Dragon's Choice

by Juniper Hart

  Caleb was getting closer now. It was going to happen any minute. He grabbed Olivia’s hair and held on tightly as he bucked her hard, getting frenzied now. He felt it coming… so close…

  And there it was. His climax washed over him, and he groaned as he released.

  He wasn’t sure how long he stayed inside of her, just feeling every drop of his seed spill out of his body and into hers. The two of them stood there for several minutes, slowly rocking together, before he finally pulled out of her and kissed her deeply.

  “Wow,” Olivia said, her voice raspy.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Caleb replied, his voice the same as hers.

  8

  Caleb was just stepping out of the shower when he heard another voice in his house. He immediately recognized it as Cliff’s.

  He was at the front door. And he was talking to Olivia.

  Caleb quickly dried off, got dressed, and hurried out to the living room to greet his friend.

  “Wow,” Caleb said, and both Cliff and Olivia turned to him, “this is an unexpected surprise.”

  “Yeah,” Cliff said. “I was in the neighborhood.”

  Caleb gave him a stern look. They both knew what was going on. The pack was worried about his constant absence, and they had sent Cliff to check on things. Now Cliff had met Olivia, and since lycanthropes could sense their own when they met someone, he knew that Olivia was one of them. He also knew that she didn’t belong to their pack.

  “Okay, well, we were about to have breakfast, if you want to stay a while,” Caleb said.

  “I think there are more important things to talk about,” Cliff said, walking past him and Olivia into the house. “Let’s have a seat.”

  Caleb felt like knocking his friend out cold and throwing him out of his house, but he played along. Sometimes, even as an alpha, you had to humor the pack. There was always the possibility they could turn on you, and no matter how strong an alpha was, the pack as a whole was always stronger.

  The three of them sat down in the living room. Olivia looked nervous, but she said nothing. She had probably thought this was just a friendly visit from a friend of Caleb’s—this must’ve been quite nerve-wracking.

  Caleb told Cliff the whole story about how he’d found Olivia and had been nursing her back to health for the past couple of months.

  “Well, that’s a great story,” Cliff said. Then he leaned his elbows on his knees and narrowed his eyes at Caleb. “So you have no idea who she is?”

  “No,” Caleb answered. “The silver poisoning gave her amnesia.”

  Cliff raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? Well, that’s awfully convenient.”

  Now it was Caleb’s turn to narrow his eyes at his friend. “What are you saying?”

  “Come on, Caleb,” Cliff said, and his voice had grown… angry. “Wake up! Can you see that you’re being played? She belongs to the Manzweil pack, I recognize her!”

  Caleb felt instant sickness sweeping over him, and he had to take a second to swallow the knot in his throat.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked. He turned to look at Olivia, searching for some answers, but her expression was just as confused and full of disbelief as his.

  “Michael and I went on a little intel acquisition a few months ago, when we heard the Manzweils were getting too close to our turf,” Cliff began, getting up from his seat. “We spied on them for a week. I thought they were getting ready to plan something. They still might be. Anyway—” He pointed at Olivia. “I saw her there. I wouldn’t forget a face that pretty.”

  Caleb couldn’t speak. Surely… surely this wasn’t true… right? Had he actually fallen in love with a sworn enemy? Was Olivia faking all of this? Had he misread her feelings?

  “Her name isn’t Olivia,” Cliff went on. “It’s Taryn.”

  “What are you talking about?” Olivia demanded, speaking for the first time since this conversation had started. She… she didn’t seem to be faking anything now. “I don’t remember anything about a pack—”

  “No! You don’t get to speak,” Cliff told Olivia, pointing at her. Turning to Caleb, he added, “We need to take her to Morten. He might be able to come up with something to get her memory back, if it’s even really gone. And then you’ll see who she really is.”

  Caleb nodded. He looked over at Olivia, and all he saw in her eyes was fear. He wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything would be okay, but he didn’t know if that was true. She was scared of what her memory would reveal, as was Caleb. There had to be an explanation for this. Olivia was a good person. Surely she wasn’t like the rest of her pack. Surely she was different.

  Caleb knew that Cliff was right. It had to be done.

  “What happened?”

  Caleb looked up from the book he was reading and saw Olivia coming around.

  “Hey, welcome back,” Caleb said.

  Olivia looked at her surroundings and quickly realized that she was tied to a tree. The topes binding her wouldn’t have restrained a wolf, but the potion Morten, the pack doctor, had given her had also weakened her. Besides, she was surrounded by Caleb, Cliff, and Morten. She wouldn’t have any chance against them.

  “Caleb,” she began, “what’s going on?”

  “Who are you?” Caleb asked, walking closer to her.

  Olivia thought for a moment, almost confused by the question. But suddenly her eyes lit up. He could see the memories rushing back to her. Morten’s potion had worked.

  “How…” She glanced at him. “How is this happening? How come I’m suddenly—?”

  “Our doctor gave you a special potion to restore your memories,” Caleb answered. “Oh, and it’s also a truth serum, so don’t even think about trying to lie to us. Now, who are you?”

  “My name is Taryn,” Olivia—Taryn said, her voice monotone, as if she were reading from a script. “I am a member of the Menzweil pack.”

  “I told you,” Cliff murmured, but Caleb silenced him with a glare.

  “Why were you in the woods?” he asked. “Who was chasing you?”

  “My uncle,” Taryn answered. “Robert.”

  “Why?”

  “My pack was planning an ambush on yours,” she said. “They were planning a full-scale attack with silver bullets. They were going to split up and wipe you out in your homes, all at once.”

  “Oh, that’s lovely,” Caleb muttered. “So, why was your uncle trying to kill you?”

  “Because I wanted no part of it,” Taryn responded. It was strange to think of her with another name after she had been Olivia for so long. “When I found out what they were planning, I decided I would warn you. I was on my way to your place in the city when I realized I was being followed. I recognized my uncle and took off running to the woods, thinking I could lose him there. But I was wrong. He shot me and left me for dead, calling me a traitor. He wanted me to suffer, to teach me a lesson.”

  After she didn’t say anything else, Cliff turned to him. “You believe this?”

  “She can’t lie, remember?” Caleb said. “Untie her.”

  Cliff stared at him in shock.

  “What? You can’t be serious!” he protested. “Even if she is telling the truth, she’s still one of them! We can use her for ransom, or we can kill her and send a message—”

  “No!” Caleb ordered. “There will be no killing. Now untie her!”

  Cliff snarled at him in disgust. “I don’t think so,” he growled. “You would risk the pack’s safety like this? You just proved how weak you are. And you just confirmed that I made the right decision.”

  Caleb turned to him. “What are you talking about?”

  Cliff threw his head back and howled, his thunderous voice echoing through the woods.

  “What are you doing?” Caleb questioned.

  “Just signaling the troops,” Cliff answered.

  It was then that Caleb heard them: footsteps running towards them. He spun around just in time to see a large werewolf flying through the air with an ou
tstretched claw, ready to rip his head off. He grabbed the wolf’s arm at the last second and hurled its body behind him. The wolf collided with Cliff, sending them both flying through the air a good twenty yards, knocking the two of them unconscious.

  Another wolf was in Caleb’s face a moment later. But the first wolf had given him time to shift, and his powers were now at their full capacity. The other wolf threw several swipes of his powerful claws at him. Caleb easily outmaneuvered each one, and he finished the short-lived match with a devastating blow of his own.

  Another wolf was attacking from the side, but Morten was there to stop its vicious onslaught.

  Rather than another wolf coming at him, Caleb heard a voice to his left.

  “Very impressive, Caleb.”

  Striding slowly towards him was Benton, the alpha of the Manzweil pack.

  “Why are you doing this?” Caleb demanded, snarling through his fangs. “Our packs have been at peace for hundreds of years! Why break that truce now?”

  “Because it is time for expansion,” Benton said. “Montana just isn’t big enough for the both of us.”

  “Don’t make me kill you,” Caleb replied, but Benton simply laughed at him.

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “No!” Taryn cried. “Father, please, no!”

  Caleb couldn’t believe his ears. Taryn was Benton’s daughter.

  She was the daughter of the alpha of the Manzweil pack, his sworn enemies… and she had still risked her life to warn him of the ambush they had been planning.

  Benton charged towards Caleb with the fury of hell. Fighting an alpha was not like fighting any other kind of wolf, even for another alpha. It was like fighting an entire pack.

  Benton’s sharp fangs were suddenly pressing against Caleb’s neck. He moved faster than any wolf Caleb had ever fought before, but he was ready. He immediately saw the one advantage he held in this fight; Benton’s arrogance and complete faith that Caleb was too inexperienced to be an effective alpha. He would use that against him and teach him just how wrong he was.

  Caleb twisted away from Benton and body slammed the older wolf to the ground. The alpha bounced off the ground, flying high as he tried to recover to attack Caleb again, but the younger wolf was ready for it. He charged forward, flipping his body through the air and taking a mighty swipe towards the back of Benton’s head. It was a clean blow, and he could have ended the wolf’s life right there…

  But Caleb stopped slightly short of killing him, and he instead grabbed Benton’s head, jerking his body backwards and slamming him into the ground once again. Then he pinned Benton’s arms behind his back. All Caleb had to do was exert a slight bit of pressure, and he would have ripped his arms off.

  “I’m going to give you a choice,” he said.

  His eyes cast upward at Taryn, who was nervously biting her lip and glancing pleadingly at Caleb. She didn’t want to watch her father die, and Caleb didn’t want to force her to.

  “Did you give the order for your brother to kill Taryn?” he questioned.

  “What difference does it make?” Benton grunted.

  Caleb applied more pressure. “Just answer me!”

  The older wolf grimaced, but finally spoke. “No,” he snarled. “My brother acted on his own, in direct defiance of my orders. I killed him the moment I found out what he’d done to my daughter.”

  Taryn now had tears in her eyes. “Dad,” she said softly.

  Benton glanced at her. “I’ve been searching everywhere for you,” he said.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Caleb said. “Because I have a proposition for you.”

  The alpha glared at him over his shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

  “We are going to work out a deal,” Caleb continued. “I love your daughter. I believe she loves me.”

  He raised his eyes to meet Taryn’s. She was crying and nodding her head.

  “I do. With all my heart,” she said, her voice full of emotion.

  “What?” Benton turned once more to his daughter. “No… you can’t… you can’t love him!” he bellowed.

  Caleb slightly increased the pressure on Benton’s arms again. The alpha winced loudly.

  “Caleb—” Taryn started.

  “I love your daughter,” Caleb repeated. “I want to marry her. That means our families, our packs, will be united. This horrible feud will finally be over. If you refuse, then I’ll have to kill you and the rest of your pack.”

  Caleb hoped his bluff was good enough. He would never do anything that would cause Taryn even the slightest bit of pain.

  “Father,” Taryn said, her voice still a little wobbly from her tears, “if you refuse, then you will never see me again.”

  Caleb smiled. God, he loved this woman.

  Benton was silent. He looked around at the few pack members he’d brought with him on this ambush. They were all unconscious. They could have been killed at any second. Caleb hoped the old man would make the right choice.

  “Okay,” Benton said. “Fine, fine! I accept your terms.”

  “Good,” Caleb said. “It was about time this ridiculous feud ended.”

  With that, Caleb released Benton from his grasp and went to free Taryn. He couldn’t believe that this had actually all worked out in their favor. Everything was the way it should be.

  He swooped Taryn up into his arms. “I love you, Taryn,” he whispered.

  She shook her head. “Call me Olivia,” she said.

  He smiled and kissed her sweetly.

  Epilogue

  Ten months later

  “Well, what do you think?”

  Caleb laid the baby in Olivia’s arms and snuggled closer to her. She’d always had a glow about her, but today, she was radiating on a whole new level. It had started nine months ago, and the journey to bring their beautiful baby Reese into the world had finally come to an end. He was perfect.

  Caleb could hardly believe that he was staring into the eyes of his son. Reese resembled both him and Olivia equally. He already had a full head of hair and the biggest, brightest eyes he’d ever seen on a baby.

  “I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been,” Olivia said.

  “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” Caleb softly kissed her.

  As he stood there, watching this beautiful day unfold, his mind kept replaying the events of the past ten months. He and Olivia had been married just a week after the blood feud between their packs had ended.

  Caleb forgave Cliff, as he was just acting in the best interest of the pack. And, Caleb was thrilled that his pack had welcomed Olivia with open arms. Of course, Caleb wouldn’t expect much less. He was the alpha, and the pack respected his decisions.

  Caleb had had his doubts, but so far, Benton and his pack had kept their word. There was still quite a bit of tension between the two packs, as it probably always would, though things between himself and Benton had actually cooled off nicely. He felt that the older wolf respected him, even if he didn’t like him.

  Caleb felt that Reese’s birth would help finally solidify the two packs’ truce, and this might be the start they needed to rebuild the bridges they had once shared. After all, Reese was the next male alpha in line for both packs. It was going to take time, but with lycans, time was practically never-ending. If it took them three lifetimes, Caleb was fine with that.

  “Is that my grandson?”

  Caleb glanced over his shoulder to see Benton stepping into the room with a big, relaxed smile on his face.

  “It sure is,” Caleb said.

  Benton bent over the bed and cooed at the baby, making silly faces at him. The baby smiled and giggled back.

  “Well, he is beautiful,” Benton said. “Well done.”

  He held his hand out to Caleb. He shook it.

  Olivia smiled widely.

  Yeah, Caleb thought. Maybe this was a new beginning.

  THE END

  Part III

  Shifter Scandal

  By Junip
er Hart

  Prologue

  How can a city of this magnitude be so suffocating?

  The blackness of the subway tunnels did nothing to calm her racing heart. She willed herself to stare straight ahead as if the slightest movement would attract attention. She hoped her dark sunglasses and headscarf would protect her from potential scrutiny, but she had low hopes.

  She was Gabriella Medina, after all. Her face would be recognized from Maine to Alaska and everywhere in between. There was not a place on earth where her smoldering eyes would not spark a second glance. For the first time in her twenty-four years of life, she rued her sensational good looks. There was nowhere to go, no place to hide.

  How could I have let this happen? I don’t know what to do, she told herself mournfully. How did this get so far?

  It was a question she had asked herself many times over the past weeks, but the answer did not manifest itself easily. She had no part in what had happened, not really. She wished she had been more outspoken, though, louder in her protest. It was too late now; it had escalated beyond control, and all Gabby could think to do was run.

  This will blow over eventually, she reasoned, but the words were little comfort to a girl who wanted nothing more than to disappear into thin air. There must be somewhere I can go in the meantime.

  Slowly, she lowered her too-large glasses and peered about the cesspool that was the A train heading into Manhattan. Her wide, chocolate eyes scanned the torn advertisements above the doors, hoping for inspiration.

  Eyeglass store, therapist hotline, Mr. Chang’s Chinese and Wings… Oh!

  Forgetting her need for anonymity, Gabriella fully pulled the glasses from her face and scooted toward the rear of the car, where an ad had caught her attention.

  She stood before a drunk homeless man and a tightly wound businessman, staring in awe at the glorious colors of the picture before her: an endless blue contrast against a grassy sea of emerald green while horses roamed about with mountains framing the shot.