Even though she worried about this new life she had been thrust into, she couldn’t find it in herself to blame Erik. When she’d found him in the men’s room, he’d clearly been suffering. He hadn’t meant to bite her.
No one meant to change your whole life, but it happened all the time. It could be a car accident, a natural disaster, or any other surprise event. Life was so easily derailed. Bree had to change with this. She had to stand up and move forward.
“When do I get to do what you did?” she asked.
Uncertainty took over Erik’s features. His flirtation and snappy wit vanished. Bree nearly staggered back, alarmed by the sudden change in demeanor. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it wasn’t convincing.
“You’re worried about something,” she said as the epiphany came to her. “Is there something wrong with me?”
His nostrils flared while he watched her. She thought he was trying to see through her again, to what was now lying just underneath her skin. From his face, she had the feeling that he knew he wouldn’t like what he saw. The expression was lined with a bit of…guilt?
Her heart started racing. “Is there something else I should know? What haven’t you told me?”
Erik finally broke his silence. “You have a beast talking to you now, right? Another voice trying to run the show alongside you.”
“I never thought of it as a beast, but…I think so.”
His jaw clenched. She saw the muscles around it working, bunching tight as the veins popped up. His anger didn’t make sense. She’d done nothing wrong. Defensiveness brought the new voice back.
Proud man, strong man. He fears for us.
Bree swallowed and decided to close the space between them. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him closer. He startled, his eyes going wide. Her gaze dropped to his mouth for a moment as desire momentarily distracted her.
“I’m not a pushover,” she told him. “I’m not going to break, either.”
He took her wrist in his hand. “That’s not what I’m worried about.”
“Then tell me, so we can work on this. I don’t want to be left in the dark because you think your silence is more valiant than communication.” She spoke like they were a couple who needed to talk through their feelings and…whatever this relationship was. Maker and made? Attacker and victim?
Neither sounded quite right to her. She wasn’t mad at Erik, though she felt she should have been.
Why didn’t she hate him? Where was the loathing she should have felt? Bree dug through her feelings, worried that she wasn’t processing what had happened to her. No matter how she dug, no hate or anger surfaced.
Erik touched her cheek. The barest brush of his knuckles set her on fire. Instead of turning away, she leaned into the heat. She let it wash over her and ignite an inferno in her core.
“I’m afraid…” His voice became breathy, barely a whisper. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. I came out here thinking that I wouldn’t be anyone’s burden again.”
His brows crashed together. She wanted him to keep going, but he clammed up. Erik shook his head and backed away from her.
“We should get this over with,” he said once his back was to her. “Once you shift, then I’ll know for sure.”
Know what for sure? Bree wanted to demand an answer, but her voice caught in her throat.
She stifled a growl and felt the beast in her starting to squirm. Ice flooded her veins while dread made her feet heavy. The new voice tried to assure her that everything would be okay, but changing into a dragon went against everything she’d ever known. Her body wasn’t meant to be that large. She wasn’t meant to bend and break into a whole new creature.
Still hiding his face from her, Erik walked her through the steps. She had to let go of the leash she had on that voice. It wasn’t just a new line of thought. It was its own being, one that she needed to give agency to. Erik warned her that her skin would feel stretched and strained, so when it happened, she didn’t freak out.
With every passing second, her body burned hotter and hotter. She was a balloon with too much air, ready to pop at any moment. It scared her and excited her all at once.
* * *
Erik waited for the worst to happen.
This woman challenged him in every way. She never shied away from anything. Not from the news that she had become a shifter—well, not once she knew her life had changed. She certainly didn’t back down from him, even when she should have left his ass.
He didn’t deserve her.
Worst of all, she didn’t deserve what he’d done to her. Still, he hadn’t heard anything from his monstrous beast. The silence in his skull resonated and left him with only guilt. He hadn’t meant to change her. None of this should have happened.
She knelt on the ground beside him. Her grunts and groans filled his ears and broke his heart. If only there was a way he could make this easier. He wasn’t a clan leader or a witch. He didn’t have the power to force a shift, one way or another. Bree had to do this on her own.
She had to battle his monsters for him.
Then, she let out a cry, somewhere between pain and relief. The sound cut him. He looked up just as her form changed.
“Well,” he said. “That’s not what I expected.”
He’d never seen anything quite as beautiful as Bree’s beast. The scales along her back rippled with a shimmering steel blue while the ones covering her stomach were a softer shade of blue that was almost lavender. She blinked at him with those silver mica eyes. Stars seemed to dance in their depths. When she shook her head, he noticed her blunt antler-like horns.
She looked like the moon.
Then he felt it. Piercing pain sliced its way up his stomach, into his lungs, and through his throat. The monstrous beast had returned. Erik clutched his throat and bent. The beast pushed and pushed. It wanted to greet Bree, but he had no idea what that meant. Anytime the monstrous beast escaped, it blazed a path of destruction.
He wouldn’t introduce Bree to the monstrous beast. She would never know about it. That way, he could protect her from the worst parts of himself.
Maybe then…maybe then she might love him.
The beast slashed at him. Pain scrambled his thoughts. The beast made demands that Erik refused to follow through.
Bree trilled at him. Her worry pierced the haze enveloping him. His vision focused on her and only her. She lowered herself to the ground and nudged his stomach. Her touch grounded him. The monstrous beast fought and fought, but it couldn’t get through the calm that she instilled in him.
As he gathered his breath, he wondered how he would be able to keep her around once she found out. Bree would never want to put up with his monstrous side. No one wanted to. Dillon dealt with him, but only for the safety of everyone else.
Erik was a burden.
He didn’t want to be Bree’s burden, too.
He staggered back from her, trying to put space between them even though he wanted to stay. His monstrous beast’s voice grew into a bellow. It ripped and tore at him from the inside. If he couldn’t get the beast under control, it would escape.
The blue dragon could do nothing. While the green dragon fought Erik’s willpower, the blue one was trapped and voiceless. He wished he and the blue dragon could team up against this monstrous beast, but so long as they were separated, they were weak.
A physical pain pulled him from the recesses of his mind. Erik’s eyes snapped open. He blinked at Bree then glanced down at his hand.
“You bit me.”
She huffed a breath, one that bore twirling tendrils of smoke, out her nose.
He rubbed at the back of his hand as the wound healed. “Alright. That’s fair.”
For the time being, Erik was alone in his head. The green dragon no longer fought like he was a door it needed to break down. He could think and breathe once again.
Bree’s silver gaze never left him. She settled onto the ground like a cat.
“We’
re going to need to get you back to human form,” Erik said, thinking out loud.
She gave him a look that said no shit. He couldn’t help but laugh. Without his beast beating him down, he savored the rich sound of his own laughter while he could. He wanted to beseech his blue dragon and help Bree expend some energy, but he didn’t dare try to shift.
Bree must have picked up on his reluctance because her eyes went distant. He watched her scaled brow furrow, like she was trying to concentrate on something. It took him far too long to realize Bree was attempting to force the shift back. He wanted to tell her that her beast wouldn’t let go of control that easily, but then her form started shrinking.
She knelt on the ground, back heaving and hair obscuring her face. Erik stared in disbelief. He’d never seen a new shifter change back and forth so quickly. He crouched beside her and helped her back to her feet. When her hair slid away from her face, a triumphant smile graced her features even though her eyelids sagged with exhaustion.
“Nailed it,” she slurred.
Erik let out an uncertain laugh. Bree leaned heavily on him. He did his best to make sure his hands didn’t end up somewhere inappropriate, but in the end, he picked her up so she would stop slipping to the ground.
“You’re crazy,” he told her. “Let’s take you somewhere you can sleep this off.”
He couldn’t walk back into town with a naked woman. The only place he could think of that wouldn’t ask too many questions was the cabin. That meant he would have to own up to what he’d done.
Erik laid a soft kiss on Bree’s forehead before turning toward the cabin. He would take the clan’s berating so long as it meant Bree could sleep soundly for a little while. Though what had happened between the two of them had been completely unplanned, he couldn’t help but feel a little less alone.
That feeling would end the moment he brought her into the clan. She would cease to be just his and become a part of the larger group. The others would inevitably push him away from her for what he’d done, but that might be for the best.
Bree deserved a better teacher. Daphne was on her way so she could change Evangeline. The two women would have a proper teacher helping them through their change. Not a mess like Erik. A man who couldn’t even deal with his own beasts.
The blue dragon growled at him as he walked. It told him to take to the sky. While flying was quicker, he didn’t trust himself. The monstrous beast still wanted out. He feared that if he tried to shift, the green dragon would overpower its twin in the process. He didn’t want to leave Bree alone with that side of himself. So, he walked.
38
Bree woke up in an unfamiliar room. She waited for panic to make her heart race and fill her blood with adrenaline, but neither happened. The smell of fresh cut wood and blueberries permeated the sheets beneath her.
I’m naked and in Erik’s bed.
She rolled off the bed and searched for her lost clothes. Then, she remembered that they were most likely in that field still. She’d shifted.
When she heard voices outside the door rising, she grabbed what clothes she could find and tugged them on before stepping out. Though she wanted to revel in her progress as a dragon shifter, she didn’t like the tone of the voice coming from the living room. When the screaming woman mentioned Erik’s name, Bree ran toward him.
The pink-haired woman from the tattoo shop faced Erik down. Her fists trembled at her sides, barely containing the fury darkening her cheeks. Erik stood before her and did nothing. He made no attempt to defend himself.
“I’ve been waiting for this for weeks now, and you think you can just bite someone?” The woman’s voice pitched, nearly breaking. “Do you get how unfair this is? How much this hurts right now?”
Bree shoved herself between the woman and Erik. She expected to smell smoke on the woman like she could with Erik and the man she’d run into the other day, but the woman’s scent was plain. Bree realized that meant the woman was human
“Bree,” Erik pleaded. He put a hand on her shoulder.
She didn’t shrug him off, but she didn’t turn toward him, either. Instead, she held the woman’s furious glare.
“Evangeline,” another man said. He took her clenched fist in his hand and turned her toward him.
As soon as he had her attention, the fight left her. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes started to glisten.
“Daphne is on her way,” the man said.
“I’m tired of waiting, Casey. I just want to help you. I want to protect my family. Is that so wrong?” She cocked her head, and a single tear dripped down her cheek.
He cupped her cheek and wiped the tear away with his thumb. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I only ask you to wait so we can make sure you’re safe. What Erik did…” The man glanced at Bree. “What Erik did was dangerous.”
Erik angled himself away from everyone. She caught the way his head hung, like guilt had slung a rope and a weight around his neck. The way Casey said dangerous made her blood hum. She recalled her beast asking her to walk away from the darkness.
“No one asked for this to happen,” Bree said, trying to cut through the tension in the room.
Everyone save for Erik looked at her. Bree realized she was wearing a pair of sweatpants three times too large for her and a similarly sized shirt that she’d knotted in the front. The awkward ensemble probably undermined her seriousness.
She refused to be deterred, though. “I barged in on Erik. If anyone is to blame, it’s me.”
Bree tried not to pay attention to the people watching her when she walked up to Erik to take his hand. At first, his fingers were slack in hers. She didn’t let go, and so his grip on her slowly tightened. The world shrank down to just the two of them.
Her heart thumped and a flare of heat warmed her chest. She wanted to take another step toward him, to feel his arm wind around her lower back, to feel him holding her close.
“Holy shit, Erik. You brought a woman home!” a new voice proclaimed.
Bree spun to find a pregnant woman with her hands on her cheeks. A spark of mischief danced in her bright green eyes. Evangeline rolled her eyes, spun on her heel, and stormed out of the room. The pregnant woman twisted her lips to the side as she watched the other woman leave.
The man that approached behind the blonde looked like he might kick Erik’s ass. Though the man had a permanent glare etched onto his face and tattoos that made him even more intimidating, the blonde turned and gave him the brightest smile. Bree watched the intimidating man’s expression melt into pride and joy.
“What the hell is this place?” Bree asked under her breath.
“This is our home,” the intimidating man said.
Bree blinked. The man shouldn’t have been able to hear her, but she’d forgotten that everything she knew had been thrown out the window when she’d been changed. The man must have been a dragon shifter, too.
Only the pink-haired woman and the blonde had been human.
Erik tugged on her hand. “Do you want to go home?”
The blonde waved her hand. “Don’t even think about whisking her away. I’m making mac and cheese today. The two of you are going to be dinner entertainment. I expect to hear the whole story.”
Erik sighed and looked at Bree. “Isabella is a lot bolder than she was when she first moved in.”
The intimidating man clapped Erik on the back.
“And you’re moody today,” Isabella said, now waving a wooden spoon around. “Where is our usual smart ass? Don’t tell me you let Evangeline beat it out of you.”
Bree wanted nothing more than to pull Erik into her. She wondered if a kiss would lighten his mood. Temptation nagged at her, but she held it back. Erik didn’t belong to her. He was…
What was he? A friend? A colleague?
Her old feelings for him resurfaced again and again. She couldn’t separate herself from them anymore. She wanted to see him happy again, and it hurt to watch him shut down like this.
“Gavin i
s going to go off,” Isabella said from the kitchen.
Erik straightened. “Gavin can eat my ass if he thinks he’s going to…”
The door opened. A man stepped through and fixed Erik with a dark scowl. “If he thinks he’s going to what?”
Silence washed over the room. The new man, a dragon shifter judging by the smoke curling from his skin, approached Erik. Bree moved to place herself between them, but Erik pushed her behind him. Erik’s spine straightened. Gavin’s jaw tensed.
“I fucked up,” Erik confessed. “But I’m not going to stand around and let you berate me for it.”
For a split second, a quizzical look washed over Gavin’s face. Then, it settled back into cold indifference. He gave Erik a brotherly punch in the shoulder before turning on his heel and heading toward the fridge.
Bree had no idea what had just happened. She watched Gavin open the fridge door and pull out a jar of pickles. Before he could even crack open the lid, Isabella was on him, smacking his hands with her wooden spoon. She scolded him for attempting to eat her pickles. He snarled in response but put the pickles back.
So, this is what a house of dragon shifters is like. Bree didn’t think it was that far from a frat house. Especially when she entered the kitchen and saw the patches of drywall putty on the wall.
Gavin focused on her, as if finally noticing her. His nostrils flared before he turned his glare on Erik.
“I told you,” Erik said. “I’m not going to apologize for my mistakes.”
Gavin shrugged. “She looks like a woman, not a mistake. Treat her nice and introduce her to Daphne when she arrives.”
Bree bit back her smile. Gavin’s easy acceptance of her presence warmed her. While Evangeline had been livid, everyone else made Bree feel right at home. She didn’t have to live every day with nothing but work and sleep to keep her busy.
She could have friends. Maybe.
Rogue Dragons Series: Box Set Books 1-5 Page 31
