The Bride Hunt Box Set: Books 1-3

by Charlene Hartnady

  Ellis wasn’t a bad looking guy. He was tall and built, covered in tattoos. The guy could pretty much crook his finger and women would come running. Candy had never been attracted to him. In recent months she’d gone from thinking of him as her boss, someone who had helped her when she really needed it, to hating his guts.

  “So tell me. Do you want to be a crack whore, Candy?” He squeezed her breast, harder this time.

  “No,” she managed to push out. It was barely a whisper.

  “I don’t want that either.” He released her. “You would have to service at least ten guys a day and you still wouldn’t make half of what you do now. In short …” He fixed the lapels on her jacket and straightened her pearl necklace. “You are worth way more to me now. One more client. That brings the total up to three. One or two dates each a week. Your new client is much younger, he’s a prominent figure.”

  He said it like it would change her mind. She was done in this business. It wasn’t something she’d ever been comfortable with. Candy hadn’t had an actual boyfriend or been on a real date since working at Kitty’s. She wanted her life back. She wanted to be able to look at herself in the mirror again.

  In this moment though, she wasn’t sure what to do. She was shaking like a leaf. Her heels felt wobbly against the asphalt. What the hell was she going to do? How was she going to get out of this? She was fooling herself by thinking that Ellis would ever let her go.

  When she didn’t say anything, her asshole boss obviously took it as consent because he smiled and cupped her cheek. It took everything in her to keep from pulling away. That hard look was still there. His shoulders were tense. Self preservation kicked in and she didn’t move a muscle. “That’s my girl.” He narrowed his eyes, looking at her lips. He’d never looked at her sexually before. His rules were not to sample the merchandise. He had a lot of such sayings. She should have known that he was a ginormous douchebag by the way he insisted on talking about women like they were retail stock.

  He pulled away from her, staying within her personal space. “His identity must remain strictly confidential. It’s important that you know that he’s insisted on an exclusive fuck. He insisted on you, Candy.”

  Candy felt herself flinch at his crass words. She had to be just about the most timid call girl in the business.

  “As far as the senator is concerned, you are going to be servicing him and him alone. He knows you date those two old farts, but he must never know that Charles actually gets it up on the odd occasion.”

  “The senator as in, William Lawson?” Her voice was a little high-pitched.

  “One and the same.” There was a glint in Ellis’ eyes. “He asked for you by name. My best, and I’m giving it to him.”

  It. Like she was some kind of commodity.

  Ellis cocked his head. “He’s willing to pay double your going rate, which equates to a small fucking fortune.”

  “No damned way!” The words were out before she could stop them. “Senator Lawson is married.”

  “Unhappily.”

  “I don’t care,” she blurted. “You know my terms. I won’t date …” she forced the word out. They both knew that this wouldn’t just be a freaking date. Confidentiality. This wasn’t about being arm candy for an elderly gentleman. The senator was in his late forties, young compared to Charles and Harold. What he wanted would take place strictly behind closed doors. It turned her stomach and had bile rising in her throat.

  “You are going to meet with the senator. I’m getting sick of repeating myself. Get in the car and quit mouthing off. If we don’t leave right fucking now we’re going to be late.”

  His face had turned red again and his hands were clenched at his sides.

  “He’s married,” she mumbled.

  “You sound like a goddamned stuck fucking record. Quit your whining and get in the car.”

  Candy grit her teeth to keep herself from calling him a couple of choice names that might help her feel better but wouldn’t get her out of this situation. She needed to buy herself some time so she could think. “I’ll get in on one condition.” Ellis still needed her. There was an edge of desperation in his actions and tone.

  He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “What?” he spat.

  “I’m not having sex with him today. I’ll meet with him and talk to—”

  Ellis cut her off with a laugh. He turned his eyes to the sky and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The senator doesn’t want to meet with you to discuss the weather or politics.” He laughed at his own stupid joke. “He wants a set of perfect tits and an ass that just won’t fucking quit. He wants to fuck, Candy.” He just stood there looking at her, blinking his eyes like a moron. “If a fuck is what the good senator wants, then a fuck is what he will get.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t sign up for this. This wasn’t a part of our agreem—” She didn’t get to finish her sentence because Ellis backhanded her. It was hard enough to make her stagger. Hard enough that she could taste the metallic tang of blood in her mouth but not so hard as to leave a mark or a bruise. Her lipstick would still be perfect. She didn’t even have to check. Ellis was a pro at roughing up a woman without leaving a mark.

  “You listen and you listen good. I’m sick of your whining. My girlfriend puts out more than you do. You’re taking this gig with the senator and you will keep seeing your granddaddy dates. More importantly, you’re going to pretend to love every second.”

  “All I’m asking is to be given an opportunity to meet with him first.”

  “What for? You’re a hooker. You might get paid more than most but that’s what you are. A cheap, fucking whore. It’s about time you realized that.”

  Not by choice. She screamed it inside her head.

  Ellis pointed at her, his finger only inches from her face. “You are getting in this car and putting out. Whatever Senator Lawson wants, he gets. I don’t care if you have to suck dick or take it up the ass. I will stand outside that fucking hotel room door and I want to hear him having the time of his life. When you walk out of there, so fucking help me, he had better be a satisfied man or …”

  There was a gust of air and his eyes widened. One minute Ellis was standing in front of her and the next he was gone. No, not gone. He was sprawled on the ground about ten feet away. How did that happen? What the hell … His arm was at a strange angle and he wasn’t moving. Not even an inch.

  The hairs on her whole body stood on end and everything in her told her to look up. Yet, at the same time, that same voice screamed for her not to look but rather to run instead. Icy tendrils of fear crept up and down her spine. Oh god! Her eyes slowly lifted.

  What the hell!

  It was large and scaly with golden eyes. Its wings spanned at least twenty feet.

  A dragon? No fucking way! Had Ellis knocked her unconscious? That had to be it. This was a dream.

  It was a nightmare! The thing swooped down, grabbing her in its giant talons. It wrapped those huge claws around her in a vice-like grip and rocketed to the sky so quickly that the air was pulled from her lungs, taking her blood curdling scream along with it. It sure as hell felt real. The wind in her face, the scales against her skin, the adrenaline in her veins. Lord help her. She had just been taken by a dragon. The scream finally made it from her lungs and once she started, she struggled to stop.

  Chapter 2

  The next day …

  Water filled her throat and nostrils. She was going to drown. If she wasn’t so busy fighting for her next breath, she would have laughed at the irony. Less than twenty-four hours ago she didn’t think that things could get worse. Yesterday she had two choices, agree to a third escort ‒ a prominent senator who wanted to screw her brains out ‒ or become a crack whore. Neither decision had seemed appealing at the time. Go figure!

  At least she’d had a choice in the matter though. Right now her only option was to run.

  Run.

  Run.

  Run.

  Make that … drown
. Her only consolation was that she was moving fast downstream. The current that threatened to take her life, was also saving it. Another hilarious irony. The relentless current was taking her farther and farther away from the dragon shifters. Those huge SOBs who were intent on raping her.

  Candy managed to break to the surface, she gulped in air. She had given up trying to swim to the edge. It was no use, the current was just too strong. She felt like a leaf in a shit-storm.

  Her dress was thin, it didn’t weigh her down, but it was up around her arms and her hair was in her face. She was too busy trying to gulp down her next breath to care.

  Those monsters who were after them had to have been almost seven feet tall. Their chests were bare and roped with layer upon layer of muscles. She prayed that the other four women were okay. All of them had been abducted by dragons for a barbaric pastime. Fun for the dragon men. Terrifying for the women.

  The hunt.

  Panic welled up in her and she kicked harder even though there was a small part of her that told her it might be better to give up. To stop trying to survive. To let the river take her. It would be better than what those assholes would do if they got their hands on her.

  “No!” she sobbed as she broke to the surface, quickly sucking in a ragged breath. Water churned around her. Candy was so cold she could barely feel her limbs. She was a fighter, a survivor. There was no way she was giving up now.

  No way in hell.

  Despite the freezing cold and her quivering muscles, she continued to kick. Continued to fight for that next breath and then the next. Whether she had been in the water for minutes, for an hour, or more, was hard to tell.

  Candy slammed into something with her shoulder. Pain blossomed, shooting down her arm. The current pulled at her legs, pulling her under even though the solid object was in front of her.

  It must have been on instinct that her arms wrapped around whatever the big solid thing was. By some miracle she managed to pull herself up so that her head came out of the water. Candy filled her lungs, then coughed and spluttered for about a half a minute before she was able to get enough oxygen into her air-starved body that she could think clearly.

  Had to get out.

  Had. To.

  She was going to die otherwise.

  It was a massive tree that must have fallen into the water. Half of its bulk lay in the water and the other half straddled the shore. Candy had her arms wrapped around the trunk. There was no way she could pull herself out like this. She was afraid to let go with the bottom hand because the river might pull her under if she did. She couldn’t stay in the water like this indefinitely though. The warmth inside her was slowly being sapped from her body. Her teeth were clattering so hard that she thought they might crack at any moment. She was panting hard.

  Gripping as tightly as she could with the hand on the top of the trunk, she released the hand on the bottom. For a second she thought she was a goner. The currents were terrifyingly powerful. The river was strong and deep. If it took her again she probably wouldn’t survive. If she didn’t get out soon though … Candy slapped her other hand on top of the trunk. Using all of her waning strength, she pulled with all her might. It felt like she weighed a freaking ton. Like her legs had been carved from lead.

  She somehow managed to get a knee onto the trunk. For a moment it felt like she was going to be sucked back. Her arms shook. Her whole damned body shook. With a mighty pull, she got her belly onto the rough tree trunk. Candy cried out as she pulled herself further out of the water. Unfortunately, that’s where her energy reserves dried up. Then again, she could count herself lucky. She was out of the water. Mostly out of the water. Her feet still dangled in the cold on either side.

  Then she blacked out.

  The sound of her own moaning brought her back to her senses. Her legs hurt. Everything hurt. She needed to get out of the water and needed to get dry. If only she could get her body to work.

  She moaned again, this time in frustration. Shit! Hands closed on her waist and pulled her up. It was one of them. She tried to scream but a whimper escaped. She was in worse shape than she had thought. Her legs felt like useless pieces of dangling meat. How long had she been in that water?

  The huge shifter pulled her against his body.

  You’ll be torn to pieces. The words of the woman dragon shifter returned to her. These guys planned on using them in the worst of ways. She might have been a high-priced call girl, one with a list of terms as long as one arm, but she wasn’t ever going to allow herself to be degraded in that way. Candy began to squirm, she tried to get away from the big son-of-a-bitch even though she knew that it would probably mean falling back into the river to certain death.

  Such small frail beings. Our males will hunt you and fight for you. The successors will get to keep you. To rut with you. The tall, dragon shifter woman with the red hair had been clear about what their fates would be. She seemed to enjoy telling them in detail what was waiting for them if they were captured by the much stronger shifters. You are to be mated and impregnated. I doubt you will survive the mating let alone the pregnancy.

  Her lip quivered, this time more from fear than cold. Candy struggled harder. Her legs prickled with pins and needles as the blood flow returned to her limbs. Had to escape. She had to get away.

  Run.

  Run.

  Run.

  “Stay still,” the monster growled, tightening his grip on her.

  His voice was rough and commanding. He said it with such an air of authority. Like he expected her to just give up. Bastard! Candy squirmed harder.

  “Stop that or I will throw you back.” There was something in his tone that told her that he meant it.

  Yes! No! She would die if he threw her back in and she didn’t want to die. She was too young. Candy sighed. All of the tension left her battered, exhausted body and she slumped against him. “Don’t hurt me,” a mere whisper. She hated begging but what choice did she have?

  A soft gasp of shock escaped as he deposited her on the bank. For a moment it looked like he was going to leave her there. Candy couldn’t believe her luck. Maybe she was going to survive this after all.

  The dark-eyed monster with the gruff voice leaned in next to her and swept the hair from her face. Shit! He wasn’t leaving. She moaned, terrified and sickened just thinking about what was going to happen to her next.

  His eyes moved to hers as the ground vibrated with heavy footfalls. They weren’t alone. Oh god! There were more of them. Maybe she would get lucky and they would kill each other. She forced her gaze away from the terrifying man at her side and her heart stuttered in her chest.

  The beast that approached was bigger than the dark one. Way meaner looking. He moved quicker than she thought possible. His eyes were a pale blue, the color of a glacier on a winter’s day and just as hard and cold. His features were set in a hard grimace. A shiver ran up her spine.

  He didn’t even glance in their direction. Those hard orbs were fixed on the path ahead. He frowned, there was a look of determination etched onto his features. His ridiculously large hands were in fists at his sides. His arms were like massive tree trunks. They were corded and knotted with muscle. Her mouth fell open with the sheer shock of seeing a specimen like him. Thank god he didn’t seem interested.

  Wait a minute!

  That didn’t bode well for her. She needed them to hurt each other. To focus on one another and forget about her. Feeling was slowly coming back to her limbs. If given a few precious minutes, she might be able to crawl out of harm’s way. Her energy reserves were almost on empty, but she needed to try.

  Another soft roar sounded from somewhere behind the pale-eyed monster. Oh hell! There were more of them coming. Though the sound was coming from a distance, it was still unmistakable. There were a lot more of them out there. Her body shook with fatigue. Her teeth clattered. She ached all over. Candy was foolish to think that she could escape. She was fucked. Well and truly fucked.

  Torrent wante
d the dark-haired beauty. It had nothing to do with her coloring. Such things were of little importance to him. He wanted a strong female. One capable of carrying his heir. He was the water king after all. A royal. The strongest of his kind. Nothing less than the best would do.

  It needed to be that one. The dark-haired one. A voluptuous female with a bit of meat on her bones. She was one such female. Even though they wore shapeless dresses, as was customary during the hunt, he could tell that she was the strongest of the humans.

  Not that humans could be termed strong. They were small and fragile. He knew that this would change once they were mated. They would draw strength from their much stronger mate. They would grow even stronger as their bellies swelled with child.

  An heir.

  Adrenaline rushed through him and he had to suppress a growl. He could not wait to fully claim his future mate. The dark-haired one. The sturdy one. It was important to have a good foundation. The other two remaining humans were scrawny, little things. Especially the one with hair like the sun. Her arms were mere sticks. She lay sprawled on the ground like a drowned rat. He was shocked to see the fire prince tend to her. Torrent was convinced that they had been after the same female. He had seen how the male’s eyes had locked with the dark-haired one. He hadn’t looked in the least bit interested in this one until now.

  Maybe the male had changed his mind. The sun-haired one did have an enticing scent. Maybe that was what had drawn Coal to her. It was fruity and exotic. She moaned, reminding him of her weakness. Coal pushed her hair from her face. The male was going to claim her now if he hadn’t done so already.

  Torrent suppressed a smile. He chose to focus on his prize instead. One second, he was on his way to claim the female and the next, he was biting the dirt … hard. It was an error in judgement that could end up costing him dearly. A lesser warrior roared in the distance. The female moaned again.