Torn: A Dragon Shifter BBW Menage Serial (Seeking Her Mates Book 1) by Carina Wilder Page A
Authors: Carina Wilder
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distances via small machines that they kept in their pockets. The whole thing was fascinating yet more horrifying, somehow, than the notion of a fire-breathing dragon.
Lily gave Ygrena a kiss on the cheek and took off running for the courtyard, where she did indeed find Gwynne firmly absorbed in a novel. She stopped only when her daughter was close enough that her scent proved an interruption. A dragon mother knew nothing better than the smell of her own offspring.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Gwynne said, throwing her arms open for Lily’s violent embrace, which nearly knocked her off the bench. “I wasn’t sure when you’re arrive.”
“Neither was I. The perils of time travel,” said her daughter, seating herself on the stone bench next to her mother. “How are you?”
“Very well. Sad, of course, to be without my children for such long periods.” With that she twisted her mouth into an exaggerated frown. “I’m only kidding. Of course I was delighted to have the place to myself. You and Rohan eat all the food around here, and your late night joy rides drive me to distraction.”
“Ha,” said Lily. “Joy rides have such a different connotation when you’re talking about shifters, don’t they?”
Gwynne smiled. “It’s been a while for you, hasn’t it? Since you’ve flown?”
“It has, and I’ve missed it. But I’ve had plenty of distractions to keep my mind occupied.”
“Have you now?” Gwynne put a hand on top of her daughter’s. “Lily…are you saving yourself for the Ritual?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing, to be honest.” She looked at her mother, uncertain of what to reveal. “I met someone.”
“Did you?” Gwynne smiled. She knew that in an ideal world, Lily would abide by all the unwritten laws of the shifter nobility. But she herself had enjoyed her university days and all that came with them, and perhaps her daughter should too.
“Sort of. I know I can’t be with him. I…pushed him away. I told him I couldn’t.”
“One of the perils of going out and finding one’s self is that it’s easy to grow attached to the idea of freedom, my sweet daughter,” said Gwynne, turning and taking both of Lily’s hands in her own. “But I’ll tell you something—being thrust into this life which is a very different sort of freedom, into this time and world—was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
“But you were brought here almost against your will, mum. Wasn’t it hard for you to develop feelings for my fathers?”
“Oddly enough, no,” laughed Gwynne, who recalled the vision of beauty that had first collided with her eyes when she’d set them upon Lachlan. “The fact is that we need to find you an appropriate mate. Two, in fact. And we will, and you will perhaps be surprised by how quickly you can grow to love them. It’s understandable that you would develop a fondness for a boy at school. Of course you did. You were on your own, and there was novelty to him, I’m sure. But now you must begin to think of your duty, of the long term…”
Lily found herself once again on the verge of speaking but stopped herself. There was no point in stating that Conor seemed different, special. All of it would be attributed to a sort of puppy love, and she couldn’t have borne that. It was more, she knew; there was something deep between them that no one else would or could understand.
“I’ll think about duty, mum.” She spoke the words with commitment. But she knew full well that she would also be thinking a good deal about the man she’d left behind.
----
10
T hat evening , Lily was reunited with her two fathers, the dire wolf pack’s two leaders: Lachlan, the alpha, and Rauth, who had given up the role years earlier. But the wolves still treated him like another alpha; Rauth was a force to be reckoned with and when he set his mind on a plan, the wolves followed through on it.
The reunion was a joyous one. Lily had missed the her parents more
Lily gave Ygrena a kiss on the cheek and took off running for the courtyard, where she did indeed find Gwynne firmly absorbed in a novel. She stopped only when her daughter was close enough that her scent proved an interruption. A dragon mother knew nothing better than the smell of her own offspring.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Gwynne said, throwing her arms open for Lily’s violent embrace, which nearly knocked her off the bench. “I wasn’t sure when you’re arrive.”
“Neither was I. The perils of time travel,” said her daughter, seating herself on the stone bench next to her mother. “How are you?”
“Very well. Sad, of course, to be without my children for such long periods.” With that she twisted her mouth into an exaggerated frown. “I’m only kidding. Of course I was delighted to have the place to myself. You and Rohan eat all the food around here, and your late night joy rides drive me to distraction.”
“Ha,” said Lily. “Joy rides have such a different connotation when you’re talking about shifters, don’t they?”
Gwynne smiled. “It’s been a while for you, hasn’t it? Since you’ve flown?”
“It has, and I’ve missed it. But I’ve had plenty of distractions to keep my mind occupied.”
“Have you now?” Gwynne put a hand on top of her daughter’s. “Lily…are you saving yourself for the Ritual?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing, to be honest.” She looked at her mother, uncertain of what to reveal. “I met someone.”
“Did you?” Gwynne smiled. She knew that in an ideal world, Lily would abide by all the unwritten laws of the shifter nobility. But she herself had enjoyed her university days and all that came with them, and perhaps her daughter should too.
“Sort of. I know I can’t be with him. I…pushed him away. I told him I couldn’t.”
“One of the perils of going out and finding one’s self is that it’s easy to grow attached to the idea of freedom, my sweet daughter,” said Gwynne, turning and taking both of Lily’s hands in her own. “But I’ll tell you something—being thrust into this life which is a very different sort of freedom, into this time and world—was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
“But you were brought here almost against your will, mum. Wasn’t it hard for you to develop feelings for my fathers?”
“Oddly enough, no,” laughed Gwynne, who recalled the vision of beauty that had first collided with her eyes when she’d set them upon Lachlan. “The fact is that we need to find you an appropriate mate. Two, in fact. And we will, and you will perhaps be surprised by how quickly you can grow to love them. It’s understandable that you would develop a fondness for a boy at school. Of course you did. You were on your own, and there was novelty to him, I’m sure. But now you must begin to think of your duty, of the long term…”
Lily found herself once again on the verge of speaking but stopped herself. There was no point in stating that Conor seemed different, special. All of it would be attributed to a sort of puppy love, and she couldn’t have borne that. It was more, she knew; there was something deep between them that no one else would or could understand.
“I’ll think about duty, mum.” She spoke the words with commitment. But she knew full well that she would also be thinking a good deal about the man she’d left behind.
----
10
T hat evening , Lily was reunited with her two fathers, the dire wolf pack’s two leaders: Lachlan, the alpha, and Rauth, who had given up the role years earlier. But the wolves still treated him like another alpha; Rauth was a force to be reckoned with and when he set his mind on a plan, the wolves followed through on it.
The reunion was a joyous one. Lily had missed the her parents more
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