His True Love
A Dragon Shifter Romance
Khardine Gray
USA Today Bestselling Author
His True Love © 2019 Khardine Gray
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
His True Love
Chapter 1 | Eric
Chapter 2 | Ariyah
Chapter 3 | Ariyah
Chapter 4 | Eric
Chapter 5 | Eric
Chapter 6 | Ariyah
Chapter 7 | Ariyah
Chapter 8 | Eric
Chapter 9 | Ariyah
Chapter 10 | Eric
Chapter 11 | Eric
Chapter 12 | Ariyah
Chapter 13 | Eric
Epilogue | Ariyah
His True Love
That night Eric walked into my life my world forever.
He was just supposed to be a part of the fantasy.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Until, he decided he wanted more from me.
More, that pulled me into a world I never imagined.
A world where secrets and darkness await.
Secrets and darkness so dark I could lose myself.
Then love wouldn’t be enough...
Chapter 1
Eric
***
There she was again.
Always by herself. Always dancing by herself.
Always... looking like she’d just stepped out of a fantasy with her silky skin and golden hair.
The club lights bounced off her, highlighting her on the floor. For me she could have been the only woman in here.
She was certainly the only one that I wanted.
With a body that could get a man in trouble and a face like an angel, the woman had enchanted me. That was saying something for a guy like me.
Normally I was the one doing the enchanting. Hadn’t done it in a while, hadn’t needed to. Didn’t want to. Enchantment wasn’t always a good thing. Definitely not for this.
I didn’t like to enchant. It created fake feelings. A person would literally be under a spell, like a mindless zombie under my control.
Tapping into the real thing was better. So much better.
It was like a drug to me. A drug that only worked with human women. I hadn’t been with a dragon woman in years. Like any other man I loved sex. I just preferred it with human women for the way they were. Soft, delicate creatures of the flesh.
Like this one.
I walked up to the pillar on the second floor of the club. My spot. My spot that gave me a good view of the goddess below on the dance floor.
A good spot where I could see her properly and she could sense me. I knew she could. I could feel it.
I always tried to blend in, even after two hundred years of living in the human realm. Sometimes I forgot where I was, and who I was. Sometimes I thought of myself as one of them, but very quickly I was reminded that I wasn’t one of them.
A human man would not have been able to sense this goddess’ emotions the way I did. A human man would not have been able to emit their own emotions the way I did and direct them straight to this perfect being who teased me with her body.
No, I wasn’t one of them. Not a man.
I may look like one. One who took extremely good care of himself with the muscles and sculptured definition I had to my body, but that was common among all dragon shifters. It was in our genes, written in the code. In the old world our race took on the duty of guarding the passages between realms and certain magical creatures.
Then we were betrayed. So we retreated to Pandir, protecting only what we held dear. I didn’t agree.
There was more to that story that I always pushed out of my head when it threatened to engulf my mind. So much more, but I didn’t want to think about it.
This club, however, kind of kept me in touch with the shadow world. It had creatures of all types mingling together.
Las Noches was brimming with creatures like me. Vampires, werewolves, demons, witches. They were all here. Those from the shadow world as we called it. To the humans we looked like one of them, but we cloaked what we really were.
As the goddess twirled around and that hair swished about her elbows I wondered if she would still come here if she knew the type of beings that mingled around her.
Would she dance like that? Would she dance with that sex appeal? Would she look like she was some exotic dish tempting the hell out of me with that white blonde hair, soft pink dress that made an excellent show of her fully rounded breasts, and accentuated those curves.
I smiled to myself at the same moment she stopped swaying to the sensual club mix.
Glancing over her shoulder oh so quickly she caught sight of me.
Just like last night. And the night before, and the night before that too.
Fucking hell, I’d become a sad case. Usually I took what I wanted whether that was a thing or a woman. This woman however was different. There was something about her that made me do this.
Watching.
Watching this human woman for three weeks. Watching her and wanting her. She felt that too. I made sure she did.
Like all my fellow dragon shifters I had the power to control emotion, using the energy signature that rippled from it. Love, pain, hurt, sadness, grief, and my personal favorite ...attraction.
She turned around and actually looked at me. Curiosity filling her features when our eyes locked. She’d never done that before, yet she knew I was always watching her. She knew what time I’d get here, and that I didn’t leave until after she did.
I wished I could read her mind, then again maybe I didn’t have to. When she started dancing again she could have been dancing just for me.
I leaned against the metal rail of the balcony watching her. Watching her long slender arms caress her head, down her elegant neck, and over those delicious breasts I would have loved to taste.
She smiled and stopped, shook her head then moved away, deeper into the crowd.
Tonight. It had to be tonight. I had to do something tonight. It was crazy just to watch.
I couldn’t resist the lure of attraction. It was in me to want it, in me, in my essence to give in to those deep, dark sexual urges that also made dragon shifters the most fearsome creatures that ever existed.
I went down the steps passing through the sea of bodies clashing together as the music became more vibrant.
All I had to do to find her was follow the pull of attraction. It led me to the far corner of the room where I saw her standing by the bar.
I made my way over, admiring every inch of her body, appreciating the way that dress flirted with her long slender legs.
She’d just ordered a smooth orange juice when I stepped beside her. it was the first time I’d heard her voice. It was a silky as the rest of her.
She turned and saw me then froze looking thrown. I’d noticed a common trait in all humans.
It was okay to be who they wanted to be and exhibit bravado and courage when far away, or out of range of their targets. The minute you got close though was another story. They’d cower, or change up their strategy. From afar she had no problem taunting me, up close it seemed like she didn’t know what to do.
Her eyes, a rich shade of blue like the radiant sky in Pandir beamed up at me with keen interest. Those eyes framed with thick, long, black lashes cast a shadow over her high exotic cheekbones.
Up close the title goddess seemed too meager a word to describe her ethereal beauty, but I’d stick with the name because it suited her personality.
Breaking the stare, she looked back to the bartender, then returned her gaze to me when I stepped a little closer. I gave her a dangerous smile, one I knew weakened her and straightened up, towering over her with my height. I was six feet six, short in comparison to most dragon shifters. In her heels, her head just reached the top of my chest.
The bartender came back with her drink and tipped his head for a curt nod when he saw me.
“It’s funny I would have figured you more as a margarita sort of girl, or at the very least a mojito.” I thought I should be the one to talk first. “Something classy and a little sexier than orange juice.”
She pressed her full red lips together, trying to bite back a smile. “Really? I’m amazed you gave much thought to me at all.” She quirked a sassy brow.
“Why would it amaze you?” I asked leaning in closer.
“It’s just a matter of speech.” She tilted her head slightly and her gaze drifted down my abs, then climbed back up to meet my eyes. “Orange juice is good if you don’t want to get drunk.”
“A wise choice for a woman who comes to a club by herself.”
She took a sip of the drink and smirked. “How do you know I’m by myself? I could be here with my boyfriend.”
“But you aren’t, Goddess. You always come by yourself. You always dance by yourself except for when I get here...Then you’re dancing with me. I just thought it was time to introduce myself.”
She stared at me, just as I expected. Not knowing how to handle my blatant forwardness. People seldom did when dealing with me. Business or otherwise. It worked well for business because I came across as rude when I needed to be. On a personal level, it came across as overbearing, predominant even. It was my exact intention.
“Are... you always like this?” She swallowed hard, trying to regain her composure.
“Yes. What’s your name Goddess?” I deepened my stare and loved the soft shade of rose that filled her cheeks.
“Ariyah,” she replied.
I liked that name. It reminded me of the old world, the old mythical fantasy world where magic was everywhere. Not hidden, nor cloaked like we should be ashamed to use it.
“Ariyah. Pretty name.”
“Thank you. So are you going to tell me your name, or do I have to guess?”
“Hmm, I like that. Guessing would be fun wouldn’t it?”
She laughed a soft laughed that reminded me of happy times. It was an odd feeling, but one I relished in.
“I told you my name.”
“You also gave me the option of allowing you to guess mine.” I turned my smile up a notch.
“Okay, here goes.” She tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.
I looked her over, ready for her to guess. She’d guess it, not on the first few go’s but I’d guide her to the right answer. I wanted her to guess it.
“Peter.” She smiled.
I shook my head, and held her gaze allowing her in. In the soft club lights her cheeks grew rosier and she pursed her lips.
“Ethan.”
I smiled, it was working. “No, but close.”
“Starts with an E.”
Yes, she was getting closer. “It does indeed.”
She looked over my face like she was trying to figure something out, and searched my eyes. “Eric.”
I chuckled and leaned in closer, right up to her ear. “Bingo.”
“Eric,” she whispered.
Eric was my name. Eric, son of King Agrippa. The king of Pandir and one of the four guardians of the Shadow Realm. Either myself or my twin brother was next in line to the throne, even though my sister was more suited to it. It was law that the males took over the throne and ruled the kingdom. When I was younger I used to dream of it, then I wanted no part of it. Not after what my father and brother did. Their actions drove us all apart. Drove me away from a land I loved to live in to the human realm where no one knew me. That was the way I wanted to keep it. Creatures from the shadow world could sense that I was a dragon shifter, a dragon shifter would sense that I was just like them, but no one would know I was of royal blood. One of the lost princes from Pandir.
Now I was just Eric Baverok, attorney at law and partner of my own firm. Eric, who was standing in front of a goddess he wanted to indulge on.
I stayed there, looming inches before her, savoring the swirl of emotion that coursed through her. Some people confused dragon essence with the power to read minds. We couldn’t do that, it was the power of intuition. Insight.
“Dance with me goddess.” I put my hand out to take hers.
She looked hesitant at first but took my hand.
She took my hand and the minute she touched me, I wanted her to be mine.
Chapter 2
Ariyah
Wow.
The sheer magnetism of this man was mind blowing. I’d never met anyone like him before and God, I never thought I’d meet him.
Eric. His name suited him. I’d always thought that name was very sexy and alluring, so yes the name definitely suited him because tonight he owned both sexy and alluring in every sense.
His dark blonde hair in that sharp faux hawk accentuated the angles and planes of his chiseled features. The black button down shirt he wore clung to his abs and those muscles on his biceps I’d been admiring for weeks. His black slacks hung low on his hips and gave his long athletic legs definition, and power.
It was over crowded here on that first night I’d seen him, but I definitely noticed him. He was the sort of guy you could pick out in a crowd.
If not for his stalwart, mythical godlike appearance, then it was the overbearing masculinity of him that exuded testosterone in abundance.
And those eyes. Hard as I tried not to stare too much, I failed. They were green. I was sure they were a light green, but then I was also sure they changed to an amber color for a split second then it was gone. Crazy, it was clear the man had me under his spell. Just like all the women here who watched him, and were watching him now as he danced with me.
He was right. I danced by myself but when he was here I was dancing like I was dancing with him. In my head I was. He was a part of the fantasy I made up in my head to deal with my recent debacle. In my head, he was the godlike man who was only looking at me amongst the crowd of beauties that filled the club.
It helped that he really was looking at me. Now he actually was dancing with me.
It was like the fantasy just jumped out of my head and came to life because in my imagination, he danced with me just like this. With our bodies pressed together, swaying in complete sync to the music like we were made to do this. Made to dance just like this. Made for each other. The electricity that surged through us was hypnotic and mesmerizing.
Amazing and astounding because dancing with him was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. And... there was that pull of whatever it was that drew me to him in the first place. That pull of attraction...
Could I call it that?
I didn’t know. I was certain I felt attraction before but not like this. This felt like something else.
The music changed and he flipped me around so that my back was to his chest and he dipped his head low to my ear again in that sexy way he did before.
“Stop thinking so much. Your thoughts are deafening,” he whispered.
I liked his voice. It was deep and smooth, but husky at the same
time.
“I’m not thinking.” I smiled lifting my head. The movement brushed my cheek against the bridge of his nose.
“Sounds like you’re thinking to me, Goddess.”
Goddess. I liked that, liked it a little too much, maybe because I wasn’t used to it, or even used to the idea that a man like him could call me that.
He smoothed his hand over the flat of my waist sending off a nest of butterflies in the pit of my stomach.
“I’ll try not to,” I promised.
When the beat of the music grew louder we started moving again. Unbelievably, sexier than before. His hips with mine, his hands on me the whole time.
No, this wasn’t just attraction. This couldn’t be just dancing either. It really was something else.
Something powerful enough to cleanse my mind of not only the last few horrible years of my life, but my horrible life in general.
Me. Ariyah Halliwell, the girl who had no family at all. My story was this...
My mother handed me over to the state when I was two. I didn’t even have a memory of what her face looked like. I remembered platinum blonde hair like mine and tears, no face though. No eyes, nose, mouth. Just sounds and pain. From there I was passed around from one foster family to the next. No one wanted to keep me. It was always temporary.
Always temporary and they made sure I knew it. It was the same with boyfriends and relationships. Temporary. Until I met Stephan Robertson, linebacker for the LA Centaurs.
When I met him I thought this was it. I thought even though I knew deep down I didn’t love him, and I knew he didn’t love me. Like most men he loved the way I looked. Not me though. That’s what I told myself and it helped that he continuously proved me wrong.
He did that successfully for a good two years, and to the point where I really thought we’d last. Besides a girl like me, with no foundation had limited choices. Very limited choices and I wasn’t about using my looks to get by in life, like one of my foster families suggested when they wanted to pimp me out to their boss who again liked the look of me. I was sixteen at the time.
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