20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  His voice was barely more than a whisper.

  Ky had never seen anything like this happen to Match. Even when he'd been contrite after challenging Ciara to prove that she was a true mate, he still had his alpha of alphas bravado. What the hell had just happened? How could he have known Fallyn?

  Ky turned to see the girl's reaction. The smile immediately dropped from her face. There were no more giggles, the laughter was gone. It was replaced by pure hatred, fueled by the fire in her eyes sparking like dynamite.

  She pulled a dagger from a sheath strapped around her thigh and threw it toward Match. She grunted something angry that, Ky didn't understand in a harsh guttural language when her weapon narrowly missed Match's head.

  She threw another almost immediately after, which Match snagged straight out of the air.

  That apparently made her even matter, because she stomped her foot and turned and ran up the tunnel.

  “What the hell was that? Do you know her?”

  Match examined the dagger in his hand and slipped it into his pocket. He didn't answer Ky's question, but shifted back into his Dragon. “You go after the mermaid, I'll find Fallyn.”

  And then what? Match flew up the tunnel where Fallyn had disappeared.

  “Guess I'll see you up top later, bro.”

  He was back exactly where he started, minus the Black Dragon.

  Plan A. Get Azynsa, get the holy fucking hell out of this goddamn hellhole.

  Ky headed up the tunnel where the prison cell cave was. “Azynsa, ready to get out of here?”

  No reply. Shit.

  At least he had his Dragon back and could track her. Ky scented the air and thought for a second heat, a width of something sweet and fruity. Not likely down here. It was probably because he was starving and missed Jada. He would forever associate the scent of strawberry rhubarb with her badassness.

  Thinking of her did several things to his body. He ached for her. Probably always would. But that ache came with a hollow gnaw one that tried to warn him. He was going to get hurt. His age-old instincts told him to push that need for her away. Like a second serving of pudding,

  He loved pudding.

  Sometimes he ate it first.

  And maybe that was the key to dealing with this problem of Jada. It wasn't like he was going to give her up, and he knew that even if their motives were working against each other, their bodies knew how to be together.

  First, he had to find his way back to her. That meant finding Azynsa. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure who her mate was. But he would keep that to himself until it mattered.

  Azynsa smelled like the sea and old paperback books. Strange, but she was half human, so maybe she spent her time on land in a library.

  He followed his nose through the winding tunnels, catching whiffs of other scents he was familiar with. Jakob, Ciara, the black rogue dragon, Portia…and Jada.

  Fuck, what was she doing down here?

  What were any of them doing here?

  He didn’t want to think that Jada was working with Kur-Jara. Had she somehow used her allure to lure them to their dooms? She had already betrayed them all, things may have escalated when the dragons figured that out.

  She’d gone back to her coven. He knew she was closest with Portia, and her father, Leon was a powerful old incubus. This would mean war between demons and dragons.

  It hurt down to his soul to think that his mate could have been working against them all this time.

  Ky needed someone to blame besides Jada, or himself.

  The black rogue dragon. He must've brought them here. A little bit friend, mostly foe.

  All of the scents intermingled at a junction of three tunnels. One was freshly hewn, and Ky recognize the work of the Green Dragon element of earth. They had dug their own tunnel down. Smart.

  Had Jakob or Steele been coerced by the succubae’s allure, or did they think they were here on a rescue mission of their own? It must be the latter, because Jada hadn’t been able to make any of the mated couples do her bidding.

  Now he had an escape route. If Jada were really down here, screw the rest of them, he was getting her out of here. He would take her away where she couldn’t hurt anyone else.

  The group wasn’t in the tunnel behind him, so he took the other one into the dark heat of the caldera as fast as he could. They’re scents grew stronger, so he knew he was on the right path.

  What would he find when he finally caught up to them? Would Jada pretend to be happy to see him? He understood what her allure was made of now, he could avoid it.

  There were several smaller offshoots to this particular tunnel and it appeared this was where the Black Dragon’s army of demon dragons lived. Smelled like it too.

  None of them were here. The supply of the little beasts seemed unending, but they had all battled and fought a great number recently. Maybe they had finally dwindled it down.

  Ky investigated several smaller rooms where their scents were the strongest but didn't find any evidence of them until he heard a woman scream.

  Jada.

  Ky burst into the final room and found his band of not so merry men and women surrounded by an onslaught of demon dragons. Jakob was holding his own against them, supported by Ciara's use of the elements. She was throwing fireballs like a champ.

  A black dragon stood in battle beside them. He wasn't as big as Kur-Jara in dragon form, but he was just as black. There was no mistaking, this was the rogue, the one the first Dragon had warned him about.

  The three had formed a triangle with Azynsa, Portia, and Jada in the middle. Azynsa had her fists raised like a prizefighter, but Portia cowered. She was the one who screamed. She did it again as a demon dragon tried to leap over the warriors to get to the gooey center.

  Through all the chaos Ky's eyes went directly to Jada. She looked up and met his gaze, grabbing the bone carving at her throat.

  Ky was sure he saw relief on her face. There was no deception there, no lies wafting from her. He wanted to believe that.

  Then she smiled at him and the earth moved. Not literally, but in his heart. She was his mate. Always would be. Through good times and in bad.

  He’d wait on those good times to come.

  Time could have stood still for the two of them, but it wasn't that kind. Instead the world accelerated. Jada raised what looked like a tiny pink handgun over her head and shot at the nearest demon dragon. It fell and disintegrated.

  That was no ladies Beretta. It was a goddamn squirt gun filled with blessed rhubarb filling.

  Badass.

  The demon dragons had their backs to Ky, solely focused on the warriors in front of them. Big mistake. Huge.

  A new energy renewed Ky and he tore through them like a rogue wave, slicing and smashing a path to Jada. She did the same pulling more squirt guns from a bag in her hip as she emptied them. He was getting her goddamn super soaker when they made it back to the surface.

  When only a handful of the demon dragons remained, most of them split, retreating down the hallway Ky had just come up. Jakob, Ciara and the black rogue finished the final ones off.

  Jada dropped her final squirt gun to the ground and ran to him. She didn't give him a choice, because she slid right up to him and under one of his wings.

  “I thought you were dead. I can't feel you, and here I mean.” She placed her hand over the bone carving that held his soul shard.

  The one he had given to her, the one he'd been worried she didn't want.

  Ky shifted into his human form and wrapped his arms around Jada. He couldn't help it. He had every intention of keeping her at arm’s length until he could figure out why this wall of mistrust was between them, convince her to come away from the dark side. He’d even make her cookies.

  The way she sniffled against his chest broke that vow to protect his heart. Her tears threw the new wall he’d built around himself on the floor and smashed it into a million little pieces.

  He laid his cheek against the top
of her head and held her tight for just a minute. They were still in the bowels of hell, but he needed this. They both did.

  She hiccupped and sniffled again. “Why can't I feel you?”

  Ky hadn't realized that the droplets of Azynsa's tears were still surrounding his heart, his life force.

  He released them with his thanks and pulled a few from Jada's face to replace them with. She gasped and they both groaned as their connection was restored.

  The blue shard of his soul glowed brightly again on her.

  “Sorry, wahine. It got a bit rough down here for a while.” He would tell her later about his meeting with the White Witch and the First Dragon.

  Jakob cleared his throat. “Sorry to cut your reunion short, but I'd like to get out of here with my scales intact and my mate unharmed.”

  Ky was going to ask Jakob why he brought Ciara at all, but nah. She was a white witch, one who was still learning her powers, but from the day they had all first met her, nobody told her what to do. It drove Jakob crazy, which Ky found hilarious until very recently when his own mate had him questioning, love, life, and the meaning of everything.

  The answer wasn’t 42.

  Jakob and Ciara were solid. They’d had a seriously rocky start. Like ships crashing on jagged spikes of rock in a storm with no lighthouse.

  They’d made it through and were happy as Pāua in the mud.

  Would he and Jada ever be that way?

  He had a million questions to ask her. It would be a difficult conversation. All of the whys would plague him if he didn't. He wanted to get on that path to forgiveness as soon as he could.

  The way to do that was to get home.

  “Match is down here too. Get this, he's chasing the black dragon's daughter.” Ky looked over at the rogue. “You've got quite the family.”

  The black dragon shifted into his human form. He had no shard hanging around his neck, so Ky didn't understand how he was able to shift.

  The rogue scowled at him. “They are not my family. I have no family.”

  Portia stood up and tried to take the rogue’s hand. He pulled it away.

  That was when Ky noticed the shard hanging around Portia's neck. It was a dull yellow, but he would recognize it anywhere. It was Cage's.

  Was that why Jada had stolen the shard? To give it to her sister?

  His questions were interrupted by Azynsa. “I'm not leaving yet.”

  The rogue turned on her. He growled. “You need to get the fuck out of here. I've helped you as much as I could. But Kur-Jara will kill you if he doesn't get what he wants.”

  Azynsa lifted her chin. Such a defiant mate she was going to be. “I don't care. That woman, Fallyn, she made a huge sacrifice for me and was punished because of it. I have to find a way to repay her.”

  The rogue rolled his eyes. “Getting yourself killed will not help her. I’m not sure anything can.”

  “I have to try.” Azynsa had such a look of determination on her face, they all knew they weren't leaving until they helped her rescue the Black Dragon's daughter.

  The sooner they did that, the sooner Ky could get Jada back in his arms, back in his bed, back on his cock. Then he’d work on getting her back in his heart. “Then, let's find Match because he's on the hunt for her too.”

  Mermaids and Other Mates

  Jada had been overwhelmed with emotion when she first spotted Ky in the cavern. When he had opened himself up again and his life force rejoined hers she wanted very little more than to strip him naked and get it on with him right there on the floor of hell. But she'd held back because he had.

  She understood he had almost died. That much she knew was true. But it didn't explain why he was acting distant now. There was something bigger wrong.

  Was he mad that she had put herself in danger to come find him? How could she not?

  Even now as they tromped through the flaming hot tunnels of this volcano he didn't look at her the way he used to. There was something he was holding back from her. A piece of himself.

  Their relationship was pretty new, and she had spent most of it mistrusting him, but she would show him now that that was over.

  She was his, fully. She wanted nothing more than for him to belong to her in the same way.

  It was only fair of him to be wary. After all, it had been because of her failed attempt to use her allure that had gotten him captured.

  She hoped she wouldn't have to use it again.

  There little rescue party searched more tunnels than Jada knew existed in the world, with Ky using his tracking senses to lead them. Now was not the time for her to have any sort of conversation with him. But, if it looked like things were going bad again, she wouldn't wait to make sure that he understood she was fully in. Not just in for the relationship, but in love.

  She had told him the last time they were together, but it was in the throes of passion. People said a lot of things during sex. She'd heard it all. Lots and lots of declarations of love. She'd never returned a single one, until him. And it wasn't just because he gave her great orgasms.

  She didn't want him to think that his skilled use of his fingers, tongue, and other sexy parts of him were the reason she had said those three little words.

  Portia walked alongside of Jada, her head hanging low. This was one hell of a bed she'd made for herself. “Jada, do you think there's any chance that Jett and I will have what you and Ky do?”

  Jada hadn't seen Jett and Portia interact all that much, but he did seem to be continually pushing her away. In all of the other mated couples, including herself, the soul shards had been an integral part of the relationship. The one that Portia war did not glow.

  She had stolen it for Jett. But, Jada didn't understand how that could work.

  The soul shards contained a piece of their Dragon's soul. Jett didn't have a soul shard. Did that mean he didn't have a soul? Was that what being a black dragon meant?

  Maybe that was why both Jett and Kur-Jara a were trying to take other dragon’s soul shards. Perhaps, the Black Witch, Ereshkigal had a spell that would… what? Take these slivers of souls and transfer them to someone else?

  The thought of that gave Jada a chill.

  “I don't know, Portia. I only partially understand this dragon mating business, myself.”

  “Do you think that the mating is all that brought you and Ky together?”

  Was it? Not a chance. The White Witch had intervened, but somehow Jada knew that she and Ky would have found their way to each other anyway. She didn't believe that love could be born from pure coercion, and that is what fate seemed like her. It may have thrown them together, but it was Jada's choice to love Ky. She hoped it was his as well.

  “No. But it helped, as did the White Witch. Did she visit you too, is that how you knew Jett was your mate?” She didn't add the despite not having a soul shard and the fact that Jett didn’t seem to actually like Portia all that much part.

  “I'm pretty sure I would have had a cow if I had met the White Witch. Are you saying you did?”

  “Yes, although only briefly. Ciara and Fleur both did as well. She helped both of them find new power within themselves.” Jada found herself a little jealous of that. But, she was grateful that Ninsy had helped her.

  “Geshtianna is the one who introduced me to Jett. She said she could tell that I was a dragon's mate. Jett is a dragon. Plus, the sex was phenomenal. Did you know that you can get a whole new level of energy from an orgasm? I wasn't even hungry for a week afterwards.”

  See, this was the girl talk Jada had wished she could have had with Portia before she discovered the betrayal. “Yeah, I had that experience too.”

  Portia looked between Jada's face and Ky's back. “I bet you did.”

  Ky paused in front of them and then shouted, “up ahead.” He and Jakob rushed forward. Ky shifted back into his Dragon form, but Jakob did not.

  In a moment, Jada and the others saw why. Slumped against the side of an outcropping of rocks, sat a great big red Dra
gon. His breathing was labored, and Jada saw why. A dagger was sticking straight out of the middle of his chest.

  “Match, what happened?” Jakob examined the wound and matches chest. The dagger didn't look that big, so it must have hit something vital.

  Ky circled the small room and must have felt they were not in any immediate danger, because he shifted back to his human form too.

  Match must have communicated something only to the other dragons because they exchanged a glance and then Ky pressed one hand against matches chest and grabbed the dagger with the other.

  “On the count of three, you pull that out, and I will heal what I can. But I think it went directly into his heart.”

  Ky nodded and braced himself. Jakob blew a green mist over the place where the dagger stuck out of the red dragon’s chest. Match groaned, and smoke rose out of his mouth and nostrils as he coughed at the pain.

  “Now,” Jakob yelled.

  Ky pulled the dagger out and Jakob blew more green mist directly into the wound.

  The red Dragon shimmered and became a man again. “Be careful with that blade. She's poisoned it.”

  “Jesus, bro. What did you do to that girl.”

  Match did not respond.

  “We need to get him out of here. That won't be enough if the poison is still in his blood.” Jakob helped match to his feet and then supported him with his shoulder. “You're lucky to be alive, you son of a bitch.”

  “Where is she? Where did Fallyn go?” Azynsa asked.

  Match shook his head. “I don't know, I just… She wanted to get away from me.”

  “I have to find her.”

  Ky looked first at Azynsa and then over at Jada and Portia. “Azza, we can't leave you. You're a Dragon's mate. And he needs you. He's dying.”

  Ky apparently knew who this girl's mate was. But, how?

  He waved Jada and Portia over to them. The shard at Portia's neck lost its dull color and began to glow.

  “Ow, ow, ow.” Portia ripped the shard from her neck. It had left a burn mark over her heart. “What is happening? Why did it do that?”