20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  Now, Ky understood what that meant.

  Being Jade's mate would be tough on him, if she couldn't be trusted.

  His soul screamed that that wasn't right. She was his soulmate, his true mate. He loved her. Fate would not have given him a mate he could not trust.

  He had no idea if that was true or not. Maybe this was the way of it. He had no information to go on. The only other dragons who had mates were Jakob and Steele. They were both beyond happy in their relationships. But, before that it had been generations. What if this happened all of the time back then, making enemies lovers. There was no one to ask.

  Ky was so distracted that he didn't even notice the enemy had found him until there were three demon dragons on his back.

  He roared and swatted them away, using the deep hurt and anger at Jada's betrayal to fuel his battle. All three of the demon dragons who attacked him first hit the cavern wall so hard they instantly exploded into ash.

  “Get him,” Kur-Jara roared. The man shifted into his own big black Dragon and spewed fire Ky's head.

  Ky jump to the air and dive bombed the black Dragon, aiming his talons for its eyes.

  The black Dragon shot another spout of flame at Ky, but he defended with an icy blast. He still had no water, but he could control the temperature of the air, ice being part of his element.

  He had enough fury in him to turn half the horde into ice cubes, which he scooped up and threw like some little projectile icicles at the Black Dragon's head.

  When he ran out of demon dragons to throw, he could throw his heart. Until he saw Jada again and found out the truth of whether she had betrayed all of Dragon kind, and him, his heart would be guarded like it should have from the start.

  He’d opened himself too early, loved her too fast,

  From here on out, his heart would be as hard as stone and cold as ice.

  Betrayal

  After everyone was done flipping out, probably because Ciara used her magic on them, there was still a standoff between the dragons and Leon.

  “I don't want to start a war with you to, Incubus, but I will if we don't walk out of here with that soul shard.” Jacobs words had a whole new ring to them, that had a lot more power behind it than Jada had ever heard before.

  “It's not my call, Dragon. You will not interfere with the one making the decisions here.” Leon was a hell of a lot older than Jakob. Maybe as old as their First Dragon.

  Jada did not want to see the Green Dragon wyvern and Leon throw down. But, she certainly wasn't the one making decisions around here.

  “Then, who is?” Even Jada could sense Ciara's emotional hold on Jakob was slipping. She put her hand on his arm and the fist he had bunched dropped open.

  “Only the ones Portia has wronged can decide her fate. That is how it works in the coven. Since the Dragon whose soul she has stolen is not here, the one she has betrayed will have to decide what to do with her.”

  Every single eye in the room turned on Jada.

  Crap oh Rama.

  “What do you want to do, Jada. You can do anything from permanently ban her up to death.”

  “Death?”

  “Yes,” Leon nodded, “she threatened both your life and the life of your mate. It's fair for you to threaten hers in return, even take it.”

  Jada had heard that other covens were much more brutal than Leon's. But it was only ever rumors. Leon was strict with them, but Portia's last punishment was the first one they'd had in years.

  Jada wondered what could have happened to Portia when she had been banned and sent to Geshtianna's coven. What had happened in that month to turn her friend and sister against her?

  She had a hard time believing that this whole thing was over a guy.

  If Portia felt anything like what Jada felt for Ky, she could understand. It still hurt.

  If this were truly her decision, she needed to make it count.

  “I won't harm Portia. “The coven side of the room erupted in protests. Jada raised her hand, and surprisingly they quieted. “I don't deny that her betrayal has cut me deep. I'm not sure it's a wound that can be healed.”

  Portia’s anger slipped from her face and was replaced with guilt and sadness. They both knew things would never be the same between them, and that hurt almost as badly. Portia swallowed several times and then dropped her eyes.

  “I choose instead of punishment, reparation. Portia will take us to her mate and together they will help us rescue mine.”

  Portia's head shot up and she gasped. “Geshtianna's coven is a dangerous place, she may well kill me for bringing you and the dragons there. Send me in alone, I swear to bring Jett out and help you find your mate.”

  “I wish that I could trust you. But you know that I can't.”

  Portia nodded.

  Leon shooed the other demons away. “Pack what you want to take with you, Portia. While Jada will not ban you as her punishment, I will. If we cannot trust and rely on each other, we cannot be family. Once your mission to help Jada and the dragons recover what you have taken from them, do not return to us.”

  A heavy lump hung in Jade's throat and tears pricked her eyes. It hurt so much to think that the woman she had grown up with, her only friend, would no longer be a part of her family. She wanted to take it all back and say everything was okay. But it wasn't and they would both be dealing with the fallout for a long time to come.

  Portia left the great room and Leon circled the dragons to talk. “Portia is not wrong when she says Geshtianna’s coven is dangerous. She's almost as old as I am and has had a grudge against your kind forever, both she and her brother Dumuzid.”

  Jakob didn't exactly look concerned at that news, but thoughtful. “Do you know why?”

  Leon shook his head. “No idea. But demons have long memories. So, whatever it was probably happened a very long time ago, and it's been boiling and bubbling in her ever since. You won't be safe there, even a little bit. Get in and get out as fast as you can.”

  “You're not coming?” Jada had hoped Leon would help smooth the way with Geshtianna.

  “No, she and I have our own age-old feud. Besides, you know I don't really like the desert. They’re all so old and stuffy over there.

  Which reminds me. I got you this.” Leon reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out an iPhone. “I put my number and therefore you. I won't be around to protect you so much anymore. It's time for you to get with the times.”

  Jada took the slick piece of technology and held it awkwardly in her hand. Hopefully Ciara or Fleur would help her figure out how to use it. Because she was likely to break it on her own. “Thank you, but is this your polite way of telling me not to summon you anymore?”

  “Yeah, don't do that.”

  The dragons decided there were too many for them to carry and fly across the ocean especially since they didn't have any gold in their numbers. Ciara, who had been a wedding planner in her former life, used some favors to get them a commercial flight to Dubai, where Geshtianna's coven lived.

  The three dragons were extremely grumpy the entire flight. They did not like being cooped up, and Dax paced up and down the aisles the entire time, romping about how he hated to fly. If their situation was any different, she'd find the whole thing a little bit funny. Dragons who didn't like to fly. Really, dragons on a plane was pretty funny, and she looked forward to telling Ky the story. Better than snakes on a plane.

  There was no helping Dax, but Jada saw both Fleur and Ciara, one and then the other a few minutes later, take their mates into the lavatories for a little mile high club action. She didn't see how either of those guys even fit in that tiny room, much less how many sexy times. But, the two men did seem much more relaxed afterwards.

  They arrived in Dubai at dusk, and although Ciara, Jakob, and Fleur all had passports, it was easier for Jada to use her allure to get them all through immigrations faster. It was at least a thousand degrees outside, which shouldn't bother Jada, but she'd gotten use to all things cool and i
cy, being around Ky. She was grateful Ciara had also arranged for the big black SUVs with the darkly tinted windows and superduper full blast air conditioning.

  Portia had been quiet the whole flight and Jada had to prompt her for directions to wherever Geshtianna was staying.

  Portia tapped in a text to someone and then gave directions to Jakob who was driving. Turned out to be a high-end hotel, the kind where sheiks stayed. It wasn't five-star, oh no, it was a six-star hotel. Geshtianna had an entire floor.

  They were greeted by an incubus and a succubus who were twins. Created was a strong word for the meeting. Neither said a word, bought when they walked away, Portia followed, so the rest of them did to.

  When they got to an ornate set of double doors, carved with old motifs and symbols, inlaid with duals, the incubus twin held up a hand and didn't let them pass.

  “They're going in to see If Geshtianna will allow the dragons inside. I give you odds of about fifty fifty.” Portia fiddled with her phone.

  Should Jada ask for her number? They weren't family anymore, but she wouldn't mind knowing what happened to Portia after all of this.

  She was about to ask, when her heart stuttered and she lost her balance. Jada reached for the wall to steady herself and sank to her knees.

  “Jada, what's wrong?” Ciara and Fleur each grabbed one of her arms to help study her. They helped her turn and sit on the floor.

  “I… I don't know. Something bad.” Jada grabbed four the bone carving with Ky's soul shard inside. It had lost its buzz, it's little life force of its own.

  Ciara gasped and grabbed the soul shard on her own neck. “Jada, the shard. The glow is fading.”

  She glanced down and her heart stopped beating altogether. No, no, no, no. She looked at the other two mates and they reflected back the fear she knew was written all over her face. “I can't feel him. I've known all this time that Ky was still alive. I didn't know how, but now that the feeling is gone, I'm completely empty.”

  The double doors To Geshtianna's inner sanctuary flew open. A tall lanky woman with long black hair stepped out. “I thought someone was playing a really bad joke on me. Dragons, here. What the hell do you want?”

  Jakob, Steele, and Dax formed a wall between the women and Geshtianna. The succubus would have a powerful allure, and Jada did not want her to use it on these dragons. Mated or not, they would feel some of her compulsion. The fact that she wouldn't be able to completely control them would simply pass her off. That wouldn't help her find Kai any faster.

  Jada struggled to her feet and slipped between Jakob and Steele. “We're here for my sister’s mate.”

  Geshtianna's eyes flashed wide for a millisecond. “Well, this should be interesting.”

  She waved them into the room but didn't wait. Geshtianna mounted some steps on a raised platform and plopped herself down into a chair that sure as hell looked like a throne.

  “Stupid succubus.” Tiana sat on her throne, looking as board as a trophy wife. “I'm not sure what else we expected from half human.”

  “Where is Jett? I have the soul shard. I gave you everything you want. He and I can be together now.”

  This was a whole new side of Portia that Jada had never seen. There was desperation in her voice, not the usual stone-cold apathy that Jada had mistaken for self-confidence in her. This was not what love did. This was something else twisted and dark.

  Was it because Portia was a black Dragon's mate?

  Tiana laughed. It wasn't a pretty sound, more like sandpaper on fingernails on a chalkboard made of baby cries.

  “You are human need for love has blinded you. Leonard should've known better than to let your mother live, or you for that matter.”

  Portia ignored Tiana's words, and tried her best to look around the demons in this coven to find her mate.

  Her sister may have betrayed her and Ky, and the Dragon whose shard she had stolen, but she didn't deserve Tiana's rude bitchiness. Jada stepped up next to her sister. “Quit dicking us around. Where is my sisters mate?”

  “Listen to the mouth on you. I bet all the boys like to hear your dirty talk, since I doubt they're attracted to your fat ass. How do you even feed yourself?”

  All right, that was it. This bitch was going down.

  “I will take you to where the blue Dragon and the mermaid are being held. “A young man with dark black hair that hung in his face, and eyes like black holes moved through the crowd and pushed Tiana aside.

  Tiana grabbed for his arm, but he yanked it away. “No, don’t be as stupid as these half-breeds. You'll ruin everything.”

  He turned on Geshtianna and pointed an inky black talon at her, scales ripped across his neck and body.

  He was the dragon they were looking for. A black dragon.

  “Don't for one second think that I don't know how you and Dumuzid have been using me.” The man's voice was a threat all of its own.

  “Don't be ridiculous. I saved you. You would die down there in that hell if it weren't for me.” Tiana's tone held as much malice as Jada had ever heard.

  “I am grateful for that,” he lowered his head in a half bow, “but you're not fooling anyone into thinking that you did that out of the goodness of your absent heart.”

  Geshtianna scoffed. “Why would you help them? What did dragonkind ever do for you but cast you out?”

  “I'm not doing it to help them. I'm doing it to defeat him.” The words slipped out of his mouth as if he had practiced them a hundred times.

  Jada whispered to Portia. “Him who?”

  She imagined a vendetta against a coven mate, or maybe another Dragon who had claims to Portia too, or something.

  Jett spun and turned those empty black eyes on her. “My father, the Black Dragon, Kur-Jara.”

  Helluva Day

  Ky fought the devil like a dog. They had both taken flight and there wasn't exactly a lot of room in this cavern for evasive maneuvers. He slapped at chunks of rock on the ceiling, filling them to either injure or get in the black dragon’s way. The problem was, the black Dragon hadn't been held in captivity with no food or water, last within an inch death with a fire whip, or gotten sex advice from the first Dragon today. That put Ky at a disadvantage, and he knew it.

  He burned through the fury of Jada's betrayal pretty damn fast. Now it was an empty hollow core, that did nothing for him.

  He knew he needed to get back to plan A. Get Azynsa and get the fuck out of here. But, with the black Dragon directly on his tail, he needed a distraction to be able to do that.

  He was rapidly running out of both steam and ideas. Then, suddenly, that distraction came in the form of Fallyn.

  She appeared at the entrance of one of the tunnels. She took one look around at the destruction, and ashy remnants of what were supposedly her kin, and laughed out loud.

  Okay.

  I would probably be off his rocker to if his birthday present consisted of a couple hundred lashes of a fire with every year.

  The sound of her obvious hilarity was just enough to get the black dragons attention for a millisecond. Ky took advantage of that and flew straight at the black dragon's underbelly, talons out. His scales protected him well, but all dragons knew each other's weakness.

  The black Dragon jerked up, trying to avoid Ky's attack, but instead it exposed the one area not completely covered in scales, right between his legs, the soft squishy place where he kept his cock.

  Ky slashed, the black dragon rolled and roared in pain.

  He didn't come out with a dick and his claws, but he had probably stopped the baby demon Dragon making machine for a while.

  The black Dragon crashed to the cabin floor and Ky went in the opposite direction straight for the tunnel where the prison cell for Azynsa lie. He considered for a moment snagging Fallyn and hauling her along with. No matter what she was, or what she was to the black Dragon, no one deserved the fate she had gotten.

  Dammit, it might cost him to get her, but he had to try.

  S
he was still laughing hysterically when Ky swooped down to nab her. He almost had her, when an enormous crash rattled the cavern like an earthquake.

  I glanced around, the black dragon was still on the ground, but back on his feet. Blood was flowing from the wound between his legs. He sure didn't look happy, but he was also looking for the source of the crash.

  A new flow of lava poured in from one side of the room and swimming along in the liquid hot rock, was Match.

  About fucking time.

  “Nice of you to join us, oh greatly late one.”

  Match assessed the situation in one glance and spit fireballs toward the black Dragon. “Nice of you to get your ass captured.”

  The black dragon roared, narrowly missing the first of Match's volley, but catching the rest of them on the ass as he took to flight and retreated down an opposite tunnel. A hard flick of his tail caved the tunnel in so that they couldn't follow.

  Match roared and started digging the rockslide out, tossing some to the side and melting others with his fire. Of course, Match wasn't here to help Ky. It was not red Dragon vengeance that had brought him down.

  I wondered if Match would even remember Azynsa.

  Ky did. “Match, leave it. He's likely came that entire tunnel in. We need to get these women out of here. Now.”

  Match wouldn't do a damn thing he didn't want to, but Ky had had one helluva day and wanted to go home. To Jada.

  His heart skipped a beat. Jada. He did still want her. It wouldn't be an easy road ahead for the two of them, but he was not giving up on his mate.

  Match gave a final blast to the tunnel and then stomped his way over to Ky. “What women? I only know of one mermaid.”

  “Yeah, there's a lot of weird shit down here. I don't how you read live in these things.” Ky moved to the side to reveal Fallyn behind him. He knew she was still there because she giggled for quite a while longer. She had quieted in the last few minutes though.

  Match looked to where Ky indicated and instantly lost his shift. He shimmered back into human form and fell to one knee. “Fallyn.”