Claiming Julia by Charisma Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

as he was over the threshold, she slammed the door shut and secured the deadbolt. After closing her eyes, she rested her back against the door and slid down to the floor.
    Since when had her life become so complicated? Angus had never appeared to suffer from any mental problems while at the office. Now, he was so different. It figured. After sex, why did men have to change all of a sudden?
    There was something she was definitely missing, she thought to herself as she began experiencing a burning, vibrating sensation on her left hip where her birthmark rested. She rubbed at the thing as the burning sensation heightened and became painful. “Shit!” Julia jumped up and ran into her room. She rushed over to the mirror and pulled up her nightgown.
    There in the light, the small, dragon-shaped birthmark began to take on a life all its own.
    “Oh, my God,” Julia whispered. “Granny, this can’t be.” She looked up to the heavens and called out. “If there was ever a time I needed your guidance, it’s now,” she spoke out loud as she recalled her fourteenth birthday and thought that perhaps there was some truth to what Angus had said.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Grandma, this itches!”
    “Oh, child, you make such a fuss over the smallest things. Stop rushing me! I told you I’d be up after I got off the phone with your uncle!” the little, barrel-shaped woman insisted as she strode into Julia’s room with rubbing alcohol. “This will take away the itch,” the woman insisted while pouring alcohol on a cotton swab and dabbing it on the afflicted area.
    “What is this?” Julia asked, pointing to her birthmark. “It seems to change every now and again.”
    “You know that you’re a very special child, don’t you, Julia?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “It’s no secret that your momma was unfaithful to her boyfriend.” The woman looked on as the girl nodded in agreement. “The man your momma saw was no ordinary man but a dragon lord that has been around for many centuries.”
    “How do you know this?”
    “Oh, child. Your mother confided in me about so many things. I knew you were very special before your mother’s boyfriend left. I’m just so sorry she wasn’t strong enough to stick around and see the beautiful woman you’ve transformed into.”
    “Me, too, Granny.”
    “This birthmark will tell you one day when you’ve found the one who you’re meant to be with for the rest of your existence. It will vibrate and burn when he is near; that is, once you’ve coupled for the first time. If you pay close attention, you’ll know in your heart he’s the one.”
    “I don’t want a mate. Not after seeing how M omma and Bruce were.”
    “Oh no, baby. Don’t you ever think your relationship will turn out to be like theirs. You can and will find happiness. I know you will one day. I promise.”
    “Well, what about my father? The dragon?”
    “Baby, he was a good man, or so I was told. He treated your mother very well.” The elderly woman held her head down in regret. “She sent him away, asked him never to return. I couldn’t tell you where he is to this day because I just don’t know, baby.”
    “I’d like to meet him one day.”
    “I know, my feisty little dragon, but that’s impossible. Now, remember what I said.”
    Julia chimed in. “I know, never let anyone know my secret. I promise . . . ”
     
    * * * *
     
    Frozen, Julia continued staring in the mirror in astonishment at the dragon birthmark. She never paid attention when she and Angus crossed paths. She listened with her body, not her heart.
    Hurt bubbled in her chest when she recalled the day her grandmother informed her of her mother’s passing. Julia thought it may have been of a broken heart. It had to have been.
    Even though Angus’s behavior and words frightened her, the overwhelming feeling of loneliness loomed over her like a black cloud.
    Realizing that she may have sent the one true love of her life away earlier caused Julia much