Sandy: Clan of Dragons, #4

By Nancy Lee Badger

Sandy is a lonely dragon and flies from an island off the Scottish mainland to the Isle of Skye to find a mate. Shifting into a naked male, a chance meeting on a sandy beach with an interesting woman is interrupted by pirates. To escape, she leads him into the sea, a place he detests since he can barely tread water. What about sharks? They survive and together find a hiding place in the forest. Feelings surface, but she is different. Could this human learn to love a dragon?

 

Isobel lost her seal skin to a pirate. She has been following the thief for months and now has only two weeks to live. Bent on her mission, saving a naked human male slows her down. A visit from Brownies and her friend, Orin, complicate things when pirates kidnap her. Sandy comes to her aid, but can her growing feelings for the handsome human be denied? Why does she yearn to find her seal skin if success means never seeing him again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nancy Lee Badger
• Release date: May 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201803667

Nancy Lee Badger

Nancy Lee Badger lives with her husband in North Carolina. She loves everything Scottish and still volunteers annually, with her family, at the New Hampshire Highland Games. She was born in Huntington, NY and is also a former EMT, volunteer firefighter in a small town, and a 9-1-1 Dispatcher.She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, and the Triangle Association of Freelancers.Nancy's books:The TAF Omnibus 2Yuletide Kisses (currently out of circulation)The TAF OmnibusThe Rogue's RingThe Duke's DiamondThe Earl's TreasureLove, HamishHeaven-sent Flame (Warriors in Bronze 3)Rescuing ChristmasWith Every stepOpportunity Falls Boxed setHeaven-sent Highlander (Warriors in Bronze 2)Heaven-sent Warrior (Warriors in Bronze 1)With Every Spark (Opportunity Falls 4)With Every Breath (Opportunity Falls 3)With Every Kiss (Opportunity Falls 2)With Every Heartbeat (Opportunity Falls 1)Clan of dragons boxed setSANDYShimmer: The Beginning (a Clan of Dragons Prequel)SMOLDER (Clan of Dragons 3)SMOKE (Clan of Dragons 2)SPARK (Clan of Dragons 1)Highland Games Through Time-boxed setWhen Love Conquers Time-4 author boxed set (out of circulation)MY HUNTED HIGHLANDER Bk#3Medieval Redemption-4 author boxed set (out of circulation)MY DARK HIGHLANDER Bk#210 Timeless Heroes-4 author boxed set (out of circulation)MY LADY HIGHLANDER Bk#1DRAGON BITESMY RELUCTANT HIGHLANDER Bk#3MY BANISHED HIGHLANDER Bk#2MY HONORABLE HIGHLANDER Bk#1DRAGON'S CURSEUNWRAPPING CHRISSOUTHERN FRIED DRAGONOut of Print:IgniteShiverLove to the RescueDestiny's MountainSecret Love Match

Book preview

The Story

Sandy is a lonely dragon and flies from an island off the Scottish mainland to the Isle of Skye to find a mate. Shifting into a naked male, a chance meeting on a sandy beach with an interesting woman is interrupted by pirates. To escape, she leads him into the sea, a place he detests since he can barely tread water. What about sharks? They survive and together find a hiding place in the forest. Feelings surface, but she is different. Could this human learn to love a dragon?

Isobel lost her seal skin to a pirate. She has been following the thief for months and now has only two weeks to live. Bent on her mission, saving a naked human male slows her down. A visit from Brownies and her friend, Orin, complicate things when pirates kidnap her. Sandy comes to her aid, but can her growing feelings for the handsome human be denied? Why does she yearn to find her seal skin if success means never seeing him again?

Dedication

I fell in love with historical romance after joining ©Romance Writers of America and my local chapter, the Heart of Carolina Romance Writers. Taking a leap into creating shape-shifting dragons living in Scotland came out of my love of faerie tales and all things Scottish. After a grueling two+ years in a pandemic, we all need a little distraction. Thank you to all the writers that came before me.

CHAPTER 1

Isle of Skye

Scotland

Sandy swooped and bellowed with the simple joy of flying, but why he flew over the ocean so far from home brought him back to reality. With summer making its presence known on the Isle of Skye, he ought to be thrilled the snows had melted and green grass grew everywhere.

Well, not on the mountains in the distance.

He’d never seen craggy peaks as black as raven wings. Might he find a new home at their base? A cave deep and dark and peaceful where he could hide the gold he carried in his talons? Might a female of his kind be living there?

His stomach rumbled. He should have dropped from the sky and caught the seal he’d spied earlier. First, he needed to hide his treasure. He laughed at his reflection in the glossy surface of the sea. His sand-colored scales complimented by sea-green wings made his black talons and spiky horns look out of place.

Loneliness can make one see things, but he hoped the movement that caught his eye moments ago proved tasty. He hadn’t eaten since leaving his former home. He’d lived his two-hundred years on one of the outermost islands, and for most of the years, totally alone.

Not much grew on the island he left behind. Bushes were scarce. Trees nonexistent. Small animals gave him sustenance but the last pine marten and rabbit had long gone extinct. And the others of his kind? The few he’d known had also disappeared. He feared sailing ships made it easy for humans to hunt on the island. He’d slept away the years in a small cave that the sea nearly filled during high tide. Until recently, humans had left him alone.

Alone. I be hating the word.

Below, the flash of red fur in a group of about ten animals running beneath the canopy of budding trees was something he ought to inspect. He assumed they were wolves or red deer. Neither currently lived on his old island. Edible? Tasty, even? He could not recall having eaten one in decades.

Turning his attention to locating a possible landing zone, the more he swooped, the less he found until he drew nearer to the beach area. Folding his wings against his back, he pointed his snout toward the shore and landed with a whoosh of sand and air. Shaking his scales, he thought that his bulk would not do well in such a tree-covered land. Should he wait for the beasts to find and cross the open field he’d noticed farther inland? Would they turn east and venture onto the beach?

No, sea water tasted too salty to drink and he’d never seen a wolf or a deer swim. He did not swim, either. When attacking a seal or large fish, only his talons hit the water. If he missed his target, another would surface. Back home, he’d watched some of the sailors dive from their boats and swim to shore. They acted as if they enjoyed it, before stripping off their wet clothing.

Why would he want his scales and muzzle drenched? Maybe he should shift into human form and try it. That very moment, a huge shark breached with a dark gray seal in its jaws.

He shivered. A human’s body was too small. Too fragile to swim with monsters, but he had once shifted, merely by accident. It happened near his cave the day a sailor’s small craft hit a rock and splintered into pieces. The man was tossed by the waves, his face bloody and covered by strands of black hair. Without thinking, he’d flown from his hiding spot, pulled him from the water with his talons, and dropped him on the beach.

After flying away and hiding behind a large boulder, the drowning man’s companions saw him and somehow restored him to life after they pounded on his back and chest.

The man’s garb had ripped from his body and when he stood, Sandy wished he looked like that human. Sparkles surrounded him. He shut his eyes and succumbed to the euphoria of his first shift.

Surprised and suddenly filled with fear that the others would find him, he turned tail and ran. At the edge of a clearing where a small pond lapped against the grassy banks, he saw his new form reflected in its glossy surface.

Long hair, whose color reminded him of beach sand, curled on his massive fleshy shoulders. Brilliant light-blue eyes gazed back from the same face as the man he had saved. The rest of his body appeared identical to the man except for his hair color. He had wished to look human, and somehow shifted to mimic the sailor. Too bad he’d forgotten how to do it.

A sudden thirst had him ignoring chasing down the running beasts and instead searching for a pond where his dragon could slake his thirst. Catching a beast for dinner was a possibility. They couldn’t outrun him. He willed his sense of direction to remember where the animals were located.

Taking to the sky, he swooped low and spied large black boulders piled beside a long stretch of coast line. Landing far up where the waves couldn’t reach, he hid his cask of gold beneath them.

He breathed in the aromas of new grass and the budding of the trees lying inland. With summer around the corner, more greenery meant fatter animals for him to savor. A pine marten would not fill his stomach the way a wolf or red deer could.

A series of small waterfalls thundered in the distance, remnants of the snow that used to cap the mountains. He might want to investigate those peaks. A cave would make a nice new home. First things first...a drink, then rest.

Flying inland, a pool of sparkling water bubbled and churned beneath a waterfall. No green algae or