Viktor russian dragon he.., p.11
Viktor (Russian Dragon Heat 3),
p.11
She sobered. “Does it hurt when you shift?”
“Not at all,” he assured.
“Can I touch you again?”
“Of course.” He lowered that massive head to her level.
Lilee had expected his scales to be cold and hard to the touch, but instead, they were warm and smooth as her fingers ghosted lightly over his nose and jaw. She was totally mesmerized, held captive by Viktor’s piercing dark eyes staring into hers.
“Seen enough?” he rumbled minutes later.
Lilee didn’t think she would ever have seen enough of Viktor, as his dragon or human. He was simply magnificent in either form. Neither completely man nor beast, but always uniquely both.
She placed her hand one last time on the dragon’s snout before nodding.
Another brief shimmer of air, and Viktor the man stood in front of her once again, wearing a black light wool sweater and fitted blue jeans.
Except, not quite…
Now that Lilee had seen his dragon, she also recognized the fire in Viktor’s eyes for exactly what it was.
She stepped close enough that her body was now pressed against the warmth of his. “I love you, and I love your dragon.”
“Thank you.” Viktor lowered his head to claim her lips with his.
Chapter Thirteen
“It’s so good to see you, darling.” Her mother beamed and stood up as Lilee crossed the room to hug her. “And I’m really pleased you brought Viktor to visit me again.” She smiled at him when the two women parted.
Lilee smiled at him too, having seconds ago witnessed Viktor using his compulsion so they were allowed into the clinic to visit her mother out of normal visiting hours.
She stepped back enough now that she was able to look into wise eyes that were the same dark green as her own. “I owe you an apology for ever doubting you, Mama.” Tears stung her eyes when she saw her mother swallow as Lilee called her by the childhood name she hadn’t used in years. “Dragons do exist, so I’m pretty sure fairies do too. Along with gods and goddesses,” she added ruefully.
Her mother looked at Viktor. “You showed your dragon to her.” It was a statement, not a question.
Lilee laughed, no longer questioning how her mother knew about the fantastical creatures that other humans considered to be only myths. Because she now accepted her mother was no more human than Viktor was.
Than Lilee was herself.
Because if her mother was a goddess, then Lilee couldn’t be wholly human either. In fact, she was now praying that would be the case, because she wanted more than anything to become Viktor’s fated mate.
“Viktor’s dragon is magnificent, Mama,” she now enthused. “Twenty feet tall, gunmetal gray in color, and very regal.”
Viktor’s dragon preened upon hearing this effusive praise.
Mate.
God, how Viktor hoped that was true.
Even if it wasn’t, he meant what he’d said about loving Lilee and remaining with her for the rest of her human life.
Dany gave an inclination of her head. “Which is only fitting, considering Viktor is a prince of the Romanov dragon shifter royal family.”
Viktor eyed the older woman with renewed appreciation. Obviously, Dany Kissack—Danu?—knew far more about him and his family than she had previously indicated. As she no doubt knew the bronze dragon she’d seen several months ago was one of the Pendragon brothers.
The older woman straightened, suddenly seeming much taller than she had seconds ago. As if for years, she had been disguising the regal height and bearing natural to her goddess form. “You wish to mate with and marry my daughter.”
“I do,” Viktor confirmed without hesitation.
That regal head turned to her daughter. “Lilee?”
“Oh yes.” The look she gave Viktor was full of love.
“Then so be it.” Danu nodded, because Viktor now had absolutely no doubt that was who this beautiful and proud woman was.
Still, he practiced caution. “The blood tests—”
“Will show you that Lilee has the blood of an Irish goddess running through her veins, and not just any Irish goddess, but the mother of the Irish fae. As such, Lilee is more than capable of becoming your mate,” Danu dismissed with hauteur before her expression softened. She turned to smile at her daughter. “It was my intention to tell you, on your twenty-fifth birthday, exactly who you are.”
Lilee’s tongue slowly moistened her lips. “Who am I?”
“Blessed One, Daughter of Danu, for you were not born of the seed of a god, but of a human father and a goddess,” her mother announced regally. “Even so, at the age of twenty-five, you will come into your fae ability for longevity and glamor.”
Lilee frowned. “Is glamor like Viktor’s compulsion?”
Danu chuckled. “Not quite, but close enough. But in the same way Viktor’s dragon compulsion won’t work on you, your fae glamor won’t work on him either,” she warned.
Viktor could see by the happiness in Lilee’s expression how pleased she was by the things her mother was telling them.
Viktor was ecstatic at learning Lilee could and would become his mate.
Claim.
Mate.
Now.
His dragon clawed and growled inside him to be set free to make that claim.
“Be patient a little longer, dragon.” Danu’s voice resounded in the room as well as inside Viktor’s head. “My daughter deserves to be wooed and romanced into your mating.”
“I really don’t, Mama.” Lilee reached out to take a firm grasp of Viktor’s hand. “I hope that you’re okay with my having organized Robyn Quayle to help you run the café in future. I want to be with Viktor,” she added almost shyly.
“Of course, you do.” Danu reached out to grasp both their hands in hers. “I will miss you, of course, but I know your future is with your dragon mate.”
“You may live with us in Russia if you wish,” Viktor invited. “Or visit often if you do not wish to live there permanently,” he continued when he saw the regret in her eyes. “Are you familiar with the Welsh goddesses living on the island of Annwn?”
“I know of them, of course.” Danu smiled. “But I would need an invitation to be able to visit them there, and one has never been forthcoming.”
He nodded. “I am friends with several of the goddesses’ dragon shifter sons, one of which I believe you saw as a bronze dragon. I’m sure they would be happy to introduce you to their mothers, and for you to spend some time there, if you would like that.” He placed an arm about Lilee’s waist when she gave him a puzzled glance. “I will fully explain the Pendragon brothers complicated existence another time.”
She chuckled. “That’s probably for the best when I’ve only just discovered and accepted that I’m really the daughter of Danu, an Irish goddess!”
“And the fated mate of a Russian dragon shifter prince,” he added possessively.
“That too.” Lilee’s eyes were the color of dark emeralds as she gazed at him with her love for him glowing in her eyes.
His arms tightened about her waist. “Would you excuse us, please, Danu? I wish to be alone with my fated mate.” He didn’t take his eyes off Lilee as he spoke to her mother.
Danu’s laugh had the clarity of a ringing bell. “Go, my children,” she instructed warmly. “I will arrange to be discharged from here and then go and join my new employee at work in the café. And when you are both ready,” she stopped them at the door, “make me a proud grandmother of dragon shifters.”
Lilee was still feeling slightly dazed when they got back to the cottage, barely acknowledging Viktor’s announcement that his blood tests showed exactly what her mother had already told them: that Lilee had fae blood and would come to no harm when they mated.
Indeed, from what her mother had said, Lilee’s fae blood was more than a match for Viktor’s dragon shifter blood.
So much had changed in Lilee’s life in just a few days.
She had met and fallen in love with a dragon shifter.
Had also met one of Viktor’s six, and equally royal, brothers. She looked forward to meeting the other five, along with two of their fated mates.
She also now knew that her mother’s belief in mythical creatures was because she was one herself: the Irish goddess Danu, the legendary mother of all the Irish fae.
Lilee was the Blessed One, daughter of Danu and a human father.
But most important of all those things, she was Prince Viktor Romanov’s fated dragon shifter mate.
“We do not have to mate straight away,” Viktor assured as they stood and stared at each other across the kitchen in the cottage Lilee lived in with her mother. “As your mother said, you deserve to be romanced and wooed.”
Her chest swelled with love as she gazed at him. “And as I told my mother, I really don’t.” She crossed the room to take his hands in hers. “Do you have somewhere…private the two of us can go to be together?”
“The family dacha, an hour’s drive from St. Petersburg.”
Her eyes widened. “This is really happening, isn’t it. You’re really going to take me to Russia with you, and we’re going to be fated mates, devoted to each other and our…our young for the rest of our lives.”
“Yes,” Viktor answered simply.
He had been elated earlier at Danu’s assurance that Lilee’s fae blood meant she was more than capable of becoming his fated mate.
Adding that to the further proof of the results of the blood tests once they’d returned to the cottage, Viktor now longed for nothing more than to claim Lilee as his mate.
“Lilee.” His hands tightened about hers. “I have asked you to become my wife, and you have agreed. Will you now accept me as your dragon shifter fated mate too?” he requested formally.
“I will,” she answered just as seriously.
He released a relieved breath. “Then we will travel as quickly as possible to the family dacha in Russia.”
“Does that mean I get to ride on a dragon?”
He nodded. “Once there, we will claim each other as our true and only fated mates.”
Which was exactly what they did.
And many days and nights later, when Viktor took to the sky as dragon, flying at his side was a dark green dragon with eyes that glowed with unconditional love whenever she looked at him.
She was Lilee, daughter of the Irish goddess Danu, and forever mate of Viktor Romanov, prince of the Russian dragon shifter royal family.
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About the Author
Carole Mortimer is a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2015, RT Career Achievement Award 2017, RT Pioneer for Romance Award 2014. She was also recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for her ‘outstanding service to literature’. Carole has written over 270 contemporary, Regency and paranormal romance novels.
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She is happily married to Peter. They have 6 sons, and live on the beautiful Isle of Man. She also loves to hear from Readers!
Other books by Carole Mortimer
NEW Regency Series Coming Soon
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Kingston Security:
Kingston’s Ransom (Kingston Security 1)
* * *
Regency Scandal:
WANTON (Regency Scandal 1)
WILD (Regency Scandal 2)
WAYWARD (Regency Scandal 3)
SINFUL (Regency Scandal 4)
Series in now complete
* * *
Russian Dragon Heat:
VLADIMIR (Russian Dragon Heat 1)
VAUGHN (Russian Dragon Heat 2)
VIKTOR (Russian Dragon Heat 3)
More books to come in this series.
* * *
Regency Club Venus:
Bastian’s Surrender (Regency Club Venus 1)
Gabriel’s Torment (Regency Club Venus 2)
Benedict’s Challenge (Regency Club Venus 3)
Julius’s Passion (Regency Club Venus 4)
James’s Lady (Regency Club Venus 5)
Series now complete.
* * *
Dance with the Devil Series:
MATTEO (Dance with the Devil 1)
LEON (Dance with the Devil 2)
KILLIAN (Dance with the Devil 3)
JERICHO (Dance with the Devil 4)
KIERAN (Dance with the Devil 5)
Series now complete
* * *
Regency Men in Love M/M (Written as C A Mortimer)
Hidden Lover (Regency Men in Love 1)
Hidden Desire (Regency Men in Love 2)
More books to come in this series.
* * *
Regency Lovers Series:
INDECENT (Regency Lovers 1)
OBSESSION (Regency Lovers 2)
CRAVING (Regency Lovers 3)
FORBIDDEN (Regency Lovers 4)
SURRENDER (Regency Lovers 5)
SCANDAL (Regency Lovers 6)
Series complete
* * *
Steele Protectors Series:
LOGAN (Steele Protectors 1)
ATTICUS (Steele Protectors 2)
BRYCE (Steele Protectors 3)
ROURKE (Steele Protectors 4)
HAYDN (Steele Protectors 5) Author’s 250th book
LUCAN (Steele Protectors 6)
Series Complete
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Dragon Hearts – Contemporary paranormal
Nathaniel (Dragon Hearts 1)
Deryk (Dragon Hearts 2)
Bryn (Dragon Hearts 3)
Dylan (Dragon Hearts 4)
Grigor (Dragon Hearts 5)
Garrett (Dragon Hearts 6)
Aeran & Rhys (Dragon Hearts 7)
Dragon Reunion (Dragon Hearts 8)
Series Complete
* * *
Regency Sinners Series:
Wicked Torment (Regency Sinners 1)
Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners 2)
Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)
Wicked Deception Regency Sinners 4)
Wicked Captive (Regency Sinners 5)
Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)
Wicked Sinner (Regency Sinners 7)
Wicked Christmas (Regency Sinners 8)
Series now complete.
* * *
Regency Unlaced Series:
The Duke’s Mistress (Book 1)
Claimed by the Marquis (Book 2)
Taken by the Earl (Book 3)
Pursued by the Viscount (Book 4)
Desired by a Lord (Book 5)
Captured by a Gentleman (Book 6)
Pleasured by a Duke (Book 7)
Seduced by a Marquis (Book 8)
Tamed by the Earl (Book 9)
Series now complete
* * *
Knight Security Series: Spin-off to ALPHA series
Resisting Alexandre (Knight Security 0.5)
Defying Asher (Knight Security 1)
Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2)
Capturing Caleb (Knight Security 3)
Tempting Zander (Knight Security 4)
Enticing Ian (Knight Security 5)
Seducing Ethan (Knight Security 6)
Series now complete
* * *
ALPHA Series:
Christmas Alpha (Alpha 1)
Dark Alpha (Alpha 2)
Shadow Alpha (Alpha 3) Author’s 200th Book
Midnight Alpha (Alpha 4)
Renegade Alpha (Alpha 5)
Warrior Alpha (Alpha 6)
Rogue Alpha (Alpha 7)
Savage Alpha (Alpha 8)
Series is now complete
Carole Mortimer, Viktor (Russian Dragon Heat 3)
