Saved By Dragons: (A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance)

by Starr, Maia

Hailey even started to be alright when I walked a distance away from her for a while. At first, and even when we were all four watching over her, she never wanted to be alone, but after a while, she showed trust in all of my kind that allowed me to leave for a while with her knowing that I was going to return.

  I loved making her laugh and seeing the new sides of Hailey, as well as showing her all the sides of myself. We had grown to care for each other for real, but I didn’t know in what way. All along, she had still spoken to Malick, James, and Weston, their relationships growing as well, though I couldn’t see how it compared to ours.

  I didn’t know what to think, but the only thing that truly mattered to me was the fact that she was happy.

  “Will you always be in my life?” Hailey asked that night when I had decided it was time to take us back to the others. We couldn’t stay away forever, and what had only been a few days felt like weeks when I thought about what the guys would do to me when I returned.

  “Yes,” I answered with a smile because come hell or high water, I would make sure that I was a part of her, and she was a part of me, even if she chose Malick, James, or Weston to love.

  I would die a little inside, but I would be happy for her. Suddenly, I turned to her, knowing we would make it out of my home territory and back into James’ any moment now, and my eyes met with hers as she stopped to see what was on my mind. I was sure she was surprised considering that I was kind of the joker, the fun one of all of the guys and not always super serious even if I made it obvious I could care for her. But I just couldn’t let the moment pass. I knew it was damn selfish, but I wanted to have something with her the others didn’t if I could. She had already met my family, after all.

  “What is it?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

  “Is it wrong of me to dread taking you back to the rest of them?”

  Chapter Seven

  Hailey

  I drew in a gasping breath at the statement Cree had just made. No, it wasn’t just the statement, but the way our eyes had met. Part of me was afraid of it, afraid of feeling anything specific for any of these men. Not just because it might hurt one of the others, but also because of what I had just been through. I had gone out with the wrong man, trusted that this date I was going on was safe and that I could defend myself. Kidnapping had not at all occurred to me as a possibility.

  But before, I had never been afraid. I was a female bartender; I was kind of a tough woman, and I knew how to take care of myself. This feeling was all new for me, to be scared of anything, and I decided to let it float away with the slight breeze that swept through my hair.

  I looked Cree up and down, thinking of the great time he had shown me, a great time I was sure we would both get a lecture for when we got back, by James at the very least. I didn’t know if I was healed enough for what I wanted, but I knew better than to pass up a moment. You didn’t always get second chances. And at that moment, I wanted Cree.

  “So,” I said stepping up to him with a cheeky grin, my confidence wavering, but I was glad the confidence in my stance belied that feeling. “Why don’t we make them wait just a little bit longer?” I asked him in as sultry a tone as I could manage. I raised my brow at him to make my intentions clear. I didn’t want him feeling any guilt over what we might be about to do.

  “What do you have in mind?” he asked in a husky tone, raising his own brow, and his sexiness emerged from that sweet and joking exterior he always had. I knew he had it under there. After all, he was chiseled to perfection just like the rest of them, and it wasn’t like there wasn’t something uniquely hot about his red hair. I had never met a man with natural red hair before, and I blushed as my eyes trailed up and down his body, wondering else I might find that color.

  “Oh, I see,” he whispered, getting the gist of what I wanted. I dared to wrap my arms around his neck and rub the soft skin there, waiting for him to make a move. I was suddenly feeling like the pervert in this situation. “Are you sure?” he whispered into my ear, giving me a pleasant chill down my spine. “I don’t want to hurt you or move to fast,” he admitted.

  I chuckled a little. “Didn’t I just meet your family?” I asked him through the titters. “I am pretty sure that qualifies as faster than this would be,” I told him.

  “Fair enough,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to turn such a beautiful lady down, but we will be careful. I don’t want to hear it from James if I hinder your healing,” he said, and I shook my head.

  “Let’s not talk about the others right now. Let’s pretend it’s just us for a moment. You deserve that.” Cree nodded with a smile, clearly happy to oblige that request before he pushed me about an inch away, sliding his hands down my body as in one fell swoop he dropped my clothes to the forest floor. I looked up at him in shock at his smooth move and felt myself growing wet for him at that alone. He was not playing around.

  I stood there, a chill coming over me from being bare out there and waiting for him to join me. He smirked at me before hooking his thumbs into his pants and dropping them, then taking his shirt right off. I had to wonder if these men were some kind of gods or something at this point. They looked sculpted by a deity who was not responsible for other men.

  My eyes reached the bulge in his boxers, and I tried not to gasp. I had seen many models on TV with their rolled-up socks trying to get the look he had naturally. “I take it you like what you see?” he asked, throwing in that bit of humor he always had to. It was what had made me so comfortable with him, though.

  “I do,” I said, barely audible, but I knew he heard me.

  “Would you like to do the honors?” he asked me with a wink, and I wasn’t turning that down. I approached him, pressing my breasts and taut nipples up against him as I slid my fingers underneath the boxer briefs, happy to tug them off and reveal what was underneath.

  I dared to look down as he sprung free and smirked at his size; it was just as I had thought. This guy was packin’. I was glad he had mentioned being careful because I didn’t know if even on a good day that I could take him inside me so easily.

  He watched me as I straightened back up to look at him, and I could see a devilish thought rolling around in his mind as I stood there wanting while he made me wait in my nakedness in the woods.

  Suddenly, his hands wrapped underneath my ass cheeks, lifting me up as if I weighed nothing and wrapping both my legs and arms around him. His strength surprised me even with his muscles as he was a little smaller than the other three men. I would have seen Weston or Malick being able to maneuver this, but not Cree. I had a whole new respect and attraction for him as my body burned for him. I felt on fire, no longer bothered by the wind blowing past my bare skin.

  His lips crashed against mine, and I was lost. Tasting his tongue as it slipped in my mouth while he held me up with his pure core strength; backing us up against a tree for that extra support so he could allow his hands to trace down my spine and squeeze my right ass cheek; making me squeal and nibble at his bottom lip. He growled at me, actually growled, and it only served to arouse me more. My breathing picked up the pace, and I whimpered as I felt his hardness against my thigh. Even as nervous as I was to feel that behemoth inside of me, I knew I wanted it now.

  “Please,” I begged him, my nails trailing down the back of his neck in encouragement, giving him a little bit of pleasure with pain. As he pulled back to look at me, I could see the lust glazing over his eyes, but I could also see that gentleness, and my heart skipped a beat. I didn’t know how much longer I could play off the feelings I was developing for these men, especially Cree.

  “You’re so damn beautiful,” he told me his lips dipping down to my neck and collarbone, practically devouring me as I felt him adjust, his cock moving from my thigh to sit just inside my entrance. I moaned at his thickness teasing at my soaked flesh that was aching and begging for release. I heard him growl against my skin before he began to slide further in, being as gentle as he promised, though I could tell it wasn’t for
lack of wanting to lose control. He was holding back so much. I wondered how this would be when I was fully healed.

  Then, he hit that special spot, and my head tipped back in ecstasy. “There,” I whispered. “Yes, Cree,” I sighed as he began to work on that spot, the head of his shaft thrusting in a quick but gentle rhythm as he maintained his hold on me, his hand squeezing my ass even harder. I felt like he would certainly; leave his mark.

  “You feel so good, so tight,” he told me, snaking his tongue up to my ear, flicking the lobe with it sensually. I didn’t think it could get any better until he dared to go even deeper, filling me up as my pussy barely accommodated him, squeezing him so tightly I didn’t think either of us would last much longer.

  Out of breath, I felt my legs begin to quiver as a wave of electricity went through me and spiked and grew as heat in my groin, my flesh squeezing him even more than I thought possible. With a loud groan and one last thrust, we both reach that highest point. The feeling overwhelmed me as I dug my heels into his back and my nails into his neck, causing a roar to rip through him that sounded less human and more beast.

  Chapter Eight

  James

  It wasn't that I didn’t know who she was with, because I did. Their scents very clearly mixed as I could tell while I followed their trail. Though I doubted in all sincerity that Cree would do anything to harm her considering the way he had been fawning over her since we had all found her, I was still worried about Hailey. Why? Well, I told myself she wasn't ready for such excitement as to be leaving my home. She needed to be under my care still.

  In part, that was the truth. However, there was that other part of me that I didn’t like to admit was there. I was a proud man: proud of myself for not being a hot head in the same way Malick and Weston seemed to be, which was why I was the one who volunteered to look for the two of them. Whatever the two of them found, good or bad, they would panic and cause more trouble than they were worth. More trouble that Hailey didn’t deserve even if she made a reckless decision to run off too far from my place with Cree, the youngest of us.

  My pride was being pushed aside by the itching inkling that there was something special about this particular woman that I wanted all to myself. I knew Weston had found her first, had defended her in a way the rest of us hadn’t. Those wolves had been mutilated by his bare hands, which was why he had become like our alpha of sorts in this weird situation, but I couldn’t see her connecting to him or the dark Malick in the same way she could with me. No, there was only one of the men that truly felt like a threat, and he was the one who had managed to slip her out right under our noses for much too long.

  I was approaching the edge of Cree's territory, and I treaded lightly. They were a friendly clan, but that didn’t mean another clan’s dragon in their territory wouldn’t cause an uproar, though there was one of those burning in my belly already at the thought he had brought her here. What was he thinking? Had he been trying to steal her away from all of us to claim her? The thought made a sour taste rise in my throat.

  I had been the one nursing her back to health and making sure that she was okay. I was the one who had smelled her blood and come to the aid of her wounds, along with Weston's, though he had few. I thought I was building something with her, some kind of trust and attraction, and I, just as the rest of them, needed a woman to tame the dragon within me.

  The truth was, what led me here was jealousy. I didn’t know what I would do if I found he had already claimed her.

  I caught a strong whiff of her scent, her sweet earthiness mixed with Cree's pungent smell, very spicy in its own way, and they were close. Not just that, but the scents were melding in a way I didn’t like. This was a bad sign. What if he had claimed her? What if he had done it without her even understanding what it meant?

  The thought made me angrier than I had been in a long time, and I picked up my speed until I heard laughter, stopping when I knew I was close enough to hear their words and for them to know I was there if I took another step. I listened first. I wanted so badly to know she was alright and unspoiled before I went rushing in there.

  I wanted to be level-headed.

  "I think we should get back now. I am sure they are all worried, and with good reason," I heard her sweet voice say, and I was at least glad she wanted to come back to us, that she was being reasonable at this point. But it didn’t tell me yet what I needed to know so badly.

  "I know but being with you like that...I just want to take you right back home and call you mine for real," Cree said, and what he implied hurt. I didn’t think he had claimed her, but I was sure something happened. As silence overcame them, I stepped into the clearing and watched in horror as the two were kissing, both missing some key pieces of clothing. They were done with their tryst, but I had caught them in the middle of their drunkenness for each other. The scent of sex was in the air, and I was more hurt than I expected. I could not maintain my strength.

  My word came out weakly as a tear betrayed me and dripped down my cheek. “I came to find you because I was worried. You had both been gone so long. But I see I have interrupted. When you are decent, I would like to check you over,” I told the dark-haired beauty of my affections as she whipped her head around, clearly caught in the act. I didn’t want to make her feel guilty, but I could see she already did. It should have comforted me that she felt enough for me for it to shame her to be caught with Cree in such a compromising position, but it didn’t. I just ached in a way I couldn’t explain.

  I turned and took off in a run, hearing her calling my name on the wind the whole way. I should have turned around and spoken to her, saw what she had to say about what happened. I knew she had the right to explore things with all four of us because we had all found her, all felt something for her, but that didn’t speak to the unrealistic part of the heart that beat rapidly when your eyes came in contact with the most beautiful being you had ever come across, inside and out. It just didn’t.

  With no ability left to maintain rationality, I proceeded to do just about the dumbest thing I could have, bursting through the door of my own home with my eyes still red from the hot tears I had been crying on my run back. I knew that Cree would be in no hurry to come back and face us and that even if Hailey was chasing after me, she was human and could not keep up with me. It was just us three, and the other two men were looking at me like someone had died. And it kind of felt like they had.

  “What has happened to Hailey?” Weston asked in a panicked tone, and Malick looked so angry he could have brought the house down. I had to tell them something, and I was too upset to form a lie. So, I told them the sick truth.

  “She is okay and likely on her way back by now. But I caught her with…she was with Cree,” I told them, hanging my head in shame that I was being such a baby about it.

  “The damn clown?” Malick asked through gritted teeth. He was likely the closest of us to becoming full-on beast, and I feared this would send him right over that edge, and we would never get him back. Not that the guy was my best friend, but I hated seeing it happen to any dragon, no matter what clan they came from.

  “What do you mean by with, James?” Westin asked, being the alpha and getting all the details for once before reacting, but Malick had already jumped to conclude the complete truth.

  “I think it’s pretty clear from the fact that James is in tears, Weston. We know damn well what he means by with,” Malick barked out, and I flinched, my reactions heightened by everything. I didn’t realize I was close to changing myself until I caught my fists clenched and shaking. I took a few deep breaths as the barrage of questions began.

  “Did he claim her?” Weston asked, and behind his anger, I could tell he felt the same devastation as me. I didn’t technically have the answer, but I was pretty sure about it. Rationally, Cree was not a bad guy anyway, just naïve.

  “I don’t think so, but it was still just not something I wanted to see, total bliss, looking like they’d just had a good romp. They were in
his territory and had been gone all day, Weston…” I said, trailing off to let him assume what he would from that. A growl came form his throat then. All three of us jumped to look at the door, finding that the one opening it was not Cree, and very lucky for him too. Instead, Hailey had just walked into the lion’s den, and I could see that not only was she looking at all of us with shock and terror, but that her eyes were also red like she had been crying herself. Now, I was the one that felt guilty.

  “Can I talk to you, James?” her voice asked shakily. And how could I deny her? I nodded to the others and walked outside with a sigh, my jaw clenching when I found Cree was standing only feet away.

  Chapter Nine

  Hailey

  "Does he really need to be here for this?" James asked, glaring at Cree in a way I didn't like. These two weren't my angry ones, and yet I could have cut that tension with a knife. The guilt was already eating at me, and I hated that because I didn’t want Cree to think that I regretted what we did. I didn’t. Truly. I had enjoyed it, and that was where our relationship was, but I wasn’t there with any of the rest yet. It didn’t make them not important to me, and I needed them all to get that. At some point, I was going to have to talk to all of them and make this clear, but I thought I owed James some comfort first.

  I sighed and answered James’ question by walking over to Cree and placing my hand gently against his chest. I felt an instant closeness that wasn’t there before I met his family, and I hated that I would have to send him away to comfort another man, but that was where my life was headed. I had been saved by four men, not one. I couldn’t complain about that either. It meant the world to me, but it was confusing.

  "Why don’t you go make nice with the others," I whispered. "Or just take a walk. I just want to calm him down," I told him, giving him a slow kiss on the cheek. "I had a great time. Thank you for getting me out of the house," I added, making it clear that he had done nothing wrong in my eyes.