Hoard & Heart: Dragon Mates in the Modern World

What happens when an ancient dragon — whose hoard spans continents and centuries — meets a forensic accountant who simply will not be intimidated? That question sits at the heart of Colette Beauvais's irresistible anthology, a collection of ten sharp, witty, and surprisingly tender stories about dragons navigating the complexities of the modern world, and the extraordinary women who refuse to be impressed by them. In these pages, beings who have accumulated wealth, power, and possessiveness across millennia find themselves thoroughly outmatched by women who ask inconvenient questions, follow spreadsheets to impossible conclusions, and decline every offer of gold with polite but immovable certainty. Each story stands beautifully on its own while contributing to a richly imagined world where dragons walk among us — hidden in plain sight behind hedge funds, auction houses, law firms, and carefully maintained human identities. Beauvais writes with a rare combination of dry wit and genuine warmth. Her dragons are ancient and formidable, yet disarmingly vulnerable the moment they encounter someone they cannot simply acquire. Her heroines are modern, competent, and entirely unimpressed — which, of course, makes them utterly irresistible to beings who have never once been told no. The prose throughout is elegant and precise, with a gift for tension that builds as naturally as compound interest. Romance here is slow-burning and earned, never rushed, and the power dynamics are as playful as they are charged. Perfect for readers who love paranormal romance with genuine intelligence, mythological depth, and female characters who match their impossible partners beat for beat, this collection delivers exactly what its subtitle promises: ancient possessiveness meeting its perfect, infuriating match.