by Susan Arden
Below the staircase, he noted a bike and a set of skates on a hook. He took her elbow as they scaled the steps, casually glancing around from the small porch and observing the dark shadows scurrying from behind trees, threading between cars, then a bleep as something darted behind a wooden fence. A wind chime clinked above his head as the breeze swept across the deck. A set of chairs and a table were off to the side, and a pair of running shoes were propped up on one of the seats.
Shay unlocked the door and pushed it open, but he reached out for her. His whole body tensed and he stalled, unable to move as he grabbed for her arm. His pulse raced, a byproduct of watching the shadows below and wondering if they were all friends … or not. The scales below the surface of his skin began to rise, and he breathed out, shooting a cloud of smoke from his lungs. All of a sudden, he felt a sense of needing to protect Shay rise from his core.
“Wait,” he growled, his dorsal fin rising along his spine as his cranial horn pierced the skin at his forehead. Wings would follow if he didn’t reel in this overzealous craving to shield Shay.
“Okay, really. There’s such a thing as secondhand smoke and it’s not good for babies. Either you learn to moderate or we can’t have a conversation inside. Rule number one: no smoking inside my place.”
He clenched his jaw. “Makes sense. I’ll turn down the heat.”
Fuck! That wasn’t possible. If anything, he was powered up, ready to either fuck like a dragon—who hadn’t had a woman since this one—or succumb to the pressure of safeguarding the perimeter.
“Rule number two: I don’t want to fuck you. It could hurt our babies. Do you understand that concept, Drake?”
Inhaling and staring down into her eyes, he knew he’d never do anything to purposefully harm her or his unborn infants. For as much as he needed to talk and then assuage his hunger to claim her as his mate, he heard the twining messages in her words. Loud and louder. Twins. His. She could be in danger if he was too rough. Dragon sex. Always rough.
“Got them. Two rules. No smoking. No rough riding.”
Her eyes widened, then the blush overtaking her cheeks made him temporarily forget everything—except the razor sharp instinct to make her his. Whatever it took.
“Good. You’re thinking with your brain this time,” she said.
“I promise. You’ll be safe with me.”
• • •
Backed up to a wall inside her apartment, Shay met his stare. “Then why the hell do I feel like I have just brooked the worst idea in history by inviting you inside my place?” Holy shit, she’d meant to just think that … not say it out loud.
Drake’s lips thinned and sealed shut. In Lisbon, he would have been all over her for a comeback like that one. With his clenched jaw and arched brow, she remembered all too well what he was like then. And talk wasn’t what came to mind as she glanced down his body when he closed the door and locked it. Big words, Shay, with those rules. All she could think about was smoking hot sex. Was she mental?
She wasn’t about to tell her him what Dr. Sosa, the obstetrician had pronounced: leopardess mothers were hardcore. She could bench press probably as much as her brother. A hell of a lot more than the guys at the gym. Dr. Trish confirmed what the obstetrician had said and delved further into her dragon pregnancy, as was Trish’s nature. She plied Shay with loads of materials to read about dragon babies and badgered her about nutrition.
So Shay understood this wasn’t like any regular shifter pregnancy. There was some sort of anomaly in how her body had changed to accommodate her developing infants. Every day she had to expend her energy, Dr. Sosa said, or she’d hurt from muscle atrophy. At first her martial arts training gave her an outlet, but more and more she required the burn—or release of the burn—from too much lactic acid build-up in her muscles. If she didn’t exercise, her muscles ached and hurt like she’d overtrained. Weird. But she got with the program and ran ten miles daily. Or cycled, covering miles and miles through the flat country back roads. She’d recently taken up skating.
Faced with Drake, her potential mate, she needed distance immediately and it would be far easier if he believed his way of wild sex was off-limits. Bogus, but let him put on the brakes.
“Care for something to drink? I have juice, milk, water, and herbal tea.”
“I’m good,” he said, his back to the door; he’d yet to cross the tiny foyer.
Oh yeah. He was good … in bed, between her legs, and especially in making her scream his name.
“Are you going to come in or stay posted at the door all night?”
“Just waiting for you to show me the way. It’s customary to invite your guests to where you’d like to sit. Am I right?”
Goodness. Where were her manners? She was struggling to act normal with him staring holes into her body—not that his overpowering gaze wasn’t enjoyable once she got used to it. “This way,” she choked, still uneasy in his presence as she led the way to her makeshift living room.
The apartment was a hob-cob matrix of small rooms that were still part storage for the bar, but the rest Solomon said she could do with whatever she desired. For free rent, she couldn’t complain. From her tips, she bought food and the fire retardant supplies required for everything from cribs to sheets to material to make dragon baby clothes.
“Thanks,” he said, looking around her place.
“Okay, you said you wanted to talk,” she said, watching him walk toward her with his alpha male demeanor and his eyes glowing green in the low lighting. “I’m all ears.”
“Should I just say what’s on my mind or do you want me to organize my thoughts in some sort of order?”
“I’m fine with random.”
“First item,” he said, stopping in front her. “You’re my mate. Nothing in this universe will change that. No shifter will touch you without first challenging me to claim you and I’ll never release you, Shay. We’re bound.”
“Bound? Like to your bed?” She couldn’t encounter silk scarves without shivering, and the memory made her heartbeat race.
“Sweetheart, not that kind of bound. We’re linked by DNA now.”
She was determined not to flinch or drop her gaze, but it was damn hard to stand under his livewire perusal and remain unaffected. “There must be something that can be done. Can’t we find a physician, a shaman—dammit, what about a witch doctor?”
“Didn’t I warn you?” He hooked his finger gently under her chin, and the draw to give into him filled her. Ache and need swirled in her body and his babies fluttered within her abdomen. “You are mine,” he told her in a deep voice.
“I wasn’t myself last summer. I would have agreed to selling my soul that night.”
The corners of his lips curled and he raised a brow. “I thought you didn’t remember a thing. Apparently, you recall a few details. Tell me the truth, don’t you want me inside you? Right now?”
“You already are. I’m carrying your children.”
“Thank you for clarifying that point, but you know that’s not what I’m referring to. I’ll be gentle with you. Just the tip of my cock and we can enjoy each other. Or my mouth, fingers, and nothing more. As dragon and mate, we need skin-on-skin contact and we won’t be able to refrain from each other—to do so would put us at risk, unable to think logically when our primal instincts become fully roused. From the way I feel right now, it’s only a matter of a few hours. If you know so much about dragons, then surely you realize what I’m saying is true. Don’t try and run, once we encounter each other, this instinct can only be abated one way.”
“I didn’t study mating rituals. So no, I’m ignorant to dragon mates.”
He laughed. “Not that ignorant to mates.” He placed his hand over her abdomen and the twins kicked. “Our children are strong.”
“Please,” she said, wanting to move back. She’d been so stubborn, refusing to read about dragon mates even when Trish forewarned her that she might find those tidbits more than trivial. But oh no! She’d held on st
aunchly to the idea that mating was irrelevant to her pregnancy. She’d been a fool. Now she actually leaned into his hand on her belly. The feeling was so relaxing to her ragged senses, a deep moan bubbled up her throat.
“You’d feel better naked. Let me massage your skin. I promise, nothing will happen that you don’t want and skin-on-skin is what you need. Didn’t your doctor relay anything about dragons?”
There weren’t any dragons that she knew of in Harmony until now. “Dr. Sosa sticks to the care and treatment of me and the babies.”
“Lie down on your bed and let me make you feel good. I’ll massage your back and shoulders.”
“I don’t believe that’s a good idea.” In the few short minutes of being alone with Drake in an enclosed space, she learned she needed more than a few paltry rules to keep them from ripping both their clothes off.
He brushed a few strands of hair behind her ears. “This color looks pretty on you.”
“Another product of my pregnancy. Not my choice,” she said, shivering under his touch. Her hair was no longer blue-black but had changed to a fiery copper. Even the fine hairs on her arms were reddish, as were her eyebrows … and other places.
“Yeah, I remember you were all about choices in Lisbon. I would never stop you from doing what you desired. I’m not like Necrodemas.”
“Night and day.” She nodded. “No joke. He made some threats before I left Denver,” she added.
“And now?” he asked, his pupils elongated rapidly.
“He…hasn’t contacted me but he’s out there. And I know he’s dirty. Or at least he was last August in how he acquired art as a Chief Justice.”
“Your brother should be reminded of that. He’s well informed by Tristen and Fin. They’re on his team, helping him manage his businesses around Denver. Those two hardcore beta wolves have his back. But in case he doesn’t have a line on Dimitri’s dealings, it might help if they know your thoughts on the other justice councils across the world, especially when humans are pitted against shifters like what occurred in China and Syria,” he commented, the heat from him radiating over her skin. Unlike last summer when she felt a burning connection with Drake, this sizzle was perfect. So magnetic and aching that her nipples hardened.
“Why don’t you tell him?”
“I’m not close to Shawn as we once were.”
“Because of me?” she asked, her voice pitching upward as she instinctively leaned nearer to him, and his breath swept over her face.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Because of me,” he countered. “I take responsibility for what occurred.”
“Then you told them … how much?” She bit her lip, wondering how her family took the news coming from him.
“I took responsibility for what occurred. I wasn’t going to lie to them. They fired me and it was tense. At first.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle as her stomach twisted. She closed her eyes, shaking her head for a second. Hard to believe they’d both lost their jobs—worse, they’d both been fired. Swallowing her guilt at being so headstrong, she trained her focus on him. “Drake, I’m so sorry I got you caught in the crossfire.”
“You didn’t. Don’t you remember? I was more than a willing partner. I can take care of myself and our children.”
“I still can’t believe my parents would have made me marry that bag of wind. I don’t understand why they sided with him.”
“Don’t think of them harshly.” His features tensed and she recognized his shuttering facade. Enough to track the glow fading from his eyes as his pupils stretched into slivers. The dragon sign for suppressed emotions.
“Wait. What aren’t you telling me? Out with it, Drake.”
“Your parents,” he said softly, “aren’t the same.”
CHAPTER 6
His pupils elongated into slits. He felt the change as his vision sharpened. In response to the tension of being this close to his mate, his whole body incrementally transformed into a minor shape shift, bringing him nearer to his dragon nature. Shay unclaimed or not, his body only knew one thing: she was his. The physical changes in her confirmed they needed to take the last step in a mutual claiming and she’d be his forever. Easier to protect her since they’d share an undeniable lifeline as mated and claimed dragons.
How to relay that fact? Did she realize where her future lay? She’d fought like hell when another shifter had wanted her, for all the wrong reasons.
Would she fight tooth and nail when he sought to claim her? There was no way he’d let her go or go on without him.
Pregnant with twin dragons—what a spitfire. The feisty mother of his children. Of course, the mate he’d sought out would have to be this headstrong woman—a woman who hated the idea of him. She had always fought him at every turn and more than likely, always would. No wonder he couldn’t put her out of his mind. Couldn’t bed another in her place. His whole mind, body, even soul had been in chaos over the last five months as he fought to ignore the driving force to find her.
Shit, this trip was turning out to be a regular powder keg.
“I haven’t been in touch with my parents since the summer. What are you talking about?” Shay asked.
He slid his hands onto her shoulders. She needed honesty, but how to make it less brutal? “They were in a car accident. No one knows if it was just an accident and I’m not part of the inner circle where your family is concerned. What was released to the press isn’t the whole story. Another reason you need to get in contact with Shawn.”
Inches apart from Shay, he absorbed the heat of her body, speaking to him in an ancient message that demanded he do more than tease his instincts. His stiff cock rode up the back of his zipper, going granite hard. Her exotic leopardess scent mixed with a haunting fragrance overpowered his ability to think straight. He’d heard what happened to alpha dragons in the presence of their mate. He hadn’t accurately envisioned the depth of the allure she’d possess over him. The draw to her ran bone deep. Ah hell, this was cell deep.
His response to her was more like some reptilian response where the primal impulse was to eat and mate when they were next to one another. Strike that. Only “mate” remained as the blaring operational message commanding him and infiltrating his bloodstream. She was his and pregnant with his children. Those two factors made him all the more ready to drag her to bed and plunge his dick into her, filling her up with his release while sinking his fangs into her and marking her intimately. She’d have the power to use her canines and mark him as well. Together they’d be joined, sharing emotions and having the power to telepathically communicate. Empathic. Dragon nature.
He imagined he wouldn’t be able to leave her side for the next week or two. His body would demand that they mate over and over again. Generally, once a female was impregnated, her mate would then be a regular fucking machine until he was physically worn out. Probably the law of survival acknowledged the odds if he could do it once, then he’d do it again. But hell, he wasn’t about to look for another bedmate even if the dragon nature was to acquire several at once.
“God. This has something to do with shifter politics. Doesn’t it?” Her chin quivered as she looked to him for an answer.
“There’s a lot of violence in cities. Shifter on human and shifter on shifter.”
“My parents worked for justice and shifter equality, and I ran away because of what? A few instances of name-calling. What have I done?” Shay slumped forward, and leaned onto his chest. The silky texture of her hair brushed against his chin and it was too easy to draw her next to him.
“What you had to … ” he murmured, savoring her scent. He withheld from running his hands down her body and reacquainting himself with a hundred reasons why she tormented him.
She pressed her forehead into his shoulder. “Please. How bad do you think they are? Tell me what you know that’s fact.”
This time he wound several silky strands of her hair around his fingers and deeply inhaled her fragrance, the mysterious lingering scen
t that haunted him, leaving him on edge as though he were back on a search-and-find covert mission. The familiar essence in her glowed like magical moonlight, but he’d didn’t understand why she’d glow cool warmth if she were filled with his babies. In his encyclopedic knowledge, he couldn’t find anything related. Not that he had much on the subject of spitfire leopardess shifters. On that chapter he had next to nothing and it left him feeling more and more like a clumsy idiot in Shay’s presence.
“I’ll tell you what I know, but you must promise to remain calm.” He was grateful to concentrate on something other than his overzealous hunger to sample her mouth. Relaying the dismal facts squelched his primal urges … at least for the moment.
Lifting her face to him, he saw her slender brows drew together as she nodded. “I don’t fly off the handle. Not as easily as when you knew me last.”
He searched her face, unwilling to admit her untamed nature wasn’t a real problem in his book, except when she thwarted his authority. He captured her hands in his and squeezed gently. “Your dad was hurt but he’ll recover. According to the specialist’s diagnosis and the trauma Richard’s suffered. Your father’s doctor said the induced coma will reset his pain threshold.”
“Coma! My dad is in a coma?” She jerked her head upward.
“It’s a medical procedure to help alleviate pain.”
Shay gripped his hands. “Don’t stop until you tell me every damn detail. I’m serious, Drake!”
“There’s not a lot of detail beyond what I’ve already told you. Your parents were in an auto accident. But from what I understand your father is on the mend, and I’m not sure about your mother.”
“My mom is all right … isn’t she?” She bit her lush lip in her signature move that failed to hide she was torn.
“Yes. From what I have heard. Your mom is at home and safe. Your dad will be back home in a day or two. This is exactly what Shawn said and why he seeks you out. He’s your blood as they are—it’s not hard to understand why they want to repair the rift.” That was the truth and his chest tightened when he felt her shoulders begin to shake, and her jagged inhalation as though she couldn’t breathe.
