Tales of the Golden Judge: 3-Book Bundle - Books 4-6

by Hart, Melissa F.

  ***

  At the cabin deep in the forest, Yvonne felt unaccountably shy. They had just entered, and now they stood facing each other in the living room. There was something strange between them, something solemn and deep, and she was loath to disturb it with words that could be defensive, sharp or misconstrued. She loved to talk, loved to spar verbally, and she knew that Morgan was an able partner, but now she was silent, and when he opened his mouth to speak, she covered his mouth with her soft palm.

  “No words,” she whispered, and even then there was something too loud about it. “I don't need words with you. I know you want to hear what I want, and tonight what I want is you. I want you to do what you want with me, to give me what is in your heart.”

  “I might hurt you,” he said, his voice as hushed as hers, and she shook her head.

  “No, never.”

  She stood back, taking joy and pleasure in his sharp intake of breath and the way his yellow eyes were eaten black with desire. She knew he would never hurt her, not while he lived, and when he came to embrace her, she melted into his powerful body. She was used to being loud, to being playful and demanding with her partners, but this was a different kind of pleasure entirely, to let her lover run slow and considerate hands over her body and to rejoice in his touch.

  He pulled the camisole over her head, and he unknotted the wrapped skirt from her hips, leaving her to stand pale and naked before him. She did not raise her hands to cover herself, but only stood proud and bare as first his eyes and his hands learned the curves of her body.

  Morgan lifted her easily in his arms and carried her to the bedroom that they had ignored the night before. It was a small room and surprisingly simple for such a luxurious place. It only held a bed, but the bed took up most of the room, a king-sized monster with what looked like acres and acres of space.

  He set her down on it with aching gentleness and through half-lidded eyes, Yvonne watched as he stripped to the skin and climbed in with her. For a long, measureless time, he simply ran his hands over her body, raining tender kisses down on her face, her neck, her breasts and her body. At another time, she would have accused him of teasing her, but instead, now she only reveled and rejoiced in his touch. It was his way of getting to know her, and a way for her to get to know him as well. There was a deep streak of gentleness in this man, something as beautiful and as unlikely as a space of calm inside an inferno.

  “So beautiful,” he murmured against her skin, and she made a soft sound in agreement.

  Morgan shifted down on the bed, trailing kisses over her hips and her thighs, and when he went to open her legs, she spread them willingly. First he used his fingers, trailing them up and down her slit until she was sighing with pleasure. There was nothing hurried about his movements, nothing rough or rushed. Instead, he took his time, opening her up and using his clever hands to tease the elemental wetness from her body.

  He slicked a wet thumb over her clit, sending surges of pleasure through her body, and then it was his mouth and tongue. He opened her, he made her vulnerable, and it was all that she could do not to beg and plead for more. Her hands landed in his hair, tightening through the inky strands, and when she tugged, he murmured against her most intimate flesh.

  The soft probings of his tongue turned to something more measured and powerful, and soon she was wild with need for him.

  “More, I need more than that,” Yvonne whimpered, and she cried out when he pressed his finger deep inside her.

  She couldn't get enough of this man, she could never get enough of him, and when she felt the first waves of pleasure start to take her apart, she pulled on his hair, bringing his head up.

  “I'm going to come,” she said, a pleading note in her voice. “Do... do you want to...”

  “I want to watch,” he said, his voice heated with desire. “I want to see you. I want to know that it is because of what I did and because of what you want. Can I?”

  She nodded, settling back against the bed, spreading her legs even wider. He went back to her flesh with a will, and in a matter of moments, she was twisting and writhing. She need more and more than that, and at every turn he was willing to give it to her.

  The slow waves of pleasure turned into a crashing force that took over her body, gave her more and more until she was shouting. Still he didn't stop, and when he finally drove her over the edge, he still didn't stop.

  His talented mouth kept her at that electric peak, and the aftershocks of pleasure grew in intensity until she was shaking over and over again. Morgan might not have stopped even then, but she pleaded with him, pulling away.

  “No, I want you now,” she said desperately. “I need you, Morgan, all of you...”

  He responded to her words as she had responded to his touch, and he rose over her like a storm or a mountain. Morgan entered her with a single thrust that made her cry out, and unbelievably, his thrusts forced her to another climax, making her scream, her voice hoarse, and cling to him with the force of a drowning woman.

  Afterward, embracing in a world that seemed shrunken down to just the two of them, Yvonne realized distantly that she was crying. When Morgan sensed it, he was shocked, but Yvonne only clung to him, burying her face in his chest.

  “Darling, little swan, what's wrong, what do you need?”

  “Just you,” she whispered over and over again. “Just you, please, please, I just need you.”

  They slept like that, close enough that they were of one skin and one heart.

  Yvonne's dreams were bright and beautiful things, but there was an edge of fear to them. She had joy and she had fear, and the two warred in her heart for supremacy as she slept in the arms of the man she knew she loved.

  TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK SIX: Broken Bird - Volume 6

  ***

  Broken Bird

  ***

  Synopsis

  Yvonne is a wereswan who has spent most of her life a little nervous around predatory shapechangers, and now she must confront all of her fears as she acts as bait for a maddened murderer. She places all her trust in the weretiger Morgan Durrant, but as their frantic ploy plays out, the cost turns out to be far greater than either of them anticipated...

  ***

  They had slept the day away, and after the sun set, when the sky was more blue-black than orange, Morgan and Yvonne ventured into the forest. They had spent the day together, learning each other and drowned in pleasure, but there was a darker edge to it. A murderer stalked the shape-changing people of Harrispont, and Morgan Durrant, as the new weretiger judge, was one of the people who was charged with stopping it.

  By all rights, Yvonne, a wereswan with no claws or teeth to save her, should have had no parts in the night's enterprise. She had almost been killed by the mysterious murderer two nights ago, and it was only by Morgan's intervention that she was saved. They and the other judges knew, however, that a vicious predator would never approach one of the powerful judges. Instead, the murderer, who they thought must be the mysterious Brandt Noman, would only go after someone who transformed into a prey animal, and Yvonne, always a little too bold for her own good, had volunteered.

  They walked through the forest, though Yvonne flying in her swan form and Morgan running in his tiger form would have been faster. The forest darkened, but Yvonne knew that the thing to fear was in front of her. With Morgan by her side, there was nothing in the world that could touch her, and she forced her breathing to slow and steady.

  “I don't know if I can do this,” Morgan said abruptly, turning to face her. Startled, she looked at him, and there was something burning in his golden eyes, a kind of tortured fear that she had never seen before. “This is too much. You cannot do this.”

  “Who else?” Yvonne asked immediately. “We talked about this, and the other judges agreed. It should be me.”

  “I don't want to let him finish the job he started,” Morgan said, his voice rising. “I cannot lose you, not like this—”

  His words were cut off when
Yvonne reached up and took his face between her hands. She was a tall woman, but he was taller still, and she inclined his head to make sure that he was looking straight into her eyes.

  “I cannot make you any promises,” she said, her voice low and throbbing with intensity. “I can't tell you that this will go well, and I cannot promise you that everything will be fine at the end. We don't live in a fairytale, both of us know this.

  “What I will promise you is that you have all of me. There is nothing in this world that will part me from you, and there is nothing at all that is going to take me from you. I will fight the world to return to you, do you understand? You hold my heart. I don't know much, but I know that. There is nothing in the world that I will allow to remove me from your side now that I have known you.”

  Her impassioned speech left her breathless, and Morgan stared down at her.

  “You mean that,” he asked wonderingly.

  She nodded fiercely. “Every word.”

  He crushed her in his arms, and for a moment, she was startled at his ferocity. He was already hard, and through the thin rectangle of fabric wrapped around her hips, she could already feel the erection under his jeans. His desire sparked hers like a bonfire, and for a split second, she thought that his command over the element of fire, given to him as part of his responsibilities as a judge among their people, was apt indeed.

  “Now,” she said, pulling him to a sheltered spot among the trees. “Now, I want you now.”

  “We can't,” he protested, but it was a weak protest when she took his hands and shaped them to her small breasts. In the space of a moment, they leaped from fear and pain to white hot desire, and he pressed her against the large tree, his mouth hot against hers.

  Frantically, her hands fumbled to pull her skirt up, and when she did, he lifted her up, still leaned against the tree, to straddle his hips. He bore her weight comfortably on his body, lifting her off the ground as he freed his cock with a few hurried movements. She stifled a loud moan as he pushed into her. There was little care in either of their movements, but her body accepted his, eager and greedy for the pleasure it knew he could give.

  He thrust up into her with a force that fell just short of painful, but she reveled in the sensations and in the waves of pleasure he forced from her. One hand was wrapped around his neck and the other pushed down between their straining bodies to find her clit. Viciously, she fingered it, and she knew that he could feel the way her body closed tight around his because he gasped and groaned.

  Her climax hit her with the force of a train, and her cry echoed through the forest. She threw her arms around him, clinging tight, and his own climax followed soon after. She could feel him spill inside her, and for the first time, she wondered if there would be a child. Children among those who changed their shapes were rare and wonderful things, and it was even harder to create children between people of different blood. There would have been little enough chance that she would have become pregnant if he changed into a swan as she did. The chances of it happening between her and a man who changed into a tiger were astronomically low.

  Even as she thought it, however, there was an ache in her heart for that very thing. She put the thought aside, and slowly, she helped Morgan ease out of her. Only when her feet rested securely on the ground and she stood steady again did he stand away.

  He did up his fly and helped her straighten her skirt with a rueful look. “You know, you cannot simply convince me of seeing your way like this every time in our future together,” he complained.

  She grinned at him. “Why not, when it seems to work so well?”

  There was still a great deal left unsaid between them, and there was still a great danger ahead, but it was put aside for the moment. They walked deeper into the forest, hand in hand, silent now, and Yvonne offered a silent prayer.

  Please, please, let this not be the last time I am with this man. Please, I want to live, and I want to love him all our days together on this earth.

  ***

  The moon was almost full, and just a quarter mile away from the large lake at the center of the forest, there were three judges waiting for Morgan and Yvonne.

  Carson Keynes, called Icefang for his control over ice and water, stood grave and serious in the moonlight. He was as tall as Morgan but slimmer, and his hair was as pale as Yvonne's own. While Yvonne's was plaited and wrapped around her head like a crown, Carson's was cut short and stylish. He nodded when the two showed up, and if his keen werewolf's nose detected a reason for their flushed faces and hurried heartbeats, there was nothing to show it.

  Pacing nearby and ready for battle was Kiya, a tall black woman dressed in a white linen kilt and nothing else. She greeted Yvonne with a wide grin that told the swan that Kiya knew exactly what they had been up to and that she heartily approved. Kiya stretched her strong arms, showing off the muscle that was part of the heritage of her bear blood.

  Silent and apart from the others was Benedict Halfdansson, as aloof and sharp-eyed as the eagle he transformed in to. It would have taken more than an amorous encounter to shake his resolve. He was a handsome man in his way, but Yvonne felt a shiver of nerves when she looked at him. She wondered if it was because he was a bird like her, but so fierce and predatory that it made the gap between them almost painfully sharp.

  “We're here,” Morgan said, his voice a little ragged with tension, but his gaze was steady, and he squeezed Yvonne's hand once before letting it go to allow her to stand apart. She loved him for his belief in her strength, and she stood as straight as she could, meeting each of the judges' eyes by turns.

  “Good.” Carson nodded. “What we have planned is simple. Yvonne, you will simply wander tonight. It is bright, and it is not unthinkable that a swan would choose to swim and fly under this bright moon. When you are in the air, Benedict will be your shadow, hovering above. When you are on the ground, you'll be watched closely by the rest of us. You will not see us, but we will never be far away.'

  “I can go where I want?” she asked. “You will watch me?”

  “Try to stay away from the deep water,” Carson advised. “I am a swimmer, and I believe Durrant is as well, but Kiya prefers the land, and we are all more deadly on land by far.”

  “Speak for yourself, Icefang,” retorted Benedict. He turned to Yvonne. “My eyes are sharp, and if you engage in the water, I will be there. However, if you venture to the places that are too deep, you may still be drowned before any of us can reach you. Stay close to the shallows.”

  Morgan's growl was deep, but Yvonne cut him off with a look.

  “Benedict speaks truly,” she said, “and the advice is well-taken.”

  He subsided, and she shot him a look that was both love and exasperation before turning to the rest. “I am ready. As ready as I will ever be for something like this.”

  There was a killer to lure out, and if she had been a human, her body would still bear the bruises from when he had attacked her two nights before. She was a wereswan, however, and she healed fast. This was a killer who targeted the shyest and the most vulnerable among the shape-changing folks, and now that she’d had some time to recover, she was ready to do her part to make sure that he never killed another person.

  Carson nodded. “May you fare well tonight,” he said, his voice already a wolf's growl. “We will be with you, and we will keep you from harm.”

  As she watched, fascinated, Carson's face stretched into a long muzzle, and his body twisted until what stood in front of her was not a handsome man but an enormous white wolf. He padded into the darkness, gone in a moment, and there was Kiya standing before her, giving her hand a squeeze.

  “Good luck and good hunting,” she said warmly. Her body bulged with muscle and in the space of a heartbeat, an enormous grizzly bear dropped down to all fours to pad into the forest.

  “Be lucky,” Benedict said, and with a sweep of powerful wings, the golden eagle broke through the branches above to the free sky, showering her with branches and leav
es.

  That left only Morgan, still human and watching her with darkness in his eyes.

  “I'll be fine,” she said to him. “You know this must be done.”

  He nodded, but he still grabbed her close for one last embrace. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear. “I will keep you safe.”

  She watched in fascination as his body transformed, electric orange and black fur racing down his muscled body. She felt the heat shed from his power as a fire-bearer, and in a space of seconds, there stood in front of her a tiger that could nearly look her straight in the eye. From his sharp white teeth to the power of his claws, he was a beast made for battle, but even in this form, his golden eyes were bright with love for her.

  Impulsively, she reached out to embrace him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his fur. “I love you, too,” she whispered, and then, before she could change her mind, she gave him a light slap on his muscled shoulder.

  “Get going,” Yvonne said softly. “We've all got work to do.”

  ***

  Yvonne realized that one of the most disturbing things about the situation so far, and there were quite a few of them, was that she couldn't tell that she wasn't alone. She knew that Benedict soared far above them, and that Kiya, Carson and Morgan were likely fanned out to track her, but she couldn't tell. As she walked through the forest, there was nothing that told her that there were four powerful shifters watching her every movement and following her every gesture.

  It made her realize that right now, there might be a fifth shape changer following her, one who did not want to protect her, and that made her shiver. Resolutely, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin proudly. Once her mother told her that fear was natural, but bravery was judged by how well she handled it.