Then they would no doubt violate the sweet thing. For that intent alone, he might have to kill them.
Kirith landed softly behind the group of devilish stalkers. Silently he shifted, amused that they were so busy arguing amongst themselves that they hadn’t seemed to register his presence. The idiots were so wrapped up in their in-fighting that they hadn’t noticed a goddamned Dragon shifter.
“What is this?” he asked, his voice bellowing through the crisp night air, breaking through the cacophony of Wolf shifter voices as he strode towards the small crowd.
In unison, the men spun around to look at him, but his eyes were only fixed on Luna’s. On the fear he saw reflected back at him. The fear that her Wolf was trying so hard to conceal, even as she trembled.
“Piss off, bastard,” the men’s apparent leader retorted, holding up a knife in front of his scarred face. “She’s ours, and this is no business of yours.”
“Yours, is she?” Fearless, Kirith pushed his way through the crowd, shoving two of the men out of the way with ease. He was a full head taller than any of them, his imposing form making its way to the head shifter in a few short strides. He reached for the man’s face, cupping his jaw in his right hand.
He turned his head to look at Luna. “I don’t think she’s yours at all.”
Luna shifted then, pulling her hood tight around her face and crossing her arms over her torn t-shirt. A blood stain seeped through the cotton from the Wolf’s attack, drawing Kirith’s rage.
He stared into her eyes, reading her fear, her hope, her every emotion. He wanted to kiss her forehead, to whisper to her that everything would be all right, now that he was here. He wanted to look after the small Wolf, even though he was meant to despise her.
Fighting back his emotions, he let go of the leader and turned to face the group, placing himself between them and their victim as he backed towards Luna.
“Do you know what I am?” he asked the men.
The leader nodded. “You’re a shifter,” he replied. He sniffed the air for a moment, pulling back with a scowl on his face. “A fucking Dragon.”
“I am. I’m here to see to it that Hyde Park remains a safe retreat for shifters. So tell me, what is your business with this woman?” Kirith asked, nodding over his shoulder towards Luna.
“No business,” the young man replied, casting a grin. “We saw her come in and thought we’d play about a little. It’s all about the joy of the hunt, right boys?” he asked his Pack. Chuckles rose up around Kirith, and it was all he could do not to swing a long arm out and clock several of them in the jaw.
As he stared at the hateful bunch, a tentative hand on slipped onto his back. Suddenly Luna was standing next to him, glaring out at the Wolves, her eyes narrowed with hatred. It seemed that Kirith’s presence had given her a little courage, at least. “Just say it,” she began, her voice filled with rage. “You were going to…”
“Relax, love,” said the plonker. “We were just going to have some fun, like I said.”
“I’m not sure how you think it would’ve been too much fun for you when I bit your dick clean off,” she snarled.
Knife still in hand, the young man lunged towards her. But Kirith reached for him, grabbing him by the front of his jacket and twisting around to jam his back into the wrought iron fence beside him. The blade dropped to the ground with a sharp clang, and Kirith kicked it into the distant grass.
“You heard the young lady,” he said through clenched jaws. “She would have bitten your dick off. After that, my Dragon would’ve bitten your sodding head off. But don’t worry. I’d have cauterized the wound for you with searing hot flame.”
“We didn’t mean nothin’ by it,” the scruffy man whimpered, seeming to realize at last that Kirith meant business. “It was all meant to be a good time, that’s all.”
“You know full well that it wouldn’t have been so good for the young lady, Wolf. Now, I’m going to let you leave in one piece with a warning. This park is protected, do you understand me? It is home to Kindred, not to you. That means Dragons. Dragons who will tear your face off, if you or your Pack members ever set foot on its ground at night again. Do you understand me?”
The man nodded.
Kirith let go of him and he slid down the fence, landing in a heap on the damp ground. The Dragon shifter reached over his head and pulled two of the thick iron rails apart, creating a gap in the fence large enough for the shifters to squeeze through.
“All of you,” he said, ushering them out. “Go. Don’t come back. Forget about the young lady. Forget that you ever saw me, or her.”
One by one the young men filed out until every last one of them was gone. Kirith wrapped his fingers around the bars again and did his best to return them to their previous position, before turning to Luna.
“Are you all right?” he asked, surprised by the gentleness of his own tone. He wasn’t accustomed to speaking kindly to anyone these days.
She nodded, her eyes veering over to the fence. “I didn’t know anyone was so strong…” she gasped. “I…thank you. For what you did.”
“You shouldn’t have been here,” he said, ignoring her thanks. “You shouldn’t have put me in a position where I needed to protect my enemy.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Just don’t let it happen again,” he growled. He wanted to walk away from her, but found himself instead staring into those beautiful blue eyes of hers. Sweet, innocent, lovely thing. Why the fuck did she have to be one of them?
“The thing is,” she said quietly, “you did protect me. Why?”
Her face was streaked with dirt and tears, her torn shirt exposing a bit of black lace bra. Under the rip he could see the wound in her side, blood plastered to her fair skin.
“Why?” he asked, raking his eyes hungrily down her body before forcing himself to look into her eyes again. “That’s a very good question. I suppose I should have let them have you, really. It would have rid the world of one useless Wolf.”
He could see her jaw clench with tension at his harsh words. That had stung her, he could tell. Good. Let her feel a little of the pain that he’d felt for so long. “Yes,” she said. “I suppose you should have let them have me.”
His eyes moved down her body again, stopping when they reached the tear in her shirt. “But since you’re still here, we need to clean that wound of yours,” he said. “Come with me, She-Wolf.”
Chapter 11
Kirith turned away and walked towards the middle of the park, leaving Luna even more confused than before.
She shouldn’t go with him. He’d just been a total prick to her. But to be fair, he’d also saved her arse from the rogue Wolves, and besides, he was right; they needed to look after her wound. No way did she want to return to her flat with a torn shirt and an open cut. Silver would have freaked out, not to mention the fact that a first aid kit was still on her to-buy list.
So she followed the surly Dragon, not knowing where he planned to take her, but not much caring. All she knew was that she didn’t want to go back to the flat. Didn’t want to go to the club. Didn’t want to see Ripper, Silver, or any other Wolf right now. All she wanted was to be near the Dragon who seemed to feel nothing but disdain for her.
Why? Because she was an idiot.
After a time they came to the long row of tall reeds that flanked a small, man-made lake. She’d been here earlier; smelled familiar scents. Perhaps soon she’d understand what this place was.
Kirith turned her way and reached a hand out wordlessly, which she took. A moment later they seemed to be floating through space, then by some strange miracle they were standing in a bright white hallway, lit by phosphorescent lamps that hung on the walls.
“Where are we? What is this place?” she asked, looking around in wonder.
“The flat belongs to the Alpha of the Dragons’ Guild. His name’s Lumen, and he lent it to me,” he replied. “Come.”
After Luna had kicked her boots off and tossed her rain
jacket on top of them, Kirith led her through a doorway into large bedroom, then over to what looked like the master bath. Overhead, a glass ceiling seemed to move in gentle waves of lapping water, the moonlight casting a faint glow through its layers.
“We’re under the lake?” she asked. Kirith nodded as he opened a drawer under the counter.
“Under the lake, in a place only a few can reach.”
A moment later he turned back to her, cotton in one hand, a bottle of something brown and painful-looking in the other.
“Take off your shirt,” he commanded. Without a word she lifted it over her head, revealing white, freckled skin. She felt suddenly self-conscious when his eyes went immediately to her chest. The Dragon man had sure spent a good deal of time staring at her breasts, considering how much he seemed to dislike her.
“It’s only our first date,” she said in a coy tone. “This is all moving little fast for me, to be honest.”
But Kirith didn’t return her smile. Instead he stared into her eyes with that same cold, hard look that he’d already given her so many times. A look that said Don’t fuck with me, woman.
“You don’t have much of a sense of humour, do you?” she asked.
“I don’t enjoy playing as I once did,” he replied, “if that’s what you’re asking. Now move your arm up so I can get at your wound.”
He pressed the damp cotton to the cut, eliciting a wince from Luna.
“It’s not so bad,” he told her gently as he cleared the blood away. “Not deep.”
“I tried not to let them too close to me,” she replied, watching him tend to her. For the moment he’d turned caring, gentle. Not the angry man she’d encountered in the pub, or even the cold-hearted bastard who’d been talking about ridding the world of her kind.
This was his soft side. This was the man she’d watched in the woods so long ago, looking after his family’s needs. So, his heart was still in there somewhere, beating. He wasn’t entirely dead inside, whatever he tried to project.
“If you hate my Pack, why are you helping me?” she asked.
He lifted his head and looked at her as he pressed an adhesive bandage to her side, gently slipping his fingers over its edges to make sure it was on tight. “I don’t know,” he replied. “Probably because I find you very beautiful. I suppose that after all this time, I still have a weakness for beauty.”
Luna inhaled quickly, pulling her face down to look at the bandage. “Well, that’s a good answer,” she breathed, her heart pounding. An unexpected answer. He’d just said, honestly, openly, that he was attracted to her. The Dragon man she’d worshiped from afar for so long thought her beautiful.
She wanted to savour the moment, to relish the feeling of euphoria rushing through her. But the sensation was marred by the recollection of who and what he was. He wasn’t a potential romantic partner. He was a supposed killer. A nutjob. A certifiable lunatic.
A certifiable lunatic with the most handsome face and glorious body she’d ever seen.
Fucker.
Kirith pulled himself to his full height and stared down at her as Luna’s eyes looked up into his, timid and hesitant. For a moment she didn’t know quite what to do. Cover herself? Run away?
“Lean back,” he said quietly, “against the wall.”
Once again she did as he asked, aware that she was far too deeply enthralled with him. Far too submissive to his will. She pressed her back against the white plaster, lifting her chin to look up at his face, to try and read his strange expression.
Kirith took her hands in his and lifted them over her head, then slipped his fingers down her body. Trusting him for a moment, Luna closed her eyes and enjoyed the ripple of sensation that drove its way through her core.
When she opened her eyes again, it was to see him moving down to his knees before her, pushing his face towards her torso as he inhaled through his nose. He put his hands on her waist, slipping his index fingers through her belt loops.
“There was a time when shifters were naked much more frequently,” she said softly. “Some spell has made us able to shift back into human form fully clothed.”
“Magic,” he replied, pulling her towards him. “Magic. It’s all magic.”
He slipped his fingers to the button on her jeans and snapped it open, yanking her zipper down. Brazenly he pulled the two sides of her jeans down over her hips like the petals of a flower and slipped his hand down the front of her panties, his fingers seeking out her sex. Again, Luna gasped.
“Had I found you naked in the park,” he whispered, “I would have lain down on the ground and asked you to crawl over my mouth. I would have licked and sucked this…” He flicked a finger over her bud, “…until you came for me.”
The young woman shut her eyes and pressed her head back into the wall, her upper teeth digging hard into her lower lip as Kirith sank his middle finger inside her.
“What is it about you, Wolf?” he asked her. Gently, he nipped at her left nipple through her bra with his lips. “Why do I crave you so much?”
“I don’t know,” she said, her hands falling to her sides, palms pressing into the wall. She wasn’t touching him, wasn’t holding him. There was no intimacy here; only raw sexuality. Her body was wet, her lips swollen with need. But she told herself not to let her fingers make contact with his skin, not to pull him to her.
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked.
Her eyes shot open. She stared down at him and nodded her head. “Yes, of course I am,” she said.
“Why?”
“I’m scared of what you are. Scared of what you’ve done. But I’m also scared of what I feel in your presence,” she murmured. “I’m scared of how much I like having that finger of yours inside me. I’m scared…that I’ll leave and that I’ll never see you again.”
He pulled his hands away and grabbed the sides of her jeans, tearing them down to her ankles. He pulled her left foot out of them and pushed her thighs apart, tucking his face between them and inhaling deep.
“Are you scared of having my mouth on you?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “Not at all.”
He slipped his tongue over her sex, lingering for a second on her bud before pulling away.
“Are you scared that I’ll make you come for me?”
“No.”
“Are you scared that I’ll claim you as my own and never let you go?”
Luna hesitated for a moment. She had to answer truthfully. Honestly.
“No,” she said. Insane a thought though it is, I still want you, Dragon.
He stood up and lifted her onto the counter, slipping her jeans over her right foot and splitting her thighs apart before burying his face between them. She watched as he streaked his tongue over her sex, rolling her hips forward to meet his mouth. She groaned with each lick, letting him know just how magical his touch was.
He pushed two fingers deep into her, sucking her clit as her head swam with pleasure, her body latching onto his own, trying to hold onto this feeling that would probably never return.
“I want you,” she whispered. “Kirith, God help me, I want you so badly…I want you inside me.”
He jerked backwards. In a flash he’d drawn away from her and pulled himself up, backing away to the opposite side of the room.
Her words, it seemed, were poison.
“No,” he said. He looked frightened, like he’d seen a ghost. “No. I can’t.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to…”
He held up a hand to silence her. “Just go,” he said. “Please. I’ll see you out.”
She nodded. “All right,” she replied as she yanked her jeans up. Kirith was already striding away, and Luna followed when she’d finished dressing, grabbing her boots and jacket as she went. The Dragon shifter led her down a long hall to a strange, round room with multiple doors.
“Third from the right will bring you outside the park,” he told her. “Watch for predators.”
“I w
ill,” she replied as he turned away without looking at her. “Kirith,” she said.
“Hmmph.”
“For what it’s worth, thank you for looking after me.”
The Dragon shifter stopped and turned back, stepping towards her aggressively. She pressed her back to the wall.
“Don’t make me protect you again,” he said. “Don’t ask me to, don’t expect me to. I don’t want to. I don’t like you. Now go back to your den, little Wolf, and don’t return.”
A moment later he was gone.
Chapter 12
Luna wandered London’s streets mindlessly for several hours, unable to bring herself to go home. She had no idea what time it was when she crept back into the flat, though dawn looked as though it was threatening to break on the horizon.
She hoped against hope that Silver would be sound asleep. The last thing she wanted was to deal with a reproachful, albeit docile, brother.
But to her dismay she found him sitting up on the couch, his face in shadow, reflective eyes meeting her own.
He didn’t look angry. It was worse than that.
He looked sad.
“Where have you been?” he asked. “I was worried sick about you.”
“Were you?” she asked, pulling her jacket up and trying to offer up a smile that totally contradicted her own mood. But when she saw how dead serious her brother was, a sense of deep remorse struck her chest. Another blow to an already injured ego. “I’m fine. It was an eventful night, but I’m fine.”
“Luna, I can’t have you staying out all night in this city,” said Silver. “It’s not wise.”
Why did it seem as though every man in her life was trying to control her in some way? Did it never occur to men not to order women about?
“Listen, Brother,” she growled, “I appreciate your concern, but one of the conditions of us living together is that you’re not supposed to worry about me, and you’re certainly not supposed to tell me what to do with my time. I can look after myself.” Or a big giant scary Dragon man can look after me, rip off my clothes, eat me out, then send me packing in some utterly confusing display of sexy male lunacy.
Dragon's Bane (Dragon Guild Chronicles Book 5) Page 7
