Shifters, Secrets & Surprises

by Lowe, Anna

  “I look beautiful,” she said, lips curling in a smug fashion.

  “Daamin will praise god he is so lucky,” Asiane said. “In order to make allies, he told me he would have accepted a-”

  Rebekah held up a hand. “No body shaming, please. Short, tall, plump, warty – I’m sure his mate would have been lovely.”

  Asiane rolled her eyes. “Right.”

  Rebekah inhaled, let out the breath slowly. “Alright. I’m ready.”

  Outside the set had been turned into an indoor winter wonderland. Delicate arches of white, with boughs of evergreen, holly, and red berries woven through swaths of sheer white fabrics hung strategically from the ceiling to form a tent-like structure. Tall silver candle stands and fat white candles. Rebekah realized her dress would stand out starkly, bringing the eye to her as a focal point.

  “Is that a snow machine?” Rebekah asked.

  Meredith chuckled. “Yup. It’s going to look fabulous on camera.” Her adopted mother took her arm and escorted her to her waiting mate. There was no formal march, and no music – it wasn’t the Bear way. Family and friends and co-workers stood in a loose circle, Gwenafar and Daamin waiting on a slightly raised dais.

  Daamin turned his head, eyes flaring when he saw her. He left the dais, striding towards her, contained energy and predator intensity. When he reached her, hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her with effortless strength high into the air. She clutched his shoulders, laughing, the veil covering over her head and folds of her skirt flowing around him.

  “You are the most beautiful thing I have seen,” he said. “The males of my Clan would fall at your feet and Challenge me for the right to court you.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said, voice dry. “So the sooner we get hitched, the better.”

  He lowered her slowly, a small smile on his lips, head lowering so he could brush a kiss on her earlobe. “Yes,” he crooned. “The ceremony, and then more mating.”

  * * *

  There was a raucous reception/holiday party after the ceremony. She and her new husband found a quiet corner where they could watch the proceedings quietly, and just hold hands. They’d spent too many weeks apart and the chance to just touch and sit was priceless.

  “Do you think we’re bonding?” Rebekah asked, her head on his shoulder.

  “Possibly,” Daamin said, voice deep. “I’ve seen plenty of matebonds that take time to develop.” He nudged her chin so she raised her head for a kiss. When he pulled away, eyes glowing, he said, “But even if we are not true mates, you are still my wife. And you will always be my wife. Mine.”

  The last word was said with such fierceness Rebekah didn’t doubt him. She’d also seen the kind of matebonds that weren’t bursts of lightning, but slow and gentle. So she was happy to wait and let nature take its course. For now, it was enough that she loved her husband.

  Her breath caught.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I just realized I love you.”

  “Is that all?”

  Rebekah snarled, straightening enough to aim a solid punch at his chest. He laughed. “I’ve known for weeks that I loved you.” He paused, expression bemused. “After only two days.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Hey, ever heard of love at first sight?”

  He smiled, and kissed her again. Heat crawled between them, an aching desire that stole her breath.

  “Get a room,” someone yelled, not entirely coherent.

  Rebekah sighed and pulled away, gazing around the room. Her eyes caught on the buffet spread, hosted by Daamin’s company. Talia was sneaking towards a punch bowl.

  “I think your sister is spiking the punch with booze,” Rebekah said.

  Daamin laughed. “It’s probably the shifter stuff, too.”

  “Are you going to stop her?”

  He shrugged. “It’s a party.”

  See, that was why she liked him, and his family.

  Asiane strolled towards them, stripping a cupcake of its wrapper with quick, efficient movements. “This is my fourth,” she said. “These things are damn good.”

  “You could try and have a ladies night at the bar once a month,” Rebekah suggested. “Girls only, have male strippers and a cupcake bar. Amberley would give you a good deal.”

  Asiane’s lips pursed. “Beefcake & Cupcakes. That’s not a bad idea.”

  Daamin sighed, pressing a kiss on Rebekah’s forehead. Rebekah looked for Amberley in the crowd, and caught the baker’s eyes as she brought in a fresh tray of cupcakes to the dessert table. Rebekah waved her over. Amberley paused to give instructions to an assistant and then trotted over.

  “Is everything okay?” Amberley asked, expression anxious.

  “The cupcakes are wonderful.” Rebekah grinned at her. “My sister-in-law wants to talk business.”

  “Let’s go outside,” Asiane suggested. “I need some fresh air, anyway.”

  The two women left together and Rebekah took a deep breath, taking Daamin’s hand.

  “Daamin, I have to tell you something.”

  He stilled, hand tightening around hers. “Yes.”

  The careful tone of his voice worried her. What did he think she was about to say? Though she supposed she couldn’t blame him since even she could hear the fine, nervous tremble in her voice.

  She face stiffened. “I wanted it to be like mating present. And it wasn’t on purpose, it was more of a surprise present, and I hope you’re not-”

  “Rebekah.” His deep voice was edged, shading into dark.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  She stared in his eyes, seeing the shock that slid through the endless pools of brown. Hid lids closed. One breath, two, and when she would have pulled away, heart breaking, his eyes opened again. And their expression…

  He cupped her cheek with his hand. “Are you well?” he asked with quiet joy.

  She nodded, blinking several times. “Yeah.”

  He gathered her close. “This is indeed a wonderful Solstice present.” A hand over her hair, the gentleness of the stroke touching her to the core. “We must make sure you’re protected. I have enemies.”

  “Clan Conroy will help,” she said. “If you say the cub is in danger – they will help. We need our cubs.”

  He rose, pulling her with him. “That is for another time. Today I only want to celebrate.”

  Daamin pulled her into his arms, head lowering for another kiss when a roar and a woman’s scream rent through the air. He stiffened, met Rebekah’s eyes for one searing second and they both turned and ran, bursting out of the side door of the studio and into the brightly lit lot. Sprinkles of snow fell in the orange light, creating an ethereal effect.

  “Amberley!” Rebekah saw the woman on the ground, crumpled, and tried to run to her.

  Daamin growled at her. “Get inside.”

  She snarled back, swiping at him with her nails. “She’s my friend.”

  He let her go after a hard look, matching her pace. Rebekah was at the baker’s side in a few seconds, kneeling. “Amberley?”

  Amberley moaned, a low sound, and her eyelids fluttered open. “I’m just stunned. They took Asiane. Asiane was kidnapped.”

  Thank you!

  Thanks for reading! I hope you don’t mind the little cliffhanger – Amberley’s story, followed by Asiane’s, will be available soon. If you would like to read Liam & Meredith's story, it is free on your favorite ebook retailer.

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  Dragon's Christmas Captive

  Lords of the Dragon Islands

  by Isadora Montrose

  Dragon’s Christmas Captive

  BBW/ Dragon Shifter Romance

  Dragon’s Christmas Captive – Isadora Montrose - Dragon shifter Theo Lindorm has been hunting for his
Fated Mate for ten years. Elven princess Lexi has been waiting for her Prince for 1000. She is prepared to settle for this modern day Viking barbarian, and trade immortality for a home and family. All Theo wants is a soft, sweet virgin and some firelings.

  Towering Naval Officer Theo and Pixie-sized Lexi are not well matched in size or temperament. Theo’s mockery and modern technology are a rude shock to a damsel confined to a tree for 8 centuries. Theo did not expect his mate to be a pint-sized bossy-boots. Destiny seems to have played a prank on them both. The last of her kind, Lexi sets out to enchant her unwilling dragon. First, she claims him by Right of Capture. Second, she sends her reluctant suitor on a Perilous Quest to retrieve a magic ring from the depths of the ocean. Third, she transforms into his perfect mate to Seduce him.

  If only Alpha Male Theo would play by Lexi’s ancient rules. But this Naval Officer resists her spells, and retaliates with a sensual magic of his own. As her attempts to make Theo love her fail, Lexi finds herself trapped in a mortal body snared by human feelings. How could Fate be so cruel?

  This sweetly spicy romance will make you laugh and cry as these unlikely lovers discover how hot a Christmas fire can get.

  Chapter One

  Örlogskapten Theodor Lindorm allowed himself to be pushed about as his mother adjusted the sweater she had been knitting for him. Long pins at the shoulder and her curved knitting needles threatened to puncture him. He gritted his teeth and endured while she fussed and scolded.

  Anna Lindorm smacked him when he tried to fold his arms across his chest. “Do stand still.” Her hands smoothed the rippled wool. “Your shoulders are broader than when I measured you in March,” she muttered. “Have you been working out?”

  Theo chuckled. “The Navy expects me to stay fit, Mamma.”

  Lady Severn clucked absently. She settled the sweater across Theo’s back. “I think you’re taller too.”

  “Comes with the territory. Haven’t you always said that Papa didn’t stop growing until he was forty?”

  Mamma’s voice was muffled by the four straight pins between her lips. She moved him once more and tugged gently at the neckline. “I’m going to have to cut this open and give it a collar. I do wish you and your brothers would stay the same size for twenty minutes together.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have married a dragon shifter.”

  “The sleeves are not going to sit right. The armholes are too small.”

  Theo yanked the bunching sweater down over his flat stomach. “It seems fine to me,” he murmured. “Even if the sleeves are a little short.”

  “Stop that. I’m going to have to knit day and night to get it done for Christmas,” his mother scolded.

  “If it’s not done by Christmas Eve, my life will be over,” Theo said in a falsetto. “It’ll completely spoil my Christmas if my sweater isn’t finished.”

  “Don’t you be sarcastic with me. You can take it off now – be careful not to let any stitches drop.” Anna pulled the sleeves down over his forearms and set them aside. “I’ll try to finish it before your furlough is over.”

  Theo’s reply was mangled by a couple of pounds of dark blue wool that caught on his shoulder-length hair and bushy beard. “Thank you for making me a sweater, Mamma,” he said solemnly. “I’m the envy of my comrades.”

  “I thought it was your socks they envied,” Anna’s good humor was restored.

  Theo regarded his size seventeens which were encased in hand-knitted black socks. “That too. There’s nothing like real wool socks, and there’s nothing better than ones that are long enough.” He lifted his mother up to his face and kissed her on both cheeks. “I’m a lucky devil. Thank you, Mamma.”

  “Your Uncle Thorvald wasn’t happy that you didn’t come to his house party,” she said out of nowhere once she was on her feet again.

  “The Eldest said nothing to me at Chrissy’s wedding – or when he gave me instructions in September,” Theo pointed out.

  “Well, of course not. He was busy at the wedding. And he had Guild business to discuss in September.” Anna held up one hand. “I know,” she continued, “that you don’t want to discuss how your cousin Lars found his bride. But I fail to see why, if a widower can find a second fated mate, you cannot find your first.”

  Theo shrugged. He knew Mamma meant, ‘Why didn’t you grab Nicole for yourself?’ He tried to explain. “Lars was incredibly fortunate. And Nikki is a wonderful woman. But she was not my destined bride.”

  “I wonder,” Mamma continued, “If it is not time for you to widen your net?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Maybe you should look at some older women,” she suggested with a scarlet blush.

  Theo smiled behind his beard. He guessed that by ‘older women’ Mamma meant ‘not-a-virgin’. He raised his eyebrows at her. “I don’t think I’m ready to abandon the idea of having a family, just yet.”

  Firelings were important to him. He didn’t know if children weren’t a possibility, if marriage was worthwhile. Dragon shifters could only get dragonesses pregnant. Lars had been lucky beyond believing to find a widowed dragoness. Theo was still seeking a virgin to turn.

  “Maybe you are being too fussy,” she continued.

  Theo bit back a sharp reply. “All I want is my fated mate,” he said. “Is that too much to ask?”

  “Not at all. But maybe your fated mate is not one of your Aunt’s pretty virgins.”

  “Probably not. Aunt Inge’s nieces get younger every year.”

  Anna chuckled. “They do not. You get older. But the Van Waals girls are not the only source of virgins in the world.”

  “I know. And I have looked, Mamma, believe me.” Theo sighed. “Lady Drake has introduced me to any number of tender young women.” He shook his head. “Nice girls, but not mine. I have never met any woman I wanted for a lifetime. Maybe I am just destined to be an old bachelor.”

  “Thirty-four is not old,” she scolded.

  “I’m thirty-five,” he reminded her dryly. “I declared my Mate Hunt when I was twenty-five. That’s a long time to be on the hunt.”

  “Not really.” Anna cleared her throat. “If you aren’t interested in women,” she said, “Well, your father and I just want you to be happy.”

  “That’s not it either, Mamma. I just haven’t met the right woman.”

  “When you do, you bring her home, son.” Anna squared her shoulders. “Even if she’s an older woman.”

  “I love you too, Mamma.” Theo went whistling on his way.

  * * *

  “We’ll go after breakfast.” Lord Severn’s affectionate glance took in his entire family.

  “We need a taller tree this year. Twenty feet will be about right,” Lady Severn announced. “But not too big around. I want a slender tree.”

  “If we get a twenty footer, it will scrape the ceiling in the sitting room – and be twenty feet around,” Theo objected.

  Anna nodded absently at her eldest son’s words. “The star should just miss the ceiling. We need plenty of room for the ornaments. Christina and I went shopping in Oslo.”

  Across the table, Theo locked eyes with his only sister. “I might have known you were to blame.”

  Christina chuckled and nudged their nephew who was next to her. “Do you remember last year, Leo?”

  Leo’s round blue eyes got even more round. He wriggled on his booster seat and only his aunt’s swift grab saved him from falling. “We cut down the biggest tree.” He banged his spoon on the table.

  His mother captured his flailing wrist. “Spoons are for eating,” Ingrid Lindorm said softly. She removed her hand from her son’s smaller one. “Are you ready to finish your porridge?”

  “Yes!” shouted the four-year-old.

  “Sorry,” mouthed Leo’s father Victor, across the table to his mother. He winked at Theo who grinned back. Leo’s antics never failed to delight him.

  Anna’s blue eyes twinkled. “Only people who have eaten all their porridge can come with u
s. If you don’t eat your breakfast, Leo, you won’t have the strength to chop down a Christmas tree.”

  Her grandson returned to his bowl of mush with renewed energy and began shoveling it in as fast as he could. Now it was Anna’s turn to silently apologize to his parents.

  “All the trees on this island seem so huge, how do you find one that’s only twenty feet tall?” asked Christina’s husband Ivan Sarkany. “Do you have a special plantation?”

  “Not exactly, although we are always planting.” Lord Severn wiped his mouth. “But we’ve been scouting out the best trees for months. We put tags on the ones we thought most beautiful back in the summer. So today we only have to decide which one will make the best Christmas tree.”

  “I haven’t been out in the forest since March,” Theo said.

  “That’ll give the rest of us a head start,” Christina cut in merrily.

  “Yes, but,” began Gunnar, the youngest of Anna and Severn Lindorm’s children. Whatever he had been going to say, his uncertain bass was smothered by its abrupt transition to reedy treble. He ducked his red face and concentrated on eating.

  “It’s a family tradition, Ivan,” Christina explained. “We all want to be the one to find our tree.”

  “So it’s a contest?” Ivan looked around at his in-laws. He reached for Christina’s hand.

  “Certainly not,” said Anna serenely. Her placid murmur was drowned out by raucous laughter.

  Christina patted her husband’s knee. “We Lindorms are a touch competitive.”

  The room rocked with the laughter of happy dragons.

  It was good to be home, Theo decided. Good to see his parents. Victor and Christina were obviously happy with their fated mates. Victor and Ingrid’s new son was asleep in his cot. Their eldest son was as sturdy and naughty a fireling as had ever borne the Lindorm name. Christina was glowing in her first pregnancy. Ivan adored her. Gunnar had grown another six inches. There was nothing to compare with being surrounded by family.

  Only he, the eldest son, was still unmarried and unmated. He and little Gunnar. It looked as though his fourteen-year-old baby brother and his nephews were all the children he would ever have. But it was Christmastime, and he needed to put his private disappointments away and join wholeheartedly in the family rituals.