CORAM

by Bonnie Burrows

  living cell, from which the High Chimerian would never rise again.

  And another whoop went up at the edge of town, an exultation even greater than the one that greeted Sir Rawn. Everyone present, Knight and Fleet and Corps, raised arms and spread wings and thrashed tails, hurling up their voices in victory after a battle hard fought and hard won. The planet Lacerta and the quadrant of space beyond were truly saved.

  Leanne, Coram, Hagen, and Hagen’s comrade came out from behind the transport van and ran down the thoroughfare to join the whooping, cheering throng. They were greeted with cheers and laughs and embraces—and tears for those who had fallen, those who would never rise again but would be remembered and mourned. They would be counted among the honored dead and would be praised in ceremonies in days to come. But for now, sounds of desperate battle turned to cries of relief, and Leanne and her companions added their voices to the cheering mass.

  Somewhere in the din, Coram heard a voice shout to him: “Coram! You bedraggled old dragon, come here!”

  Coram turned his dragon head and saw Willem, Tarik, and Kesta coming in for a landing and shifting to human near him. Coram shouted back, “Willem, you shedding, old serpent!” He returned to human form and ran to them. The four Knights gathered themselves into a group embrace.

  Leanne, accepting the praises and congratulations of the throng around her, noticed that Coram was gone and craned her neck around to look for him. She found him with his friends and smiled at the lot of them, gesturing them over. The four of them joined her. Willem and Tarik at once pulled her into a shared hug. Kesta hung back at first, until they stepped aside for her. The dragon Dame eyed Leanne appreciatively and clapped her hands on Leanne’s shoulders, then drew her in for a hug of her own.

  In a moment, Sir Hagen and Sir Rawn, both in human form, drew near them. The look on Rawn’s face told Leanne that he knew all about her and was proud to know her. For Leanne, it was a moment of total amazement. The most legendary of all the dragon Knights was proud—of her. It felt like the proudest moment of her life…until she met the smiling eyes of Sir Hagen Maxon, with whom it could rightly be said that her journey to this moment had begun. The gleam in his eyes and the approval that lit his face said everything for Leanne. This was the day, the moment, for which she had been born.

  Only one thing could possibly have made this moment more perfect, and all at once, it came when Leanne found herself swept from the ground and off her feet and into the arms of Sir Coram Dunne. In full view of his comrades and the gathered champions of Lacerta, Coram lifted Leanne up and spun her around and around and into a kiss with the full passion of dragon and man.

  And a new cheer burst loudly and boisterously into the air.

  *

  The dragon Corps quickly tracked down Cadoq, whose telepathic powers were nowhere near as formidable as those of his fallen master. He could not fend them off when they surrounded him and closed in en masse, and he was soon apprehended. The mollusk was being faced with deportation to the planet Visan until the authorities of Lacerta had another idea.

  A bargain was struck in which Cadoq would willingly participate in a project by the leading doctors of neurology, neurochemistry, and parapsychology to find new ways to inhibit or block telepathy. The little alien submitted and was kept under arrest with drugs, and would likely remain confined and subdued for the rest of his life.

  The successful Anti-Chimerian Protocol technology, having scored so resounding a victory in Silverwing, was immediately in every settled part of the planet Lacerta, and plans were at once put forward to install the technology and bring it online in every part of the Commonwealth of Worlds. It was fully expected that somewhere in space, outside of the quadrant, the Chimerians still lurked and skulked about in secret. But if they ever dared move against Earth, its colonies, or its allies, they would be found out and brought to a decisive rout.

  Leanne Shire was naturally retained as head of the project, coordinating the efforts across the many planets to which the technology would be applied. It was the validation of all her motives for joining the Fleet and all the work she had put into the initiative, and she looked forward to the satisfaction of seeing it completed. In fact, there was only one thing that satisfied her more.

  As soon as night fell on the day of the fateful victory against the clone of the High Chimerian, Leanne and Coram flung themselves back into bed. Greedy with a frenzied, frantic desire for each other’s body and what lay at their loins, they sent their uniforms flying every which way across Leanne’s quarters, kissing and groping all the way, and Coram hurled her naked across the bed and hurled himself naked and lividly erect on top of her.

  What followed was the most rough, intense, and utterly cathartic sex that either of them had ever had. They did not even bother with foreplay. Neither of them wanted it this time. Coram simply plunged the hot and throbbing totem of his maleness all the way into her and hammered inside her with the most desperate and ferocious lust that either one of them had ever experienced.

  They both screamed and wailed with the hard and furious force of his thrusting, Leanne squeezing his body in her limbs like a python claiming her prey. Coram bellowed out the most profane sexy curses while banging her mound with all his strength and driving his man-weapon in and out of her wetness like a piledriver.

  She dug her fingernails into his shoulders and buttocks like the talon of a dragon, making him curse all the more loudly and bang her all the more furiously. They kissed wet, greedy kisses while he hammered on top of her, driving them to an orgasm that Leanne could swear was felt clean on the other side of the planet. She could well imagine that the outpouring of his climax turned her inner womanhood into a lake of wet, white stickiness.

  It was the sex that both of them needed most after the ordeal through which they had both passed, with their own fate and the fate of so much more at stake. After being subsumed into the power of the High Chimerian, Leanne and Coram were both overtaken with the need to reconnect with what they had discovered in each other’s body and the bond it had formed between them.

  It reaffirmed that their sex was a power they had found, a power that they shared. The monster they had battled had boasted of a unity of all life. The real unity was what they created when Coram was atop Leanne, between her thighs and deep inside her. It was force of nature that empowered them both. And they sensed it would go on until they both drew their last breath.

  After a long time on top of her, Coram eventually softened and slipped out of her, and they rolled, perspiring and panting, into position lying side by side with lingering kisses and hands roaming up and down each other’s body. Now, they melted into tenderness. Coram took his time with afterplay, sucking her nipples with long pulls of his mouth, stroking the wet and slippery petals beneath her pubes, and going down to lick and suck her sex and bring her to a second

  climax that made her push her wetness ecstatically into his devouring mouth.

  Having satisfied her a second time but still wanting more of her, Coram ended up lying with his head on her stomach while playing with her lady parts, looking forward to his next erection which would stiffen up soon.

  When he was ready, he mounted her again and screwed her more slowly, more deliberately, with slow, deep strokes that told her how much she had come to mean to him. Leanne returned his strokes with up-thrusts that said back to him that she had found her perfect partner. They were both amazed that after everything they had been through, they had the energy to give and take so much screwing. But the events of this day had created a need in the two of them that surpassed the fatigue of battle.

  Coram’s inner being was again lit up with the fire of orgasm, and he filled her with another wet, sticky rush from his balls. He kissed her deeply and tenderly and relaxed on top of her, and Leanne caressed his shoulders and butt cheeks, telling him with her touch that she was there for him and would have him as much as he would ever want. And without a doubt, he would want plenty.

  All was
quiet and still after this second coupling, until Leanne said, “You know, after all the times I’ve been with Lacertans—in and out of bed—I’ve never felt as close to you as I did today.”

  Fingering her lips down below and pecking her lips up above, Coram replied, “I don’t think there’s anyone closer in the whole quadrant than the two of us right now.”

  Kissing him back, she said, “You’ll come with me, of course, when I have to leave Lacerta and supervise the other installations. It’ll be a long project.”

  Wickedly, he answered, “I’ll ‘come’ with you everywhere and anywhere, any time.”

  “You know what I mean,” she said.

  “Yes, I know,” he replied. “I’ll put in for transfer or reassignment or even a leave of

  absence. Whatever it takes to keep us together—and keep us in bed every night from now on.” And he kissed her harder to underscore how much he meant it. “I’ll be with you through everything.”

  “Even afterwards?” Leanne asked.

  “‘Afterwards?’ What comes ‘afterwards’ is that you’ll probably have your pick of any assignment or command in your entire Fleet, I assume.”

  “Or…,” she said, “I could go on to something else.”

  “What else would there be?”

  She gazed deep into his eyes and ran her fingers across the hair-dusted plates of his pecs. “Coram, you were right about me,” Leanne said. “There was something in me that I was never really facing head-on until you made me look at it and be completely honest about it. After the project is over…I want to come back here to Lacerta. I want to become a Lacertan. I want to be one of you in every way.”

  His brow arched. He blinked in pleasant surprise. “You really want to join us?”

  “Yes, Coram,” she said, kissing him tenderly. “And I want you to help me.”

  He smiled at her, a smile of adoration and ever-growing desire. “I have never wanted

  anyone so much in my life,” he said. “And you will make a magnificent dragon. You practically are one already.”

  They laughed, folded their arms and legs around each other and drew deeply into a kiss. And Coram rolled Leanne onto her back and slipped his erection into her again, and with his impassioned thrusting inside her, they celebrated their unity once more.

  THANKS FOR READING!

  I really hope you enjoyed CORAM. Remember, the other books in the Dragons Of The Universe series are:

  Book 1 – THRAX

  Book 2 – RAWN

  Book 3 – CORAM

  Go check them out and collect the whole series!

  Otherwise, add your email to the simply shifters mailing list to be the first to know when it is released!

  Bonnie x x

  P.S Turn the page to UNLOCK a hidden complete novel that I threw in extra for you as a way of saying thanks. (It is a previous bestseller!)

  RUNNING

  WITH THE TIGER

  A PARANORMAL SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE

  BONNIE BURROWS

  Copyright ©2016 by Bonnie Burrows

  All rights reserved.

  About This Book

  Cambria thought that she knew everything there was to know about the world and its secret community of shape-shifting tigers. But she was about to discover that what she knew did not even scratch the surface of reality.

  Having been trained to fight the battle for the “good guys” against the Tiger shifters, Cambria believes they are all evil and must be stopped.

  Her beliefs begin to change when a kind hearted WereTiger named Egan James steps out of the shadows and rescues her from a dangerous situation. Something he didn't have to do for her at all.

  Now Cambria must run with this handsome stranger or risk dying. But what was the true motive behind Egan's rescuing of her? Can she really trust a man who is meant to be so evil?

  PROLOGUE

  Cambria hurriedly packed her rucksack as the bedroom door groaned on its hinges. Angry words worked their way through the door, but thirteen-year-old Cambria was done being scared. And she was done being beaten.

  She shoved the last of her clothes into the bag and threw it over her shoulder. The pounding continued and both her parents screamed through the door at her, calling her every foul name imaginable. A single tear slid down her cheek and she swiped it away before quietly unlatching her window and sliding it open.

  She climbed onto her bed and perched on the window sill for a moment. It was a long drop from the second story window, but her door was beginning to crack under the force of their banging and she was running out of time.

  She slid out slowly until she lowered herself as far as she could, clinging to the sill with tiny fingers barely strong enough to hold her weight. Taking a deep breath, she counted to three and let go, letting her body go limp to absorb as much of the landing as she could in her loose joints.

  The ground came fast, and her feet hit the rain softened ground for an instant before she fell back onto her backpack and began tumbling down the steep hill behind her house.

  She wouldn’t call it home. Home was a place filled with love and free from fear.

  She let herself fall for a moment before trying to work her way out of it. But she hadn’t counted on the steep hill being so hard to fight when she’d first had the brilliant idea to jump from her bedroom window.

  After what seemed like forever, she finally moved just right, adjusting herself from somersaults to merely sliding down the grassy, wet hill. She reached the bottom and her momentum finally ceased. The sound of her bedroom door crashing down echoed through the air, and Cambria sprang into action.

  She crouched low, using the moonless night to her advantage as she quickly worked her way to the tree line. Her father bellowed her name into the night, but she was already in the woods and would be long gone before they circled back through the house and made their way down the impossibly steep hill.

  That was, if they cared to go after her at all.

  Panting, and trying to get her bearings, she placed her hand on a tree and bent double. She moved her body, paying attention to her joints and checking for any injuries. Surprisingly, she was unscathed with the exception of a nasty scrape on her elbow she’d gotten when she made contact with the wall on the way down.

  A shotgun blast pulled her out of her musings, and spurred her into action. They were coming after her alright, and it looked like they didn’t care whether she lived or died, as long as she didn’t get away from them.

  She stumbled in the dark, trying to keep her feet under her and be quiet. Listening behind her, she couldn’t hear them coming, yet, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Her parents were accustomed to living in the country and were avid hunters.

  Cambria’s heart raced, and it was hard to hear anything over the pounding of her own heart. But her life depended on her flight, so she pressed on, convinced that she would hear another shotgun blast and feel a searing pain in her back at any moment.

  The packed trail beneath her feet softened before giving way to sand. Cambria knew what this meant, and took a hard left, skirting around the large swamp beyond the trees. She’d spent the last year memorizing the trails in hopes of one day escaping the hell that was her life.

  It would do her no good to escape her parents’ clutches only to find herself in the jaws of a hungry gator.

  She stopped for a moment, listening intently. It was late fall, and the ground was covered with dead leaves. If they were following her, she would be able to hear them even though most of the leaves had been soaked soft by the recent rains.

  But she heard nothing. She started walking, watching the path in front of her. There was little light for her to see, but the light sand that mixed in with the dirt on this part of the trail made traveling a little easier.

  It was late when she’d last looked at her clock, nearly ten p.m. She had nearly five miles to cover before she hit the route 90, which led directly into Sanderson. From there, she would hop on a train if she had to and
get as far away from Florida as she could.

  Her breathing slowed and her heartbeat softened as she walked. The rush of adrenaline after locking herself in her room and jumping from her window, was finally starting to decline. Gone was the frantic feeling she’d had when she first hit the forest, replacing it was a sort of calm that Cambria hadn’t felt once in her short life.

  She was free.

  Not wanting to celebrate too soon and risk losing sight of her goal, she admonished herself that she was not free until she was as far from here as she could get. And that was going to take some doing. Her parents were both raging alcoholics, so she’d managed to steal and stash a large sum of money since she first planned her escape a few months after her twelfth birthday. But six hundred dollars wouldn’t get her very far, and at thirteen, she couldn’t drive a car. Her options were limited, putting one more roadblock between her and freedom.

  Cambria heard a noise in the bushes, and she stepped to the side to put more distance between herself and the edge of the trail closest to the swamp. It didn’t sound like a gator, and no one had seen a bear in these woods for a long while. If it was anything, Cambria knew it would be a wild boar.