by Ellis Leigh
Scared. That scent meant fear. My mate felt fear.
With a roar that sent other shifters skittering away, I raced across the dance floor, unable to control the beast within, knowing my scales would be showing and my eyes would be changed into my beast’s. Not caring at all if I scared the people on the floor. Hoping like hell that I terrified the man who’d dared to put his hands where they didn’t belong. Where they weren’t wanted. Where he didn’t have consent to touch.
Ginger finally pulled herself away from the man just as I reached them. The glare she shot him looked mean enough to peel paint. Cute, but not enough. A man like him wouldn’t respond to a look. That was okay—I’d give him what he’d understand.
Edging past Ginger, I grabbed his shoulder. One tug spun him around, and then I pushed. Hard. Perhaps a little too hard.
Back in the fifties, I’d become interested in a sport called bowling. Throwing a ball down a lane toward ten pins all lined up and ready to fall. Well, the man—a gorilla shifter, by the scent of him—wasn’t truly a ball, and all the people dancing in the way of my throw weren’t pins, but the visual worked. Bowling for humans. Oddly satisfying.
“What the fuck?” Gorilla-man said as he scrambled to stand. From twenty feet away. If I’d been in my dragon form, I would have swished my tail in glee. Not too bad of a throw considering I hadn’t bowled in a number of decades. Some things you never forgot, apparently.
Like the fact that this fucker had been pawing all over my girl. “She didn’t ask you to kiss her, did she?”
The shock on his face told me enough, even though he opened his mouth to let his stupidity shine. “She’s a tease. She fucking wanted it but was playing it off like she didn’t.”
“Oh no,” Ginger said, moving beside me. “There was no playing. I didn’t want it.”
Gorilla-boy pouted. And by pouted, I mean, glowered in our direction. “This is bullshit.”
“No, it’s dragon shit,” I said, making sure to let my throaty rumble roll through my words. “And if you want to keep all of your appendages—especially the ones I’m sure you’re just so proud of—you’d better keep your hands off my mate.”
His eyes grew wide, and his face paled. Yes, sometimes reminding people you were an ancient beast bred to hunt and kill really could be fun. For me.
“Yeah, well…”
I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting. Hoping he’d say something just as ignorant as before so I could smack him down again. Physically, this time. It’d been a stressful day—I could use a little release.
Fortunately for him, Gorilla-guy took off across the floor instead of standing his ground. Figured. I huffed, watching him leave, fighting the urge to follow him. To rip him to pieces with my bare hands. To shoot fireballs at him. Being a gentleman and trying to rebuild the reputations of dragon shifters everywhere really was a pain in the ass at times.
“Mate?”
Speaking of pains in my ass… I turned slowly, meeting Ginger’s surprised stare. Unable to speak for a long second as I got lost in her hazel eyes. By the fates, she was beautiful.
“Yes. Mate, as in mine. Now, do you mind telling me why you disappeared last night, girl?”
“I didn’t disappear, I left.”
“Same thing.”
“Two totally different things.”
My mate was a brat. “I swear to the fates, girl—”
“Quit calling me girl.”
“Quit behaving like one.”
That glare I’d seen pointed at Gorilla-man turned on me, but it didn’t even slow me down. Neither did the sight of a group of women headed my way. Likely friends of Ginger’s coming to her rescue. Too bad they hadn’t noticed the guy assaulting her on the dance floor. Didn’t matter, though, because I had. I’d protected her as a mate should. And I was done with the noise and the stench of this place.
“We need to have a conversation,” I said, trying hard to keep my dragon contained.
Ginger, on the other hand, seemed ready to rile him up. “You want to talk? Fine. Go ahead.”
As in, right there in the melee, with her friends looking on. Not happening. “I’d prefer a little privacy.”
“I’d prefer not to be manhandled.”
“Then don’t come to a club without someone to keep an eye on you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“I can do it better.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“No, I’m a dragon shifter who’s found his reason for being. Now, are you willing to come talk to me somewhere other than this den of iniquity or not, mate?”
The word mate seemed to get her attention. She gasped softly, her eyes widening. Her arms crossing as she seemed to hold herself together. “Fine. Whatever you want.”
“You’re lucky I’m not going to take you at your word.”
“You mean we’re not going to talk?”
“Oh, we totally are. I mean taking whatever I want. Because right now, I want to spank that ass of yours until you come to your senses. But I’ll settle for this.”
I picked her up around the waist and rushed for the door, leaving behind yells and cries of people who had no true idea what was going on. I was sure her friends were worried about her, but I no longer cared. They’d failed her, and I wouldn’t do the same.
Not that she would ever make it easy on me. “Put me down.”
“No.”
“You don’t get to order me around and just…take me.”
I gave that perfect ass one hard spank, just to prove a point. “Technically, I do. You said, whatever I want. That’s part of being a mate. I get to order you around, and you get to order me around. Especially in the bedroom. I’m taking you at your word.”
“The bedroom? As if.” She grunted as I tossed her up and over my shoulder. “You’re an asshole, and I am so not fucking you again.”
With her head by my ass and her feet dangling over the front of my shoulder, I didn’t have it in me to argue that point. I had control over her for now. So I pinned her to me as I shifted forms in the alley, and I took off. Flying through the skies and heading back to the scene of the crime. To the mountains. To our cliff.
To a quiet place where I could be alone with my mate and try to convince her that I was worthy of her attention.
And then spank her ass some more.
11
Ginger
I am a strong, independent woman who doesn’t need a man to sweep me off my feet. I am a strong…
The mantra repeated in my head as a man—one who drove me crazy—quite literally swept me off my feet. And off the ground. Kinship Cove was really pretty from the sky at night. The lights of the actual town stood in stark contrast to the blanket of black below me, and the houses spreading out toward the mountains glowed softly. Kingston flew above the treetops, giving me a wonderful view of the cove and the mountains ringing our little town. Gorgeous, romantic, and—if I hadn’t been kidnapped by someone with scales—a fabulous date sort of thing.
But Kingston was in his dragon form. And he’d snatched me away from my friends. Those two things didn’t equate to fabulous, and they sort of negated my mantra. Strong, independent…but at the mercy of a mythical beast. Like some sort of fairy-tale princess. With a dirty mouth.
“You’re a real asshole, you know that?”
I wasn’t sure if a dragon could laugh, but if he could, Kingston was. At me. Asshole was too nice of a word for him. Still, I held tight to his arms and rested in his clawed grip, watching the town pass by below me. But inside? I was a mess of nerves. I’d never gotten motion sick in the past, but the way my stomach churned seemed about right for how that should feel. Nauseated. Pukey. Vomitus. About to blow chunks. They all worked. But it wasn’t the flying that got to me. In fact, I felt quite secure in Kingston’s grip.
What I didn’t feel secure in was my own ability to resist him. He’d called me his mate. Mate. Even though dragons didn’t take fated mates like other shifters. Or so
I’d thought. The possibility that I could have been wrong—that there might be more to us than a single night—didn’t help the feeling of needing to lose my lunch. Or dinner. Or…whatever.
Eventually, Kingston descended to a large overlook on the side of the mountain. A cliff I recognized well. One I’d had to hike down from just that morning. Pretty sure I still had a little grit lodged in my butt cheek from what we’d done on that cliff the night before. Good times.
Ones not to be repeated, though. Nope. No way.
Yet.
“Don’t you dare think of leaving me up here,” I said, shooting that big, scary beast with my harshest glare. Trust me on that—I’d practiced it almost as much as my favorite smile. “You brought me here, you can bring me home. That walk down is a bit treacherous, and these heels are definitely not meant for hiking.”
Gold. Four-inch stilettos. Strappy as all get-out. They were my favorites. No way was I ruining them.
Kingston shifted to his human form—something I’d never seen up close with any shifter. I stared as he went from a huge, black beast to a swirl of smoke and scales and skin and cloth. Seconds. He did all that changing in seconds. I couldn’t even change my shoes that fast.
He stood in human form, spearing me with a glare that sent a shiver up my spine.
“Those shoes are meant to be digging into my ass as I fuck you, but we’ll get there.”
Oh god, I hoped so. Sort of. “Not happening.”
His smirk didn’t do anything to reassure me. “We’ll see, Sparky.”
“So we’re back to the nicknames?”
“Would you rather I call you girl?”
“Never.”
“How about mate?”
Oh my. That word sent not ice but heat, and not up my spine but down deep in my gut. Lower, even. All the way between my legs.
I would not let him seduce me with a word. “I thought dragons didn’t take mates.”
“We don’t.”
I…what? “But you called me your mate.”
“I know what I said, and you are.”
“I’m confused.”
“We don’t take mates. We…ask them to join us,” he said, an almost embarrassed sort of growl in his voice.
“You…ask?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to need an explanation.”
He sighed, all long and loud and frustrated. “We’re not like other shifters.”
“I swear to god, if you give me some ‘and you’re not like other girls’ line, I will cut you.”
“Nothing can cut through my scales.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Well, that’s not helpful.”
“Not to you. It’s quite lovely for me.” He shrugged. “I sort of like not being killed.”
“I can understand that.”
“May I continue now?”
I settled in on a rock and waved my hand in a circle. “Sure. Why the hell not?”
He might have rolled his eyes. I couldn’t say that I would have blamed him.
“Dragons aren’t like other shifters—” he held a finger up when I opened my mouth “—because we don’t fall into the insta-love matings. Our dragons take their time in choosing their soul mate, and once we do, we work to prove ourselves as a good match. There’s nothing forced or inevitable about it.”
“So…no wacky ‘Mine’ stuff?”
“Oh no. You’re mine, Sparky. But instead of the fates taking away your free will, you have a choice. If I prove myself to be a good mate for you, we can be together. If I don’t…” He shrugged. “Well, it happens.”
No loss of agency. No forced togetherness. No getting trapped with a douchecanoe like Nico. This wasn’t sounding too bad. It also shed light on a few things. “That’s why you wouldn’t kiss me.”
“You have to make the first move.”
Huh. “So when I said you could do whatever you wanted—”
“My dragon was exceptionally happy.” He grinned, a fire burning in his eyes. “But I reined him in.”
“Why?”
“Because you didn’t mean that the way we took it, and I won’t trick you into being with me.”
“No?”
“No. I’ll fight for you, though. I’ll prove myself to be a good mate.”
“What if I don’t want a mate?”
He blinked. Silent. Still. “I’d never force you.”
No, he wouldn’t. I knew that like I knew my own name…which wasn’t Sparky. But sometimes you had to bend a little. And me? I was ready to get bendy.
I rose to my feet, frowning his way. Approaching him slowly. Making the first move in a physical sense. “And if I choose you?”
“Then I would spend the rest of my days making sure you were the happiest woman in all of Kinship Cove.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He stalked closer, never releasing me from his gaze. Locking me in place with a look. One filled with heat and need, with lust and desire. With everything. “I’m yours, Ginger. I always will be, though that doesn’t mean you have to be mine. But if you choose to be, I’ll work hard to keep that beautiful smile on your face.” He brushed my hair over my shoulder, so close I could smell him. So handsome it hurt. “I’ll make sure no one ever lays a hand on you without your permission, including me. It’s always your call.”
Those words warmed me in ways nothing else could have. This was my decision. Not fate’s, not his, not anyone else’s. All mine. I could have more than a night with him, could have days and weeks and months and…more. Just more. We didn’t need to say the F-word tonight, didn’t need to make promises that would outlast both of us. We could simply belong to each other, take care of each other, and be together. All I had to do was choose.
And in my heart, my choice was easy.
“Do I get to call you daddy?”
His growl broke the quiet of the evening. “You can call me whatever you like so long as you first call me yours.”
“Yours?”
“Mine,” he growled, his entire body stiff with what I could only guess was anticipation. “I need to hear it, Sparky.”
Yeah, so…we could work on that. Later.
I gave him a cheeky sort of smile and grabbed his arms, unable not to touch him as I whispered, “Mine.”
Without visible movement, Kingston had me on the ground. One second, I stood on my feet; the next, I was lying on my back with him hovering over me. His growl had grown longer and louder than before, becoming a continuous rumble that vibrated against my chest as he used frantic hands to strip me. I felt just as crazed, yanking and tugging on his clothes until they gave way. Until we lay naked and together under a starry sky on top of a cliff. One I could guarantee I wasn’t leaving without him.
“I don’t want to walk home tonight.”
“I have no intention of letting you.” He nudged his way against me, slipping inside with just the tip of himself. Staring down at me with a look of complete concentration. “Say it.”
“Say what?”
“Tell me you’re mine and that I’m yours. Give me consent, Sparky.”
Oh, that name again. He almost didn’t deserve my immediate compliance. Almost. But if I had to wait a moment more for him to be inside me, I might die.
Death by lack of sex.
It could be a thing.
“You’re mine,” I said, not whispering. Making sure he and the fates above heard me. Just in case. “And I’m yours. Now fuck me, Daddy. I think it’s time to be mates.”
“It’s always time to be mates.” He pushed his way inside me, stretching me. Filling me to the point of almost too full. Just before the point of pain. So good, this man. So strong and big.
And mine.
As he took me on that cliff under the open sky, as he bit my neck and whispered filthy words in my ear and made me come again and again…and again…I knew I’d made the right decision. My body loved this man, but so did the rest of me. His demanding
nature was the ultimate compliment to me—the salty to my sweet. Or sweet to my salty…that descriptor really depended on my mood. But I digress.
At some point, Kingston flipped me onto my knees and spent a good few minutes spanking my ass as I laughed and tried to crawl away from his hand. He simply held me tighter and growled my name as he listed all the things I’d supposedly done to deserve his smacks. Things like making him drool over cinnamon cupcakes and requiring him to take longer showers because he needed to jack off to thoughts of me just like this. He made me laugh as he pretended to punish me, and that was something I looked forward to repeating for the foreseeable future.
This man, this dragon, was all mine. And though I’d never expected anything to last more than one night, I looked forward to what was to come with us. I’d never be bored, that was for sure.
I’d also need to find new ways to drive him crazy so he could spank me again.
And so I could call him daddy.
Epilogue
Ginger
Get down from there, girl.”
Lord, Kingston truly liked living on the edge. And by edge, I meant the edge of my temper.
I stretched a little farther, biting my tongue as I reached for the little silver shape that seemed to be hiding from me. “Never. I need to find the next hook in line.”
“You know, if you’d planned to start hooking, you could have told me. I’d happily pay for your services.”
Ah, sex-worker jokes. Always fun. “You keep me in good wine and ice cream. My services are on the house.”
“Good to know. Now would you like to tell me why you’re in such a precarious position, or should I guess?”
By precarious, he meant up on a ladder in front of the bakery, stretching to the right as far as my body would let me. I mean, I wasn’t high enough to die if I fell, but…it wasn’t the safest thing I’d ever done. Not that I’d admit that to him.
“I wanted to get the string lights up before the first snow.”
“Hi. My name is Kingston, and I’ll be the creature with wings in your life. You could have asked me for help.”
