by Milana Jacks
Holly can’t move. She’s mumbling, but I can barely hear her past the pounding in my ears.
All I feel is her.
All I smell is her.
All I want is her.
Everything is about her.
After we come, I hardly have enough strength to tuck her back in bed.
I collapse next to her and sleep like a log.
4
Holly
Eddy’s inside me before I even open my eyes. It’s different this morning. He’s lazy and slow, his strokes measured and on target with my special spot. I lift my hips, so he hits it every time. He makes me come and shoots his load inside me. There’s something different about this man. Eddy is mine, my brain supplies. I don’t know why I feel this way about him, but the level of my connection with him is terrifying. No matter how nice he is to me, it’s too soon to feel this way about a man.
“Hungry?” Eddy asks and slips on his leathers. His dick is still hard, and he’s gotta push the thing inside, to put it away.
My stomach growls. “Coffee. Do you have any coffee?”
I drank a cup of coffee once, when I snatched it from atop the Cy-mobile of a cyborg, who left to check out something inside a hardware shop in the habitat and left it on the roof. Since then I’ve tried to find more but with no luck.
Eddy scrubs his beard, his gaze outside. “Stopped snowing.”
No coffee. Bummer. I glance out. “Damn.” Snow is blocking half the window. “We’ll be stuck here for a while.”
Eddy throws a hand over my shoulder and kisses the top of my head. “Baby, listen. Any time you want to talk about last night, let me know. Okay?”
Or not. “Thank you.”
“Now I gotta go get rid of the snow.”
“You got an extra shovel?”
“Little one, I got more shovels than I know what to do with.”
Odd, but okay.
Eddy gets two. This is a large home on a large property, and it takes us a few hours to clear the front lawn. My stomach wants to eat itself, and when I catch a whiff of something baked down the street, I walk to the end of a driveway. A girl is heading my way, carrying a basket. My jerk response is to snatch it and run, hole up somewhere, and store the food—however much it is—for the winter. But I’m in Eddy’s neighborhood, and I gotta behave.
I lift my nose as she gets closer. Oh God. It smells like fried dough and eggs. I salivate, and I’m barely able to contain myself from going after her basket.
“Cindy,” Eddy says, and I jump, startled. He walks past me to greet the girl. A growl is building in my throat.
She’s all smiles and cheer as she hands him the basket. “Welcome back, big man,” she says. Big Man? I growl. That’s my big man. I fist my hands. The girl rises on her toes and turns her cheek, so Eddy can kiss it.
He does and says, “Thank you for the breakfast.”
I see red. My vision sharpens, my growl intensifies, and in a flash, I’m a wolf.
Eddy
Cindy wiggles her nose. She lifts on her toes and sniffs near my neck, then locks her gaze with mine. She opens her mouth to say something, then gasps. Taking a few steps back, she shows her hands palms up and says, “Easy girl. I ain’t taking your man.”
I spin around, to see my little wolf is stalking, her lip peeled back, her big teeth showing. Her growls are fuckin’ scary. She actually looks like a feral wolf.
I’m ready to play referee, when white light flashes, and Cindy leaps ahead. This one is a wolf too? The female wolves clash. There are teeth, claws, yelps. Fuck me. I throw the shovel and jump in. The girls are fast. Their bodies twist, jaws snapping, trying to find meat to bite. One of them gets my arm, the other one gets my shoulder. I’m fucking pissed. I can’t even feel the pain, but the blood trickling down tells me they got me good.
I catch the fur behind their necks and pick them up. They snap and snarl at each other. My hands are outstretched as far as they go, and I’m marching toward my house, when I see Jason, one of Nentres’ guys, jogging down the street.
He meets me on the side of the lawn, not on my driveway. It’s iced again, as I poured water over it as soon as we cleared the snow.
I lift up the two wolves. “Tell me now, motherfucker. I’ve done lost my mind.”
“Let Cindy go,” he says.
She’s calm now, so I put her on the ground. She sits by Jason’s feet, and he pets her head.
“Are you hurt?” he asks.
She whines.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask. “Is she hurt?”
“Not too bad.” He eyes Holly, and I watch as his eyes change into those of an animal.
I can’t tell what animal but I’m gonna take a guess that it’s a wolf. I reach for my gun.
Jason steps back. “I’ll take care of this, Eddy. No need for the weapons. Remain calm.”
Sure thing. Mm-hm. Nothing’s fucking crazy around here. Just a bunch of people who turn into animals. “Yeah, I’m cool. Cucumber, really.” I put Holly down, and she sits by my feet.
Jason stares at her, and then crouches. They’re at eye level.
She’s wary, peeling back her lips again.
“My man,” I say, “this isn’t working. She’s getting all pissy again.”
“Shhhh,” Jason says then coos, “Hey girl. I’m Jason. Go on and change, so we can talk about this.”
Holly snarls.
Jason pinches his lips, approaches her on all fours, and glares. I’m curious if she’ll bite his face off. I would. Holly scoots back and lies on her belly, her head on her paws. Cindy does the same and crawls toward Holly, then nudges her flank. Holly doesn’t bite her, so we’re all good.
I scratch my head. “I need a drink.”
Jason stands, his gaze on the girls. “How long have you had her?”
“A few days.”
“Did you know?”
“I found out yesterday. How many of you are there?”
“Many.” Finally, he looks at me with normal, human eyes. “We were gifted wolves, and we serve our dragon lords. There are four packs, one for each dragon. I’m the alpha of the south pack.”
I’m trying to process. I believed dragons were the only freaks of nature, and there were so few of them, it seemed unreal. Weird shit has been going on for a while, and I had no idea. I hate not knowing what’s happening around me.
Holly
We move inside the house. Cindy patches up Eddy and promises to return with some salve, to prevent bite-wound infections. In my shredded clothes, I sit next to Eddy on the floor with a coppery taste in my mouth and a heavy weight on my chest. The weight is the pressure of my wolf creature, and I feel it for the first time.
A basket in front of us is open, and Cindy offers me a donut.
I shake my head.
The corners of her lips turn up. “Don’t feel bad. It happens.”
I lock my gaze on her blue eyes, and I want to cry. “I attacked you for no good reason. I’m terribly sorry.”
Cindy smiles and nudges a donut toward me. “Of course there’s a reason. Eddy’s your mate. I can smell you all over him.”
“What do you mean?” Eddy asks.
My heart speeds up. It’s beating in my ears. Cindy eats the donut while I can barely breathe as I await her answer.
“She marked her human mate.”
“Females don’t mark,” Jason says.
“Well, wolf females don’t mark wolf males. But we don’t know what wolf females do with human males. Do we?”
Jason’s brow furrows. “Are you sure you can scent her marking? It could be another scent. How can you be sure?”
“I’m sure. It’s something you can’t misinterpret. I scented it, but it was too late.”
“Excuse me. Do I smell like a girl?” Eddy asks.
Cindy laughs. “No. You smell like your mate. So as a wolf, I know you’re taken. That’s all.”
Eddy’s face is unreadable. “And how long does the smell last?”
“For life. It’s a mating.”
“No shit.” Eddy’s eyes widen.
Mortified, I hang my head. I’ve marked a man for life, and he had no say in it. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t know.”
“Hey now.” Eddy pulls me closer as Jason and Cindy stand to leave.
From the door, Jason says, “I expect you at the mansion, so you can meet the pack. Bring your belongings. You will stay with Cindy until you are trained.” He glances at Eddy, who stands and moves to the door.
Intent on following them, I get up.
Eddy blocks the door. “Nope. She ain’t going nowhere.”
What?
Jason looks up at the ceiling, then back at Eddy. “She is a wolf.”
“I recon she’s my wolf. Rubbed herself all over me.” He sniffs his arm.
Jason’s lips twitch. “I get it. Still, she’s in my territory and a submissive wolf with no control over her animal. She must learn from us. Get proper training.”
“Nope.”
Jason sighs, then turns up his nose.
I sniff too.
If I were in fur, it would stand on end. I want to bolt. Some kind of predator approaches, and I nudge Eddy, trying to get him to come inside.
Jason watches me. “Nentres is on his way.”
Nentres is a dragon lord. I chant a calming mantra, expecting a huge winged creature with a head the size of a house.
The dragon emerges and climbs the driveway in a red-checkered robe, boots untied. He has messy blond hair and looks like he’s crawled out of bed. It’s noon. He marches up the driveway, loses his footing on the ice, tries to regain his balance. Slides. Slips. Catches himself. Slips again. His hands are flying about him, his legs dancing.
Eddy bursts in laughter, Cindy is bent over already, and I slap a hand over my mouth, trying not to laugh. I glance at Eddy. His laughter is ringing down the street.
The poor man makes it up the driveway, and Eddy slings the door open wider. “Come on in, neighbor.”
Nentres pushes past him. “Fuck you, too.”
Jason and Cindy leave, and we’re alone with Dragon Man. He’s handsome and a poster boy for a… boy next door. When he smiles, he shows dimples. I can’t believe this man is a dragon.
“Are you really a dragon?” I ask as he leans against the fireplace.
A flame leaves the fireplace and lands on his palm. He winks at me. “Eddy, I need you to keep her shape shifting nature a secret.”
“And I need a ring,” Eddy says.
“Did you hear what I said?”
“I got it.”
“I need coffee,” Nentres sighs. “Then we can talk about you stealing my wolf.”
“We don’t have any coffee,” I say. I should’ve said he instead of we. I’m vulnerable about the mating—unsure what Eddy thinks about it. I’m past apologizing. It won’t help. Mating is for life, and I’m guilty of mating him. I have many questions and no answers. Should’ve left with Cindy. I glance at the door.
Eddy throws a hand over my shoulder and squeezes. “A nice big ring. What would you like, girl?”
My eyes are on the door. I want to bolt. I want to stay. It’s a mess in my head. “I’m sorry—what?”
“Diamonds? Rubies? Sapphires?”
I gape at him.
“Diamonds,” Nentres says. “Got a nice one. Gonna cost you.”
“How much?”
This is manland. I don’t understand what Eddy is doing. My palms sweat, and I wipe them on my clothes.
“How much?” Eddy asks again.
“Two-three hundred.”
The most I’ve ever carried is ten roges.
“We talkin’ my special coins?” Eddy asks.
“Of course.” Nentres brushes his palm, and the flame returns to the fireplace.
Eddy leaves me with the dragon man. I’m glued in place, but I gotta speak up. “They say I mated Eddy for life.”
Nentres wags his eyebrows. “Your wolf mated him. Your animal is never wrong. Trust it.”
Eddy’s back with a sack that jingles. He tosses it to Nentres, and he’s beside me, arm around my waist.
Nentres peeks inside the bag and gets a golden coin? I’ve never seen anything like it. Before I can ask, he puts it back inside the bag. “What’s your name?” he asks me.
“Holly,” Eddy answers. “I found her on my property, therefore she’s mine,” he adds.
Nentres walks to the door and opens it. He steps outside, then glances back and winks at me. “I have coffee down the street, and will have a ring by the time you stop by. Welcome to the pack.” With that he closes the door.
Eddy and I are alone. I expect the most awkward moment of my life, when I’ll apologize profusely for mating him though I didn’t know I did that. But it doesn’t happen.
Eddy kisses the top of my head. “I can’t smell your marking, but I recon it’s released when I fuck you. It bugs me that I can’t smell it, so I’m gonna fuck you until I can. Then we can get you some clothes, so I can introduce you to everyone.”
It’s well past sunset when we leave the house. Eddy doesn’t take me to Nentres’ home, as I expected. We ride into a huge property in town, and enter a place where hundreds of people are having dinner. A shelter? Eddy strides inside like he owns the place. I keep up, and he pulls out a chair for me. The next thing I know, people are calling him boss. It clicks—Eddy’s the New Orleans outlaws’ leader. He’s got an entire city of people with him.
Mother Nature didn’t gift me only with a wolf. She also gifted me with a good man that will change my life forever. We’re gonna make it through the Ice Age.
Plus, I smell coffee.
Eddy
Find a woman and settle down—check.
***
Milana
Thank you for reading Eddy. If this is your introduction to Ice Age Dragon Brotherhood, you should read Rise for Her next - the dragon tales are connected by an overreaching plot which gets resolved in book 4 while all couples in the individual stories get an HEA. If you are looking to get into book 3, in book 2 (Burn for Her) we left off with Clementine sneaking out of Knight’s house. What does the dragon do about that? Flip the page.
Storm for Her
uncorrected proof pending release
Knight
This fledgling was insane. Certifiably so. She flew against the wind in below-zero weather and in the middle of the night. She’d said she had a flower shop to tend, but that didn’t explain her risking her life. She barely flew during the daylight.
With Clementine in the house and in my bed, I couldn’t get any shut-eye. When I realized she’d snuck out, I followed her. From afar, of course, because stalking someone in my dragon form was pretty hard, even when stalking the most uncoordinated, least aware creature Mother Nature had ever made.
The dove descended, or tried to descend. The wind picked her back up and threw her away from her path. She flew around the habitat for a bit, trying to find a way to land, but the wind wasn’t gonna let her.
Once I found my spirit, I would be able to manipulate the wind. But first, I had more immediate issues, such as dealing with my brother Arthur, whom I have know since he was a twelve-year-old boy. We’d met on the streets of New York, both runaways, both scared. I was older, so I took care of him, and I’d take care of him now as soon as I found him and figured out what exactly he planned to do with my growing cyborg problem.
Arthur had always gone with whatever I decided we’d do, so his disobedience bugged the crap out of me. It wasn’t only about the cyborgs or him not listening to me. Arthur was also encroaching on my territory. Dragons knew their boundaries, and we respected them. My dragon didn’t handle the company of another dragon well. He was competitive and violent, which suited me, so we made a fine beast-to-man match. All three of my brothers always announced their visits into my territory instead of just landing in my backyard. Back in October, Arthur had sent Clementine on her first mission all the way to Louisiana so h
e could gain permission for a two-week stay in Pittsburg. I’d granted it and forbidden the fledgling bird to fly back alone. She’d listened at that time, and we’d flown back home together.
Now, Clementine kept circling the habitat, but she couldn’t descend. The winds blew her away with ease since she weighed maybe a few pounds in her dove form. She changed her flight path and flew away from the habitat. I followed her and closed the distance, mad as hell that she hadn’t noticed me. Untrained and at the mercy of the wind, she didn’t even think to look behind her or around her while flying. A lesson I would enjoy teaching her. The hard way. But she belonged to Arthur, and he should have trained her better.
Clementine escaped the gust of wind and plummeted down. I glanced at her path, stunned at what I was seeing. I batted my wings in order to stay in place and fight the gravity that drew me down after her into a meadow. A green grass meadow with spring flowers and a foot-long orchid tree in bloom right outside of Pittsburg in the middle of winter. I hadn’t seen flowers growing out in the open in…fuck, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a…a garden. The ground should be frozen. What the fuck?
Clementine descended, deciding it was a grand idea to shift into her human form for a touchdown, and landed on her ass. I shook my head as she rubbed her ass, then her arms. Yeah, standing naked outside in below zero would freeze even a Creature of Earth. Gah, what was wrong with this bird?
A growl ripped from my chest. I snapped my mouth closed so I didn’t roar.
Clementine walked across the meadow and rounded a bench. She bent and got a backpack from under it, threw on clothes and boots, then sat down. She waited for something or someone, probably Arthur. So I waited too, a smirk on my face. This must be their secret meeting place.
