Fury of Fire (Dragonfury Series #1)

by Coreene Callahan

Unable to let go of him, she shook her head.

  He kept caressing her, each pass gentler than the last. “Where are you hurt?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “No…you’re not. Look at me, bellmia,” he said, coaxing her to raise her head.

  Shivering hard, she obeyed, unlocking her arms from his shoulders. Free of her death grip, he palmed her waist and lifted, setting her astride him. His green eyes met hers, and she sobbed, raising her hand to cup his face. With a murmur, he turned his mouth to her skin and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm.

  “Bastian…I’m—”

  “Don’t apologize.” He frowned, brushing the wet strands away from her temple. A muscle jumped in his jaw, and he growled, “Jesus. The bastard. He hit you.”

  “I made him mad,” she said. “He wanted my energy. I wouldn’t give him any.”

  Surprise flared in Bastian’s eyes.

  “I figured out how to control the current…the Meridian…and block him.”

  “My beautiful female.” His eyes crinkled at the corners, filling with so much warmth Myst wanted to cry. “Have I told you how extraordinary you are?”

  “A time or two,” she whispered, accepting his praise before leaning in. Her mouth brushed his, settling softly against his lips. “I’m sorry I ran away from you, Bastian. Dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “I won’t argue.” His lips curved against hers before he withdrew and his expression went from teasing to serious. “I handled it badly, Myst. I didn’t mean to scare you, but I…shit. I’ve never done this before.”

  “What?”

  “Fallen in love.”

  And there it was…just what she needed to hear. Unable to hold them back, tears filled her eyes, then tipped over her bottom lashes, and rolled down her cheeks. As Bastian brushed each one away, she said, “God, I’m such an idiot. How could I not have known that I love you?”

  His mouth parted, breath hitching on a quick intake of air. “Bellmia…”

  “I do, you know.” She held his gaze, making sure he saw the conviction in hers. “I love you so much it hurts.”

  “I don’t want it to hurt.”

  “Too bad. It is what it is, but…” she trailed off letting her words hang in the silent vastness of the cavern. “If you ever lie to me again—”

  “I won’t.”

  “—or get me pregnant without my permission, the next time around…I’ll skin you alive.”

  “Deal.” His mouth curved, spreading into a slow, wide smile. Shifting her a little, he hooked his arm beneath her legs and, gathering her up, pushed to his feet. As he turned and walked toward the magical entrance, he dipped his head to kiss her softly. “No more secrets, bellmia. We’re in this together.”

  “Together.” Kissing him back, she pushed her fingers through his hair, playing with the softness at the nape of his neck.

  Nipping her gently, he licked her bottom lip, gifting her with his taste one teasing flick at a time. “Every step of the way.”

  Yeah, that sounded good. Better than good. Fantastic.

  And as he carried her over the threshold toward the lair’s clinic, Myst knew she was bound for an adventure. The future lay stretched out in front of them, unproven ground, uncertain in every way but one. Love transformed the landscape, offering shelter from the harshness of the storm.

  Home. Yeah, she had finally come home.

  Excerpt from Fury of Ice

  Chapter One

  The globes swayed, bobbing like jellyfish against the cavern’s ceiling as Rikar flew beneath them. White scales gleamed in the low light, throwing starbursts of iridescent color across stalagmites and uneven stone walls. He didn’t notice the rainbow. Didn’t hear his claws scrape granite or the water rolling off his wing tips go splat on the LZ’s floor. His focus was absolute. Only one thing mattered.

  He was going to kill the male. Open him up like a can of sardines. All while making him sing like a canary.

  Lucky for him, he didn’t have far to go.

  The rogue was chained seven stories beneath Black Diamond, the home he shared with the other Nightfury dragons. Convenient? Not really. Nothing about tonight even approached it. The battle—the whole retrieve and retreat routine—had FUBAR written all over it. Yeah, a total catastrophe from beginning to end. The only good thing about it? Bastian had his female back…had pulled her from enemy claws in the nick of time.

  He should be happy about that. Throwing high fives with his fellow warriors and yakking it up, telling war stories, reliving the action over Tequila shots and lime wedges. But that was a definite no-can-do. Not tonight. Not when another female was missing.

  Right. Missing.

  Wishful fucking thinking.

  Rikar’s stomach fisted up hard. The Razorbacks had taken her. He knew it like he was standing there, four paws planted on stone, horns on his head tingling, anguish pumping through his veins with every beat of his heart. Now she was in the hands of his enemy, at the mercy of Ivar, leader of the rogues, a psychopath without an off switch.

  With a growl, he tucked his wings and stepped over the beat-to-shit Honda in the middle of the LZ, trying not to think about what the bastards were doing to her. But…God help him. He couldn’t turn his brain off. Couldn’t breathe without his imagination firing up, planting terrible images in his mind’s eye.

  Christ, he needed to get her back. Had to locate the Razorback lair and pull her free before…

  Rikar swallowed the burn at the back of his throat. What a total mind fuck. The need. The obsession. The pain.

  He’d only met the female once. One freaking time. Had spent a couple of hours getting his ass kicked by her in a friendly game of pool. Okay, so he was lying. He’d done a little more than that. But he refused to think about the feeding…or how good she had tasted. Rikar shook his head, and water flew as he tried to forget. His behavior. Her acceptance. The fact that his frosty side wanted more, another go-round with a female who drew pure power from the Meridian. From the energy source that fed Dragonkind.

  Which made him…what? A sicko? A male without honor or conscience? Yeah, without a doubt. The female he didn’t want to remember, but couldn’t forget, was missing. Was probably in hell right now, suffering at the hands of a Razorback, and what was he doing? Dreaming of her in ways he shouldn’t be.

  Angela Keen. She of the gorgeous energy and hazel eyes. God, he wanted her back. He wanted her safe. He wanted the clock to spin in the opposite direction and undo the last three hours. Maybe then, he could’ve prevented his enemies from taking her at all.

  Angela.

  Her name whispered through his mind: over and over, again and again. A shiver rolled through him, rattling the spikes along his spine as he pictured her face. With a violent swipe, he tried to erase it the way his buddy, Sloan, deleted info from computer hard drives. But memory was a tricky thing: hard to control, impossible to ignore. And as the bastard got busy planting images inside his head, he accepted the truth. He wished he’d stayed with her that night, taken all she offered, and given more in return.

  Which was just plain wrong. In every way that mattered.

  Wind rushed in from the tunnel mouth, kicking up dust and the smell of damp earth. A second later, green scales flashed in his periphery. Rikar shifted, moving from dragon to human form, and got the hell out of Venom’s way as the big male set down. Poised on his back paws, his buddy wing-flapped, sending water flying and air rushing, making the light globes bump into their neighbors seventy-five feet above their heads.

  Rikar conjured his clothes. Leather settled against his skin, feeling like home as he stomped one of his shitkickers and headed for the entrance into the lair. He glanced over his shoulder at his friend. “You coming?”

  “Hell, yeah.” Scales undulating over thick muscle, Venom indulged in another total body shake. Man, with a move like that, the male looked more like a dog than a dragon. “No way I’m missing the show.”

  Show. Right. More like a beat down wi
th death the end game.

  Under normal circumstances, it would’ve bothered him that Venom knew what he was thinking. Not tonight. Rikar didn’t give a shit. Transparency was the least of his problems. A female was involved. So, yeah. The Razorback would hurt until he gave up the goods. End of story.

  Halfway across the cavern, he heard Venom shift and move in behind him. The sound of their footfalls became one, echoing together, two males moving in unison toward one purpose. Answers. Rikar wanted them. And like the upstanding male that he was, Venom would back him up.

  Good thing, too. The next hour would get messy…in more ways than one.

  About the Author

  Image © Julie Daniluk

  As the only girl on all-guys hockey teams from age six through her college years, Coreene Callahan knows a thing or two about tough guys and loves to write about them. Call it kismet. Call it payback after years of locker room talk and ice rink antics. But whatever you call it, the action better be heart stopping, the magic electric, and the story wicked good fun.

  After graduating with honors in psychology and working as an interior designer, Callahan finally succumbed to her overactive imagination and returned to her first love: writing. And when she’s not writing, she is dreaming of magical worlds full of dragon-shifters, elite assassins, and romance that’s too hot to handle. Callahan currently lives in Canada with her family and her writing buddy, a fun-loving golden retriever.