by Chase, Eva
Dragon's Desire
The Dragon Shifter’s Mates
Eva Chase
Ink Spark Press
Dragon’s Desire
Book 3 in the Dragon Shifter’s Mates series
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
First Digital Edition, 2017
Copyright © 2018 Eva Chase
Cover design: Another World Designs
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9959865-9-6
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-989096-00-0
Created with Vellum
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
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Next in the Dragon Shifter’s Mates series
Magic Waking excerpt
About the Author
Chapter 1
Ren
Sometimes you get a moment so heavenly you can hardly believe this really is your life. Like falling asleep cuddled between four insanely hot alpha shifters who are destined to be your mates.
A few weeks ago, I hadn’t even been dating anyone. I’d only just gotten myself an actual apartment. Now I was enveloped in protective affection—and let’s not forget the hotness—on the biggest, softest bed I’d ever seen in an estate so impressive it took my breath away. Okay, so more than a few people had tried to kill me in the last several days, but as I’d drifted off to sleep I was feeling like on the whole I’d come out ahead.
But of course, those heavenly moments never last. Something always shatters them. This time? It was a knock on the door in the middle of the night and a quavering voice saying, “There’s been an attack on the bear alpha’s estate.”
West, who’d answered the door, flicked on the light in the sitting room. The wolf shifter’s voice came out tight. “I think you’d better come in.”
The rest of us were already clambering off the bed. I’d been so exhausted that night I hadn’t bothered changing. My dress from the farewell party with the avian shifters hung on me in a mess of wrinkles. I gave the soft fabric a quick tug and rubbed my eyes as I hustled to the doorway.
Aaron, the alpha of the avian kin and current owner of this estate, strode ahead of me. The light glanced off his golden hair the same way the sun shone off his feathers in his majestic eagle form. I’d always thought of him as my Disney prince, but right now his blue eyes were sharp and his square jaw clenched. More warrior than royalty.
“What exactly happened?” he asked the attendant who’d come with the message.
Nate, my massive bear shifter, came up beside Aaron. His usual gentle presence had fallen away, aggressive tension radiating from his brawny body. “Is anyone hurt?” he demanded in his low baritone. “Who attacked my people?”
West leaned against the wall by the door, his arms crossed over his lean chest and his green eyes narrowed. Marco, the jaguar shifter who was alpha to the feline kin, stopped beside me and set his hand on my shoulder tentatively. He and I hadn’t exactly been on the best of terms in the last couple days—his fault, for shooting off his mouth to his kin and talking about me like I was some kind of prize to compete over—but now we clearly had bigger concerns.
The attendant ducked his head, his hands clasped in front of him. “I only know that we received an urgent call. The staff on the estate hope that their alpha can return as quickly as possible. It appears a group of rogue shifters somehow managed to break into the estate and attempted a surprise attack on some of the advisors and their families.”
A growl rumbled from Nate’s chest. “I’ll go now.”
“We’ll all go,” I said. “We were going to head there in the morning anyway. That’s probably why they picked your estate to attack.”
We all knew that the attack had probably been more about me than any of my alphas or their kin. As the last dragon shifter alive, it was my role not just to take all four of the alphas as my mates but to unite the entire shifter community at the same time. Given that I hadn’t even known shifters existed, let alone that I was one, until a few weeks ago, I had a lot of work ahead of me.
But I wasn’t going to back down. Especially not when it came to the assholes who’d killed my fathers and sisters.
Nate gave me a quick nod, already hustling out the door. For a guy that big, he could move awfully fast when he needed to. The rest of us hurried out behind him.
“Find whatever pilot is most rested,” Aaron instructed the attendant. “We’ll take the jet.”
“The jet?” I repeated. I’d missed that part of the estate, apparently.
“Each of the estates has a couple of private jets on hand in case we or our advisors need to take care of matters elsewhere in a hurry,” he explained as we headed down the white-walled hall. “It’s a lot more reliable than counting on human-arranged flights.”
“It just seems a little strange. Here, anyway. I mean, all of you can fly already.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up into a tense smile. “Not half as fast as an airplane, even on my best days.”
Fair. I wasn’t sure I could beat a jet even in my dragon form. And I couldn’t hold my dragon form for more than fifteen minutes so far, so that was kind of a moot point anyway.
We’d just burst through a side door into the warm summer night when another set of footsteps pattered behind us. Alice, Aaron’s younger sister and self-appointed bodyguard, dashed to join us. Her golden-blond hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail and her eyes were brightly alert. Did the girl ever sleep?
“I heard the news,” she said. “This time I’m coming along.”
“Alice,” Aaron started.
She waved her finger at him. “Nope. No arguments this time. Last time you were just going on a little trip to maybe find a missing dragon shifter, and you ended up battling rogues and nearly getting poisoned by faeries. This time we know someone where you’re going wants you dead. Who knows what the hell other trouble you’ll all get into?”
Aaron didn’t look convinced, but he also didn’t look like he had the energy to argue. It was still completely dark out. We couldn’t have slept for more than a couple hours. And yesterday had been a very long day.
“I want Alice with us,” I piped up to make his agreement easier. “It’ll be nice to have a little break from all the testosterone.”
West muttered something under his breath, and Marco chuckled. A twinge of guilt pinched my stomach. It was my best friend Kylie, who was back in Brooklyn recovering from a rogue attack right now, I should have been counting on for girl talk. But our friendship had gotten a little more complicated with every strange and scary revelation I’d encountered.
Alice grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze in thank you. And I guessed to reassure me, because then she leaned over and said, “It’ll be okay. We’ve handled worse.”
I wasn’t sure if that actually made me feel better. The shifter community had faced an awful lot of problems in the years they’d gone without a dragon shifter
. It wasn’t my fault that my mom had gone on the run and decided to lock away my memories of what I was, but it was hard not to feel a little responsible for the mess she’d left behind. I was the only one left who could pull the pieces back together.
The salty breeze off the Pacific washed over us as we loped along a path between a stretch of trees. On the other side, a small plane waited on a grassy runway. We scrambled up the steps into the cabin.
The space was bigger than I’d have expected from the outside of the plane. The ceiling was high enough that even Nate didn’t need to hunch. Five pairs of leather-cushioned seats lined one wall. Marco dropped into one, running his hand through his jagged black hair. Aaron went to talk to the pilot who’d come running over.
It was a good thing the ceiling could accommodate Nate, because he was pacing back and forth in the aisle. His jaw worked and his hands were balled at his sides. “When I find them,” he said. “When I find the rogues who did this...”
“Hey.” I touched his arm, and he stopped, turning toward me. I looked up at him, raising my hand to cup his cheek. “We will find them, and we’ll make them regret any harm they’ve done. We’re getting there as fast as we can.”
“I know. I just—” He shook his head. Teasing his fingers into my hair, he bent to kiss me. The tender press of his lips gave me the same shiver of pleasure as always, but I could still feel the frustration coiled through his body. He wasn’t going to be able to relax until we got to his estate.
“This might help,” Aaron said, returning. He tossed a cell phone to Nate and passed two others to West and Marco. “One of my assistants grabbed them from your rooms. The pilot is just checking the systems. We should be ready to go in a minute.”
Nate grasped the phone with a relieved exhale and dialed a number. He went back to pacing as he brought the phone to his ear. I wavered on my feet, not sure what to do now. Was there anything I could do? I hated feeling this useless.
The jet’s engine thrummed on. A hand grasped my wrist. “I don’t think you want to try takeoff standing up, Sparks,” West said in his usual gruff tone. He tugged me toward the seat next to him. “That might be a little much even for you.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Thanks for your concern.” But I did sit down. West and I currently had a... very complicated relationship. He insisted he still wasn’t sure I was cut out for the dragon shifter’s role—or the role of his mate. On the other hand, he’d seemed very enthusiastic about me when we’d made out the other night. The earth and pine smell of him next to me was enough to get me a little warm between the legs as I remembered that moment.
At least the last time we’d talked he’d been able to admit that his issues were mostly his, not mine. And every now and then I saw a softer side to him. He’d stood up for me when I needed it. Thrown himself into battle more than once to protect me. The rest I guessed we’d just have to take it as it came.
Even Nate had finally sat down now, although he was talking urgently into the phone. The rumble of the engine rose as the jet started to move. It hurtled forward with increasing speed. There was a quick jolt, and we lifted off the ground.
My stomach lurched, but I knew it wasn’t just because of the acceleration. The rogues had already caused enough pain in my life. The last thing I was looking forward to was seeing the destruction they’d brought to Nate’s estate.
Chapter 2
Ren
The plane shuddered, and my eyes popped open. I hadn’t even realized I’d closed them, but they were so heavy I’d obviously been asleep for a while. There was a crick in my neck from having my head slumped over.
Slumped over against... someone’s leanly muscled shoulder. A shoulder that held the faint scent of earthy pine.
Oh crap. I jerked back in my seat, my heart skipping. I’d been so tired from our late and then interrupted night that I’d fallen asleep on my neighbor. Who happened to be West.
Who was watching me with an unreadable expression now.
“Um, sorry about that,” I said. “I promise I didn’t do it on purpose. I would never mistake you for a pillow.”
Maybe that wasn’t the most solid apology ever? I could definitely read the wolf shifter’s expression now: That, folks, was a glower.
“Somehow that didn’t stop you from using me as one,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, well, you know, unconscious and all, can’t be held responsible for my actions.” I gestured vaguely with my hands.
“I hope that’s not an excuse you’re planning on pulling out very often.”
I rolled my eyes. Would it kill him to cut me a break for a minute here and there? “If it bothered you so much, you could always have woken me up and made me move.”
Something shifted in West’s eyes. Something that made my mind trip back to that moment in the garden the other night when he’d laid me beneath him on that bench, his mouth all over me. I’d swear the temperature between us rose by ten degrees in that one instant as he held my gaze now, but maybe it was only me feeling it.
He reached out and grazed his fingers over my cheek. Brushing an errant strand of my hair away from my eyes. My pulse hiccupped at the gentle touch. He was so close it would have been simple to tangle my fingers in his silver-streaked auburn hair and—
West sat back in his seat, turning his gaze toward the front of the plane. Away from me. “We’re almost there. Better prepare yourself, Sparks. Your job is only going to get harder.”
I mentally smacked myself. Even if West had been remotely receptive to some kind of come on, now wasn’t the time to be thinking about getting it on with anyone. We had the rogue attack to deal with. I still didn’t know how serious the assault had been.
It was just hard to ignore the unceasing tug of the bond inside me. I was pretty sure the pull was getting even more insistent when it came to the two guys I hadn’t consummated our bond with yet. Apparently it didn’t care that I had perfectly good reasons for taking my time with Marco and West.
I leaned to the other side of my seat. It was easy to spot Nate a couple rows up. His dark brown hair, thick as his grizzly bear pelt, showed over the back of his seat. He had at least a few inches on all the other guys, all of whom were far from short.
My hand dropped to my seatbelt. But before I could go over and ask what the bear shifter had found out with his phone calls, the plane jerked again. A calm voice filtered from the speaker on the ceiling.
“You all should remain seated for the next ten minutes. We’re coming in for our landing now.”
Okay, I guessed I wasn’t going anywhere yet. I tried to relax in my seat, but my heart was thumping now, and that had nothing to do with West a few inches away beside me. A glance out the window showed a stretch of rocky, desert-like landscape bleeding into a dense forest in the thin light of the emerging dawn. Nate’s estate—the center of operations for the disparate kin who didn’t belong to the canine, feline, or avian groups—lay in one of the wilder parts of California.
And because they’d known I was coming there, the rogues had gone after his advisors. And their families. If any children had been hurt because of me...
My chest tightened, and my fingers curled around the armrests. No. I couldn’t think like that. I was doing my best. Any violence committed was totally on the rogues. If they had such a big problem with dragon shifters, they could have brought it up peacefully.
I knew all that, but it didn’t completely loosen the twist of guilt around my heart.
My ears had started to pop with the change in air pressure when my phone chimed with a text alert. I wriggled it out of the pocket of my jeans. It had to be Kylie. At least talking to my best friend would take my mind off whatever disaster was waiting for us down there while I couldn’t do anything to fix it yet.
Hey, girl. Didn’t hear from you yesterday, just wanted to make sure you survived that big to-do the other night. And that they survived your gorgeousness in that dress!!!
Shit, had I really not talked to her at al
l yesterday? Between an assassination attempt, a confrontation with the faerie monarch, and the farewell party, I’d hardly had a chance to breathe. But Kylie had no idea what might have been going on here. Whether I might have found myself in more trouble. I hadn’t told her the more dire parts of my adventures, but she’d seen the danger that could come with my role before I’d insisted she stay behind. Along with the rogue attack that had left her clawed up, she’d witnessed a skirmish between my alphas and a bunch of vampires.
Now I had double the guilt weighing on me. I quickly typed an answer. Sorry! Crazy day. Yes, everyone survived the dress, including me. We just left for Nate’s estate in California.
Oh, wow, Cali! You definitely have to invite me over there sometime once you’ve settled in. That’s at the top of my States To Visit list.
I smiled. Of course. Right now, though... Probably not the best time. I hesitated, debating how much to tell her. You know the guys who attacked us in the shifter village? Some other rogues from their group broke into the estate last night.
Oh, shit. Is everyone down there okay?
I don’t know yet. But I’m definitely glad you’re back in Brooklyn away from all the chaos.
Kylie sent back an emoji blowing a kiss. You know I’d have your back no matter what, no matter where, Ren. Just say the word, and I’m there.
I did know that. That was exactly why I wasn’t telling her about the recent attempt on my life. It meant a lot to me that Kylie cared about me that much—until I’d met my alphas, she’d been the only person other than my mom who had—but I didn’t want to put her in any more danger than I already had.