✨ GUEST POST ✨
Hello, everyone! Thank you, Addison, for allowing me back on the blog 🥰 Are you ready to take your socks off? Nope, I’m not joking. This month we’re celebrating No Socks Day, which is a good thing since Albus the Abomination in Mated to the Fire Dragon refuses to wear socks.
No Socks Day is celebrated annually on May 8th. It was created by Ruth and Thomas Roy and the purpose? To set feet free and bring them into contact with the earth.
Are you someone who walks barefoot?
I do it in my house in the summer, but not outside if I can avoid it. I suffer from ranidaphobia (fear of frogs) (yes, you can laugh), and for some reason, they’re drawn to me. It’s magic.
I’ll never forget the day we bought the house I’m sitting in as I’m writing this. It’ll be eight years ago in just a month, and I guess many remember the day they buy their home, but… what I remember is a huge freaking toad jumping up on my foot.
We’d been handed the keys, and it was just hubby and I here. We walked around and took everything in. Hubby went into the garage, and I walked around the house. Then I screamed and he came running.
He has stopped running now. I think I scream a bit too often 😅 I now call my oldest daughter instead, so she can save me from monsters.
But I was barefoot in sandals, and that cold, nasty lump touched my skin. *shudder* So yeah, no walking barefoot outside.
In Mated to the Fire Dragon, the not wearing socks thing has nothing to do with fears of anything and everything to do with claws. Albus is a dragon shifter, and he has some problems controlling his feet. When he gets nervous or agitated, claws spring from his toes.
Socks can’t withstand that.
Dragon claws.
And shoes? Imagine being caught in shoes. Nope. Albus is a barefoot kind of guy. He’s also a blacksmith and being barefoot in a smithy might not be the best thing, but he doesn’t care.
Zale gets worried when he sees Albus walking around barefoot, though. He’s come to Edge to die. He wants to see where the human realm ends before it’s too late, so he set his affairs in order and left his family behind.
This story takes place on the same street as The Book Dragon’s Lair but can be read as a standalone. It’s a slow-burn romance, fated mates-ish. It’s not that there only is one mate for every dragon, but once they’ve bonded, there will never be anyone else. And it deals with grief – mostly my own, I think 😊 A result of losing my mother a few months ago.
But it’s not a story that will break your heart! It’s hopeful in its grief. Zale knows he’s gonna die and mourns the loss of his life, but the luxury of making up stories is that you can make miracles happen.
No one dies in this one, and there is a happily ever after. So if you’re in the mood for dragons and miracles, give it a go!
Mated to the Fire Dragon
by Holly Day
Blurb
Zale wanted to see a dragon. He never expected a miracle.
Zale Hagan is dying. He doesn’t have many days left, but he wants to see a dragon before he leaves the world behind. As a fisherman, he’s seen where land ends many times, but he wants to visit the town where the human realm ends and the dragon realm begins.
Albus the Abomination is a blacksmith on Dragon Row. As a white dragon, he has no status and does his best to keep out of the way of the other dragons living there. But one day Zale steps into his smithy, and everything inside Albus catches fire.
Albus can tell Zale is very ill, but he can’t let him die. Dragon mates don’t get sick, and they live for a long time. Albus tries his best to get one of the other dragons to mate with Zale, but when no one wants to, Albus is at a loss. He could breathe fire into him, but then Zale would have to live his entire life with a white dragon, and no one wants that, do they?
NOTE: Mated to the Fire Dragon takes place on the same street as The Book Dragon’s Lair but can be read as a standalone story.
🛒 Buy links
Paranormal Gay Romance: 38,392 words
Excerpt
When the bell by the door chimed three times in close succession, Albus glared at it. He never had this many customers before breakfast. The stone floor was cold against his bare feet—he didn’t care. It was a little unpleasant, but better than getting caught with his claws in socks and shoes. Socks were the stupidest invention ever made.
It was a cold morning despite the May sun trying its damnedest to turn the human realm into a lush place.
It would be Albus’ seventh spring here, and after the first two years, he’d given up hope of ever seeing abundant greenery as that of his home.
The bell chimed a fourth time before customer number three had left, and Albus snarled. Smoke wafted around him as he glared at the female hesitantly crossing the threshold. She gave him a wide-eyed stare before hurrying over to Zale, who was sitting behind the counter. He was pale and looked to be in pain.
Albus often wished he’d have more customers. He’d made a decision to work with iron and, on occasion, with other materials, but never precious metals. If his treasure didn’t look like much, he wasn’t worth the effort to kill. It was a miracle he’d survived for as long as he had, but ugly black metals, white skin, and keeping out of sight made him close to invisible on Dragon Row. He was big for a dragon, both in his human and his dragon form. It deterred attacks, which he was grateful for.
He wanted a sparkly treasure, and to get it he needed people to buy his ugly black and gray metal creations, but today he didn’t want customers. Zale needed to rest, and the more people who came into his shop to ask Zale about Albus’ chandeliers, the less energy Zale would have to talk to him, and Albus wanted him to talk to him. No one ever did.
“Who is he?”
Albus turned to glare at the female who spoke to Zale. Humans never remembered dragons had excellent hearing.
“Albus the Amused.” Zale’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Albus, but Albus did his best not to show any emotion. Why was he changing his name? Was he making fun of him or… So far it hadn’t been any degrading words.
“Amused?” The female frowned. “That’s unusual for a dragon. They usually have more… aggressive names.”
“Do they?” Albus couldn’t tell from Zale’s tone if he was curious or only pretending to be.
“Yes!”
Zale held onto his smile, but Albus was afraid he’d fall off the stool soon. He looked like he was melting into the counter, and the paleness and the wrinkle between his brows had Albus suspecting he was in pain.
“And you know many dragons?”
Albus walked closer. He moved slowly and soundlessly. When he was close enough to see all of Zale, he noted his shaking, fisted hand hidden from those on the other side of the counter.
“I don’t know them, but Nithe the Nefarious a couple of houses up the street has the most beautiful eyes, and Saxon the Sinful—”
“Saxon the Sinful?” The disbelief in Zale’s voice kept him from snarling at the woman to leave him alone so he could rest. It sounded far too much like interest, and as if Albus interfering might lead to Zale getting angry with him.
“Eh… yes.”
“What does he do? Run a pleasure house?”
The female looked stunned, and Albus wondered what a pleasure house was and if he should’ve opened one instead of a smithy.
“Sorry, sorry.” Zale uncurled his fingers from his fist and waved his hand.
The female grinned and swept her gaze over Zale in an appreciative manner which had Albus rumble deep in his chest.
“Enough tales, Zale needs to rest for a bit. He’s unwell.” Albus didn’t dare look at Zale. He might not be strong enough to harm Albus physically, but words could cut, and humiliation burned worse than any flame.
“Oh, I’ll take these, then.” The female placed two candlesticks on the counter, then she gave Albus a shy smile. “They’re beautiful.”
“Aren’t they?” Zale pressed the button to open the cash register, then he took the female’s money and handed back some change.”
She grabbed them and waved. “Speedy recovery.” Then she left.
Zale deflated the moment she stepped outside. “Thank you, Albus the Attentive. I should let you get on with your day. Is there a hotel in this town?”
Albus stared. He wanted to leave? “You should rest.”
Nodding, Zale reached for him. “I’ve always wanted to meet a dragon. Thank you for letting me. You have the most amazing store here, but you should display your things better, and you have only price-marked a fraction of the things. I might have—” He hissed as he turned on the stool. Albus moved before he could second guess himself. He gently lifted Zale into his arms and straightened to his full height.
“You shouldn’t do that. You’ll make all the girls jealous of me.” Zale winked at the female staring at them from over by the wine stands, or some of the wine stands. Albus sighed as he realized Zale was right. There was no order to where things stood.
“They don’t want me touching them.”
“I think you may be wrong.” Zale spoke low and leaned his head against Albus’ shoulder. “I’m sorry. I got over-excited and did more than I could handle.”
About Holly Day
According to Holly Day, no day should go by uncelebrated and all of them deserve a story. If she’ll have the time to write them remains to be seen. She lives in rural Sweden with a husband, four children, more pets than most, and wouldn’t last a day without coffee.
Holly gets up at the crack of dawn most days of the week to write gay romance stories. She believes in equality in fiction and in real life. Diversity matters. Representation matters. Visibility matters. We can change the world one story at the time.
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