by Becca Van
She parked her car and got out, breathing the cool air and taking in the tranquility of nature. Although fall was well and truly here and the air had a cold bite to it, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping. She pulled herself up onto the hood of her car and sighed as the beautiful peaceful setting calmed her tumultuous mind.
She’d never played hooky from work before but she didn’t feel guilty for taking a few hours to try and unwind. She’d worked hard for years and hadn’t even taken any vacation time and she hoped by clearing her thoughts that something about this case would bite her on the ass.
And then there was the night her partner had been shot.
No matter how many times she’d gone over that incident in her mind, she couldn’t figure out where the shot had come from. All the criminals had been in front of her, Rick and the other agents and police officers. The only conclusion she could come up with was that her partner had been hit by an officer of the law. But none of the men who’d been on the stakeout and raid had admitted to being so careless. Of course the bullet had been removed from Rick in surgery and ballistics had tried to match the bullet from all the other agents’ and cops’ guns but there hadn’t been a match.
She was beginning to think that someone else had been hiding in the parking lot amongst the trees. Which meant that Rick had been taken down on purpose. But who would do such a thing? They’d arrested all the perps and all the officers had been busy restraining and loading the drug dealers and manufacturers.
Calysta rubbed her forehead and then massaged her temples with her fingers. Nothing made sense about any of it. With another sigh she unwrapped the salad sandwich and began to eat. Just as she’d finished her coffee she heard laughter. She tensed for a second, then jumped from the hood of her car and placed her hand beneath her jacket and onto the grip of her gun. When another deep laugh sounded she stared into the trees near the edge of Boysen Reservoir and nearly choked.
Four huge muscular men were walking along a track and heading straight for her. She gasped with awe as she looked each of them over. They were all very tall, way over six feet in height and although they were dressed casually in sneakers, jeans, and T-shirts, they should have been on the cover of a magazine.
One of the men was taller and brawnier than the other three and she couldn’t stop her eyes from sliding over his magnificent physique. He had to be close to seven feet tall. His hair was dark blond, nearly a light-brown color and his eyes were a gray-blue. He had a mustache and scruffy short beard and a very handsome face. But it was the aura of power and confidence in his eyes that drew her as much as his muscular body. With each step he took his quads bunched, pulling his jeans tight and the sleeves of his T-shirt stretched taut over his big bulging biceps.
Her body tingled as four sets of eyes turned toward her and the laughter stopped. The men didn’t stop walking until they were only a few feet away from her and when she breathed in she swore she could smell each of their individual scents, and they smelled divine.
“Are you all right, A ghrá?” the tallest and oldest of the four men asked.
Calysta licked her lips nervously and blinked when she thought she saw an inner glow behind his blue-gray eyes. “Um...yes. What did you call me?”
He stepped forward and held his hand out. “My name is Lance DeLuca and these are my friends Aiden Tittle, Andre Carr, and Alex Trump.”
Calysta clasped his hand and looked down when heat and tingles zipped over her skin, when his massive hand enfolded her much smaller and paler one. Warmth raced up her arm and into her chest and it took all of her self-control not to react in any way to the shards of desire racing through her body. But she wasn’t sure she’d concealed her lust when she met Lance’s gaze again. His lids had lowered slightly and his nostrils flared as if he could smell the juices coating her pussy.
When he continued to stare at her and hold her hand, she cleared her throat and tugged until he released her. The warmth which had enfolded her skin faded and she felt cold and almost bereft, which was ridiculous since she didn’t even know the man. But for some reason his touch felt right and although her mind wasn’t in sync with her body, her body had lapped up the feel of his skin against hers and she wanted more.
Shit, Caly! Get your mind out of the gutter, girl.
She released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding and inhaled deeply again as her gaze moved to the man’s left and her eyes locked with Andre’s brown eyes. He was model handsome but not in that pretty model way. He was a few inches shorter than Lance, which was still freaking huge since he had to be over six five, and his muscles bulged and rippled as he shifted from foot to foot. His hair was short and brown and he also had a mustache and beard, but his beard was shorter than Lance’s and just a little longer than stubble.
“Hello, A chroi.” Andre took her hand in his and she watched his buttoned shirt strain the cotton over his chest and arms. When she looked down to his exposed forearm she could see the sinew rippling beneath his tanned skin and wondered if his flesh would be as soft as it looked. She lifted her free hand without conscious thought and was about to find out but when she realized what she was doing, she pulled away from him and took a couple of steps back.
“We don’t frighten you, do we, A mhuirnín?” Aiden took a step forward but stopped when she held up her hand.
Aiden had the most amazing blue eyes she’d ever seen. They reminded her of the light blue oceans in the tropics. His hair was dark blonde and it was spiked up over his head as if he hadn’t taken the time to brush it. The look was sexy and she had the urge to run her fingers through his hair. He was leaner than Lance and Andre but still powerfully built and hot to look at.
Calysta hoped the men didn’t notice how much they entranced her but she didn’t know how long she’d been standing there like a stuffed chook staring at them. She cleared her throat and glanced away before looking back again.
“What are you all doing out here?” Calysta glanced from one man to the other before her eyes locked with Alex’s.
His hair was brown and longer than all the other men’s but on him it was damned sexy. His eyes were a combination of green, blue, and brown, but the green and brown were the more dominant colors. His build was similar to Aiden’s yet she could tell by their facial features that none of the men were related.
“We were taking a walk, M’fhíorghrá.” Alex smiled. “There’s no law against it, is there?”
Calysta didn’t know why she was being so hostile but couldn’t seem to help herself. She was in lust and more but she didn’t know what the more was and she didn’t want to really find out. She felt like she was going into heat or something and the only way she could handle how she felt was to try and cover it up.
“There should be where you four are concerned,” she muttered under her breath. “No woman alive would be able to ignore you lot.”
In a louder voice she said, “You boys should know I’m a cop and this is a crime scene. Now, what are you all doing here?”
Lance moved closer and although she wanted to step back when she saw the determined look in his eyes, she held her ground. She lifted her hand back under her jacket to the grip of her gun. “What’s your name, officer?”
“Special Agent Calysta Adani from the FBI!” she answered a little belligerently. She had no idea what her name had to do with anything, but since they’d divulged theirs to her, she decided to reciprocate. Maybe her title would scare them off, and she would be able to breathe a little easier.
“We were looking for you, Calysta Adani.”
Calysta frowned with confusion. She had no idea why they’d been looking for her because she’d never seen them before in her life. But as her gaze moved from one to the other and back again she felt as if she knew them somehow. Lance lifted one of his hands slowly as if worried he was going to startle or spook her but she remained still. As she stared into his gray-blue eyes they began to glow. She gasped and was about to move to the side, but when his lar
ge manly hand cupped her cheek, her eyes slid closed and she swallowed back a moan of pure hunger.
The warmth which had settled in her lower belly flared up until she felt like her insides were aflame. And that wasn’t the only part of her that was burning. Her clit throbbed and her pussy clenched, squeezing more cream out of her cunt to coat her folds and dampen her panties. When she felt heat behind her and on both her sides, she opened her eyes again. All four men were standing so close to her she could feel the heat emanating from their bodies and seeping into hers.
“What?” Calysta blinked. She felt like a doe caught in headlights as they watched her so intently. However, not once did she really feel like she was in any danger. She felt safe and protected and maybe even a little cherished. She removed her hand from her gun and lowered her arm to her side. “What are you talking about?”
“We’ve been waiting a long time to meet you, Calysta,” Andre said. “You’re our A ghrá geal.”
“What did you just call me?” She asked Andre as she leaned into Lance’s touch.
“The literal translation is bright love,” Aiden murmured as he stroked a hand over her head and hair.
It took a moment for Aiden’s words to register, and when they did she elbowed her way out from between them and drew her gun from her holster, releasing the safety but just in case, as she lowered her arm.
“I don’t know who the hell you think I am, but I’m not about to fall for a few pretty words from your silver tongues.”
“You liked my tongue well enough last night, A mhuirnín,” Alex said in a raspy voice.
When she saw the hunger in his eyes as he looked her body over, she wondered if she would get out of this situation with her sanity and libido intact. Her body was clamoring for their touch and even though her mind was telling her to get into her car and leave, her body wouldn’t comply.
And then Alex’s words registered. At the same time, something hit her fair and square in the chest. She stumbled back a step as if she’d just been struck by a thick meaty fist. All the air left her lungs and pain exploded out over her upper torso and up into her throat. She doubled over but kept her blurry eyes on the four men only to see they hadn’t moved.
“Get her to safety,” Lance commanded. “Now!”
Everything seemed to happen at once. Pain like she’d never known it radiated in her chest, and she sank to her knees with a soundless cry. The excruciating agony was too much for her to make a sound and when she lowered her head slowly she saw blood was seeping from her body, soaking into her clothes. Her vision dimmed and blackness swirled around the edges of her mind.
She heard several voices roaring in anger and then she cried out as she was lifted from the ground and up against a steel-hard warm chest. The darkness grew and although she tried to stave it off, she was fighting a losing battle. With a sigh of resignation she let the darkness claim her where she felt no more pain.
Chapter Five
When Aiden realized that Calysta had been shot, fear and adrenaline surged through his blood. Until Lance yelled out his order, he hadn’t known what was going on. He’d thought that Calysta had been so shocked by Alex’s statement regarding their dream sharing when she gasped and doubled over.
His roar of terror and fury was joined by Andre’s and Alex’s when he’d seen blood seeping from his mate’s chest. He didn’t remember moving, but one moment he was staring at his mate incomprehensibly, and the next she was in his arms.
He didn’t wait to see where the danger was coming from, nor did he care that he might be seen disappearing from sight as he called his dragon forth. All he cared about was getting his mate back to the lair to help her. His beast burst forth so quickly the transformation hurt for the first time since he’d first changed, but he didn’t care. Shifting Calysta carefully in his front legs and making sure his long talons didn’t touch her soft fragile skin, he bent his back legs and as he shoved off of the ground he flapped his enormous wings and lifted into the sky.
He could hear his elder and flight pod brothers’ voices in his head but he didn’t take any notice of what they were saying, because he was monitoring Calysta’s heart and breaths with his enhanced hearing as he raced toward the lair. He flew as he’d never flown before and when he heard his mate’s heart slow and then stutter he wanted to roar again, but he swallowed the sound down. Since he had no idea who had hurt their woman, or if they were a hunter, he didn’t want to give his path away to the fucker. There was no way in hell he wanted to put Calysta in more danger.
“You need to get back to the lair,” Aiden commanded as he landed on the back ledge and pushed his dragon back. “We need to claim our mate before it’s too late.”
“We’re only a minute or so behind you,” Lance said in a calm voice, but Aiden could feel the emotion roiling from his elder and his other dragon brothers.
“How bad is she hurt?” Andre asked in a tight voice.
“Bad.” Aiden moved Calysta in his arms, opened the back door and raced along the corridor toward the infirmary. “She’s dying.”
He carefully placed her on the examination bed, reached for the tray of medical equipment and then began to cut her clothes away. Normally the sight of a wound or blood didn’t faze him but when he had bared her upper body, his stomach roiled and his heart lurched when he saw her injury. She’d been shot and the bullet was close to her heart.
Aiden wasn’t sure she would survive because of the amount of blood she’d already lost and was still losing. He irrigated the hole in her chest with saline and after washing her skin with disinfectant he grabbed a scalpel. With a ragged indrawn breath which he then held, he cut into his mate’s flesh. Sweat beaded on his forehead but he ignored it and after once more washing her wound with saline he spied the silver bottom of the bullet lodged right next to the bottom of her heart. The organ was pumping sluggishly and when he looked up at her face he exhaled gustily when he saw the blue tinge to her lips.
She was going into shock and there was only one way to save her. They had to claim her as their own. Aiden just hoped that she didn’t baulk when she found out what they had done.
When Lance, Andre, and Alex walked into the room they all rushed over to Calysta’s side. He could see the strain on their faces but as he looked into their eyes he saw the fear entrenched deep in their souls at the possibility of losing the one woman the fates had created and decreed was theirs.
“I can try and use some of the magic Merlin gave me to heal her,” Lance said in a hoarse voice as he brushed a few locks of hair back from Calysta’s face.
“Will you be able to heal her completely?” Aiden asked as he dug for the large caliber slug.
“No.” Lance sighed. “It will still take her weeks to recover but we wouldn’t have to claim her without her permission.”
Aiden shook his head. “Get that oxygen mask and put it over her mouth and nose.”
“I don’t want our mate to have to suffer,” Andre said as he snatched the mask from the hook and then covered Calysta’s mouth and nose with it.
“Neither do I,” Alex agreed.
“You think I do?” Aiden said in a growly voice, his anger and frustration at the situation obvious. Just as he pulled the bullet free Calysta’s heart stuttered and then stopped. Aiden grabbed the defibrillator, pulled the paddles off, and flicked the switch to charge it. “Clear.” He ordered as his own heart stopped for a moment and then pounded hard in his chest. When the others removed their hands from where they were touching their mate, he placed the device right against the bottom of her heart and shocked her.
Tears burned his eyes when her whole body convulsed and he withdrew the defibrillator from the wound to see her heart was beating better than it had before it had stopped, but he was still scared she wouldn’t make it. She’d lost so much blood and although he had set up an IV and was feeding plasma straight into her veins, she still wasn’t out of the woods.
“We need to claim her. Right now. If we don’t…we’ll l
ose her.”
Lance nodded and moved closer to the bed. He very gently turned her head to the side and brushed her blonde hair away from her neck and shoulder. He took a deep shuddering breath and just before he bent down, his eyes began to glow and his fangs lengthened.
The low moaning sound he made as he bit into the crook of Calysta’s neck and shoulder was muffled against her skin. Calysta jerked but other than that showed no signs of awareness.
Aiden hoped by the time all of them had injected her with their dragon DNA, her body would have started to heal. He wasn’t sure how claiming her without making love to her would affect the mating bond, but right at this moment he didn’t really care. All that mattered was that she live a long life. Even if it meant it was without them in it.
He and the others knew that if she didn’t accept them as her mates, they were doomed, but hopefully she would just be glad they had saved her life.
Lance retracted his teeth from her flesh and bathed his claiming mark with his tongue. When he was done he shifted around to the top of the bed behind her and caressed a hand over her head, before his fingers stroked over her pale brow and cheeks, being careful not to jostle the oxygen mask over her mouth and nose.
Aiden kept glancing at the ECG screen and was pleased their woman seemed to be holding her own, for the moment. He used his enhanced sight to see through the clear plastic and noted that although her lips still had a slight blue tinge to them, the blue had dissipated somewhat. However, she wouldn’t be out of the woods until they had all claimed her. He glanced over at Andre, who had moved to the other side of the examination bed and when his flight pod brother met his gaze, he gave him a nod of encouragement.
He was surprised to see the hand Andre moved toward Calysta’s head trembled slightly but he didn’t comment on it. Aiden and the rest of them knew just how important and special this moment was. He just hoped that Calysta wouldn’t freak out when they told her or she found out that she was to be mate to four dragon shifters.
