Called by the Dragon

Patara

For as long as I could remember, my mother always wanted to fit in with the upper class society despite both of my parents being born into middle class families. Luckily for them, they amassed a fortune by running a catering business that really took off after I was born—but she never wanted my sister, my brother or I to have the smell of food on our clothes because of it.

My mother made sure we were treated just as all the rest of the rich kids were, no matter the cost of it. My brother was spoiled and my sister was married off young to a family that was even more rich. I was meant to be the golden child to them—the one that never talked back and always did as they asked. My father had always been the quiet type, and I think I took after him when it came down to it. I knew I was nothing like my mother.

With our world still at war with uncivilized dragons and shifters alike, we had to hold our chins high and make sure everyone knew we belonged with the rich. Our clothes always had to be set right with not a hair out of place. I think they truly loved us in their own strict way, but it was hard to keep myself above water with all of their expectations and demands.

“Stand up straight.” My mother hissed as we waited backstage at one of my piano competitions. “And—fix your hair! They’ll mistake you for one of those savage shifters if you go out there like this!”

She pawed at my long dark hair and my lovely pink dress until I was once again perfect in her eyes. I smiled at her and everyone around us. Only when the high class strangers smiled back at me, did my mother do so as well.

—

I went to an aristocratic girls’ high school that my mother pulled a lot of strings for me to get into. Classes were easy to keep up with and the distraction of love was off the table when there were no boys around. It was early knowledge to my siblings that love was forbidden until she chose who we ended up with.

My older sister Nina married the second son of Leon, a real estate tycoon, by our mother’s arrangement. Nothing pleased her more than seeing her eldest daughter walk down the aisle to wed the man she had hand picked. If I was honest, it made me a bit nervous to even think about having my husband chosen for me one day. I don’t know how my sister ever had the courage do it. But we all knew that my mother always got the final word.

After school, I hurried down the stone steps but stopped short when I realized my driver wasn’t in his usual space today. Other students hurried past me to their own cars and I waited until the lot was almost cleared before I pulled out my phone and dialed my mother’s number.

“Mom—“

“Pat, I completely forgot to tell you.” My mother interrupted. “Your father and I have to attend an impromptu charity gala tonight and we needed the driver. Please take a taxi home, dear. I put leftovers in the fridge to be heated for dinner.”

“Oh. Okay, mom.”