by Cecilia Lane
Her head buzzed and her heart skittered in her chest. Each quick inhale filled her nose with more and more scents. Things she hadn’t been able to smell before. Things she shouldn’t be able to smell as a human.
Fur. Dog? No, that wasn’t right. It was too wild and earthy to be a dog.
One of the boys dropped to his hands and knees and threw his head into the air with a howl. Black fur sprouted on his arms and legs.
“Werewolf,” she whispered.
Rhona shot her a glance. Her eyes were nearly as clear blue as Eoghan’s. “Ay.”
“Tam!” Sorcha snapped. “What did we say about shifting in the house?”
The boy pouted and the fur on his limbs receded. “Only outside until I don’t claw nothin’.”
Malina spilled beads onto the table and Annika gasped. They were the same shape and color as the ones on her bracelet. Even the threading was the same.
“The bairns hae been pure mental about the things all year,” Sorcha explained.
The woman’s voice deepened and droned. The room swam. Annika tried to push it to the side and keep her expression normal. How many kits were made every year? How many were given to children for presents? It could have been any number of them that made the beads on her bracelet.
She tugged it off her wrist and toyed with it between her fingers as she tried to calm herself.
“Annika? Ya awright?” Rhona asked from across the table.
Annika snapped her eyes up and shook her head. The room still spun. “Sorry. Just… remembering. I have a bracelet just like the ones the kids are making.”
Sorcha’s brow furrowed with a frown. “Ay. Tam made ya one last year. Ya still hae that auld thing?”
She stood, her chair screeching across the floor as she backed away. The room wouldn’t stay still. She needed air. Fresh air not filled with the scent of shifters. She tried to remember visiting the house before and couldn’t find anything. Nothing but the beads on the table and the ones on her bracelet.
“Rhona, get the bairns upstairs, will ya? I’ll call Eoghan indoors.”
There was a flurry of activity that she couldn’t see. She shut her eyes against the spinning of the room and tried to catch her breath. Everything was happening too fast. Everything was too sudden. She didn’t know how to continue on without her memories to ground her.
“Ann.” Eoghan caught her chin between his fingers and forced her to look at him. The clear blue of his eyes held concern and heat.
She whimpered and shut her eyes again. She didn’t want to see pity there. Not from him. Not after he’d been proud of her before. She didn’t want to see the disappointment.
“Stop. Don’t retreat back into yer head. Yer here. Don’t hide away from me.”
“I don’t know how to be the person you want. I don’t know who I am. I can’t sit here and have tea and gossip with your sisters when I can’t even remember meeting them.”
“Annika Leeds, look at me.” He waited until she opened her eyes again. “I want you. If ya remember, fine. If ya don’t, that’s fine too. The past is the past. We’ll make new memories. But we’ll do it together.”
“You can only feel that way because you have a past. You have something to fall back on. Thoughts, emotions, likes, dislikes. I have none of that.”
He wrapped her wrists in one hand and pinned them above her head. “Yer mine,” he growled. “That’s enough to start. I’ll take ya tae a bloody food buffet and let ya sample everything there tae find out what ya like. It won’t change how ya feel about me. Yer my mate. I know ya want me.”
He kissed her again and it shoved down on her rising panic. The heat he ignited in her earlier returned in full force.
There was nothing gentle or permissive about his lips on hers. He wanted to give her new memories, not spark old ones. His tongue demanded entry to her mouth and she relented with no protest. Heat spread through her, heart pumping her utter need of him through every vein in her body.
She wanted to trust and believe him. Her body was more than willing to give over to him. He was her mate. Every time he said the word, every time he touched her, something inside her responded. It was a small spark, but still there. And still more solid than anything else from her past.
She could build on that, couldn’t she? Watching him with his nephews and niece, she wanted that. He was protective and devoted to those he let in and, for whatever reason, she was on that list.
And she was quickly discovering she couldn’t get enough of him. The dark hair and clear, blue eyes were enough to send her panting. He had muscles upon muscles and he knew how to touch her even if she only had a vague sense of what she liked. He knew and he was more than willing to show her.
But before she could sort out her thoughts and consider her options, Eoghan broke their kiss and turned her away from him. His hand locked hers above them again and he pressed his body against her.
Annika swallowed hard. His chest was solid against her back and her wrists were tight in his grasp. “I’m not going to be distracted every time you come near.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. But ya have tae admit, yer heart beat isn’t pattering nearly so high and yer breath is calmed.”
She lifted her chin. “It has not.”
Eoghan pressed his nose against her neck and inhaled. “Ay, it’s all down tae where even if ya weren’t eye fookin’ me before, I’d know ya wanted me naked.”
Her breath caught in her throat and her rebuttal died on her tongue.
He fisted his free hand in her hair and pulled her head to the side. Eoghan lapped at her neck and used his own body to keep her in position. “The things ya do tae me. The things I want tae do tae ya.”
His hand trailed down her neck and over her shoulder to palm her breast. Her nipples hardened into tight peaks when he slipped a stiff finger under the cup of her bra and grazed over the sensitive bud.
Annika swallowed the whimper that tried to escape her lips. As hot and hazy as Eoghan made her mind, nothing cleared it like the thought of not being alone in the house.
It did nothing to stop Eoghan’s lazy exploration of her body. His warm breath ghosted over her neck. Her lungs refused to work when he bit down hard. She danced under him, savoring the feeling and wanting more. More. More. That was the thought her mind latched onto and refused to move past.
“Yer mine. Yer body knows it.” Eoghan released her neck and laved away any hurt he might have caused.
Annika rolled her hips. She ached for more. Needed to feel all of him. He was ready, she could feel that much. His cock nestled against her ass. Teasing her. Letting her feel what he would give her.
A life with new memories on a bed of new sensations.
Eoghan breathed against the back of her neck. She tilted her head further to give him better access. He couldn’t hurt her. She wanted everything he would do to her.
They were mates. It wasn’t necessary to bite to claim, some part of her brain whispered. But she could tell that’s how it would work with Eoghan. Had worked. He was free with his mouth and teeth and she loved it.
Annika whimpered and tried to shove back against him. He growled and pressed her hard against the counter. He rocked his hips before relenting, tugging her back just enough to pop open the button on her jeans and pull the zipper down. Annika nearly vibrated with need when his fingers skimmed the top of her panties.
“Tell me ya want this,” he rumbled in her ear.
That, and so much more. She nodded.
“Say the words. Tell me ya want me tae make ya come on my fingers.”
“Eoghan. Please.” Her pulse raced and her fingers scrabbled against the cabinet above her head. “Make me come.”
His breath riffled against her ear in a long exhale. He slipped under her panties and sure fingers stroked the seam of her pussy, parting her lips and pushing inside.
Annika gasped and bit at her lower lip. Eoghan rocked his hand against her, slipping in and out of her heat and nudging against her cl
it in quick succession. He slipped in and retreated, shallow then deep, tormenting her with each touch.
Annika rocked her hips and rode his hand as much as he would allow. Shards of bliss pierced her fragmented mind, pulling together in a kaleidoscope of images of her and Eoghan. Against a desk. Against a wall. Spread out across a bed.
The first tremble of her release brought another growl from his throat and he nibbled on her earlobe. “Nearly there, aren’t ya? Do it, Ann. Come for me.”
The order paired with a deep plunge of his fingers and stroking of her inner spot. Combined, it sent her surging over the edge and tightening around his fingers. Pleasure rocked through her core and spread through her limbs. The only thing that kept her from screaming out his name was the hastily clamped hand over her mouth and the dark, cocky laugh in her ear.
“I should take ya back to the flat right now and sink between those gorgeous legs.”
Annika froze. With the edge taken off, she could think. Her body responded to him in the heat of the moment. But after, it was a bucket of cold water dumped on her head. He was a stranger to her.
“Eoghan…” She turned and met his eyes and saw the clear blue had gone ice cold.
“Out with it. I know that face.”
She closed her eyes and sighed before opening herself to him again. “That’s just it. I don’t know yours. You have the memories of our time together, you can base everything off that. All I have are vague impressions and fragments of memories. I think, until I know you better, that we shouldn’t be...I shouldn’t... I need to start over.”
She could almost see the devilishly red lightbulb go off in his head.
“I suppose it’s time for reintroductions. But let me be clear.” He trailed a hand up her thigh. “I will poke at ya.” His other hand found the small of her back and jerked her flush to his body. “I will tease ya.” He dipped his lips close to her neck and skimmed up without touching her. “Because I know how good we can be together.” His lips were millimeters from her own. “And some part of ya knows it, tae.” His teeth clicked together in a nip that just barely missed her lips.
Then he stepped away.
Annika slumped against the counter and did her best to ignore his wolfish grin. There was no denying what he did to her. He knew it. He could smell it. She just needed strength to remain resolute.
And he freely admitted he would push her buttons and wear at her resistance.
Fucking hell.
“If ya two are done actin’ like pure hooligans, ya mind letting me bleach me kitchen?” Sorcha called into the kitchen.
Eoghan threw his head back and laughed
9
Andon, representative for Clan Sillas and dragons in direct opposition to the Mad Queen, held himself stiffly and ignored the chaos going on around him. His honor guard stood just as stiffly on either side and two steps behind him.
A cage was being constructed in the center of the cleared warehouse and all the mutts and inferiors were running around in high excitement. But Andon chose not to see the little mice scurry. He focused on the man in charge of them all.
Eoghan Gilchrist had been human the last time Andon had been allowed in the warehouse where the man held his pitiful court. Allowed. As if the human Don of a weak Shadow Mob could control a dragon. But the man had access to the rough sort of shifters who didn’t mind throwing claws around for cash, so Andon held his tongue.
Gilchrist never stopped touching the woman at his side. A hand on her knee, an arm over the back of her shoulders, fingers tracing her fingers.
The human had become dragon and the dragon had taken a mate.
It was puzzling. Gilchrist was too old to have gone into his first Heat. It happened when men were half his age. The scent of dragon should have been on him from the start, even if he had somehow delayed his natural process. The only known method of delay? Raise a dragonling away from his kind so there was never a chance for his shifter genes to spark. With decades of war and the dragons confined to Patomas- and the court keeping a tight rein on all its citizens, there was only one explanation for how an unknown male dragon could have been raised away from his clan.
There were the stories, of course. The famed Lost Princes. Five were born and five were stolen away. The Mad Queen went mad after her children vanished without a trace.
Andon thought he had found one.
Favors would be lavished on him if he returned a prince to Patomas. Not by the Mad Queen, of course. She and the Pythian would surely end their vicious war to buy back such a valuable hostage.
And if they didn’t, more clans would join with Sillas and unite against the Dragon Court. The islands embroiled in war would finally have some peace and the ill-fit rulers would be torn down. Andon would welcome his role as hero.
The woman next to him was intriguing in her own right. Dragon, too, if his nose wasn’t too filled with the stink of Gilchrist. Why would another dragon be in his court?
Lenore hadn’t mentioned that fact when she lured Andon back to the filthy city. Did the woman think he would be averse to killing another dragon? He would be paid well for killing Lenore’s rival. But something even more thrilling had fallen into his lap when he agreed to take the job.
He would need to inform his superiors. Both Gilchrist and the female would need to be run through the Department of Powyrworld Affairs. Gilchrist, in particular, would need a blood sample to confirm his true lineage. Andon was already forming a plan to get it.
“I deeply regret how our talks ended last time but I was gladdened to hear you were willing to hear my requests.” Andon kept any stray emotion out of his voice. He was there on official business, after all. His side projects would need to remain hidden until his trap was ready to spring.
Gilchrist titled his head and whispered something into the female’s ear, not taking his eyes off Andon.
Andon would kill them both if he didn’t need to keep Gilchrist alive.
“Frankly, I just don’t see why ya had tae see me. The answer is the same as before. I won’t back the losing side of a war I don’t even care about.”
Andon wanted to grind his teeth. The man had given no answer before. Gilchrist had cut off negotiations without warning. Andon left after being told one time too many that the man was otherwise occupied. The disrespect was astounding.
“If I may suggest—” Andon began.
“Speak up, man. Ya can see there’s work going on,” Gilchrist interrupted.
Andon cleared his throat and tried not to glare at all the scurrying shifters around him. They should be put to better use than hammering away at bleachers and fencing. He should have been seen in a quiet place without all the activity.
“If I may suggest, Don Gilchrist, you and your… mate are welcome to tour our lands. I would extend you all the courtesy of Clan Sillas and you could see the strides that have been made in our conflict for yourself. We have made many alliances. We are not a losing side.” Andon himself had made many of those deals. Only half-bloods or those without the ability to shift were able to leave Patomas. He had orders to travel with his meager entourage and cajole and pay for mercenaries to supplement the troops.
Gilchrist spread his hands wide. “It isn’t in the signs, my friend.”
“Frankly, Don, your signs are wrong.” Andon struggled to keep the growl out of his voice. “We barely spoke when I was last here. I don’t see how you could formulate a proper decision with such little time or focus.”
“It didn’t need any time or focus. The answer was always going tae be no. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a reservation tae meet.” Gilchrist stood and pulled his female to her feet. He slung his arm over her shoulder and they sauntered away several steps, utterly ignoring Andon. Only when they neared the door did Gilchrist turn them both. “Stay the week, if ya choose. The fights are a big draw. Ya can see the strides we make in our conflicts.”
Andon snapped, “I don’t care what you think of me or my Clan, but the courteous thing to do w
ould have been to invite me and hear out my proposal.”
Gilchrist dropped his arm and tongued his teeth before crossing the warehouse. He stood within inches of Andon. His face sharpened and his eyes turned to ice. “We’re not in yer false court. Do not try tae school me. Yer here by my courtesy alone. Test me again and see how far that takes ya.”
Andon bit his tongue and held his words. He ground his teeth together until he was locked behind thick doors in the dank hotel room the Don set aside in his blasted courtesy. Andon didn’t even bother to unpack before he dug out his phone and dialed his next option.
There was no answer, of course. Mariko liked to use secure lines. It was only a few minutes before Andon’s phone rang.
“Yes?” Mariko’s clipped tone reached his ears.
“I understand you are seeking new lands.”
“Andon, what a pleasant surprise. I have been eyeing some property to the north, yes.”
Andon appreciated Mariko’s take on business negotiations. He felt the anger in his chest start to release. “I also understand you have been unwilling to release workers for my business.”
“This is true. I have concerns for their safety.”
“I think I have a way for you to gain the land that holds your interest.”
The line was so quiet that he thought Mariko had hung up on him. Andon waited. She likely had silenced the call and conferred with her underboss.
The Yakuza were hesitant to strike any deals. They were more organized than the Shadow Mob and seemed to strike with one goal in mind, never the fractured goals of individuals. But if Andon could give them what they wanted—territory—then they would be willing to give him what he needed—mercenaries and a Lost Prince—as payment.
“We will meet and discuss the details. It just so happens I have a prior engagement in your area. I should be free after sunset.”
