The Royal Shifters Complete Series Boxed Set

by Alice Wilde

  “I’ve never agreed with you more, to hell with that beast,” Roan finally chokes out. He grabs my shoulder and reaches out to stroke Annalise’s cheek. As soon as his fingers touch her skin, her body disintegrates in my arms, nothing left but a pile of ash and the ring Roan had given her.

  “Damn it, Roan!” I bellow. “Look what you’ve done!”

  “How the hell was I supposed to know that would happen?” Roan asks.

  “Men!” Li snaps and we turn to look at him. “He’s back.”

  “What are you—”

  A low, rumbling growl cuts me off and we all turn to look toward the cage. How in the world did I forget, even for a second, about that damn beast?

  I jump to my feet, still covered in ash and take a few steps toward the monster, shaking a finger at him. The dragon shakes his head, his white scales shimmering and changing color before my eyes…just like the one Longwei had shown us back in the village. Now it makes sense why, in certain light, the huge beast seems to disappear. I’m already seeing red when Li grabs my shoulders to hold me back.

  “Hands off,” I snap, trying to shake him from me, “I’m going tear this creature limb from limb if it’s the last thing I do.”

  “You’ll never stand a chance,” Li says, maintaining his hold on me. “The only reason he hasn’t killed us already is he can’t breathe fire on us yet.”

  “Then let me at him!”

  “How are you going to get to him through those bars?” Li asks, trying to reason with me. “If a dragon can’t get out, how are you supposed to get in?”

  I stop fighting him and pause to think. Li’s right, even if the dragon doesn’t breathe fire over me, I can’t reach him through the bars… my brows knit together. “There has to be a way in, we just have to find it.”

  “And then what?”

  “We figure it out from there,” I say, jerking away from him.

  Suddenly Roan jumps up and grabs both of us. “Move!”

  The dragon’s mouth opens just as the shout leaves Roan’s mouth and we barely have time to turn our backs when fire spews from the creature’s mouth.

  This is it…death.

  At least we’re all going to die here together.

  As an explosion of heat wraps around my body I brace for the end… but it only takes me a few seconds to realize I’m not burning down in flames. Opening my eyes, fire is rushing past on either side of me, Li and Roan, but hasn’t touched any of our bodies.

  I quickly turn to look back and have to shield me eyes with my forearm as I’m met with a burning wall of fire.

  “What the hell?” Roan mumbles, he and Li turning to look back.

  We remain sprawled over the stone floor watching through squinted eyes in bewildered silence until the flames die down, the dragon temporarily spent. The intense glow fades to reveal a small, naked feminine figure.

  “Annalise?”

  The woman raises her head and my heart falters in my chest. She looks like Annalise, but her eyes are smoldering, darting between a brilliant gold and an intense crimson. Patches of her skin seem to be burning off and then, just as quickly, regenerating. I’ve never seen anyone or anything as terrifying and lovely as she looks in this moment.

  She walks over to us, our eyes still wide and faces in complete shock.

  “Lass?” Roan breathes.

  “Little…Little Bird?”

  “Not quite so little anymore,” Annalise says with a sweet, tearful laugh.

  Hearing her voice again spurs us all to action and we’ve surrounded her before she has a chance to take one more step toward us. Li gets to her first, pulling her into a tight hug, Roan and I joining a split second later, embracing her tightly from all sides.

  “I love you, too,” Annalise says in a muffled voice, “but you’re crushing me, and there’s still a dragon to deal with.”

  We reluctantly let go of her and step back to give her some space.

  Roan whips off his shirt and wraps it around Annalise as we all suddenly become very aware of her body. I wrinkle my nose at the crassness of my own thoughts and present desires, but only minutes before I thought she was lost to me forever. If it was up to me, and we weren’t in the middle of a dragon’s lair, I’d take her here and now. But it’s not.

  “I can’t believe you’re alive,” Li says softly, reaching out to tuck one of her golden curls behind her ear.

  “I can hardly believe it myself,” Annalise says, “but we’ll have to discuss my rebirth later.”

  She spins on her heel and strides over to position herself in front of the dragon. His large pearly eyes narrow as he peers down at her, and we observe from a distance in awe of her. Annalise places her hands on her hips and glares up at him, they stare at each other for a long moment before the dragon lets out a whine and cowers, bowing its head and taking a few steps back from the bars.

  “What just happened?” I ask, as the dragon curls up on the stone floor in a huff.

  “I’ve just given him a piece of my mind,” Annalise says in a matter of fact tone.

  “How?” Li asks.

  “Like this,” Annalise says, her voice resonating in my mind. Li, Roan, and I share a look.

  “This is an unexpected change,” Li says.

  “And a welcome one at that,” Roan chimes in.

  “Not sure how I feel about having you probing my mind,” I return through the mental link.

  The other guy’s faces twitch, obviously not having realized what this new link might reveal to her of our more… intimate thoughts.

  “Wait,” Li starts, “are you saying we could have tried speaking to him from the beginning?”

  “Yes,” Annalise says.

  We all redirect our attention back to the dragon which is still curled up on the floor, but watching us intently. I clench my teeth together, my jaw forming a hard line as I walk over to the bars and give the beast a cold glare. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

  “Ashamed of myself,” the dragon scoffs, his voice both silvery and guttural at the same time, reverberating through my mind. “Am I not the one trapped in a cage threatened by a band of intruders?”

  “Threatened,” I laugh, “how have we threatened you? So far, you’re the only one who has tried, and somewhat successfully managed, to kill us.”

  “For all one knows, you may have done the same if you found yourself in my current situation.”

  “And what is that?” Li asks, joining the link.

  The dragon raises his head slightly looking back and forth between us. “You’re not like most mortals I’ve met.”

  “Answer the question.”

  “If you must know, one of your own kind tricked me, imprisoning me here with no hope of escape,” the dragon growls.

  “Who would be fool enough to trick a dragon… and how?” Li snorts.

  “I’ve asked myself the same thing for decades. I let greed get the better of me, and when I was offered a priceless reward for helping him gain control of a town…I couldn’t refuse.”

  “I hope whatever you were given has been worth it.”

  “Far from it,” he snarls, black smoke seeping out from between his teeth. “After I completed the task for him, I returned to find my payment waiting for me just as he promised…only, when I moved closer to admire them, they suddenly came to life and escaped just as these bars dropped down to barricade me inside.”

  “Why not break out?” I ask. “If you’ve been trapped here for as long as you say, surely you’d eventually be able to break them down.”

  “Do you think me a complete fool?” the dragon roars, the whiskers around his nose trembling. “They’re bound with magic, only he can release me.”

  “It was just a question.”

  “Forgive me,” the beast spits, “if I have little trust in your kind.”

  “This…man,” Annalise interjects, “what was he like?”

  The dragon glances toward her and then exhales deeply. “There’s little I can say to describe
him. He had no uniquely remarkable feature…aside from one thing.”

  “Oh?”

  “He had a mark.”

  “What kind of mark?” Li asks.

  “A bad omen. I knew it the moment I saw it, but his offer was too tempting to pass up.”

  “You mean a birthmark?” Li queries. “They’re usually a patch of brown or purple skin on the body.”

  “Yes,” the dragon’s lip curls up at the description, “he had one of those on his back.”

  “Wait,” I say, “what was your reward supposed to be?”

  “A pair of stone Nian.”

  Our minds quiet, the only sounds those of the wind whistling through crevices and dripping of water from further back in the cave.

  “It’s him,” I finally say, breaking the silence in our minds, “I saw the mark on his back when…before.”

  “Are you sure?” Roan asks.

  “I know what I saw!”

  “I believe you,” Annalise comforts. “But he told us the Nian only woke up a few weeks ago.”

  “Perhaps he was telling the truth about that,” Li says thoughtfully. “If he’s adept at using magic, it’s possible someone or something woke them without his permission.”

  “That would explain our cell,” Roan agrees. “If he’s a sorcerer or practitioner of black magic, then perhaps he’s the real source of all of the village’s problems.”

  “Bastard,” I growl, shoving my hand into a pocket in an effort to control my anger. My fingers brush against something cold. I pause for a moment and then look the dragon directly in the eye. “What would you do if we helped you escape?”

  “Impossible.”

  “What would you do?”

  The beast narrows his eyes, considering me. “I’d raze that village to the ground.”

  “Not quite what I was going for, but it’s a start,” I respond. “How about focusing your anger on something...or someone, a bit more worthwhile?”

  Annalise, Li, and Roan are all watching me with bated breath.

  “What thing?”

  “Help us take down another dark sorcerer,” I say. “You’ll find there’s no love lost for us when it comes to black magic.”

  “Hmm… My freedom in exchange for unbridled destruction,” the dragon muses.

  “Well, bridled destruction.”

  His snout twitches and then he shakes himself, his scales rattling. “I suppose that could be arranged.”

  “This man,” I continue, “did he ever show you anything like this?”

  I pull out the gold key, and the dragon’s eyes glint as he presses his face up against the bars for a better look. “Where did you get that?”

  “From the sorcerer who trapped you. I stole it and left him bound and naked in the middle of his house.”

  “Then it seems we have ourselves a deal,” the dragon says his lips curling into a menacing smile. “My name is Avalon.”

  “Nice to meet you, Avalon,” I say with a grin. “Let’s go burn shit down.”

  Fourteen

  Annalise

  “How do we let you out?” Ero asks.

  “Hold on,” Li interrupts aloud, grabbing Ero’s sleeve. “Are you sure this is a good plan?”

  “No, but it’s the only one we’ve got…unless you’ve got something better.”

  Li let’s go, shaking his head. “I suppose it’s some comfort to know that at least Annalise should be fine if things go awry.”

  Ero’s nose twitches. “Are we agreed then?”

  “Annalise?” Li asks. “I think you should be the one to make the final decision on this.”

  “This is what we came for,” I answer carefully. “One way or another, it’s inevitable that destruction lies before us…but perhaps, with Avalon’s help, that destruction doesn’t have to be our own.”

  “It’s settled then,” Li says.

  “The lock?” Ero asks, linking with the dragon once again.

  “It’s over here,” Avalon says, rising to his feet and walking toward the small, cave entrance. “There’s a lever, just beside the opening. Use the key and you should be able to pull it, releasing me from my prison.”

  “How do we know you’re not just going to leave us behind?” Roan asks.

  “You don’t,” Avalon hisses, “but I’ve found dragons to be far better at keeping their word than you mortals…and I’m not one to let a deed go unrewarded.”

  “Release him, Ero.”

  Ero gives me a sharp nod and slips the key into the keyhole in the strange lever. There’s a resounding click as he turns it in the lock, and then a whirring sound as a previously hidden, and extremely complicated contraption moves into place up above us. The whirring quiets and then stops altogether, and Ero grabs the lever.

  “Ready?”

  I nod, and he strains to push the lever up. It doesn’t budge.

  “Damn it!” Ero shouts, slamming his fist against the cavern wall.

  “Is there something else we need?” I ask, turning toward the dragon, but he doesn’t answer me and begins pacing back and forth snorting out black puffs of smoke.

  “Let me help,” Roan says.

  “Me too,” Li chimes in.

  Together, all three of them throw their weight against the lever, their muscles tense and swollen as they labor to force it up.

  “Hell,” Roan pants, leaning over to catch his breath. “What the devil is wrong with this thing?”

  I walk closer to examine the device myself, but nothing seems to be blocking the lever from moving.

  “Let’s give it another try.”

  “I don’t think it’s going to budge, lass.”

  “Perhaps not,” I say, “but we’re not giving up just yet.”

  Roan sighs but nods in agreement. All three of my men take hold of the lever once again and brace themselves against it.

  “On the count of three,” Li says. “One…Two...Three!”

  They throw their bodies against it. I watch for a few seconds as the lever lifts ever so slightly in its track, and then I join them throwing every bit of myself into helping them.

  My vision goes black and then white flames dance up around me. I continue to push up against the lever and it lurches and then bit by bit glides up the track. Li, Ero, and Roan are breathing heavily as they put all of their energy into moving the lever. It finally clicks into place and we all gasp, stepping backwards in exhaustion as the whirring begins again.

  My vision is still black, but as I look around the cavern I notice Roan, Li, and Ero glow bright white, and so does the dragon, the rest of the room completely obscure…aside from strange ripples of white light that bounce around the room in a way that makes it possible for me to see every nook and cranny without actually seeing them. Raising my hands in front of me, I turn them over and watch in astonishment as white flames flow up and down my arms.

  A startled yelp draws my attention and I tear my eyes away from my body to look up. Roan, Li and Ero are all staring at me in shock.

  “Lass!”

  “What?”

  “What do we do?” Roan asks, turning toward Li in a panic.

  “I…I think she shifted…”

  “Princess?” Ero’s voice questions in my mind.

  “Yes? What’s wrong?”

  “Let’s just say you don’t really look like yourself,” Ero says before speaking aloud to Roan and Li. “It’s her, but you’ll have to link with her to communicate.”

  “What the hell is going on,” Roan murmurs and then I feel him connect with me. “Lass, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, why?” Although, if I was being honest, I’m more than fine. I feel alive, truly alive. It feels as if I’ve only been half alive up until today. Fire coursing through my veins and a power I’ve never known before stirring me to action. Every emotion, sensation, and thought a thousand times stronger than I’ve ever known possible…and all I want to do is soar into the sky in ecstasy.

  Li joins Roan and Ero in my mind. “Little Bir
d, I don’t know how to say this other than…it appears you’re a shifter as well.”

  “Is this what it’s like when you shift?” I ask, excited by the news.

  “I doubt it,” Ero says, and I look at him quizzically.

  “What is she?” Roan asks.

  “I think…I’m not entirely sure,” Li says, stepping back to take a good look at me.

  “She’s a phoenix,” Avalon’s voice rumbles through our minds, startling us all.

  “Fitting,” Ero says appreciatively.

  “That explains a lot,” Li says.

  “A phoenix shifter?” I ask. “How do I shift back?”

  “It’s hard to explain,” Li says. “We’ve had a long time to practice and learn, but every shifter is different. What works for us may not work for you.”

  “Just try to focus on what you want,” Roan says. “It may take a while to get use to but—”

  I close my eyes to imagine myself standing next to them, once again in my human form, but nothing happens. I try again, this time focusing on each of my men in turn and how much I care for them…how much they’ve done for me and how far we’ve come. My body ignites in flaming heat, and I feel like I’m burning from the inside out and then I grow cold and crumble to the floor. As I open my eyes, I’m once again myself…almost.

  There’s a pile of ashes around me that are swirling around me, converging together to form my limbs once again. A moment later, I stand, naked in my human form. But I feel slightly different than I did the first time I’d shifted, and I’m not sure why.

  Roan picks his shirt up off the floor and ties it around me once again.

  “Looks like we’re going to have our hands full trying to keep clothes on you,” he says, with a nervous chuckle.

  “Fine with me.” Ero grins, running his eyes over me.

  “I have a feeling people will be more shocked by her shifter form than her bare skin,” Li says.

  “Then you have too much faith in the male species,” Roan grumbles.

  “Avalon,” I gasp, changing the subject to look around the cavern for the dragon. I’m more than a little surprised to find him still in the cave with us, but no longer behind bars. We’ve been so distracted, he could have easily slipped away from us unnoticed. “You’re still here.”