invite my best friend, Skye, I would’ve been pretty upset. I lost track of her voice as I moved around the room, so I opened my senses to seek her out. She was always easy for me to find, filtering out everyone else until her annoyed voice reached my ears. “Will you find someone else to bug?”

  “But I like bugging you.” Jace’s voice bugged me. I rounded the corner to find Skye leaned against a wall with Jace beside her. I had to force myself not to growl at him. He had his arm up by her head and his typical cocky smile plastered on his smug face.

  “Shove off.” At least I kept my voice out of a growl, but Jace definitely heard the warning. He didn’t mean any harm, but I couldn’t stand him being in Skye’s space.

  Jace gave me a confused look but laughed. “Whatever, Ant.” He shot Skye a sly look. “See ya later.”

  She gave him a finger-wave as she shook her head. I was glad she found him annoying. It would’ve all been much worse if she’d found his flirtations charming.

  I didn’t speak for a few moments as Jace crossed the room. Another member of our clan, Tessa, stopped him. They spoke for a few seconds before both of them looked at me and Skye. When they saw I already had my gaze on them, they looked away very quickly.

  So Jace had picked up on the threat in my voice. What a gossip he was. He hadn’t waited a full minute before blabbing.

  “So.” I turned back to Skye and put my clanmates out of my mind. We’d been raised together, having been born around the same time. They’d give me plenty of shit about this later, I wasn’t going to worry about it right now. “Are you having fun?”

  She shrugged. “I guess. It’s a little annoying, seeing all the catty girls vying for your attention.”

  I agreed with that. I didn’t care for the fake girls at our high school, but I’d wanted the party to be open for everyone in town, so of course, they’d come. They followed me around campus, too, every chance they got.

  “How about we go dance and take your mind off the jealous girls.”

  Skye turned her big green eyes up and stared at me with a smirk on her face. “I don’t see that they have much to be jealous of, but sure. Let’s dance.”

  I wanted to take her hand, but we didn’t have that sort of relationship, as much as I wished we had. If those other girls knew how I really felt about Skye, they’d have more than enough to be jealous of.

  When we got to the middle of the dance floor, I put my hands on her hips and thanked my lucky stars that the music had slowed to something we could sway to, instead of me trying to look cool dancing to a fast song.

  With every movement of our hips, I snuck a little closer, and my feelings for Skye settled deeper and deeper. I’d had a crush on her for years. Feeling drawn to her was how I ended up befriending her and led to us becoming best friends. As the years passed, it only got stronger.

  But now, touching her, the romantic song, her body so close to mine, something clicked into place deep inside me.

  When she turned her head up to look at me, I stepped close, pressed my body to hers, and moved my right hand to the nape of her neck. She had her shiny brown hair up in a complicated twist, leaving her shoulders and neck bare. Only two spaghetti straps held her pink tank top up, something I’d thanked my lucky stars for when she’d walked in.

  “Anthony,” she whispered. Her plump lips parted slightly, drawing my gaze until all I could see or hear or smell was Skye. Her soft mouth. Her breathy voice.

  I moved my face closer to hers and inhaled her scent, vanilla and something fruity. Citrus, maybe. She curved her neck, accepting my advance. The sound of her pulse ricocheted in my ears.

  My heart pounded in my chest and my dragon roared his happiness that we were going to kiss Skye, finally. I hadn’t shifted yet, but I’d always been connected to my dragon. Only our witch’s blessings kept us from shifting as children, which could be traumatic for anyone who might happen upon a toddler shifting into a small, vicious little dragon.

  As soon as my lips touched hers, a burning sensation began on my arm. I knew what it was but ignored it in favor of continuing the kiss. I didn’t push it with my tongue or anything. I wasn’t sure how many guys Skye had kissed in her life, but I didn’t want to freak her out now, this first time I got to taste her.

  The burn on my arm intensified and I pulled back, biting back a hiss of pain. Pulling Skye into my arms, I hugged her close and continued to sway, giving me a chance to look at my arm over her shoulder. Sure enough, on my inner right forearm, the faintest outline of the fated mate tattoo had begun to form.

  I grinned down at the mark, which would be invisible to humans, but the other dragons would be able to see it once it came in darker or if they looked closely. I swayed, absolutely stunned by this new development.

  Skye shifted in my arms, sliding her hands up my back and resting her head on my shoulder. Her movement pulled me out of my astonishment enough to realize the other dragons in the room had picked up on my change in energy. The
y were all stiff, looking around as if for a sound only they could hear. If they didn’t chill, all the humans would notice their identical behavior. They were anxious, unsure what this energy was.

  Shit. It was me, and it was good, but they didn’t know that. I wasn’t alpha yet, so the connection wasn’t the same. If I’d already been alpha, they would’ve known that I was experiencing a happy event.

  Skye pulled back and looked up at me. “Are you okay?” she asked. Something caught her eye, and she looked around the room. “What’s going on?”

  I gaped at her silently, without the first damn clue how to answer her. “I’ve got to go,” I whispered. “Sorry.”

  Panic bloomed in my chest. If I didn’t get my emotions under control, the clan was going to move into defense mode. This was something I’d trained against, but seeing my mate mark had broken through all my defenses. As the alpha heir, I had to control my emotions. It would be even more paramount as alpha, but at least then they would’ve known what was going on without me having to call a meeting or something stupid like that.

  Darting toward the kitchen, around the corner from where I’d found Skye, and down a long hall, I sighed in relief when I spotted my mom and made a beeline for her. “What’s going on?” she hissed when she saw my face.

  I opened my mouth to explain, but she grabbed my hand and yanked me toward her. “Oh, honey.” Her voice was overjoyed. “Mitch!” she called.

  My dad appeared from behind her. He’d probably been bugging the caterers in the kitchen, sneaking extra sweets. And Mom had likely been on her way to catch him doing it.

  “What’s wrong?” Dad asked. “I sensed the pack getting upset.”

  “Mitch, look.” Mom tugged on my arm, nearly knocking me off balance.

  When Dad saw the glow, which had begun to brighten, his face broke into a wide grin. “My boy! Who is it?” He was delighted to see I’d found my fated mate.

  He wasn’t going to be delighted for long. “It’s Skylar,” I said in a low voice after looking around to make sure we were alone in the hallway.

  Both of my parents’ faces paled as the implications of the name I’d said sunk in.

  “A human?” My mother dropped my arm and recoiled. “That can’t be.”

  “It’s not possible, son.” Dad put his hand on my shoulder. “Maybe you were near Skylar when it happened, but it has to be someone else.”

  I gave him a flat look. “Give me more credit than that, Dad. I know who these feelings and emotions are for. I’ve known for a long time, but I…” It was hard to say this stuff to my parents.

  “What?” Dad asked. “You what?”

  “I kissed her,” I said in the quietest whisper I could manage. “That’s when the burn started.”

  Dad’s eyebrows settled into an angry line. “Dragons don’t mate with humans,” he said in a growly, deep voice.

  I wasn’t taking it, though. “Obviously, they can,” I hissed and shoved my forearm under his nose. “Or this is just a figment of my imagination, I guess?”

  What happened next changed the course of the rest of my life. Dad dropped his voice deeper, going into his alpha register. When he gave a command with that voice, nobody in his clan could refuse him. “You will go tell your friends the party is over. Invent whatever excuse you want to. You’ve got until the end of the week to say goodbye. You’re going away.”

  I couldn’t argue, however many retorts sprang to mind. I’d never been so angry in my life, and no doubt the entire clan was close to losing it out in the party thanks to my father’s emotions and now my anger.

  Fate chose Skye for me, but my father was so prejudiced against humans that he wouldn’t even consider that.

  “Go, send them away,” he growled.

  Biting back my retorts, I turned on my heel and walked into the party. “Sorry, everyone. Something has come up.” I waved my right arm.

  The tattoo had begun to glow enough that the entire clan could see it now. Humans never would be able to, such was the magic that made it, but all of the clan now knew why I was sending everyone away.

  Tessa’s face caught my eye. She looked overjoyed as she stared at my arm, still waving in the air. Her face had a glow of hopefulness on it. I’d suspected for a while that she had a crush on me. Now I was sure. That was going to be nothing but inconvenient, at best.

  I got everyone out the door, shrugging at Skye as she went along with the crowd. “Call you later,” I mouthed as she let herself get hurried out the door.

  Everyone would probably think we were even worse of a cult now that I’d ended my party like this. It would’ve been better all along to just have had the party with the clan.

  I’d put it off as long as I could. She’d been texting and calling me, but I’d sent excuse after excuse not to see her. Now my bags were packed, and with my dad being all alpha-hole, I had no choices left.

  “Hey.” I scuffed my toe as she walked up and stood close. For a second, she seemed like she wanted to give me a hug, but I firmly kept my hands in my jeans pockets to discourage her from touching me. “Thanks for meeting me.”

  My dragon retreated deep inside me, sullen and confused about why we couldn’t be with Skye. He was part of me, and I of him. It wasn’t like he could talk to me or vice versa, but sometimes his emotions overpowered me.

  Like now. I wanted to cry and wrap my arms around Skye, proclaiming my love for her and promising never to leave her.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. Even if I’d tried, the alpha commands on me prevented it. My dad was being a total douchebag about it, which was so unlike him. I didn’t know what the hell to think.

  “Of course.” Skye touched my arm. “What is going on?”

  I blurted out the lie we’d come up with. It sounded wooden and rote even to my ears, but I pushed forward with it anyway. “I got a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school in England. My parents are making me go.”

  Skye snorted. “Your parents are loaded. What do you need with a scholarship?”

  I looked around the park, trying to think of what to say. “Did I say scholarship? I meant I got admitted and they didn’t think I would. It will really help me get into a good college and medical school, so they’re putting their foot down about it.”

  Skye’s face went from amused and disbelieving to confused and a little angry. “Okay, so England. We can video chat, and you’ll be home in like two years to go to college. Maybe we can work on going to the same one.”

  Leave it to her to try to be optimistic. We’d been best friends for so long, she couldn’t conceive the rest of our lives apart.

  Well, neither could I. Especially with the burning that was still on my right forearm, which worsened now that we were together.

  “Sure, yeah,” I said, but we both knew I was lying.

  Skye’s eyes registered betrayal as she recoiled. “So, that’s just it?” I watched her chest rise and fall as she tried to hide her upset.

  I pretended I couldn’t hear her heart beating out of her chest, and backed away. “I’ll see you around, Skye.”

  I had to get away from her. Her pain spurred my own and I barely made it back to my family’s land before I shifted, my dragon taking the reins and launching us into the air. Once upon a time, shifting was painful for dragons, but painless shifts was another byproduct of having a clan witch. She spelled each of us once a year to have painless shifts. What would we do without Sammy?

  My parents were somewhere nearby, flying. We were able to communicate telepathically, and I couldn’t stop myself. I’ll never forgive you.

  I tried not to think about how much I hated them, but it came through anyway because, within a few seconds, awareness of them disappeared from my mind. They’d shifted back, probably unable to stand feeling my pain.

  Good. I hoped it haunted them.

  1

  Skylar

  Eighteen Years Later

  “Put that under your pillow.” I handed the teddy bear to my patient. Ke
ndrick was eight and about to have his appendix out. “If you get scared, tell the teddy. He’ll keep your secret.” The little guy was nervous, but his big brother was out in the hall, waiting for me to finish my presurgery exam. I was fairly sure Kendrick was too worried about his big brother thinking he was a sissy to be honest about how terrified he was about the surgery.

  Kendrick grinned at me with a couple of missing teeth. “Thanks, Nurse Skye.”

  I winked at him and went into the hall, typing the info into my tablet. It would notify the surgeon that I’d completed the forms needed, and his mother had signed everything.

  “That’s it for me.” I plopped the tablet down on the charging station and plugged it in. “All the paperwork is caught up, and I’m going to lunch.”

  The ward clerk gave me an amused look. “So eager to escape the floor?”

  Laughing, I held up my hands. “Of course not. But I am starving.” Normally, I worked in the primary care clinic on the other side of the hospital. When the peds floor had requested an extra half-shift so their head nurse could go to yearly sexual harassment training, I’d volunteered.

  Why not? I had nothing better to do, and I loved my job. After telling the rest of the team goodbye, I headed to the cafeteria. There was a cafe on my side of the hospital, and I almost always stopped there. Today, I’d come to the cafeteria on this side. Someone had mentioned they had taco salad, which I loved.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t see anyone I knew, so I grabbed a small booth and played a game on my phone while I ate. This was preferable to going home and cooking for one.