She broke their kiss. “Don’t fight against it. Just do what feels natural. Please.”
He slammed a hand against the tiled wall, and she noticed then his fingernails had lengthened. She wasn’t afraid of him or what was happening. Deep down, she trusted him with all her being.
“P-Princess,” he pushed out between clenched teeth. “You’re going to end up claimed.”
“That would be a yes to me being your mate then I take it,” she said with a grin, her hand moving down his torso to his hard cock. She couldn’t get her fingers all the way around the girth, but she stroked him all the same.
Casey growled and then descended on her, making her squeal with delight as he shoved her legs open, sending water sloshing over the side of the tub. She opened even wider for him, putting her arms out to her man—her wolf.
***
Casey struggled against the beast beating at him from the inside out. It was no use. He finally had Harmony under him, naked, welcoming him. He lined up with her core and did as the wolf had wanted to do—he rammed deep into her. Her tight pussy gripped him as he went nearly balls-deep before running out of room.
She cried out, her nails digging at his torso before raking around his side. The pain was welcome. It helped Casey get something that resembled control over the wolf to keep from shifting anything more than his hand for now. He pumped into her hard and accidentally pushed her under the water line. With a growl he grabbed her and lifted her partially out of the water, holding her there as he began to drill in and out of her. He wanted to explode. It had been too long since he’d known the pleasure of a woman and to finally have his mate was too much.
She bucked against him, and he smiled inwardly. She would be a tough one to get to ever surrender fully to him, and he liked that. Liked knowing his mate presented a challenge.
“Oh, Casey, there,” she said between moans. “Harder.”
He let go, pounding into her the way he needed to. She didn’t break, but rather, she seemed to come alive in his arms. Hot energy buzzed around him, and he knew it was from her. As Casey thrust into his woman, he noticed a healthy glow starting to radiate from her as if her magik was working to heal her from her weeklong ordeal.
Sexual energy.
She’d needed this from him. And he needed her. He kissed her and pumped hard and fast. The need to mark her was too great to resist. He tore his mouth from hers right before he felt his teeth lengthen. Casey considered withdrawing and rushing from the bathroom to keep from forcing a claim on her.
Harmony slapped his ass cheeks and then dug her fingers into the backs of his thighs, yanking on him, arching her back and exposing her neck to him. “Yes, Casey. Yes! Do it.”
“Mine!” he shouted with something close to a roar.
“Yes. Yours, and you’re mine.”
Her pussy clenched down on his cock and he knew she was coming. Unable to hold off any longer, he rammed deep, his mouth going to the flesh just above her breast. He bit down at the same moment seed erupted from his cock. Harmony seemed to shatter in his arms, crying out, pushing against him, her pussy continuing to clamp his cock as she peaked.
Casey’s cock twitched as he swallowed her blood. He licked the wound, watching it heal over instantly. Harmony’s magik seized hold of him, pulsing through him, drawing more pleasure from him as tiny strings seemed to form between them. She was doing it—she was returning his claim on her.
Casey lifted her and switched positions, putting her on top as he sat in the tub. She wasted no time and began to ride him, pulling from the pleasure built between them. Her lips found his, and she moved up and down on him—his cock still rock hard and ready for more. Her magik rejuvenated him as well.
Harmony paused and stared down at him. “Is it done?”
He nodded.
She grinned. “Good.”
He caught her by the waist and held her there, keeping her from being able to move on him. “I’m sorry it took me a week to get to you. And, Harmony, I am so fucking sorry it took me all these years to admit who you are to me.”
She touched his lower lip. “You’re just lucky I love you, or I’d get my pumps and go for your eyes too.” She smiled and then kissed him tenderly.
He was about to release her hips so she could move on him more, when he realized what she’d said. She loved him? He’d been nothing but an asshole to her for years. He stared up at her, confusion coating his face.
“Silly Captain Black,” she said softly. “They trained you so well—except for seeing huge clues. Of course I’ve had feelings for you for years. Why do you think I gave you such a hard way to go? Now that I’m technically your wife, you’ll have plenty of time to really be annoyed by me.”
“Princess, you can annoy me anytime you want,” he said, letting her sink down onto his cock more. His hands went to her large breasts. He cupped them and stared up at her, feeling less like a broken operative and more like a man than he had in nearly a century. He’d wanted to give her romance and make their claiming special. More than what he had.
“Good,” she said with a grin.
He stared up at her, the wheels in his head spinning. He’d get with their friends in the morning and he’d do something special for her. Something to prove just what she meant to him.
You could tell her.
He froze and she hit just the right spot on him when she moved, his cock threatening to burst once more. With a shaky voice, he said words he’d never uttered before in his long life. “I love you too.”
“Well, of course you do,” she returned, her lips finding his just as he lost control and came deep in her again.
Epilogue
“I look like an idiot,” said Casey, tugging on his tux jacket. He’d not seen the man reflected back at him from the mirror in nearly a century. His hair was cut, and while still longer than most men wore, it was much shorter than it had been. His beard was gone, and even though he had just shaved, he already had a five o’clock shadow. The price he paid for being more than human.
“You look great,” said Laney as she held out cufflinks for him.
“This is a stupid idea.” He made a move to change from the tux, but Laney blocked his path to his closet. When he’d dreamed this up three nights ago, in the tub, it had seemed brilliant. Now it seemed silly. “She’ll hate this.”
He’d overcome being a lab rat for the government. He’d come out the other side of the ordeal alive and against the odds. He’d managed to evade the very government that had turned him into what he was, all to find himself wanting to bail and hide when it came to putting on a show for his mate. He wanted to do something special for her. To give her a mating ceremony she deserved. Not the hard fuck and claim with no foreplay or courting he’d given her. When he’d dreamed this up, it had sounded like the perfect plan. That was before he found himself out of his element—no longer comfortable dressed in a tuxedo.
Your mate is fancy, he reminded himself. She’s used to a certain way of life. Give it to her.
“Harmony is going to love this,” returned Laney calmly as her mate, James, entered the room.
“You all set?” James asked, already in his tux. “You might want to speed it up. Bill already grabbed a handful of the cake and is eating it. Also, he’s arguing with Gus, which in itself is amusing to watch since it’s pretty one-sided to the rest of us.”
Laney smiled. “Casey, this was your idea, and she will love it. She loves you.”
“I can’t really figure out why,” he said absently.
James laughed. “I ask myself the same thing with regards to Laney daily. No clue what the girl sees in me.”
“Yeah, me either,” said Casey evenly.
Laney slapped his arm playfully. “Stop. Now, let’s get you downstairs. Your woman should be here any minute.”
There was a light rapping at the door before Corbin, a PSI-Op and head of the team that was currently present in Casey’s home, entered. “Boomer and Weston are doing their best to keep
Duke from eating Bill after what he did to Lola. I make no promises that, if you delay further, your friend will not be the main course,” said Corbin, his British accent shining through.
Laney snorted. “Really, you’d think the man didn’t have an endless line of sports cars to pick from.”
James grinned. “My guess is Duke is more upset by the fact those two got the jump on him than that they wrecked Lola. Probably for the best. If they didn’t, Mercy would have. His mate is brilliant, but she is a total menace with a stick shift.”
Casey took a deep, shaky breath. “I can’t do this.”
“Och, do we have a groom or do we nae?” asked a large Scotsman in a kilt and T-shirt made to look like a tuxedo who entered the room. He glanced at Casey and did a double take. “You clean up guid.”
“Striker,” said James. “Did you happen to see if Duke was contained?”
“Aye. I just tied him to a chair. He’s pissed, but he’s nae eatin’ the lil guy he keeps calling a crazy monkey.”
Casey shook his head. His make-up wedding day to Harmony was turning into a circus. “I guess I’m ready.”
Striker grinned. “You already claimed her. The hard part is over. This is just lettin’ her know she’s special to you.”
“I know. I just want it to be perfect. She’s perfect.”
Striker flashed a wide smile. “She’s a hottie.”
Casey narrowed his gaze on the man.
Putting his hands up, Striker shook his head. “Do nae be thinkin’ of killin’ me. I’m only tellin’ you the truth. Also, yer fly is undone.”
“Oh yeah, she’s going to love this,” Casey said, zipping his pants and heading in the direction of the door.
“We need to hurry this up,” said Striker.
Laney laughed. “Tell me you’re not in a hurry to get back to the online forums again. You do realize we’re all doing our best to downplay the information about the operatives going live?”
Striker shrugged. “Och, ladies love the idea of immortals. And if you hung in the forums you’d see there are a bunch of ladies who want nothin’ more than for a shifter male to rock their worlds. I posted a picture of me in my kilt. Had over a thousand comments.” He looked to Corbin. “You cannae see my face so do nae start on me. And no one let me plan a bachelor party for Casey so its nae like I got to have fun there. Had to do somethin’ to occupy myself.”
“You didn’t get to plan one because he’s already mated,” added James. “Your party would have left him unmated and possibly in a third world prison.”
Striker smiled. “Third world prisons are nae that bad. Well, except that one—never mind. But hurry up. The fucking vampires are tryin’ to move in on my forums. I cannae lose to Sparkles.”
“He’s hopeless,” said Laney with a shake of her head.
Casey sensed Harmony nearing the house. “She’s coming.”
“You can sense her?” asked Corbin, seeming more than a little intrigued.
Nodding, Casey smiled softly. “I feel her with every fiber of my being. Always have. Gods willing, I always will.”
He headed out and down the hallway, stopping at the top of the staircase. He’d wanted to be at the door to greet Harmony upon her arrival. Mercy, Duke’s mate, had taken Harmony out for a manicure to fix her broken nail. It had been the perfect cover to get Harmony out of the house so that Casey and the others could throw together something that resembled a wedding.
Harmony opened the door before Casey was able to get all the way down the stairs. He froze, unsure how she’d take what he’d done. She was laughing at something Mercy was saying and at first didn’t seem to notice all the decorations. She turned, her gaze moving over the grand entrance. She stopped laughing and stood still, blocking Mercy from being able to enter.
“Holy crapola,” said Harmony softly, tearing up. “It rained flowers in here.”
Her attention came to him and she glanced past him at first and then did a double take, her eyes wide. “Ohmygods, there is a man under all that hair?”
The connection he felt to her intensified with each step he took in her direction. She looked around more as Mercy pretty much pushed her into the house and then shut the door behind her.
Harmony touched her upper chest. “What is all of this?”
Mercy glanced at Casey and winked before she paused, staring off and into the formal dining room area. “Uh, why is my husband tied to a chair and gagged?”
They all pointed to Bill as he came out from the dining area, cake smeared on his face. He smiled and cake fell out of his mouth. “He was being a bully again.”
Mercy looked as though she was trying not to laugh.
Casey neared Harmony and put his hand out. “Do you like it?”
She glanced around and then at him. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
“We’re getting married,” he said softly, realizing the rest of the crew was now down the stairs, watching them. He swallowed hard. “I just thought you’d like something special. More than what I gave you when I claimed you, Princess. It was a dumb idea. I’ll change. Everyone will leave.”
Harmony grabbed him and tugged, her hands moving up to his cheeks. She stared up at him and he realized she was crying. “You did all this for me?”
He nodded.
She touched his cheeks and laughed through her tears. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I miss the beard.” She went to her tiptoes and kissed him, her tongue darting into his mouth, making his body heat with need.
Growling, he lifted her and turned to head to the staircase with his woman in his arms. Someone tapped his shoulder and he broke the kiss to find Weston standing there, grinning.
“Sex her up later. Marry her again now,” said Weston. “I wore a tuxedo. This is happening. Period.”
Harmony laughed. “Oh yes. It is totally happening.”
The End
About the Author
New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author of the Daughter of Darkness Series and the Immortal Ops Series. Mandy M. Roth is a self-proclaimed Goonie, loves 80s music and movies and wishes leg warmers would come back into fashion. She also thinks the movie The Breakfast Club should be mandatory viewing for…okay, everyone. When she’s not dancing around her office to the sounds of the 80s, she’s busy writing sexy paranormal operatives. Mandy lives in Oxford, Mississippi with her husband and three boys.
www.mandyroth.com
Determined Prince
by Michelle M. Pillow
Captured by a Dragon-Shifter
A Dragon Lords Romance
Dragonshifter Prince Kyran has studied the Earth people and is ready to assimilate. Female shifters are all but going extinct on his planet of Qurilixen, and his people are desperate for mates—so much so they’re taking matters into their own hands. What better place to capture a woman than Earth? After all, dragonshifters had come from there centuries ago. Surely a human female would be honored to be selected by one as fine and fierce as himself?
While on Earth, Kyran stumbles upon the most beautiful woman he’s ever imagined, singing something the natives call rock ‘n’ roll. His blood simmers and he knows Eve is the one for him. But taming this feisty female is going to take much more than his training prepared him for.
Note from Author
If you’re new to my books, the Dragon Lords are my bestselling futuristic romance series. The stories became reader favorites, and so I wrote things from their enemy’s point of view in a spin-off series for the catshifting Lords of the Var. Then they ventured off into the stars in the series installment Space Lords. Now, I’m time traveling with them back to our time with the series Captured by a Dragon-Shifter, which you are now reading book one of. Don’t worry, I have the series reading order on my website to help you figure it all out, www.michellepillow.com.
To those of you not new to my books, readers have emailed asking Dragon Lords cultural questions since the first dragonshifting prince released ten years
ago. I have teased you with a lot of little hints of how the Draig found brides in “the old days”. Many of you have expressed wanting to climb aboard the space ship and sail away into the future—which would probably take some cryogenic freezing and a lot of icy waiting. Well, before you start packing those sweaters… I don’t want any of you going to that extreme, so I’ve brought your favorite dragonshifters and catshifters to modern-day Earth. They don’t live on our planet, but they have recently started to revisit.
For Dragon Lords and Lords of the Var fans, Captured by a Dragon-Shifter is a modern-day prequel series to those first books. They take place long before the princes you know and love ever found their mates, long before The Dragon’s Queen, in a time when the dragonshifters and catshifters actually—wait for it—liked each other and hung out as friends. They also don’t have Galaxy Brides to bring them women. There’s no one left to marry on the planet and things are starting to get desperate.
Author recommends reading series installments in order of release for the simple fact she likes hiding little tidbits in the books as she goes and it’s more fun that way, though each book can be read as a standalone if you prefer.
Chapter One
Draig Northern Mountains, Planet of Qurilixen, the near future
Prince Kyran adjusted the bandana around his neck as he peered deeper into the dark cave hidden within the mountain. At least, he was fairly sure the thing around his neck was called a bandana. Or was it a handkerchief? It was hard to remember all the human words. Technically, his people still spoke a dialect of an Earth language, but so much had changed in the centuries since they’d left the planet, that many new words and customs had to be learned.
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