Dark Roast Dragon
(2026)(The first book in the Dragon Shifters of Ember Falls series)
A Story by Phoenix Cross
Four hundred and seventeen candles. One dragon. Zero chance of staying objective.
Theo Castillo moved to Ember Falls, Oregon, to open a coffee shop, not to catalog the scorch marks on his ceiling or develop opinions about his landlord's flannel collection. But Jasper Hale — quiet, enormous, and inexplicably warm to the touch — keeps showing up with welcome baskets and careful smiles, and Theo's spreadsheet brain is already sorting him into categories he doesn't have columns for. Like why the entire town treats Jasper with a reverence that doesn't match a man who runs a hardware store. Or why candles flare when Jasper walks into the room.
Jasper has spent five years keeping his head down, his dragon contained, and his flare under control. Then a man with multiple spreadsheets and an opinion about everything moves in and the fire Jasper buried starts climbing toward the surface. Ember Falls knows what he is. Theo doesn't. And the longer Jasper waits to tell him, the harder it gets — because Theo isn't just a complication. He's the one the flare has been waiting for.
🐉 Dragon Shifter 🔥 Fated Mates 🏠 Small Town 👀 Grumpy/Sunshine 🕯️ Four Hundred Candles
���️���️🌶️ Heat Level: Spicy — Explicit
📖 POV: Dual First Person
🏠 Setting: Ember Falls, Oregon
💕 HEA: Guaranteed
📏 Length: ~25k words
He came for the coffee shop. He stayed for the dragon. The candles were just collateral damage.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Used availability for Phoenix Cross's Dark Roast Dragon