by Maia Dylan
The Shifters of Freedom Springs 5
The Captain Claims His Goddess
After finally being freed from the Otherworld, and the prophecy having been fulfilled, Olwen must return to save the only man she has ever loved and nothing, and no one, in hell is going to stop her.
Rohan McGregor was the Captain of her father's Guard, and for the two of them, it was love at first sight. Olwen’s sister, though, believed that Rohan should be hers and sought out a black witch for the magical means to make that happen. After a century of captivity, Rohan’s heart still belongs to Olwen, and now that the prophecy has ended, Rohan is determined to finally claim his goddess as his own.
Now all Olwen has to do is rescue her man, give her sister what she deserves, and make it back to the Earth realm portal all before the sun sets on winter. How hard can that be?
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 37,856 words
THE CAPTAIN CLAIMS
HIS GODDESS
The Shifters of Freedom Springs 5
Maia Dylan
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
THE CAPTAIN CLAIMS HIS GODDESS
Copyright © 2016 by Maia Dylan
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-068-5
First E-book Publication: February 2016
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to everyone who has read this series and came on the journey with me to solve the prophecy and save the world. This series will always hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my career, not only because it was the first series I completed, but because I also got to share a little bit of my culture with you all.
And for my hubby, who still thinks of me as his goddess.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
THE CAPTAIN CLAIMS
HIS GODDESS
The Shifters of Freedom Springs 5
MAIA DYLAN
Copyright © 2016
Chapter 1
It was the sound of sobbing that woke him. It could have just as easily been the cold. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt warm or even the feel of the sun on his upturned face. Hell, it would have been more likely to have been the pain that woke him, as it had numerous times in the past. To hear the soft sound of sobbing coming from the darkness behind him was so alien and unexpected that it had been enough to rouse him. It wasn’t like he had been in a deep slumber, either.
“Do you know what it is like to love someone who doesn’t even see you?” Argon’s voice echoed through his cell and he sighed. If she had asked that question years ago, before she had turned him into a prisoner and her very own personal whipping boy, he might have had a different answer.
“Argon, I did see you, I just didn’t like what I saw.” His voice was flat, but there was no missing the truth that rang in his words. “And it has nothing to do with how things were before we came here, but everything to do with the way you’ve been since we stepped into this realm of pain and suffering. The way you are here disgusts me.”
Argon threw herself against him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing herself against him. “But I could change! I know I can be what you need and all that you want. All I need is for you to give me a chance. Please.” Her pleas fell on deaf ears. She was crazier than he had ever known if she thought he would be swayed by that.
His growl filled the room. “Do you honestly think that I could ever forgive you? Argon, you have done nothing but make my life hell from the moment that we met. You tried to get your father to command me to marry you, then cursed your own sister to ensure she would leave the Earth realm or be responsible for the death of your father. You tricked me into following you here, held me captive in a fucking dungeon, and had me beaten and whipped by your fucked-up followers, or yourself. How in the hell can you even imagine that that would be forgivable?”
Rohan knew he was flirting with another beating, but to be honest, he was beyond caring now.
“Did you ever even consider courting me before you met Olwen?” Argon asked in a quiet voice devoid of warmth. He could have taken the tone as a warning, but he couldn’t lie.
“In all honesty, I saw no woman that could hold my interest or my heart until I saw Olwen. She is the light, the sun, and everything good in this or any other world that I need. In this realm or the next, in this life or the next, she is mine as I a
m hers.” Rohan waited for the crack of the whip that she favored, but when no sound came, and neither did the painful lash of the whip connecting with his back, he grew uneasy.
“Then you had better pray that you are able to find her in the next life.” Argon’s voice was cold, filled with a hatred that had Rohan’s unease escalating. “Do you think I will allow either of you the happy-ever-after you both denied me? Hell no. She has lived all these centuries thinking that the only demon in her world was Aeron. Well, she is going to learn the hard way that there is no demon alive with more reason to hate her than me. She thinks she can come here for what is mine, and I will simply stand aside and let that happen? She has allowed her Elementals to fight in a war they never truly understood, but now she comes after me, and when she gets here, she will know the true power of a woman scorned!”
Argon’s hatred may have run deep for him, but it was nothing compared to the hatred she harbored for her own sister. Was Olwen returning to this realm? Surely not! She was free. Her Elementals had saved her from this hell. Why on earth would she—
Rohan felt everything within him turn to ice. She would come for him, just as he would for her.
“Argon,” Rohan called into the darkness. Even without a reply, he knew that she had left the dungeon. “Argon! Don’t you hurt her! I swear to all the Gods if you so much as harm a hair on her head, I will make it my mission to turn all the pain, all the suffering, every single vile act you have ever committed back on you tenfold. Do you hear me?”
For the first time in centuries, Rohan struggled against the bonds that held him, roaring in frustration when the enchanted chains held true. He kept struggling to get free long after he felt blood rolling over the skin of his hands where the cuff of the chains cut into his skin.
The woman he loved was coming for him. She was risking her own life, stepping back into this godforsaken realm for him. If she came to any harm trying to save him, Rohan knew there would be no stopping him. He would launch himself from this life as fast as he could, go wherever he needed to, to find his beloved wherever she may be, but he would sure as hell make sure he flayed the skin from her sister before he left.
Chapter 2
“Good morning, Goddess.”
Olwen turned at the sound of the soft voice behind her and smiled when she caught sight of Kingi and Maggie Rika standing in the doorway of the room they had given her.
The pair had been instrumental in her securing her freedom, not just through their actions at the Pagan Stone yesterday, but in allowing their daughters to stand and fight for her. Ariana and Casey were both born as her chosen Elementals. Kingi and Maggie had sacrificed much in order for both their daughters to fulfill the prophecy and save the world.
“Good morning to you, and please,” Olwen said with a smile as she moved toward the couple, “don’t call me Goddess. In this realm, and in this life, I am simply Olwen.”
“With all due respect, Olwen,” Kingi said with a sparkle of mischief in his eye, “there is nothing simple about you. You fought strong and true yesterday, and saved our earth from a fate that I can simply not fathom, but more than that, from what I understand from Neve and Liam, you brought my Maggie back to me.” Olwen dropped her gaze at the praise, heat rising up her face. “And you saved our daughter’s mate, and Fiona as well. As far as I’m concerned, you will always be a goddess to me.”
Not entirely sure how to answer that, Olwen simply nodded her head slightly in acknowledgement and looked back at her reflection in the freestanding mirror in front of her. She wore a pair of black walking boots and something Fiona called yoga pants. They were tight but extremely comfortable, made of a thick but soft and completely pliable material that allowed freedom of movement the likes of which the gowns she was used to never afforded. The tight black thermal shirt on top was warm and just as comfortable to wear. With her hair braided down her back, she looked like she actually belonged in this realm.
“Are you nervous?” Maggie Rika asked as she moved in to stand behind Olwen.
Olwen met Maggie’s gaze in the mirror and shrugged. “Not nervous, not really. I am simply anxious to get this over with and to save the man who I have loved for most of my life.”
“I would feel the same way,” Kingi added as he moved to stand beside his wife, his arm resting around her trim waist. “If, at any time during the years my family had to live separately, someone had told me I could get Maggie and Casey back in my arms by simply stepping into a hell realm and fighting a god for the right, I would have leaped through with a smile on my face.”
Maggie reached up and pressed a kiss to her husband’s face, the gesture loving and sweet, and one that had Olwen longing for those moments of true connection of her own. “Olwen, what are you going to do about the fact that Argon has connected Rohan’s life force to hers?”
Olwen closed her eyes briefly, her mind flicking back to the moment yesterday at the Pagan Stone when Argon had told her she had connected her life force with Rohan’s. From what Olwen knew about such dark magics, that meant that if she died, he went with her, but not vice versa.
She turned to face the couple standing behind her. “I have a couple of thoughts on that, but until I am there and we have Rohan free of that witch, I will not be sure how to continue.”
Kingi smiled and reached out a hand to place it on Olwen’s shoulder. “You say you are not to be referred to as a goddess, and yet you do everything within your power to protect this realm, and you do it with courage and a strength I am awed by. You are a woman we greatly admire, and what is that, if not the true definition of a goddess?”
Olwen raised her eyes to the man who stood so strong and proud before her, his arm clasped firmly around his beautiful wife. “I feel bound to remind you that none of you would have been in any danger if it hadn’t been for me. Everything that has happened since the moment my sister cast that damn curse has been because of me. If I had spoken with my father, told him of the curse, he might have been able to help me reverse it. I know that if I had told Rohan about everything he would have fought at my side, where he belonged. But instead, I chose the cowards way out and stepped across the void and into the Otherworld. The fault of the prophecy and everything that took place during it can be laid at my feet.”
“What a load of self-sacrificing drivel.”
Olwen’s eyes widened at the female voice that sounded from the hallway. Maggie and Kingi stepped aside, and her Elementals and their mates walked right up to her. Casey Rika lifted her hand and pointed directly at Olwen.
“You stand there and take all the blame for the shit that happened over the past year, rather than point your finger and lay the blame where it should be, right at the feet of Aeron and your jealous-as-all-fuck sister? Then you have to take the credit for all the positive as well.”
Olwen shook her head. “What positive? Nothing positive has come from this past year, and now, because I am the most selfish bitch in this and all realms, I am asking you all to place yourselves at risk once again, to help me save a man who none of you have ever met! How can any of you even stand to look at me?”
Ariana, her brave Air Elemental, walked up to stand in front of her, cupping her shoulders with her hands. “Nothing positive, Olwen? Look around this room. Not only are you responsible for helping to reunite me and my family, but you were instrumental in allowing us all to find our mates. That’s pretty damn positive as far as I’m concerned, and I have a feeling that everyone in this room feels the same way.”
Olwen went to speak, but Ariana placed her hand across Olwen’s mouth, a move that surprised and shocked her into remaining silent all at the same time. “Don’t argue. You know deep down that what I’m saying is the truth.”
“Not to mention,” Casey piped in as she walked up to fling an arm around her sister and stand beside her, “it probably wouldn’t be the best idea in the world to rile up she-bear here. We still don’t know if she’s house-trained yet.”
Olwen laughed as the sister
s then fell into a pattern of name-calling and arguing synonymous with sisters, no matter what realm or time one came from. She was about to say something but felt a shift within her, and all thought of what she had been about to say flew out of her head. The portal was opening at the Pagan Stone. The vortex was unlocking and she would be able to unlock the entrance to the Otherworld. Her Elementals must have felt it, too, because they all fell silent. Serious looks fell over their faces and they all turned to look at her.
Olwen nodded. “The portal is opening. It is time. If you are all still willing to help me save Rohan, then we must get to the portal now.”
Her feisty Fire Elemental stepped forward then, flames flickering in her brown eyes. “Then we had better haul ass and get there. Every one of us that can come will come with you, Olwen. We’re like the fucking Marines. We leave no one behind. It doesn’t matter that we’ve never met your man. He’s yours and as much a victim in this whole façade as we are, and he deserves to come home.”
Olwen felt tears gathering and she blinked rapidly to clear them. “Thank you,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. Clearing her throat, she spoke in a louder voice. “Then we must leave for the portal immediately. I will take my Elementals to the Pagan Stone, and we will enter into the Otherworld realm and retrieve my beloved.”
Olwen turned back to the freestanding mirror and placed her hand against the glass. She invoked the power of her gods and asked for a bridge to take her and her Elementals to the Pagan Stone. In their divine wisdom, they granted that request. The glass grew fluid beneath her fingers and smoke shimmered within it before the image changed from being a reflection of her with everyone standing behind her, watching what she was doing with a wary curiosity, to the area in front of the Pagan Stone.
