by Alisa Woods
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Shifters in Seattle
True Alpha (Book 1)
Dark Alpha (Book 2)
A True Alpha Christmas (Book 3)
River Pack Wolves
Jaxson (Book 1)
Jace (Book 2)
Jared (Book 3)
Wilding Pack Wolves
Wild Game (Book 1)
Wild Love (Book 2)
Wild Heat (Book 3)
Wild One (Book 4)
Wild Fire (Book 5)
Wild Magic (Book 6)
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Fallen Immortals
Kiss of a Dragon (Book 1)
Heart of a Dragon (Book 2)
Fire of a Dragon (Book 3)
Chosen by a Dragon (Book 4)
Seduced by a Dragon (Book 5)
Touched by a Dragon (Book 6)
Loved by a Dragon (Book 7)
Marked by a Dragon (Book 8)
Claimed by a Dragon (Book 9)
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Loved by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 7)
Copyright © 2017 by Alisa Woods
March 2017 Edition
All rights reserved.
Sworn Secrets Publishing
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author. For information visit:
Alisa Woods
Cover by Steven Novak
Loved by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 7)
Paranormal Fairytale Romance
~*~
LEKSANDER
I am a Dragon Prince of the House of Smoke… and I am in love with the wrong woman.
I never meant to fall for an angeling. And I wasn’t supposed to have the duty of fulfilling a ten-thousand-year-old treaty to protect humanity. But now I’m trapped between the immutable facts of magic and the irresistible force of my love. When a fae queen offers unparalled sex and an unprecedented renewal of the treaty, the temptation is substantial. If only the prospect didn’t leave me hollow inside…
ERELAH
I am Protector class, Chastity faction—an angeling whose sworn duty and greatest joy is protecting humanity. The House of Smoke is likewise a guardian, and their prince is one of my oldest friends. Any angeling worth her wings would struggle with the Sin of Envy to take my place. But they know not of Leksander’s stubbornness in refusing his duty to mate and produce a dragonling. How hard can it be to win a human’s heart? I would give my life if it would help. All depends upon this…
He must win her heart or finally let her go. Her vow of Chastity means she’s never known love. Either they’ll save the mortal and immortal worlds with a Love that is True… or they’ll bring a Fall like the world has never seen.
THE FALLEN IMMORTALS SERIES
Lucian and Arabella
Kiss of a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 1)
Heart of a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 2)
Fire of a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 3)
Leonidas and Rosalyn
Chosen by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 4)
Seduced by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 5)
Touched by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 6)
Leksander and Erelah
Loved by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 7)
Marked by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 8)...coming soon
Claimed by a Dragon (Fallen Immortals 9)...coming soon
You should go to a bar.
Erelah sent the thought to Leksander’s mind then banked hard to the right—she’d caught the foul, sulfurous stench of demon, Odious Class, and her body instinctively followed, as was right for any angeling worth her wings. She trusted Leksander to follow her lead, if not outright scent the demon himself. She dipped down to skim the towers of Seattle, and soon enough, the moonlight gleamed on Leksander’s silver scales beside her.
What do you know about shifter bars? His thoughts pushed into her mind, mocking her. They must speak this way due to their forms—he in his royal dragon of the House of Smoke, she with her angel wings put to purpose—but she did not care for it. Too much was said or implied or felt that would be better left alone.
I read the human news. She kept most of her irritation in her own mind.
He still laughed. His dragon teeth—beautifully sharp and long and white—were made even more luminescent by the moon. Not as entrancing or powerful as an angel blade, but close. She loved their fierceness in the service of protecting humanity… less so when small tendrils of blue dragonfire curled around them as he huffed out laughter directed at her.
She scowled. The bars are a good suggestion. Then she banked again and dipped still lower, now weaving through the urban canyons of the city. The hunt enlivened her blood, and her whole body tingled with anticipation. The night air rushed over her skin, cooling the ever-present heat of her angel half. She’d worn a lightweight toga for their hunt, but it was a poor choice—the top was bare enough and clung well to her body, but the trailing fabric flapped in the wind and slowed her down. Next time, she would find something without loose pieces.
Leksander caught up to her again.
She could easily outrun him, but they were working together. She slowed her pace.
I’m not going to find a mate in a bar. Leksander’s humor had tempered, and he was being serious now. Good. She couldn’t understand why he refused to pursue his duty with all the ardency and fervor it warranted. He knew the stakes. All of humanity’s safety from the infernal fae, not to mention the demons they were hunting, depended on the House of Smoke renewing the treaty for another five hundred years. The other two princes had managed to find a mate and produce a dragonling, although she would never understand why they made such a difficulty of it. Now it was Leksander’s turn, and he could no longer shirk his duty. Yet, he continued to argue with her, this third night running, and her patience was wearing thin.
Patience was a Virtue, one every angeling should cultivate, along with the other six. But Erelah’s faction was Chastity. That was her strength… the rest were an effort.
Her powerful white wings cut the air, pulling her to a stop mid-flight and hovering her above the alleyway where the demon lurked. It had infested a poor man who by the sad state of his attire lived on the streets. Evil preyed most often on the weakest, most vulnerable of humanity’s precious children. His fragile state made the man’s possession all the more vile. Her angel power pulsed, and the heat of it sizzled her blood—she ached to slay that demon, but she had a point to make to Leksander first.
He drew to a stop next to her, his long tail just brushing the rooftops below.
A bar is a perfectly reasonable place to find a mate, Erelah pressed. All manner of human women frequent them, lusting precisely for men who are shifters. Sex occurs right there, in the bar. You should have immediate knowledge of whether love is possible. If not, there are many others already there, just waiting for you to—
Erelah! He was inexplicably irritated. I’m not going to sleep my way through Seattle’s bars—
Why not? She winged closer to him, still hovering above
the alley. The demon called to her, but she ignored it. This was more important. I do not understand this, Leksander. You know your duty! Why do you not take an obvious opportunity to—
I need no reminder of my duty. The silver in his eyes flashed, and his tail flicked.
She drew her blade from its holster, which was strapped to her thigh and barely hidden by the thin wrappings of her toga. Then she glared at Leksander. If she thought a good battle would shake the stubbornness from his head… but she couldn’t chance it. She might work to embrace her Virtues via bouts with other angelings, but she could not hurt them, not seriously. Their blades and powers were evenly matched—it would take a Seraphim’s blade or a shadow angel’s tricks to draw blood from an angeling. But Leksander was all too vulnerable. He was human, yes, but both of his parents had been dragon, an unusual arrangement that left him stronger than most. Plus his royal lineage meant a large dose of summer fae magic pulsed in his veins, something that caused a constant, slightly irritating hum in her mind whenever he was near. Her blade wouldn’t harm the human part, but it would outright slay the dragon and fae within him. Leksander was her friend, his House an ally to all angelkind, but his very nature was a rebuke to everything on the light side. Lucifer himself, the most powerful of the dark archangels, took dragon form during the Fall. Yet, Erelah would never raise her blade to Leksander, simply because protecting humanity was her highest duty, and Leksander and all his House played the most important of roles in that.
The demon on the other hand…
She flipped the blade to an overhand grip and dove into the alley below.
This—demon slaying—was what she was made for.
She was a Protector Class angeling, but she still managed a decent warrior cry. Her blade held high, she dropped down on the man and the vile demon that writhed within him, plunging the blade with a solid thunk into his chest. Her angel power pulsed, lighting the alley with its glow, and the demon screamed at an unholy pitch that no human would hear. However, the man cried out as well—how could he not? The demon was being ripped from his very soul, cleaving him at the DNA level, for that was the nature of this foul infection. The winter fae were behind this resurgence of demons in Seattle, as she had suspected all along—but now the House of Smoke had proof that vampires were preying on humans with their demon-infected bite. But all thoughts of the mechanisms and conspiracies were lost as the demon gave way under her blade. The pulse of pleasure that ran through her with that liberation vibrated her body, and she couldn’t help but gasp and shudder with it, tipping her head back and reveling in the pure joy. This was no lust of the body—this was a pure and righteous pleasure! She had never felt the carnal pleasures—not so much as a kiss, as her Virtue of Chastity was very much intact—but she could imagine no earthly pleasure could approach the ecstasy of a good demon kill.
As it swept through her—a wave that left her trembling and yet on fire—the human slumped to the ground. The demon was vanquished, but his tarry black essence still dripped from her blade. She swept it with her hand, wiping the clear, heaven-wrought material clean once more, then sheathed it. The man lived, which surged joy through her heart. She knelt down and took the man’s weathered cheeks in her hands. He was older and fragile and wracked by his time of living in desperation. She would never understand why humans found no way to care for the most vulnerable among them—they had so many gifts bestowed! But she supposed if the humans created a heaven on earth, then she might never experience the righteous pleasure of bestowing her kiss upon those in need.
She pressed her mouth to the man’s—open and wide to breathe life into him—and she blessed him with all the love she possessed. She was only half angel, so her kiss could never have the power of a True Angel, like Markos or the other Protector Class Seraphim who shepherded angelings in the Chastity Faction. Erelah’s mother had been human, and so her human side would always hold her back from perfection. Not that humans weren’t a glory and a beauty and a sign of God’s presence in the world—they absolutely were, and Erelah loved every last one, as any angel would. But God gifted humans with free will, and that meant struggle. And lo, how Erelah struggled. Sometimes, she thought she must secretly be more human than most angelings. But at least in this moment—this bestowing of a life kiss on a human she had just saved from a demon—she was the most purely angel she would ever be.
And the pleasure of that was an ecstasy that left her panting, her body humming and her mind buzzing.
Erelah climbed to standing, bringing the man with her, still engaged in the life kiss. She was not eager to break it, and neither was he, judging by the small moans coming from his throat. But finally, she was forced to release him. There was only so much she could give in a single kiss without resting, but more importantly, there was only so much the man’s heart could take before crashing from the sheer joy of it. And this one was elderly and frail to begin with.
The man stumbled back when she released him. She would have swooped in to catch him, but he found his footing. She tipped her head back, eyes closed, relishing the last wave of ecstasy as it left her body. Her wings flexed, soaking it in, then she was forced to open her eyes as the scuffing sound of shoes pattered in front of her. The man had stumbled back, but then frozen, gaping at her, no doubt shocked by her angelic appearance in a dingy alleyway in Seattle.
“Peace be with you.” She gestured to him with open hands. She understood being stunned after a life kiss—humans usually needed a little greeting or some encouragement to be on their way. He took her blessing and stumbled down the alley.
She let out a long, satisfied sigh as she watched him go. Demon-slaying was by far the best part of any day, and it couldn’t happen enough for her tastes. It was righteous—there was no question of that—but she wondered as she peered after the man if perhaps she was becoming too fond of its pleasures. Could a righteous lust contain the hidden potential for a carnal one? She would always put her duty first, but what if her duty tempted her to a Sin which would destroy her? That must be the human inside her whispering temptation, not the angel…
Leksander’s soft exhale next to her made her jolt.
She’d nearly forgotten his presence.
But thoughts of duty reminded her of the true reason she brought him on her demon hunts. She surely could rid the city of demons faster and better than when encumbered by the dragon prince, but Leksander needed her to cajole and convince and browbeat him into performing his own duty. His reluctance was an irritant on so many levels—she was forbidden by her duty from the carnal pleasures of her human side, but Leksander’s duty virtually required that he indulge in them. And yet, one would think he had taken a Chastity vow himself with how he shirked away from it!
The two were such a strange pairing. It was not the first time she had thought this. But she was Markos’s liaison to the House of Smoke, a duty she fell into by happenstance but which had taken on epic, world-ending levels of importance as of late. She had helped the first two princes with their mates and dragonlings—she would not fail in securing this last, and final, mating for the House of Smoke.
“If the bars are not to your liking,” she said, turning to face Leksander and crossing her arms over her chest. “I believe there is an app which can serve the same purpose. It has presumably more discretion if that is your concern—”
“That’s not my concern.” There was a torment on his face which she didn’t understand.
Erelah pursed her lips. Perhaps she was simply not trying hard enough to plumb the depths of the prince’s troubled mind. It seemed straight-forward enough to her, but then many human-centric things seemed like they should be straightforward and yet weren’t. She had not been raised among humans—few angelings were, and then only those in shadow. Leksander hadn’t exactly grown up in the human world either, but dragons were not so different from the humans with which they mated. The angel dominions were an entirely different realm, with different rules and expectations and less… complexity. Or perh
aps humans and dragons just seemed complex because they were a mystery to her. A delightful mystery, but a mystery nonetheless.
And yet, it was her mission to solve it. Markos made that much very clear. “What is your concern?” she asked, as gently as she knew how. “I wish to understand it.”
The torment of unknown source continued on his face. “I just would like…” He looked away from her to the crumbling alleyway wall.
She looked to it as well, but there was nothing there she could see.
He gently tapped his fist against the wall and bit his lip. She knew him well enough, all these years, to know he was frustrated and choosing the appropriate words.
She waited.
He finally looked back to her. “The treaty requires a woman to fall in True Love with me. It’s not required that I love her, but I honestly don’t know how I would win someone’s heart if I didn’t.”
Erelah frowned. “Human women fall in love with your kind all the time. I’ve seen it happen. It happens as well with the Seraphim. It is how so many of them Fall.”
“You mean, they mate with humans.” Leksander sighed like he was frustrated again.
“Yes.” Was that not what she just said?
“Erelah, I’m going to spend the rest of my days with this woman,” Leksander complained. “I’m going to have a child with her. I want to love her.”
Erelah opened her mouth to scold him—what they want is not nearly as important as fulfilling their duties, and lo the duties he had were no less than world-shattering—but she stopped. And closed her mouth again. Because that argument had been had between them more times than she could count. She needed a new strategy. A new understanding of this dragon prince who was also her friend. Because this endless argument was getting her nowhere.
