Burn For Me (Year of the Dragon)

by Winter, Nikki

  Catori shrugged as she turned and headed for her locker. “What about it? And why would he mention it?” She looked at him again. “Did you bitch about that too?”

  “Tori, that wasn’t just the normal red haze of a pyro.”

  “So? You pissed me off. Maybe that was just some new weird part of my abilities.” She started stuffing her pack with her usual change of clothes and a few weapons.

  He was quiet for so long that she looked at him again. Ryker was staring, and not in his usual way that consisted of a scowl. This one was different. Maybe it was because he was the one with the freaky Godzilla stare this time.

  Burn For Me

  Chapter Two

  He knew. Ryker knew something was off; wrong about her. From the day they’d come face-to-face and been introduced as co-captains. He could smell it on her. Every time he got near her, the rest of his brain would shut down and the most primal part came to the forefront. It used to be that he fucked with her because he knew their arguments aroused her as much as they did him, but then it stopped being about the cat-and-mouse game.

  Ever since her twenty-fifth birthday, everything about her seemed to overwhelm him when he used to be able to handle it. Okay, not just him but his beast too. He could smell her the moment she entered the unit’s doors and just like that, he was hard. Usually he gritted his teeth and tried to calm the racing of his heart as he watched her weave her way through the desks and chairs with a fluid grace that belied the tension just under her skin.

  Beautiful. It was the only word that came to mind when looking at her. He took a minute to stare at the delicate features of her face: wide, thickly lashed eyes, small nose, lush lips, and dimpled chin completed it.

  Her body held an abundance of curves that were toned to fit her line of work—beating the shit out of creepy night crawlers. Generally he kept his eyes off of her, focused on other things and tried to forget what her voice sounded like; forget her. It never worked, and damned if it would be easier now that he knew what she really was.

  Pyro my ass, Ryker thought, watching her stare at him like he’d just grown two heads. It was probably the same look he’d given her earlier when her eyes had shifted. If she thought that was new, she had a hell of a time on her hands, now didn’t she?

  He suddenly focused again when she stepped closer. Ryker took a deep breath and his stomach clenched, every breath becoming harder and harder to draw in because the more he inhaled the more he smelled her. And for him she smelled like comfort, like what he needed; wanted.

  He took his eyes off of her for a second, trying to gain some form of composure. The thing inside him, the thing causing all of this, had him shuddering and backing away, denial ringing around in his head. God wouldn’t be that cruel, would he?

  Something in the way her lids lowered and her nostrils flared let him know she felt it too. Awareness hit him like a gut punch at her look. Ryker didn’t move, simply kept staring. When her eyes slowly went from their normal orange flecked green, her pupils elongating as the irises faded into a deep shade of yellow, he understood and accepted that yes, God could be cruel.

  She held up a hand, and he saw the way her thighs clenched. “Stop.”

  “Stop what?”

  “Whatever it is you’re doing that’s making me feel like this,” she whispered.

  He shrugged. “It’s not me, sweetheart. I’m just as much of a victim as you are.” That was an understatement.

  Catori frowned as her head cocked to the side. “Of what?”

  “Hey Cap, what’s taking you so long?” Jace questioned, coming around the corner to her locker. He stopped when he saw the two of them, his brows quirking. “Everything okay?”

  She blinked and her gaze returned to normal. “Uh…yeah.” Catori grabbed her pack. “I’m ready to go.” She started past him.

  Ryker tried to follow. “Tori—”

  Jace stepped in his way. “Leave her be, Ryker.”

  “Move, Tinkerbell.”

  “Jace, c’mon.” She tugged at the Fae’s arm and possessiveness simmered inside. Ryker felt a growl bubbling in his throat. Something with a dick that wasn’t related and wasn’t him was touching her. He had a whole list of reasons why that was wrong.

  “Tori.” He tried again to go around Jace but found himself blocked.

  The Fae made the mistake of grabbing her hand, and something in him snapped.

  ***

  She had a brief second to get Jace out of the way when she saw Ryker’s eyes shift again. Getting between the two of them probably wasn’t the smartest thing, but she liked Jace and she wanted to see him keep his arms. If Ryker had any say in that at the moment, she was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen.

  Catori placed her hands on his chest. “Stop.” He focused on her. Without turning around she said, “Jace. Leave.”

  “I’m not—”

  “Jace!” she snapped. “Out. Now.”

  All Catori heard were his footsteps as he left the room. Shoving Ryker back, she asked, “What the fuck is your problem?”

  He took a deep breath before speaking. “It’s gonna get worse.”

  Shaking her head, she queried, “What is gonna get worse?”

  “The burning, what you’re feeling right now.”

  Catori rubbed her temples. “You’re insane.”

  “Look at me and tell me that you’re not feeling like you’re about to come outta your skin.”

  That made her pause.

  “Exactly.”

  Instead of replying, she turned on her heel and started to walk away.

  “You want me. I know you do,” Ryker rasped behind her.

  She stopped. “Get over yourself. I’m not into reptiles.”

  He snorted. “Maybe if you keep telling yourself that lie you’ll start to believe it, but for now I’m calling bullshit, because we both know what our arguments are really about.”

  “Does that help you sleep at night?”

  “I’m not fucking around with you right now, Tori. You and I need to sit down and have a long talk.”

  “Look, I had one strange moment. I don’t need a therapy session for it.” Catori started to leave, but a rush of heat hit her square in the gut, almost causing her to double over. It spread through her body, leaving a burning feeling in its wake. Her nipples were so hard they stung, and she could fell her clit jump with every shallow inhale. “Fuck!”

  Within seconds, she felt herself being lifted into strong arms and carried through the back of the locker room and out the side door. “Where are you taking me?” Her speech was slow, stilted as she tried desperately to stem the arousal flowing through her system. It worsened when his arm rubbed against her nipples. “Jesus.”

  “Shh,” he soothed. “Just taking you outside to get some fresh air.”

  They finally got through the doors and as soon as the cool Georgia wind hit her skin, Catori felt better. Drawing in deep breaths, she closed her eyes and spoke again, “Put me down, please?” Immediately her feet were softly placed on the ground.

  “What. The. Fuck. Was. That?”

  His green eyes danced with amusement. “That, darlin’, was dragon heat.”

  ***

  She backed away from him. “What?”

  Now came the hard part. He could blurt it out or transition her into it. Then again, when had Ryker ever been subtle? Never. “Darlin’, I know what you think you are—”

  “What I think I am?” Her eyes narrowed on him.

  Ryker held up his hands. “I need you to listen to me for a minute.”

  “No.” She shook her head again. “No more of your bullshit.”

  “This isn’t bullshit!” he shouted, stepping closer to her. “This is real, Tori, and it’s happening. Whether you want it to or not.” Ryker ran his hand through his hair, paced in front of her. “At first I thought it was some weird obsession because I like the way you smell when you get pissed, the look on your face that says you’re about to go to war.” He stopped. “But n
ow I’m realizing that I was ignoring what my body, what my beast was trying to tell me.” Looking at her now, he said, “Catori, you’re my mate.”

  “Fuck. You. And. Fuck. This,” she growled. “I don’t have time to play with you, Ryker. I’m not your mate. I’m not a shifter and I’m damn sure not a dragon.”

  “You’re ignoring what’s right in front of you because you’re afraid, but Tori, I’m telling you there is nothing to be scared of.”

  “I think we need to be assigned to separate teams,” Catori said, turning away from him.

  “It won’t help,” he said softly. “Getting away from me won’t help. No matter what you do, where you go, you will burn for me. Every second of every day until all you can think of is me taking you.”

  He watched her inhale, could smell the spike in her arousal as soon as it hit. Her voice was low, guttural when she demanded, “Stop.”

  Ryker licked his lips, could almost taste her. “Tonight when you go home, when you climb into bed, you’ll spend the night tossing.”

  “Stop.”

  “No matter how high you turn up the fan, how wide you open the windows, crank up the AC—”

  “Stop.”

  “—you. Will. Burn.”

  “I mean it, Ryker.”

  He slowly closed the space between them. “Your thighs will clench and every movement will cause a shudder, a spasm that you just can’t stop.”

  “Ryker.”

  “Your nipples will be hard just like they are now and your pussy will flood, but there will be no relief. No matter how many times you put your hands between your thighs. No matter how many times you make yourself come. You. Will. Burn.”

  “I. Said. Stop!”

  He didn’t have time to duck the fireball that came his way. As he watched his feet leave the ground and felt the wind at his back, Ryker had the strangest feeling that maybe he shouldn’t have stood so close.

  ***

  There were a lot of times that Catori wanted to light Ryker’s ass on fire, but this one seemed to be the worse. She watched him as he flew through the air and winced when he hit the back wall of the unit’s building with a loud crack.

  After the night she’d had she should’ve felt vindicated, but that wasn’t the case. Her heart stopped the moment his body dropped to the ground, motionless. Before she knew it she’d let go of her pack and was kneeling on the ground beside him. What pissed her off so much was the fact that he was right. Every single word was true, and damned if that didn’t bother her more than her attraction to the asshole.

  She rolled him over and slapped his cheek. “Hey, lizard man.”

  He didn’t wake.

  Catori shook him. “Ryker.”

  Still nothing.

  “I’m not giving you mouth to mouth.”

  He finally peeked out of one eye. “It was worth a try.”

  Catori rolled her eyes and stood, then stepped on him—satisfied by his grunt of pain—as she walked by. “You’re an asshole.”

  “I’m your mate.”

  “Stop saying that.”

  “Is the thought really that horrible to you?”

  She swung around. “Yes!”

  “Why?!”

  “Because I don’t wanna be like you!”

  They both stopped, eyeing one another, harsh pants the only sound between them. “Well that’s tough shit, darlin’, because despite what you want, I know what you need and the sooner you accept that, the easier things will be. Fight it, fight me, Catori, and it’s gonna be hell on both of us.”

  She picked up her pack, determined to finally get away from him this time. “I’m already in hell. Welcome to my world.” With that, Catori turned on the heels of her boots and walked away, feeling a seizing in her gut with every step.

  “Animals, Catori. They’re all animals. They try desperately to blend in, to seem human and normal, but under all of that is an animal.”

  Catori blinked at the memory of words that rolled over her psyche. How many times had she heard her father give that speech on shifters? Now she was supposed to sit and let Ryker convince her that she was one? And that they were meant to be together?

  The most she knew about Ryker was that he was born in Russia, an only child; both parents were dragons and had retired back to their homeland a few years ago. Other than that, she didn’t have much to go on, yet here he was claiming to be her mate.

  She didn’t share her father’s obvious hatred of shifters. As far as she was concerned she had nothing but respect for someone who had so much self-control that they were able to manage the ingrained primal instincts living inside them. She knew humans who couldn’t do that. But exactly what would happen to her and her father’s already strained relationship if she told him what she thought she was?

  Burn For Me

  Chapter Three

  She was avoiding him. He could feel it. Every chance Catori got to escape from his presence, she took. If she saw him coming, she went the other way. It didn’t stop him from noticing how irritable or how tired she was. Every day was a struggle to keep from finding her, seducing her, and fucking her. None of those would go over well. Not even for a moment.

  He understood why no one knew what she truly was. A dragon didn’t reach sexual and physical maturity until they were twenty-five. It was a way to keep a child from having that much power in their hands and a way to allow the body to adjust to the new changes it would experience. Females went into what was called dragon heat.

  That only occurred when their inner beast recognized that its mate was near. For Catori, the process had begun months ago, but Ryker had been so caught up in trying to get his feelings for her under control and manageable that he’d ignored the signs. Now it had pretty much dropped in his lap, and there was nothing he could do but accept it and figure out where to go from here.

  The question was—why didn’t Catori know any of this? Ignorant outsiders were to be expected, but she should’ve known who and what she was, and she should’ve known because her father told her. It stood to reason that Commissioner Akita was hiding it from her, but why?

  When he’d called in to report that the perp had gotten away a few days ago, he’d mentioned Catori’s partial shift, and he figured John would have some reaction, but the other man’s voice went flat, clinical. Then he hung up. When Catori’s father didn’t mention it during his session of “tough love,” Ryker knew something was wrong.

  Now he just had to figure out what that was.

  “Anosov! My office, now!”

  Ryker spun in his chair at the commissioner’s bellow. Apparently he wouldn’t have to wait long. It was funny that their unconventional rag-tag team worked almost in the same sense as a police station. John topped off in the highest position, but as far as Ryker knew there wasn’t anything remotely supernatural about him. With that thought, a dozen other questions rolled into Ryker’s head.

  How did John get his position? How was it that Catori was a shifter when John was supposedly human? Had the gene come from her mother? Where was Catori’s mother?

  As Ryker strolled into John’s office and faced the older man’s glare, everything inside him said that Catori’s father had every answer to his mental battle of questions.

  “Close the door.”

  Ryker did so.

  “I’m going to make this as quick as possible, Anosov.” John stood, placed his hands on his desk and leaned across it. “Stay away from my daughter.” There was an underlying threat in his tone, and Ryker didn’t like that much. Correction, Ryker’s beast didn’t like that much.

  Casually, he propped one shoulder against the door and watched John through narrowed eyes. He remained silent for so long that he could see the sudden waiver in John’s bravado. If he wasn’t sure that the older man was human before, the scent of fear confirmed it for him. A predator or a supernatural in general could mask and hide emotions. John was doing neither.

  “You know,” Ryker stated.

  John fully stood. “
What’re you talking about?”

  “You know what Catori is, and you want me to stay away from her because you don’t want her to know.” Ryker walked closer to the desk, watching John closely. “Too late for that, sir.”

  “Look, boy—”

  “Boy?” Ryker scoffed. “Akita, I think you’re confused. I haven’t been a boy for a very long time.” This time it was Ryker who placed his hands to the desk and leaned across. “And as a man, I don’t take well to threats. I may work for you, but what I do in my personal life and my association with the daughter you’re lying to is none of your business. Let’s be very clear on that, sir.”