by Sophie Stern
“I’d wait forever.”
Epilogue
Amy
One Month Later
As it turns out, living among the wolves is basically incredible. Adam and I share a beautiful home close to where he works, and I now have a job with Heather at the Wolfe City Motel. She says she feels responsible, in part, for our match-making, and she wants to be around to witness our entire relationship develop. I think she’s just hoping she’ll be the first to know when we’re ready to have babies.
Me?
I’m just happy to have a job in a place that I love with the man I love.
Hope has already been to visit with Wyatt and their little cub. I’ve been to the Blair Ranch in Honeypot a few times, too, and I have to say that it’s incredible being so close to her again. I didn’t realize just how much I really missed having a friend I could confide in until Hope and I were reunited.
It’s amazing that a month ago, my life seemed hopeless, impossible. A month ago, it seemed like my world had ended. A month ago, I thought I didn’t have anything left to live for.
And now?
Now I have everything.
I kick off my shoes when I see Adam coming up the walkway. Then I burst out the front door and take off running toward the field behind our house. He laughs when he sees what I’m doing, but he doesn’t laugh for long. I’ve gotten fast over the last month and if my wolf wants to chase me, he’s going to have to shift.
“I’m coming,” he yells out.
“You’re too slow!” I shout back. I risk a glance over my shoulder and see him slowly taking off his clothes before he shifts. Yeah, he looks fine as hell. I stop running for just a second because in truth, I want to stand here and just look at him, but then he shifts and I start running again.
I don’t want him to catch me too soon this time.
Not just yet.
Not today.
I run through the grass and feel the dirt beneath my bare feet. Free. I feel free. I feel free and happy and sated, like nothing bad can happy to me. I know my future won’t be easy. I’ll have hardships and struggles. I’ll have to fight and I’ll have to be brave, but something is different now.
Now I have Adam.
And I know that no matter what I face, he’ll be with me the entire way.
No matter how hard things get, no matter how lonely I feel, he’ll be by my side.
He’s my mate.
I’m so lost in thoughts that I don’t hear him sneaking up on me until it’s too late, and he tackles me to the ground. I land in the soft grass, laughing as my wolf snuggles against me. I run my hands through his fur and pet his head. I should be disappointed that he caught me so quickly, but the only thing I can feel is happiness.
The only thing I can feel is joy.
He shifts, then, and suddenly, I’m being hugged by a sexy, naked man, and I have no complaints at all as Adam kisses me in the sunshine.
“You’re beautiful,” he says to me.
“Likewise,” I kiss him on the nose, and then we just hold each other. The journey might be long and unpredictable, but with Adam by my side, I know we can get through anything together.
“I love you, mate,” he whispers.
“I love you, too.”
THE END
Author
Sophie Stern is an erotic romance novelist who lives in the Midwest with her husband. She loves hearing from readers! Please feel free to connect on Facebook or leave a review with your thoughts on the story.
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The Dragon Fighter Excerpt
Read the full book on Amazon here: The Dragon Fighter (Dragon Isle Book 2)
Chapter One
Emerson stared at the old woman in front of him as she listed her complaints. She was upset about the cost of electricity and the price of milk and most of all, she didn’t like having to pay taxes to live on Dragon Isle.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Helsley,” Emerson finally said. “I’m not in charge of the prices. Importing things from the mainland costs money and the prices here reflect that.”
“But it’s not fair,” she whined.
Emerson gritted his teeth. He would not hit a woman. He would not hit this old woman. He wouldn’t yell at her, he wouldn’t raise his voice, he wouldn’t lash out. He was beyond that. He was better than that.
But he didn’t know how much more he could take before he snapped.
When Mrs. Helsley finally left his office, she was threatening to move away from the island. While he said, “We’d hate to see you leave,” what he really meant was, “Okay, please go ahead.”
“I’m going out,” Emerson grunted to his tiny secretary, Penny. She nodded, but didn’t bother asking where he was going or how long he’d be out.
“I’ll clear your schedule,” she said simply. For that, Emerson was grateful. He didn’t deserve Penny and made a mental note to get her something good for her birthday this year. She put up with all of his crap. It was the least he could do. Maybe he’d get her a gift certificate to a nice restaurant off the island. Hell, he should just give her an extra week’s paid vacation. That would do it.
Emerson walked outside and stripped, tossing his clothes in one of the many baskets that decorated the tiny village on Dragon Isle. The baskets each held robes that dragons could don if they accidentally shifted and ruined their clothes, but they also doubled as storage space for dragons who needed to fly somewhere for any length of time.
Today, Emerson wasn’t sure how far he was going to go.
Emerson wasn’t sure how long he was going to fly.
He shifted quickly and easily. It wasn’t hard for a dragon his age. The older a dragon got, the more difficult shifting was, but he was still fairly young. He was old enough to be able to control his shifts, yet youthful enough that it wasn’t challenging.
In other words, Emerson was the perfect age to find a mate.
Yet somehow, he hadn’t.
He knew when he took the position as clan leader that he would one day be pressured to find a mate. He just didn’t know that after a few years leading a group of dragonmen and women, he’d be wishing to find a mate.
No, that’s not really what Emerson wanted at all.
He wasn’t the marrying type.
Yet somehow, after a long day dealing with dragons who just couldn’t be pleased, Emerson wanted nothing more than to curl up in front of the fire with a beautiful female and have her promise that everything would be okay.
And how wimpy was that?
No, Emerson didn’t need all that.
Not just now.
Maybe not ever.
He closed his eyes and flapped his wings, leaping into the air, spinning straight into flight. Within seconds he was soaring high above the trees that surrounded the main village on Dragon Isle. Within minutes, he was coasting over the forest.
The world was simpler up here, quieter. The world was more peaceful.
Yet somehow, Emerson knew that without a female, his life would never stop being lonely.
Too bad he was so damaged that no one would ever want him.
Read the full book on Amazon here: The Dragon Fighter (Dragon Isle Book 2)
Red Says the Dragon
Kaira is an ordinary princess: spoiled, stubborn, and secluded.
When Kaira becomes lost in the forest, however, everything changes.
The Dragon of Naga, Sanguine, takes no prisoners. When Kaira finds herself in his lair, she begs him to spare her life.
“I’ll do anything,” she tells him, and that’s exactly what the dragon requires.
Red Says the Dragon is an erotic novel about a princess, a dragon, and the relationship they forge in the darkness of the forbidden forest.
Want more dragons? Check out Sophie’s medieval dragon book: Red Says the Dragon. You can read chapter one h
ere. The full story is now available on Amazon.
“The forest is no place for a princess,” the King told his daughter sternly. Headstrong and determined, 19-year-old Kaira was not interested in her father’s rules.
“There’s nothing wrong with the forest, Father,” she said simply, blatantly ignoring his comment. “And besides, Ian will be there with me.”
She nodded her head toward her servant: the lowly Ian. The poor boy said nothing as the King’s angry gaze passed over him. Ian didn’t want trouble. He didn’t even want to be here today. All Ian wanted, really, was to run home to his mother and enjoy a bowl of hot lamb stew.
Unfortunately, the princess had other plans: plans that practically guaranteed a delay in his arrival home. If she did convince her father to let her go into the forest, after all, she might be gone for a day or two. Maybe, Ian thought suddenly, they would be gone for an entire fortnight.
And he wished silently to himself that the King would be able to convince his daughter that exploring the forest was a horrible idea.
“Why do you want to explore the forest, Kaira?” The King asked quietly, returning his gaze to the girl. The dirt beneath her fingernails betrayed her luscious gown. She might be a princess by blood, but she was not one in her heart.
“To see all that my Kingdom has to hold,” she replied without missing a beat. Despite the fact that she had practiced her lie a thousand times in her bedroom mirror that morning, both the King and Ian knew that Kaira was hiding the truth.
“And what is so special about the forest this week, Kaira?” The King inquired, stroking his beard. His daughter reminded him greatly of his late wife: headstrong, determined, and stubborn. He remembered the day that his queen had begged to go into the forest, as well, though she had been honest enough to tell him why and smart enough to decide against it.
“It’s just that,” Kaira paused. This was a question she hadn’t anticipated. “It’s so beautiful this week. The weather is good,” she waved her hand to the open window, where a gentle breeze was flowing inside.
No one could argue that it was, in fact, a beautiful day.
“It’s lovely out, Father. If I’m to be Queen one day, don’t you think I ought to know my Kingdom better than anyone else? Don’t you think it’s wise to let me discover all of the secrets that my land has to hold? Don’t you-“
“That’s quite enough,” the King held up his hand and cut his daughter off mid-sentence.
Kaira looked surprised: and she was. The King wasn’t one to interrupt her speeches, nor was he one to ignore her desires. There was something about the forest that Kaira didn’t know, though, that the King knew all too well.
And King Liam was not one to take risks with his most prized possession.
It was simply not his style.
“Ian, leave us,” the King commanded. The poor servant boy stumbled over his too-big feet as he hurried to escape the King’s gaze. He closed the heavy doors behind him and waited in the hallway with the lone guard.
“Trouble in paradise,” the guard commented softly.
Ian just nodded.
**
Inside the room, the King was struggling to deal with Kaira.
“Why won’t you let me go?” She whined. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted. You just don’t want me to be happy,” she pouted. “You wish I was boring and dull like all the lords and ladies. You wish I was bored.”
The King frowned at Kaira.
“You may not go to the forest, Kaira. There are wild things – horrible things – that a princess need not know about. The castle is where you belong. You have full range of the gardens and full freedom to explore the village, but the forest is one place where you may not go. I forbid it.”
Kaira growled at her father, furious with his lack of understanding. Frowning, she turned and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her like a toddler who didn’t get his way.
When she was gone, King Liam collapsed in his throne and closed his eyes. How could he tell his daughter why he didn’t want her to go? How could he warn her about the dangers that she was so frequently drawn to? He knew perfectly well why she wanted to go into the forest this week: trolls. It was troll season and all the best knights were out hunting them, fighting them, and killing them to prove their strength.
He knew Kaira wanted to find a troll.
He also knew that it would kill her in an instant.
That wasn’t why King Liam forbade his daughter to enter the forest, though.
In actuality, a much bigger threat resided in the mountainside behind the darkness of the trees: a threat that would love to get its hands on a princess, especially one as young and tasty as Kaira.
Though the risk of being captured was small, it was less small when you were royalty. And though many believed the fables to simply be myths that had been passed on for generations, the King knew better.
As a young prince, he had wandered too far into the depths of the forest and eventually found himself in a deep, dark cave.
With nothing but his bravery, the King had encountered a monster so great that he had spoken of it only to his one-legged, dim-witted brother Percy who had died later that year. How the King managed to escape, he still didn’t know. How he managed to find his way home, he never knew. How the King managed to find a cavern that few had ever seen, he couldn’t comprehend.
Despite years of searching, he had never been able to find the cave again.
But he knew it was there.
And the King knew that if he warned his daughter of a dragon in their country, she would be running for its cave even faster than she was running for the trolls.
Red Says the Dragon is now available on Amazon!