High House Draconis Box Set Read online

  High House Draconis

  The Complete 5-Book Series

  Riley Storm

  High House Draconis: The Complete Series

  Copyright© 2020 Riley Storm

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, without written permission from the author. The sole exception is for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

  All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.

  Edited by Annie Jenkinson, Just Copyeditors

  Cover Designs by Kasmit Covers

  Contents

  High House Draconis: The Complete Series

  Note from the Author

  Fire Dragon’s Bride

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Mated to the Water Dragon

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Ice Dragon’s Caress

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Earth Dragon’s Kiss

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Claimed by the Dragon King

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Other Books by Riley Storm

  About the Author

  Note from the Author

  Hi there!

  Thank you so much for picking up High House Draconis. While this series is self-contained and can be read alone, if you want to get the full experience of the Plymouth Falls world, you would be best off starting with the High House Ursa series. I’ve linked the bundle below.

  Either way, I hope you enjoy!

  -Riley Storm

  High House Ursa

  The Complete 5 Book Box Set

  Fire Dragon’s Bride

  High House Draconis #1

  Riley Storm

  Fire Dragon’s Bride

  Copyright© 2019 Riley Storm

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, without written permission from the author. The sole exception is for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.

  All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting charact
ers 18 years or older who are not blood related.

  Edited by Annie Jenkinson, Just Copyeditors

  Cover Designs by Kasmit Covers

  Chapter 1

  Six Months Earlier.

  It was like awakening from sleep.

  The dreams slowly faded away, light gradually replacing the perpetual darkness that was the back of his eyelids. Sleep crumbled from his eyes. From his nose. It shivered and peeled back from his ears until he could hear once more.

  Breathing. He heard breathing. The sound of stone as it crashed into the ground below, cracking into dozens of tiny pieces. Wherever he was, the chamber was cool and dry, though the air was stale. Very stale.

  Tremors ran through his body as it returned to wakefulness, and with it came awareness. He remembered.

  “Is it time?” he rumbled in Drakon, the ancient tongue of dragons. His eyes would be sensitive, unused to light. After all, they hadn’t been used in a long time.

  “Yes,” came the reply.

  Aaric frowned, the motion furrowing the massive scales on his head, causing a slew of new rock to tumble away. The voice. He recognized that voice, and yet it was unfamiliar all at once. It was as if someone had taken the owner, and—and robbed him of all strength.

  Forcing his eyes open, he peered around, orbs the size of a human skull and as gold as the treasure he coveted looking around. The infusion of light into his brain hurt but Aaric shunted it aside. He didn’t have time for such things. Something was wrong.

  “Parre.” He said the other dragon’s name even as his eyes focused on the owner, a person he recognized. Or at least, one he thought he did. “What have they done to you?” he snarled, at last understanding why his old mentor’s voice sounded so different.

  Before him stood an old man. Beside him, her arm linked as they both rested on individual canes in their other hands, was his mate, the lovely Elanna.

  “They?” Parre asked, looking around. “They haven’t done this to me. I did it to myself,” he said with a chuckle.

  Understanding filled Aaric. “You stayed awake,” he said, belatedly realizing the aging he was seeing wasn’t some trick by the human mages or perhaps the Fae.

  It was just the progress of time. He marveled at how it had ravaged Parre. The spots on his hands and face, the wrinkling of his skin. When age caught up with a dragon, it caught up quickly. Aaric wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep, but Parre had been nearing five centuries of life when he’d gone into the deep sleep. By now, he had to be past that mark. That was old, even for a dragon.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that,” Parre snapped, his voice having lost none of its intensity. “I made this choice.”

  “We made this choice,” Elanna said calmly, patting her husband’s hand. “We wanted to watch the world grow in peace. So, after everyone entered the deep sleep, we stayed awake. Travelled the world. Saw the humans, watched them evolve. The past century, Aaric,” she said, falling silent in reflection. “They have done so much. It is truly astonishing.”

  “I see,” he said, his voice louder and stronger than both of theirs combined. Part of that was his age. At a brisk 204 years of age, he was younger and more sprightly than the elder dragons.

  The other reason was that they were in their human forms. Aaric was not. He focused, and with a twitch of muscles, his wings vibrated slightly. He moved slowly, not wishing to alarm or hurt the two who had awoken him.

  Stone cracked down his spine and along his flanks. With a minor flex of muscle, his tail twitched and uncurled from his side. Stone cascaded down his sides, falling free from his wings and the rest of his body as Aaric got up on all fours. Stretching his wings out in the huge cavern, he flexed and relaxed muscles that hadn’t moved in a long time.

  A hundred years, according to Elanna. A century or more has passed since I last moved.

  No wonder Parre and his mate had aged. He would be five-and-a-half centuries old now. Remarkable he’s still alive.

  “Why am I awakened?” he wanted to know, still speaking in Drakon. “Where are the others?”

  Parre and Elanna looked at one another stiffly.

  “There are no others,” Elanna said, still the one made of sterner stuff it seemed, much as Parre would bluster on otherwise.

  “No others?” Aaric asked. Then he looked around, taking in the rest of the underground cavern.

  They were still here. The dragons. All of them.

  “What is going on? Why have I been awakened then?” His wings twitched, marking his growing alarm. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He should not have been the first one awakened. The senior dragons should be awoken first. They would know what to do.

  “It had to be you,” Parre said, speaking this time. “We…tried to wait for it to happen. But it never did, Aaric.” He looked down. “It never did.”

  “You mean…” he looked at Parre closely. “You awoke me?”

  Parre nodded, opening his free hand at last to display a circular talisman. “We had no choice,” he whispered.

  “Why?” Aaric wanted to know. “Why wake me purposefully? The deep sleep will fade on its own if I am needed. You know this, Parre. Why would you wake me early?”

  The talisman Parre held was one of the dragons’ most sacred relics. Using the energy of the holder, it could bring a dragon back from the deep sleep on purpose, before nature and fate required the dragon to return to the world of the awake.

  “Because,” Parre said softly. “We cannot stop it. Not on our own.”

  “Stop what?” Aaric wanted to know.

  “Evil,” Elanna said, speaking up when Parre’s voice failed him.

  Aaric could see now that both their legs were shaking. They were frailer than they looked, he realized. Putting on a show of strength for him. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to assume his human form. It took only a pair of seconds, and then he was rushing over, grabbing both of them with a gentleness of which his frame didn’t seem capable.

  “I’ve got you,” he said, easing them to the ground.

  “We didn’t have the energy,” Parre said. “We were too weak, Aaric. Too weak to waken the others. We had to awaken you.”

  “But…” he protested. “If evil is coming, as you said, we will need more. I…I can’t awaken them on my own.”

  “You must,” Parre said. “You must.”

  “I can’t,” he rumbled angrily. “Only a mated pair can use the talisman. You know this as well as I do. And I am not mated.”

  “Then you must find her,” Parre said, lying back on the hardened earth floor, his breath weak. “I am not long for this earth. It must be you, Aaric.”

  Aaric leaned forward, concern on his face. “No. I am not ready. Please.”

  Parre glared up at him. “I’m old and weak. I’m not dead yet. I just need rest. It took a lot out of me to wake you up. I still have a little bit of time left.”

  Glancing at Elanna, pleading with her, Aaric hoped she would speak up, reveal this was all some sort of cruel trick. But the sober fear in her eyes told him the truth of it all.

  “We put together a series of videos,” she said. “Bringing you up to date on everything that’s happened, and the new technologies you’ll have to get used to using. And language. It has changed a bit, though it should still be recognizable.”

  “Videos?”

  “Moving pictures. Fascinating really,” Elanna said with a smile. “You’ll see.” She looked down at her mate briefly. “Can you? He needs to get back to his bed.”

  Aaric blinked. “Of course. Yes, of course.” He scooped Parre up, holding him with casual ease while Elanna used one of his arms for support.

  “I remember when his arms were this big and strong,” she said with a laugh, old fingers gripping with a strength that would surprise any human but was deathly weak for a dragon. “Oh, what a time.”

  Aaric got them both back to their chamber and Parre into his bed, where the elder dragon could rest peacefully.

  �
��So, let me get this straight,” he said, sitting in a couch opposite where Elanna had sunk gratefully into a plush leather chair. “I am the only dragon awake besides the two of you. Evil is coming.”

  “Yes. We can feel it,” Elanna said. “The other Houses, they are in turmoil. They will need the leadership of House Draconis sooner than any of us knows.”

  “Evil is coming,” he repeated. “But fate has not woken any of the others? I am the only one?”

  Elanna nodded sadly. “Yes. We waited for years as we felt it gathering out there in the dark. We ceased our travels, fortified ourselves inside, hoping someone would wake. But it didn’t happen. So, we resolved to do it ourselves but…” She trailed off, embarrassed.

  “But you didn’t have the strength necessary to awaken someone older or wiser,” he finished. “Leaving me to handle everything. Because I can’t wake any of the others. Because I don’t have a mate.”

  “I’m sorry,” Elanna said. “I did not wish to put this burden upon you, Aaric. But we had no choice.” Her eyes closed. “We had no choice.”

  He sat there as the female dragon began to breathe heavily. She too was asleep, leaving Aaric alone without a clue as to what was going on, and nobody else to help him figure it out.

  Great.

  Chapter 2

  Present

  Several heads turned her way as she entered the room but she paid them no mind.

  Why should she? She was Olivia Lawton, the biggest name in real estate in Plymouth Falls and for miles around. They were here to see her.

  “George,” she said with a polite smile at one of her chief competitors, though she used that term lightly.

  “Olivia,” the tall bald male replied, looking sharp with a suit as impeccably tailored as her own, albeit in a dark blue instead of her strict black-and-white combo. “I didn’t know you were interested in this pile of junk.”

  George finished with a laugh but she could see the apprehension in his eyes. He was right. Normally, she wouldn’t be interested in the old abandoned warehouse and adjoining manufacturing plant. She tended to stay with commercial and residential zoning. Industrial was something not normally up her alley. It was also the kind of space in which George was considered the biggest.

  However, they both knew that if she decided to start dealing in industrial properties as well, there was nothing he could do to stop her. Hence why he looked so calm on the outside, but she could see his pulse pounding in his neck. He wanted to know why she was there.

  “Normally I wouldn’t,” she replied, deciding to go easy on him. After all, she was in a good mood. “Big old warehouses are too boring for me. But, when an offer crosses your desk that you can’t resist, well, then you say yes.”