The Bride Hunt Box Set: Books 1-3

by Charlene Hartnady

  Julie cried out. He was sure she was trying to say his name. Her eyes were bright. Her moans like music. Her pussy pulled tighter around him, squeezing the hell out of him.

  Coal gasped, working to keep from coming. He bent his knees slightly and kept thrusting up. He held her in place using one hand. Her channel began to flutter with the start of her release. Her hole opened allowing just the tip of his finger inside her.

  Julie screamed as she clamped down on him. Her eyes were wide. Her breath frozen, then she screamed again. Her eyes rolled, her head fell back against the tiles. Her body was moving, her hips undulating. Her mouth slack, her breasts pressed tightly against him. Her back hole tight around his finger. Coal roared as he erupted.

  “Mine!” he shouted. He couldn’t wait to hold her each night. To take long walks. To find out everything about her. He couldn’t wait to watch her love for him grow. He would never let her down. “I love you.” He kissed her softly, still moving inside her. Much slower.

  “I love you too,” she whispered. “And Coal,” Julie was still moving as well.

  “Yeah?” He kissed the side of her mouth. They were both panting. He squeezed her ass with both his hands.

  “I love you a lot. Not just a little bit.”

  He had to smile. “I know.”

  “And Coal …”

  “Yeah?” He didn’t want to leave her tight confines. Not ever.

  “I liked that thing you just did,” she giggled. “Heaven help me but I liked it.”

  “I’m glad. I’ll do it again.” He pulled out of her so that they could go to the bedroom.

  Her face paled. Julie looked down. She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh god,” she gasped.

  Coal looked down as well. The condom was ripped open. Come dripped down the inside of her thighs.

  “No, no, no,” she sobbed. Julie went under the spray and washed herself. Like washing him away would change things.

  “Julie,” he sounded as confused as he was feeling. They’d had sex often over the last two days, they’d used plenty of condoms, none of them had broken. Coal had never considered the possibility. “I’m so sorry.” He touched her arm. She kept washing herself.

  “I can’t believe this.” She stopped what she was doing and took a deep breath. “I’m not going to panic. We shouldn’t panic.”

  “Julie.” He turned the faucet so that the water stopped.

  His female ignored him, she turned the faucets back on and continued to wash herself.

  “Julie, sweetheart.” He cupped her jaw. “That’s not going to help.”

  Her eyes lifted to him, looking panicked. “It might. I have to try.”

  He waited while she continued to clean, this time she used soap.

  When she was finally done, she turned the faucets off, her shoulders were slumped. Her eyes filled with concern. “I can’t be a mother. I just can’t.”

  Coal led her from the shower and put a thick towel around her. She was shivering. There was a fire in the hearth and they had just had a really hot shower. The shaking was not because she was cold. He wrapped a towel around his waist and picked her up.

  Julie put her arm around his shoulder. A tear slid from between her closed lids. She sniffed. “Please tell me that we can go and get the morning after pill. That we can make this go away.”

  “Would a baby be so bad?” He kept his voice soothing.

  “Yes.” There were more tears and his heart bled. “I would be a terrible mother, Coal. I don’t have a single maternal bone in my body.” Her eyes were wide. Her nose runny. Her eyes continued to leak tears. He could see that she was trying not to freak out. She was trying not to cry.

  He put her down on the bed and held her close.

  “Why are we here? We need to get dressed. Fly me to the nearest pharmacy. Better yet, take me to the hospital. Maybe they can—”

  “None of that would help.”

  “Oh god,” she whimpered. “Please don’t say that.”

  “Shhh.” He rubbed her back.

  “Don’t you dare try and calm me down. I don’t want to be calm. This is no time for calm.” She tried to pull away from him.

  “You are not in heat yet.”

  “You said I was close.”

  He nodded. “There is a chance that you won’t become pregnant.”

  “A chance …” She covered her face with her hands and made a sobbing noise. “There is a chance I am pregnant. Oh no! I swear, if I’m not we’re never having sex again. We can’t take that risk ever again.”

  He tried not to laugh. “We will be having lots of sex, Julie.”

  She shook her head. “No! Forget it! If I’m not knocked up we can’t have sex again. We can fool around but that’s it. No sex!”

  “Julie.” He brushed the hair from her face. “Let’s see what happens. You might be having a panic attack over nothing. Besides, a baby would be—”

  “Don’t say it.” This time when she pulled away he let her. “Don’t talk about how wonderful a baby would be or how precious.”

  “Our child would be those things. He would be a perfect combination of us. He would be—”

  “Exactly, Coal. He would be … or she … would be incredible. A beautiful cherub. I can just picture his or her toothy grin and chubby hands.” Her eyes brightened up and she almost smiled. Then a cloud descended. “I would ruin it all. I—”

  “You would be a good mother, Julie. How can you be so sure that you wouldn’t be? How could you know with such certainty?”

  “My mom was awful. She was horrible …” Julie shivered. “I still loved her. I missed her after the state took me away from her.”

  Coal felt himself frown. Julie had said that she didn’t remember her mother. He didn’t say anything. She was finally opening up to him and he was damned if he was going to interrupt.

  Her beautiful eyes lifted to his. Tears continued to fall. “She was a drug addict. More concerned with her next fix than her child. She would disappear for what felt like days. I was a tiny girl.” She swallowed thickly. “Just a little girl. I would eat whatever I could find, which wasn’t much.” Julie rubbed her face with a hand. “I screamed when they took me away. I reached for her but she didn’t reach back. Why didn’t she reach back?”

  He pulled her into his chest. His eyes pricked. His heart felt heavy.

  “I was her daughter. Her blood ran through my veins. She was a horrible mother. I wouldn’t know the first thing about being a good mother. I’ve never been taught how to be one. I wouldn’t know the first thing.”

  Coal held her while she sobbed. “I don’t know much about these drugs. Only what I have been told. I know that they take away emotion. That they strip away a person’s soul. I know that if your mother was capable of loving you that her heart would’ve burst with the emotion.” He pulled away so that he could look into her tear-soaked eyes.

  “You have so much love to give. You are caring, loving and fierce. I will be so happy to call you my mate and I would be thrilled to have you as the mother of my children. If you never trust anything else I say ever again, believe that. Your mother would’ve reached for you if she hadn’t been so numbed by the substances in her veins. Know that you will never be alone again because I will always reach for you. Just the mere fact that you are so afraid tells me that you will be a great mother.”

  She sniffed. “Do you think so?” Hope filled her eyes.

  Coal nodded. “More than sure.” He knew from the way she had spoken earlier that she did want children. Deep down inside. She was just afraid, and with good reason. Julie was wrong about being a bad mother.

  She might not be pregnant. He felt a pang at the thought. If she was pregnant they had time. He would make sure that she was fully on board and that any doubts she had were dispelled. If she wasn’t pregnant, he would work on patience. Coal was sure that there were children in their future regardless.

  Julie nodded. “Okay. We’ll get through this together.”

  �
��I’m not worried, Julie. We will be fine. Our children will love you and you will love them right back.”

  “I might not be pregnant, so don’t say that.” She gave his arm a slap.

  “I hope you are but if you aren’t we will work on it at some point in the future.”

  “How long do we need to wait?”

  “About a week.”

  “So long?” Her eyes were bright. If he didn’t know better he would say that she looked excited.

  Chapter 19

  One week later …

  “This is crazy.” Julie’s voice shook. “It is the craziest thing I’ve ever … I don’t know if I can do this.” She felt faint. Her heart raced.

  Coal tightened his hold on her hand. “We can do this.” He smiled at her. He was so gorgeous when he smiled. Then again, he was gorgeous when he scowled and gorgeous when he roared. He was gorgeous when … okay, he was gorgeous at all times.

  She looked down at her lacy, white dress. It wasn’t a wedding dress. Not really but it was pretty. “I don’t want to ruin my dress.” She smoothed the material with her free hand, her fingers coming to rest on her stomach. “It might be bad for the baby. I don’t want to scramble my egg.”

  She still couldn’t believe that she was pregnant. She was going to have a baby. Scratch that, she was going to give birth to an egg. An egg! Coal could’ve told her that little detail before he knocked her up. Then again, she smiled, it wouldn’t have mattered. Not one bit. She would have this man’s egg. She would do anything for him because she … anything. Maybe anything was too strong a word. She looked down the sheer cliff and shuffled backwards an inch or two. Some loose stones clattered down the side of the drop. Oh and what a drop it was.

  She turned. There were a couple of people present. Blaze, who smiled. Pauline and Flame who had taken the plunge a few days ago.

  Taken the plunge!

  “Why didn’t you guys tell me that taking the plunge was a literal thing? I don’t know that I would’ve agreed to mating you if I had known.”

  “You would have.”

  Julie made a fake growly noise. Yes, she would have. “I’m crazy.”

  “Crazy in love with me.”

  “Arrogant much?”

  “It’s a simple fact.” He put an arm around her. “I’m nuts about you too. Now, shall we? I really want to make this official. I told you that I would never let you fall. That I would always catch you and I meant it.”

  “I understand that this is a part of your tradition but dragon shifter women can fly so it’s hardly fair.”

  “Trust me. Just close your eyes and take the plunge. Trust me, please, Julie.”

  “Is this the only way?” She did trust him but this was beyond trust. This was throwing herself off a cliff and trusting that he would catch her without ripping her apart with his talons or squeezing her too tightly or knocking her against the cliff. “If I don’t do this then that’s it, we can’t be mated?”

  He cupped both her cheeks. “You can do this.”

  “I love you but this is nuts.”

  “You might enjoy it.”

  “Doubtful, but okay …”

  “Okay?” he smiled. “I wasn’t sure if you could go through with it.”

  “Only because I don’t want my baby to be born out of wedlock. If it was just you and me I wouldn’t do it – just so you know.”

  “You so would.” He kissed her softly. “You’re already a good mother, putting our baby before yourself. An amazing mother.” He kissed her, sweeping his tongue against her lips, then plunging it into her mouth.

  Julie moaned. She was still nervous that he was wrong but she would work hard every day to be the best mother. To prove herself worthy. The last few days had been really hard. She’d suddenly realized that she really wanted to be pregnant. She wanted to be a mom but only because Coal was at her side.

  “Save it for your honeymoon you lovebirds!” Pauline shouted.

  Coal broke the kiss. “Ready?”

  She stared at the gold flecks in his dark eyes, feeling more love than she’d ever hoped to feel and nodded. “Yes. I am.”

  Coal took a step back.

  Julie turned and flung herself from the cliff. There was no fear. No worry. Just love and trust. Coal caught her. Her heart beat like mad in her chest. It was a quick flight back to the lair.

  She clutched her stomach, watching as he shifted back into his human form. A royal dragon grew inside her. At least, the fire dragons held hope that the child would be royal. It didn’t matter to her. Just like it didn’t matter to Coal.

  “I can’t wait to meet him.” Her mate nuzzled her belly, his arms around her.

  “Or her. Our baby might be a girl.”

  “The vampires told us that all of their young born to human females have been males. The two human females who bore dragon young both had males, it stands to reason that our little one will be a boy.”

  “As long as he or she is healthy.”

  “He is a royal, of course he will be healthy.” Sincerity shone in his gaze. “Come, mate, let’s go to bed. I would like to show you how much I love you. Thank you for trusting me.”

  “You’re welcome. Thank you for catching me. Let’s go.”

  “I will always catch you,” he assured her. Julie giggled as he lifted her into his arms.

  Volume Two

  Water Dragon

  Chapter 1

  Ellis made a snorting sound as he blew out a breath. He looked away for a moment, clearly annoyed. Then he turned back to her and his eyes widened, a look of shock took the place of the annoyance.

  The guy was a complete asshole! “You’re acting like this is news to you. How many times have I warned you? You obviously haven’t been listening to me.” Candy put her hands on her hips, keeping her gaze on his.

  “I heard you just fine.” He rolled his eyes. She couldn’t believe that she had actually liked him once upon a time. That she had believed that he had her best interests at heart. Ellis only cared about number one. End of story. She was finally old enough and wise enough to realize it. He frowned. “You don’t mean it. The money is amazing. How can you just walk away?”

  “Easily, and I couldn’t be more serious if I tried. I’ve warned you and warned you. School starts in two weeks. I’ve enrolled.”

  “Candy,” his tone was soft. “Get in the car.” He tapped the soft top of his convertible. “We’ll talk about this later. You’re going to be late for your first—”

  Candy folded her arms and sighed heavily. “I told you that I’m not meeting any new clients. What part of ‘I want out’ don’t you understand?” She spoke softly and clearly ‒ not that it would help.

  Ellis clenched his jaw; when he turned his eyes back on her, they had hardened up. “Don’t do this, Candy. I’m counting on you. You would’ve been in a gutter somewhere if it weren’t for me.”

  Here we go again. Ellis was about to play the guilt card. She’d had enough of him and his bullshit. “I told you plenty of times. I explained things very carefully. When I agreed to our terms it was under the strict condition that it was a short-term thing. I can’t do this anymore.”

  “Why the hell not? Do you know how many women would love to be in your shoes? They would kill. Look at you.” He waved his hand in front of her. “Designer digs … the best tits money can buy … you drive a—”

  “None of it matters.”

  “Come on, Candy,” he sounded exasperated. “You have two clients.” He held up two fingers. “Two, goddammit. One of them can’t get it up and the other would prefer to have you on his arm than on the end of his dick; you get money for jam.”

  “It’s soul destroying. I wasn’t put on this earth to entertain wealthy men … even if they are good guys … I have a greater purpose.” She wasn’t sure exactly what that purpose was but getting a degree would be a good start.

  Ellis laughed. It was a nasty sneer, devoid of any type of humor. “You are a fine piece of ass who can suck dick l
ike—”

  Candy didn’t know what came over her. She hit him across the face. There was a cracking sound as her palm hit his cheek. It felt good.

  Damn him.

  She’d had enough of Ellis and his remarks. He pretended to respect her but the truth was that he said what he had to, to keep her happy. His eyes narrowed, his face flushed with anger. It was times like this when his true colors were revealed and they were selfish and nasty.

  Candy wanted nothing more to do with him or his escort agency. She had enough money saved to survive, frugally, for the next few years. Hopefully it would be enough to see her through medical school. Even if she had to get a job waiting tables or cleaning toilets. She didn’t care what it took. She would stand on her own two feet and make a go at life.

  The slap was hard enough to sting and she fought the urge to rub her hands together. Ellis didn’t move a muscle for a half a second. In that moment, she was tempted to apologize. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from doing it. He deserved it. She wasn’t taking it back even though she knew there would be repercussions.

  “Fuck, Candy! You are a whore. Do you hear me? Nothing more than a fucking whore.” He put his hands around her throat and pushed her up against his car. His grip was tight, but he did it carefully so as not to damage his paint job or to leave marks on her. “If I tell you that you are going to see a new client then you damn well do as I say. You only get to leave the business when I say you can and not a moment sooner. I’ve always been good to you,” his voice softened. “I’ve never hurt you or pumped you full of drugs. I’ve never sampled the goods myself.” His fingers tightened ever so slightly, making it a little hard to breathe. “All that can change, little Candy. I think someone has forgotten her place.”

  One of his hands unfurled from around her neck and closed over one of her breasts. He squeezed her flesh while making a moaning noise. “I’ll pump you full of heroin. I’ll get you so addicted that you’ll be begging to suck any cock I put in front of you for a hit. Is that what you want?” He moved closer to her, his hot breath all over her face.