Dragon's Baby

by Juniper Hart

  His digits flowed harder into her, and Erin could not hold back her cries as she released hotly once more. Slowly, Spence lifted his head, and Erin gaped at him in disbelief.

  “God, you’re amazing,” she told him, pulling his head up so she could kiss him and taste herself on his tongue, her hands fumbling for his belt.

  In seconds, Spence’s pants were around his ankles, while Erin’s ankles were on his strong, muscular shoulders, her heels abandoned on the bathroom floor. They stared at one another, their gazes locked.

  In one move, Spence was inside her, filling her, and when Erin saw his bright green eyes boring into hers, she was again struck with the memory of the creature she had seen flying over the campus.

  He has the same eyes, she realized as he grunted, steamy breaths escaping from his parted lips as he thrust in and out of her.

  Spence braced himself against the countertop, driving into her as his erection grew harder, seeming to fill her in each and every spot.

  Erin bit down on her lower lip, knowing she was going to scream if he continued to take her with such fervor. Before she could lose control of her silence, she felt him burning into her with streams of his pleasure.

  He moaned loudly, thrusting one final time as he exploded, his face sweating with the exertion.

  For a fleeting second, Erin thought she saw trails of smoke around him, but she instantly cast the ridiculousness from her mind.

  Spence withdrew slowly from her, gently taking Erin’s legs from around his head and placing her bare feet on the floor.

  Under normal circumstances, the realization that she was standing bare-footed in the men’s washroom of a bar would have sent Erin screaming, but the euphoria of the encounter was still clouding her mind.

  “Can we go have a drink now?” she asked teasingly. “Or are you still feeling shy?”

  To her amusement, Spence looked away as he fumbled with his clothes.

  “Okay,” he almost whispered, and Erin smiled to herself.

  It’s endearing, she decided. In a world where every man is full of themselves, he’s a breath of fresh air.

  She nodded, dressing quickly. “You can go out first, if you want,” she told him, noting he was already dressed. “I need to use the washroom.”

  Spence’s brow furrowed. “This is the men’s room,” he remarked, and Erin chuckled.

  “Yeah, I’m okay with that,” she replied. “Considering what we just did in here.”

  Spence flushed bright red.

  “Right,” he muttered, and again, she was enamored with his bashfulness. He snuck out, looking both ways before leaving her alone in the small bathroom.

  Erin turned to look at her reflection, ensuring that she had put her clothes on correctly and that her appearance didn’t give anything of what had happened away. As usual, not a hair was out of place, her shirt was unwrinkled, and her make-up was perfect.

  It was as if nothing had even occurred.

  It’s a good thing no one can see my shaking insides, she thought, noting that even her lipstick seemed to be untouched, despite the fervent kisses she had shared with Spence.

  Humming happily, Erin opened the door and nodded at a man who was waiting to use the facilities. He gave her a reproving look, but she didn’t care.

  Given the opportunity, she would do it again.

  As she rounded the corner toward the bar, she stopped, looking around.

  The blond god was gone.

  “Where’s Spence?” she asked Colin as she approached the bar.

  “Who?” he asked, eyeing her with a half-approving, half-contemptuous look.

  “Spence,” she snapped. “You know who I mean.”

  “Oh…” Colin drawled out the word for all it was worth, placing a freshly wiped glass onto a rack. “The guy you did in the bathroom, you mean?”

  Erin stared at him, her happy mood diminishing instantly.

  “Where is he?”

  “He left.”

  Erin’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean, he left?”

  Colin shrugged and reached into his bar apron, removing a scrap of paper.

  “He said he had to go,” he told her, “but he left this for you.”

  Erin reached over the counter for the paper in his hand and unfolded it, a myriad of emotions flowing through her.

  Why would he leave? He said he’d stay for a drink.

  She read the note with trembling hands.

  Erin, you are beautiful. I will see you in the stars now. Spence.

  A phone number accompanied the poetic words, and Erin felt a shiver flow through her, a beaming smile returning to her face.

  “You bitch,” Colin sighed as he studied her face. “He paid the tab, too,” he informed her. “And bought you another drink.”

  Strangely enough, Erin didn’t feel the need to drink her sorrows away anymore. She shook her head and laughed to herself, reaching for her cell phone.

  “No, thanks,” she said. “You can have it. I have to go.”

  Erin turned to leave, all her earlier troubles suddenly seeming trivial in light of the recent events. She pushed her way into the warm autumn night, her heart lighter than it had ever been before.

  As she walked, her gait was almost a skip, but something made her whirl in her spot, as if yanked by an invisible leash. Her eyes rested on an alleyway, though there was no fear in her as she stared into the darkness, instantly locating a set of brilliant green eyes peering back at her from the giant beast she had encountered earlier.

  Spence.

  He raised his majestic head, a stream of smoke emanating from his blue-black nostrils, and he blinked once, nodding.

  Erin raised her hand tentatively, and he extended his huge, primitive wings to levitate above the gloom of the laneway, his irises still fixated one her. Suddenly, he released a mournful shriek and flapped his wings, claws curled before disappearing into the sky.

  “Bye, Spence,” she whispered. “See you soon.”

  She could not wait to tell the girls about this.

  If they would believe it.

  But given the words they had all heard from Sylvie, another girl from the Kappa Mu Pi sorority, perhaps they would.

  THE END

  Click Here to Read the Entire Shifter Pursuit Series

  2

  Shifter Pursuit Series: Night Out

  Swipe left, swipe left, swipe left…

  Beth groaned and tossed her iPhone onto the table, causing her younger sister to glance up from her salad.

  “What’s wrong?” Cara asked, but Beth forced a smile and shook her long, blonde waves disarmingly.

  “Nothing,” she replied, her thick southern drawl accentuating her words. “It’s nothing to get worked up over, anyway.”

  Cara returned to her meal, and Beth glanced around, her blue eyes scanning the restaurant for anything to give her salvation. She was aching to go, to be taken out somewhere, and there was not a single prospect in sight.

  “Beth, sit still!” Cara complained. “You’re making me sick with all your squirming!”

  Beth tried to oblige, despite the fact that she could barely contain herself. “Let’s go out tonight,” she announced suddenly. “Veil?”

  Cara glanced up again, her green eyes brightening with interest. “Are you going to sneak me in?” she asked, sitting back in her chair and folding her arms over her chest.

  Beth bit on her lower lip, wondering if she was thinking straight or if she was just letting her hormones get the best of her.

  “Why not?” she replied, offering her sister a smile. “Anyway, are you really going to pretend you don’t have a fake ID? I know you’ve been using Crystal Price’s since you were juniors in high school.”

  “All right!” Cara agreed with a laugh, and Beth joined in. “But if we get caught, you’ll need to be my lawyer.”

  “It’s a deal,” Beth answered.

  She had worked hard for the last three years, and she had every right to enjoy her break while it l
asted. Nothing was wrong with taking her sister out for a forbidden night in Austin. No one would be the wiser.

  Then again, Cara wasn’t the only reason Beth wanted to go out somewhere. She had been back in Texas for two months, and she was starting to find herself restless. She knew that she needed a distraction before she exploded.

  Back in Colorado, her life was occupied from dawn to midnight between her course load, work, and extra-curricular activities. Austin didn’t provide the same kind of stimulation that her college life did.

  More the reason for me to take my own action, she reasoned. And Cara will have a good time. Lord knows, Mama and Daddy must be driving her up the wall without me as a buffer.

  Beth reached for her phone again and opened the dating app.

  Swipe left, swipe left, swipe… right?

  She paused and paid close attention to the ethereal face on the screen before her. August Vega, as his name read, was not handsome in the typical southern gentleman way. He lacked a certain arrogance, but his tanned face exuded a sublime confidence, his green eyes an eerily clear yet penetrative stare.

  Are his eyes green?

  Beth drew the phone closer to her face. In a particular light, the man’s eyes seemed violet, but of course that was crazy—purple wasn’t a normal eye color… was it?

  “What are you staring at?” Cara asked, craning her neck to look.

  Swipe right.

  “Nothing,” Beth lied, shutting off the screen and turning back to her own lunch. “I was just seeing if I could get us on the guest list at Veil.”

  “Oh, yes! Bottle service!” Cara squealed happily, but Beth barely heard her, her mind still focused on the alluring stranger with whom she had just attempted to match.

  He will do just fine, she chuckled to herself. Hello, August Vega. I am looking forward to being very good friends.

  “Some man is outside honking his horn like a damned fool!” their mother announced as she entered Beth’s room.

  “Our Uber is here, Cara!” Beth yelled to her sister, glancing at her phone. Indeed, their ride was waiting for them, but that wasn’t what Beth was waiting for. She hadn’t received any answer from August Vega yet. Disappointed, she shoved her phone in her purse and slipped on her black stilettos.

  “I don’t know what that is, Beth, but tell him to stop his honking! He’s going to wake the neighbors!”

  Cara entered the doorway, and both sisters laughed in unison.

  “It’s nine o’clock on a Friday, Mama. The neighbors aren’t sleeping,” Beth chuckled.

  Her mother only scowled. “It’s still rude!” she insisted, her blue eyes narrowing. “Where are you girls going? You aren’t going someplace where there will be drugs, right?”

  Again, the sisters giggled.

  “No, Mama,” Beth assured her as they slipped past her and headed toward the stairs. “We’re just going to visit some friends.”

  “Don’t be home too late!”

  “All right, Mama!” Cara agreed.

  She and Beth made their way outside and toward the waiting sedan, a sulking man behind the wheel.

  “I have been waiting for ten minutes!” he grumbled.

  “You’ve been honking for ten minutes, too,” Cara retorted. “We’re going to Veil downtown.”

  Their driver grunted, pulling away from the curb, and the siblings exchanged an eyeroll. Beth reached for her phone again and glanced at it.

  “You’ve been glued to that thing all day!” Cara complained. “What on earth are you looking at?”

  Guiltily, Beth threw the iPhone back into her handbag, wishing she could stop herself from looking at it. She shook her head, trying to make sense of the anxiety she felt. She still had not received word back about a match with the surreally attractive August Vega, and it bothered her more than she cared to admit.

  It was strange. Typically, when she swiped right the guys responded right away. After all, the dating app was based on physical attraction, and few could claim to have Beth’s beauty. Despite her stunning good looks, though, Beth was not conceited. She accepted the attention with dignity, although it had always come so freely.

  Never in her life had she been left questioning why her attraction wasn’t reciprocated.

  Never until right now, she thought tightly. Maybe he doesn’t like blondes.

  “Well?” Cara insisted. “Are you going to tell me?”

  “It’s nothing,” Beth replied, feeling a faint blush of embarrassment stain her cheeks. “I was just expecting one of my Kappa sisters to text me tonight.”

  “I still can’t believe you belong to a sorority,” Cara sighed. “I never thought you’d be the type.”

  “You’ll like it,” Beth assured her. “Just wait until you start at the University of California in September. Mark my words, I bet you’ll pledge a sorority, too.”

  Cara shot her a look. “Why?” she asked, and Beth could read the genuine curiosity in her sister’s question.

  She smiled and reached across to squeeze Cara’s hand affectionately. “Because when your family isn’t near, you look for kinship in other people,” she answered. “These women become like your sisters.”

  “We’ll see,” Cara muttered, and Beth laughed, pulling her hand back and turning to look out the window. Her sister sounded just like she had when she had left for school.

  “Just pull over at the end of West 6th,” Beth instructed the sullen driver. She turned to Cara. “I need to find an ATM, and I’m not spending five bucks for a service charge in the club.”

  Cara nodded in agreement, and the two jumped out of the car, scowling at the driver before heading toward the center of the city.

  “He was miserable,” Cara commented, and Beth bobbed her head, her eyes scanning the street for a bank.

  “Well, we did make him wait ten minutes. Let’s not let his bad attitude ruin our night,” she said.

  A moment later, her gaze finally rested on a vestibule on the opposite side of the street, and she gestured at Cara to follow her. They stepped inside, and Beth pulled out her bank card.

  “Oh, sweet Lord,” Cara muttered, stepping closer to her sister.

  “What?” Beth asked, her fingers working the machine, but Cara did not answer.

  She only nudged her hard in the ribs.

  “Hey, that hurt!” Beth turned to look at Cara, and she froze when she saw what had seemed to scare her sister.

  A scruffy-looking man had entered behind them, avoiding eye contact as he tried to hide his face behind the collar of his jean jacket. He wasn’t fooling anyone, and the siblings could sense his malintent.

  Beth swallowed and eyed Cara, debating what to do.

  You don’t know that he’s up to no good, she thought to herself. He has just as much a right to be here as—

  “Empty out your account,” the scraggly stranger growled, stepping toward them.

  Panicked, Beth turned to her sister. “Run!” she cried.

  As Cara turned to flee, though, the man took out a gun from his pocket and pointed it at them.

  “Don’t do anything stupid!” he barked. “Just do what I say, and you won’t get yourselves killed!”

  Gulping back her fear, Beth nodded, protectively yanking her sister back as the robber poked her with the butt of the barrel.

  “Hurry up!” he snapped. “I ain’t got all night!”

  Beth whirled toward the machine, punching in her code with trembling fingers.

  “I-I don’t have much,” she warned him, her mind racing.

  She had over ten thousand dollars in her account, most of it for her tuition and the books she would need when she went back to school in September. If he took everything…

  Beth shuddered when she thought of the alternative.

  “Lemme see what you got, honey,” he purred, peering over her shoulder, and Beth closed her eyes. There would be no escaping; he was going to take what she had.

  Just give it to him! a logical voice yelled in her head. Cara is wit
h you. It’s only money, you’ll manage to get it back someday!

  She didn’t need any further convincing, and she tried to withdraw all the money.

  The machine, however, did not allow for it, offering her only three hundred dollars.

  “Looks like you got lots of money!” the robber snarled. “Hurry up!”

  “It won’t let me take it all out at once!” Beth protested.

  “Well, take it out as many time as you need to!” he cried, and Beth could read the antsy expression on his face.

  He was losing his nerve.

  The sisters exchanged a panicked look, and Beth hoped her sister would somehow be able to keep a clear head and call 9-1-1 without attracting attention from their attacker, but her face was whiter than anything Beth had ever seen. She must be even more terrified than Beth was.

  “You stalling?” the robber demanded, raising his voice. “You wanna die?”

  Beth shook her head. “No! Of course not!” she replied, willing the machine to work faster as she waited for the second round of money to be withdrawn.

  The ATM beeped, and Beth looked at the flashing screen. She gasped aloud, the color draining from her face.

  “What?” the man growled. “What’s taking so long?”

  “The machine is out of money,” Beth whispered, turning to him, her eyes wide with concern.

  His face contorted in fury.

  “Is this a trick?” he yelled, and Beth shook her head wildly as he seized Cara’s arm. “I will kill her as you watch!”

  “No!” Beth cried. “It’s not a trick! Look!”

  He gazed at the words on the screen and then looked back at them.

  “Listen,” Beth said, struggling to keep her composure. “You can take the card and go. I will give you the PIN code. Here.” She thrust the card toward him, but his scowl only deepened.

  “Do I look stupid to you?” he asked, his grip tightening on Cara’s arm.

  The younger girl squealed.