by Blue Saffire
If I hadn’t stepped in a few times with magic, the process would have taken longer. The disappearance of Tasha involved some tricky memory swiping. However, our wait was finally over six months after the night I defeated Renshu. The boys came to stay with us permanently.
“Good job, Kyro. That was a bigger splash than last time.” Brianna’s voice brings me back to the here and now.
Two years after the day she set me free from my prison, I still cannot get enough of her—from that beautiful dark brown skin to that sweet smile and those brown eyes. She is and always will be my mate. She lifts Jade in her arms bouncing her in and out of the water. Her diamond wedding band glistening off the lights, bouncing rainbows throughout the poolroom.
“I’m glad you decided to rebuild the house,” Mason says floating past with my son Ladon in his arms. “I can’t imagine losing this pool.”
Brianna looks to me and smiles. I know she is agreeing with Mason. A lot of the mansion got destroyed the night Renshu burst through the walls of my bedroom. My master was completely destroyed, as well as a few guest rooms, and one wall of the pool area was knocked out.
“I can’t imagine being without it either. Did your sister ever tell you about our first time visiting this pool?”
Brianna gasps and I look to her and wink. It is my payback for her wearing that tiny bathing suit, knowing I cannot take her how I want her right now.
“Oh tell us the story, Bri,” Kyro pleads.
“Well, it was in that spot right there,” I say pointing before Brianna splashes me with a wave of water that makes my baby girl laugh.
The twins are a little over a year-old and my dragon and I have been eager to see her belly full again. There was nothing more gorgeous than my pregnant Brianna. Even though she complained about swollen feet and a spreading nose, all I saw was the woman I love carrying proof of my love for her. My children.
Jade squeals in excitement as Tyrie takes her from Brianna.
“Jay,” he says happily as she gives him sloppy kisses. Tyrie has excelled since we took him. I’ve never seen a happier kid. I often times catch Brianna smiling with tears in her eyes as she watches him with the twins.
I dip under the water and swim to her in no time, despite how far apart we were. I come up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist to bring her into my chest. I plant a kiss on her shoulder, and she melts into my embrace.
“Are you happy, mate?” I ask.
Brianna doesn’t answer right away, through our bond I can feel her thoughtful reflection. I can’t help but stop to see what she is seeing. Mason is teaching Ladon how to doggy paddle. Kyro is laughing as he shows off his ability to doggy paddle too. Tyrie is still getting slobbery hugs and kisses from Jade while he continues to walk her around the water.
Brianna looks over her shoulder to stare into my eyes.
“Yes, I’m happy. Happier than I’ve ever been.”
This brings gladness into my heart. We’ve both lost a lot on this journey. Zhong was finally granted the peace that he deserved.
Not the way I wanted it for him, but I know that he was ready to go. Yet, I am still thankful for all that I went through. Without being locked in that statue, I would have never found Brianna.
“Do you know what I just realized?” she asks turning around in my arms to face me. She places her hands around my neck.
I place a kiss on her full lips. “What is that, my love?”
“That I finally like your dragon story. It now has a happily ever after.”
I smile down at her. “That it does.” I agree before I seal my lips to hers.
Acknowledgments
Thanks again to all my regular readers that take the time to read and enjoy my work. You make it worth it. For my new readers that stumbled on this book by accident, I appreciate you too.
Special thank you to the ladies of Perceptive Illusion Publishing. You ladies rock and inspire me to be great.
To my husband, my inspiration behind all my sexy male leads, I love you. Thanks for the support. And, as always, last but not least, to my three favorite people in the world. Mama loves you, and all I do, I do for you.
About the Author
Tiya Rayne is an avid reader and writer. She has an unhealthy relationship with coffee and is known to hide numerous bags of jelly beans around the house.
When she is not reading or writing—which is rare—she’s trying to master this thing called parenting. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they live in Arkansas with their three—subjectively wonderful—children. Tiya also writes Young Adult Paranormal under the pen name KC Connor.
Thank You
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The Cursed
Ivy Harper
The Cursed
Wicked Prince Charmings
Ivy Harper
Perceptive Illusions Publishing, Inc.
Bay Shore, New York
Copyright © 2019 by Ivy Harper.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Ivy Harper/Perceptive Illusions Publishing, Inc.
PO BOX 5253
Bay Shore, New York 11706
www.ktadler.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the address above.
The Cursed/ Ivy Harper. -- 1st ed.
The Cursed
Retelling of Sleeping Beauty
Decima Morta
I don’t want a Happily Ever After. I want a normal life. At the moment, I just want to capture a thief, but the ceiling has caved in. The violet gaze of a stranger and all my hopes of a normal life are blown away.
Ratnik Radu Vadija
As ratnik, I, Radu Vadija live by a code carved in stone for the survival of my people. The hunt for a traitor has led me to clash with a sharp tongue harpy, whose delectable figure is far more distracting than it should be. Especially when she’s suspected of helping the traitor.
Neither of us are prepared for the attraction that burns between us even as the flames of war are stirred by an unseen hand.
My family’s secret may bring happiness or plunge everything I love into flames.
Will she destroy my life as I know it or will this Sleeping Beauty be a story retold?
Chapter 1
Capture a Thief
Deci
I turn off the lights on my bike. My jeans feel tight from the long ride. Lifting a hand, I brush my tight curls from my fore
head. Nothing beats a good ride on my Ducati motorcycle. Dismounting, I stare at the house a few feet away.
The night is a gray one as clouds drift slowly across the sky. I lick my dry lips. I hadn’t expected it to be so easy to find my target.
Settling my helmet on the seat, I walk around the back of my bike, my boots clicking on the cement. Pulling the latch up, I look inside my goody bag with a happy smile.
“What will be our toy of choice tonight?” I mumble under my breath, as I dig inside. I push aside nunchucks and two short blades. I pause with my hand over a short staff. Clicking my tongue, I grab it, close my bag, and make sure the latch shuts.
A buzzing sound fills the air. I reach into my back pocket and pull my phone out, looking at the name on the display. I release an annoyed sigh and answer. “Hello, big sister.”
“Don’t hello me. Where the fuck are you, Deci?”
“Following a friend.”
She grunts. “Lie. You’re trying to find that ass again, aren’t you?”
I shrug, knowing she can’t see it. “Maybe.”
Silence meets that answer. I should’ve known she’d notice my absence. The La Morta family always gathers on the new moon to honor the ancestors. The cursed ancestors.
“Mom’s not going to be happy with your absence. You’ve already missed three other family get togethers.”
“Well, tell her I’m trying to break the curse, maybe that’ll settle her for like an hour,” I say sarcastically as I make my way up the long driveway. “After all, she swears us finding the prince will bring happiness.”
“You know she means marrying—” A voice in the background pulls her attention for a second. “Lacey wants me to tell you that she’s pissed that you left her here to suffer Aunt Rosa’s raisin potato salad.”
“Tell her to save me some so I can suffer later.”
“She said, will do. Deci, be careful, all right?”
“Don’t worry about me, you know I can take care of myself.”
“Right, but what if there’s a needle? Will you be okay?”
I ignore my immediate reaction to her words, the pit in my stomach growing. “I have everything under control.”
“Right… just don’t get picked up by the police. Mom will have your ass.”
“Whatever, goodbye.”
“Deci, I—”
I hang up, not interested in the rest she’s going to say. My sister, Astro, is like my mom in thinking that one day, one of us three sisters will be the first to bring an end to the La Morta curse. According to them, we’re doomed to suffer the same sudden ailment as some character from some fairy tale, all because some great-grandfather couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.
My sisters and I are jokingly called the Grimm sisters among our cursed relatives because we carry a far more powerful version of the curse. It doesn’t help that our mother is the only one known to have almost broken her curse. Either way, I don’t find it funny; especially given the fact that if a so-called prince charming doesn’t save me, I can go from sleep to death. Since I was young, I’ve gone out of my way to be the complete opposite of the curse. Which is why I’m here doing this on my own.
I climb the steps and I draw my hand back to knock hard on the door. “Hello,” I yell. Nothing but the sound of creaking wood and floorboards. “Yo, Craig, I know you're inside. Come on out, we need to talk.”
No answer, I shouldn’t be surprised. Taking a step back, I brace myself and lift my foot. I slam it into the door. I do it again. “Craig, come out,” I shout, not caring if the rest of the neighborhood hears me. I’d been looking for the man who’d stolen from me, and I know he’s here.
Lowering my foot with a huff, I look around the front of the house. “Ah, there we go.” I spot an open window to the right and stuff my short staff in my back pocket, crossing the front porch. I wriggle my fingers under the window and slowly push it up, grunting a bit as it sticks.
I mutter a curse when I realize it isn’t going any higher and straighten to give the street a look before leaning back to see if the neighbors have noticed me. Seeing they’re safely inside, I get back to work sneaking in.
I squeeze my not so small body into the crack I made and wriggle inside. Trying to hold back from making noise, I lean forward so my hands land flat on the dust covered floor. I pull myself further inside the room, ignoring the pain of having my stomach flattened against the windowsill.
That damn idiot Craig has me crawling through windows. I should’ve listened to Dennell, my assistant at the fight studio. He told me not to hire the town druggy, but it had been my attempt at showing a good heart. After all, Craig had gone to high school with us and it felt shitty to see him begging.
However, I miscalculated, Craig’s issue wasn’t using drugs but selling them. And he’d eagerly used my studio as a site for selling his garbage until I caught him handing a bag to Markey, a sixteen-year-old my sister Lacey has been working with at the shelter.
He’d begged for forgiveness, only to steal the money I’d been saving up for the kids that come to my studio. I had plans to take them to Florida to a see a real MMA fight. Those plans had been ruined by Craig’s thievery. I’m not going to let the fucker get away with it. After a week, I finally heard from someone just where to find him.
I flip on to my back once I’m fully inside and stare at the ceiling. I kind of wish they’d held off on giving me the information. If they had, I wouldn’t be here lying on this dusty floor.
Dust enters my throat and I start to cough. I roll onto my side and push up, only to find myself looking at the end of a muzzle. Blinking, I realize the one holding the gun is Craig.
Where the heck did he even come from?
“Now… let’s think this through, Craig.”
His gaze is bright with panic as he stares down at me and his hand holding the gun trembles. “You shouldn’t have come, Deci.” He jerks his eyes from me to the ceiling, then the door, before he returns them to me. “I… I was gonna return the money.”
Inwardly freaking out, I slowly shift my upper body higher. “Craig, put the gun down.”
He shakes his head frantically as he motions at me with his gun. “Don’t move. You don’t understand. They’re coming. I don’t have time,” he grits out. His skin is pale like a ghost. With his free hand, he swipes at the sweat that covers his upper lip.
Whoever they are have Craig terrified. As I desperately don’t want to get shot, I try to inquire softly to find out what he needs. There goes my whole badass, tomb raider scenario. “C… Craig, tell me who’s they?”
Right as his lips part to tell me, an ear-splitting crash fills the house, the walls begin to vibrate as whatever caused the initial noise draws closer. For a moment, both Craig and I are frozen like deer. Craig surprisingly recovers faster than I do.
His whole body shakes like he’s been dumped into a bucket of ice. His gaze is wild, and his hands shake with terror. He takes an uncertain step toward me.
“Deci.” His voice comes out weak, breathless even.
Seeing him lower the gun, I get to my feet and put distance between us. I reach for my short staff, only to find it’s not there. I freak out. I must have lost it coming through the window.
My heart races as I search for something, anything to help me not to get shot—aside from the choice to run at him to get the gun away from him. Running a gym with fighters doesn’t suddenly make me Jet Li. That man’s entire routine of Wu Chu martial arts won’t mean anything if Craig fires that gun.
“Look Craig, let me help you. I can—”
The ceiling falls in. Releasing a scream, I throw myself back, covering my head as debris falls all around us. I fall hitting the floor hard. My back stings as I lower my arms slightly to see what happened. My view is completely blocked by… wings?
In mute shock, I draw my eyes along the soft purple-colored dragon-like, leathery wings that pulse as the guy who owns them gives a small shiver. I move my gaze down to a tight behind wra
pped in leather pants. Now isn’t the time to appreciate the well-rounded ass in front of me. An aura of power rolls off the being, who seems completely oblivious to my presence.
“Xzith, you’ve been difficult to find.” His voice causes my stomach to flip. If I imagined a dragon to speak, this is the voice I would expect. It’s deep, sounding as if the man is talking from the depth of a tunnel. “Our Lord isn’t pleased.”
Craig releases a whimper like a whipped puppy. “P… please,” he begs, his body is almost completely blocked from my sight by the mammoth that stands between us. I can only see his legs, and they’re shaking. “I… I can explain. I had no choice.”
Mr. Mammoth doesn’t seem to agree with Craig’s way of thinking. If that isn’t made clear by the deep belly growl he releases, he says, “All Drakin have a choice. You choose to help a traitor.” He takes a step forward and I quickly realize he means to attack Craig who’s still shaking like a leaf. “You cared nothing for the young or their mothers and so you will pay.”
The shock falls away. While I think Craig is the scum of the earth, I can’t watch him be beaten by this… this. I don’t know what he is, but he looks like he’s about to beat Craig to death. I, being the stupid person I am, jump to my feet without thought and run toward the man.
“No.”
I wrap my arms around his waist as best I can, considering his wings are in the way.
“What… release me female.”
