Link (Keepers Of The Lake Book 5)

by Emilia Hartley

  That would take time and a lot of patience.

  “You mean you’re afraid of hurting me,” she said.

  His features crumpled. Instead of letting him run for the door like he wanted to, she pulled him onto the bed with her. She didn’t try to roll him over or mount him. She was perfectly happy tucked against his back. Being the big spoon was nice. She got to press her cheek to his spine and hear the thump thump of his heart.

  It was beating too fast. Kiera couldn’t yet discern if that was fear or anticipation, so she kept her cheek pressed to his back a while longer. If he feared that he would be like Norman, then she would show him the difference.

  “Charlie doesn’t know half of what I went through. Norman had his sights set on her because she was hard to break, but Norman had broken me at a young age. I spent half my life with him because there was no mate to help me escape.” Kiera’s own heart was slapping her breastbone. She’d never spoken a word of this to anyone.

  Sometimes, she pretended that if she didn’t talk about it the past would vanish. If she turned away from it, then it wouldn’t haunt her the way it did. The hardest part that it wasn’t the things Norman did that haunted her. It was her own actions.

  But she pressed on. This conversation wasn’t really about her. It was to show Link that he wasn’t the kind of monster she feared. Maybe he could be monstrous, but not like this. Not like Norman.

  Little by little, Kiera explained her life among Norman’s clan. She told Link about the first time Norman saw her, about the things he made her do long before he even brought her into his bedroom. In that clan, women belonged to the leader until they found a mate. And Norman kept them all close so that they could never find love outside him.

  The more she spoke, the more Link vibrated. His growls filled the room. He held the hand she laid over his stomach and gripped it tight, like she might fall back into Norman’s hands if he didn’t hold onto her. She smiled against Link’s back.

  “Life there taught me a lot of awful things,” she said in the dark. “I learned to let men walk all over me, but the worst part was when I discovered that I could catch a break when Norman had other interests. There were shifters who had gone under the radar until I sacrificed them to him. Because of me, they had to suffer, too.”

  The room was quiet for a long while. She knew he was judging her. In a few minutes, he would disentangle from her and leave the room without another glance back. That was what she deserved. Her life meant so little after what she did.

  “Norman liked toying with Charlie, but he wasn’t going to claim her until I suggested it. I haven’t told Charlie this yet. I’m grateful that she escaped before Norman laid a hand on her, but I will have to live my entire life knowing what I did.”

  Despite what Kiera thought, Link’s hand on hers tightened.

  “You can’t blame yourself for the things you did while he was hurting you.”

  She could. And she did. They were her own actions, after all.

  Link rolled over so he faced her. She could discern the faint outline of his face in the darkness, but it was the gleam of his beast in his eyes that caught her attention. It was hot and present, as if it was a whole other entity in the room.

  “You can feel shame and regret over those things. I know I have a lot to regret after tonight, but you can’t deny yourself a life just because you messed up.”

  She tried to argue, but Link cut her off.

  “Charlie isn’t with Norman. She’s here with a clan that loves and protects her. I know I haven’t gotten off on the right foot with these people, and I’m not sure if I ever will, but I admire them because I can see just how much they care. This isn’t a clan that exists for the sake of the power structure. It’s a family.”

  She smiled weakly. Link pulled her into his chest. The conversation ended there, his words drifting between them. Kiera didn’t know how to accept them. Sure, Charlie was cared for here, and Kiera had seen an improvement in Charlie’s overall health, but was that really enough for Kiera to throw her guilt out the window?

  The other girls Kiera had sacrificed had lived through the abuse. Yet, Charlie had helped them escape. Charlie’s favor with the gold dragon had helped them all escape. They were all in the same boat, trying to find purchase in a new life.

  Was this the first step forward? Or would Kiera have to say goodbye to this man in the morning? She dreaded the thought. He was more than she ever dreamed of having. Not that he belonged to her. In the dead of night, she could pretend, though.

  12

  Water splashed Kiera’s face, startling her awake. Before she could crack her eyes open, Link was out of bed and on his feet. A crashing sound shook the room. Kiera was wide awake now. Before her, the back wall of the cabin was being assaulted by waves.

  Not waves. The water had shape. It was familiar, a dragon. A claw slashed through the wall and more of it crumbled to the ground. Link lunged for her, snatching her out of the bed before drywall and wood fell onto her. She clung to him as he fled the cabin.

  Outside, Kiera staggered on her own feet. Link rushed to the back of the cabin and she slowly followed. Other doors opened. More dragon shifters spilled out into the early morning light. She didn’t pay them any attention.

  At the back of the cabin, she found Link glowering at the shape of a dragon. She blinked twice. The creature was not made of flesh, but of water. It dropped to all fours, swung its tail wildly, and leapt at Link with an earth-shaking snarl. Kiera cried out, but Link sidestepped the beast.

  “You sneaky piece of shit!” Link’s cry brought more shifters around to the back of the cabin.

  Charlie fumbled up beside Kiera, jaw dropped and eyes shining. Someone else cursed under their breath. It was Charlie’s mate, who’s full attention was on the cabin wall. He shook his head, muttered, and stalked off to his truck.

  Kiera couldn’t believe Alec was walking away. This wasn’t normal. It couldn’t be. Why wasn’t he jumping in to help Link?

  Alistair! An eerie voice made the trees shake. It howled with pain, so deep and dark that Kiera could only begin to image the breadth of it.

  Link didn’t need assistance, though. Embers fell from his lips moments before he unleashed a column of flame. The water-beast erupted into a cloud of steam that drifted into the air. Link stepped through it, still visibly irritated.

  Kiera wanted to rush to him, but it was Charlie who stepped forward.

  “It looks like I owe you an apology.”

  “I knew he couldn’t be dead,” Link grumbled. He worked his jaw like the flames had hurt. “I had him in my hands at one point and he just…melted. He became water and vanished. There was no way that the next version I held was real, either.”

  Charlie opened her mouth and shut it, fidgeting from one foot to the other, before she just nodded and ran to the lake. Kiera caught Charlie calling her friend an asshole, like she was talking directly to him.

  There was some weird stuff going on here. Kiera had walked into a strange mess that no one had properly explained. Maybe if they had, Kiera wouldn’t have come. Then she never would have met Link. She couldn’t be angry with her friend for keeping this secret. Not when it led to Link.

  Buffy ran up and stopped just short of the wrecked cabin. Her explicative was loud and long. “Zane did it again?”

  “Yeah. Your friendly lake monster thinks I’m our father.” Link wiped at his cheek with the back of his hand. He was pacing now. There was a frantic energy about him, a need for a fight, that Kiera couldn’t quench.

  The battle with the water-dragon hadn’t lasted long enough. Anger was going to boil over. Maybe she could call Asher and have him take another crack at Link. But they’d ruined Asher’s pizza party. He couldn’t be all that happy with them.

  There was one other thing she could offer. She knew from her time in her old clan that if a fight didn’t help a shifter, a good fuck was the only other option. But the cabin was ruined. There was nowhere for them to hide, no privacy
to be found. Especially as everyone gathered to discuss what just happened.

  They all apologized to Link. She could still see that there were reservations among them. Cole and Heath were unforgiving. The fear that had Cole in its grasp was understandable. His mate was pregnant and there was a freaking monster in their lake. Heath, on the other hand, had accepted one of Alistair’s children.

  Why couldn’t he give the other a chance?

  Too many people gathered around Link. His eyes were becoming wild. She could see the tension climbing up his spine and tightening his shoulders. If she didn’t get him out of there fast, he was likely to explode.

  How could she pull him away from the group without everyone being afraid for her? Charlie constantly treated her like she would shatter if anyone so much as looked at her wrong. Kiera was starting to see that she wasn’t made of glass. The stuff she was made of was far stronger than that.

  She was a tree that could last centuries under harsh weather. She was a stone that would always stand tall. In life, bad weather would always happen. There was no stopping the flow of things, but Kiera had learned that there would always be another day.

  There was a chance for sunshine, like what they stood under right now.

  She darted forward, snatched Link’s hand, and stole him from the group of chattering dragons. Her daring threw him off guard. He made a surprised sound and ran to catch up. The others didn’t even call out for them. When Kiera glanced back, she caught Jude’s nod of approval.

  Kiera mouthed the word congratulations back at her and Jude’s lips quirked in a small half-smile.

  They ducked around the trees and found a patch of ground on the lake’s edge where no one could see them. In one direction, there was a dilapidated house. It sat on the shore, broken and empty. She recalled Charlie mentioning that Asher had recently moved. Kiera hoped that wasn’t why.

  Kiera ducked, grabbed a stone, and pressed it into Link’s palm. “Teach me how to skip a stone.”

  “What if I don’t know how?” He raised an inquisitive brow.

  Now that they were alone, some of the tension was gone. His shoulders were still too high, nearly tied to his ears.

  “I refuse to believe that you don’t know how to throw a stone.”

  Link shook his head but accepted the stone. He paced around her until he found the right spot, drew his arm back, and let the stone fly. The thing never touched the lake. It sped like a bullet over the surface and crashed somewhere in the distance.

  “That is not how you skip a stone,” she said, convinced.

  Kiera bent and claimed her own stone. The water had smoothed them over time, making them perfectly flat and round. She brought her arm up for the throw, but Link appeared behind her. He lowered her arm and pulled back one hip so that she was perpendicular to the water.

  “You don’t want to chuck it,” he whispered in her ear.

  Shivers shuddered up and down her spine.

  “You want to ride the water.”

  Kiera could think of something else she wanted to ride. She wanted it more than life, a need that built inside her until she thought she would burst with the heat of the sun. It didn’t fade. Link stayed behind her as she threw the stone. Of course, it plunked into the depths because she was so distracted by Link’s hands on her hips.

  “Take that, lake monster.” Link, apparently, still had a grudge.

  Unable to bear it any longer, she leaned back into his body. She found that his cock was all too happy for her intervention. It rose almost immediately and tried to drill a hole into her back. Her pulse fluttered. Memories tried to fight their way into her thoughts, but Link swept his hand over her neck like she had hair to push back. She knew it was just an excuse to touch her more.

  When his lips met her skin, she had to squelch the moan building in her throat.

  “We don’t have to go forward with this…” He groaned. “We don’t have to do this is you aren’t ready.” Kiera found herself in uncharted territory. Not only did she burn with desire, but she’d been given a choice. If she decided now was not the time, Link would stop. He would let her walk away.

  But her core was hot and wet. For the first time ever, she was ready and wanting. She reached back and found the back of Link’s neck.

  “I want you,” she breathed.

  She twisted in his arms and found his eager lips. Link cupped her face and drank deep from her. She had so much to give, so much need in return. It was so easy to slip her panties down her legs and kick them away. She wasn’t wearing pants. There’d been no need after being completely naked in the middle of a road the night before.

  Link lifted her from the ground, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. His cock pressed against her bare skin. She wriggled, trying to get lower, but Link held her in place. His breath was becoming ragged. He tore at his pants with one hand and eventually just snapped the button that had stood in his way.

  Beyond the trees around them was a clan of shifters, but neither seemed to care. They were too lost in one another. It was something she’d wanted the moment he first touched her hand, when he delivered the promise that he would try to protect her.

  She’d been a stranger to him, yet he offered something that no one else ever had. Safety. Compassion. Kiera wanted to fold herself inside this dragon man and make a home for herself. She was sure he would let her if she asked. He would give her the clouds and stars overhead.

  Not that she deserved any of them. This was already far more than she should have had. The tarnished soul she had hidden from everyone would always keep her from holding onto happiness. This wouldn’t last, but she could pretend that it would so long as they stayed hidden.

  Link braced against the tree with one locked arm. His breath was ragged and betrayed his own need. “I want you, but it matters more that you want this. I know this has been hard in the past…”

  Kiera took his face between her hands. “You are unlike anyone who has ever touched me.”

  And that was true. Her beast was not hiding in some dark part of her, hands over its ears to keep from hearing what she was going through. Instead, it was leaping with anticipation. Link held her carefully. He took his time and made sure she did not feel forced in the slightest.

  Once his cock was free and she could feel it against her bare skin, she let slip a small moan. Link carried her toward a tree. He pressed her back to it while holding a finger to his lips. She held back the pleasure trying to escape through her voice. It was all too much, especially when he reached between them and brought his cock up to her entrance.

  She was so moist and ready that he slipped around for a moment. The head rubbed her in all the right places and made her eyes roll back. Maybe Link noticed, because he didn’t enter her immediately. He used his cock to draw lazy circles over the most sensitive part of her. When her lips parted and she was about to cry out, Link pressed his other hand over her mouth.

  Panic tore at her. It was a sharp blade that sliced through her joy. She shoved at his hand.

  He leapt back from her while she slumped to the ground. She gulped down mouthfuls of air like she’d been drowning…or suffocating. Which couldn’t have been further from the truth. Link had only been trying to stop her from making too much noise.

  As quickly as the panic came, once Link knelt before her, it vanished. He took her hand in his and waited for her to speak. She could feel the apology in the way he kept his distance from her. It wasn’t his fault. She didn’t want him to blame himself.

  She tugged his hand, and his head came up. His fear was carved into every line of his face, the thought that he was a monster that would ruin everything seemed to float to the surface. It pained him, weighed on him, pressed him into the grave.

  “We need ground rules, apparently,” she said lightly.

  He hung his head. It touched the top of her bent knee. His warmth washed over her and ignited the flames inside her all over again. They’d been so close. The thrum of need clenching her core ti
ght was still there. With Link this close, it wouldn’t fade until she got what she needed.

  “Can we try this again?” she whispered.

  His expression was dubious. “How about we take this to a hotel? You should have something soft under you, not a tree or some pine needles.”

  Pine needles? She glanced down and found the ground littered with them. She hadn’t even felt them. The moment her panic receded, her attention had gone right back to him. This wasn’t like other times, where she had to focus on a throw pillow or a crack in the floor to save her mind. She was present; she was excited.

  “I don’t need a hotel. Just you.”

  He began to pull away. This was her only chance. Before long, he would leave her life altogether. There was no way of knowing how long she had left with him. Maybe he would disappear tomorrow. Maybe next week. Link was before her right now. This was her chance to feel loved, to be touched by someone who wasn’t Norman. She was ready.

  She grabbed him and yanked him closer, so their breaths mingled. The responding growl betrayed him. He could try to be hesitant all he wanted, but she knew their beasts both wanted this. She appreciated everything he was doing.

  To be fair, she didn’t know all the things that would scare her. This was her first foray into sex for pleasure. She should have known to go slower. She couldn’t blame him for how she rushed this.

  She leaned back on the ground and pulled him over her. He was ever so careful, not putting his weight on her and keeping his hands away from her face. He lowered his head and dragged his tongue over her nipple. The new sensation made her hiss with delight. She held his head in her hands, feeling like she was the one in power.

  Power. In her hands. It was a thought she’d never had. Power was not a thing she ever had, and yet she could make his breath hitch, his spine shudder, and perhaps bring him to climax. With Link, she could speak one word and it would all stop. She could demand more, and he would give.

  The things Link made her feel were unreal. Nothing hurt. It was an experience she was ashamed to admit she’d never had. Link was softer with her. His touch was a caress, a kiss against her skin. She never felt so cared for.