Free Dragon's Pride: BBW Paranormal Dragon Romance by Ruby Glass

said. “It’s in the next wing over.”
     
    The next wing. Wing! I followed, wondering yet again what I had gotten myself into. This was not what I signed up for when I accepted the personal trainer position!
     
    After walking across a skywalk with walls so crystal clear that it felt like we were flying through the night sky, we descended another staircase. “We’re close now,” Cerul told me. “You stay here.”
     
    “But I want to be with you.” As scared as I was, I didn’t want to let him go alone. If this was difficult for me, it had to be a million times harder for him.
     
    “You can watch. If they start to notice you, though, you have to run.”
     
    I nodded. I supposed that was fair.
     
    The long hall decorated with art ended in a doorway. I ducked off to the side while Cerul proceeded to the end and knocked on the door. When it opened, a woman’s voice came from inside, reedy and clear. “Who’s there?”
     
    A man stood at the door, an older version of Cerul. A version who could have been looking at a ghost. “It’s your son,” he said.
     
    “Son? I have no son.” The woman’s footsteps clacked toward the door. Even inside her own bedroom, she was wearing heels. When she appeared, her face was as cold as her attitude. “Whoever it is, please tell him to leave.”
     
    “Arabella doesn’t want to see you,” Cerul’s father said.
     
    Seeing the three of them made me feel like calling my own parents and giving them a hug. All my brothers could use a bit more gratitude. They might have picked on me when we were kids, but they’d never denied my existence. No wonder Cerul acted the way he did.
     
    Arabella disappeared into the bedroom, and Cerul pushed his way past his dad. I tiptoed forward and peeked into the room, not wanting to miss anything that happened. If Cerul happened to need me, I wanted to be there to back him up. “It’s time we discussed this face to face,” he said. “I’ve had enough of not being able to shift. You need to give me back my powers. Tonight.”
     
    Finally acknowledging him, his mother put her fingers in his chest and shoved him back. “And why would I do that for a little boy who’s proven he can’t be trusted?” she asked. “Not just dating a human, but telling her what you were, too?”
     
    “We have cousins who have married humans. Meridian. Ecliptic.”
     
    “And that doesn’t please me, either,” the dragon woman hissed. Her husband cowered to one side, staying out of the way. “They’re not in my good books. They weren’t invited to my birthday party. And if I had the chance to strip their powers, I would!”
     
    “You know how disgusting it is to want us to only reproduce with each other? There’s only one dragon clan in the country!”
     
    “That’s how the royalty live. That’s the way it’s always been. You made your choice. You took the jewels, and you weren’t supposed to ever come back here.”
     
    “You never gave me a choice! All I’m asking for are the abilities that I was born with. When I have them back, I’ll never speak to any member of this family again. Trust me, I’ll be glad of it.”
     
    Cerul’s mother jabbed him again with one of her talon-like nails. “I’ll never do it. If you want to mate with the humans, you should act like one too.”
     
    “Don’t you have the slightest pity for your son?” Cerul asked, his voice filled with pain. “Can’t you imagine not being able to shift?”
     
    Arabella flipped back her hair. “You should go away now. You’re beginning to bore me.”
     
    My lover took in a gasping sigh. And then – his great mistake – he glanced back at me.
     
    “Who is that?” Arabella asked, following his line of vision with rapid comprehension. She advanced on me like a predator spotting prey. “What is that?”
     
    “No one,” Cerul said. “Leave her alone, Mother, please.”
     
    “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it.” She extended a hand to me. Trembling, I