by Kim Faulks
Aries
Zodiac Dragon Guardians, Book IV
Kim Faulks
Edited by
Angela Kelly
Illustrated by
Jacqueline Sweet
Cover art by Jacqueline Sweet
Copyright © 2017 by Kim Faulks
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or 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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Contents
Sign up
Acknowledgments
Aries
Introduction
1. Zadoc
2. Joslyn
3. Zadoc
4. Joslyn
5. Zadoc
6. Joslyn
7. Zadoc
8. Joslyn
9. Zadoc
10. Joslyn
11. Zadoc
12. Joslyn
13. Zadoc
14. Joslyn
15. Zadoc
16. Joslyn
17. Zadoc
18. Joslyn
19. Zadoc
Alpha
Alpha - Book 5 Zodiac Dragon Series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
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This one is dedicated to my readers. For all the emails and the messages that brighten my day. Thank you for being you.
Acknowledgments
I have a few people to thank here…to Ann-Marie as always for being my shoulder to cry on, and laughing at me, with me and everyone else. May we have many more crazy times ahead.
To Kristy for putting aside her own stuff to proofread and to Dianne, welcome to my crazy proofreading world—you are very much appreciated.
To Erica for helping me with my spreadsheet and jut being awesome, and my phenomenal sprint team: May, Erica, Tee, Nikko, Victoria and Aaron. You helped me push harder than ever before.
And last, but certainly not least to Ang for wading through the sludge I call a timeline and helping me nail it down. Thank you for all your hard work.
Aries
Zodiac Dragon Guardians, Book IV
Dark, Sexy. Powerful. This Zodiac Dragon Series will scorch the pages.
She was a siren amongst an ocean of terror. One fragile woman, fighting to survive...fighting to be heard.
And Zadoc Kane heard her with every fiber of his being.
Zadoc's the fourth of twelve Guardians. Dragon-born in the sign of Aries, he carries all the traits of his sign—the good and the bad.
He's the protector, the hard-headed stubborn ram. He's brave and noble with a vicious temper, and he has littered his family's mountain with the bodies of those who've harmed the weak.
And as the rival Echo pack descends on his home to kill his family, he plans on adding to the count.
Until a voice stops him in his tracks...a human woman amongst a sea of wolves.
Zadoc has a choice, fight alongside his kin...or sacrifice everything to protect her.
But the choice was never his to make.
His Dragon, the Wretched, will make it for him.
1
Zadoc
Two weeks ago…
Now. Help me…damn you…
I opened myself up for the rush of power as the attacker stepped from the trees.
My body trembled, my muscles were ready. I wanted my bones to break. I wanted to feel his barbs pierce my skin. I needed to feel his horns shatter my forehead and shape the bone…
I was desperate to feel his spirit, like the glint of an ember against the endless dark.
But there was no pain. There was no fire. There wasn't even the bitter scent of flint in the damn air.
I'll die…is that what you want? "Do you really hate me that much?"
The wolf in front of me smiled. "I don't hate you Dragon. I just want you dead."
He was big. Hulking shoulders made thicker by the gray speckled pelt he wore. The fur's legs wrapped around the girth of his arms. Its ears smashed flat like soft scaled armor…a wolf's pelt—I wrenched my head up to stare him in the eyes—this Echo pack bastard wore one of his own.
He grinned and moved close. His fingers were poised, nails lengthened to claws. Behind me, the panicked shouts of my family mingled with war cries of others.
Shifters plunged through the trees on all sides. The rival pack engulfed our home like a tsunami, and I was helpless to stop it.
The shifter clucked his tongue, drawing my focus. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about them. You're all mine."
His boots ground pine needles into the earth as he circled. His eyes were alight, glistening with hunger…but not of food…of blood.
Screams and shouts blended into one another, underneath the barbarous roar I heard them…I felt them, their panic ignited my fire, and rage closed in. My kin. Marcus…Victor…Evander…
But first I had a wolf to kill.
"You're a big bastard, aren't you?"
I raised my head at the sound, but it wasn't his voice I captured. It was the thready throb of his heart beating faster…faster.
I sucked in the stench. The bass in my voice trembled. "Do you smell them?"
His brow narrowed, nostrils flared. One panicked glance to his right and then his left put him at ease. I could see it in his eyes, that smugness, that cocky fucking grin.
"All of those I buried up there. Ever wondered why they never came back?"
Glistening eyes dulled like the blunted edge of a blade. His steps stilled. The fur moved as his chest expanded. The fetid stench was there, carried downwind from the piles I'd littered across this mountain. Once you realized what the smell was, you never forgot.
"All those you traded with, sold to and bought from…all here." I swept my hand through the air. "Most of the bodies I burned, but some I kept whole…as a greeting for you."
His hand clenched into a fist as he shifted his stance. One boot slid along the ground. His body tightened, primed for attack. Fist cocked…ready…he was so fucking ready.
So was I.
The shifter lunged, driving his body through the air and swung.
I slammed into his chest and rebounded. My feet skidded with the impact. My knee gave way as pain ripped through my chest. His claws carved muscle and wedged into bone.
My fingers trembled and slipped, still I grasped his thick pelt and dragged the wolf close. "There's only one difference between me and my kin. Do you know what that is?"
He struggled, gripping me with one arm while he ground his claws deeper.
Malice glinted red in his eyes. Sweat glistened on my bare scalp. I watched the trickle in the reflection. "They've spent their entire life fighting their Dragon nature."
His nails hooked and clawed, burrowing deeper. Pain spread like poison, morphing into another sense of self. Deep down, my Dragon, the Wretched, answered with a smile. "And I've been waiting for mine to return."
My Dragon lingered in the murky undercurrent of my soul, power rippled, always too far away. Now, I demanded. Come to me now.
The connections were old and frayed. My Dragon pulled away, sinking under the guise of loneliness and betrayal. I plunged my mind into the depths and touched…something. Energy coursed, dark, hungry, surging to the surface.
Now, I growled. Protect me now you sonofabitch.
The Dragon tore his way to the surface. Blazing red eyes filled my mind, and cruel words followed. My feet slipped, stumbled as the wolf drove me backwards. My knuckles popped under the strain.
The wolf grasped my shirt and heaved. Fabric ripp
ed as he tore his nails free. Searing pain blinded me. I hit the ground and rolled.
Tree roots found every tender point along my spine. My head glanced off a tree, and stars landed behind my eyes.
Still my Dragon snarled with a fiery gaze, until the faint sound of a woman's voice cut through the roar.
"Get your goddamn hands off me."
The Wretched turned, nostrils flared. I sucked air choked with dust into my lungs as the wolf reared and blocked out the sun.
"Ready to die, Dragon?"
Yet all I could hear was the woman. Her small, fragile words drowned out in a sea of misery.
The pungent scent of wolf and...other cut through the heady scent of pine, but there was something else…the bitter tang of fear mingled with the sweet sweat of fragility…a human, a female human.
"Touch me one more fucking time, and I'll scream until my lungs bleed." She spat. "Someone out there will hear me, and they'll come."
But her voice was fading. Boots scuffed. The snap of a twig followed. I rolled and shoved off the ground.
A guttural roar echoed through the trees. The inhuman arachnid sound was one of blood-sickened defeat. It could be only one…Xael.
My lips curled as the wolf's howls fell silent. If there was someone you wanted by your side in an ambush, it was my Scorpion sister.
But it was the small sounds that filtered down from higher on the mountain that drew me close. The woman…the human woman screamed and swore. I narrowed in on her cries as the big shifter chuckled. His lips peeled back exposing yellow teeth. "Bodies, huh? Maybe you're more like us than you realize."
Those words were a blow to my stomach. I heard her pain. I tasted her suffering.
Yet all I felt was cold, hard, rage.
My Dragon moved closer, heaving his massive frame from the dark depths of despair. I turned. My blood coated the tips of the wolf’s fingers and splattered his pelt. A howl rose above the screams and shouts. The lone torturous sound came from my home…a Bloodstone wolf.
Even with the Bloodstone wolves, the Echo pack outnumbered us ten to one.
The wolf chuckled. "Time to end this, baldy. I've got other Dragons to kill."
I raised my gaze to cut through the trees…the woman…I could barely hear her now. Still the bitter scent of her fear lingered.
If you won't protect me Dragon, at least protect her.
The Wretched sank back on his haunches. Dark eyes gleamed with malice. He lowered that thick forehead in warning. Flat white teeth that could grind a man to dust glinted in the sunlight of my mind.
It was too late to save myself…
But not too late to save her.
My Dragon shifted under my skin. The sting of fire followed.
I ground my jaw. Sawing breaths filled my lungs, until the sudden snap of bone ended everything.
My right knee buckled. The sting was instant, gnawing, savaging my back. Something hacked and clawed through sinew and bone. I wrenched my head, straining as a warm trickle of crimson consumed my shirt.
Something cruel and terrifying poked from underneath…something…Dragon.
My boot caught as I stumbled. Fabric ripped. The rush of air was like acid to soft, tender flesh. The tremor raced, grinding bone against bone, birthing something barbaric.
I stumbled sideways as the wolf cocked his fist and lunged.
Wind buffeted my face, but it wasn't his knuckles. This thing from my back smacked the ground, and then shot high into the air.
The downward plunge of my wing pierced his flesh. Red entrails bulged and spilled over the talons of my wing. I was mesmerized by the image. I wrenched my wing higher, through his belly until the throb of his heart beat against my bone. Ribs snapped and speared through, waving like thin white fingers.
His heart fluttered, beating frantically with the last throes of life.
And it was the last—the last fight, the last sight…the last seconds.
A bestial cry tore free as blood trailed from the corner of his mouth. I drove him backwards, forcing his feet to dance over the slick fir covered ground until there was nowhere else but down.
"You," he whispered, his dark eyes glistened with truth. "Didn't believe."
The wolf was made of water and not much else. I dragged the tip of my wing free. Red washed over white like slick rain on glass. Warm blood cooled the tip of my wing as I wrenched my talons free. I wanted to answer him, to say something profound.
With a grunt, I drove the monstrous claw through his chest. His chest caved, heart pulsed. Impaled on the tip, the throb fell silent. I stared down at his bloody mess. His muck covered my chest and splattered my skin. I lifted my hand and smeared a drop from my cheek as I turned my head to the crest of the mountain.
The faint hum of her voice lingered in the air. I couldn't hear the words, but I felt her. I turned my head, seeking the sound, and I realized I needn't say anything to the wolf at all.
The monstrous limb scraped across rocks as I lunged. I stumbled, grasped a branch to keep my balance, and dragged the alien thing close.
My Dragon snarled and bared his teeth. The rush of his breath filled my ears, drowning out the shrieks of horror below. The wing slapped and trembled against my spine. Long bones flattened, tilted, and then drew into my back.
What the Dragon gives…he also takes away.
The long bone rubbed against my spine as I charged from one tree to the next. He was there, teasing, goading…pissing me the fuck off.
I didn't need his shit. Not now. "If you're going to sulk, then get out of my fucking way."
The low growl in reply raced through my body. The Wretched reared, nostrils flared. I turned away, and focused on the brush, climbing higher, faster. Pine trees whipped past, my steps were sure. I knew this terrain better than anyone.
They'd keep to the flat. The rocky ridge was too brittle to lead a group higher. I could catch them if I hurried.
My Dragon was silent, leaving me with the jarring thud of my boots. I charged through a thick line of blackberry. Thorns snagged and tore my jeans as voices slipped between the trees up ahead.
I lengthened my steps, moving quieter across the pebbled rocks, and leapt from one washed out crevice to the next.
"Stop. Wait. Talk to me. Where are you taking me?"
There was a muffled answer I couldn't catch. I caught sight of her as she passed through the gap of one bank of trees to another. She was thin, tiny, scurrying over fallen logs and slippery terrain as a wolf dragged her along.
Desperation bled into her words. "I made a mistake. But it's my mistake. I won't say a word, not to anyone. I'll disappear. Please, is that what you want to hear? You want me to beg? I'll beg, Nick. You'll never hear from me again…I don't want anything from you. I promise, Nick."
Flashes. All I saw were flashes as I crept closer. But I heard more than enough.
Her grunt of surprise was followed by a brutal slap. The heavy throb of my heart filled the space until finally the wolf spoke. "You're fucking thick, you know that? Thick and a dead fucking lay. You weren't even that good for a slut. I bet you had half the town between your legs before you got to me. I bet you enjoyed twisting your fucking claws under my skin, didn't you?"
Her muted sounds of torment twisted something inside me.
"What?" The wolf barked. "What did you say, slut?"
"I said, don't call me that! You've been the only one, Nick. You know that."
I crept closer, catching her cower from the bastard's feigned punch.
"I'd slice a smile across your belly, and pull that runt out now if I could." His graveled words rubbed me raw. He jerked his gaze upwards. "So let me give you some fucking advice, slut. Shut your mouth before I shut it permanently. I don't wanna look at you. I don't wanna hear you. I don't want to know you. You're as good as dead to me, understand? And so is that fucking brother of yours."
I drifted along her body…runt?
Fear stained the air. The biting scent was so thick I had to swallow
the stench. No one touches a woman, or a child, and lives. Not while I breathe fire and walk this earth.
The warning echoed. I'd said those exact words to Marcus and I'd meant every single one of them.
The young woman stiffened, and raised her head. Hate hardened her words. "I hope you go after Finn, and I hope he kills you. I hope he and all the Sheriffs kill every goddamn one of you. I'll laugh when he does. I'll laugh, and laugh, and laugh."
There was no bluffing this time. The wolf grasped her jacket and dragged her to stand. A male's voice cut through the trees up ahead. "Leave her alone, Nicholas."
There was no blow to the face, no mark left for anyone else to see—not this time.
The weak, spineless bastard drove his fist into her belly, until her feet left the ground. I was caught on that sight. Her dust covered sneakers jerked and danced, until with her scream the shifter let her go.
Her knees buckled like a newborn foal. I could almost feel the thud as she hit the ground.
And that's where she stayed. Her tiny movements consumed me. Her sneaker scraped the ground as she dragged one knee higher, followed with the other. Tormented sounds filled the air, thick with suffering. She was barely a woman. No more than a child.
The sick bastard stepped away. I wanted to tear my gaze from her trembling body. I wanted watch the bastard who did this to her.