Luke turned his back on her.
She could defend herself.
Something moved in the air, and when he looked back, the creature had returned and now it was visible.
He had heard of wraiths before and had certainly read about them. But he had never seen one in person.
They were extremely rare and were a very dangerous species.
Even witches did not meddle with wraiths, so why was this thing after someone like Cassie?
Witch or no witch, even she couldn’t take on a wraith alone. Maybe having a witch indebted to you could turn out to be an asset.
But she was not a witch.
Cassie snarled, and she swiped her hand at the wraith and her hand transformed into one with claws. Luke watched – stunned – as her neck glowed almost viciously, and her claws met their target, making the wraith shriek in anger.
It looked like a mass of black shadows with a large, yellow eye in the middle of it. Luke had once seen a picture of it that had been hand drawn in a history book. The real thing was enough to strike fear into a stern heart. But Cassie was not frightened. She didn’t cry or scream. She met its blows with her own.
Luke wanted to help her – his beast was clawing to get out – but he maintained a rigid control over himself. Cassie was holding her own. However, a blow at her abdomen had her staggering back, forcing Luke to intervene.
He smelled the girl’s blood on the ground and noticed that her eyes were closed. When the wraith came in for the final blow, Luke let his animal out and the alpha bear was filled with a red rage, the kind of rage that he hadn’t felt in quite a while.
He attacked the wraith at its weakest point, which was the eye. As the creature tried to escape the hold Luke had on it, the alpha bit down and tasted the wrongness in the blood. Leaping away, he spat out the blood, giving the wraith enough time to escape.
Shifting back, Luke looked down at the injured girl.
So, did that mean she was a shifter? He leaned down and pushed her hair away from her cheek, “You have a lot of secrets, don’t you? Let’s see if we can’t get some out of you.”
CHAPTER 3
He stripped off his shirt and wrapped it around her wound. Putting on his coat, he walked towards the apartment he had in the human city.
The pack had a large apartment for when any pack member had business in the city. No one would be there right now which made it the best place to take her.
Her wounds were deep but they had started healing which was a good sign. It was also a sign of her being a paranormal. He had never heard of a shifter that could transform one part of their body. He watched the girl lie on the bed, her wounds open. He could see them sealing.
Sitting by her side, he leaned down and put his hands by the sides of her head and buried his nose in her throat, taking in her smell. His eyes nearly rolled to the back of his head. He could keep her in his arms the whole day.
He took off his t-shirt from her wound and tossed it on the table. He walked over to it and buried his nose in the cloth. The scent was darker, richer.
His tongue darted out to taste the blood on the t-shirt.
His cock hardened.
It tasted like blood, but the effect was that of an aphrodisiac.
Luke threw the cloth to one side and breathed in and out, trying to control his raging erection. But his ears were roaring, and he felt the primal need to fuck somebody.
He glanced back at Cassie and then closed his eyes.
He was not the alpha because he could fight. He was the alpha because he could control his baser urges. He could fight this. He would fight this.
“Where am I?”
The confused question, followed by the fear in her voice, made him clench his teeth. “Who are you?” she demanded.
Luke turned to look at her, aware that his golden eyes were wild. He ignored her questions and stalked towards her, with a growl. “Why don’t you tell me that? What are you?” he asked.
He saw her relax at the question. She shot back, “And that’s your business how?”
“Because this is my territory, and you are an unknown.” Luke gave her a lethal smile. “And, I need to decide whether to let you live or not.”
Cassie sat up, and he watched in fascination as her brown eyes flickered. Was she wearing contacts? If she was concealing her real eye color, then she really wanted to blend in. Why would she want to blend in unless she was hiding from someone or something?
He wasn’t going to kill her, but if that scared her into revealing herself, then it achieved his objective
However, he had underestimated his opponent. She smirked, her tone taunting. “Since when is a shifter afraid of a little witch? You must be very weak if you see me as a threat.”
Cassie knew she had to play her cards right. This golden-eyed shifter who had been eyeing her all evening was no joke. She had been mistaken for a witch numerous times because of her amulet. It was safer to be confused for a witch than what she truly was. She could tell he was a shifter from his mannerisms and his eyes.
Her father had those eyes.
She swallowed and was glad that the concoction of herbs she ingested once a week masked her scent. It didn’t explain why this particular shifter singled her out. Her scent should have repelled him. Her eyes narrowed. She couldn’t afford to be found out, especially by a shifter, so she would use every trick up her sleeve and keep him away from her.
“You’re a witch?” Luke asked.
He wasn’t convinced. If she was one, shouldn’t she be casting some spell? He wasn’t entirely sure what witches could do. The one he had met when he was a child had given him a small packet of herbs for good luck. Witches usually lived among the humans, away from the other paranormal. And shifters learned the useful skills humans had and blended with them when needed, but they didn’t mingle with them. Thus, their paths did not cross much. He couldn’t tell by her scent whether she was lying or not. The headiness of her scent was such that it made it difficult to discern.
Cassie just raised her brow. “Do you want me to turn you into a toad to prove my point?”
Could witches turn people into toads?
She hoped he didn’t know the answer to that.
His wary look relieved her. So, they were both illiterate when it came to witches. She had had one or two encounters but that had been through her mother.
“So you’re a witch.”
“Yes, so can I leave now? Or do you want to ask me something else?”
Luke was not an idiot. He may not be able to tell whether Cassie was lying or not, but he could tell by her urgency that she was hiding something she did not want him to know about. Unfortunately for her, bear shifters were incredibly patient beings. He dragged a chair and flipped it around, straddling it. “Explain your scent,” he said.
The smile slid off Cassie’s face.
If he could bear being near her then that meant that the special herbs she was consuming on a weekly basis were not affecting him like they should. But if he still found something strange about her scent, she had no idea how to explain it. She could have said that she used some herbs to keep shifters and vampires away, but that was assuming her scent was repulsive to him. She had no idea what her scent did to him.
“I don’t know what you meant,” Cassie said, carefully.
Luke raised his head and stood up aggressively, causing her eyes to widen. She scrambled to the back of the bed as he followed her until they were nose to nose. He could see her holding her breath, and it was quite amusing.
However, he hadn’t counted on his own reaction.
The animal inside him quirked up in wary interest. It wanted to sniff her and poke its nose in places where he might end up getting slapped. His beast had never showed so much interest in females before, which is why he wanted to know why this one stood out among the rest.
Cassie was frozen. When the shifter stuck his face in hers, she felt a strange feeling inside her. She had spent most of her life trying
to subdue her nature, and the herbs and the potions that she consumed usually helped suppress the creature that was a part of her. But right now, with this stranger sniffing at her neck in what seemed almost a playful manner, the animal inside stretched and looked on in curiosity.
She jumped when Luke licked her quickly on her throat. The reaction of her animal was worse. It sat up, and it was too late to realize the sexual implication that the lick had had on her animal.
Cassie put a hand on Luke’s chest to push him back, but she found she didn’t quite have the strength. She glared at his bent head when he licked her again on the same spot, slowly. Her eyes closed as she felt some of her strength dissipate.
Luke felt the looseness in her limbs. He hadn’t meant to lick her. But his bear wanted to be in control, and he was trying push it back and fight against the heady scent of his little captive. However, her reaction to his momentary loss of control shook him.
He looked up at her face to say something, but her eyes were heavy lidded, and there was a dazed expression in them. The flush on her cheeks and the way her scent had become spicier told him all he needed to know about the situation.
His own animal became agitated, and the human side of him struggled weakly. This was a losing battle.
When he put his teeth on her neck in a gentle hold, he heard Cassie’s moan. The excitement of his animal was startling. He experimented with another quick lick, and he felt her fingers on his pants.
Cassie feared the way her beast was shaking off the layers of control and chains under which it had been hidden. This couldn’t happen. She had to pull back. However, there was something about this man that had roused her animal from years of subjugation. Her body felt so good, and she wanted to give in to Luke.
He wore a confused look on his face when he looked at her again, and she whined.
His golden eyes turned molten, and she saw when the human in him gave way to the animal.
His mouth crashed on hers, almost violently.
His big hand cupped her face, and the shock of the sensations made her reel from the raw and primal impact. Cassie gasped into the kiss and felt her breasts swell and the place between her thighs quiver. There was nothing gentle about the way he moved his mouth on hers. He took what he wanted and demanded more. When she moaned, he nipped at her lower lip. She tentatively reached out with her tongue, and she felt him smirk and suck on it.
His mouth travelled lower, and Cassie felt the excitement of her beast – the need. It was useless trying to restrain it any longer. If she could keep it from showing, then she could enjoy this moment. She rarely got the chance to get intimate with a partner of equal strength.
She watched as his head went lower and lower, and then he jerked her up and slammed her against the wall. He gave her a cocky grin. “Easier access,” he said.
Kicking her legs apart, he settled one leg between hers, and using his claws, he ripped off what remained of her damaged blouse. One thumb ran across her taut peak and when she dug her nails in his shoulders, he grinned. One large hand stroked over her jaw to her throat and remained there, a possessive hold.
The next kiss was deeper, hotter than the first one. It was a kind of claiming and Cassie tried to reach up and offer more – take more – but he refused to let her take control. Her fingers clutched at him and when her abdomen clenched, she realized she was riding his jean-clad thigh.
The knowledge did not stop her, and as he lowered his mouth to bite the lush swell of her breast, he kept rubbing her with his thigh and she gasped as she pushed down. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips parted as she concentrated on taking the pleasure that her body so desperately craved.
Had she been herself and not in a lust-induced haze, she might even have been embarrassed – humiliated. But right now, there was nothing but need and from the fiercely intense look in his eyes, her partner was not thinking about social protocol as well. Instead, he ran a hand over her back, cupped her ass, and squeezed, making her gasp. Then that very hand slid down and shifted her into a more intimate position on his thigh.
Her eyes were wide when that hidden muscle deliberately rubbed against her most intimate spot. He pulled away from her breast and watched her, a smug smile on his face as he brought her closer to the edge. And then she shattered with him watching.
He didn’t give her time to come down from her high. Seeing her come apart in front of him made his animal roar and he ripped off her pants. Making quick work of his jeans, he grabbed her, put her on his cock, and thrust inside roughly.
Cassie screamed.
The power behind his thrusts did not falter. He tugged her legs around him and forced her back to the wall. He pulled out and entered again, making her sob in pleasure. He kept watching her and her eyes opened, clouded with confused pleasure.
He smiled.
It wasn’t a cocky smirk, or a satisfied grin.
It was a genuine smile.
And when she threw her arms around his neck to find some stability, he grabbed her ass and his thrusts turned harder until Cassie exploded, and he followed.
His animal relaxed. The contentment which filled him made him kiss the side of her neck, happily.
As he drifted into an unusual slumber, he grinned sleepily. Kevin had been right. This was what he had needed.
He didn’t see the glowing on his chest just above his heart. As the strange symbol glowed and then faded, Cassie’s unconscious form snuggled into him, and he wrapped his arms around her.
****
It wasn’t yet light when Luke woke up.
Feeling this well rested was very unlike him. Since last year, he had not been able to truly sleep. Their entire den had been uprooted after the attack, and it had taken time to recover their stability again. Most of their fighting force had been killed in that unexpected attack. The children and elders had been moved immediately and most of them had survived.
Their pack was not to be taken lightly, though.
Once they had settled in their new home and Luke had incorporated the modern human security systems along with their own patrols, he and his best lieutenants had paid the panthers back in kind. The bloodshed had been minimal, but they had damaged the panther pack at their core.
There had been no sign of the panthers after that, but Luke had tightened the patrols and every adolescent was made to undergo training. They were quite good at it, and although Luke was not one for sitting and laughing with them, he provided a form of comfort and security to them. He would often be tracked down by his pack members, some wanting to tell him about their training progress, some of them wanting to enroll in modern IT classes or similar courses which they felt would benefit the pack. Some would just come up to get some physical contact from their alpha and leave.
He was their glue and their center, and although he didn’t dislike it, he couldn’t be their friend. He didn’t have that sense of bond in him. He could protect and he could nurture, but he felt a huge deficiency in his emotional state, and he didn’t know how to fix that.
He sat up and watched the girl sleeping next to him.
He couldn’t believe he had stooped so low as to sleep with a witch. Rubbing his face, he groaned internally. He would never hear the end of this.
He should leave now and send some younger packmate back to make sure that Cassie left.
Putting on his clothes, he tossed out the ruined t-shirt and searched for something one of his people might have left behind. He found a 90s-band t-shirt and, scowling at the rock star whose tongue was hanging out in the printed image, he put it on. He laid out some clothes for Cassie as well. He wasn’t that much of a bastard.
Before he left, he gave another look at the sleeping woman and then left the apartment.
****
Cassie waited until he left before opening her eyes. She had awoken the minute she had heard him moving about.
Always on the run with her mother, she had become a light sleeper, her senses always attuned to her surroundings. She thr
ew the back of her hand on her eyes, shuddering. What had she done?
She felt the mating bond inside her quiver, and she surrounded it by her will of steel. No. The shifter could not realize what had happened.
How could she not have noticed? Now that the bond was in place, she could tell from his strength and power that he was an alpha. She couldn’t mate with an alpha. Her eyes darkened as she clenched the sheets to her chest. Her mother had suffered enough. She knew firsthand what alphas did to their kind.
She knew he wouldn’t be back anytime soon, but she couldn’t risk his coming back. She saw the clothes on the chair and was about to grab them, but hesitated. Glancing outside, she determined that it was dark enough for no one to be up at this hour. Opening the window, she glanced down.
She’d jumped from worse heights.
Her landing was smooth and in the shelter of the dark alley. She shifted into a large bear and ran into the streets, her clothes in her mouth.
End of Preview
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Saved by a Dragon
(Exiled Dragons Book 1)
SARAH J. STONE
CHAPTER 1
“And that is all for today’s report on Around L.A, your source for everything new and exciting in the Los Angeles area. We’re going to take a few phone calls before we close out the hour, so give us a jingle and let us know what’s happening that we may have missed,” Amy said into the mike.
She sat watching as the lines began to light up on the technician’s console just outside the sound booth where she recorded her daily radio show. To her fans, she was A.J. Webb, a radio personality gaining rapid popularity due to her daily reports on all the happening places to be in the area. To her friends, she was just Amy, voted most likely to become a hermit by her senior class. She had come a long way since she was a demure book nerd in school, having blossomed both in physique and personality during her college days.
Desired by a Dragon: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Exiled Dragons Book 3) Page 42