Captive Dragon: Wild Seas, #1

By Ella Drake

Love is wild when your mate is a seadragon

Marine biologist Chloe Pearl has had enough of one Reef Bayard, a charismatic animal activist who’s put her job in danger. When she finds him in one of the aquarium’s tanks she knows he’s up to some publicity stunt. She’s determined to uncover his plot, just as soon as she can get that gloriously nude body of his…covered.

Reef isn’t what he appears. He’s a seadragon. And getting netted and on display for Chloe may work in his dreams, but he has to escape the aquarium. Not only doesn’t he want to face the truth, that Chloe must be his mate, but he has work to do protecting other sea creatures.

But the deep doesn’t want to let him go, and a creature from his past is out to get him and Chloe. It’s not the best time to claim a mate, but he has nowhere else to run.

This quirky contemporary fantasy romance touches on flipping gender roles with a splash of water dragons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ella Drake
• Release date: Sep 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386705956

Ella Drake

As a child Ella read books under the covers with a flashlight. There she found a special love of elves, dragons, and knights. Now that she's found her own knight in shining armor and happily ever after, she loves to write tales of fantasy, hot enough to scorch the sheets. No flashlight needed.

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Chapter One

Etrusca, somewhere beneath the Mediterranean

Out of sight of the great room, eighteen year-old Reef kept his back against the hallway and held his breath to disguise his presence. They expected him to appear soon. Hoping without hope that they’d for some reason change their minds, he peeked around to check.

Blonde hair reaching past her waist—a sign she didn’t need to work for a living—Calliope Kallial stood in her filigreed robe and stared down at the man at her feet. Playing with a brood of toddlers who climbed on his back, pulled his hair, and rolled over his legs, Reef’s father, Thrace, spoke with a low deference. Thrace and all of his children had the same characteristics of black hair—dark as the deepest ocean cave—and blue eyes as clear as the lagoon Calliope kept in the gardens for her young sons to play in. She didn’t allow the males under her protection to swim the vast sea.

It might go more smoothly if you talked to Reef first. Thrace glanced quickly at Calliope and back to the one he held sleeping on his chest. The boy, Patroclus, had been sickly since birth. They all kept an extra eye on Patroclus and ran interference when Calliope tried to shuttle him off to one of the servants—so he wouldn’t taint the other boys with is inferior constitution.

Why should I? Calliope put her hands on her hips, frowned, and paced between the two nearest marble columns. Reef gulped. Even if he weren’t the one to press her ire, having his name involved with her anger made him want to hunch his shoulders and find the nearest exit. But it’d do no good. One of the she-dragons would find him and haul him back. You were given to me without our having met. Why should he meet his betrothed?

He’s not like me. And I love you. Thrace said the words with surety, as if it were a basic element of life that he loved the matriarch of the Kallial family.

Calliope sighed and ran a hand through Thrace’s hair. She wouldn’t return Thrace’s sentiment. Though Reef felt his mother did love his father, she’d never say it—at least not when others could hear. You didn’t know me when I claimed you. You’ve proven your own point. He will grow to love his mate.

She’s not a good pick for him. She’s domineering. She’ll crush his spirit.

I spoiled you all. Calliope sliced a hand through the air. "He needs his spirit crushed. He has too many ideals and speaks words like equality and fairness."

Shaking so hard, Reef struggled to draw in a choppy breath. He tucked his hands under his crossed arms. His fingers clutched the fine weave of his best tunic. The formal betrothal was set to occur before the queen in only a few hours. Anger surged through him. His parents were wrong. He’d met Deena—the woman who’d made the request for his hand after weeks of negotiating his status among her current mates. Calliope only agreed to the match if her son were named first-mate. He’d be one of four, but he’d be first in status. His mouth tasted of rotten seaweed.

If only Reef could forget that ill-fated meeting and pretend none of this had happened.

The Kallial grounds were massive. One of the grandest estates in Etrusca, the palatial mansion provided everything any seadragon could want. Any male of age would love to be mate to the matriarch Calliope, especially as she’d proven a reliable provider and had many offspring—seadragons and she-dragons alike. All from one mate. To be that treasured mate was to be cosseted and given everything his heart desired. Thrace was a giving husband, a wonderful father, and happy to remain within the grounds of the mansion.

But his oldest son was not. Thrace had covered for Reef numerous times when he’d found a way out of the walled grounds and into the caverns that led to the sea. He couldn’t keep himself from seeking the freedom of swimming in the wide, deep waters. No she-dragon guards. No constant tutoring on how to be the best looking, most deferential mate to make any wealthy she-dragon proud.

Not two months past, he’d been caught for the first time. By a she-dragon who grinned in lust and challenge as he’d climbed out of the pool in the caverns that lead to the sea canyons.

That moment kept recurring in his nightmares, and to his shame, had kept him to the house in fear of being caught again.

Aren’t you a sweet dragon? Running a hand through her short hair, the sea-dragon who’d caught him had purred deep in her throat. Her height had cast shade on him and he took a step back, lifting his chin to look into her eyes. They were cold, harsh black. Fancy being a new addition to my stable?

His body lurched in shock and he froze except to shake his head.

No, he whispered.

What’s that? I couldn’t hear you. She glanced down his body and her gaze snagged between his legs. Unable to answer, he took a step back, until his heels splashed in the water behind him. Out here on your own, you must be a bold fellow.

I’m not old enough to be chosen, he insisted. In fact, according to custom, he was. But his father had managed to keep him at home with the excuse that he needed help with the Kallial brood of twenty children—and Calliope wanted more. Reef was truly busy all day, every day, helping to care for his brothers and sisters.

"You’re certainly old enough. Your