Chained: Reckless Desires (Dragon's Heart Book 1) (13 page)

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Authors: Jacqueline Sweet

BOOK: Chained: Reckless Desires (Dragon's Heart Book 1)

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Epilogue

T
hey stayed
in bed for two days, talking and laughing and figuring out who they were now. Both of them were changed. Their lives had been irrevocably altered. The magic electricity faded after that first mating, but the sex was better with its absence, less distracting. They could take their time and Bella could actually move on her own when the mating magic wasn’t reshaping her. She blew Dorian’s mind, and then he blew hers.

Chloe found them late in the evening on the second day. They were naked and wrapped around each other, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She’d eventually found a way out of the skull room, she explained. A helpful spirit showed her a secret latch that opened the door and with the help of Agatha and some bolt-cutters she’d manage to open the chests in the room.

“What was in them?” Bella asked.

“What chests?” Dorian said, sitting up in bed and trying to hide his nakedness behind Bella’s hand, which had several unintended effects.

“You guys should come see for yourselves,” Chloe said. “After you take care of business.” She winked at Bella and returned to the kitchen to cook up the best post-sex feast she could think of. When the lovebirds came down and realized they hadn’t eaten in days, they devoured everything she put in front of them. Omelettes stuffed with veggies and cheese, pancakes dripping with maple syrup, and vanilla waffles of Chloe’s own creation.

When they’d finished feasting, Chloe brought them up to the secret room.

Dorian was appalled at what they found inside. “All these skulls. These poor people. I knew he was a monster, but I had no idea it was this bad.”

“About that,” Chloe said. “These people want to be freed. They want to move on. I was hoping you could help with that.”

“What do I need to do?”

“We need to burn these skulls, and to throw the ashes to the wind,” Chloe said plainly.

“I can do that,” he said. With great strength he ripped the skulls out of the mortar, while Bella went through the contents of the trunk.

“There’s plans in here. Blueprints,” she said. She flipped through them, struggling to make sense of what she saw while Dorian and Chloe carried skulls out of the room. He paused after taking each load out to kiss her, to brush a finger against her cheek. He couldn’t bare to be apart from her, not anymore.

Once they had all the skulls outside, Dorian piled them in the middle of the maze. Franklin watched from a respectful distance but said nothing. When the pile was complete, Dorian shifted, becoming once again an enormous dragon and with a booming exhale he spit fire on the skulls, making ash of them and the maze.

Chloe cried as the skulls burned.

“You okay?” Bella asked.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I wish you could see what I see.”

Dorian shifted back to a man and walked over to Bella, magical lightning crackling on his skin. When she touched him with her fingertips, sparks exploded and showered the ground. Instantly Bella craved to feel him inside her again, to have the dragon energy pour into her, and by the way Dorian’s cock quickly hardened, he was thinking the same.

Bella stepped between Chloe and Dorian, hiding his erection as best she could from her friend.

Chloe didn’t see any of it, her eyes were watching the embers of the fire. Occasionally she waved at some departing spirit. “The house is going to be really quiet now,” she said.

“Yeah, about that,” Bella said. “In that trunk upstairs are plans. Lots of plans. Things Octavian drew up but could never decide on.”

“Plans for what?” Dorian asked.

“For what to do with this estate. He knew it couldn’t sit idle like this without falling into ruin, so he had planners create contingencies. And invested funds to be used for redevelopment.”

“Funds?” Dorian asked.

“Lots,” Bella agreed. “As far as I can tell. Not enough to run the estate forever, but enough to develop it into something self sustaining.”

“Develop it into what?” Chloe asked, suspicion in her voice.

Bella shrugged. “That’s for us to decide. There are thirteen plans in that chest. One for each brother? Or did Octavian just love the number thirteen? Anyway, there’s a plan to turn it into a grand hotel.”

“I could cook hotel food,” Chloe said, nodding and already planning a menu.

“Or into a museum.”

“We do have a lot of old artifacts. And creepy paintings,” Dorian said.

“Or a school. Or an animal hospital. And that’s just the first few. There’s detailed blueprints, cost breakdowns, and impact statements for each one. And the weird thing is, they’re dated from right around when he died.”

“You’re saying he knew he was going to buy it?” Chloe said.

“That’s impossible.” Dorian shook his head.

“My mate is a dragon and my best friend can talk to ghosts, who am I to say what’s impossible?”

Bella kissed Dorian then with a laugh. Sparks jumped between them and he gave her that “let’s go back to the bedroom” look. They said goodnight to Chloe and arm in arm hurried back into the house.

Chloe, for her part, sat near the embers of the fire and watched until the light faded and all the spirits were at rest.

The Bearfield story starts here!

M
att Morrissey is
a bear shifter with a sweet tooth, an easy smile, and muscles for miles. Mina Brooks is a baker who couldn’t take the heat of a mobster-infested kitchen. When Mina crashes her car in the charming, sleepy town of Bearfield she thought her life was over, but then she met Matt. As fate pulls the two of them closer, and the dangerous men close in on Mina, Matt has to prove he's got what it takes to defend the woman he loves from the mysterious forces pursuing her.

A SLICE OF HONEYBEAR PIE

(Bearfield - Book One)