To Date A Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Romance (Weredragon Warriors Book 1) (4 page)

The third Slayor was bigger
than the other two, and he snarled as he kicked his dying comrades
out of his way. He pulled a long dagger out and ran at Rohan. Rohan
parried his blows, but the Slayor was brutally strong. He moved
surprisingly fast for someone his size, and Rohan was forced deeper
and deeper into the alley.

As Rohan fought back, he
tried to find an opening. The Slayor was a skilful fighter, and he
was stronger and bigger than Rohan. The Slayor knew that and his
thin lips curved in triumph. He was anticipating his victory and
relishing killing the Crown Prince of Draca.

Rohan dropped to the ground
suddenly. He saw the enemy's weakness clearly.

Rohan slumped his shoulders
and looked up at the Slayor with a look of utter defeat and
resignation in his eyes. He looked like a man who knew that he was
going to die at the hands of an opponent who was superior to him in
skill, stature and power.

The Slayor bellowed in
victory and raised his dagger. “Die, my worthless little
prince,” the Slayor hissed derisively.

Rohan waited until the
Slayor's blade started descending towards his neck.

In a flash, he reared up and
buried his knife deep in the heart of his enemy. There was a look of
surprise and incomprehension on the Slayor's face as he stared down
at the knife in his chest.

Then he dropped to his knees
in front of Rohan and the light died in his yellow eyes.

Rohan pulled his knife out of
the Slayor's chest and wiped the black blood off. Stepping over the
body, he deadpanned, “I'm not your prince.”

Rohan dragged the bodies of
the three Slayors into the alley and kicked them into a pile.
Stepping back, he called forth his dragon and felt the great beast
ripple under his skin.

His gold flecks in his eyes
expanded and spread until his blue-green eyes became fully golden.
His skin shimmered as his dragon pressed up to the surface. He
retained his human shape, but his dragon was in control.

As his dragon stared at the
dead Slayors, a searing heat began to burn in his chest. The heat
spiraled towards his throat, and Rohan opened his mouth to release a
white hot flame.

The flame shot towards the
pile of bodies and set them alight. In just a few seconds, the
bodies had been completely incinerated. There was nothing left of
them but smoke.

The smoke swirled around
Rohan's feet as he walked out of the alley.

He glanced at his watch and
smiled grimly. Three Slayors down and it wasn't even midnight yet.

CHAPTER
TEN

“Ten! I took out ten
Slayors and I burned those shits to smoke. Then I burned their smoke
to nothing,” Zul announced as he came stomping into the
kitchen.

Rohan glanced up from his
phone. He had returned home an hour earlier, and he had already
finished his breakfast.

Edriq and Zul came in
together, but only Zul's heavy footsteps could be heard. Edriq made
no sound as he moved, and that was what made him such a deadly
killer.

Mrs Vomae came and placed a
plate of sizzling steaks on the table, and refreshed Rohan's coffee.
Zul had heaped two large steaks on his plate by the time Mrs Vomae
returned with the garlic bread and scrambled eggs.

“Breakfast, my favorite
meal of the day,” Zul declared, grabbing the whole bread
basket.

As Rohan put down his phone
and downed his black coffee, Zul shoveled the scrambled egg into his
mouth and said, “So, how's it going?”

“How's what going?”

“You know.” Zul
tugged at his short, brown hair and shuddered dramatically.

Edriq elbowed Zul and said
encouragingly, “You can do it, Rohan. It's not that hard.
Right?”

Zul rolled his eyes and
chomped on his steak. With a grunt, the big guy fell silent and just
ate.

Rohan couldn't tell if the
guy was deep in thought or just enjoying his food. Zul was built
like a mountain, with thick shoulders and bulging biceps. He had a
disarming, impish grin and he could look like an overgrown teenager
with his streaked brown hair and handsome, boyish features. But when
he was fighting Slayors, Zul was an unstoppable, killing machine.

Edriq didn't talk much. He
ate the same way he worked, efficiently and quietly. He finished his
eggs and steak and politely thanked Mrs Vomae for the wonderful
breakfast as he went to pour himself another cup of coffee. Mrs
Vomae always prepared a big, hearty breakfast full of protein and
carbs. A night of flying and fighting sapped a lot of energy and
they needed to recharge.

All heads swiveled to the
door as Tessa came bounding into the kitchen. “Daddy! Daddy!”
she squealed, jumping up and down.

Rohan looked at the clock.
“What are you doing up so early? It's not even six o'clock.”

“I want to give you
enough time to do my hair today,” she said, tugging him out of
his chair.

“Sit down, Tessa,”
Mrs Vomae said. “Finish your breakfast. Then you can do your
hair.”

Tessa pouted but obeyed. Mrs
Vomae was a good housekeeper and a no-nonsense nanny. She didn't let
Tessa get away with anything. “Unlike you boys,” Mrs
Vomae would sniff at them. “The girl runs circles around the
three of you.” Mrs Vomae was right. Tessa had her dad, Uncle
Edriq and Uncle Zul wrapped around her little finger.

Tessa gobbled down her
breakfast and glugged down her milk. “Done!” she
announced and pulled Rohan's hand. “Come on, Daddy! Hurry!”

“Okay, okay.”
Rohan got up. Tessa was already pounding up the stairs.

“Need any help?”
Edriq asked worriedly, getting to his feet.

“Nah. I got this,”
Rohan answered.

Zul narrowed his eyes at him.
“You sure? How'd you learn...””

“By watching YouTube
videos non-stop since I came home,” Rohan said, waving his
phone at them.

Rohan bit the inside of his
cheek so he wouldn't laugh out loud at the expression on his
brothers' faces. Zul and Edriq had both turned a paler shade of pale
and were staring at him like he was about to walk into a battlefield
to take on the entire Slayor army by himself.

“I thought you were
kidding before, but now you're shitting me, right?” Zul
spluttered. “You think you can learn to do a French braid just
by
watching
?”

Rohan shrugged.

“There are some things
you can't learn on YouTube,” Edriq said, shaking his head.

“Geez, if it were that
simple, I'd be a concert pianist by now. Or a master chef, or an
expert crocheter...”

“You're learning how to
crochet?” Edriq and Rohan turned to gape at Zul.

Zul sniffed and folded his
arms defensively across his massive chest. “It relaxes me.”

Rohan sighed and cracked his
knuckles. “Okay, I'd better go up to Tessa's room now.”

Edriq stepped in front of him
and held up two fingers. “If you're not out in two...”

“I can't braid Tessa's
hair in two minutes,” Rohan protested.

“Two
hours
,”
Edriq said grimly. “If you're not out in two hours, we're
going in.”

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Rohan rolled his eyes at his
brothers. Geez, he was just going into his daughter's room to braid
her hair. He didn't need to be rescued. These guys were
overreacting.

“Relax, what could go
wrong?” Rohan wasn't sure if he was assuring his brothers or
himself.

“We'll be right here,”
Zul said with a smirk. “Watching YouTube videos!”

Edriq smacked Zul upside the
head for his smart-assery. “Just holler if you need us,”
he told Rohan.

“I won't need you.
Besides, neither of you know how to braid a five-year-old's hair,”
Rohan tossed out as he started up the stairs.

“No. But I can
distract her from the disastrous hairdo which you are about to
inflict upon her. I can only hope the poor girl won't be scarred for
life,” Zul called out.

“Not helpin',”
Rohan growled from the top of the stairs.

Taking a deep, steadying
breath, Rohan bravely stepped into his daughter's room.

With the softest click, the
door closed.

In the kitchen, Zul resumed
eating while Edriq paced in circles. “You're making me
nervous,” Zul growled. “Just sit your ass down, man.
You gave him two hours.”

“Yeah, but...”

“Two. Hours.”
Zul tapped at his watch. “I've set the alarm. At exactly,
oh-eight-hundred hours, we move in. Now, eat. We need the energy to
deal with whatever's comin'.”

One hour later, Tessa's room
door remained closed.

Zul and Edriq crouched
outside the door.

All was quiet.

There were no blood-curdling
screams and hysterical sobs from the room.

They took that as a good
sign.

Thirty-seven minutes and
forty-nine seconds later, the door flew open and Rohan staggered out
from his daughter's bedroom.

He stumbled into the kitchen
where Zul and Edriq were waiting anxiously for him.

One look at him and Zul
rushed into Tessa's bedroom in full uncle mode, all ready to do some
serious comforting and cajoling and contain whatever damaged he'd
wrought.

Edriq took Rohan by the arm
and made him sit down. “You did your best,” Edriq said
somberly. “I'm sure...”

Before Edriq could finish,
Tessa came skipping down the stairs, leaving a slack-jawed Zul in her
wake.

She did a perfect pirouette
in front of Edriq and beamed. “Look at my hair, Uncle Edriq!
Daddy did it! He braided my hair beautifully! It took him a few
tries to get it right, but he did it! Do I look like a princess?”

Edriq gawked at Tessa's
intricate French braid and opened and closed his mouth like a
goldfish. After a minute, he finally found his voice. “Yes!
You look very nice. Very nice indeed!”

Tessa giggled and ran to grab
Edriq's hand. “Let's go, Uncle Edriq. I don't want to be
late.”

They usually took turns
dropping Tessa off at her kindergarten. Hunting Slayors at night
meant they had to sleep in the day but their dragons only needed a
few hours of sleep to recharge. They needed food more than they
needed sleep. Rohan and Zul would catch a few hours of sleep before
going to work at about ten or eleven in the morning while Edriq would
go to work in the afternoon. Their working hours were flexible so
they would rotate their shifts throughout the week. Sometimes, they
simply worked from home if they weren't needed at the office.

Rohan spoke up before Tessa
could drag Edriq out the door. “I'll drive her to school
today.”

“But...”

“I think I deserve to
see the expression on Miss Amelia's face when she sees my handiwork,”
Rohan said, winking at Tessa. “I've earned it.”

“Okaaaaay. But...”
Edriq's eyes darted to the clock. “Maybe you shouldn't take
the car.”

“Why not?”

Edriq lowered his voice so
Tessa wouldn't hear them. “Because...”

But at that instant, Tessa
turned and her eyes bulged when she saw the time. “Daddy!”
she shrieked. “I'm late! I can't be late!”

Edriq pushed Rohan out the
door as Zul grabbed Tessa's backpack and lunchbox. “You know
what to do, man,” Edriq said. “Just take the fastest
route to school!”

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Amelia stood at the door of
the classroom and greeted her students with a big smile as they filed
in. The children grinned and some jumped up to give her high fives
as they trooped into class.

“Good morning, Miss
Amelia!” they chorused.

Amelia grinned and waved to a
small group of mothers who were chatting outside the classroom. She
felt pretty upbeat today. She felt so much better when she woke up
this morning.

It seemed that a good night's
sleep was just the thing to clear her head and set it firmly on her
shoulders. She had slept dreamlessly and deeply, and it was the best
sleep that she'd had in years.

Refreshed and recharged, she
was ready to take on the world. And a class of rambunctious,
exuberant five-year-olds.

Amelia had taken over Lilly
Vega's kindergarten class just over a week ago. Lilly had gotten
married and was moving to another state. Lilly had gasped and
blinked back tears when the children proudly presented the big card
that was covered with their palm prints to her on her last day.

Amelia crouched down to help
some of the children put away their bags and lunch boxes. She
noticed that almost all the girls in the class had braided their hair
today. Some of them giggled as they came up to her and showed her
their pretty hairdos.

Amelia touched her French
braid self-consciously as she straightened up. She suddenly realized
that the children were emulating her. They looked up to her and saw
her as a role model.