“I’m not sure I like that look on your face, lass.” A grin belied his weariness.
“I can fly, Kai.” Her smile spread across her face.
“Aye. As a dragon you will have that ability, but I understand about your fear of heights. It would be nice to fly together, but I…”
She pulled him to a stop and stepped in front of him. She couldn’t keep the happiness inside; she bounced on her toes and grabbed his biceps to hold him in place.
“No, Kai, I mean I can fly.” His confused look made her giggle.
“Aye. Your dragon has the ability.” He still didn’t understand what she was trying to say.
“Kai, you’re not getting it. I’m not afraid of heights any more. I. Can. Fly.”
Al’s face felt like it was going to break from the wide smile she couldn’t help but wear. She not only got this amazing man. She also received a new appreciation for herself. Not to mention the coolest superhero persona ever. She could shift into a dragon, fly the skies, and create whatever weather she wanted. Al now had the ability, and with Kai by her side, the guidance to make a difference in the world around her, without any fear of making the wrong decisions. She had the Dásreach, her spirit guardian, the Great Spirit – that she could now feel all around her – and most of all, Kai to help her through each new day.
“You’re saying you can go up there,” Kai pointed up, “with me?”
“Yep.”
Kai whooped as he picked her up in his arms and swung her around. He laughed against her lips, as he brushed light kisses against them. Kisses that stirred ideas of things other than shifting and flying. She started to ask Kai if he had someplace private they could go instead, when they were interrupted.
“Kai… Kai.” A man with shaggy brown hair stopped in front of them, his breathing elevated by the brisk run he had done to catch them.
“Riordan.” Kai acknowledged the man. “What do you need?”
Ethereal aqua-blue eyes stared into Al and Kai’s faces as he responded.
“Dar’s been trying to reach you. Malkum called and he has news about the women who died.”
Kai looked between her and Riordan, their eyes clicked in total agreement and they turned without a word and ran for a phone to call Dar.
Epilogue
Four days ago.
Rogue sat on the front porch swing. The plantation style house was huge and she loved the wrap around porch. Trees and bayou stretched out, she could only assume for miles, in all directions. The noises of the bugs and animals, the wind through the branches of the trees, lulled her as she pushed the swing back and forth. Slowly rocking as her mind furiously tried to digest what had been said in the kitchen.
Shifters. Mates.
Not only Al who had met the man that had brought them here, but Nat and herself too. These gorgeous, tall, broad, muscled men thought that the three of them were their mates. It was too good to be true. It was one of her favorite books come to life.
Most would respond like Nat with total disbelief. However, Rogue had always believed in the supernatural and the possibilities that were in the universe that we as human beings did not know or understand. Growing up with a free-spirited mom and with a name like hers, Rogue Marie Phenix, you had to see the possibilities in life. She thought back to her and the girl’s trip to the cemetery. She had made a wish. She was grateful for finding the Book Worms, for having found friends like Al, Nat, and all of the other girls on their page, but at 29 years of age, it wasn’t enough. She dreamed of a man and a family.
In recent years she had taken her life into hand. A cancer scare will do that to you. She no longer waited for the right time, but took life by the horns and rode that bull full-tilt forward. That is why she had planned this trip with Al and Nat, why she was planning a trip to Europe, and why she had begun classes for a degree in IT Administration. She had goals and she was going to reach them.
But, Destiny could be a fickle bitch and it appeared she had other ideas. In the form of a six foot three inch bear of a man, with startling green eyes that seemed to look straight into her soul. She could say to hell with Destiny and her ideas, but between his size, those eyes, short brown hair that begged for her fingers, a five o’clock shadow, and tattoos, Rogue was already in lust enough to agree with just about anything that man wanted.
Malkum was intense and maybe a bit volatile. When she had agreed with Nat’s initial response that this had to be crazy, his reaction was immediate and violent. When he had pushed his chair back and stood, Rogue’s breath had hitched at the site of all those muscles.
Damn it. I’m supposed to be figuring this out, not thinking about him.
At that moment, the man in question stepped out the front door and onto the porch. He walked forward, looking into the bayou, what he saw that she couldn’t she did not know. He shook his head and sighed as he leaned against a porch post and looked at her.
“Alvena said you need space, but I have a weird feelin’ in my gut. I’m not sure it’s safe out here.” He rumbled, and then looked off into the bayou again.
Malkum came up to her and reached out his hand. He just stood there holding his hand out and waited. She looked up into his deep emerald eyes and placed her hand in his. He pulled her from the swing and she stumbled into his chest. The man was a foot taller than her and she had to crane her head way back to look into his face from this angle. The strong jaw clenched and his nostrils flared.
“Can you humor me, cher? I’ll let you have your space as long as it’s inside.” His fingers slid up her arms and gripped her at her biceps.
She felt him push her backwards. He set her to the side and strode a few feet down from her. He looked around the corner of the house to the other side of the porch. He stood stiff and watchful.
What the hell? The man was driving her insane. They had said that he was her mate, but he acted as if he wanted nothing to do with her. Out of the three girls, she was the one who would jump into this mate business with both feet – she had signed up on that Internet dating site after all – and this man seemed to have less interest in her than the slug she saw slowly moving across the porch step.
Rogue’s temper flared and she stormed over to where the insufferable man stood.
“Now, you see here.” She said as she stabbed him in the chest with her finger. “One, don’t ever set me to the side like some object or child. Two, I have been takin’ self-defense classes and I can take care of myself. If you would think back, Nat and I protected the three of us just fine on our own. And, Three, there is no way…”
A thump sounded and then she heard something metallic roll across the wood of the porch floor only seconds before Malkum had her up in his arms and was racing down the porch on the side of the house. He leaped from the top of the steps leading to the back yard just as a loud boom shook the earth. Rogue could hear shouts and gunshots sound from behind her. Malkum clutched her tightly to his chest and the world bounced with the strides of his steps. Everything was happening so quickly that she couldn’t quite catch up and figure out what was happening.
Malkum slid to a stop on a dock, just steps from the water of the bayou that spread out behind the house. He set her down in a small motor boat and jumped in after. He quickly had the motor on and was turning the boat out onto the water.
“Wait.” She croaked out.
Malkum kept steering the boat and watching where they were going while glancing behind them.
“Wait!” She screamed. “What the hell is goin’ on? We need to go back. I need to help Al and Nat.”
A gunshot rang out from behind them and she heard a bullet hit a nearby tree just as they turned a bend in the waterway.
“Malkum? My friends?” She pleaded.
He reached up and caressed her cheek and looked into her eyes.
“They will be okay, cher. Kai and Charlie will protect them.” He looked out into the trees and vegetation.
Rogue heard things slipping into the water. She shivered and wrap
ped her arms around her waist. The man was like a beautiful marble statue and he was listening about as well as one too. She watched as he turned down a split in the waterway and sped forward. The sun shone off of his hair, adding highlights of gold and red to his dark brown locks. She sighed. Yeah. Destiny is a fickle bitch.
About the Author
Josette Reuel spent many years in the corporate world writing stuffy computer software manuals, until one day a shape shifting dragon kidnapped her and drug her off to be his destined mate... as the words flowed on to the page, she realized that it was time to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a published author.
An avid reader from her earliest memories, Josette enjoys many genres; however her current passion is anything Romance. Her love of Fantasy and the Paranormal tends to come out in all of her writing with strong alpha shapeshifters.
Finding the Dragon is her debut novel in the Dásreach Council series.
Connect With Me Online
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Books By Josette Reuel
Dásreach Council Series
Book 1: Finding the Dragon
Book 2: Forcing the Bear (Coming Soon)
Book 3: (2015)
Book 4: (2015)
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