Connor: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Everyone laughed. Even she laughed hard enough to have tears. They had had their share of trouble. Nicole looked at the other two men, the ones that hadn’t a mate yet, and wondered what sort of trouble they could bring to them all. She looked at Devon again when he cleared his throat.

  “I’m not saying this for any other reason than I want you all to stay here. To make this a home that you’ll live in with all of us surrounding you. Matt, I’ve found you the perfect house to live in. It’s not a quarter of a mile from here.” They laughed when Matt asked if they were tired of him already. “No, not even close. Cole, we’ve done the same for you, too. The house has not just a lot of room for your dragon, but a nicely appointed building on the same land that you can use for your business ventures.”

  Devon was thanked, and she stood up when he sat down. Everyone turned to her. This was going to get her on Roxanna’s shit list, but she didn’t care. Well, not too much anyway.

  “Today, my dear friend Roxanna did something that none of us knew about. She saved a family. Not in this life, but in the next. Thanks to her and her brilliant mind, they’re all together. Happy to be a family again with their only child.” She raised her glass up. “Roxanna James, you are to me and the rest of us, the best woman to have the job of helping the dead. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

  Dinner was massive. There was so much food on the table that she was sure that they’d be having leftovers for a year. When the carving of the meat began, Nicole hoped that there would be enough for her to have before it was all gone. She’d forgotten how much a group of dragons could devour.

  Conversation was loud and fun. Families had been invited to join them. Connor’s sister and her family were there. Anna had joined them, along with all the others that had been adopted into the family as if they were blood related instead of simply good friends.

  By the time desserts were brought out, Nicole thought that she’d never eat again. Not only was there plenty to go around, but it all tasted fantastic. Passing around the plates of cakes and pies, she made sure that she got a slice of both the Ho-Ho cake and the peach cobbler. Telling everyone that she was saving it for later lasted about as long as it took for Noah to moan with each bite that he took. It was a good thing she was never going to gain any weight over her life. She’d be as big as a house if she did.

  Clean up was just wonderfully fun. They all pitched in to bring something from the table. The faeries were there to take away any of the leftovers that were just too little to keep. The trees and the undergrowth would supply the coverage for all the creatures that came out to have some of the feast. Even the flowers, and there were plenty of them, were reused. All of the little people took as much as they could carry out to the rest of the faeries to share with them.

  Devon had been right. There were no better people to share a meal such as this with than family. And the ones here today, they were as tightly bound as any blood relationships that any of them had.

  The knock at the door startled them all. Most of them were groaning on the couch. Even she was wondering if she could be rolled home instead of being seated in a car upright for the five minute drive. Turning when Devon stood up, Nicole didn’t have any idea who the man standing there was.

  “You told me that you’d not seen him.” Nicole stood too, wondering if they were going to have bloodshed along with their tea. “Damn it, Matt, I needed you. Why didn’t you come to me when I called for you?”

  “Mostly because you’re a grown man and I’m not your keeper.” Whoever the man was, he didn’t seem to appreciate what he was being told. “For those of you that don’t know him, this is my stepbrother, Rolland Atwell. His mother, Lady Julia Cartel, Lady of Sydell Estate, is married to my father.”

  “I’m Lord Rolland Atwell.” Matt said that he wasn’t. “I am. My mother married your father. Not only does that make us brothers, but it also makes me lord of something. I’ll have to look into that.”

  “You’re nothing.” Nicole looked at Roxanna. “You’re not a lord of anything unless it’s to be lord dumbass, shithead of the jailhouse. I don’t believe that you were invited, so you turn your fat ass around and leave here before I take my shitty morning out on your fucking dumb ass.”

  “Well, you’re not very nice, are you?” Everyone laughed, including Matt. “It’s very rude to not include everyone else in your little joke.”

  “You’re the joke, you fuck tard. I’m serious when I tell you to leave now, or so help me, they’ll never find your fucking carcass.” Devon started toward the man when Roxanna stopped him. Whatever happened next, Nicole was thrilled to be there to witness it. “I’m going to give you to the count of three before I spread your ass all over that fresh snow. And trust me when I tell you that blood and snow will not be your colors.”

  Rolland backed up as Roxanna progressed. When he wasn’t moving fast enough for her, she screamed at him once again to leave. When he turned tail and ran out of the house, Roxanna sat back down in the chair she’d been in and sipped her tea. Nicole couldn’t help it; she started laughing hard enough to have been heard outside the house by the moron.

  Nicole marked another thing she was thankful for this day—not to have Roxanna on her bad side. She was sure once she was, she’d never live to talk about it.

  Chapter 14

  Rolland made his way back to the hotel that he’d gotten the last room in. It was a good thing that he’d gotten it, or Matt would have had to put him up someplace nice. Like his own house, if he had one. It didn’t look to Rolland like Matt had much of anything. But his friends did.

  Devon had always been a bastard. Even before Rolland’s mom had married Matt’s father, Devon and his friends had it out for him. He’d never done a damned thing to them, but they made sport of him whenever they were close to him.

  “So what if I fibbed about a couple of things? That wasn’t any reason for them to act like I’d done anything to them.”

  But it had gotten them all questioned. Especially after he told the dean of the college they’d all been going to that he’d supplied the six of them, including Matt, with the answers to the exam.

  Of course he didn’t have any idea what they’d been tested about. Nor did he know that none of them had a single class together. Devon had made him look bad when he’d asked the dean to test Rolland about this supposed exam. When he was unable to come up with a single class test, they’d tested him on the classes that the six of them had taken. He’d not even spelled his name correctly.

  “I was nervous, that’s all.” He was stupid back then, that was what had happened. Not only did he misspell his name on the test, but he’d not gotten a single question right. Not even one of the true and false ones. There had been a fifty-fifty chance on those, and he’d failed that as well.

  After that, his mom had had to come to the school and explain to the dean and all the men that Rolland didn’t even go to college. It wasn’t because she couldn’t afford it—no. It was because he’d not even graduated from high school.

  And he hadn’t. At forty years old Rolland had been a failure at everything he tried. But he never gave up—not on anything. If it was a sound plan, he’d invest. Not with his money, because he never had any, but with whatever he could lay his hands on.

  Lately that hadn’t been all that plentiful. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had any money in his wallet at all that was real. Not even a bit of change to jangle in his pockets.

  “I’m just bad with money.” Yes, that was it; he was so bad with it that he’d lose it just as quickly as he got it. Or stole it. Whatever way he got it, poor investments, a pretty woman, or even a bet that he’d not be able to pass up would assure that he’d be broke within the hour. He supposed that was why his mom had cut him off right after she married Matt’s father.

  “I’ve spoken to Madison about you and giving you money.” He’d nearly had a ha
rd on when his mom said that to him. “You’re not going to get another dime from his estate. I’ve convinced him that you’ll never learn a thing until you have to own up to your mistakes. You’ll never get a job. Nor will you have a home here until you can prove to me and Madison that you’re visiting and not sponging off us for the rest of your life.”

  “So it’s okay if you live here and sponge off him, but I can’t.” Mom told him that was right. “Well, I don’t care for that rule of yours. I’m your only child. You have to take care of me.”

  “No, I don’t. You’re nearly thirty-five years old, and I’m finished picking up after you.” It just occurred to him that it had been over five years ago now. “You’re no longer welcome here. You’re a spoiled brat, and I’m finished.”

  It was then that Matt walked by him and kissed his mother on the cheek. He’d gone into the house as if he owned it. Before he could ask why he was so special, Madison spoke to him.

  “Matt has been making his own money since he was old enough to leave home. Your mother tells me that you’ve been living off her since you turned eighteen. How can you live with yourself when your mother is still taking care of your every need?”

  “It was easy until you came along. Why did you have to marry her? We were doing just fine before you stepped in and started making rules. Rules, I might add, that I don’t like.” Madison laughed. He was a large man and made his humor known. “What the hell do you find so funny, Father dear?”

  He found himself three feet off the ground. His throat was being pinched off, and his mom just stood there watching as her new husband tried to kill him. When he was tossed from the house, the door closed and locked behind him, he went to the police.

  Apparently they’d been warned that he was coming and why. There wasn’t any telling them that the man had tried to kill him. They, like his mom, had laughed at him, telling him that he wasn’t to return. He’d returned, and that had ended with him in jail the first time.

  Rolland had been sure that they’d found the body of the man he’d killed that had tried to run him off. Thankfully, all they had on him was trespassing. After that, there wasn’t an opening that he could squeeze through that would get him anywhere close to the house.

  Being arrested had its perks. At least it use to have them. Matt would come running to wherever he was and bail him out. He’d done that four times, always giving him a little cash until the last time.

  Then Matt had told him to fuck off. Spending the month in jail hadn’t improved his relationship with his brother. Not that he thought that Matt could dislike him any more, but now Rolland despised Matt. He wanted him dead. But that hadn’t worked in his favor either.

  Now, here he was again, without money, a place to stay, or any Thanksgiving leftovers. The bastards, all of them, were going to pay for this. He didn’t have any idea how they were, but he’d make it happen. Rolland had always made things happen, and this time was going to be epic.

  “Hello.” He stopped walking and looked at the tiny little creature sitting on the sign near the hotel he was staying in. Rolland should have been used to creatures like this one. They were forever around the estate where his mother now lived it up. The creature startled him, and he jumped back a little. “I’m not to harm you. Yet anyway. I’m to escort you to your place of rest, then stay with you to make sure that you cause no more trouble.”

  “You? You’re going to keep me from getting into trouble? How the hell do you think that is going to happen?” He flicked his finger at her. She told him to stop it. “Yeah? What are you going to do if I don’t? Hurt me?”

  “Yes. I’ve permission from Lady Roxanna to harm you ten times more than you harmed me. I’d stop that if I were you. Before you get into much trouble.” He asked who the hell Lady Roxanna was. “She is the one that threw you from the house. Lady Roxanna has had a hard day today, and you made her very upset.”

  “Upset enough for her to give me some money?” The little thing told him no, she’d never do that. “So, all I have for my troubles is you. I think I might as well enjoy myself, don’t you?”

  “If you are talking about harming me, then no, you cannot.” Rolland flicked his finger at her again, this time knocking her off her perch. “You are going to be very sorry. You must know that.”

  “The only thing that I’m sorry for is not killing lady whatever her name was when she dared to throw me from the house.” He flicked her again, and this time he thought that she might have bit him. “Is that all you’ve got, little bug? A little bite to my finger? Oh, I’m so afraid of you now. Can you hear me trembling in my shoes?”

  “I do not. What an odd man you are. But you will stop before it’s too late for you.”

  He reached out his hand to slap her out of the sky. The little thing was daring him to, and he was going to oblige.

  Slapping at it again, Rolland found himself on the ground. Sitting up, he wasn’t sure where he was, or how he’d gotten so deep in the forest. Standing up to walk back the way he’d come, he fell back to the frozen ground and sat there.

  The snow around him was speckled in bright red paint. Picking a handful of it up, he looked at his hand. Some of the paint had gotten on him. Then he looked harder at his hand.

  From his hand to his shoulder was covered in small stings. Blood seeped from most of them, but there were a few that looked as if he was spilling blood like he had an endless supply. Pulling up his pants legs when he noticed that they were stained in his blood, he was nearly sick with how many of the little holes were there as well.

  “What the hell have you done to me?” He wasn’t really asking anyone, but when a small laughter came to him, he saw the little thing sitting on a stone about three feet from him. “What the hell did you do? Hire a bunch of bugs to have a feast on me?”

  “Nay, I did that.” She came to look at his legs, but not close enough for him to touch her. “You were warned, Rolland, not to touch me. Several times I told you to stop, but you did not heed my warning.”

  “You did this to me?” He swiped at her again, but missed. “You fucking little shit, you hurt me. I didn’t hurt you. This is not fair.”

  “You say that a great deal, were you aware of that?” Rolland asked her what she was talking about as he looked over his wounds. “You say that things are not fair to you. I believe you will find that nothing is going to be fair to you because you are not fair to others. You should be nicer, and perhaps someone will be nice to you.”

  “I just want what belongs to me. I don’t have a pot to piss in.” She told him to use the woods like all creatures did. “I’m not a creature. You take that back right now.”

  “You are a creature. Just as the others of the forest are. The faeries are here, and we are creatures. There are snakes in the grasses in the warmer months; they too are creatures. Then there is the bear. The great black one that is right behind you.”

  Rolland turned so quickly that he hit his head on the tree right to his left. Stars danced in his vision as the little thing’s laughter rang in his ears. Standing up, careful of the tree, he ran after her, only to trip over a stick covered in snow, and come down to hit a stone with his hard head.

  Before You Go…

  Share your voice and help guide other readers to these wonderful books. Even if it’s only a line or two your reviews help readers discover the author’s books so they can continue creating stories that you’ll love. Login to your favorite retailer and leave a review. Thank you.

  Kathi Barton, winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio with her husband Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband who is an artist and potter.

  Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her
readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi online and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans. aaronskiss@gmail.com.

  Follow Kathi on her blog: http://kathisbartonauthor.blogspot.com/

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14