Firebreather 2: A Royal Continuum Read Online Free

Tanner returned to the bedroom only to see the prince still out like a light. Tanner hurriedly shut the door, as much to ensure he didn't wake the prince as to hide that sensual body from his sight.
    He sat at the table and pondered his future, the minutes ticking into hours.
    A mate and children, the chance for a better life than Tanner had been given might well float away as if it had never been. If Tanner suddenly had a thing for men, he'd never find himself the family he craved, would he? And if Lucas found out what he'd done, hell, if Matthias knew he'd been handled and masturbated while asleep and vulnerable, the royals would cut off Tanner's balls and feed them to the hounds for breakfast.
    Shit. What a fucking, confusing mess. Tanner stood to pace the room, wanting nothing more than to rewind his acceptance of this assignment. Hell, he'd even undo his decision to join the Dracon clan in Asheville. He'd lived most of his life unloved and alone. Why had he thought joining the clan in Dracon Mount would be any different? His mother was right. He was a royal fuck-up. A half-breed son of a whore and a dickless wonder of a Dracon who shouldn't even exist. How many half-breeds Dracon were there in the world anyway? Two dozen, if that?
    Scenes from Tanner's past resurfaced, ugly insecurities that he'd done his best to bury throughout the years. Clutching his head, he didn't hear the noise until it bumped on the porch steps. Whirling behind the front door so fast it made his head spin, Tanner watched as the doorknob slowly turned. All thoughts save protecting Matthias disappeared, and he waited in anticipation as purpose cut like a sharp knife through his mind.

    * * * *
    Ava Tailstack grumbled under her breath as she fiddled with the doorknob. Where the hell had she put that list? She'd spent an hour poring over the debate on the sorry life she now led. Love totally sucked.
    Still at odds with her family over her decision to leave Dracon Mount, she'd come to the conclusion that the Tailstacks of the world had no place among the Dracon. Several months ago her cousin Emmaline had tried to poison the new Draka, the Dracon queen. If Emmaline's story was to be believed, she'd been aided in her quest to become the new queen by her own father, Ava's beloved uncle. The honorable and venerated Shino Tailstack, protector of the royal family, a traitor? If that weren't bad enough, Ava was still helplessly in love with Matthias Dekker, as she had been from the first moment she'd laid eyes on him.
    For seven long years she'd loved him from afar, thinking that maybe, some day, he'd notice her as more than Shino's visiting niece. Time went on, and still Matthias ignored her. She'd finally decided to take matters into her own hands, to see how he felt, as audacious as she knew her course to be. And then her cousin had betrayed the royal family. Her uncle had taken part in the ruse, though no one seemed to hold him accountable for it. And Matthias, damn his sorry Dracon hide, had fallen for the Draka's human sister.
    Bad enough Ava had been linked with the Tailstack's lack of honor, but to lose out to a woman Matthias had only just met? The damned sister of the Draka, a kind, pleasant woman totally beyond reproach. Ava's eyes burned as she fiddled with the stuck doorknob of the small cabin she now considered her home. She'd done her best to steer clear of her uncle for the past few months. Apparently, he felt the need for family now that his daughter was long gone, and since Ava's father, his brother, had passed as well.
    Anger made her vision brighten. For all that she'd already suffered, she wanted no more to do with royals and intrigue and...Dracon. She planned to live out the rest of her life on this isolated mountain, no matter how lonely she might feel. She could hunt for food as Dracon easily enough, and the stipend her father had left her upon his death would make sure she never wanted for anything else.
    Finally opening the door, she