by Leela Ash
Reborn for the Dragon
Banished Dragons
Leela Ash
Copyright ©2018 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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DRAGON DREAMS
DRAGON PROTECTOR
DRAGON AFLAME
DRAGON’S NANNY
BANISHED DRAGONS
CAPTIVE TO THE DRAGON
DESTINED FOR THE DRAGON
PROTECTED BY THE DRAGON
STONYBROOKE SHIFTERS
DADDY SHIFTER’S VIRGIN
A SECRET BABY FOR THE SHIFTER
THE SHIFTER’S MAIL ORDER VIRGIN
DADDY SHIFTER’S FAKE FIANCE
THE SEAL SHIFTER’S SECRET BABY
CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA DADDY
NANNY TO THE SHIFTER
THE SHIFTER PROTECTOR’S VIRGIN
SECOND CHANCE WITH THE SHIFTER
OAK MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS
HER BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER BOSS
HER SECRET PROTECTOR BEAR
A SECRET BABY FOR DADDY BEAR
THE ALPHA’S MAIL ORDER BRIDE
THE ALPHA DADDY’S NANNY
DRAGONS OF KALDERNON
THE DRAGONS OF KALDERNON COMPLETE SERIES
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THE LOST CREEK SHIFTERS
The Lost Creek Shifters series is a collection of novelette length standalone Bad boy romances that fit together to tell the longer story of the ancient tale of the bear and wolf shifters in a small mountain town. Enjoy!
ARLO (Book 1)
SCAR (Book 2)
BLU (Book 3)
BODHI (Book 4)
KODHI (Book 5)
ZEKE (Book 6)
RIVER (Book 7)
Table of Contents
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SHIFTER HEAVEN BOX SET PREVIEW
1.
Norris scanned the room, his silver eyes glittering as he looked over the restaurant. His stomach growled quietly as he attempted to use his Dragon senses to locate the possibility of a meal his sensitive palate could tolerate. So far, the other Dragon shifters had been very pleased with breads and the occasional fruit or fresh vegetable, but anything else was out of the question.
A fruit salad, he decided, sitting down at his table and locating the menu that had been placed there long before he had even arrived. A fruit salad and a bread basket.
It was nice to be in a restaurant without the heavy pressures and expectations of locating his fated mate. Dating had never quite been his cup of tea, to borrow one of the quaint human phrases he didn’t quite understand. He didn’t like tea very much himself; he much preferred the crispness of a cold glass of water.
“What can I get for you, sir?”
The waiter’s sudden appearance startled Norris out of his thoughts and his eyes flashed menacingly, revealing, just briefly, the stormy Dragon beneath the surface. The waiter backed away, opening his mouth and holding his tiny pad of paper and pencil in front of his body protectively, as if that would do any good against a fiery breath weapon.
“Sorry,” Norris mumbled. “I didn’t quite hear what you said. Are you all right?”
“Uh…”
Norris waited patiently for the waiter to recover. He felt bad playing it off as if it were the waiter with the problem. Out of all the other Dragon shifters he had been banished with, Norris had been having the most difficult time in reigning in his inner Dragon. In fact, they had begun keeping him at the house with Gavin to help him to craft their underground base rather than having him out on the field doing work to seek out descendants with the sacred Sun Dragon/Loni shifter blood.
It was the most important thing they could be doing right now; they could feel the shifter magic in the universe slowly waning. Without finding his sacred mate and populating the realms with more of the beautiful children that kept that magic alive by the very merit of their existence, it was highly possible all of them would meet a grisly fate. The sacred carriers of magic were endangered; targeted by dark forces that worshipped chaos and wanted to destroy all chances of true peace, preventing them from existing anywhere in the universe.
“Do you need me to call someone?” Norris asked, starting to get up from the table. He felt awful gaslighting people like this, but their Dragon identities had to remain a secret. Gavin had made a disturbing discovery of a plethora of negative energy headed their way. They had to work hard on the base at all costs, and make sure it was secure enough to store all of their sacred artifacts; including the device that made it possible to sense all the potential descendants.
Those descendants, when mated with a pure blooded Sun Dragon, would ultimately carry the sacred children and make it possible for the shifter magic to remain present in all realms. Losing that device would be disastrous.
“N-no. I’m fine. What can I get for you today?”
Norris relaxed back into his seat, pushing away the guilt. He had done what was necessary to protect his identity. The man was probably in the middle of thinking he was having a nervous breakdown or something. Which was sad, but it was for the best. There was so much at stake here.
“I wrote it down for you while I was waiting,” Norris said, handing the waiter a slip of paper. “Don’t mess it up.”
The waiter seemed surprised and Norris sat back thoughtfully, checking his watch. Ken should have been there by now.
Ken was a man Gavin had hired to help with inventory for their moving company. It had been a choice they had thought long and hard about, but ultimately, it had been deemed for the best. There were several Dragon shifters attending college courses now, while others were hard at work raising their families and protecting the sacred children. Norris, Gavin, and TJ were the only ones who hadn’t met their sacred mates on Earth at that point, so it was hard getting anybody to do the meticulous inventory work when the others were at school.
“Hey,” Ken said, sitting down across from Norris. “Sorry to have kept you waiting. There was a lot of traffic, and someone stuck this flyer under my windshield wipers that just kept flapping around. I had to pull over and get it out of there because it was distracting me. I didn’t see it before I left.”
Ken tossed the flyer onto the table and pursed his lips. “Whoever did that obviously doesn’t care much for the safety of others on the road.”
“Or maybe you just need to be more observant before you go starting your car in random places,” Norris retorted.
Ken laughed and shrugged. “I guess that wouldn’t hurt.”
The waiter came back with Norris’ drink and looked apprehensively at the new person at the table, studying his eyes closely as if to check and see whether or not there was some sort of strange Dragon look about Norris’ companion as well.
When he was satisfied that everything was as it should be and well within the realm of normalcy he was used to, the waiter asked Ken what he wanted, and took the man’s order quietly.
As he did so, Norris turned his gaze to the crumpled up piece of paper on the table in front of him. The first word leapt out at him in bold, large letters. “Dragons Welcome!”
He furrowed his brow and snatched the paper up, uncurling it and studying the words intently. It was an advertisement. Apparently, there was a new bar in town called Dragon’s Tavern and it had a specialty drink called the Magic Dragon, all on sale for their grand opening.
“Where did this come from?” Norris demanded, shoving the flyer at Ken once the waiter had left. Ken frowned, not knowing what to make of the sudden serious expression on Norris’ face.
“I told you, man. I found it on my car. It was probably people who are being paid to promote the bar or something, who knows. This kind of stuff pops up everywhere. Helps people make money.”
“Can I keep it?” Norris asked, excited by the possibility of finding a place in the small area of Brookside that might cater more to a Dragon-loving crowd. Norris had come to love the human interpretation of dragons and magic, and always enjoyed talking to humans with a more mystical way of viewing the world. Of course, most people didn’t believe in shapeshifters in these parts, but it was widely known they were thought to exist out in the northwestern areas of the country. Maybe someone from the area had come to Brookside and opened a place for people who had more of an interest in things outside the ordinary.
There was also the possibility of other Dragon shifters from Fiora being banished to Earth and putting out feelers for more of their kind. It was an exciting possibility, and Norris was convinced that now was the time to seek out his brethren and explore this new lead.
“Yeah, keep it. Sure. Whatever.”
Ken was oblivious to Norris’ excitement. He was a human and found nothing at all interesting or exciting about another new bar in town. In fact, most Dragon references went over his head.
“Thank you,” Norris exclaimed.
“Really, it’s no problem. And honestly, it’s nothing compared to the way you like to treat me to these incredible restaurants all the time. You act like you’re royalty or something,” Ken said, laughing and shaking his head. Norris considered this with a slight frown. He was royalty. Why shouldn’t he treat himself that way? Many humans did not seem to grasp the significance and importance of their rank. And they were especially oblivious to the ranks of the sacred Dragon shifters in their midst. It was very discouraging, in fact, to go from the sophisticated and lavish lifestyle that he was used to on his own planet, being of Royal Dragon shifter descent, to the lackluster human way of life.
The only way he had managed to make himself feel better about it was to stay entertained by learning everything he could about human technology. The information was easily absorbed by his analytical mind, and he chose to focus on it, so he was able to become a stronger and more sophisticated man for it. If nothing else, it gave him something to do as he attempted to work with his brethren toward finding a way back to their home planet once and for all.
“Hey, speaking of that stupid flyer thing, I actually brought the van down here. I was going to return it back to the HQ but I kinda just heard back from this girl I really like. We have a date, so I was thinking maybe you could just drop me off at home and take it back with you? I know you don’t drive much.”
Norris considered this thoughtfully. He was not a big fan of being behind the wheel, although the machines themselves were incredibly fascinating. He could look the engines over for hours if he had to. As far as driving the death traps went, he didn’t trust the mechanics as far as he could throw them. No matter how carefully a vehicle was tended to, the wear and tear was inevitable. And you certainly couldn’t trust the other drivers on the road or the road conditions to treat the machine very well either. He would just as soon avoid the whole mess altogether.
“Sure, I can do that,” Norris agreed, giving a slight nod. What could it hurt? He had his license, and Ken was a good guy. It would be nice to help him out. Norris just didn’t really like to drive.
“Thanks, man,” Ken said, clearly relieved. “I can’t wait to go out with this chick tonight. She’s so hot!”
Norris smiled slightly and nodded, unable to help being overtaken by the weight of his responsibilities. He was supposed to be going on dates to try to find his fated mate as well. It was one of his most sacred responsibilities. He couldn’t let his brethren down. He would fail everybody if he somehow slipped up and let his fated mate pass by.
With a heaviness in his heart, Norris finished his meal quietly and prepared himself as much as he could for the eventual drive back to Wyvern Mover’s headquarters.
2.
Lisa drove quietly along the more scenic roads of Brookside, her mind lost in thought. It wasn’t a particularly large town, but she wasn’t really in the mood for the hustle and bustle of the downtown area quite yet. She was doing her best to bask in her latest accomplishment. She had just gotten out of a serious but terrible relationship with a man she probably should have left a long time ago, and was about to begin a new job in a career she was actually very excited about. After a long string of bad luck, things were finally starting to look up.
She hadn’t been very sure of it at first, but after she completed her training, she knew this was finally the course she wanted to take. Lisa had always been interested in healing, in one form or another, and now that she was working with the disabled, she felt as if there was something deep within her that was being fulfilled and satisfied.
Really, it was the first time she had ever felt this good about what she was about to get into in her career. She had always known, on some level, that she wanted to be able to help as many people as she possibly could in her life, and after the long line of terrible jobs she had experienced. Now, she felt she had found the right path in doing so and sincerely hoped this one might be the one she found satisfaction and fulfillment in for the rest of her life.
It was about time too. Having been unemployed for the past three months, she had nearly gone through her savings. If she had been fired from the last job, maybe she could have collected unemployment, but her former boss had been quite the piece of work and she had found herself unable to tolerate it any longer. By quitting, she had put herself in dire financial straits, but thankfully, everything was finally starting to look up.
Lisa had decided then and there that she was going to take all of the steps necessary to turn her life around. She wanted to make sure she was doing everything she possibly could to create the life she wanted for herself. Lisa was tired of surrendering control to the universe. It was time for her to empower herself and make better choices that would surely result in lasting change for the better.
Starting that afternoon, after she was done with lunch, she was going to head to the gym and she was going to start planning meals out so she would have the motivation she needed ahead of time to make better conscious choices about what she put into her body.
There were so many things she could do to start really taking control of her life. Things that had been very difficult when she had been in a bad relationship with her ex. She was glad to be away from him now, and it was time to start focusing on herself and herself alone. Her self-improvement was the number one priority at this point. And she was never going to let anybody else compromise that again. No matter what it took.
In the meantime, before she got started, she was headed out to the hottest hangout spot in Brookside to celebrate the successful completion of her training with her friend, Tammy. Tammy was far more into trends than Lisa was, but sometimes, it was nice to tag along and experience the glitz and glamor that Tammy relished in and Lisa often deprived herself of. She usually convinced herself that she had better things to worry about than trying to make a name for herself in a social circle she didn’t even care for.
A
nd she was glad that she had, because now, she could truly begin to focus on making her life better. In fact, she hadn’t been this elated in a long time. Lisa checked her watch and frowned thoughtfully, hoping she wasn’t going to be late. Just as she turned the corner she heard the sudden squealing of brakes and the frightening sound of metal crunching, and before she knew it, she was spinning around in the road in a daze, her car having been impacted by a huge truck. The handsome driver of the truck looked startled, and when their eyes met, she felt a thunderous desire to speak with and be close to him. What the hell?
When the car finally stopped, Lisa’s heart was pounding hard in her ears and she gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying to comprehend what had happened.
“Oh my gosh, are you all right?”
She was still very dazed when she put her hand to her temple and closed her eyes in an effort to process what had just happened.
“Ma’am, can you hear me?”
She had no idea how this man had made it to her car so quickly. She could have sworn she had just seen him in the driver’s seat of the vehicle that had collided with her.
Now, she blinked hard, shocked by the sudden intensity of the silver eyes of the man who was looking at her. Lisa had never seen eyes quite like this before. He was unbelievably beautiful, for a man, though not feminine by any means. He was as rugged as could be. His hair was a deep golden color, his face chiseled and nearly flawless. She could also tell that his broad body was impressively muscled; even through his regal looking suit jacket she could see the definition.
Suit jacket?
In fact, he was dressed to the nines, as if he were some sort of big city high roller rather than someone who apparently drove a moving van for a living. What in the world?