The Vampire Prince’s Bride

by T. S. Ryder

  The Alpha roared in pain, wrapping a hand around Brian's throat. He squeezed, cutting off the other werewolf's breath. Brian sank his fist into Roland's stomach again and again, until Roland stumbled back, gasping and wheezing. Brian sagged against the wall, panting, then pushed himself to his feet again. He turned his head. Roland followed his gaze. A gun lay beside Claire. She writhed against her bonds, eyes wide as she tried to grasp it.

  Both werewolves staggered in a circle, panting, glaring at each other.

  "We both know how this ends," Brian gasped out. "So let's get it over with."

  He dove for the gun. Claire rolled, covering the weapon with her body. Roland lunged, seizing Brian by his shirt. They tumbled over the ground until Roland sprang to his feet. He dragged Brian up and threw him against the wall. His canines sank into Brian's throat. The copper taste of blood exploded in his mouth. He felt the flesh give as he tore. Brian's eyes widened. His hands clutched the front of Roland's shirt.

  The Alpha stared at the bubbling blood and smelled that the wound was fatal. Fear rolled in waves off Brian, and just like that, he was a pack member again. Roland gently lowered him to the floor, supporting his head and neck as the blood continued to flow. He tried to staunch the river but there was too much damage.

  "I would have protected you until death," Roland whispered. "All of you. You were one of my pack, one of my family. I'm sorry that you were cursed with being a werewolf, but—"

  Blood bubbled on Brian's lips as he laughed. The sound was wet and gurgling. His gaze sharpened for a moment. "You'll never understand."

  The smell of blood was heavy in the air as Brian's eyes lost their focus. Roland heard his heartbeat, rapid at first, then slower, then nothing at all.

  "No," Roland sighed, bowing his head. "I won't understand."

  Movement behind him reminded him that Claire was still bound and gagged. He closed Brian's eyes and turned his back on his dead pack member. Claire's wide eyes stared at him. She was terrified. He could smell her fear and hear the rapid beating of her heart. His own heart sunk low. After seeing him like this, she would run. And he wouldn’t blame her. He pulled the gag from her mouth and dropped his gaze as he started on the ropes.

  "Did he hurt you?" His voice was rough.

  "No."

  "Did he…?" He didn't want to think about the possibility that the bastard had actually raped Claire. But if he had, then he needed to know–Claire would need therapy, and even if she wanted nothing more to do with him, he would make sure she got the help she needed.

  "No," Claire repeated, softer this time.

  Relief flooded him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

  He couldn't undo the knots, but his teeth were still sharp in his mouth, so he bent and gnawed through the bindings. As soon as she was free, Claire threw her arms around him.

  Shock rippled through him. After what she had just seen, how could she stand to touch him? She should be running from him as fast as she could! He had just brutally killed another man and she was hugging him?

  "It's not your fault."

  Roland realized he was trembling. "I've never killed anyone before."

  "He would have killed you. It's not your fault." Claire stroked his hair. "It's not your fault.

  The taste of Brian's blood was still in his mouth. He held his mate as tightly as he could, afraid that if he let her go there would be nothing to anchor him and he'd go spinning off the world, never to return. She stroked his hair, whispering again and again that it wasn't his fault. Roland had no breath to respond. He could only hold her tighter.

  Chapter Ten

  It was two weeks after Claire had given birth. She sat at the kitchen table in Roland's guesthouse, her new home. She traced the gentle curve of her belly, feeling almost melancholy that there wasn't a life inside her anymore. But holding her tiny daughter was worth the loss of movement inside her.

  "Hello?"

  Claire jumped as Grace's voice came out of her phone, where it was laying on the table. She shook her head, grounding herself back into the present. "Sorry, I lost my train of thought. What did you say?"

  "I was asking if Roland is any better."

  Claire sighed. She knew from her own experience that killing someone, even in self-defense, wasn't something that you just magically got over. Roland still carried a lot of guilt, both for Melissa and Brian's deaths, although he had been making progress over the past months.

  "He's doing better, yes. But it's going to take him time to recover. I'm just glad that he's seeing that therapist."

  "Give him my best."

  "I will."

  Claire shifted uncomfortably. Her breasts were feeling overly full. It was time to go feed little Ada–the tiny baby needed to be fed every hour. Claire smiled as she remembered her daughter's birth. It had been easier than she had thought it would be, but after she saw exactly how tiny her child was, the ease of labor had made sense.

  All the full moons throughout the pregnancy had been difficult, but they had got progressively worse as the baby grew, and Claire had been constantly worried that she was going to lose the baby. Roland had helped ease her fear by staying by her side, even when his body changed to that of a humanoid wolf. But when Claire had gone into labor at 36 weeks, she had been glad that she wouldn’t have to go through another full moon while pregnant.

  "More importantly, when can I come and meet Ada?"

  Claire winced. Grace had been thrilled about the pregnancy, and Claire knew that she was planning on being a big part of Ada’s life. But they had to be careful about when they had visitors, and make sure that they planned around the full moon.

  “Soon, I promise. Look, I have to go and feed her.”

  “Okay. But send me a picture at least.”

  “I will do. Call you later.”

  Claire hung up the phone, smiling, and headed into the bedroom. Ada Doyle-Davis was born weighing just five pounds and four ounces. When Claire first saw her, her heart had stopped. She was certain that, even though her baby had survived the full moons, she couldn't survive being born so tiny. Ada had been only skin and bones, and she still seemed exceptionally thin, although the doctors had said she was doing fine.

  Roland sat on the bed, cradling their daughter against his chest. The doctors had told Claire that physical contact was very beneficial for babies born prematurely, so the two of them took turns holding her at all times. The other members of the pack hung around, making food, cleaning and never straying far from the guest house. All of them were extremely protective of the little girl who would be the next Alpha.

  "Is she awake?" Claire asked, and Ada stirred at the sound of her voice. Her eyes had not yet opened, but she still responded to the sounds around her.

  "Awake and wanting her mother."

  Claire slipped off her shirt and unhooked her bra. Ada's tiny mouth was already searching as Roland passed her to her mother.

  Roland put an arm around Claire as Ada began nursing. "She's amazing."

  "She is. Grace phoned. We're going to need to be careful with her. I think she’s going to want to spend a lot of time with Ada. I'd like to be able to tell her the truth someday, but…"

  "Adam would like that, too. I think he might be smitten with her."

  Claire couldn't help but laugh. "If he can get her, it'll be a miracle. That girl goes through boyfriends like we go through socks."

  "Adam's always had a similar relationship with women. I told him that he's not allowed to get her pregnant, but the rest is his business."

  "Hypocrite," Claire cooed. "If I hadn't gotten pregnant on our once-only night, would we be together now?"

  "Yes." Roland shrugged at Claire's raised eyebrow. "We would have found a way to be together. We are meant to be. You're my mate. Somehow, no matter what else happened, you and I would have found each other."

  Claire had to admit that he was right–she felt just as strongly as he did. "And now we have Ada." She leaned her head against his shoulder
, smiling. "I love you."

  "I love you, too." Roland's breath ruffled her hair. "I love you forever and ever."

  "And ever and ever," Claire added.

  Roland smiled. He laughed and drew her in for a kiss. "And ever and ever and ever and ever…"

  *****

  THE END

  The Dragon Shifter's Love Potion

  Description

  A witch in love with her best friend’s older brother PLUS a dragon shifter with a bad boy attitude PLUS a risky love potion!

  Thea, a twenty-one-year-old big, beautiful woman, has fallen in love with her best friend’s older brother.

  As a witch, she knows how to make the best potions, but love potions are risky...

  They only work if the drinker already has some feelings for the maker. Thea mixes the potion and spikes Logan’s drink, but she isn’t sure the sip he took was enough. Later that night, when Logan comes to her dorm room, she thinks the potion has worked after all. But the next day, Logan seems to have changed his mind, leaving Thea questioning everything.

  Does Logan have real feelings for Thea? What will happen when she tells him her secret? And what will her best friend do when she knows that Thea slept with her brother? Find out now!

  Chapter One

  Thea went into the closet of her dorm room and pulled the door shut behind her. She turned on the lamp, illuminating the small space and all the objects she had brought in there with her. Several containers held crushed herbs or other elements, like the dove feather she’d had to find. There were several test tubes of liquid and a candle to heat the mixture.

  She looked at her book of potions, reading the instructions again. She poured oyster oil into an empty flask and added her own saliva. Then the dove feather. Next, she added the rose petals and lavender. She swirled the mixture while holding the tube over the candle’s flame, as the book instructed. She added the remaining ingredients, heating and cooling, stirring and sitting as the potion called for.

  When it looked to be the correct color, Thea dipped in her finger and tasted the potion. She’d never made a love potion before, so she wasn’t sure what it should taste like. But there were always certain things to check for with potions, like whether it tasted burnt from the flame or rotten in any way. She also needed to know how strong the taste was and what might hide it the best.

  This potion, though, unlike many others, was designed to be hidden. Most times, people didn’t knowingly drink a love potion. They had to be tricked into it. Tricked into loving the person who’d brewed it. When she tasted it, its taste was very faint. She could likely hide the potion in almost anything. Except maybe water. Or something too clear. It did have a pinkish hue to it that would show if whatever she put it in didn’t have a color or taste of its own.

  With the potion ready, Thea turned the lamp off and opened the closet door. Her dorm room was empty. That made things much easier. She mixed potions and did spells in the closet sometimes to keep them hidden from her roommate, but always worried that one time she’d come out of the closet to find Marie standing there, staring at her like she was crazy. And she would surely look crazy, having hidden in the closet for who knows how long. What excuse would she give? Was she looking for something? Was she crying in private? Or praying? None of them really applied, but her roommate wasn’t here, so all was well.

  She stood in front of the mirror, checking her outfit. She wanted to look cute, but not like she’d dressed up on purpose or anything.

  Her denim shorts and t-shirt seemed perfect. The shorts hugged her voluptuous waist and the t-shirt showed off her ample chest. All of her curves looked good today. She smiled, tossed her dark hair over her shoulder, and slipped the tiny vial of love potion into her pocket.

  Thea picked up her purse and left her dorm room, locking the door behind her. She walked out of the building and down the street three blocks, then over two blocks until she reached the gray house. It stood tall and eerie before her, its many dormer windows reaching into the sky.

  Maybe it only seemed creepy to Thea because she knew what went on inside the huge house. It was full of college students, like most houses on campus, but this one was a bit different. Each of the six students who lived there was a dragon shifter. This was not public knowledge by any means, but since she herself was a witch, also bound by secrets and magic, Thea was in on it. Though she wasn’t allowed to live here. It was exclusively for shifters. The “nest”, as her best friend Elise called it.

  She walked to the front door, where they had brazenly and ironically installed a dragonhead door knocker. Clearly they found humor in their secret keeping. Thea knocked and waited. Elise was expecting her, and just a few moments later, she opened the door and smiled at Thea.

  “Morning!” Elise said, rubbing her eyes.

  “Or afternoon, but whatever,” Thea said.

  “Oh.” Elise yawned and looked at her watch, then shrugged. “We were up late.”

  They hugged and Thea followed her into the house.

  “So, what were you up late doing?” Thea asked.

  They went to the living room, where all the windows were covered in thick curtains. Their purpose was to keep anyone from seeing in, so the shifters could shift whenever they wanted to, but it also made the whole house feel very dark and spooky. The curtains, a stiff burgundy fabric, glowed blood red in the afternoon sun, sending a red tint over everything.

  “We were working on a spell.” Elise flopped down on the couch and Thea sat beside her. “Want some coffee or something?”

  “Sure. What spell?”

  They both did magic, like all dragon shifters and witches did, but the shifters could often do more powerful spells. Something in their blood connected them to the magic more strongly than it did for their purely-human counterparts. Thea was always slightly jealous of this, but also knew the hassle and dangers that came with being a shifter.

  So many times she’d had to sit with Elise through the night when she couldn’t shift back for some reason. Either she’d gotten too emotional or drunk too much, and she couldn’t get her head in the right place to make the shift. Or there were the times when she accidentally shifted, the worse being in the middle of class in high school, when Thea had had to cast a memory spell on all the students to make it seem like nothing at all had happened in class that day. The moon affected her, as did certain foods and spices, and being out in nature was always dangerous. Anything that tied back to nature, which was the root of all magic, could affect dragon shifters if not handled correctly.

  Most shifters, by the time they reached their twenties, had gotten a good handle on shifter life. They stuck together closely, helped each through it and relied on their witch allies to help as well. And the dragons often worked with witches to do more powerful spells. It was a big advantage for them both that they were best friends. Even if she didn’t have the increased magical ability that Elise did, Thea had to admit that many times she was glad she didn’t have to deal with the hassle of shifter life. Her world was much simpler.

  Elise padded into the kitchen to make coffee. “We’re working on levitating objects.”

  “Whoa.” Thea followed her, leaning on the counter to watch as Elise yawned again, then poured coffee grounds into the filter. “Did you get very far?”

  “We didn’t do too badly. Little things are easy now, but bigger things are still difficult. We did manage to move the furniture around.”

  “That’ll make moving much easier.”

  Elise chuckled. “Sure will. People are next. Lifting living objects is pretty hard, though.”

  Thea groaned. “Not as hard as my calculus homework.”

  Elise gave her a look. “It is way too early in the morning—err, afternoon—to be thinking about math. I need at least two cups before I pull out any books.”

  “I have a test Monday. Guess I’ll be studying all weekend.”

  Elise leaned back against the counter while the coffee brewed. “I’ll help.”

  �
��Elise!”

  Thea recognized Logan’s voice, coming from the basement. Her heart jumped at the sound. So he was home, after all. Not that she didn’t love just hanging out with Elise, but having her older brother around made things extra special.

  Elise walked to the top of the basement stairs and called down, “Yeah?”

  “Can you come down here a minute?”

  Elise gestured for Thea to follow her and they walked down the creaky basement stairs into a dim room. This was often where they shifted and did spells. The floor was cement, and dirty with bits of plants and herbs. There was no outside light at all and, where there had been small windows high on the walls, they were now covered with cardboard and lots of black duct tape. The walls were lined with long, narrow tables full of miscellaneous bottles and containers. Potions, plants, magical elements. Many candles as well. In one corner there was a sofa with a large tear on one side, probably from a claw or spike from someone getting too close while in dragon form.

  Logan stood in the middle of the room, watching them walk down. Thea smiled at him and tried to act cool. But every time she saw him or was near him, her body went into overdrive. Her pulse sped, palms sweat, the whole bit. She’d known him for years, of course, and it seemed like every year he got hotter and hotter. And he was the coolest guy she knew, too. She’d had a crush for a long time, but then their friendship had grown when they had gone off to college. Many times it had been just her and Logan having a deep conversation late into the night, while Elise and the other dragon shifters were asleep upstairs. She wanted something to happen with him so badly. But she thought his primary hesitation was Elise.

  “Oh, hey, Thea. I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “Would you be up for helping me out for a minute?”