by Anna Lowe
“You.”
Not a greeting. An accusation that came with a couple of crackling sparks that flickered around her nose and mouth.
Yep, his feisty she-dragon was angry, all right.
He nearly slipped up and said her name. Very nearly strode over and punched the guard the hell away from her, too, but he caught himself just in time. He couldn’t let on that he knew Karen. Not here, in the den of the enemy. He was her only chance, and if he became a suspect, that chance was gone.
Shit. If he became a suspect, his chance at seeing his plan through was fried, too. He’d fail his entire clan for the sake of a stranger.
Not a stranger! his bear bellowed. My mate!
He clenched his fists, grappling with the beast for control. He had to act with his brain, not with his heart.
But damn, was his heart ready for a fight.
Her best chance comes from us keeping cool, he told his inner bear. In fact, her only chance comes from us keeping cool.
The bear huffed in frustration but slowly backed down.
Tanner tried telegraphing with his eyes and shouting into her mind — Karen! Please, just play along! — but all she gave him was that slitty-eyed death stare.
“I can’t believe you work for the vampires and their Keystone Cops.”
He cut her off quickly, barking at the guard. “Where was she?”
“In the boss’ apartment, with this.” The boar shifter held up something that reflected blue-black in the light.
His breath caught in his throat, and three words slipped out. “The Blood Diamond.”
Igor Schiller had recently acquired the diamond, and Elvira had been parading the thing around all week wedged between her meaty tits. It was still the talk of the town — seventy carats, some said, and worth a fortune. Its mysterious origins only served to heighten the hype — an Indian pasha’s diamond, or the dowry of an African princess, others said. The story circulating around the shifter world, though, said its unique coloring came from the blood of a dragon.
He looked from the diamond to Karen, whose eyes shone in exactly the same hue.
“That’s mine.” Karen grabbed for it, but the guard swung it away.
“It belongs to the big boss, lady,” the man said.
“Your boss?” she snickered. “Freddy Fucking Fangs?” Then she shook her head. “That diamond belongs to my family.”
Her voice wavered a little, and Tanner’s heart pinched. Whatever her connection to the jewel, it was a personal one, because Karen never wavered. Karen was tough and brash and ballsy, and she rarely showed her soft side. Not when anyone was looking, anyway.
His bear swelled with pride, watching her stare down a bison shifter twice her size. None of the women at home had that spunk, that defiant spark. Was he really going to settle down with someone nice and plain and boring?
No way, his bear declared.
Three more guards rushed up, which meant he had no chance to attempt what instinct demanded — namely, grabbing Karen and the diamond and hightailing it the hell out of the place.
“That diamond belongs to my family,” she repeated, stomping and nailing the guard’s foot in the process.
The guard jumped away with a muffled howl as Karen whipped the diamond out of his hand.
“Mine!” she yelled, defiance outshining the desperation in her eyes.
One little dragon shifter up against all those guards, and she was holding her ground.
Of course, she is, his bear hummed.
She backed up a step, then another, ready to wheel and flee. But she backed right into the next guard, who caught her wrists. She wriggled and hissed like a banshee, to little effect.
Without thinking, Tanner shoved the guard away. No one was manhandling Karen that way. He growled and stared the guard down with murderous eyes.
No one touches my mate! his bear roared inside. No one!
The guard stumbled backward, holding his hands up.
Tanner gritted his teeth. A good thing those assholes couldn’t read his mind, because hell, this was no time to give himself away.
He cleared his throat, wrestling for self-control as Karen stared at him with big, round eyes. Her gaze was softer, as if she felt it, too — this warm-bath feeling that seemed to wash over him whenever he came close to her. A feeling of peace and rightness, just like he got when snoozing in the springtime sun back home, when the world around him was all warmth and freshness and promise.
God, she was so close. Her minty breath warmed his neck. Her green eyes locked on his. Her hands felt so small in his and yet they fit together just right. The way she would fit tucked up against his chest.
But a dozen questioning eyes burned into his back, and he had to pull away. Everything hung in the balance. His duty to his clan. Karen’s safety. The success of the plan he’d been working on for months.
“The boss will want her untouched,” he said, trying to cover up his too-gentle hold on her arms.
And just like that, the brilliant green eyes that had gazed at him with hope and wonder slipped right over to fury again.
The guards snickered, and his heart plummeted through his shoes. He’d just implied that he’d hand Karen over to Schiller like a prize, and the possibilities made his gut lurch. Like Schiller, sucking Karen’s blood. Schiller, touching Karen’s body. Schiller—
He dragged his thoughts away from those horrors and locked eyes with Karen, trying to make her understand.
I will never let him harm you. I will never let anything happen to you.
But the eyes that gazed back were stony. Cold. Loathing. And shit, could he really blame her?
It broke his heart, but he had to keep up the charade. He was the security chief here; she was the intruder. He’d have to find a way to help her escape later. Maybe on the way to the holding rooms. Maybe later that night. Maybe…
Another guard stepped up and motioned to Karen. “Hand over the diamond, lady.”
“Over my dead body,” she hissed just as near-silent footsteps edged up from behind.
The guards around him stiffened and gulped, and Tanner didn’t have to look to know who it was. Only vampires moved with a powerful silence that knifed every other sound out of existence. Only vampires turned the air in a room cold. And only one vampire had that ice-edged voice that made the blood shiver in his veins.
Igor Schiller, owner of the Scarlet Palace, stepped right up to Karen and looked at her with his cobra eyes.
“That, my dear, can be arranged.”
* * *
And that’s just the beginning of another zany Shifters in Vegas romance! Get your copy of Gambling on Her Bear today!
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Books by Anna Lowe
Shifters in Vegas
Paranormal romance with a zany twist
Gambling on Trouble
Gambling on Her Dragon
Gambling on Her Bear
Blue Moon Saloon
Perfection (a short story prequel)
Damnation (Book 1)
Temptation (Book 2)
Redemption (Book 3)
Salvation (Book 4)
Deception (Book 5)
Celebration (a holiday treat)
The Wolves of Twin Moon Ranch
Desert Hunt (the Prequel)
Desert Moon (Book 1)
Desert Wolf: Complete Collection (Four short stories)
Desert Blood (Book 2)
Desert Fate (Book 3)
Desert Heart (Book 4)
Desert Yule (a short story)
Desert Rose (Book 5)
Desert Roots (Book 6)
Sasquatch Surprise (a Twi
n Moon spin-off story)
Aloha Shifters - Jewels of the Heart
Lure of the Dragon (Book 1)
Lure of the Wolf (Book 2)
Lure of the Bear (Book 3)
Lure of the Tiger (Book 4)
Love of the Dragon (Book 5)
Lure of the Fox (Book 6)
Serendipity Adventure Romance
Off the Charts
Uncharted
Entangled
Windswept
Adrift
Travel Romance
Veiled Fantasies
Island Fantasies
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