strong for hundreds of years.
And now it belonged to her.
Stig held Cora close as she dozed. Although he felt more settled and happy than he ever had in his life, Stig worried he’d made a big mistake. He’d succumbed to his lust, desire, and his forbidden love for Cora without a second thought for the consequences. Ignatius would be furious when he learned Stig had found his mate and that she was human. It simply wasn’t done. There were rules about that kind of thing, rules he’d agreed to follow when he’d pledged his allegiance to the Brotherhood. Dabbling with human females was at the top of that list.
Farther down that list? Taking a mate, period. Ignatius wouldn’t allow mated males to remain in the Brotherhood. A man shouldn’t be torn between his duties to his wife and family and his duties to his Brothers. Ignatius had drilled that into his head. Cutting ties with the men he considered family wouldn’t be easy but one glance at Cora’s sweet face and he was ready to make that call to confess.
But it wasn’t just the very real possibility he’d be discharged from his duties as a Brother of the Green Hide for taking a mate that troubled him. He was worried about Cora.
The fact that her touch had provoked such a profound change in his dragon form convinced Stig she was meant to be his mate, but what did that mean exactly? It wasn’t natural. If she’d been a human of the witch variety, he wouldn’t have been so spooked, but he’d never heard of anything like this happening with other men and their mates. And what would the others say when they saw the effect her touch had on him? Would it be viewed positively or seen as a scourge?
Stig didn’t know and it terrified him. He had to protect Cora. He’d been rash in his decision to introduce her to his secret world. He’d been cavalier in surrendering to his primitive needs last night. He’d put Cora in a position with consequences she likely couldn’t fathom.
So what to do now?
Stig still pondered that question when Cora woke a little while later. He didn’t want to upset her, so he pushed aside his worries and kissed her tenderly. They eventually got dressed and made their way downstairs for a very, very late breakfast. He hung back long enough to send a quick text to Ignatius, who had called numerous times and left half a dozen messages. His belly twisted with guilt as he typed the message assuring Ignatius he was fine. He’d broken their covenants and now lied about it. Love and lust were doing strange things to him.
“What did you do before building the holding cell down there?” Cora wondered as they noshed on her delicious food a little while later. “I mean, that’s relatively new, right?”
Stig nodded, glad for the discussion, since it gave him something to think about other than his betrayal of the Brothers. “I’ve made modifications over the last fifty years in terms of security. Before the cell, we built cages in one of the caves at a training camp and kept watch over one another. If we were away from the camps, we had clavigers to keep an eye on us during the mating phases.”
“Clavigers?”
“Human caretakers and servants.”
“Weren’t they vulnerable? I mean, these Knights you talk about seem pretty evil.”
“There are old laws that kept them safe. This house and the land it sits on, for instance, are unapproachable. My perimeter is marked by old magic, painful magic, to keep the Knights at bay. Their homes are much the same.”
“Why are they after you, Stig? Why do these Knights want to hurt dragons?”
Stig inhaled slowly and sat back in his chair. “A long time ago, a young male dragon fell in love with a woman and got her pregnant.”
“Oh! Scandalous.” Cora smiled mischievously and sipped her coffee. “How long ago? Like Jesus times?”
Stig shook his head at her choice of description. “Before Jesus, so, yes, a long time ago.”
“So, what? She had a dragon baby and all hell broke loose?”
“No. She never had the child. She was killed.”
Cora’s smile faded. “That’s awful.”
“Someone saw a winged creature with red scales hanging around her home. When the news hit that she was with child, the hysteria started. Her village became convinced she’d been impregnated by the devil or some other demon. They accused her of witchcraft and murdered her.” Stig drew lazy shapes on the tabletop. “That’s how the war began.”
“Her family…?”
He nodded. “Her brother, a blacksmith, forged a sword that he prayed over and imbued with the blood of his murdered sister and his own tears. He used that sword to kill the dragon.”
She hesitated. “Did you know that dragon?”
“No.” Stig picked up his coffee mug and took a long drink. “That was before my time even. That dragon, Sixtus, had an older brother, Ignatius, who founded the Brotherhood of the Green Hide to avenge his brother.”
“Avenge what?” she dared to ask. “Both families were in pain and hurting. Why not just let it go?”
Stig shrugged. “Why did the Hatfields and McCoys let the theft of a pig lead to the ugliest blood feud in the history of this country? It was a different time, Cora.”
“And now you’re all locked in this vicious war? The rules you talked about, the ones about where you can fight, is that why this feud keeps going? I mean, if you can’t attack them when they’re vulnerable and vice versa…”
“It’s part of the problem.” He paused and wondered if he should continue. “I’d considered asking Hector to accept a position as my claviger.”
“But?”
“I waited too long.” There was no hiding the sadness in his voice. For the rest of his life, he’d always wonder if taking Hector under his wing, so to speak, might have saved his friend’s life. “I wasn’t sure whether I wanted another claviger. I haven’t had one in such a long time.”
“Do the other Brothers have them?” Cora started gathering up their dirty dishes, so he rose to help her.
“Some do. It’s one of the traditions falling by the wayside. Now that we have the benefit of technology, we don’t really need someone standing outside our cells keeping guard.”
“So the death of a human woman started your war but you relied on humans for protection in your weakest times?”
Stig smiled. “Our fight isn’t with all humans. We’re just concerned with descendants of the original family. They’re the only ones who can wield the swords that can slay us.”
“Swords?”
“Yes. We’re incredibly strong and impervious to most other weapons. At one time, there were nearly fifty of them. We’ve found and destroyed all but seven. We know a handful of other swords were melted down to make other weapons. My time in Afghanistan and Iraq actually allowed me to hunt down two swords and some useful first-person accounts of battles between dragons and Knights that had been lost to history.”
“A gun won’t hurt you?”
“Not in dragon form, no. In this human form?” He ran a hand down his chest. “I can be severely wounded but that’s about it.”
With a pensive expression on her face, Cora rinsed off the plates. “You know the story of St. George that they teach in Sunday school?”
“I’m somewhat familiar with it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a smart-ass.”
He laughed. “What about it, Cora?”
“Was he one of the descendants?”
“He was,” Stig confirmed. “The sword he used, Ascalon, is still missing. It’s the first sword and the most powerful and dangerous.”
“Um, speaking of dangerous things, what about me?”
Stig frowned. “You?”
“I’m human, Stig. Is that…is it a problem?”
He wanted to lie but couldn’t. He couldn’t keep any more secrets between them. “It might be.”
“Might be?”
