“Little human. Come here.” His voice was a deep growl that I felt in a tingle from the top of my head all the way to my toes. It also stopped everywhere in between.
I looked back at him, despite my better judgement. He was still at the door, his big body blocking the exit, his eyes burning into me. Had he just referred to me as a little human? “Where are they?”
“You smell amazing.” As if to prove his point, he tipped his head back slightly and took a deep inhale.
I stepped back. What the...? My insides were still doing cartwheels, but my brain was working out something—something niggling just out of its reach. Something was weird about the hottie. I nodded at him, trying to placate him so I could find my nephews and get the hell out of there.
“Come here.” He put his hands on his hips and stood there, apparently expecting me to obey him.
“Um…no.”
He growled. “Mate, come here.”
Nick and Casey picked that exact moment to run into the big open area. They didn’t look too scared, though. They looked excited and—mesmerized. “Aunt Sky! Isn’t this place awesome?”
I was really going to kill them.
4
Beast
I was going to bite the heads off the little human males. What the fuck were they doing, interrupting my first meeting with my mate? My human mate. That was entirely unexpected. She was little, so little. How would she be sexually compatible with a man as large as me?
The younger male, who I’d learned was called Casey, had gotten over his fear. He was awed by me. He spoke non-stop—dragon this and dragon that—naturally impressed. Maybe I should’ve hidden my nature from him, refrained from disclosing the truth, but I wasn’t ashamed of it. I was proud of my strength and great stature, both as a man and as a dragon. I wouldn’t hide it.
“Come on, boys. We’re going home.” My little mate reached for the young males, but they slipped away from her.
The smaller male was argumentative. “No. Come on. You’re already here. Look around. It’s so cool.”
Her pale skin flushed red and I scented her frustration. It came off of her in waves tainting the delectable scent I’d previously detected—the faint aroma of arousal. I was again tempted to eat the smaller male.
“Casey. You snuck off, stole the boat, got stuck out here, and called me to come get you in the middle of the night. I don’t want to look around. I want to get you boys home and get us all to bed. I work in the morning.”
“You don’t even get it.” He crossed his arms and scowled at her. “You would ruin it. You suck.”
Before I even gave it a split second’s thought, I was across the room growling an ominous warning in the small male’s face. “You do not speak to my mate like that.”
He paled, but just sighed and shrugged. “Fine. Can we come back, though?”
The older boy, Nick, was still on guard, more apprehensive of me. He looked from me to Casey and shook his head. “Come on, Casey. Listen to Aunt Sky. We have to go.”
My mate was giving me a strange look. I didn’t care how she looked at me as long as she remained there, in my home. She smelled like heaven, reminding me of the sweet scent of the tiny blossoms that bloomed only once every hundred years in the old world, and only after a rain shower. Her beckoning lips were turned down in a frown and I found myself yearning to touch them. She was plump and soft in all the right places and I could already feel myself hardening, readying to mount her. I drank her in with my eyes, studying her delectable curves from inch to inch.
A step closer to her, and I was certain I smelled the beginnings of her arousal once again. Her nostrils flared and the stunning pale brown of her eyes was eaten up by the widening of her pupils.
“You will stay, mate.”
That strange look returned and she took a step away from me. “Why do you keep calling me that? We’re not friends. Are you Australian? I just came to get the kids. Now, we’re outta here.”
I growled from deep in my chest, startling all of them. The sound was low and rough, an audible claiming of this human female in front of me. I wanted my mate. I needed her. I longed to sink my teeth into the soft flesh of her shoulder, to couple with her and pleasure her for hours. I wanted to taste the blood that rushed through her veins so hard that I could practically see it thrumming under her skin. The bloodlust that arose when a dragon found his mate was something evolutionary that I’d never understood fully before. I wanted to taste her blood because it would mean that I’d pierced through her delicate skin and marked her as my own. That taste meant forever.
My mate took another few steps back dragging with her another growl from deep in my body. She couldn’t get away from me. She was mine.
“Boys, get outside. Now.”
Nick tugged Casey, but the smaller male was digging in his heels, showing a stubborn streak that I would have appreciated, if he hadn’t been directly disobeying my mate’s command. “Come on, Sky. I want to stay and look around more.”
“Do as she says.”
“Don’t yell at them!” My mate grabbed Casey’s arm and pulled him towards the door. “Go wait outside, Casey. I’m not kidding. Get in that boat and wait on me, or you’re going to be grounded for the rest of your life.”
“You can’t ground me. I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not my mother.”
“Casey! Go!” Pain, anger and frustration created a sour scent from her and when she looked back at me, her eyes were shiny with moisture.
I closed the gap between us and slid my hand to the back of her head, tilting it and staring down at her. I traced my finger under her eye. Wetness. Tears. A stabbing pain like I’d never experienced before shot through my chest. She was crying. Not only was she crying, but it was tearing my heart out.
“What are you doing?” Her voice was quiet, but rushed, as she stared up at me with wide eyes.
“He made you cry. I shall kill him.”
Her eyes widened and she jerked away. “That’s enough crazy talk, Mr. Looneytunes. We’re going. I’m sorry they bothered you. I can assure you that they will get a long, stern talking to about trespassing.”
“You can’t leave. You’re my mate. You must stay.”
“Excuse me?” She shook her head and pushed the boys towards the door. “We’re going home.”
“Then I will come with you.” I shrugged. If she didn’t like my home, I would just go to hers. Maybe my little castle was not as nice as her dwelling. I didn’t know why she seemed against it, but we’d work it out.
“Um…no, you’re not.” Nick opened the door and she practically dragged Casey out towards the dock.
I breathed in a lungful of the hot, muggy night air and nodded to the alligator who was back in his usual spot. He whipped his head around at the three humans and hissed.
My mate screamed and shooed the boys behind her, shielding them with her body. That wouldn’t do. I stepped past the boys and wrapped my arm around her waist to pull her behind me. Staring down at the alligator, I let out my own hiss, coupled with a flash of fire.
It was enough of a warning to scare him away. He snapped his big jaws and slunk back into the water.
The threat to my mate handled, I focused in on the sensation of my arm around the softness of her waist. Soft and warm, I wanted to bury my face in her curves and inhale her scent until I was full of her and dizzy with the desire to mate her.
She let me hold her, her full chest heaving as she gripped my arm. Once her fear subsided, though, she spun to face the boys. “This is why I don’t want you doing stuff like this. You could’ve been killed! You go out into the swamp in the middle of the night and you take chances with your lives! It’s dangerous out here!”
I was still holding her, having turned with her, and could feel her shivering against me. I flattened my hand against her stomach and pulled her flush against my body. “Remain calm, little one.”
She spun back around to face me, her full breasts pressing right up against m
e like soft, sensual pillows. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. “They could’ve been killed! There are any number of dangers out here in the daytime, not to mention at night when visibility is nil and predators come out to hunt. But for divine grace they escaped getting really hurt.”
“I kind of wanted to really hurt the small male for making you cry.”
“That alligator was too close…” She was crying again. Big, wet tears that ran down her cheeks and landed on her shirt.
Nick came to his senses first. He laid his hand on her shoulder and looked up at me, then his aunt. “We’re sorry, Sky. We messed up.”
Even the smaller one, who I was still considering eating, or at least scaring harshly, seemed to sober at the sight of her tears. “Yeah, sorry.”
I rubbed her back, the instinct to provide comfort and protection was shocking to me, but gladly accepted. I was not known for my softness nor did I possess a particularly tender nature. I’d never comforted anyone before. I was a dragon, for fire’s sake. “Come back inside. I will offer you a glass of whiskey. It will make you feel better.”
She instantly pulled away from me and shook her head looking puzzled. “This is crazy.”
5
Sky
What the hell was I doing letting the giant, hunky hulk of a man hold me, touch me, and tenderly stroke my back? He acted like he knew me somehow. And, why wasn’t I reacting the way I should’ve been, which was to say in horror. He kept telling me he was going to keep me in his house and that I was his mate. He was clearly disturbed, maybe even Jeffrey Dahmer disturbed. Yet, the man turned me on like a light switch. Nothing and no one else had ever gotten me all hot and bothered before the way he was doing with his gentle caresses. Goodness, this was new, unexpected, and not entirely welcome on my part. I’d never even had a serious relationship with a man before. Ever.
His arms around me ignited a fire in my belly that threatened to burn straight through my clothing. I ached to get closer to him.
He was certifiable, though. Obviously. He’d threatened to kill Casey, faced off with a gator like it was a gnat, and he growled. Even if the growling did strangely turn me on, it was still weird. Wasn’t it?
When I finally forced myself to pull away from him, it was not easy. It felt like there was an elastic cord tugging me back to him. I had to fight the urge to sink back into his chest. “We have to go.”
“To your castle?”
I snorted without meaning to. “Yeah, my castle. Sure.” Turning to the boys, I motioned for them to head to Jude’s boat. “Get in.”
Nick pulled a mopey and sour-faced Casey with him into the mud boat and they both sat at the front, giving me room to sit at the back and control the rudder. As I raised my foot to step inside, the man put his hand on my arm.
“I’m coming with you.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re not. You’re staying here, with your pet alligator, in your big house that is oddly displaced in the middle of the bayou.”
He stepped easily into the boat ahead of me and settled into the back where I needed to be to steer the boat out of the swamp. “Get in.”
“You can’t go with us. I mean it. You live here. You need to step out of the boat and go on back into your house. Castle. Whatever.”
“I’m coming.” He shook his head. “Are you always so argumentative?”
Casey laughed. “Yes.”
The man growled at him again. “I’m still imagining ways to skin you for your treatment of my mate. Don’t push it, small male.”
That shut Casey up. It lit a fire under me, though. “Don’t you talk to him like that. You keep threatening my boys and I’m going to call the cops on you.”
“The cops? Really?” He seemed amused, then frustrated. Then, he narrowed his eyes. “Are you friendly with one of them? Does he give you gifts? Shower you with attention?”
Give me gifts? “Are you asking if I’m dating a cop?”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“Good.” Then, he stood up and grabbed me. Easily lifting me into the boat, he settled me on his lap and wrapped an arm around my waist. Sheesh, it felt like a steel bar. “Hold on. Not you, Casey. It would do you good to get a dunking.”
I pulled and pushed at his arm wiggling and trying to get away, but my efforts were in vain. “You can’t do this. You can’t just—”
The boat started and we shot forward. He hadn’t even turned the boat light on. It was pitch black the farther away from his house we got. “I can and I am.”
I fought harder. We were in total darkness. The light from the sliver of crescent moon was unable to poke through the thick canopy of trees and moss and he was going way too fast. “Stop! Turn the lights on! You’re going to kill us all!”
He grumbled and leaned closer, his mouth right next to my ear. “I can see perfectly fine. And while I am still making up my mind about the young male, I would never kill you. You are my mate. I will protect you with my very life. I will care for you and pleasure you and tend to your every desire.”
At his mention of pleasure and desires, I felt his rock-hard erection poking me. Whoa, it was big. I hadn’t realized what it was at first because of the sheer size of it. Gasping and looking back at him, I found that I couldn’t see his face, it was so dark. Being submerged in total darkness, held practically immobile by a stranger, should’ve felt oppressively frightening. Yet, sitting on his lap feeling how excited he was wasn’t frightening at all. It was the hottest I’d ever been. I could feel moisture leaking out of my core, my crazy, usually non-existent, libido was all of a sudden shooting off like fire crackers.
“Little one, I can smell how much you want me, too.”
I jerked upright and faced forward, instantly mortified. He was a stranger. A stark raving mad stranger who was holding me against my will and carting me off to who knew where.
“Where’s your home?”
Okay, he was carting me off to my home, but still. He was obviously out of his mind. And how was it he could he see to navigate?
“Boys, are you okay?”
They both muttered an affirmative answer, at least letting me relax slightly about that for the time being.
I lowered my voice and spoke over my shoulder to the stranger. “Why are you doing this?”
His hand flattened against my stomach again and his thumb stroked just under my breast. “You’re mine. Do you not feel our connection?”
His. I told myself to be angry and to free myself from his grip, because that’s what a normal woman would do. But, there was something about the weirdo saying those words that sent my heart racing and fire burning through my veins. What was wrong with me?
I told him where we lived and settled against his chest as he navigated the boat smoothly. “Who are you?”
“Beast.”
“What?”
“Beast.” He repeated himself a little louder like I might be hard of hearing.
“Beast?” I said it like it was acid on my tongue. “That’s your name?”
“Yes. And you’re Sky.”
“What kind of name is Beast?”
“It’s a dragon’s name, Sky,” Casey called from the front of the boat. “He’s a dragon.”
I sighed. “Of course. He’s a dragon. This just gets better and better.”
Beast chuckled from behind me. Then, his mouth pressed against the side of my neck and his breath flitted down my neck and under the collar of my shirt. “A dragon, little one. A big, fire-breathing dragon who wants nothing more than to claim you as my own. You’re my mate, Sky. Your sexy little body was made for me to pleasure and I’m going to show you exactly what that means.”
My heart raced and I wanted to crawl up his big body and shake him. Or ride him. I couldn’t decide which. It was awfully uncomfortable with the boys there.
I chose to keep my mouth shut. No sense trying to carry on a sane conversation with someone who was unbalanced. A dragon. Lord ha’ mercy! God, why couldn’t I just
attract a normal man with a normal personality? A nice computer programmer or accountant, hell, even a pro-skateboarder or a dog walker would do, anyone who didn’t claim he was a dragon.
“Just relax, little one. You’ll understand it all eventually. We have all the time in the world.”
It was laughable that he thought I might relax. The things he was saying, the way he spoke, the way he seemed to have no sense of propriety when it came to grabbing an unknown woman, calling her his and following her home… He was probably dangerous. He had to be dangerous. Yet, I found myself sinking into him again. Relaxing. Letting him hold me. And liking it.
“That’s it. We’ll be at your castle soon.”
Oh, lord.
6
Beast
My mate’s castle was barely a shanty. It looked as though a heavy wind might crumble it to dust. That wouldn’t do. There was no way she could remain there. If an enemy attempted to attack, they would need only to huff and puff to blow the structure down. I could not allow it. I could not allow her to remain somewhere unsafe, unguarded, somewhere she could be harmed.
When I told her that, she narrowed her eyes and glared at me with a nasty look, then stepped away from me like I was a smelly lump of dung stuck to her shoe. When her mouth half lifted in a snarl, it was clear that she didn’t like my words, but I cared more about her protection than whether she was miffed by what I said. It was my duty to protect her. My castle was much safer.
When I told her that, too, she actually shoved me away before storming into the unlocked back door. Unlocked! I tried to follow her, but she turned on me and pointed up in my face. “Look. I’ve been nice so far, but this is ridiculous. You need to go on back home. You’re pushy and rude and I don’t care that you’re hot. It doesn’t make up for the fact that you’re overbearing. And off your rocker.” Her face became bright red and she slammed a flimsy door in my face. “Go. Away!”
Shifter Starter Set Page 27