Tangled: A Curvy Girl and Dragon Shifter Romance (Black Dragon Brotherhood Book 2)

by Aidy Award

  “Meow. Myow. Myeow.”

  See, even Flerken was like, keep it in your pants, mama. If her magic went all haywire now, the MIBs would see and think she was either one of the terrorists or some other kind of threat.

  Why was it acting up now? Her magic usually had no visual or physical manifestation. Nothing like those flashes had happened before.

  The wisps of electricity swirled over and around the computers, her experiment, and encircled the whole lab. Then it erupted, and building's electricity sparked as every electronic device went haywire, exploding and going dark all over the place.

  Captain Kisser chuckled. “That’s one way to erase your information.”

  Ash grabbed the external hard drive, which didn’t seem to be affected by the surges, and shoved it into the pocket on the outside of Flerken’s bag.

  “Meow.”

  “Okay, let’s go. Lead the way MIBs, Brotherhood brothers, whatever.”

  The non-kisser gave her a funny look but turned and headed toward the entrance. He pointed a sword she just noticed he was carrying into the hallway and declared it clear. What kind of para-military security agent carried a sword? “Put your jacket on, the flight out of here will be cold.”

  Hey, she’d deadbolted that door. How had these two gotten in here? Ash grabbed Red's jacket knowing protocols said she couldn't go home in a situation like this. It was her own damn fault for not having a bugout bag here in her lab. She knew OWL had another base in Dubai. Hopefully that's where they were going, and she could hit the ground running with her experiment there. Flerkie did not like air travel.

  They got about a hundred yards toward the stairwell to the next level up to the surface and two more MIBs met them.

  Instead of joining forces, kisser shot them with a stream of black fire. But not from any weapon she saw. The men fell to the ground, groaning, but not dead.

  Uh-oh. She recognized one of the fallen men, even with his sunglasses. He’d been in the lab earlier with Red.

  Ash glanced over at kisser, then non-kisser. Non-kisser’s face had changed, fangs extending out of his mouth. Not like vampire fangs, but more like a big animal, a predator. That and the claws coming out of his fingers had her blood pressure spiking, or maybe dropping. Whichever one made you feel faint.

  She swallowed and looked over at kisser. He grinned and a dark red and black light, similar to what had shot out of her hands in the lab shimmered over his body.

  Right in front of her eyes, he transformed into a giant freaking mythical dragon.

  Holy X-Men.

  These two were not human.

  The dragon roared and charged up the stairs tossing two more men down over the railing before shifting back into human form. It was like he’d become the beast just to mess with everyone’s heads. For funsies.

  These were not the Game of Thrones type dragons or even the epic fantasy beings portrayed on TV and in the comics. They were freaking shapeshifters.

  Ash stared. She knew she should turn and run. But, logically, what good would that do her? They were dragons, the kind that breathed fire, fangs and claws, and kidnapped innocent virgin princesses.

  The non-kisser grabbed her hand and a cool, calming wave washed over her. Time seemed to slow down for a second, like she was in a slow-mo shot in an action hero movie. “Come on, witch. Let’s get you out of here.”

  He tilted her head and stared at her. Would he kiss her now too? What the hell was wrong with her?

  Why wasn’t she running from them screaming, trying to defend herself. They were dragons, she was a human with a cat. If they kidnapped her, she was definitely getting thrown into a dungeon or a tall tower and Flerken would probably be eaten.

  Or vice versa.

  Oh no. Mind control. That had to be what the warmth and attraction, the cool and calming, she experienced when she touched one of them. She hadn’t seen them use any magical spells. They had to be doing it with their supernatural brains.

  Or their muscles.

  Probably their magically delicious good looks.

  Screw being controlled. Time to use her own brain and magic to get away. Ash turned tail and sprinted back down the hallway. Okay, she sprinted for about ten yards and then had to slow, breathing hard. She really needed to get out of the lab more and get some exercise.

  Just as soon as the terrorist attack and dragon invasion was over.

  Flerken, who normally only meowed at her screeched and scratched and clawed inside her bag.

  “Whoa, Flerkie, shh. It’s okay. I’ll save us.” She patted the side of the bag, but her cat did not calm down.

  The lights overhead blinked on and off and some of them exploded, just like in the lab. Ash ducked, covering her head to avoid the sparks.

  Only a few more yards and she could swing back through the door and deadbolt it again. Except that hadn’t stopped the sexy dragon dudes from finding her the first time.

  Suddenly, one of the dragons, the kisser, loped up beside her, running along as if they were going for a morning jog. He didn’t attack, didn’t try to stop her. He was however blocking her way if she wanted to get back into her lab.

  In another instant, another dragon, bigger and darker in color, joined them on the other side of her. He didn’t do anything but run alongside of her either.

  Ash angled to dart into the doorway, but the dragon on that side didn’t. He bumped her with his head and pushed her back on course going straight down the hall.

  Crap.

  Another door, on the other side, that led into the women’s restroom was up ahead. She tried again, and the same thing happened. The other dragon made sure she didn’t get even close. She wasn’t getting away. They were herding her.

  In about ten more seconds they would reach the other stairwell and she had some fast thinking to do. They seemed to want to go up. If she ran down instead, they would probably catch her in an instant.

  What if she stopped and ran back the other way? She wasn’t fast, but the bathroom wasn’t far. If she took them by surprise, it might give her a tiny advantage. Surely, they couldn't turn their big old dragon asses around that fast. There was hardly enough room in the hallway for both of them as it was.

  Or they might decide their mind control wasn’t working on her anymore, finally get fed up, tackle her and roast her skin with their flames.

  Ash liked her skin exactly the way it was. But time was running out.

  Up, down, or reverse?

  Whichever she decided, she needed a little something extra if she was going to make it work. She hated to rely on her magic, since she couldn’t explain how it worked, or why she could do it. Today did not seem to be a day for logical science-based thinking. Magic was in the air.

  Ash called upon the secret part of her inside that she kept hidden from the world, not knowing what it would do. She asked the universe to give her a little good luck and stopped dead in her tracks, pivoted and ran back in the opposite direction, flying past the dragons, jumping over one of their tails, and into the bathroom. She crashed into a janitorial cart inside the door that the crew must have left when they evacuated.

  Yeah, baby. She was like the Flash. Except short, blonde, a bit chubby, and really slow. But whatever her magic had done, it had helped her get away.

  It wouldn’t take long for them to come in here after her. The only way to go was up. She climbed on the back of one of the toilets, figuring it was safer than expecting the sinks to hold her weight and reached for the ceiling tiles.

  Not even close.

  She jumped and barely scraped the cardboardy-feeling inset with one finger.

  “Meow.”

  “Good thinking, Flerkie.” Ash jumped back down and grabbed the broom off of the cart. It took her only a second to pop the tile up and shove it over. Now, how was she going to climb up in there?

  Why couldn’t her magic be the kind that made her levitate or fly? It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried. Not once had she ever been able to float or fly away from th
e dangers of growing up. Eventually, she quit trying, quit trusting that spark of something special inside of her.

  Maybe it was time to let herself believe again.

  Maybe not.

  She shoved the broom between her knees and prepared to throw Flerken’s bag up first. Then maybe she could roll the cart in here and prop it up on the back of the toilet to climb up.

  “Meow.”

  The broom wiggled between her knees and slid all the way up, so she was straddling it. Then it lifted her, Flerken, and itself into the air and up through the hole in the ceiling. Ash didn’t have time to marvel over the fact that she’d just ridden a broom, because the second she was in the crawl space she knew she wasn’t alone.

  Whatever was up here with her was darker than a black hole and the intensity of its malevolence had her scooting right back down toward the bathroom.

  She’d rather face dragons over whatever was up there any day.

  Hide and Seek

  Ace

  Ace was sure his head was about to explode. Along with his cock. He’d found his mate.

  She was beautiful, curvy and sexy, smart as hell, and tasted like sex at sunrise. He couldn’t wait to get more of her in his mouth.

  Her kisses had intoxicated him. Her pussy was going to kill him in all the best ways.

  But not if he and Kurjerkwad didn’t get her and themselves out of here alive. Ace hoped she knew what she was doing when she led them away from one staircase and to another. The schematics he’d committed to memory showed they both led to the same place.

  Both he and Jerkwad had shifted in order to better protect her, and for the first time ever, Ace found himself grateful to the one dragon he'd never thought would do any good in the world.

  Jerkwad started up this new escape route ahead of Ace's mate, making sure it was safe.

  Ace dropped back to guard from behind. Plus, it gave him a chance to stare at her luscious rear end. Oh, the things he was going to do to that ass. The way it wiggled under the pants she wore while she ran would make the most stringent monk hard in an instant.

  Exactly like he was.

  A meter from the steps she stopped and for a half a second, he could swear, she disappeared. Then she was back, standing almost directly in front of him at a complete standstill. Weird.

  Ace almost ran into her and had to take evasive maneuvers to miss barreling her over. He jumped over her head crashing into the wall and tumbling up four or five of the steps before his crash landing came to a halt. He shook his head and blinked. He was again looking at his mate’s backside, as she ran faster than anything he’d ever seen, the other way down the hall and busted into a door they had passed a minute ago.

  What the fuck was going on? She obviously knew something they didn’t and wasn’t ready to trust him. He would win her over, as soon as they got her to safety.

  That was the second time he’d seen her use her magic. Something was keeping her scared and trapped here. It had to be why Ace hadn't been able to find her before. Unless she hadn't wanted to be found. She was a powerful witch and didn’t need to keep running away from the weakling cult devotees.

  Unless there were Shadow Warriors around. According to Apollo, the soul stealers weren’t supposed to be in this part of the compound. Was she leading them into a trap?

  No. That couldn’t be it. His mate wouldn’t leave them without any defenses against the enemy. Not when she clearly had the skills to deter them with her witchcraft.

  That must be why the cult was keeping her here, making her work for them. Because she was a skilled witch. Smart move on their part.

  Soon she would be able to help the good guys instead.

  Kurjerkwad jumped down from the next level up, shifting in mid-air, and landing next to Ace. His voice came out low, from the dragon inside. “Where is she?”

  Uh-oh. Ace knew that look. He'd seen it a half dozen times when Kurjerkwad had been Kur-Jara, the Black Dragon and trying to get a soul shard and a mate to rule hell with him. This was the first time since the final battle and the redemption of his soul, that he'd lost that cool façade and something more powerful, darker, from deeper inside, took over.

  This was more than some protective instinct of the brotherhood. Damn it. Ace shifted too and grabbed his brother by the shoulder, feeding off that intense energy. Anger rolled through him, the shadow reached up from within, begging to be used. Yes. He could harness that force, use it to keep his mate safe.

  “She’s hiding.”

  Kurjerkwad shook his head as if that made no sense to him. “From you?”

  That hadn’t even occurred to Ace. It made sense of all her running around. He scented the air, opening his dragon senses that he should have been paying attention to in the first place. He stalked toward the door she’d disappeared into. Mmm. He could smell her arousal, her attraction to him. But fuck it, he also smelled her fear.

  His dragon pushed to the surface wanting to protect her, make her feel safe. He approached the door, listening for any signs that she was in distress, that anyone or anything was harming her.

  Ace called to her. “Come out, my little flame. We need to get you to safety.”

  What he needed was to get her into his bed and under him, screaming his name. Once he'd marked her and claimed her, he'd be able to make her understand that he would never let anything bad happen to her ever again.

  She must have been in agony being made to work for these bastard cultists. Had they threatened her life, her family, her soul? They could take all of it with one shadow warrior. Ace had seen them do it.

  Kurjerkwad placed a hand on the door, his dragon's claws digging into the metal. “She won’t come out of there with us both growling at her. Our dragons aren’t going to help here.”

  The black had bled from Jerkwad's eyes and his cool facade returned. That both shocked the shit out of Ace and made him wonder if his fiery mate wouldn't be better off with someone who could control their darkness so easily. The dragon inside Ace balked at the idea of that. It wanted to wrap her up in its talons and shelter her forever, not hurt her.

  Ace took a few deep breaths, still scenting the half dozen conflicting emotions running through her body. Yes, the arousal and fear, but she had an underlying determination that was sexy as fuck.

  “What the hell do you want me to do? Pretend I’m not a black demon dragon, that I don’t want to throw her over my shoulder and drag her straight to bed? Because I can’t do that.”

  Jerkwad clenching his fists rhythmically. “We don’t even know if she’s ever seen a shifter before. We have to win her trust before... anyone can make any moves on her.”

  Anyone? Like he had designs on Ace's mate? “Fuck your anyone. She is mine.”

  The glare Kurjerkwad gave him back was full on blackness and beast. He had to take a breath before saying anything else. “You've thought the same about every woman you've met recently. She might be lighting up your shard, but she has mine on fire as well.”

  He lifted the cord, pulling the shard from his shirt. It did indeed glow with a swirling red light inside.

  No. It couldn't be. She was his. He wouldn't let anyone else have her. But something buried deep in his psyche told him that it wasn't up to him. Fate chose the right mate for every dragon. That was the promise that Jett made to them when he'd created their shards out of bit of their souls mixed with that of their father, the First Dragon.

  Would fate make him share?

  The Gold twins shared a mate. Could this be a similar situation? Ace didn't like it, but he had to consider that it was their fate. Even if he resigned himself to sharing his mate with his brother, he didn't think she could handle the intensity of sharing that intimate bond with two alpha males, two intense warriors, and most importantly, two soul that darkened by the day.

  She might be the shining light that could save them both.

  Ace didn’t voice that idea to Jerkwad, or the fear he kept locked away that no woman could overcome his darkness, because
an eerie and too familiar screech sounded from somewhere above them.

  “Shadows.” They cursed in unison.

  Without saying another word, they dashed into the room their mate had taken cover in. It turned out to be some sort of toilet facility. Ace expected to see his mate cowering in a corner, and when he didn’t, he looked into the small metal compartments with toilets.

  She wasn’t there either.

  The screeching got closer and they were running out of time.

  “Little flame, where are you?” Ugh, how did he know what she tasted like and didn’t yet know her name. He’d fix that as soon as possible so he could moan her name while she rode him. Him, not Kurjerkwad.

  He'd win her heart, her soul, and her body after they escaped the shadow warrior hunting them.

  “There.” Jerkwad pointed to the ceiling, where her feet dangled out of a hole she’d crawled through. They both jumped at the same time and dragged her down, catching her in their arms. Her legs in his and her shoulders in Kurjerkwad's.

  Just like in the hallway, she disappeared and reappeared standing a meter away.

  She was pale, and the fear rolled off her. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll zap you with my… uh, biochemical flesh-eating weaponized virus.”

  Ace stalked closer to her, needing to touch her again, know that she was safe. “You can eat my flesh all you want later, but we have to get out of here now. There’s a shadow hunting us.”

  Her eyes went as wide and her mouth dropped open. “You released a non-photonic being on me? Why would you do that, you assholes? It will destroy us all.”

  “No, little flame, it’s—”

  Jerkwad slashed his hand through the air. “There isn’t time. Grab her and go. I’ll use the shadow realm to distract them.”

  “Oh, no you don’t.” Ace would not let his brother make that sacrifice. Not when he was sworn to help him redeem his soul. If this woman was truly destined to mate both of them, she was powerful indeed and might be the best thing that could happen to Kurjerkwad. Her light might save them all. “You take her, I’ll use the shadow.”