by Becca Van
But it wasn’t just her parents she was missing. For her whole life she’d felt like she was only half of what she should be. She felt like an incomplete picture but had no idea how to fill it in or how to find the missing pieces.
With a snort of derision at her ludicrous thoughts, she brushed her long damp hair and loosely tied it back so it wouldn’t get in her face, then headed for the kitchen. Because of Wally’s strange antics she’d missed lunch and her empty stomach was growling continuously with displeasure.
Not wanting to bother too much with cooking, she made herself an omelet and salad and headed to the small living room to watch the TV while she ate. When her belly was full and nothing was holding her attention on the goggle box, she turned the television off and grabbed one of her books from the coffee table to read. Before she was done reading the first page, her eyelids grew heavy, and rather than fight sleep like she usually did, she sprawled out on the sofa length wise and gave in.
Bid sank deeper into the cushions and her mind floated away. She had no idea how long she slept. It could have been minutes but was more likely hours, but they came to her just like they had every night for the last six months.
But this time was different. They were more than just silhouettes. She could make out large, ripped muscles and bronze skin tones. And although their faces were still in shadow, their eyes seemed to have a slight glow. One set was green, the other blue, and the last a mixture of the first two. She’d never been able to see their eyes before, let alone the color of their irises. As she looked harder, she swore she could see another presence behind their eyes, but she needed to see more of them so she leaned forward, squinted, and looked harder. She could tell they were handsome even though she couldn’t see their faces properly, but they each had strong chiseled jaws and biceps so large they’d definitely be bigger than her thighs. She should have been scared, but there was no fear, only hunger.
Although she knew she was dreaming and that she had fallen asleep with her clothes on, when the men’s hands landed on her body, they were touching naked skin. She moaned, her head moving restlessly when those hands began to caress all over her flesh. The moan was from the pleasure of having their hands on her, but also frustration because they weren’t touching her where she was aching to be touched.
One set of hands were gliding up and down her legs, another set smoothed down her neck, shoulders, and arms. And the last pair of hands caressed her torso, from beneath her throbbing breasts, over her ribs, her belly, and hips.
Liquid desire heated her blood and body from the inside, making her appetite for them such a famished need, she began sobbing with each stroke of their skin on hers. She caught low rumbles and wondered if they were making growling sounds or if they were talking to her, but if they were she couldn’t discern what they were saying, if they actually were trying to talk to her.
There was one man on each side of her and the other was between her spread thighs and she swore she could feel his warm breath ruffling against her trimmed pubic hair. She wanted to open her heavy eyelids and look at them again, but they were so weighted with passion she couldn’t lift them.
And then everything seemed to change. The ghost-like touches caressing her skin became firmer and the slide of their flesh on hers became more real. She whimpered when two hot moist tongues laved over the hardened peaks on top of her breasts and then she cried out as their lips sucked those tips into their heated depths, and drew on them firmly.
When the man between her legs lowered his head and dipped his tongue into her creamy hole, she thought she would explode. She nearly groaned in protest when his tongue withdrew, but then she began to writhe as the muscle licked up through her folds and flicked over her clit.
With each touch, caress, the hands on her body became more substantial, as did the mouths sucking on her nipples. She bowed up from the dream bed when the mouth on her pussy latched onto her clit and sucked the small pearl, and she cried out when a long, thick finger pushed into her cunt. She gasped for breath and mewled when that finger began to slide in and out of her pussy, driving in faster, harder and deeper with every stroke.
And when she was right on the cusp of an immense explosion, their touch became almost insubstantial. The mouths suckling her nipples faded leaving the moist tips pushing into the air with throbbing need. Bid drew in a deep gasping breath and screamed with frustration as her aching clit pulsed with unrequited desire, but as their bodies faded away, the deep whispers of three voices floated to her ears.
Soon we will be…Soon.
* * * *
Belinda awoke with her scream of frustration fading as she gasped in great lungfuls of air. She pushed herself up into a sitting position on the sofa, brought her knees up tight against her chest, rested her cheek on her knees, and she cried.
By the time she’d spent her tears, she was totally wrung out and was sure she’d lost her damned mind. She lowered her legs, rose to her feet, and headed for the bathroom. She blew her nose, washed her hands and face, stripped out of her clothes, and after glancing at her bedside clock, climbed into bed. It was nearly three in the morning, and although she wasn’t sure she would be able to sleep again, she relaxed and closed her eyes. At least she was resting her body if not her mind, and would hopefully be alert enough for another day at work.
Thank god it was Friday. Only one more day to get through before the weekend and two day’s grace from Wally Core. She just hoped that he would be back to his normal irate self when she headed in this morning. She wasn’t sure she could deal with another day like the one before. She’d never seen Wally so angry, nor had he been so demanding. And the way he looked at her as if he could see through her clothes gave her the creeps. Her temper had been frayed to its limit yesterday, and her exhaustion was catching up with her. If she had to deal with Wally in another weird mood, she wasn’t sure she would be able to hold her tongue.
Bid rolled onto her side and her eyes snapped open when she heard a noise outside her bedroom window. Fear skittered up her spine, but she wouldn’t be able to sleep unless she investigated, so she got out of bed, pulled her robe off the hook on the back of the bedroom door, and crept back to the window. She pushed the drapes aside by a scant half-inch, but as she peered out into the dark back yard she couldn’t see anything and tried to convince herself it had been the wind.
But when she saw what looked like large, glowing animal-like eyes looking right at her, she gasped and pulled back from the window. With her heart racing, she searched her bedside table with trembling fingers for her cell phone and nearly dropped it, fumbling it with shaking fingers. Finally she had a good grip on her cell and she hurried through her house on silent bare feet. She needed to make sure all the doors and windows were locked and the security system was on, and as she walked she punched 9-1-1 into her phone.
After a quick glance through the glass side panels at her front door and seeing nothing, she double-checked the deadbolt and sighed with relief. Her security system was also armed, and if someone tried to break in, the monitored back to base alarm would sound at the security company’s office.
She rushed toward the back door but froze when she heard rustling outside and for the first time cursed the fact that her property wasn’t very close to her neighbors. Her home was situated on a one-acre lot, as was everyone else’s in the quiet street, and there were heaps of large trees in her and her neighbors’ yards, which gave her added privacy. But right now she wished that her house was right next door to her neighbors’ because she was scared out of her ever-loving mind.
What sounded like a scrape of a boot on her back veranda had her pushing the call button on her phone and she moved away from her back door. When the dispatcher answered, she kept her voice low and explained she thought she had an intruder.
“Can you see anyone outside, ma’am?” the lady asked.
“No, and I’m not about to go out and look.”
“Then how do you know someone is out there?” she asked sar
castically.
“Because I can hear them,” Bid whispered angrily.
“It could be an animal,” the lady dispatcher suggested in a calm voice.
Belinda gulped and sagged with relief at that suggestion. She hadn’t even thought about an animal. She’d immediately gone into panic mode, and that was so out of the norm for her, but after the weird day she’d had, and she suspected with her being so tired was wreaking havoc on her imagination.
“Okay, don’t send the cops yet. Let me go look,” Bid said with nervous resignation.
She hurried to her kitchen in search of a weapon just in case and when her eye alighted on the large wooden rolling pin resting in its stand, she grabbed it and swapped her cell to her left hand and gripped her weapon in her right.
Bid stuck the rolling pin under her left arm and as quietly as she could, unlocked the back door. It was going to be hard to turn the outside light on and open the door at the same time without relinquishing her hold on her cell or dropping her weapon, but there was no way in hell she was going out there without some sort of protection.
Taking a deep breath, she placed her hand on the deadbolt, and after unlocking it, she grasped the door handle and stuck her elbow out to flick the outside light switch with. She released her breath, drew in another, and opened the door at the same time as turning the light on.
When she saw small eyes looking back at her, her heart melted. The little black, gray, and white tabby cat meowed and then stalked forward, stopping to butt and then rub its head on her robe-covered leg. Bid laughed with relief, bent down and picked the kitten up.
“What are you doing out at this hour? You should be curled up and sleeping.”
The rolling pin under her arm slipped and landed on her big toe and the timber floor just inside her back door with a loud clatter. She cursed at the pain and as she bent down to pick up her weapon she glanced at the cell phone still in her hand.
Shit! She’d forgotten about the emergency dispatcher. Glad that the woman on the other end of the phone couldn’t see her red face or her chagrined expression, she lifted the cell to her ear.
“I’m sorry for calling you. It was a false alarm.”
“Glad to hear that, ma’am. Have a nice night.”
Was that sarcasm she’d heard in the woman’s voice or had she been genuinely happy that Bid didn’t have an emergency after all? She gave a mental shrug and nudged the back door closed with her injured foot. Her toe was throbbing and she hoped she hadn’t fractured the bone, but that was the least of her worries right now. She hurried back into the living room as best she could, dropped her phone on the sofa, and placed the kitten onto a cushion before heading back to lock her door. She hobbled back to the kitchen with the rolling pin and put it back on the counter before getting a saucer from the cupboard and milk from the fridge.
She put the saucer on the floor on top of some paper towel and then poured milk into the dish. She didn’t even have to call to the kitten because it came running in with a chirping meow and then started lapping up the milk like it hadn’t been fed in forever. Poor little thing was so skinny she looked half starved.
Bid decided then and there that this kitten was going to be hers. She was always alone, and having a pet would help circumvent the loneliness.
Now she just needed to find an appropriate name.
Chapter Three
Eli’s breath caught in his throat and his heart pounded in his chest. He and his flight brothers had let their dragons free not an hour earlier and after they’d landed in the backyard of a small cottage-type house, they’d changed back to their human forms and climbed up into a large tree with thick branches.
When their mate had opened her back door, he nearly groaned out loud and given them all away. She was the most exquisitely sexy woman he’d ever laid eyes on and she was theirs.
She looked so soft and sweet in the fluffy mint green robe with her long black hair in disarray around her head and shoulders. Her eyes were an unusual jade green, and as she’d looked around the dark yard he’d been worried she’d seen him and his comrades up in the tree, but her gaze had quickly moved on.
Her body was tiny but curved in all the right places and it was hard to stay still and hidden. His dragon was pushing at him to go to her and claim her for all time, but he fought his beast back. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her silly. She was already frightened and he hated that he and his pod mates had scared her when they’d landed in her yard.
Thank fuck that kitten had distracted her or she might have come outside to investigate. When he and his flight brothers had claimed her, he was going to give her hell if she ever put herself in danger like that again. It was their job to protect her, and if that meant laying down the law or spanking her ass to get his message across, so be it. But first they had to figure out a way to meet her so the courting could begin.
Eli shifted on his feet as he balanced on the tree branch. When their kind shifted, their clothes seemed to be drawn into their dragon bodies and reappeared when in human form, so they were never naked, which was good since a human would probably have a heart attack if they ever caught him or his friends in the altogether. But right now, he wished he didn’t have his clothes on.
His cock was so hard and it was damn uncomfortable having the metal zipper pressing into his aching flesh.
When their mate bent and picked up the kitten, he had a tantalizing glimpse of creamy white skin and breasts. His mouth watered for a taste of her skin and his dragon rumbled with agreement. Luckily he was able to keep the sound from emerging from his own mouth.
Their mate closed the door and he sighed with disappointment. He glanced over at Erwin and Ed and saw their crestfallen expressions. They didn’t want her going back inside any more than he did. She was so damn beautiful he could have spent hour upon hour just staring at her.
Eli jumped down from his perch, landing lightly on the balls of his feet. Erwin and Edrick followed suit.
“How are we going to meet her?” Erwin whispered.
“Let’s mark her car with our scents. Tomorrow we will be coming in to town,” Ed said.
“Do you think hunters can track us by our scents?” Eli asked.
“Lance said they had enhanced senses, but I doubt they’re as good as ours,” Ed answered. “But surely they’d have to know what and who we are to be able to find us by our smell.”
“We’ll have to ask Lance when we get back to the lair.” Erwin shrugged. “But we need to spend time with our mate. Now that we’ve seen her, my dragon is pushing to claim and I don’t think he’s going to like staying away from her.”
“Yeah, but what do we do if we end up putting her in danger?” Eli asked.
“We take her back home and keep her safe,” Ed stated in a firm voice.
“We can’t kidnap her, Ed.” Eli looked at him over his shoulder then walked closer to their mate’s compact purple car.
“I didn’t say we would.”
“Then how…” Erwin began only to stop when Ed held up his hand.
“We tell her what we are and about the danger we could be putting her in.”
“Yeah, like that won’t scare her off,” Eli muttered.
“We’ll just have to convince her that she’s ours to protect.”
“Is that before or after we tell her we’re dragon shifters?” Erwin asked facetiously.
“Damn it. What else do you want me to do?” Ed glared at Erwin.
“Let’s just mark her car with our scents and get back home. We can discuss this later,” Eli said before he began wiping the palms of his hands over the roof of their mate’s vehicle.
Erwin and Ed followed suit until they’d touched every panel on the car. When they were done, they called to their dragons, flapped their massive wings, and lifted off the ground.
It was a good thing their beasts had the ability to reflect their environment, because it kept their massive animals from being detectable to the human eye. Of course hiding the
sudden breeze from their beating wings was impossible, but most humans would just put it down to an anomaly in the weather. Humans only saw what they wanted to see and it didn’t matter if it was right in front of their faces.
* * * *
Bid was getting worried about Wally because he was still acting strange, but she did everything he asked her to, and by the time lunchtime rolled around her feet were killing her, but it wasn’t because she was wearing uncomfortable shoes. She had worn the softest flats she owned, but her big toe was swollen and bruised and since she was compensating by limping, both her feet were sore. She probably should go and see a doctor but she knew there wasn’t much to be done for a broken toe. Plus, she wasn’t sure it was broken. It was probably just badly bruised.
Even though she didn’t relish the idea of hobbling her way down the street to the diner for lunch, she needed to get away from Wally and the rest of the employees of Rock Springs City Hall for a while.
She’d just placed the documents Wally had been demanding on his desk and she hurried back to her own desk as fast as her sore feet and toe allowed, and after grabbing her purse she headed out. Thankfully Wally hadn’t been in his office when she dropped off the last acquisition he’d demanded her to find. She had a feeling that if he had, she wouldn’t have been allowed to take her lunch hour.
As soon as she exited the front doors of City Hall, she felt the tension in her neck and shoulders ebbing away. She took a deep breath, breathing in the clean, crisp air as she meandered her way toward her destination, but the tension, which had started to dissipate, came back when the hair on her nape prickled. She glanced back over her shoulder, but when she didn’t see anyone taking any notice of her, Bid figured she was feeling a little paranoid.
She shrugged her shoulders and sighed when she reached the diner. Her toe was hurting rather badly and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk the block back to work, but she would worry about that after she’d eaten. As she pulled the door open she saw that the diner was full and glanced at her watch. It was just after one o’clock and right in the middle of the lunch rush hour. Hopefully she would be able to find somewhere to sit, and as she moved further into the shop she scanned for a vacant table. When she didn’t see one, she looked toward the stools along the counter and saw that they were all occupied, too. Maybe she would just grab a takeout sandwich and head back to the office.
