Master At Arms

One dragon to play matchmaker…two knights to serve a lady’s every pleasure.

When the call to arms goes out, the dragon Golgorath is the first to take to the skies. Until he finds a knight to equal his heart and fighting skill, Rath flies alone while his mate must wait for her knight, Thorn, to climb on her back. The battleground is a familiar one, an old keep, a noble house without a patriarch, under attack from the evil, snake-like skiths.

Lady Cara can fight, but knows better than to try to lead men. With her brother wounded, she relies on her new Master at Arms, Tristan. He is a mysterious, recklessly brave foreigner who can never be hers, as she is to be married off to the highest bidder.

Amidst the battle, Rath spies the warrior doing the impossible—slaying a skith single-handed. Rath realizes fate may have just stepped in to help both dragons and men. In Tristan, Rath sees a man worthy of being his knight and, together with Thorn, win Lady Cara’s heart into a triad of love. If Tristan’s loyalties can first be won by dragonkind.

Note: When two dragons really want something, it’s best not to stand in their way. And when their knights are focused on a single woman, nothing and no one will stop them from getting what they want. Beware! This trio gets up to all kinds of naughtiness in the pursuit of true love.

CHAPTER ONE

Golgorath was an old dragon. Not past his prime, but old enough to have taken more than one knight as his partner. The last had died before his time, in a battle he had been ill-prepared to fight. Rath blamed himself for picking Faedric for the goodness of his heart alone, thinking that the young man would have time to learn the warrior’s skills he’d need. The guilt Rath had felt over his misjudgment sent him into seclusion for decades.
When he came out of self-imposed exile, Rath had decided to wait for the right man to be his next knight. That man, he decided, had to have both the pure and true heart worthy of being a knight and the skills of an expert warrior. Rath didn’t want to go through the kind of loss he’d experienced with Faedric again.
Nor did he want to put his mate, Sharlis, through it. She was an excellent female and together they had raised five wonderful dragon children and been second-parents to over twenty human offspring. Theirs had been a long and fruitful union and he looked forward to the day that he found the right man to partner him, so he could reclaim his mate.
Sharlis had already chosen a knight. Thorn was a newly appointed Weaponsmaster of the Border Lair. He was good enough to teach the other knights about archery and spear. No one in the new Border Lair could match his skill with long-range weapons, which were a knight’s first line of defense when on dragon back. In fact, few in the kingdom could best him with either longbow or crossbow.
Sharlis and Thorn had been fighting partners now for almost ten years. Golgorath was impatient to find his own knight so those two men could begin the search for their mate. Only after the men had found a woman to share their lives and passions would the dragons be free to consummate their lifelong bond once again. For if a dragon bonded with a knight, the bond was so close that the dragon’s passion spilled over into his or her knight.
Only the deep abiding love and acceptance of a mate could sate the passion the dragons inspired in their knights. No other woman would do. A casual sex partner would not satisfy the need and could drive the knights insane from the emotional overload.
Long ago, it had been decreed that fighting dragons who bonded with knights must abstain to protect their human fighting partners until the knights had a mate of their own. Only then could the whole family—dragon and human—all be happy and safe.
To be near his mate and some of their offspring, Rath had come to the Border Lair and agreed to teach the younger dragons flying techniques he had perfected over his centuries. Rath had a certain aerodynamic shape to his wings and superior tail control that made him one of the best flyers in the kingdom. He shared those skills that could be learned, freely with the other dragons, and always had. He was not one of those to lord it over anyone because he’d been born with a better wingspan than most.
But he did admit to a certain amount of parental pride in the fact that all of his offspring took after him. They were fierce flyers who had mastered the art of keeping their knights safely on their backs through almost any maneuver. He had schooled them himself and imparted his knowledge on the subject to many fighting pairs over the years.
Sharlis was just as gifted, and between them, they had been named Flightmasters of the Border Lair. It was an honor he wore with suitable humility. Any time he started to feel full of himself, he remembered that one horrible mistake he’d made in choosing Faedric as his knight. Faedric had been good in the air but abysmal on the ground. He couldn’t heft a sword to save his life—and that’s what it had come down to. His life.
Caught on the ground, Rath could not protect him completely. If they’d been in the air, Faedric would have lived to fight—or at least lived to learn to fight—another day. But caught on the ground, Faedric had been the next best thing to helpless. And for that, Rath would always bear guilt.
He should have chosen better. Faedric had a knight’s heart, but not the skill.
Rath swore this time he would choose a knight fully trained and worthy of the name from day one.