Stranded with the Cajun (Captured by a Dragon-Shifter Book 3)

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “I found the swamps. She found me.”

  “I don’t think it’s that simple. She said you saved her life. That she was about to kill herself.” Lori glanced over her shoulder. Ursa had stopped looking out the window and had taken up residence in a chair. The old woman stared at the wall, her eyes closing as she fought to stay awake.

  Drake looked at Ursa and stood when the old woman didn’t move. He held out his hand to Lori. “Come.”

  Lori followed him into a small room. He shut the door and turned on the light. Photographs lined the wall, filling nearly every conceivable space. An old quilt was neatly folded over a rocking chair. Tiny knickknacks and trinkets that would only make sense to their owner lined the dresser.

  “All the pictures are of the same couple,” Lori observed. The wall displayed the entire life of a couple, the photos arranged like the flow of memories in no particular timeline—a party, a cigarette, a dance, a laugh, a wrecked car, tears, a ruined pie, two forks in a piece of cake. They were the small moments that made a lifetime. As a photographer, she could appreciate the simplicity of the collection. As a woman, she felt envious of all that couple had and were. She pointed to a smiling woman in a 1950s wedding dress. “Is that Ursa?”

  Drake nodded. “With her mate, Irving. Ursa lost her one true love. He died on their fiftieth anniversary. I arrived ten years after, on the anniversary of his death when she had decided to join him.”

  “I can’t imagine,” Lori whispered. She thought of the drunken woman holding an empty shotgun and suddenly felt very sorry for her tragic story. “To be with someone that long, to love them so much that time cannot heal you. I don’t think anyone loves like that anymore. I mean, I’ve heard my grandparents’ generation talking about love at first sight, marrying soldiers after one day before they head off to war. I can’t rationalize doing something like that. Logically, it makes no sense to leap into major decisions.”

  Drake cupped her cheek. “Perhaps this is not something that needs your logic, but your heart. I watch you humans. You run haphazardly through life without stopping to breathe. You make decisions and then doubt them. You make new decisions and then doubt them as well. Sometimes, you don’t make any decision and just let things happen regardless of consequences. I do not think life is so difficult. If you see a child in danger, you save it. If you see an animal in pain, you help it. If you are hungry, you find food. If you have responsibilities, you do your duty. And if you find love, you let yourself feel it. You grab on to it because that is the only thing that makes life worth living, and you never know when it will be taken away by the gods. If you find it, there is no need to look elsewhere. The Draig understand this. We do not divorce. We connect for life like Ursa did. When dragons mate, our lives extend to our partners, becoming so entwined that it is said humans live longer because of it. I think it is because we naturally want more time.”

  Lori saw the earnestness of his expression. She felt safe. Somewhere, out in the miles and miles of swamps and marshes was a maniac hunter with a gun, and yet she felt safe with Drake inside this little cabin in the middle of nowhere.

  Her cheek tingled where he touched her. She swallowed, nervously, licking her lips. His gaze remained steady trained on hers. Tiny yellow swirls of color lined his pupils. Desire bubbled to the surface. It had been there all night, simmering and waiting. It wasn’t only her body that tingled, but her mind. She felt a prickling in her brain like someone scratched to come inside her thoughts.

  A combination of fear and anticipation filled her. She found herself moving closer to him until her body pressed against the length of his. He leaned his forehead to hers and did not look away. The physical needs of her body caused her mind to focus on the hard press of his shaft against her stomach. The heat of him warmed her clothing.

  “What’s happening?” she whispered. She couldn’t move.

  “Let me love you,” he said. “Let yourself love me.”

  Lori pulled away. His lips hadn’t moved when he said the last words, but she’d heard his voice inside her mind. “Wait, what did you say?”

  “Let me love you.” Again, his lips didn’t move. “I have to believe that my gods led me here, to you, for a reason.”

  “Drake, stop that,” she insisted before thinking, “How are you in my head?”

  “We mated,” he answered, this time using his mouth.

  “Are you reading my thoughts? I mean, you know that…” Lori tried not to think of all the things she didn’t want him to see—the memory of his naked body, the fantasies she’d had about that naked body, the desperate climax she’d experienced in the inn just thinking about him late at night, and imagining him all shifted and hard and fuck…

  Drake grinned and let his eyes flash to gold and then back again. “The dragon skin is a protective armor, and I cannot take you in my shifted form, but if you want to be hunted like that I can—”

  “Ah!” Lori hit his arm. “Let a girl have a little mystery to her.”

  “Why? You want me,” he stated.

  “Yes, I want you again, but—”

  “Not just sex. You want to be my wife. You love me.”

  “No, no.” She shook her head. “That’s absurd. It’s been a couple of days. And stop smiling. And get out of my thoughts.”

  “I like your thoughts,” he directed back at her. He pulled her tightly against him. His skin rippled, and in the span of a few seconds, he stood before her in his dragon form. She felt the shift along the length of her body, firm flesh turning to hard skin.

  “Well, then I’m just going to have to…” Lori concentrated, trying to read his mind. At first, it was fuzzy and jumbled, but then she felt him. The sensation became a tickle of pure emotion, building until every feeling he had for her came flooding in. He’d told the truth. He’d loved her from the start. She felt the ache her leaving with the sheriff had caused. Never in her life had she imagined anyone missing her that much.

  “Let me buy you flowers and cake.” Drake let his body shift back into human form.

  Lori laughed at the strange request. “Well, what girl doesn’t like flowers and cake?”

  “So yes?” Drake stroked her bottom lip with his thumb. “You accept that we are mated? Forever?”

  “Marriage,” Lori said in sudden understanding. Her laughter faded. Without hesitation, she answered, “Yes.” She looked at the fifty years of a life filled with love on Ursa’s wall. Her path suddenly became very clear. This is what she wanted. No more searching around the next corner. It didn’t matter if she lived in a swamp if it meant she got to have a life filled with happiness. “Yes, Drake, I’ll have flowers and cake with you.”

  Chapter 16

  Drake could not stop kissing his mate. Lori was everything he could have hoped for. The connection between them deepened with each passing second until he could feel her inside his soul. She was a vital part of him he could never live without.

  Her aching need for him mirrored his need for her, and he fumbled to free her of her pants. Lori pulled at his waistband, freeing his arousal. In an eager joining of half-dressed bodies and desperate hands, they managed to come together against the door. He lifted her thigh, entering her without testing her depths. He didn’t have to. He knew what she wanted.

  The perfection of the moment was punctuated by harsh breaths and hushed sighs. They connected with more than flesh, and the deep bond would never be severed. Lori held on to him, gripping his shoulders as he lifted her other leg. The position allowed him deep, and he pumped himself into her. The tension built and he thrust harder and faster. Lori’s release washed over him as she let him partake of her pleasure. The feelings were too much, and he orgasmed hard.

  In the aftermath, he did not let her go. He held her close. “I pledge to do everything I can to make you happy, Lori.”

  “You already have, Dra—”

  Her words were cut off by a loud crash coming from the front of the house. Drake instantly shoved her behind his back and faced
the door. He’d been so focused on Lori and the connection between their bodies and souls that he hadn’t been paying attention to potential dangers.

  “Get out of my house!” Ursa yelled belligerently. There was a sound of a struggle.

  Drake jerked up his pants and whispered. “Stay here.”

  “Guns don’t work without bullets,” a man mocked from the other room. “Give me that before you hurt yourself.”

  “Drake,” Lori whispered and grabbed his arm, and he felt her fear.

  “Stay,” he insisted. When he’d taken Ursa’s bullets, he’d thought he was protecting her. It was now his fault she was left helpless.

  “All we want is the lizard man,” a man said.

  “That’s Howards,” Lori said. “He must have tracked you here.”

  “Where are you hiding it?” Mr. Howards yelled at Ursa.

  Ursa responded with a string of confrontational words.

  “We know it’s hiding here. There are tracks coming from the swamp.” The sound of slamming doors followed Mr. Howards’s statement.

  Drake slowly opened the door to assess what was happening. Ursa lay on the floor, trembling and holding her face. Still, despite her obvious pain, she continued to curse the two men and all of their descendants. Howards was a larger man and directed more than helped a second, smaller man to knock DVDs off the shelves.

  Drake tried to move undetected to gain the advantage and keep the men from firing the guns around the women, but the door hinge creaked and gave his position away. Drake sprang into action, surging forward. He shifted as he attacked, using his taloned hand to swipe at the nearest opponent.

  “Kill it, Mr. Howards, kill it!” the smaller human yelled in fright and flailed around, wielding his rifle as a club because Drake was too close to shoot. He struck Drake’s chest, but the metal barrel barely registered against the dragon-shifter armor.

  Gunfire sounded behind Drake as Howards shot at his back. The bullet grazed his thigh and struck the rifle-club wielding man in the hip. The man screamed and fell back, dropping his weapon. He grabbed his injury and crawled across the floor to the open front door.

  Chaos erupted. Drake saw Lori from the corner of his eye. She charged Howards. The hunter fired again, but the shot went wide as Lori flung her body against the man’s arm. Ursa grabbed Mr. Howards’s ankle and pulled. The hunter shouted in protest at the attack. He kicked and punched to get the women off him. Ursa and Lori both sustained blows but kept fighting. Mr. Howards angled the butt of his rifle toward Lori.

  Drake roared. The sound reverberated off the cabin walls. He reached the man as the rifle swung down. His talons ripped into the hunter’s arm, and he jerked the weapon out of his hands and threw it aside.

  Unlike his terrified partner, Mr. Howards didn’t stop fighting. He reached for his waist and pulled a handgun. He aimed it at Ursa’s head as she held on to his leg. Drake reacted, tearing through the man’s neck and shoulder with one slash of his hand. The gun never fired and dropped out of the man’s hand. Mr. Howards grabbed his neck to stop the flow of blood, but the wound was too deep. He crumbled to the floor.

  “Drake,” Lori whispered, her voice small.

  Drake turned to the door. He blocked the women with his body.

  “Go,” he ordered, worried that more hunters were coming for them. “Take Ursa and run. I’ll fight them off.”

  “This is the police,” Sheriff Jackson shouted from outside. “Ursa? Drake?”

  Drake dropped his arms slightly in relief to hear his friend’s voice.

  “Come in,” Ursa yelled from her place on the floor. “You’re late to de party. Punch bowl is empty, and I’m going to bed.”

  Lori offered Ursa a hand and helped her to her feet. Drake didn’t relax his guard until he saw the sheriff enter.

  Jackson eyed the bloody mess on Ursa’s floor. “Ah, hell, Ursa, what did you go and do? I told you to lock the door.”

  “They broke in,” Lori said, using Drake’s arm for support as she inched past the dead body. “It was self-defense. I’ll testify to it. This is Mr. Howards. He’s a big-game hunter staying at Planation Inn. He hacked my computer and found where Drake was and tried to hunt him. He’s a sick bastard. And they shot Drake.” She motioned at his healing shoulder and then his leg. “Twice.”

  Ursa waved a dismissing hand at Lori and pointed to Mr. Howards. “Dat one shot de other one who bled out on de porch and I, um—” she tilted her head and studied the giant gash on Mr. Howards’s body, “—bit dis one in de neck and he bled out right here. I was all by myself, minding my own, when dey came in and start wrecking de place. Left me no choice. I’m just a little old lady, all alone in de swamp, so helpless and—”

  “All right, all right,” the sheriff interrupted. Ursa chuckled to herself, the sound more of a cackle.

  “I killed them,” Drake stated. “I will accept my punishment.”

  “You weren’t even here,” Ursa denied. “You’re not here now.”

  The sheriff looked at Mr. Howards. “I think you’re confused Ursa. You must have stabbed him with a kitchen knife. Must have been cooking when they surprised you.”

  “Dat is it,” Ursa said. She limped over to where the hunter’s gun had fallen to the floor and picked it up. She moved toward her bedroom. “Dis is mine now. I’m going to bed. Lock up when you’re done dragging out de…”

  “Uh, Ursa, that’s evidence. I have to take it with me.” The sheriff followed her.

  “No, you don’t,” Ursa yelled. “Dis is a nice gun. Take my old—”

  * * *

  Lori couldn’t stand in Ursa’s living room any longer. The cabin felt too small, and the smell of blood was making her sick to her stomach. She rushed to the front door. Mr. Howards associate was dead on the porch, having been shot in an artery if the blood pool was any indication. She hurried past the body and instantly began walking toward her car.

  “Lori, wait.” Drake chased after her.

  Trembling, she turned to face him. “I am so sorry, Drake. This is my fault.”

  He stopped walking. “You are apologizing to me? It was my duty to protect you. I should have heard them coming.”

  “I should have known that he would track you here,” Lori said. “You were so calm, and I thought it would be safe. If he hacked my computer to find you, he probably also put a tracker on my car. This could be my fault.”

  “You cannot control the evil in other men,” Drake stated. “The gods have seen to it that he has been punished. Perhaps that was their will. They wished for us to end Mr. Howards’s murdering ways.”

  His answer was so simple, so pure, and she could tell he believed it. “I don’t know if I said it out loud, but I love you.”

  “I know. I feel it in you.” He inched closer. “And you feel it in me.”

  “If I’m going to stay here with you, if we are going to make this work, we’re going to have to talk about these alligator swims of yours, and about getting Internet service at your house so I can work. Do you even have a job? And no more hunters. I can’t handle being shot at. And—”

  Drake grimaced and held his temple.

  “What is it? Are you injured?” She closed the distance to him and reached for his face.

  “Do all female brains spin with thoughts and worry as yours does?” He gave her a wary look. “It was very scary in your brain just now.”

  “Well,” she answered, wrapping her arms around his neck, “at least now I know how to get you out of my thoughts.”

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  “Uh, Drake?”

  Drake felt his wife calling to him in his mind as he swam beneath the water. Something hadn’t been quite right about the ambient noise of the swamp, and he wanted to make sure his pregnant wife was safe. The full force of her apprehension filled him, and he quickened his pace.

  “Drake, you have company.” He saw a flash of reptilian eyes in his mind as he heard her words.

  Drake surged up fr
om the water and leaped onto the shore. His worried gaze found Lori standing on the porch, not daring to move. Lori pointed to the tree line near the water to a gathering of yellow reptilian eyes staring back at her in the evening light. She’d seen him shifted on many occasions, but that apparently hadn’t prepared her for a yard full of dragons looking as if they’d just arrived from a refugee camp. Half a dozen men turned to look at him.

  “Dimosthenis, thank the gods we have found you,” Galen said, relaxing his stance. He stood in shifted form, speaking their native Draig language. He was a guard at the royal palace, and by all memories, a very loyal dragon to the ruling family. “We feared you were lost in the city of plague, but then we found this—” the man held up a brochure for swamp tours, “—and knew this was where you would be waiting for us if you made it out alive.”

  “Galen?” Drake couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Since he had been swimming naked, Drake grabbed a pair of shorts off the edge of the broken dock and slid them on. Though he didn’t know all the men now facing him, Drake recognized a few of them as workers from the palace. “I don’t understand. How did you find me?”

  “See.” Galen offered the worn, crumpled brochure forward. “The shadowed marshes. The gods pointed us to you. It is their will. We were able to determine when you made it through. Then we waited for the right time so that we could track you.”

  “Are you here to take me back?” Drake edged closer to his wife. He’d fight them all if he had to. “I will not go easily.”

  “Drake?” Lori asked in his mind. He held up his hand to her in an effort to calm her fears.

  “We’re here to follow you,” Galen said. Those behind him nodded eagerly in agreement. “You had the courage to leave, to forge a path into the unknown.” The man looked at Lori and began to breathe hard as if emotions welled inside him. “To find a wife. All the things the royals seek to deny us and keep for themselves. One Var prince and one Draig prince have wives. The other two refuse to choose and yet journey here whenever they wish. They deny the rest of us a chance at happiness. You are a legend, and we would like to be like you, Dimosthenis. Please, do not send us away. We cannot go back to the city of plague. The trials those humans face are most horrible.”