A Baby for the Dragon: Dragons of Lake City, #1

By Kellan Larkin

Can a human help thaw the frozen heart of this dragon?

Wesley Drach has been alone for nearly a century. The dragon shifter built his hoard from scratch and is now one of the wealthiest men in the city. But what's the point of all that if you don't have anyone to share it with? That's what Wesley realizes when the handsome, clueless human Noah walks through his door.

All Noah wants is to climb the career ladder and enjoy life in the big city. But when he meets Wesley, CEO of the firm his company is working with, all he can think about is the brooding, aloof millionaire. When the two find themselves alone together, the sparks fly. Things will never be the same again...

When Noah gets pregnant, Wesley discovers his long lost family, and the big secret of his shifter status is revealed, the budding relationship hits the rocks. Are the two destined to be together for life?

Find out in A Baby for the Dragon!

This standalone, 40,000+ word novella has a HEA. No cheating, no cliffhangers. Inside, you'll find an adorable shifter baby and plenty of sweet and steamy scenes!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kellan Larkin
• Release date: Dec 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781386261148

Book preview

1

Wesley

Light flakes of powder snow floated down over the tops of skyscrapers, delicately coating the city in a soft sheet. From my vantage point near the top of my company’s building, I could see pristine expanses of white forming over the terraces of other buildings, making them blend into the dull gray sky. The bright headlights of cars illuminated the sparsely populated streets. It was a weekday, but a

quiet

one

.

Winter was officially here in

Lake

City

.

The weather matched my mood perfectly. I was having a difficult time pinpointing how I felt lately, but seeing it reflected outside somehow allowed me to clarify my feelings. I felt numb. But now, I could detect the thin layer of frost that had formed over my heart, cooling my emotions, keeping me from feeling the heat of

my

fire

.

It was obvious to me why I felt this way. I had been thinking about it for a while now, spending long hours over the years brooding in my private office. There was a part of me that felt empty. I had been alone for

so

long

.

I walked back to my desk and saw, with little interest, that I had a new email. Accounting had sent me one of their regular reports detailing profits for the week. I was obsessive about managing my wealth—it was a natural compulsion because I was a dragon. But it was a compulsion that would never be fully satiated.

For decades now, I had been working hard to reach this goal, and now I was on top of a mountain. I could see the whole city from my window and my dragon purred in satisfaction, sitting on a hoard of wealth. It wasn’t like in the old days, where we literally kept piles of gold coins and silver swords and jewels in caves. Now, it was just a number on a screen. But it served the same purpose.

Building the hoard wasn’t the only thing a dragon was supposed to do, though. A dragon had to have a family, a community, social connections to support us. We were creatures that took pride in not only our individual strength, but also the care we showed to our fellow dragons. That was the one thing I

never

had

.

I sighed and closed the accounting report. It was the same old thing day after day. With an uneasy feeling, I wondered whether I was having what the humans called a midlife crisis. 

I had spent so much energy building my business and my wealth in the more complicated modern way, playing the city like it was a chessboard. I had completely neglected the other good things in life that would keep my dragon happy.

There was a knock on my door. Come in, I called out. I watched my assistant Bina walk in. I was fond of Bina. She was a clever recent graduate from Lake City College, one of the best schools in the state. And she didn’t know it, but she looked remarkably like a dragon, with her sharp features and deliberate movements. Despite her youth, she was one of the few humans who I held in high esteem.

Hello, Wesley, she said with a warm smile. "You ready for your meeting

with

BHS

?"

I suppose so, I said. It was startling how dead my voice sounded. Had I sounded like this the whole time? Was this how Bina knew me? How she’d always known me? It was like I was seeing myself for the first time in years.

She walked up to my desk and placed a stack of papers on it. This is a dossier on the company, she said. We’ve worked out many of the details for them as well, so all we really have to do today is listen to what they want and provide some options for their placements.

Thanks, Bina, I said, flipping through the papers. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before, but it would be good to have these fact sheets handy. 

I followed her out to the conference room, knowing she’d have already set up the presentation with properties we were willing to offer. Bross Healthcare Solutions was a company looking to set up a series of clinics in the city; they had started on the East Coast and were swiftly expanding westward. My company was to work with them to find properties in the Lake City region. It was a straightforward type of deal, much like many we had completed in

the

past

. 

It was

nothing

new

.

I sighed again. By the scale, what was wrong with me? I felt vaguely like I was waking up from a long hibernation, slowly coming back into my consciousness and taking stock of the world around me. Was it my dragon that had instigated this change? It felt no more restless or energetic than it did before. Where had this profound discontent

come

from

?

I took my seat at the head of the table while Bina fiddled with some settings on the projector. A few of my other employees who were working on this deal filed in; they would be handling the details while I oversaw the meeting from my seat. Bina left and returned with the BHS group, which consisted of just a few people.

It’s great to finally meet you in person, Darren, I said, plastering a fake, toothy smile on

my

face

. 

Same to you, Wesley, he replied, returning my handshake. 

We had been in email correspondence for a while now, and he and his team had only just recently set up an office in the city. His team had been permanently

relocated

here

.

My manager will be discussing your options with you, I said, so I’ll leave him to take the floor.

Excellent, I thought. Now that I had passed the baton, I was free to sit back and relax. As the CEO of the company, all I had to do was sit there and look important while Christopher and Bina handled the presentation.

In the meantime, I was free to use my dragon senses to gauge the reactions of Darren and his team. These senses were a large part of the reason why I was so successful in business. I could smell their hesitation and excitement; humans were extraordinarily easy to read if you knew what to look for. I had years of practice

with

that

.

There was just one problem: the youngest member of the BHS team. He was one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen in my life and irritatingly distracting. When I finally had the chance to properly look at him and suss out his scent, I was dazzled.

That was not a feeling I was

used

to

.

His eyes were golden-green, a rare color for a human, and his hair was a rich gold, almost ochre. He sat up straight in his seat and was watching Christopher’s presentation with great care, like someone trying hard to please those around him, but I could tell that he was also trying to fight off boredom. He didn’t care much about the properties themselves; he was here to make a good showing in front of his superiors and

assist

them

.

Something about the way his hair curved around his ear and the way he rested his strong chin on his hand lit up something in me. He looked like a student still, one allowing the lecture to guide his daydreams. But he was human, and I very rarely found humans this attractive. So what was different about

this

one

?

My attraction to this human—Noah, his name tag said—persisted through the entire meeting. I thanked Christopher and Bina for their help with the presentation, glad that we just had to have a meal with BHS now. Then I would be free to hole myself up in my office again.

The caterers should have lunch ready shortly, said Christopher. If you’ll just follow us into our lunchroom…

He chatted with them while I followed behind, continuing to observe the BHS delegation. Darren felt good about the properties he had seen, I knew that. In fact, he had liked several and was glad he had decided to work with us. For some reason, he felt a little more hopeful than he had previously.

Well, I was glad he was happy. But my dragon was interested in the assistant, Noah. I wanted to talk to him and learn about him. What was he doing with this company? Was he truly interested in healthcare? Had he also moved to Lake City for them, or was he

hired

here

?

I couldn’t deny my attraction toward him. As I watched his lithe body gracefully pick out his sandwich and salad and smoothly take a seat next to his boss, I found myself transfixed. My heart was beating a little faster, and I could feel my dragon’s heat rising in my chest. I felt a little more alive than I had in a long time, like I was thawing out, like my fire was returning

to

me

.

I wasn’t really listening to what Darren or Christopher or Bina or the others were saying. I was hoping that Darren would give Noah a chance to speak. I wanted to hear his voice. He seemed deferential to his boss, but not in a way that suggested that he was afraid of making a social faux pas. I decided to just ask him myself.

So, Noah, we haven’t heard much from you, I said. "Are you from

Lake

City

?"

He gave me a small smile and his eyes glittered. Damn, I thought. He found me attractive

as

well

.

I’m not, he said, "But when Bross offered me the chance to relocate to such a vibrant place, I couldn’t turn them down. I just moved here a couple of

months

ago

."

Noah had just finished his MBA when we had hired him, said Darren, talking as if Noah was his own star pupil. We’ve been very happy with his performance. He’s poised to do well in the Lake City offices.

Noah smiled politely. I’m looking forward to it,

he

said

.

He did have a lovely voice. It wasn’t as deep as mine, but it had a certain undercurrent of confidence that was attractive. He was easily carefree, clearly enjoying his new opportunity in a

new

city

.

I hadn’t felt like that in a while. It was almost like I was a little jealous. The scent of newness was intoxicating.

Well, I’m sure you’ll like it here, I said. "It’s a place where young people can thrive, being one of the biggest cities in the region. You’ll find lots to

do

here

."

Thank you, he said. "I’m sure

I

will

."

Beyond that, I didn’t have much opportunity to talk to him. He and I had to sit aside while the manager chattered on about all sorts of remarkably mundane human topics: sports, the weather, the social scene in Lake City. It was nothing that I was

interested

in

. 

One of the reasons I hated small talk was because it made me feel even lonelier. It made me even more aware of my status as a shifter, set apart from the humans. And they didn’t even

know

it

.

So, I guess we’ll see you next week, said Darren affably. I summoned up another burst of energy to say goodbye to the BHS team. They lingered over even more small talk; when would it end? But finally, they were gone, and I made a beeline back to my office.

When I was back at my desk, I had a lot to think about. It was like my dragon knew something was coming when I started my day, the entrance to a rabbit hole I couldn’t resist. Now, the question was, would I go down that rabbit hole? I hadn’t ever met a human who intrigued me

like

Noah

.

And of course, I hadn’t met any dragons. My parents had died when I was young, destitute, because my grandparents had been slaughtered by humans who were after their treasure. It had taken me decades to get to where I was today, and now I was paranoid about protecting my own hoard. I never wanted to worry about paying rent again.

Now I owned half the apartment buildings in

the

city

.

And they were all populated by humans. Humans, everywhere. There were other shifters as well; I knew there was a robust wolf community, for example, but of course, they didn’t know about me, and that was how I liked it. But the downside of that was that I could never ask them for help in finding my fellow dragons.

I had halfheartedly tried over the years, but it was impossible, even when the Internet became the go to place to find lost relatives. I had no idea how to subtly ask for other dragons without giving myself away. We were a tightly knit, secretive species, unlike the wolves, who practically flaunted their shifter status; I had no idea how they managed to hide themselves from humans, the way they carried themselves.

I had heard rumors of robust societies of dragons living underground in other cities, right under the humans’ noses. And of course, there were most likely dragons off the coasts and in the mountains

as

well

. 

We tended to like any kind of rocky, craggy, secluded place. Maybe that was why I was so attached to my office and penthouse, both at the very top of skyscrapers.

I decided to leave a little early that afternoon

Reviews for A Baby for the Dragon

[Jessica Robin Aldridge · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Very poorly written, with flat characters, and every conflict immediately resolves itself in the most boring way possible. Wish I hadn't wasted the time it took to read it.

[tonnerrey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's obvious that's it's not exactly written by the most accomplished author out there, and the switching back and forth from one character POV to the next - instead of simply writing in the third person - was really annoying. BUT. The plot was okay and I still managed to find it enjoyable.