20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  He had to get his mind out of the mushy fluffy love nest it was building and get back to being a warrior.

  “Jada, can we call upon your family again to help us?”

  “If any of them besides Leon are still alive. But, I’d rather not have to summon him again. He really hates that.”

  Jada shrugged. “But, I don’t know how else to contact him. It’s not like I have anyone’s number. I didn’t even know Portia had a phone. They’ve all hidden a lot from me.” There was both anger and hurt in her voice.

  He was the dumbass about to hide more from her.

  He couldn’t ask for her trust when he didn’t give his own. When the plans were set, and he had her alone, he’d tell her everything.

  He took her hand in his and stroked the inside of her palm. She blinked at him, surprised, like he was doing something special.

  He’d do a lot more special things to her when this was over. “Let’s hash out your plan. I don’t want to bring the Black Dragon and his minions to your home, Steele. What about the area we fought in last time?”

  “It is sacred to the other shifters in this area. I don’t think they’d be very happy about another dragon battle in their backyard.”

  “We can be bait pretty much anywhere.”

  Steele paced, glancing toward the kitchen and then back. “There has to be more to the plan than dangling the women. We need to surprise him.”

  Jada shrugged. “That’s as far as I got. We dangle, then when he shows up to nab us, we nab him instead.”

  Jakob rejoined them, Ciara in tow. “Can’t get a hold of Match, but Cage has golds who can be here in a matter of hours. I’ve sent more greens to his place to protect him and heal what they can. He sounded like shit.”

  The sooner they could capture the Black Dragon, the sooner he could hunt down Cage’s shard. “Jada, would one of your kind work with the Black Dragon to get him that shard?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know why they would. He’d have to have a pretty compelling reason and the succubus would have to hide what she was doing from her coven. I always thought it was hard to hide anything from one’s demon family, but I guess I was wrong about that.”

  Ky asked, “How did the succubus who took Cage’s shard get him to give it up to her?”

  “I don’t know. What would make a dragon warrior give his shard to anyone?”

  They looked at Steele and Jakob. “You’re the only two dragons who ever have. Why did you give your mates your shard?”

  “It wasn’t my shard I was giving Fleur. It was my soul.”

  That only confirmed what Ky thought.

  Ciara and Jakob exchanged a meaningful look and clasped hands. “I was dying. I thought if I gave it to her, she would still have a part of me and could keep it safe from the demon dragons.”

  “How did you know it was the right thing to do, to give it to them?” Ky didn’t care so much about how any of this could help them defeat the Black Dragon so much as if he should give his own shard to Jada.

  “If a succubus was able to get the shard from a dragon Wyvern in the first place, it should be a piece of cake for Jada to get it from the Black Dragon.”

  Steele shook his head. “But, he has the crone. She’s got some scary powerful magic according to Fleur. What if Jada can’t?”

  Jada shook her head and smiled. “There isn’t much that can defend against a succubus’s allure when she turns it on full throttle.”

  “Then why don’t we just have Jada use her power on the Black Dragon anyway and have her compel him to give up.”

  “It doesn’t work that way. It’s a short burst, that makes someone horny enough to want to please me, you know, sexually. I can’t force them to do anything.”

  “Have you ever used it for anything else?” Ciara asked.

  “Well, no. I guess I never needed to.”

  “Try it out on us. We’re already mated, so I don’t think it will affect us.”

  Jada sunk back. “No. I,…no. That’s not a good idea.”

  Ciara was perky and bright. It was hard to tell her no. “It will be fine. We need to see if it can help. See if you can get us to do something we wouldn’t normally do.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  Ky didn’t either. If needs be he would defend his mate against any other dragon on the face of the planet. Even his own fellow Wyverns, his brotherhood.

  The other women returned from the kitchen. Fleur said, “We have to go to the community garden to get the rhubarb. I only have stalks and the leaves and roots are the most toxic.”

  Ky nodded to her. “Steele and Dax will take you. But, first we’re going to try a little experiment. It will work even better if we can see if she has a different effect on mated versus unmated dragons.”

  He hated how uncomfortable this made Jada, but Jakob was right. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist, drawing her attention away from the other dragons and their mates.

  “This could be a powerful weapon. I know you don’t want to, but I promise to protect you if anything goes wrong.”

  Jada chewed on her lip, worrying the skin there. “This is still a bad idea, but I’ll try.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Get Dax in here.”

  “Wait. See if Jada can get him to do it.”

  Jada rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I hope he’s got a girlfriend.”

  “I’ll throw him in the fountain if can’t keep his cool.”

  Jada nodded and closed her eyes, concentrating as if in a quiet meditation. When she opened them, her pupils had gone from normal sized to full blown, making her eyes look completely black. She tipped her head and aimed her forehead at the hallway to the kitchen.

  Metal clanged to the floor and Fleur winced but didn’t say anything. In fact, no one said a word. They were all focused completely on Jada.

  Dax stalked into the living room, as if he was hunting prey. That prey was Jada. He growled low and deep at Ky. “Get away from her, Puru. She’s mine.”

  “I told you this was a bad idea.”

  Ky stood and blocked Jada from Dax’s path and sight. His dragon rippled across his skin, wanting to protect its mate. “Can you turn it off?”

  Jada blinked. “I already have, but it lasts for hours.”

  Talons extended from Dax’s hands and red scales shimmered across his skin. Smoke poured from his nostrils.

  “Oh, crap. He’d going to light our house on fire.” Fleur moaned.

  “Jada. Don’t push it down, turn your allure on him full force, but tell him what you want from him.” Ninsy’s voice was low.

  “If I use the full power of it, everyone else will be affected too.” Jada shook her head. Everything in her body language screaming ‘no way.’

  Ninsy wasn’t fazed. “Probably, but you can control the situation.”

  Fleur tipped her head to the side, as if trying to remember something. “Wait, how much of your power are you using on him right now?”

  “Maybe ten percent. I rarely need much more than that.”

  “I felt this last night. I thought my hormones were out of whack. But, it was you, wasn’t it?”

  Jada nodded at Fleur. “Sorry about that. I sort of slipped out. Moment of weakness.”

  Ninsy interrupted again. “Use it all, Jada. Let go.”

  Jada sighed and addressed the other women. “Please, take a hold of your dragons’ hands, or sit on their laps or something. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

  Both women scrambled to do as she requested. Dax lurked closer, never taking his eyes off Ky.

  He’d put Dax on ice before he allowed the red dragon to touch his mate.

  Jada slipped her hand into Ky’s. She vibrated with power, sending a warm glow through him. His own shard lit up and Dax glared at it and him.

  Ninsy voice was quiet but commanding, like a yogi guided new initiates to the path of consciousness. “Now, Jada. You can do this. Open your heart and your
mind.”

  Jada sucked in a long breath and held it for a count of three. Then the room filled with a pulsing energy so intense Ky almost came right there in his pants like a randy teenaged dragon chasing his first woman.

  Dax fell to his knees, then all fours. He roared, flames licking at his lips, he fought the shift, and his dragon stayed contained.

  Ky’s cock pushed at his pants, going from ready to harder than stone in an instant. Every dragon in the room sported tents in their pants, and there was no hiding it.

  “Holy mother Earth,” Fleur whispered. She sat on Steele’s knee and looked at his lap like her eyes had no other place in the room to go.

  Ciara’s eyes went wide and yanked her mate up from his chair and began dragging him away.

  “Excuse us, please. I need to, we are…we’ll be right back. In about three hours.”

  Jada slumped into her chair. “Ah crap. See. I told you all this is what would happen. It’s just sex.”

  “Ciara, wait. Command them, Jada. Ask them to do what you want from them.” Ninsy didn’t seem to be having any response to Jada’s powers at all.

  Ky was ready to rip Jada’s clothes off and take her right there on the carpet. Ninsy looked mildly interested in what Jada was doing, but nothing else.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Try it, mistress. See what happens.”

  “What do I say?”

  “You decide. But, do it quickly. Your allure is already beginning to fade.”

  So, she did feel it, but it didn’t do anything to her. Dax on the other hand looked ready to pounce.

  “Umm. Okay, here goes. Don’t kill me for this. It’s the only thing I could think of. Everybody do the chicken dance.”

  Ky found his arms folding into triangles and his thumbs tucked themselves up under his arm pits. Then he started flapping his elbows.

  Dax moved to his feet and did the same. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Ciara and Fleur both burst into laughter, but neither Jakob or Steele joined in the dance.

  “Ladies,” Ninsy held out her hand indicating to the women, “ask your mates to do the same, if you would please.”

  Ciara sighed, but whispered into her mate’s ear. His eyes narrowed at her, but she whispered something else and his look turned to lust.

  He flapped his arms in the same way as Ky.

  “Steele, dear. Chicken it up, my love.”

  Steele scowled, but joined the other men.

  “This could come in very handy. Jada, wouldn’t you like to come on an extended visit to the Czech Republic? We have a lovely guest house on our property.

  Jakob scowled at Ciara making promises with his eyes and flapping chicken wings. “Does this work the other way around?”

  “Find out for yourselves,” Ninsy said.

  Steele’s scowl turned into a grin. “Come here and give me a good long kiss, my flower.”

  “You don’t have to compel me to do that.” Fleur’s shard glowed, and she kissed Steele long and hard. One little, two little, three little flowers popped up in her hair. “I have a lot more things in mind, but they aren’t appropriate in front of our company.”

  Steele waggled his eyebrows at his mate. “You don’t have to make me do any of what is on your dirty mind either. I’ll happily fulfill all those fantasies later.”

  Jakob whispered something in Ciara’s ear and she instantly flapped her arms in the air like the men. Her cheeks also flushed much deeper than what the little bit of exertion called for.

  The shard at her neck sparkled too.

  Dax huffed. “Are we done with your little game? My arms are getting tired.”

  He whined, but there was still lust in his eyes when he looked at Jada.

  Jada’s jaw hung open. “Oh. Sorry. Yeah. Umm. At ease.”

  Ky’s arms fell to his side and the vibrating power he’d felt before lifted. He still had a throbbing hard on and a need to take Jada in every way possible.

  Jada blew out a long breath and took hold of Ky’s hand again. “That was exhausting.”

  He ran a hand over her head and through her hair, then pulled her up and kissed her quickly but with a lick and a promise for more to come later “And amazing. Still think you can’t make the Black Dragon do what you want?”

  He knew the second Jada opened her mouth he would fly to the moon and back if she asked him too. It was more than a little disconcerting that Dax was under her influence too.

  Jakob nodded. “If he’s already got the shard, we won’t be able to take it from him. But, with Jada’s power—”

  That was exactly what Ky had been thinking.

  “I could.” She smiled up at him, yawned and then collapsed into his arms.

  “Oh god. Is she okay?” Fleur rushed over.

  Her breathing came deep and even, but Ky looked to Fleur and Ninsy to see if they could help.

  Ninsy nodded. “She’ll be fine as long as Ky feeds her and takes care of her needs.”

  He’d do that and more.

  Jada’s eyelids fluttered, trying to open and Ky noticed her fangs had extended. The shower was not going to cut it this time. He needed to claim her, take her long and hard, and make her come at least half a dozen times.

  Just Getting Started

  Jada struggled to get back to consciousness. The bloodlust she’d left behind last night when Ky fed and cared for her came back with a force worse than before.

  Would he want to feed her again?

  She couldn’t yet pry her eyes open, but she could hear the voices of the people she’d controlled with her allure all around her.

  Controlled. The thought turned her insides into jam filling. Sickly sweet. Like her first taste of blood.

  So good, and so bad.

  Could all her brothers and sisters do that? Could Leon?

  If they could, why didn’t they?

  Or maybe they did. One more secret they’d kept from her.

  “We’d all better have a short break and take care of our… needs.”

  That was Ciara. She’d definitely felt Jada’s power, but hadn’t been directly controlled by it.

  Jada could only imagine what Jakob had whispered to her, or her to him.

  Jada slid one eye open a tiny slit and found Dax’s gaze fixed right on her.

  “You fuckers. What am I supposed to do?” Dax stared longingly at her but kept his distance and waved his hand in front of his pants.

  Shoot. That really wasn’t fair. She had no doubts at all that everyone else was about to go have noisy, very satisfying sex, and poor Dax had no one.

  She closed her eyes again and figured a hot shifter like him could probably pick up a girl no problem.

  “We’ve got about an hour before the golds show up. I suggest a nice cold shower.”

  “God damn it.” Dax stomped off toward the front door.

  “Ninsy, will your ward hold out for a little while longer. I still want to get that rhubarb, but there’s one or two things I need to do first.”

  “Those things you need to do better be me.” Steele’s voice was filled with a need he was trying his best to keep under control.

  “They are,” Fleur said.

  “Yes, you are all safe for now.” Thank goodness for Ninsy.

  But, what in the world was she that she’d known that Jada had that kind of power when Jada didn’t know herself?

  “Go, play with your mates now. You’ll need the power you can get from the coupling in the battles to come.”

  Jada had always known there was power in sex, but was it true for other beings too? Had Ky gotten as much from her last night as she had from him?

  She yawned and finally pried both eyes open. Ky stared down at her. She was in his arms. He’d caught her when she’d passed out.

  That made all the warm fuzzies attack her heart. Silly.

  “Fleur, you don’t happen to have any haystacks in your yard, do you?”

  Fleur giggled. “No but give me a minute and I can gr
ow you two a nice secluded field of wheat. I think you’ll like that even more.”

  “Hurry it up, little flower, because that mud bath is calling our names. An hour isn’t nearly long enough for what I want to do to you.”

  Fleur shivered, raised her hands and within a minute little sprouts made a path out the door. “Follow those and you’ll find your field.

  “Oh, and Ky. There’s hot springs on the far side of the property I think you’ll enjoy.” Fleur winked and grabbed Steele’s hand dragging him out of the room.

  Jada moved to get up, but Ky lifted her and carried her out the door, shifting in a flash to his dragon form, wrapping her gently in his great claws.

  “Are you all right, aroha? I was worried.”

  “I’m mostly fine. Hungry though.”

  “Good. I’ll feed you.”

  “I mean, hungry for—”

  “I will feed you in every way that you need.”

  He landed a moment later, setting her on the ground before shifting back to his human form. But, this time, he didn’t have on the clothes he’d been wearing before.

  He wasn’t wearing anything at all.

  Gods above and below, he was so damn good looking it made her lower belly clench just at the sight of him.

  His dark skin was in such contrast to her own. The tattoos and scars across his body so different from her unmarred pale skin. Except she wasn’t unmarred. She had a blue dragon mark on her neck and shoulder.

  “You’re staring, sweet thing.”

  The last time she’d seen him naked, she hadn’t taken the time to really get a good look at him. She’d been too desperate for what he offered. Sex and blood. “Yeah. And I’m gonna keep staring. Are all dragon warriors so yummy?”

  His eyes twinkled. “Nope. Only me.”

  Only him, for only her.

  That was too weird. She knew most non-humans mated for life, and she’d heard stories of fate intervening, of true mates. Those tales never involved a succubus. It wasn’t in a demon’s nature. Mates weren’t important, family, the coven provided all the companionship and support any demon would need.

  This pull she felt, down to her black soul, couldn’t be ignored. She not only needed him, she wanted to be with him. It hurt to even think of not having him in her life.