Tangled Innocence
A Dante’s Circle Novel
By Carrie Ann Ryan
Tangled Innocence
A Dante’s Circle Novel
By: Carrie Ann Ryan
Published by Fated Desires Publishing, LLC.
© 2014 Carrie Ann Ryan
ISBN: 978-1-62322-045-7
Cover Art by Scott Carpenter
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
Dedication
To my two Charities. One holds my sanity; the other holds the reason I get to do this every day. Thank you both.
Acknowledgements
As I write each book, it seems my group of people grows. This book could not have been written without Lia, Michelle, Charity, Devon, Kimberly, Saya, Kate and so many more. Thank you for helping me with the random questions and needs an author has when they’re writing a book about a bear, a dragon, and a woman who needs them both.
Thank you Lillie for saying “bear shifter body shots” and telling me to do it. No questions asked.
This bear shifter is for you.
And Delphina? Dante might be claimed, but I’m sure he has a special place in his dragon heart for you.
Thank you readers for wanting Dante’s story so much that he’s the #1 requested character of all my series.
Love you guys!
Dante’s Circle Characters
With an ever growing list of characters in each book, I know that it might seem like there are too many to remember. Well don’t worry; here is a list for you so you don’t forget. Not all are seen in this exact book, but here are the ones you’ve met so far. As the series progresses, the list will as well. A special thanks goes to my FAN CLUB (https://www.facebook.com/groups/CarrieAnnRyanFanClub/) for helping with this list.
Happy reading!
Agda—Brownie council leader.
Agnes—Sole female on the Angelic council.
Alec—Nocturne Pack council member. Friends to Hunter and Becca.
Amara Young—One of the seven lightning struck women. Works at an inn. Has a past that is very secretive.
Ambrose Griffin—Warrior angel, Shade’s mentor. Father to Laura (deceased) and Nathan (deceased), husband to Ilianya (deceased). Mate to Balin and Jamie, story told in Her Warriors’ Three Wishes.
Azel—Black-winged angel. Striker’s third in command.
Balin Drake—Non-soul devouring demon, son of Pyro. Mate to Jamie and Ambrose, story told in Her Warriors’ Three Wishes.
Becca Quinn—One of the seven lightning struck women. Works as a bartender at Dante’s Circle. Mate to Hunter Brooks, story told in An Unlucky Moon.
Bryce—Lily’s ex-fiancee.
Caine—Angelic council leader.
Cora—Shade’s ex-fiancé (deceased).
Dante Bell—Dragon shifter. Owner of Dante’s Circle. Story told in Tangled Innocence.
Eli—Bakery Owner.
Eliana Sawyer—One of the seven lightning struck women. Works as a welder.
Faith Sanders—One of the seven lightning struck women. Works as a photographer.
Fawkes—Demon, son of Lucifer, friend of Balin. Mate of Leslie. Story told in His Choice (Found in the Anthology Ever After).
Fury—Leader of the demon council.
Glenn—Lily’s sleazy ex-boss.
Hunter Brooks—Wolf and Beta of the Nocturne Pack. Met Ambrose, Jamie, and Balin in hell during the demon games. Mate to Becca, story told in An Unlucky Moon.
Ilianya—(deceased) Sister to Shade, wife to Ambrose.
Jace Goodwin—bear shifter and Mediator for all realms. Story told in Tangled Innocence.
Jamie Bennett—One of the seven lightning struck women. Bookstore owner and lover of romance. Mate to Ambrose and Balin, story told in Her Warriors’ Three Wishes.
Kobal—Old djinn council member, ally to Pyro.
Laura—(deceased) Daughter of Ambrose .
Law—Gray-winged angel, Striker’s second in command.
Leslie—Pack member of the Nocturne Pack. Mate of Fawkes. Story told in His Choice (Found in the Anthology Ever After).
Liam—Nocturne Pack council member. Friends to Hunter and Becca.
Lily Banner—One of the seven lightning struck women. Worked as a lab chemist in solid-state NMR. OCD and quirky. Mate to Shade, story told in Dust of My Wings.
Lucifer—Infamous demon from hell and Fawkes’ father.
Nadie Morgan—One of the seven lightning struck woman. Works as a school teacher. Story told in Tangled Innocence.
Nathan—(deceased) Son of Amborse.
Pyro—Demon from hell, father to Balin.
Shade Griffin—Warrior angel, ex-fiance to Cora, brother to Illianya, mate to Lily Banner, story told in Dust of My Wings.
Striker—Angelic council member, leader of the rebels.
Temperance—New Djinn council leader.
Thad—Co-worker of Lily’s. Had a crush on her.
Timmy—10 year old brownie.
Tangled Innocence
Humans aren’t as alone as they choose to believe. Every human possesses a trait of supernatural that lays dormant within their genetic make-up. Centuries of diluting and breeding have allowed humans to think they are alone and untouched by magic. But what happens when something changes?
As one of the seven lightning struck women, Nadie Morgan has known for a while now that her fate would be forever changed…and revolve around a certain dragon. From the first time Dante Bell saw Nadie, he knew she was the one for him. There's just one problem--there's another in his life he's waiting on as well.
When Jace Goodwin, a bear shifter and Mediator, finally comes back to the human realm after years away under circumstances out of his control, his first stop is to Dante's Circle where he not only finds his dragon, but the woman they both have been waiting for.
Once secrets are told and the sparks fly, Nadie's new life becomes something she never thought possible. However there's another realm at play and Jace and Nadie's dragon will have to fight harder than he's ever fought before to keep the life he's waited eons for.
Warning: Contains one not-so-innocent human, a bear known for his bear-hugs, a tattooed and pierced dragon with a fiery temper, and a connection so explosive, you'll be fanning yourself from page one.
Chapter One
“I’m done with men.”
Nadie Morgan barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her friend Faith’s proclamation. She was pretty sure the woman had said something similar before in the exact same exasperated tone. Faith usually said things like that, considering she was trying to find a man to match who she was and who she wanted to be.
Not an easy thing when Nadie wasn’t sure Faith knew who she wanted to be in the first place. Well, Nadie probably shouldn’t be casting stones, considering she stood in an eerily parallel place.
Faith ran a hand through her blunt black bangs, leaving them in their perpetual disorder, then curled her lip up in a snarl.
“Don’t you roll your eyes at me, Nadie Morgan. If you’d ever get off your virgin ass and actually tell him you want him, maybe you wouldn’t be in the same predicament as me.”
Nadie froze
, the sounds of the bar slowly faded away so she couldn’t hear her friends’ reactions—if there were reactions. An odd numbness settled in, tunneling her vision so all she saw was Faith and her wide eyes set in a pale face.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the rest of their friends stiffen as well, then turn toward Faith, their mouths opening, most likely to defend Nadie where they thought she would never be able to defend herself.
In most cases, they’d have been right.
“Well, that was blunt,” Nadie finally said, her throat dry. What else was she supposed to say? She was surprised she could speak at all. It wasn’t as if Faith was saying anything untrue or far from Nadie’s mind. It just hurt to hear it in the first place.
She’d rather have buried it forever and not looked back, but she knew that would have been weak.
Weaker than she’d been acting already.
“Oh crap, I’m so sorry, honey.” Tears filled the normally strong-willed woman’s eyes, and Nadie immediately forgave her. There hadn’t been any true damage, and all Faith had done was tell the truth.
“It’s okay.” She raised her hands at her friends, and they quieted whatever words they were about to say. “No, really. You just got dumped. It sucks, so you lashed out, and I’m a pretty good target at the moment.”
Faith shook her head then got up and walked around the circular table where they always sat when they came to Dante’s Circle. Normally, it was a place that had become a sort of home to them, and right then, it was nice to have that familiarity. Faith wrapped her arms around Nadie and Nadie hugged her back. Hard. “No, it’s not freaking okay. I’m hurt and in a pissy mood, but that doesn’t give me the right to act like a cruel bitch.”
“Just a normal bitch then,” Becca, deadpanned, then flipped her fiery red curls over her shoulders.
“Hey, don’t call Faith a bitch,” Lily added in then came up to wrap her arms around Nadie’s other side. “Well, she might be one, but we’re trying to change that. And Nadie honey, I love you. Don’t listen to what Faith said.”
Soon, Amara, Eliana, Jamie, and eventually, Becca moved to join the group hug. Nadie could feel Faith’s tears seep into her shirt and knew that her friends weren’t there to comfort Nadie, but Faith. The woman wouldn’t accept the comfort otherwise, and everyone knew it.
Sometimes she and her friends just had to be sneaky about things like hugs and showing Faith they loved her just as much as they loved the rest of the girls.
“Okay, break it up. I can’t breathe under all of you,” Faith snapped.
Nadie just shook her head as Faith wiped her tears, straightened her shoulders, and then sat back in her seat on the other side of the circle.
“So, we hate Chadwick,” Amara said as she pulled her auburn hair into a ponytail. She smiled prettily at Faith who rolled her eyes.
“His name was Chad, not Chadwick,” Faith answered. “Stop making him sound like some dweeb who loves his mom and the country club.”
Nadie tilted her head then took a sip of her lemon drop. “Um, but he did love his mom and his country club. Wasn’t that the whole point? That he wanted to be with mommy and her money rather than stand up for something more? I thought you said something about the snooty mommy and her leech of a son.”
Faith narrowed her eyes. “You’re not supposed to throw my words back in my face.”
“On the contrary,” Amara put in. “We’re you’re friends. If he’s a right bastard with mommy issues, that’s our job. You’re the one who told us that dear Chadwick was a limp neck—and probably had limp other things too—mommy’s boy. Or should we call him mother’s boy. He seemed like the guy who would raise his eyebrows all haughtily and call for his mother.” Amara tried and failed to use a British accent—which Chad, not Chadwick, did not possess, and the girls fell over in giggles.
“Oh sweet baby Jesus, stop making me laugh like that. I think I’ll start leaking,” Lily said as she pressed her hands to her breasts. The new mom had control issues sometimes. Lily. A mom. So weird yet perfect at the same time.
“Oh God, you leak when you laugh?” Becca asked, her eyes wide before she turned to Jamie. “That’ll be us in a few months.”
Nadie just smiled and took another drink of her lemon drop as her now-mated friends talked about babies, leaking, and growly mates. She didn’t want to feel jealous, but the little green monster wrapped its spindly arms around her, and she winced. It wasn’t Becca’s, Jamie’s, or Lily’s fault that they had met their true halves and something like a perfect life had actually stuck.
So much had changed in the short time since the world had grown around them that sometimes Nadie couldn’t run fast enough to catch up.
She frowned and thought about the date then sat straight up. “Well, hell.” The other girls stopped what they were doing and looked at her.
“Did you just curse?” Jamie asked, her hand on her baby bump. “You never curse.”
Nadie snorted. “I curse, you just never listen. That isn’t the point though. Think about what day it is and where we are.”
Amara’s eyes widened. “Well, hell,” she repeated. “It’s been two years, hasn’t it?”
Nadie nodded then sat back as she watched the reactions wash over her friends’ faces. It had been two years since the seven of them walked into Dante’s Circle like they normally did, but they’d left with something much more.
Something most of them still didn’t have a handle on.
Lightning had hit the building, or at least inside the building, on that day. Nadie, her six friends, and the owner of the bar…Dante, were struck by that same bolt of lightning. She could still remember the screams, the feel of her body rising from her chair then slamming down to the ground, and the heated sensation of something…else…flowing through her in an arc. It still haunted her nightmares sometimes.
After all of that, none of them had been the worse for wear, just a few cuts and bruises and, of course, Amara’s broken arm, but that was it. Amara had healed quickly, as had the rest of them. Too quickly, in Nadie’s opinion.
They had been forever changed though.
Lily had been the first to notice—though they all had in a way considering it was weird that eight of them had been struck by lightning and hadn’t been killed or injured beyond falling to the ground.
They’d discovered that their human world wasn’t quite human.
Every human who called themselves human, Nadie included, were diluted versions of supernaturals, and most weren’t in the know about the fact that hundreds of realms existed near and entwined with their own realm.
“I can’t believe it’s been two years since I met Shade,” Lily whispered then gave a little smile.
Shade was a warrior angel and Lily’s true half. Apparently supernaturals had another part of their souls out in the world, and they were lucky when they found it. Or at least they were lucky when they found it, and the other half actually wanted it, but that was another story altogether.
“And I met Ambrose around that time, though it took another year to meet Balin,” Jamie put in.
Jamie had not just one mate, but two. Nadie held back a blush at that thought. What on earth would she do with two men? She hadn’t even been with one let alone two. Oh no way, too much for her. That didn’t mean she couldn’t have her own fantasies though.
“That means it’s almost been a year since I met Hunter,” Becca said as she frowned. “It seems like so much longer, you know? I mean, Jamie and I are pregnant, and Lily just had Kelly. We’re bonded with our mates and have seen so…much.”
Nadie nodded, knowing what she meant—at least when it came to what they’d seen. That was the other part of being struck by that particular bolt of lightning.
Each of them had a new energy within themselves. It was as if the lightning had altered their DNA, which the scientist Lily said was possible, considering the paranormal worlds were so much different than the human one. Now, apparently, once one of them met their true ha
lf—or the other two-thirds in Jamie’s case—they started to grow weak, as if their body was rejecting itself. Then once they made love with their true half, they turned into a paranormal creature.
It was as if she were now in some sci-fi movie that she couldn’t quite wake up from. Lily had turned into a brownie; Jamie, a djinn; Becca, a leprechaun. Each of them had met with others of their realm and, in some cases, fell right in step with that part of their lives while others had fought for their right to live—at peace and in general. Not everyone in the realms was happy about the turn of events.
Frankly, Nadie wasn’t sure she was either.
The others were talking about how much had changed and how the rest of them still needed to find their true halves. Nadie, though, knew she was in a different place than the rest of them. While the others had hope for a future or were on the bliss side of happiness, Nadie knew she had nothing like that. No, she had nothing. She had a feeling she’d known her true half longer than the rest of them, longer than they’d even known what true halves were, yet he’d done nothing about it.
She closed her eyes, a sudden rush of something more powerful than herself seeming to wrench whatever energy she had left from her bones. Pain arced across her body, bile filling her throat as something clawed at her, her body growing weak. Her hand shook as she set down her lemon drop, but she didn’t think anyone noticed. Life was moving on for the rest of them, yet Nadie didn’t think she’d move on with her friends.
She swallowed hard, the truth slapping her in the face.
Again.
Her dragon didn’t want her.
Well, not her dragon, as he never would be hers. He’d seen to that. The tattooed, sexy bar owner, Dante, had known her for years and yet hadn’t taken one step toward her beyond being her friend. And he’d started to move away from even that since the lightning. They weren’t the friends they’d once been and the loss was almost too much to bear. She’d had a crush on him ever since she could remember and she’d never done anything about it, either.
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