Dragon Kings of Ashenmoor Series by Ember Blackwood

Three hundred years of ruling a hidden dragon kingdom. Not once has Kael Stormcrag lost control. Then she walks through the Veil. "You're telling me I'm magically bonded to a man who breathes fire and has the emotional range of a granite cliff. ". "I have excellent emotional range. I am currently experiencing irritation. ". "Fascinating. Is that before or after you kidnapped me? ". Kael Stormcrag has kept his kingdom hidden for centuries... moreThree hundred years of ruling a hidden dragon kingdom. Not once has Kael Stormcrag lost control. Then she walks through the Veil. "You're telling me I'm magically bonded to a man who breathes fire and has the emotional range of a granite cliff. ". "I have excellent emotional range. I am currently experiencing irritation. ". "Fascinating. Is that before or after you kidnapped me? ". Kael Stormcrag has kept his kingdom hidden for centuries. Five dragon clans, an ancient Veil separating their world from the human one, and a political balance held together by his refusal to show weakness. He doesn't need a mate. He especially doesn't need a human mate -- a woman who smells like rain and ink and asks questions he can't afford to answer, whose presence in Ashenmoor threatens every alliance he's built. His dragon knows what she is. His dragon can burn. Rowan Ainsley was mapping Highland walking trails when the world cracked open and dropped her into a volcanic valley full of apex predators with bad attitudes and no concept of personal space. She's a cartographer, not a fantasy heroine. She doesn't swoon. She doesn't simper. She documents. And what she's documenting is a crumbling supernatural barrier, a king who runs hot in every sense of the word, and a so-called fated bond that makes her skin hum every time he's in the room. She didn't ask for any of this. She's staying because the data is fascinating. That's her story and she's sticking to it. But the Veil between worlds is failing. Ancient ward-roots are dying. Something is wrong with the boundary that has protected Ashenmoor for eight centuries, and the clans are fracturing over what to do about it -- and about the human woman their king can't stop watching. When Kael is forced to choose between his throne and the bond he never wanted, the cost isn't just personal. If the Veil falls, two worlds collide. And the only person who can map what's breaking is the woman he just denied in front of five kings. Hidden in the Scottish Highlands, Ashenmoor is a kingdom of fire and stone -- five dragon clans, centuries of politics, and a civilisation older than human memory. This is a world big enough to get lost in. Rowan intends to map every inch of it. She didn't ask for a dragon king. He didn't want a human mate. The bond doesn't care what either of them wants. * Dragon shifter romance. * Fated mates / rejected mate. * Enemies to lovers. * Age gap (centuries). * Forced proximity. * Explicit heat / steamy. * Guaranteed HEA. * Dragon Kings of Ashenmoor (interconnected standalones). less

Two hundred and eighty-nine years of border patrol. Fourteen Veil breaches contained without incident. Torrin Stormcrag has never lost a target, never broken protocol, and never once considered that the most dangerous security threat to Ashenmoor would be five-foot-five, smell like vanilla, and bring him bread. "You're telling me I'm magically bonded to a man who turns into a dragon and communicates primarily through jaw clenching. ". "I communicate through multiple facial expressions... moreTwo hundred and eighty-nine years of border patrol. Fourteen Veil breaches contained without incident. Torrin Stormcrag has never lost a target, never broken protocol, and never once considered that the most dangerous security threat to Ashenmoor would be five-foot-five, smell like vanilla, and bring him bread. "You're telling me I'm magically bonded to a man who turns into a dragon and communicates primarily through jaw clenching. ". "I communicate through multiple facial expressions. The jaw is one. ". "That's not the reassurance you think it is. ". Torrin is Ashenmoor's most disciplined warrior. For nearly three centuries, he's guarded the Veil that hides a kingdom of dragon shifters from the human world -- no attachments, no distractions, no weaknesses. When a wildlife filmmaker captures drone footage of the Veil tearing open, he's sent to contain the breach. One look at her and his dragon recognises something his tactical mind refuses to accept: she's his fated mate. The bond is immediate, undeniable, and the worst possible complication for a man whose entire identity is built on control. She's warm where he's cold. She's loud where he's silent. She smells like sunlight and every instinct he has is screaming to claim her, and claiming a human woman who has 340,000 followers and footage of his world on the internet is not a strategic option. Gemma Hale didn't come to the Scottish Highlands to get kidnapped by a dragon with cheekbones that could cut glass and the conversational warmth of a granite wall. She came to film golden eagles. But the sky tore open, a sixty-foot charcoal dragon landed in her field, and now she's trapped in a volcanic fortress full of ancient warriors who won't give her phone back. The brooding one assigned to guard her won't look at her. Won't talk to her. Won't explain why his skin runs at approximately the temperature of a small furnace or why she can't stop thinking about the way he smells -- like a Highland storm about to break. She's dealt with difficult interview subjects before. She's never dealt with one who breathes fire and looks at her like she's a security breach he'd like to file under "classified. ". But the Veil is failing. The barrier that has hidden dragon-kind for eight centuries is collapsing along geological fault lines, and Gemma's footage is already online, being debated by millions. The Council wants her memory erased. A journalist is circling. Clan factions who consider human mates an abomination are gathering political momentum. And the mate bond Torrin refuses to acknowledge is getting harder to ignore -- especially when she keeps being brave, and brilliant, and warm, and every defence he's built starts cracking at the foundations. Hidden in the Scottish Highlands, an ancient kingdom guards secrets older than human memory. Five dragon clans. A dying Veil. And a bond that could save them -- or expose them all. She didn't ask for a dragon warrior. He didn't want a human mate. The bond doesn't care what either of them wants. * Dragon shifter romance. * Fated mates. * Grumpy/sunshine. * Age gap (centuries). * Forced proximity. * Protector romance. * Curvy heroine. * Explicit heat / steamy. * Guaranteed HEA. * Series: Dragon Kings of Ashenmoor (interconnected standalones). less

Two hundred and eighty-seven years of building things that don't break. Not once has Draven Ironhold's hands shaken. Then a human woman walks through the Veil, and his forge-nail drops from suddenly nerveless fingers. She wasn't supposed to be his. She was supposed to be a political arrangement — a folklorist with the linguistic expertise to decode Ashenmoor's failing ward-texts, married off to the Lord of Ironhold as part of a diplomatic bargain she didn't fully understand. Convenient... moreTwo hundred and eighty-seven years of building things that don't break. Not once has Draven Ironhold's hands shaken. Then a human woman walks through the Veil, and his forge-nail drops from suddenly nerveless fingers. She wasn't supposed to be his. She was supposed to be a political arrangement — a folklorist with the linguistic expertise to decode Ashenmoor's failing ward-texts, married off to the Lord of Ironhold as part of a diplomatic bargain she didn't fully understand. Convenient. Temporary. Manageable. Then the mate bond ignites, and nothing about Sienna Okafor is manageable. "You're telling me I've been married , actually, legally married, to a man who turns into a forty-foot dragon and communicates primarily through furniture construction. ". "The workbench was structurally necessary. ". "It was a love letter. ". ". .. It was a structurally necessary love letter. ". Draven hasn't let anyone close in 190 years — not since his designs killed his father and broke the only friend he ever had. He leads Ironhold through competence and silence, building things that last because the alternative is remembering the things that didn't. He doesn't need a mate. He needs the Veil stabilised, the ward-texts decoded, and the woman who smells like warm earth after rain to stop humming in his corridors before his hands do something his engineering can't calculate. Sienna has spent her life translating other people's stories. Half-Nigerian, half-Scottish, raised between two continents and fluent in the art of making everyone else feel at home while never quite belonging anywhere herself. She came to the Scottish Highlands for a research fellowship. She got an ancient dragon kingdom, a marriage she didn't agree to, and a husband whose written notes say everything his voice can't, and whose hands on her skin run three degrees too hot and exactly right. But the Veil is failing. The last Warden is dead, and the ward-texts Sienna is racing to decode hold the only key to Ashenmoor's survival. An outside investigator is circling closer to the thermal anomaly that shouldn't exist. Clan politics are fracturing under the weight of three human-dragon bonds in one generation. And the restoration protocol requires Sienna to walk into a lethal energy field armed with nothing but her voice and a bond she's only just learned to trust. Draven would burn the Veil to ash before he lets her enter that field. Sienna would walk through fire before she lets another person decide what her voice is for. Five clans. Ancient politics. A hidden civilisation in the Scottish Highlands older than human memory. And a love story written in forge-heat and sound — between a man who builds and a woman who speaks, learning that some things can't be engineered. They have to be trusted. She didn't ask for a dragon lord. He didn't want a human mate. The bond doesn't care. And the Veil won't wait. * Dragon shifter romance. * Fated mates. * Arranged marriage. * Slow burn. * Grumpy/sunshine. * Age gap (centuries). * Forced proximity. * Curvy heroine. * Explicit heat / steamy. * Guaranteed HEA. * Series: Dragon Kings of Ashenmoor (interconnected standalones). less

Two hundred and sixty-seven years of watching from ridges. Not once has Fen Nightvane come down. Then a four-year-old boy breathes smoke in his sleep, and the ridge is no longer far enough. He left her five years ago. No explanation. No goodbye. Just an autumn that ended too soon and a man called Finlay who never existed. Eilidh Macrae buried the ache, raised their son alone, and built a life so competent it almost looked like peace... moreTwo hundred and sixty-seven years of watching from ridges. Not once has Fen Nightvane come down. Then a four-year-old boy breathes smoke in his sleep, and the ridge is no longer far enough. He left her five years ago. No explanation. No goodbye. Just an autumn that ended too soon and a man called Finlay who never existed. Eilidh Macrae buried the ache, raised their son alone, and built a life so competent it almost looked like peace. Then the dragon on her doorstep says his real name and her body remembers what her mind spent five years trying to forget. "You have exactly one cup of tea to explain why a man who apparently turns into a forty-foot reptile thought the appropriate response to fatherhood was to disappear for five years. ". "I was protecting you. ". "From what? ". "From what I am. ". "Fen, my four-year-old breathes smoke. I think the secret's out. ". Fen has spent five years on a Highland ridge, watching his son through a school window and hating every dawn that rises without her. Nightvane's quietest scout, trained to observe and never interfere, he left because the bond endangered them both and stayed away because his clan demanded it. He doesn't need forgiveness. He needs the Veil stabilised, his son safe, and the woman whose scent he carries in his blood to stop looking at him like he's something she's decided to solve. Eilidh teaches twenty-three children in a single-room school, walks the same hills every day, and makes tea as a structural response to crisis. She didn't ask for a dragon kingdom, a mate bond, or the discovery that her dead mother's journal contains fragments of an ancient language that might save two worlds. She especially didn't ask for the quiet, infuriating man who watches her son with eyes that flash green-gold and whose hands shake when he says Jamie's name. But the Veil between worlds is failing. The ward-system that has hidden Ashenmoor for three thousand years is degrading, and the southern stretch nearest Eilidh's village is the weakest point. An investigative journalist is tracking the thermal anomaly. Clan politics are fracturing over four human-dragon bonds in one generation. And the restoration protocol requires Eilidh to walk into a lethal energy field and sing her mother's song into stones older than civilisation, while the dragon who left her stands beside her for the first time. Fen would burn every bridge between two worlds before he lets her enter that field. Eilidh would walk through fire before she lets another man decide what her voice is for. Four clans. Ancient politics. A hidden civilisation in the Scottish Highlands older than human memory. And a love story five years in the remaking, between a woman who stayed and a man who came back, learning that the hardest distance to cross was never the Veil. It was the ridge. She didn't ask for a dragon. He didn't deserve a second chance. The bond doesn't care what either of them thinks. And the Veil won't wait. * Dragon shifter romance. * Fated mates. * Second chance romance. * Secret baby. * Single mother. * Age gap (centuries). * Forced proximity. * Hidden identity. * Explicit heat / steamy. * Guaranteed HEA. * Series finale: Dragon Kings of Ashenmoor (can be read standalone). less