by Meg Ripley
“He hurt you,” she whispered as her hand grazed over the wound gently, but as she moved, the torn flesh mended beneath her fingers, disappearing completely as if it had never been there.
He looked up at her awestruck, but it seemed to have surprised her just as much.
“I told you she was strong,” the witch spoke from the edge of the bed.
Hope turned toward the witch, “You’re Genevieve. You were a friend of my mother’s, but after she died, I never saw you again.”
“I’m afraid that’s true, my dear. I had to leave. I had to draw him away from you.”
“Victor killed my mother? My father told me she’d died in a car accident.”
“He had to tell you that. Your mother should have lived a very long time, Hope. She was three hundred years old when I first met her, and she was born more than a century before that. Your father had only recently found out what your mother was, and though he didn’t understand it enough to do anything more than despise it, he knew he had to keep it from you.”
Her easy camaraderie with the witch made him worry. Hope hadn’t known what she was, but she did now. “She’s going to become like you?” He couldn’t reconcile the thought. He couldn’t fathom Hope being anything like the cold, vile things he had rid from the world.
“Not all witches are evil, my boy.”
“Oh, please. They’re all misunderstood saints?”
“Oh no, I didn’t say that. Just like with you dragons, there are those who use what they possess for good, and others who use it for their own selfish desires,” she motioned to the massive bloodied corpse.
“Then why did you curse me?” How could what she did possibly be counted as good?
“Curse? It wasn’t meant as a curse, but a saving grace. They were scouring the villages, searching out the fire-breathing monsters that terrified them. But you were young, the youngest dragon I had ever seen. In truth, I hadn’t considered where your kind came from back then, whether you were born or spawned, or brought forth from the depths of heaven or hell. But I simply couldn’t just hand you over. There was something gentle in your green eyes. So, I made you what you are, part human to hide you from the dragon-seekers. Unfortunately, I was captured not long after for my evil deeds. By the time I was able to return to you, you were long gone.”
“Then I was the dragon first, not the human?” He couldn’t believe it. He’d insist she was lying, but he could see the truth in her eyes.
“Since I changed you, I have learned you are an ancient species, perhaps one of the first. When the giant rock hit Earth and blackened the skies, you were the only species wise enough to protect yourselves, burrowing havens deep underground. All of those giant reptiles perished, but not the dragons.”
“You aren’t lying,” he told her, perhaps to try to make sense of it himself.
“I have been watching you for a very long time, Cade. Perhaps now, I won’t have to watch you from afar.”
Cade nodded. It was still so strange. All the animosity he’d carried for centuries had been misplaced. The witch had done what she did out of kindness, and if she hadn’t, he would never have known Hope.
“For now, though, I think I’ll leave the two of you alone to get acquainted. You have a lot to learn, about yourselves and about each other. I think it will be a wonderful journey for you both.”
“I’ll take you back,” he offered. It was the least he could do, though he was loath to leave Hope there alone. He’d have to bring them both back with him, he supposed.
“There’s no need,” she smiled mischievously, though he had absolutely no idea how she intended to get herself back. She came around the bed then and patted him on the shoulder. “You’ve grown to be a fine, strong dragon, Cade.” She leaned down then and brushed a kiss across Hope’s forehead. “And your mother would be so proud of you, Hope.” She left then without a backward glance, though he stared after her for a moment, wondering how the woman planned to leave with no boat and no wings. But it didn’t seem to concern her. “By the way,” she called back to them, “I’ll have Steven bring Lexi out to you here. I’m sure my son is anxious to see for himself that you are both alright.”
He and Hope just looked at each other. His personal valet, and really, the man he counted on in any tough situation, was Genevieve’s son? And he hadn’t sensed anything from the man this whole time? It must have been the same potion or spell Victor had talked about, keeping him from sensing Steven’s true self. The day had certainly been full of surprises.
9
He’d wrapped her in his great, obsidian arms and flown her to the other end of the island. There were no villas or modern day comforts there, but what was there was even better. The ancient trees created a tall canopy overhead, blocking out the hottest rays of the sun, but letting through enough light to illuminate the waterfall that fed into a crystal-clear river.
So many questions whirled through her mind, but there was only one thing she wanted to focus on right then: Cade. She reached for him as he shifted back to human form, and the fire deep inside her sprung to life. She let her hands wander, grazing over chiseled muscle and firm flesh. He closed his eyes, and she felt the struggle in his mind, but she swooped in quickly to wrap her hand around his long length.
“Hope,” he whispered hoarsely, but before he could capture her wrists to still her movements, she stepped back wearing a devilish smile of her own.
She stripped off her clothes, yanking the T-shirt over her head and shimmying out of her pants as quickly as she could. The wound Victor had left and the bruises that had marred her arms and wrists were gone. They’d healed miraculously as she’d thrust the poison from her body.
His gaze swept over her body and relief washed over him seeing her healed flesh. Perhaps just to be certain, he ran his hands across her, trailing down her arms and up her ribs. His fingers grazed over her breasts, and her nipples hardened instantly in response to his touch. He cupped her in his hands, and she could tell by his firm grip he’d already begun to lose the tentative control over himself.
He closed the distance between them and kissed her, crushing her lips beneath his as his shaft pressed hard against her abdomen. The ebony dragon flashed through her mind and a jolt of desire shot through her like lightning.
“Shift for me, Cade. Please.” She didn’t know exactly how to articulate what it was she wanted. There was suddenly a burning need deep inside her to experience his real being. She wanted to see him, to touch him, even to feel him against her.
“Hope, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Please,” she whispered again.
“Alright, but you have to keep your distance. It isn’t safe…”
Reluctantly, he took a step back, and then another. She watched as his muscular frame gave way to magnificent scales, and the tan coloring of his skin turned to an iridescent shade of black. His eyes though, they were the same; the same brilliant green eyes filled with desire stared down at her. He was watching her, trying to read her response while he fought to maintain control.
She closed the distance between them and reached up to graze her hand along his solid chest. A roar rumbled in his throat and he took a step back. He was afraid he’d hurt her. “It’s okay, Cade. Please.”
She could feel the way he held himself in check, not moving, barely breathing. She reached for him again, but as she did, he withdrew from her and in a flash, he was human again. She could see the same heat in his eyes that had radiated from the dragon’s emerald orbs.
“Hope, I can’t believe…” but he couldn’t finish his sentence. He lunged for her instead, pulling her hard against him and covering her lips with his.
She pulled away first. She wanted to taste him, to feel his hard length between her lips. She dropped to her knees before he could catch her. She ran her tongue down the length of him and glided back to the tip, circling the ultrasensitive ridge.
“Oh God, Hope,” he groaned as his hips rocked forward.
&n
bsp; She opened her mouth, hollowing her cheeks, and drew him in, savoring the steely hardness covered by smooth flesh. His hands were at the back of her head a moment later and she felt him tremor as he struggled to keep control. She worked him in deeper, taking him into the back of her throat.
“God damn it, Hope, I need to fuck you—now,” he growled as he grabbed her beneath her arms and lifted her up, clear off the ground like she weighed almost nothing.
He captured her lips as he guided her down to the ground, and she felt him against her. Just like before, he drove in to the hilt in one, hard thrust and she wrapped her legs around him. She loved the way he couldn’t contain himself with her. She’d never felt more desirable than when he couldn’t wait a moment longer to have her. She wondered if it would always be this way between them, and somehow, she knew it would be. The same sense she’d so quickly come to trust told her so.
Her fingers roamed over his back as she tilted her hips to meet his every thrust, his pace growing more frantic with every moment that passed. He broke their kiss and gazed at her. Brilliant green and crystal blue locked on one another as he leaned up on one powerful arm and slipped his free hand between them. The second he found her clit, her hips rocked wildly and she cried out as the pressure mounted within her.
“I want to watch you, Hope. I want to see you come for me,” he whispered as he rubbed the sensitive bundle of nerves in tight circles.
Her nails dug into his shoulders as her moans turned to cries, and her cries turned to screams of pleasure as her back arched clear off the soft carpet of grass beneath her and her body splintered into a thousand pieces, floating high in the clouds despite never leaving the ground.
“You’re incredible, Hope. I love you. I’ve always loved you,” he groaned as he reached his summit and toppled over the edge.
She knew exactly what he meant, though it made no sense. “I’ve always loved you, too,” she whispered as her body started back down from the heavens.
“We should head back,” she murmured after a long while had passed. She’d laid there wrapped in his arms for an hour or more, and she would have been happy to stay there for all of eternity just feeling the rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek. But Lexi would be there soon, if Steven hadn’t arrived with her already.
She’d sensed something familiar about Steven. He’d come to the house with Genevieve once, a friend from the local community center, her mother had said. She’d told her mother something was different about Genevieve and Steven after they’d gone, and she had told her to hold onto that feeling, that it would serve to be incredible useful to her one day.
Her mother had been right. The same sense that had told her about Genevieve and Steven had also spoken to her about Cade. If she’d refused to listen to it, she never would have wound up with her perfect match. Whether it was destiny or fate that had brought them together, or a special kind of magic that worked its mysticism throughout the universe, she didn’t know. She didn’t care. She’d found her mate, and her life had been changed forever.
He nodded reluctantly and they both stood, gathering their clothes up off the ground. She slipped into her T-shirt and jeans, though she didn’t want to get dressed. She wanted to stay there with him, touching him, tasting him and feeling him drive deep inside her again. He wanted it, too, but they would both have to do their best to keep themselves under control, at least for a short while.
He went to gather her up in his arms, but a strange sensation washed over her. She’d been looking for it, searching her mind and her body for whatever secrets they held. How could she have been what Genevieve had said and not known it? All her life, she’d had the power to do so many amazing things. Hell, she’d worked in a magic show and never knew she possessed the ability to create magic on her own? It was almost too crazy to believe. Well, it was too crazy to believe, but it was hard to deny when a dragon was the man she knew in her heart she was destined to be with.
The strange sensation stayed with her, and she let it guide her. She took a step back and closed her eyes. Her body felt as light as air and she let the gentle breeze take her. The wind gusted, but she pushed back, keeping her body precisely where she wanted it, hovering close to Cade—and a few feet off the ground. She could fly! She’d given up on every bit of magic in the world, and now she could fly. Could the world possibly hold any more surprises?
A tiny thump, low in her abdomen. It wasn’t possible—it was far too soon. But she could sense it.
Not ‘it’, but her.
THE END
Part V
Claimed By The Werebears Of Green Tree
Part I
Claimed By The Wild Alpha Werebear
1
Sasha
Sasha’s nose twitched as a foreign scent caught his attention. He looked around the woods, grunting to himself as he tried to identify the person that the scent belonged to. Female, human, fertile; the thoughts were more impulse than thought in his ursine brain, and Sasha struggled to bring his human consciousness to the forefront. The scent did not belong to anyone he knew from the town of Green Tree; that much Sasha was able to bring himself to think. He opened his mind, finding the warm and comforting presences of the rest of his clan, scattered through the woods on their own solitary errands—hunting, enjoying the cool, moist air of springtime or the glowing moon, some of them foraging. Stranger, he thought—the one word a huge effort. As his human consciousness began to assert itself, Sasha found thinking in words easier. Stranger—in the woods. Steer clear. The Nita clan had managed to avoid detection from both the town itself and the people of the area—hikers, conservationists, and loggers—by avoiding them; it was one of Sasha’s many responsibilities as the Alpha of the group to warn his clan brethren whenever something like this happened. With any luck, the stranger was simply lost, would find her way out of the woods and into town, and that would be the end of it. Someone just passing through; that was the hope that flickered in Sasha’s mind.
He went back to foraging, thinking in the human part of his mind about the state of his clan as a whole. Bears—of all of the types of shifters—had special problems; they didn’t breed quite as ably as the wolves, or as plentifully as lions, who seemed to constantly be bearing twins. While they were human, or at least half-human, it seemed to Sasha as if some of their trouble was the fact that their animal natures were not as easily reconciled with human living. Bears in the wild were solitary creatures, males mating with females and then leaving shortly afterward, the young going off on their own after a few seasons. Werebears like himself and the other men of his clan were much more social than their strictly-animal counterparts; but they were still insular. We will have to reach out to other clans, Sasha thought. Fights had started to break out amongst his brothers—it was time for many of them, particularly for Sasha, to find a mate, and tensions were high, especially now that spring had arrived. Sasha had had to send away the few females born into the clan over the years since he had assumed the Alpha title; they were too closely related to the other members of the clan, and if mating urges held sway, they would have a high rate of miscarriages and birth defects in the offspring. Where wild bears mated in a system of serial monogamy, werebears mated for life, bonding with their mates. It would have been a disaster for the clan as a whole if Sasha had not sent the women away as they reached the proper age for mating.
He wandered through the woods, sniffing and snuffling, considering the problem even as he contemplated what he wanted to eat. If he wanted to keep the clan stable, he would have to find mates for his brothers; and in the back of his mind, Sasha knew that some of his temper in recent weeks had come from his own need to mate. The spring brought it on in all of them—the drive from their animal minds to take advantage of the lengthening days and the safety that summer and autumn provided. It wasn’t something that anyone could avoid, and Sasha knew that sooner or later he would come up hard against the realities of the situation, if he didn’t take action now.
&nb
sp; As he was contemplating which of the other clans to approach, the foreign scent filled Sasha’s nose again—stronger this time, with an undercurrent of fear like burned gunpowder. The scent disrupted Sasha’s thoughts and he looked around in the darkness. If the woman had come this deep into the woods, she was lost indeed; he would have to take some kind of action, and perhaps steer her in another direction, back towards the town. Has anyone seen the stranger? Sasha called out mentally. He needed to place her—whoever she was—in order to know how to handle the situation. The fear that Sasha could smell on the woman’s scent was more intense than the simple anxiety of being lost in the woods, and Sasha had run afoul of wolves in recent weeks, taking advantage of the improved weather and the better hunting. No wolf pack would challenge a bear without good reason, but a human was another thing entirely.
Flickers of thought reached him; Sasha realized that he had to be the closest to the woman of the members of his clan. He felt a rising sense of irritation that his time in the woods would be marred by the necessity of attending to a human woman who didn’t have the sense to avoid getting lost and exposing herself to the dangers that wild animals presented. Sasha lumbered in the direction of the scent, grumbling to himself in little growls as he made his way through the thick underbrush and tightly packed trees. The last thing he needed on a night like this was to have to steer some woman back to the road—she’d probably be frightened and scream at him the moment he showed up. In the distance, Sasha heard the telltale sound of a howl carrying through the air; the local wolf pack was nearby. He had to get to her quickly. She’s about to blunder on wolves, Sasha thought, projecting his mental voice to the other members of his clan. I need some backup. Armand, James, Holt—fall in with me. Sasha hurried his movements, torn between the impressive presence that his bear form would make—a better guarantee of deterring wolves—and the nimbleness and speed of his human form. Even if the human stranger irritated him, he didn’t want her to be attacked.
