by Maia Star
Quickly shifting again and swearing at the fact I had to indulge the officers, I moved to block a charge by Hunter. He slammed into my stomach, sending me flying over the trio and into a green park. Instead of going after the policemen, Hunter turned around and looked for Lily, sniffing for her and then taking off down the road.
Oh, that’s it.
Pulling myself up from the grass, I took flight quickly and soared to meet Hunter down at the other end. There was a new blockade put up by the police at the other end, and I could see Lily frantically speaking with one of the cops in the distance. When they noticed the giant wolf was rushing them, they all went into survival mode, throwing up their guns and firing, but also trying to move out of the way.
I managed to get right above Hunter as he was about to barrel through the police cars. Lowering myself, I grabbed the wolf by the shoulders and used his momentum to lift him into the air, soaring above the blockade.
Hunter thrashed in my hold, howling and trying to nip at my toes as I carried him up and away.
He is completely feral now, isn’t he? I don’t think he’ll ever go back to being human.
Looking for the best place to put this wild beast, I glanced towards the strait. I darted out over the water as far as I deemed necessary. Finally, I dropped him in the water. He roared at me the whole way down, but the resounding crash and splash of water were awesome. Hunter disappeared beneath the waves, and I could only hope he never learned how to swim in either form.
I circled overhead for a few minutes, just in case, and then soared back to the closest pier. I perched myself at the edge, shifting back to my human form to rest my inner dragon. Breathing hard, I watched the water, waiting for any sign that he would breach it.
Not wanting to make the same mistake before, as soon as I thought I was rested enough, I shifted into my dragon and waited. The waters were calm for the most part, so I could see pretty far and pretty deep. I didn’t notice any large shadows moving towards the pier.
Shaking off the water, I angled myself to flap my wings and fly high to circle above the water again.
That’s when Hunter darted out, his jaws wide, and clamped down on my tail. He pulled me back and dragged me under the water.
I roared and tried to swipe my claws at him, but I moved much too slow to hit him or even do any real damage. Hunter seemed to cackle at me, swimming rapidly around me.
So he can swim. Damnit.
I’d heard shifters could easily spend at least ten to fifteen minutes under the water without needing to come up for air. I guessed Hunter was one of those guys, and I was extremely unlucky.
As if I was going to let that stop me.
Hunter bit down on my side and forced me further down. I built up a torrent of flames in my lungs as best I could and shot it out into the water, heating it like crazy. The heat got to Hunter because he pulled away, shaking his head and frantically pulling away.
It looked like he was aiming for the surface, so I quickly righted myself and swam after him, managing to catch him just in time, right before he would have gotten a second lifeline of oxygen. He scrambled, trying desperately to kick me away, but I held firm, my claws wrapped tight around his two legs. I pulled him further down, causing him to roar almost silently into the water.
This time, I knew he wasn’t just trying to pull a fast one on me. Any second now, Hunter would drown. It’s what he got.
After a few minutes of struggling, and my air supply about to go out, Hunter went still, his mouth hanging open. I let go and watched as his body shifted back to his naked human form. He floated up top, and when I breached to suck in fresh air, he didn’t move to fight me again.
Hunter was dead this time.
Scooping his body up in one of my claws, I swam towards the nearest pier and climbed up, laying him down on the concrete. I shifted, sitting on the edge of the pier, taking a breather. Lily’s gasps behind me told me she had found her way over, and I turned around to see her stare down at Hunter.
She gazed at me, tears welling in her eyes. “Is...is he…?”
“He’s dead, Lily.”
She nodded, sniffling, and then I was on my feet, wrapping my arms around her before her knees gave out. Exhaustion be damned, Lily needed my strength again. “He fought hard, real hard.”
“Two policemen died at his hands,” Lily said. She turned around in my arms to hug me and press her face to my chest. “This is all too much, Felix. But it’s over, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is, though it may not feel like it.”
“It certainly doesn’t just yet.”
We stood there, holding each other. I should have been proud of defeating Hunter. And while I was, I still felt Lily’s sadness.
Thought what mattered was that she was safe and in my arms. No big bad wolf would ever threaten her again, not on my watch.
Police officers managed to follow Lily over to us, and when they saw Hunter’s body, they began to make calls. One finally placed a blanket over our shoulders and led us away.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lily
Felix and I were led away from the pier. It almost didn’t feel real as we walked away, an officer on either side of us and more rushing to the scene.
As we walked out into the street, one officer broke off with Felix. “I’ll be right back, okay? I need to speak to the lead officer about what happened. You gonna be okay for the time being?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m stronger than I look, you know.”
He smiled that incredibly charming smile of his, and then I was escorted to the back of an ambulance that had just pulled out. With the back doors wide open, I sat on the edge, my butt warming the cold metal and a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. The officer asked me a few questions and then left me to tug the blanket tighter around my body.
It was the middle of the night, yet it felt like dawn with how lit up this street was. Late-night joggers and pedestrians trudged along at the outskirts of the perimeter the police were currently throwing up, and a few others directed traffic at either end.
I sighed heavily, letting all of my worry and frustration seep away. I’m pretty sure this whole month would go down as the craziest in my personal history. I’d never experienced anything like it before. All the fear of an ex-boyfriend, the desire to meet a dragon shifter, the fact I was literally kicked out of my past life. For a brief second, I wondered what Adam was doing. Was he already seeing another woman?
Shaking my head, I pushed him out of my thoughts. There wasn’t any room for Adam in my mind or heart anymore. He made it abundantly clear that his image was much more important than me.
Actually, the whole thought made me cackle. I laughed uncontrollably, catching the attention of a few strangers walking down the sidewalk. They threw me weird glances, and I stifled my voice, my cheeks going red.
I glanced back at the pier Felix and I had just been standing on, where officers walked back and forth, closing it off on all sides with that classic yellow tape. Hunter’s body, was over there. I had no idea how the police would see it...but it seemed like Felix was working with the officers from the beginning, so hopefully, they wouldn’t press any charges.
Not that Felix wouldn’t be able to handle it. He was rich, after all, a fact I kept forgetting.
There were so many sides to my lover, so many ways to think about him. He was a charming prince. The rich, publishing billionaire. He was a beast that could breathe fire and fly through the sky without the help of an airplane. Most of all, he was mine. There was no good way to describe how just knowing Felix was there for me felt. It was like all my problems were obliterated. Felix genuinely cared about me, and that was an amazing feeling, the kind to set my heart aflame.
I watched him in the distance speaking with a chubbier officer while others brought him some spare clothes to throw on. A few of the female officers couldn’t stop staring at him while he was still naked, with one in particular who couldn’t rip her eyes away from between his legs.
&n
bsp; Jealousy naturally sprung up inside of me, but ultimately, I just ended up smiling when Felix turned to wink at me.
Soon enough, Felix broke away from the cops and waltzed over to me, now with a white shirt and pair of shorts on. “Well, that went great!” he said when he cuddled up next to me. “Hey, let me in on this blanket action, will you?”
Giggling, I draped the blanket over his far shoulder, though it didn’t cover as much of him. Not that it mattered to him, as he just went on talking. “So, in short, and according to the lead officer, I was still complicit in some destruction of these warehouses, and the trampling of plants, and some damage to the road.” I raised a brow at him. “Basically, I’ve got some fines to pay, but that won’t be a problem.”
“Of course it wouldn’t. But don’t forget you need to fix up your home and my apartment too.”
He waved away the idea. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I’ll get to those eventually. So just relax for right now, yeah?”
I couldn’t help but rest my head on his shoulder once he said that. I needed to feel his touch again, to hold him, and to lean on him. I pressed my hand into his, and he instantly accepted it. It made me smile.
There was silence for a minute as we listened to the sounds of the night. The sirens wailed, voices cut through the air everywhere, and if I listened close enough, I could hear the quiet lapping of the waves in the distance. Felix shifted in his seat so he could look at me more directly. “Are you seriously okay? Because if you’re not, there’s no shame in saying you aren’t. Either physically or mentally.”
I scoffed. “I’m fine physically. Mentally...I’m just tired. I want to go home and jump in bed and fall asleep for days.”
Felix leaned down and brushed the hair from my forehead, and then planted a hot kiss there. “I’d be down. We could just cuddle up, rest in each other’s arms...explore each other’s bodies when we felt like it.” He grinned maniacally. “You know, make it like a vacation.”
I matched the grin on his face and then stared off into the distance. “So, does that mean we really are officially together?”
He raised a brow. “We weren’t already? Huh. Well, then let’s make it more official.” He grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him. “Lily, I’m claiming you as my mate here and now. Everything you are, I want. I would say that you’d bear my children, but that’s already happening.” I smiled at that. “I’ll never forsake you, and I’ll never want anyone else other than you.”
“Wow, that was awesome!” I said. He laughed and leaned down to press his lips against mine. His mouth sizzled, and I felt so very alive. When we broke away, I licked my lips, not wanting to forget what he tasted like. “So, I guess there’s no need to have my apartment then, huh?”
“Not in the least, no. You’ll come live with me.”
“That place is pretty small, though,” I said. “I mean, for our kids, we’ll need to upgrade, you know? Even with one, I don’t see having that small of a house working very well.”
Felix looked like he was about to puke. “Ah, well...yeah, we’ll cross that bridge when it comes.”
“And we also need to decide how many kids we want to have.”
“I’ll add it to the we’ll-discuss-that-later-list I’ve got going.”
I wanted to pout. “And what about the Hybrids Baby Hearts contract? I’m still technically their employee, and I don’t want to lie to them about not being in a relationship with you.”
Felix thought for a moment. “Well, we’ll tell them the truth. Who cares, anyway? I bet they get a lot of cases like ours, but they don’t say it when they promote their service, you know?”
Nodding, I thought back to the moment I bumped into Felix at the Fiery Hearts Inc building. Like Felix had said, it felt like fate in hindsight, yet I still couldn’t shake the idea of how my life would have turned out if I hadn’t been matched with Felix. Would we have still gone out for dinner back then? Would I have become romantically involved with the other guy I met? There were so many different ways this could have turned out, yet it got us both to the best possible path.
“What are you thinking about?” Felix said in my ear.
“Just about how we met and how our future looks pretty bright.”
“Yeah? I swear, I couldn’t take my eyes off you when we first met. It was like you were some fallen angel, getting into a fight with a demon when I came to step in to break you and Hunter apart…”
Felix continued to spin his tale while I leaned against him, smiling, and happy to be with him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Felix
Eight months after I killed Hunter and made Lily my official mate, I found myself stuck in an office in downtown San Francisco. It was my office, and there was no one higher ranked than me in the entire building, yet I still felt as though I were a beast trapped in a tower above the rest of the city. I just wanted to get out of there and see Lily already.
“Felix?” came a voice from my speakerphone. “You are paying attention, aren’t you?”
Rolling my eyes at no one in particular, because I was alone in my office, I promptly spoke up. “Yep! I’m here, Fred. Don’t worry; your CEO is always listening to you.”
“Then why haven’t you answered my question? How exactly do you plan on bringing in new novels for us to publish? We’ve become stagnant. I know that usually, we bring this stuff up in meetings, but I need to get ahead of the game and present this stuff myself since you’re almost never here.”
I wanted to press the off button, and I almost did, twice, but after chewing on my tongue, I stared out the massive window in my office that overlooked the city. San Francisco was beautiful, sunny, and the Golden Gate Bridge stood magnificently in the distance, red against that blue sky. “It’s simple, Fred. We’ve been lacking in our marketing recently. We need to let potential clients know that we’re expanding the genres we work in. We’re not just fantasy anymore. We’re horror, sci-fi, romance, even short stories. Plus, we can come up with some incentive to draw authors to us.” I grinned. “It’s not the end of the world if we don’t drastically increase the number of clients we work with.”
“But being stagnant is—”
“I didn’t say staying stagnant is welcome. I’m just telling you not to panic if everything doesn’t work out exactly as we want it. We’ll weather whatever storm is thrown our way, yes?”
Fred groaned on the other end but grunted his agreement.
“Good, then this call is over. I need to see my wife, with her being pregnant with my kid and all. See ya, Fred!”
Fred tried to protest, but his words didn’t get through in time as I pressed the power button and I rose to my feet, stretching away all the stress of the day. Putting my hands in my pockets, I stood closer to my window, staring down at the busy streets and the people walking all along the sidewalks. My eye caught on a flower shop with a pink and cotton candy blue sign out front. My lips curled into a smile, and I quickly turned to pick up my briefcase and rush out of the building.
I was on the street in no time, happily striding down the sidewalk, weaving through people like a fish in water. A few women smiled flirtatiously at me, only to frown when they realized I wasn’t giving them anything back.
When I found the flower shop, I waltzed inside like a shifter who just become the alpha of his clan. The sweet old lady at the counter matched my smile. There were a few other groups and individuals perusing the various flowers and plants, but I ignored them.
“What can I help you with today, sir?” the old lady asked.
Spinning around, I gazed at roses and lilacs, dandelions and tulips of every color. “You know, I think I already know what I want. I’ll take everything.”
The old lady faltered. “Excuse me? I don’t think I heard that right.”
“No, you did. I’ll take every flower you have in the store!” I leaned on my elbow. “I have the money, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
By now, the rest of the sto
re had heard me, and people were blanching at my request. Some even briskly walked out of the store, realizing that I was deadly serious. The old lady frowned at the people who left. “If this is some prank, then I’m calling the police on your punk ass.”
Chuckling, I shook my head. “I’m deathly serious. Please. My wife is pregnant, and I’m a very wealthy man. I wanted to surprise her.”
The old lady eyed me, but then nodded. “Fine. If you’re lying, though, I’ll hunt you down.”
As she took my credit card and began to swipe it, I leaned back and pulled out my smartphone, dialing up a moving company. “Hey, yeah, I want to put in a request for a truck...I need to transport a bunch of flowers. Yeah. Great.”
And with that, I suddenly had more flowers than I could count.
When I arrived back at my house, having dealt with all the flowers and the moving truck, I knocked on the front door. A few seconds later, Lily opened it, looking radiant in a blue and green striped shirt. Her belly was protruding out, and she had a hand over her stomach. Her warm smile made my day.
Before we did anything else, I leaned forward, taking both of her soft cheeks in my hands, and then kissed her. I’d been waiting to do that all day.
Breaking apart, Lily laughed. “I love it when you come home like this.” She threw a thumb over her shoulder at the kitchen. “I’ve got some bacon on the stove if you want any.”
Shaking my head, I pulled her out of the doorway and into the afternoon light. “I’ve got something to show you first.”
“A surprise?”
“Exactly! I think you might like this one.”
Allowing me to lead her down the road, we walked hand in hand, going over our day with each other. When we reached the steps to the private beach, Lily gasped. “Oh my god! What is all this?”
The beach was covered in flowers of all shapes and sizes. I had spent the past hour placing them carefully in the sand, using my stamina to work nonstop. Red roses and pink tulips and everything else that came from that flower shop were set up in rows, all facing the strait.