Citrine was relaxing in bed, listening to the rain falling outside their penthouse apartment in Seattle, as Robbie paced the hallway outside, talking happily to her parents.

When she was done, she opened the door to the bedroom, looking gorgeous in a shimmery, dark-purple slip that outlined her tall, voluptuous curves.

How had he ever gotten so lucky?

He propped himself up on one elbow to look at his mate in appreciation as she gave a sassy little twirl before coming over to sit on the bed with him.

“My parents say hi,” she said with a grin.

“I hope you gave my regards,” he replied cheerfully.

She nodded. “I told them you couldn’t come to the phone.” She lifted the sheet cheekily to peek at him, making him flush. “I didn’t tell them it’s because I’ve been keeping you basically naked all the time.”

He nuzzled her nose, pushing her back into the mattress and playing at the straps of her slip, pushing them off her shoulders. “Speaking of naked, I’m all about equality for the genders…”

She smiled. “Stop it, you. I need breakfast if we’re going to go again.”

He laughed, sitting up and pushing off the blankets. “Well then, I guess I better go down and cook up something for my princess.”

“Princess seems so diminutive.” She wrinkled her nose. “How about queen?”

“Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

“How about just Robbie, then?” she asked, flopping on her stomach to watch him dress with hungry, wolfish eyes.

“Or Roberta?” he teased, knowing she hated it when he used her full name.

“No!” She rolled onto her back. “Silly Citrine.” She let out a sigh “How is every day so damn fun with you?”

He had a tee shirt and pajama bottoms on and bounced onto the bed with her. “That’s how new mates should be.” His eyes grew serious. “How are your parents doing? How is the town?”

“Well… rumors that my mate is a giant dragon is sort of deterring any harassment from Bryson’s pack. Not to mention that he got arrested and taken to the Tribunal for judgment, so we’ll see how that pans out.”

Citrine closed his eyes for a moment. “He was out of control.”

She nodded. “He was.”

“Do the townspeople know they shouldn’t be talking that much about what I am?”

“Some wolves are aware of dragons,” she said. “Not ones like you, but the ones that patrol in pairs. They don’t talk about it openly with strangers because no one wants their memory erased, but apparently even my mother was aware of dragon enforcers. The modern ones, you know.”

He put a hand in hers, enjoying the gentle softness of even such a small touch.

He’d told her everything about himself from the day they were mated. How he’d awakened with other gem dragons, the ancient precursors to the current dragons. How he’d been tasked with helping the metal dragons when they awakened as well.

How complicated things were in the shifter world right now, with dragons upsetting the usual balance. The oracle might need him in the future, as things were threatening to implode as usual on Pride Island, where the lions decided the fate of mankind’s relationship with shifters.

It was all complicated, but Robbie had taken it in stride as if it were nothing. He liked that about her. She was sharp, vivacious, and always ready to accept whatever came toward them.

They really were a perfect pair.

He’d already told her that a friend of his, Aegis, the emerald dragon, would be having a baby soon, and he wanted to travel for the birth to make sure everything went smoothly, and she’d agreed instantly.

Though, they had already planned their next visit to her hometown, to stay in touch with her parents and make sure her pack wasn’t enduring any harassment.

Still, Robbie was happiest out here in Seattle, so for the most part, that was where Citrine intended to stay.

Robbie’s parents had tried to settle a substantial sum of money on her, but he’d insisted they put it in a fund for themselves or to help the town because they had no idea how independently wealthy he really was.

Then he’d purchased an upscale apartment in a building Robbie had once admired when they’d all gone out for a business lunch.

She’d looked up at it and wondered what it would be like to live there, and now she knew.

He was happy he’d been able to give that to her.

The other thing he’d given her was sparkling on the bedside table, a ring too big to comfortably sleep in.

He’d picked the biggest diamond he could reasonably find and paid for it to be put in a custom setting completely surrounded by a ring of sparkling Citrine. It was a not-so-subtle way of declaring his relationship to her. That he’d always be there surrounding her, protecting her, with her.

And she loved it, putting it on with a smile every day.

He pushed himself out of bed reluctantly. “Well, I’m off to make you breakfast, my lady.”

“Robbie!” she yelled after him, but he could hear her laughter as he shut the door behind him.

He was in the kitchen, looking through the fridge for something to cook, when he heard a knock at the door.

He froze, knowing he purposely hadn’t given anyone his address. All he wanted right now was to spend time with Robbie. Or was this someone associated with Bryson, seeking revenge? He darted a look back at the bedroom, making sure Robbie was safely ensconced there, and then crept toward the peephole.

An angry, pale lavender eye was glaring through it. Its owner was a short older woman with pale-blue hair, though Citrine had seen her with many colors since knowing her.

His heart froze in place as he stepped back from the keyhole.

The oracle was here, at his apartment. The leader at the top of the whole shifter world. She who influenced everything that happened regarding shifter kind on earth.

What the hell had he done wrong to draw her here?

“I know you’re in there, you brat. Open up and let me in. We need to talk.”

He sent a wary look at the bedroom again, and then undid the deadbolt and pulled open the door.

The oracle rushed through the door grumpily and slammed it behind her with a kick of her small foot. She put both hands on her hips and glared as she backed him up toward the wall. Despite her tiny, curvy size, she terrified him because he knew of her power.

“Do you even know what you’ve done?” she asked angrily. “What you’ve awakened?”

“What do you mean?”

“That light show you put on,” she said. “You didn’t think a big beam of light would be noticed in the middle of a forest?”

“Couldn’t it look like a searchlight or something? Humans dismiss odd phenomena as normal all the time.” It was true.

She sat on the couch with a long, aggrieved sigh, resting her face in her hand. “It’s not the humans we have to worry about.”

He sat on the couch next to her, taking her hand in his, trying to calm her.

“Don’t try your soothing with me. I’m still stupidly angry. I never should have let you go after your mate. No, what am I saying? I believe in true love most of all. But I should have been more careful. Was I right to collar you? I don’t know.” But she left her hand in his as she continued rambling.

He heard the door to the bedroom open and saw Robbie coming down the hallway. He shook his head rapidly, trying to warn her, but she came anyway, looking curiously at the woman on the couch who looked old enough to be his grandmother.

“Is this her?” the oracle asked, eyeing Robbie before Citrine could tell her to escape. He didn’t want the oracle blaming Robbie for whatever trouble he had caused.

Robbie, who was wearing a robe over her slip, nodded slightly. She didn’t look pleased at the touch between the oracle and Citrine, and Citrine hoped she would understand.

“This is the oracle,” Citrine said. “The one who awakened me and the other dragons. The one who rules the shifter world.”

“I wouldn’t say ruled. I oversee it,” the oracle said. “Come here, child.”

Robbie stepped forward hesitantly as the oracle released Citrine’s hand and took one of Robbie’s in both of hers.

She closed her weathered eyelids. “Brave. That is good. You will need to be with what is coming.”

“What is coming?” Citrine asked, standing and putting an arm around Robbie as the oracle released her.

He pulled Robbie to a couch across from the oracle so they could both face her.

“We aren’t the only planet with shifters,” the oracle said. “There are others out there living on their own worlds, waiting for any signal or opportunity. In fact, there was one time they visited us here, though it didn’t go well.”

“What?” Citrine asked. How had he never known about this?

“This isn’t something I would ever talk about. After all, we keep to ourselves, and we have enough trouble with the turmoil in our world without worrying about what might be out there in space. But in fact, there is one race that has been searching for us, and you just sent them a signal.”

“What do you mean? Why are they searching for us?”

“A long time ago, a pod of them, escaping their planet, landed here. Most of them died, but one survived. He didn’t do well here on Earth, though. He didn’t know what he was, being a baby when they crashed, and he didn’t blend in. He wasn’t treated well, and the bitterness inside him that had no guidance didn’t help.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Citrine asked, an odd feeling of darkness balling inside his chest.

“Because you’ve met him. And in fact, he’s in storage at my castle, in cryo-sleep. I’ve had no idea what to do with him, but now that his family might be coming, we are going to have problems.”

Citrine sighed. “The dragons we have now are only barely keeping the balance. I don’t know what we are going to do.”

The oracle looked up at him, and he saw hope burning in her pale, lavender eyes. “The world has a way of putting things in balance. I have to think that somehow, if we are attacked, we will also have the help we need to beat them. But that means I may need to call on you or the others.”

“Who is it?” Citrine asked. “If we had some kind of alien, how would I have not known about it?”

“Sometimes even those from very far away can have a lot of things in common with us. Sometimes we mistake them as the same, even when there are obvious differences. It’s easier to assume someone is just a little off than to assume they are something different altogether.”

“What do you mean? Please stop speaking so cryptically.”

“It’s Mercury,” the oracle said sharply. “The alien is Mercury.”

Shit. There had always been something wrong with that dragon. From what he’d heard from Dante and the others, he’d never fit in with any crew, and his toxic personality had pushed people away wherever he went. He’d caused enough trouble that he’d been captured and frozen, and that wouldn’t look good to anyone looking for him.

Citrine leaned forward, putting his hands through his hair, wondering what they were going to do.

He felt Robbie’s arm stroking his back, soothing him, and he sat up with a sigh. “So what now?” The world was already barely in balance, and the dragons were mated and had enough to do trying to keep wyverns and other shifters in order.

“I don’t know,” the oracle said. “We wait for their next move. See if they’ve really found us, and if they do, who they send.”

“Will you see a vision of it?”

“I already have. But it was of the landing, of Mercury’s origin.”

“I see,” Citrine said. “So nothing more.”

“The world has a way of keeping things in balance,” the oracle said quietly, pursing her lips. It was probable she could see more than she said. She was known for playing things close to the chest. “I guess we’ll have to hope for a miracle.”

“What kind of miracle?” Robbie asked curiously.

The oracle’s eyes twinkled. “Perhaps more dragons?”

“Heaven forbid,” Citrine said wearily. But was that the answer if plundering dragons from another world came to start war with them?

But there weren’t any dragons left out there, right?

The oracle didn’t look into his eyes, just gazed out the window. “I guess we’ll just have to see what happens. Should get fairly exciting in the next couple of days.”

Citrine didn’t know what she was talking about, but he felt Robbie put her hand in his and knew everything would be fine as long as he had her by his side.

The oracle stood. “Anyway, I wanted to let you know I would be in contact, with you and the other dragons, as needed. I hope I can count on your help.”

Robbie nodded for him. “Of course.”

Then the oracle slipped out the door and was gone. He had no doubt she’d poofed right outside it, using one of her infamous portals when no one could see.

He sat back on the bed with a huff. “What do you make of it?”

“I guess things are going to get exciting, like she says.” She nuzzled in against him. “But look at it this way, Citrine. The world is never going to be perfect, and if things are going to get crazy, isn’t it amazing to have a mate to face it all with?”

He put his arm around her, pulling her close. “If it’s you, then yes.” He kissed the side of her head and then her lips fiercely. When he pulled back, he pressed their foreheads together for a moment, just enjoying the closeness and the feel of her skin. Everything about her calmed him.

“All right, then,” he said, standing. “Well, until the world closes in, we might as well get busy with breakfast.”

She grinned at him. “Sounds good to me.”

* * *

Marina looked around her, feeling the crush of ocean water against her human legs for the first time in so long.

The ocean had awoken her, pushing her to the shoreline, and when her toes had touched down on soft sand, floating back and forth in the currents, she’d nearly fainted from sheer shock.

It was a long time since she and her brothers had been put to sleep, epic sea monsters no longer needed to keep balance in the ocean.

She didn’t see her brothers anywhere, and she could tell instantly that the time she’d been awakened in was not her time. Seaweed clung to her body as she let the waves carry her farther into shore, crashing harder as the water became shallower.

At first, she hadn’t drawn much notice, just a female head with long blond hair dancing above the crest of the water. But as she walked fully onto dry land, she felt unfriendly eyes upon her.

There was only one small group on the beach, a little family, and the mother of the group pointed in her direction and shrieked something unintelligible.

Marina looked down at herself, unsure what was causing the commotion.

The father of the group quickly gathered the children, and the whole group practically tripped as they left in haste.

They ran toward some kind of metal railing and jumped over it, getting into a giant steel kind of land-ship with rounded wheels.

Marina was surprised when the ship let out a loud roar and sped off as if carried by magic.

Stymied by a world she didn’t understand, Marina crept back into the water, hiding with just her head above the waves, trying to figure out what had just happened.

She didn’t know how she had scared them. She was in human form, not dragon, and she didn’t see anything intimidating about that.

She was proud of her human form. It was strong, curvaceous, feminine, and powerful. Naked and smooth. And there was no reason to be ashamed of it or cause such a reaction.

She was beautiful, if she did say so herself, with long blond hair and blue eyes like the sea. But then again, most dragons were beautiful.

She’d never seen humans run screaming from her before. Even before, when she’d appeared in human form to save sailors or keep ships from sinking, she’d merely been called mermaid or siren.

Apparently, people didn’t believe in those things now.

She heard a splash in the distance and saw a head pop up above the surface. Blond hair that was slightly darker than hers, lit with sunny gold. His blue eyes matched hers. She swam toward him, and he looked disoriented as he floated with his head above the water.

He finally looked over at her as she got closer, and then he shook his head, sending water splattering in all directions. When his eyes lit on her, he grinned.

“Seaton,” she said, loving the sound of her brother’s name on her lips for the first time in so long.

He was as handsome as she remembered. It would be much easier taking on the challenges of this new world together, and she still had no idea why they’d been awakened from their sleep.

“Where are we?” he asked in a voice still harsh from slumber.

“I have no idea,” she said. “There are weird land-ships here, and the humans seem to be afraid of us.”

He looked at her. “Perhaps they are not used to nudity.”

“I have some seaweed on,” she replied tersely, thinking it counted.

“You have always been too free about things like that,” he said shortly. He looked around him. “Have you seen Kai yet?”

“I have not.”

Thunder cracked overhead, and they exchanged glances. “Seems he has been awakened.”

“Indeed,” Marina said. They waited, floating up and down with the waves in the cool seawater until a head emerged just a few yards away from them.

The intense expression in the blue eyes was all Kai. He swam toward them using quick strokes and waited in front of them, looking into their eyes.

Thunder cracked overhead again.

“Can you stop that?” Marina asked. “It’s not going to help anything.”

“A good storm always helps,” Kai muttered. He had blond hair like the rest of them, but there was a hardness to his face that came from years of being the antagonist of the sea.

But everything had to remain in balance. That was probably the reason they’d been called from a watery rest.

“Since there are no humans, perhaps we should begin exploring,” Kai said, looking to the beach. “Find some way to signal to others of our kind.”

“Dragons, you mean?” Seaton asked. “You know we have always operated independently of the land dragons.”

“I can be on land as well as any of them,” Kai said, swimming angrily toward the shore, leaving his siblings to follow.

When they stepped out of the water together, three tall, imposing figures clad only in small strips of seaweed, they folded their arms and looked around.

There had to be a reason they’d been awakened, and they would simply have to walk forward until they found it.

* * *

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the fourth book in the Date-A-Dragon series! If you enjoyed Citrine and Robbie’s story, I hope you’ll leave a review to help other readers find it. I really appreciate it!

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