Holding two of the eggs, Laurel started giggling in spite of herself.
Lisse turned out to be have been the owner of a gold Aston-Martin with a spare car key in a magnetic case in one wheel well. They found it parked out front, and Jason drove them home in it, while Laurel held the clutch on her lap.
Now and again one of the eggs or another seemed to vibrate a little bit, and more and more of their stony outer covers flaked off as they drove. It took her a while to pull herself together. Lisse had nearly killed her, and nearly made off with the eggs. Too close.
“What do we do now?” she asked finally.
“It will take about six hours for them to hatch out, if my case was typical. Meanwhile, let's get home, and get some food and rest.”
Food ended up having to wait.
They made a makeshift nest for the eggs in one corner of her bedroom, piling up spare bedding and setting all four in the midst of it. Laurel hadn't even straightened before Jason started kissing the back of her neck fervently. Their brush with death turned out to be a damned good aphrodisiac. They rolled from one side of the bed to the other together, limbs tangled, mouths busy with each other and bodies trembling harder and harder. He thrust into her hungrily, his whole body shuddering with need, and she moved against him with equal fervor, feeling her body tensing toward climax as he moved his hand between her thighs. He groaned loudly into her shoulder as his sex spasmed inside of her, and the next moment she felt her pleasure rippling through her body, leaving her limp with satisfaction.
“I love you,” he whispered into her shoulder as he struggled for his breath.
She smiled contentedly as she held him there, feeling his heartbeat slow against her belly.
“I love you.”
They drifted off together, their exhaustion so profound that by the time she opened her eyes again, dawn light was filtering in through the windows.
Beside her, Jason snored lightly. Two warm lumps curled against her, the size of cats, one tucked under her arm as she lay on her side, and the other cuddled against her thighs. What...? she wondered, detecting a faint sulphur scent in the room. Like broken eggs. Really big broken eggs.
She raised her head, blinking blearily, and saw a leathery crimson body tucked in the curve of her arm. Her movement woke the little creature, and it raised its head, a pair of familiarly silver-green eyes blinking open and peering at her. It yawned, and then squinted at her affectionately.
Oh my God.
“Jason!” she whispered sharply.
He let out a grunt and stirred, one eye opening. Then he sat up in shock — and three other heads rose from the bedding to peer at him. Purple, forest green and deep blue, all with Jason's eyes. The red one squeaked, and stretched its neck forward to sniff at her face instead, only giving Jason a glance.
“Well hi there, baby!”
She held still, astonished, as it warbled back happily and then crawled forward to tuck its body under her chin and settle in again.
“Look at them,” Jason mumbled, astonished, as the other three clambered onto his chest and peered down at him. He looked over at the nest, and she followed his gaze, looking at the shattered eggs and the albumen-soaked bedding. They had literally hatched out while the two of them were sleeping, and then just crawled into bed with them.
Laurel lay there, petting the little red one while it crooned and butted its head under her hand if she stopped a moment.
“This is a lot less dramatic than I thought it would be.”
“Well, you know, babies sleep a lot. Though I'm guessing they're probably hungry.”
Jason's voice was breathless, his eyes wide. She wasn't surprised to see tears in them. He had waited so very long for a real family, after all.
“We have plenty of leftovers from ordering in last night.” She touched the red one's muzzle with her nose. “You want some fried chicken, Red?” It squeaked and cocked its head at her. “I don't even know which ones are boys and which are girls.”
“The blue one's a girl, the rest are boys. She's bigger, and she doesn't have horn stubs. We'll have to come up with names.”
“I only wish all parenting problems were that easy.” She scooped the dragonet up in her arms and slipped free of the bed, then kissed him on the nose and set him down so she could pull on some clothes. Behind her she heard the rustles of Jason doing the same. He came up behind her and kissed her behind her ear, and she leaned back against him, smiling. “Is this how you figured things would turn out once you found the eggs?”
He smiled against her skin.
“Better,” he murmured as the baby dragons hopped off the bed and piled over to mill around their feet. “After all, I have you now too... and... our future children....”
The End
About the Author
KYRII RAYNE HAS ALWAYS been fascinated by the paranormal – by the possibilities hidden in the world around us. She enjoys writing stories that explore those possibilities – and the challenges they bring to the lives of her characters, especially when it comes to finding love.
She lives in Australia, and travels a lot – and always listens to the old folk tales everywhere she goes – there are story ideas everywhere!
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Other Books from Kyrii Rayne
The Bear Lodge Shifters Series
Bear Bait - Hunting Party
Bear Brother
Bear Hunt
Bear Trap
Bear Territory
The Embers of Dragonkind Series
Vanished Dragons (a Prequel)
Last Dragons
Cursed Dragons
Enemy of Dragons
Blood of Dragons
Child of Dragons
King of Dragons
Hope of Dragons
Savior of Dragons
The Wolf Wars Series
Turning Wolf
Captive Wolf
Plague Wolf
MIDNIGHT MAGIC
Nine Lives Book One
Leigh Kelsey
About Midnight Magic
Three paw print brands on her body. Three mates claiming her soul. One hell of a way to find out you’re a cat shifter.
Rani Rose is descended from a long line of jaguar shifters, and she has no reason to suspect she’ll be any different. But when her coming of age ceremony reveals her not only as a moggy, but someone with forbidden midnight magic, Rani is exiled from cat society.
That night, three mating brands blaze to life on her body, and with them come three men: brothers and cat shifters like her, who also have midnight magic.
Comforted by gentle Eri, her body set alight by playful Tom, and her heart stolen by intense, brooding Nigh, Rani finds herself warming to her new status as a cat shifter. But her midnight magic makes her valuable to a cruelly charming man called Dark Star—and unlike her new mates, he doesn’t care about cherishing her, only about stealing her magic for himself.
Midnight Magic is the first book in a cat shifter paranormal romance series with three love interests and no choosing whatsoever. The Nine Lives series is fast burn, with romance that’s equal parts sweet and hot.
Coming Of Age
The torches set against the walls burned a true mystic purple, reflecting the goddess blessed space. This chamber was sacred; every cat shifter in Europe had their coming of age ceremony here when they reached twenty-one. Every cat found out their inner form, be it a jag
uar, lynx, tiger, lion, or any of the other big cat forms, in this exact chamber.
Rani Rose felt the weight of all that history on her shoulders as she reached the chamber after descending what seemed like a thousand steps from aboveground. She was wheezing, painfully out of breath with a stitch slicing into her side, and she knew some of the shifters gathered were eyeing her with distaste. But Rani straightened her glasses, paused until she’d regained enough breath to keep moving, and shut out their judgy stares. So what if she was a size eighteen when they were all svelte? So what if she was short and fat and wore glasses? So what if she’d only bothered to scrape her fair hair into a ponytail instead of getting it blow-dried like some of the people here. She looked how she looked, and they were just going to have to deal with it.
But Rani’s skin still prickled at their attention, sweat dripping down her spine. She half wanted to flee to the top floor library of this place—the feline hub in London—and find a nice spot of sunlight to curl up in with a good book.
But she was here.
She could do this.
And anyway, she had her mum and sister right behind her. All Rani had to do was get through the ceremony and she’d be a bona fide member of cat shifter society, a jaguar like all her family.
And no matter how the stares made her feel, Rani was eager to experience the magic of shifting. Once she merged with her shifter form, her magic would appear, and with it, her mating brand. Every cat had at least one, a paw print that shone with divine light in human form and formed a psychic bond in cat form, allowing her to always communicate with her mate. She yearned for it, always had. To belong to someone, and to have someone belong to her ... it seemed like a dream.
Rani had always loved fairy tales and love stories; it was only natural that she’d dream of one for herself.
She took a tight breath and kept walking. Soon, she’d shift for the first time. Soon, she’d get her magic. Soon, she’d find her mate, the one her soul was bound to for all eternity. And like the princes and princesses in her favourite books, she’d live happily ever after.
Of course, fate had other things in mind for Rani.
Ceremony
The felines gathered were all cloaked in ceremonial violet robes, as was traditional for every coming of age ritual, and Rani had the sense of being swallowed by a sea of nameless, faceless shadows as she moved down the aisle, her steps painfully slow.
Eventually, Rani came to a stop before the goddess font; it was sat upon a marble dais and glowing with an inner light that only served to drive home the importance of the ceremony. Corinne, the highest ranked member of cat society, stood there in deepest plum robes, her skin dark but her silver hair stunningly bright in the torchlight, as if the stars themselves shone from her.
Rani was impressed both by her beauty and her presence; it was a bit like being in front of the goddess herself. She’d only ever seen Corinne from the back of the assembly hall upstairs during the speeches given at festival celebrations. Corinne managed the whole feline hub, making sure everything ran smoothly in their society.
Rani felt a lot like a human within two feet of Queen Elizabeth II.
“Rani Deliph Rose,” Corinne said, loudly enough for the whole congregation to hear but without raising her voice; the rich tone of her words simply carried. It was likely magic, belonging to one of the team who worked with Corinne, but it was still impressive, and it still made Rani swallow hard as her mum and sister Nell blended into the sea of cloaked, hooded figures. Leaving Rani truly alone and at Corinne’s mercy.
Not that Corinne was going to do anything wicked to Rani; she was just going to guide her through the process of bonding with her shifter form. But still. The grandiosity of the ritual made Rani feel like a lead weight sat on her chest. This was the most important ceremony of her life—barring her mating ceremony, obviously—and it was terrifying. What if Rani did it wrong? What if she messed up and ... and stayed in her shifter form forever?
There hadn’t been a case of a coming of age ceremony going wrong for decades, but Rani knew it had happened; she’d read about it during her mass research, preparing for this very moment. A few times, felines had been locked in their animal forms. A few times, no cat form had revealed itself. A few times, the shifting went fine but instead ... they were blessed by midnight magic, harmful magic, and shunned from society.
If there was anything cat shifters hated it was the dark.
“You’re here today to merge with your cat form,” Corinne said, and Rani stood straighter under her full attention, though Corinne’s expression held only a serious sort of benevolence. Kind but professional. “Step onto the dais, Rani.”
Taking a quick breath in an attempt not to go lightheaded with panic, Rani took the marble steps of the dais slowly, visions of herself plastered to them as she missed her footing chasing through her imagination like nightmares. She shut out the imagined gasps and howls of laughter at her non-existent fall and focussed on ascending the dais, exhaling slowly as she reached the top and stood beside the font—the fancy marble bowl held on a stone column and engraved with ornate images.
She couldn’t tell if it was just the atmosphere of the ceremony, the robes, the purple light all around but ... she could feel the goddess up here. Almost as if she stood at Rani’s shoulder, smiling. A shiver tripped down Rani’s spine but she didn’t allow the crowd below to see it. She’d be strong—she’d be perfect. They already sneered at her size and plainness; she wouldn’t give them another excuse.
“Place your hands on the font,” Corinne said with an encouraging nod.
Rani did as she was guided, exhaling hard at the cool feel of the stone beneath her palms. Her heart beat faster, knowing this next bit was the important part, knowing that her whole life rested on this suspended moment right here and now.
In minutes, she’d have a cat form, a mate, and a form of magic. She’d already finished university last month, and she was a shoo-in for a job with her mum up in the library and records rooms. All the pieces of her future were about to fall into place.
Nerves and excitement tangled up in Rani’s belly until it felt like a swarm of birds were trapped in her stomach.
“Look hard and long into the water,” Corinne guided, smiling softly. “You’ll see your cat form, and the shift will come over you. Don’t fight it. It only hurts in the first few moments. May the goddess bless you.”
Oh, that was comforting. It only hurts in the first few moments? But how much did it hurt?
Rani inhaled a last fortifying breath, squared her shoulders, and peered into the silvery water in the font.
At first, all she saw was her own reflection, her rounded face made skeletal in parts by the harsh torch lighting, parts of her cheeks entirely in shadow and others lit pure violet, her glasses turned to bright half moons where her eyes should have been.
She stared at her reflection like Corinne had told her to, scared that nothing would happen, that she’d be one of those very few cats whose shifter form just didn’t appear—but then a pinprick of light formed, somewhere below her reflection’s nose, and she realised light was issuing from the bottom of the water. Silver-violet light hurtled like a spear through the font, though no ripples formed on the water’s surface, and Rani gasped, instinct making her recoil.
But she wasn’t struck—not physically at least—and the light was just that: light. The water never moved, never surged up towards Rani, but the glow shot up and through the water’s edge, bathing Rani in ethereal light.
She blinked at the coolness of the touch, wondering what was supposed to happen next—the books had been vague about this part—but then the world seemed to slide out from beneath her. She gasped as she fell, but ... she never crashed into the floor. The light seemed to cup her body, holding her in a close, cool embrace until Rani was thoroughly disoriented.
She suddenly wished the rule that only society adults were able to attend these rituals didn’t exist, wished she’d seen someone else go
through theirs. Was this supposed to happen? Was it all going as planned?
A spike of pain shot through Rani’s back and she groaned, curling in around herself, waiting for the pain to expand to her whole body. But it just didn’t. And when the glow lowered her to the floor, the whole experience feeling like being cupped in the hand of the goddess, Rani landed on paws, not feet.
It had worked?
Rani wanted to laugh in relief and joy, but the sound just didn’t emerge from her vocal chords. Instead, she meowed.
Wait, that couldn’t be right.
She was a jaguar like all her family. There were a lot of sounds that she should have made as a jaguar, but a meow wasn’t one of them.
Her sensitive hearing picked up the gasps and a few laughs of the crowd, and her ears flattened, her tail swishing, all without her permission. Oh god. What had happened? Rani had known something would go wrong.
She shrank in on herself, her ears flat to her head as she backed away from the hooded felines, who all seemed enormous and threatening in their human forms.
“It’s alright, Rani,” Corinne said reassuringly, kneeling so she was on Rani’s level. “It’s perfectly acceptable to be a domestic cat, rather than a predatory species.”
Was it? Because the gasps and laughs had choked off with Corinne’s words, but they still echoed through Rani’s head. She was a laughing stock. The exact opposite of what she‘d dreamt of for her ceremony. Just once she wanted to be accepted, not sneered at. Just once.
“Ignore everything except me,” Corinne went on, her dark face patient and kind as she smiled at Rani. “Close your eyes and look inward; your magic is inside you now. All you have to do is grasp it and push it out of you and we’ll know what form it takes.”
She was speaking in a calm, encouraging voice, but Rani still felt sick by the whole thing. She was a cat. A damn housecat. Not a jaguar.
If she’d been in human form right now, her face would be on fire and tears would be stinging her eyes. There was nothing wrong with being a domestic cat, like Corinne said, but they were looked down on by feline society, and more importantly all of Rani’s family were jaguars. Why wasn’t she?
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 69
