by Eden Ashe
Going to war would make her life safe, yet the thought of leaving the woman that loved him behind damn near had him changing his mind. Something was coming after them, some unknown force capable of rocking the very foundation of Daniel’s world. He felt it. A human like Shelby’s dad should not be tangled up in the Dragan underworld. The asshole wouldn’t be the first human Alexi had used, but there was something going on behind the scenes that he wasn’t getting yet. There was no way in fucking hell he was going to be able to sit there twiddling his thumbs while he waited for whatever it was to show its goddamn head.
With a low growl, he decided it was Shelby’s fault. If she had minded her own damn business that day with the director, if he’d minded his own goddamn business, he wouldn’t be in this mess now. She clouded his thinking, messed up his instincts, screwed up his judgment.
Worse, she made him laugh.
It wasn’t in his nature to want things. It sure as hell wasn’t in his goddamn job description. His people came first. Period.
Now he wanted the life his little hellion of a mate showed him he could have. He wanted her to love him. More, he wanted her to save him.
Hold on. We’re going down. He projected the words directly into her head, irrationally pleased when she let out a jubilant whoop and tightened her arms around his neck. She was still laughing a moment later when he came to a rest on the ground and she slipped off his back. Just like last time, the second he shimmered back into his human form she was in his arms, her beautiful face alive with excitement and joy as she kissed his face all over.
He couldn’t help it. He hitched her up, wrapped her legs around his waist, and kissed her laughing mouth. She melted into him, her body vibrating with exhilaration, even as her arms wound around his neck, holding onto him.
It took more strength than he possessed to let go of her, but even as the other dragons touched down in the clearing around them, she moved into him, wrapping her small hand tight around his.
His heart hammered in his chest as the darkening sunlight danced shadows around her, and for a moment, he knew a terror he’d never known existed. Then it passed, and he forced himself to shake it off.
Cage was waiting for them as they stepped out of the woods near the picket fence that surrounded the safe house. Large enough to fit all of them, yet built to blend into the mountains and trees surrounding it.
Just as they opened the gate and started up the narrow pathway, the front door swung open. Gabriel stood there, his dark eyebrow cocked as he studied Shelby from ice-blue eyes. His enormous frame filled the doorway, his short, dark-brown hair standing in spikes, as if he’d been repeatedly shoving his hand through it. His age was as unknown as his heritage, but Daniel didn’t doubt that Gabriel allowed Daniel to be king. It was a feeling he’d never been able to shake that Gabriel had hidden power. It unsettled him.
Shelby took one look at him and yanked her hand away from Daniel’s. Before he knew what she was doing, she’d turned, skirted around the other dragons, and was halfway down the small hill leading back into the forest.
“Shelby, goddamn it, stop!”
His sweet little mate ignored his bellow and continued walking. “No, Daniel,” she yelled over her shoulder. “I’ve changed my mind. I can’t do this.”
It didn’t take him long to catch up to her, but to his surprise, when he wrapped his hand around her upper arm, she yanked free. She continued walking. Ready to roar the mountain down, he dragged a hand down his face and caught up with her again. This time, he grasped her arm hard enough she couldn’t pull away. He yanked her around to face him. “What the hell is wrong with you?” He bellowed the question.
“You,” she snapped, panic shadowing the depths of her pale eyes. “Him.” She swung her arm out in the general direction of the safe house. “I can’t do this, Daniel. I thought I could, but I can’t. You’re the size of a damn mountain, and no one should be as big as you are, but I handled the other dragons because you have this more powerful thing about you. Cage, though, he was pushing my limits of what’s possible, but that man? In the door? He’s a damn giant!” she yelled. “A giant, Daniel. What is he? Eight feet tall?”
“Seven,” he said slowly. “What does Gabriel’s size have to do with anything?”
She counted to ten out loud. Then backwards again from ten. “Look at me, Daniel. I barely hit five-foot-two with shoes on. The last time I weighed myself, I wasn’t even a hundred pounds. You are massive. You’re supposed to be the biggest, the strongest and most powerful. You’re. The. King!” she shouted. “It was okay when I thought you were going up against a regular-sized psycho, because you’re you and you’re…well, huge, but I can’t do this. I can’t just sit here, pretending I’m not terrified down to my damn soul knowing there are things out there capable of hurting you.”
He saw it then. There were tears swimming in her eyes. She could have sucker punched him and it wouldn’t have laid him out as bad.
Her hands clenched into fists at her sides as she closed her eyes. She turned her head away from him. “You have to come back to me. You get that, right?”
“Look at me,” he demanded, his voice a rough growl. When she met his eyes, he arched a brow. “I have you to come home to. Do you really think there’s anything in this world that can stop me from getting back to you? So stop crying, damn it.”
She let out an indignant snort even as she wiped at her cheeks. “I can cry if I want to.”
A frustrated growl rumbled in his chest. “I’m your king and I forbid your tears.”
His amazing mate laughed in his face. “I’m your queen,” she said, smiling sweetly. “I demand you take me back to the safe house and let me distract you until it’s time for you to…” her words cut off as her laugh bubbled out. “Daniel! I command you to let me down!”
He dropped her back on her butt and bowed low. “I am but my queen’s humble servant.”
She scrambled to her feet, then fisted her hands in his shirt and pulled his face closer to hers. “Daniel, did you know you have dimples?”
“The hell I do.”
She grinned up at him as she slid her fingers gently down his face, hesitating at the dimples that cut deep. “You do. Right here.”
“You know I’m armed, princess, right?”
She canted her head as she studied him, completely unfazed by the menace in his tone. “You know, when you grin like that, you almost look…boyish.”
“That’s it.” He turned quicker than she could prepare for, and before she could catch her balance or breath, he had her backed into a tree, his mouth devouring hers. He kissed her hard, his soul starving for one more taste of her.
“Ashborne. We’re waiting for you.”
Shelby groaned at Luca’s clipped tone, and just rested her head against Daniel’s. “I really will kill him.”
A soft chuckle escaped him at the irritation in her eyes. He turned and crouched low. “Hop up. I’ll carry you.”
She did as he commanded and climbed onto his back, hooking her arms around his neck as he tucked his arms under her knees to hold her in place. He headed back for the safe house.
She nipped at his ear. “You better be as affected by that kiss as I am.”
“More,” he murmured quietly.
23
Shelby couldn’t do this. Listening to them talk about going to war was one thing. Watching them actually prepare and ready themselves for it was something else.
She knew if Daniel was to ask her right at that moment why she was so willing to give everything up, she’d have an answer that might satisfy him. It was because of him–because of all of them.
After seven years in the middle of the Hollywood elite, she’d never gotten comfortable. The reminder of how easily replaceable she was always hung over her head. That type of environment, where no one is ever satisfied and everyone not only wants more, but is willing to cheat, lie, and steal to get it, isn’t the place where real, lasting bonds are formed.
The
other dragons had dropped everything the second she and Daniel had needed help. They’d accepted her completely because she was Daniel’s mate. They’d never worried about her knowing what they were. They had simply trusted her with their secret.
Now they were preparing to go to war to make her safe, because she was a pawn in some maniac’s game.
Unwilling to let them see how afraid she was, she tried to keep the panic out of her eyes as they slowly went through the arsenal hidden in a secret alcove. They were methodical as they chose and checked their weapons. Any easiness and humor they possessed was simply wiped clean.
When she couldn’t watch them any longer, she curled up on the couch. She shifted her gaze, only for it to land on a scene so intimate and private it made her chest ache, but she couldn’t look away.
The Cage’s didn’t make sense to her. Adrian was massive and scarred. The danger in him so close to the surface she wondered how he kept it from breaking free, while Seren was as slight and beautiful as her husband–mate–was huge and terrifying.
As Shelby watched them together in the kitchen, unaware they had an audience, emotion welled up so quickly in her chest, tears blurred her eyes.
In one easy movement, and with more gentleness than Shelby could have imagined the giant to possess, he scooped his wife up, carefully setting her on the counter top. When Seren tilted her head back to smile up at him, Adrian dipped his head to brush his mouth lightly over hers. He bent lower, resting his brow against her pregnant belly, his hands wrapped protectively around it. Seren ran her fingers over his shaved head, then leaned down to rest her cheek against him, until they made a perfect, heartbreaking unit.
A choked sob escaped Shelby. When every eye in the room snapped to her, she couldn’t take it anymore. She stood up and ran into the bathroom, barely managing to lock the door behind her before everything inside of her broke free –raw, terrified sobs wracking through her.
“Shel.” Daniel knocked quietly. “Open up.”
She pressed her palms to her eyes, but it did nothing to stop the flow of tears that insisted on falling down her face. “I’m fine.”
He snorted when her voice broke, his own strained. “Yeah, you sound like it.” He was quiet for a moment, and Shelby didn’t have to see him to know he was dragging a hand over his face. “Open up, princess, or I will open it for you.”
She scowled at the door, even as she hurried to dash her tears away. She yanked the door open. “I said I’m fine.”
His lip lifted in a sneer even as he brought his hand up, the pad of his thumb tracing the trail of her tears down her cheek. “No. You’re not. Don’t lie to me.”
She snorted pathetically and wiped at her tears again, then grabbed his hand. She yanked him into the bathroom with her, locking the door behind him. “You’re going to war, Daniel. You’re all going to war, and I’m scared.”
* * * *
“I know, princess, but you’re forgetting.” His hands molded onto her hips, and he pulled her perfect body into his. He let her feel his soul-deep hunger for her as he kissed her, and how much he loved her. “I am the king, and you are mine. I will destroy anyone who threatens you. Understand? I will not allow you to live in a world where you’re afraid.”
He’d meant to soothe her, but instead, her face crumpled. Before he could demand she stop crying, though, she went on her toes, wrapping herself around him as she kissed him back with the same impatience that roared through him. A raw moan tore out of her. She pressed herself closer to him, as if it wasn’t enough and she somehow wanted to crawl right inside of his skin with him.
Daniel knew the need well. He wanted to get so deep inside of her that no matter what happened next, he’d always be there.
He spun her around, a satisfied growl rumbling in his chest when she protested, but he wanted her to see what she did to him. Wrapping his hands around her waist, he snagged the hem of her shirt. With his eyes locked on hers in the mirror, he slowly lifted it over her head.
She blushed, automatically trying to cover her bare breasts with her arms, but Daniel wanted to see her. All of her.
Grabbing her hands, he braced them against the vanity, his eyes still steady on hers as he trailed his mouth over the curve of her throat. A soft moan escaped her, and despite the madness raging inside of him, a smile lifted one corner of his mouth.
He brought his hands to her waist, and slowly trailed his fingers up to the underside of her breasts.
He palmed her breasts gently, the pads of his thumbs rasping over taut nipples. Her head dropped back against his shoulder, her gasp of pleasure turning into a moan as his mouth nipped at her throat.
“Look at me, princess,” he commanded as her eyes fluttered shut. As one hand molded possessively over a breast, the other slid down her flat stomach and into her pants. Her eyes went wide, her cheeks tinting pink. Daniel moved in closer to her, pressing his throbbing cock against her perfect ass, a low, hungry growl rumbling in his chest.
This was as unusual for him as it was for her, but Daniel knew she understood. She always understood him.
Her body arched back in invitation.
A wide, devastating smile broke across his face as his heart slammed violently in his chest. Ryuu, he loved her.
His control snapped, his fingers slid over her wet core, and slipped into her, dragging a ragged moan out of her. His other hand kneaded her breast, driving her right to the brink of explosion when one of her hands slipped between them, hot, slender fingers molding possessively around his shaft.
He dragged her pants down and managed to undo his jeans enough to free himself before he grasped her hips and drove himself into her.
He’d hoped to take things slow, but it was lost at the look of sheer pleasure in her eyes. Bending her over slightly, one hand digging into her hips as the other molded possessively to her breast, he gave in to the raw, animal need to make her his–totally, completely his.
He pounded into her relentlessly, needing to get so deep inside she’d always feel him there. As she grasped his forearm, the other hand reaching back to grip his ass, he drove into her one more time.
The orgasm shattered through her on a scream. He felt her knees give out, but no way in hell would he ever let his Shelby fall. Even when he roared his own release into her hair, his body convulsing violently against hers, his grip on her didn’t waver.
For a moment, the only sounds in the world were their ragged gasps. She raised her gaze to meet his in the mirror. Love, need, possession...desperation. It raged through him, all of it, until he was sure it would break him. Instead, he used it, because it was simple. She was his, and she was scared. It was unacceptable.
She leaned her head back against his shoulder, her body still trembling with aftershocks as a single tear trekked down her pale cheek.
“When you walk out the door,” she whispered, her arm hooking around his neck as another tear escaped, “you’re taking the only people in the world I love with you.” She turned into his arms, wrapping her arms around his torso. “Please come back to me.”
“Shelby, I–” He closed his eyes as the words locked up in his throat. His body curled around hers, so goddamn desperate to protect her. “Ryuu, woman, I will not allow anything to happen to me. It would upset you.”
She let out a teary snort. “Exactly. I love you, so you better get yourself back to me.”
“Always.”
He wasn’t going to fight it anymore. He knew others might be able to love her better than he could, but he knew none of them would ever be able to love her as much. There wasn’t an inch of his body or soul that didn’t ache with the need to love her. He knew wherever he was, whatever happened to him, when time finally broke and everything ended, all he was would still be in love with her. Instead of scaring him, everything inside of him went calm.
As if to prove his point, a heavy fist pounded against the door. “Ashborne. It’s time.”
He leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose. “I’ll be
back.” He set her down, then, and yanked up his pants. Without so much as a backward glance, he opened the bathroom door and walked out, his body braced for war.
24
“Shelby.” Seren knocked quietly on the bathroom door. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Shelby wiped her hand over her face and opened the door, plastering on a smile she so did not feel. “Really, I’m okay.”
Seren held a cup of tea out for her. “I know you are.” Instead of moving out of the way so Shelby could leave the bathroom, Seren moved into the room and shut the door behind her. Without a word, Seren leaned back against the vanity as she took a sip of her tea. “I’m not.”
Shelby blinked as she realized Seren’s hands were shaking, and her face was pale. Shelby set her cup down on the edge of the tub as she reached out to grab the small woman’s free hand. “Are you alright? Do I need to go get Gabriel?”
“It’s not the baby. She’s fine.” Seren squeezed Shelby’s hand, and for the first time, the serenity on the woman’s face was gone, replaced with a terror Shelby was becoming very familiar with herself. “I just…” tears welled in Seren’s eyes before she made a pathetic attempt at making a face. “I hate this. I hate this so much.”
Shelby felt the blood drain out of her face as terror rolled, slick, hot and awful in her belly. Seren cursed quietly, set her cup on the counter, and wrapped Shelby in a fierce hug.
“Honey, this is so normal in my life, you have no idea. I’m a Dragan, a dragon and I’m not just married to a Hunter, I picked the Hunter.” Seren’s mouth lifted in a half-hearted smile as she stepped back, her voice shaky. “This time, it’s my family and trust me, it’s been a long time coming. None of this is your fault.”
Shelby searched the woman’s striking eyes for a long time, looking for an ounce of the resentment she was sure would be in there somewhere. It wasn’t.
