Deep River Shifters 4 Book Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

“Well, there’s one bow I’m particularly good with… but it was a family artifact.”

  At this, Aizen’s interested perked. “Oh? Family artifact, you say?”

  “Yes. I’m able to wield the Ice Bow that was in our possession. When I was back in my time.”

  “Wait…” Aizen squinted at her. “Are you serious?”

  “Deadly. It was my weapon.”

  “Drat,” Aizen said softly. “We had an Ice Bow in our collection. I think my father’s been meaning to sell it off because although it’s valuable, no one can use it.”

  “I can.”

  Aizen shook his head, suddenly excited. “If… if you can use it, then maybe you can come with me. You won’t be dead weight. That thing packs serious power.” Then he sighed. “Oh, I don’t know if we even have it anymore.”

  The excitement that had taken over the former glint of lust she saw in his eyes faded again. “I wish we knew exactly how to break the curse. Even if we manage to kill the witch, there’s no guarantee we’ll break the curse on everyone.”

  “Better than sitting around and never even attempting it,” Faye growled. “You know what my motivation is. If I can’t get back to my time – I’ll try and save people from my time. And, well, it gets tiring watching you mope about the place because you don’t have your dragon soul.”

  Aizen chuckled. “Yes, I suppose I am moping slightly.”

  “Slightly? Hah. I’ll help you. Either with bow and arrow, or the Ice Bow.”

  The shifter nodded at her, determined. “The treasury is big. I’ll make some excuse to my father like I want to pick you out a necklace or something, and you can come with me. I can’t mention the bow or he’ll get suspicious and angry. And… we might need to sneak it out.”

  He reached out and grabbed her hand, cradling it for a moment. “Will you help me, Princess Faye, to retrieve my dragon soul?”

  Faye tried not to act smug or delighted as he held her hand. “Prince Aizen, I will be glad to help you.”

  “Let’s hope you’re telling the truth,” he said, before bending to kiss the top of her hand. Faye’s heart fluttered. The smile grew wider.

  Chapter Four

  Aizen’s father accepted the flimsy excuse of wanting to decorate Faye with something “fitting for her unearthly beauty,” and he even opened the treasury himself, beaming at his son and the princess.

  “Oh, don’t take too long – the pearls are over there,” King Razen said, jabbing his fingers at a glimmering pool of white beads and silver.

  Faye let out a fake squeal of delight and batted her eyelashes. “Oh, darling, isn’t all this beautiful? You flatter me by taking me here!” She went over to the pearls and started picking them up to examine. “How magnificent. You have a fine collection here, Your Majesty.”

  “Now, now, darling,” Aizen said, putting emphasis on the ‘darling’ which spiked irritation and amusement in Faye at the same time, “don’t get your little heart too excited. I want to make sure you have something that perfectly frames your complexion.” He approached behind her, picked up one set of beads, and carefully looped it around her neck, brushing the hair away. His father grinned like a madman, clearly seeing what he thought was romantic attraction, and he closed the door excitedly, exclaiming, “Try not to make too much of a mess!”

  Aizen continued kneeling behind Faye for a moment, his hand whispering along her neck, making her shiver.

  “I feel bad now. Your dad seemed really happy that we were getting along.”

  “Oh, he is. Although most princesses get rescued, when she and a dragon fall in love, it’s considered to be a blessing for our kind. The more royal bloodlines they can be connected to, the more important they feel.” Aizen’s mouth dipped close enough to hiss in her ear, and the unexpected warmth sent violent shudders of pleasure through her skin. His hands touched along the pearls. “I think these ones actually suit you, princess.”

  Faye touched her fingers to it. “Why, I believe you’re right… darling.”

  He released her from his touch, and the air temperature dropped. Faye moved from her position, noting that her panties felt damp, and she frowned. Oh dear. She certainly didn’t feel anything like this for Anthony, who for her appeared rather foppish compared to Aizen, prowling and strong, an animal taint to his yellow eyes. The people of her time would have labelled him as “ruggedly handsome.” Maybe the people of this time would, too.

  They searched for about an hour, and just when Faye was close to giving up in despair – because although the treasury flooded itself with jewels and artifacts and gold, she didn’t see her precious bow anywhere – Aizen exclaimed, “Aha!”

  “Did you find it?” Faye said, walking towards him as fast as she could, trying not to slip on anything. Aizen waved her over, and they crouched by a small black case. Faye’s hands trembled as she reached out for the box, clicked it open, and saw the glowing Ice Bow tucked inside white bedding.

  “Now, let’s see if you can use it,” Aizen said, sitting back and preparing himself for the spectacle. Faye seized the bow and felt the familiar flood of warmth and power trickle down her bones. She grinned as the bow began glowing brighter, rejoicing in the fact that they had reunited after so many years. Even though it still felt like not so long ago.

  Aizen watched the reaction between princess and bow and gave a low whistle.

  Showing off, Faye whirled and brushed along the bow. A blue arrow suddenly appeared wedged in it, and Faye mimed letting go. The arrow whooshed off to plant itself in the wall. Aizen gaped in amazement as Faye explained, “It will hit anything I want it to. I just have to imagine it. But you already have to be pretty decent with a bow for it to even accept being used. Or any idiot with a bit of royal bloodline could pick it up. It’s quite temperamental like that. Aren’t you, boy?” Faye gave the bow a pat, and it briefly changed color from blue to pink. “Ah, I missed you…” She continued petting the bow, and it let out a little squeak.

  “So, a legendary, powerful artifact weapon squeaks. Nice,” Aizen said, grinning. “Wasn’t expecting that.”

  The power continued to hum through Faye’s veins, emboldening her. She gave a wry, seductive smile Aizen’s way, taking in his solid features, admiring more openly the curvature of his body. He raised an eyebrow at her scrutiny.

  “Is everything okay, milady?”

  She stroked the Ice Bow, watching as Aizen followed the movement, and saw his pupils dilate. Oh, my. He’s getting excited. Part of her intended to just tease him a little before departing to try and fight the ice witch. The other part wanted to keep going and see how far they went before they stopped. What intentions Aizen harbored in his mind, if he found her attractive enough to fall into her web of allure.

  “It’s almost like holding a legendary artifact is turning you on,” Aizen observed with an evil smirk. “You should be careful, though. I don’t know how long they’ll allow us to be in here before someone comes in to check.”

  “A while, I think,” Faye purred, and the bow under her blushed crimson. Her heartrate stuttered faster. Dare she? “I mean, your father pretty much thought we were going to do it in here, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, but… I know you’re not so interested. You have no reason to be.”

  “Don’t I?” Faye arched her eyebrow and pursed her lips, before touching Aizen’s stubbly cheek. Did this make her someone of loose morals? Did she care? “I don’t know. Once you get past the initial ‘but he’s a dragon!’ façade, it seems a shame to not be able to appreciate such physical craftsmanship.” She brushed over the two moles just above his collarbone.

  The shifter gritted his teeth in response, before grabbing her roughly, causing her to let go of the bow. “I’ll take that as an invite, princess.” He placed his lips on hers, going along with her act, maybe seeing if she was just bluffing or not. That would be like him – except she intended to see this through until the end. Her hands clutched at his messy hair and she devoured his lips, pushing her body close.
He growled into her lips, his yellow eyes black with lust, and their hands ran over one another in heavy strokes and caresses, before he turned her around and bit into her neck. He used one hand to grab her waist and hold her close, and the other to tug down the panties under her smock, baring her ass to him. He then tugged down his pants, and she felt a large erection brushing against her rear.

  Oh, well. This was escalating fast. She considered opening her mouth to protest, to slow down the action and spend more time teasing, except her voice became stifled in a gasp when he moved his hand up her dress to squeeze her breast. Her nipples hardened painfully, and wetness pooled between her thighs.

  “You have one moment to say no,” Aizen whispered then into her ear, “or I’m afraid I’m going to fuck you senseless.”

  Faye blinked. The words sent a melting thrill, a nervous tremor through her muscles. “Fuck me,” she hissed, which converted into a gasp as he bit again into her neck and sucked hard. She was still mostly clothed, but exposed below, and his hand clutched at the breast above her heart as he adjusted himself and slid into her entrance.

  All sorts of interesting feelings went through Faye at that point. Surprise. Shock. Longing and a primal, insatiable urge to see the act through. Maybe it was the power of the bow sending such volatile energy through her. Or maybe it was because she found Aizen a lot more attractive than previously anticipated.

  She let out a shriek of pleasure as he moved inside her, jabbing up at a sweet spot within, enjoying the delicious motion of his erection, and the image of her leaning against the wall, spreading her legs wider as Aizen moved back to now grasp her rear and strengthen the thrusts. Oh, that image was so scandalous. It fired up every cell in her body and fried them in electrical pleasure. Elated, she moaned, squeezing her eyes shut, cheeks burning, urging him to go faster. The emotions in her whipped up like a typhoon, and every hiss and grunt by him spurred her heart to thunder faster. Her legs trembled, struggling to keep upright, and the feeling built up inside her like a soft vibration, increasing in intensity until the orgasm melted through her. She was reminded of how treacle dripped over a cake, and imagined that if she was the cake, it would feel something like that. She gasped, let out a strangled squeak of climax, and shivered as Aizen kept diving into her, hard and fast until he, too, came.

  He panted by her ear, and she felt the damp coat of his brow and flinched, before retreating into his touch when he kissed her on the ear, softer this time.

  “If you give me a few minutes,” Aizen said, a little breathless, “there can be a round two.”

  She laughed at this, before turning to kiss him on the lips, slow and sensuous this time, taking more opportunity to explore his body, and easing herself into the act. Round two came, more sensual, more a soft worship of one another’s bodies. They were just getting heavier and breathier into it, before Faye froze in suspicion. Dazed, she broke apart from his mouth. “How long have we been in here, now?”

  Aizen shrugged, trying to touch her lips again, his hand running over her skin under the clothes, slowly teasing at the top again. He hadn’t made any sudden movements to yank it off, preferring to keep the fantasy so far in his head, until he worked up to the conclusion of peeling it off. “I don’t know. Maybe two hours.”

  “Right. Shouldn’t we have been checked on by now?”

  With a frustrated groan, Aizen pulled away from her as well. “Yes. That’s true. But you know, I don’t want to waste a chance when we get one, princess.”

  “Let’s just check in case. We can continue this… later,” she said, with heavy promise in her voice. Aizen took a few deep breaths, controlling himself, then nodded.

  “Alright.” They dressed themselves up again and made their appearances presentable, though the blush of recent sex couldn’t fade, and Faye still felt hyper-aware of her damp panties as they pressed against her core.

  Hiding the bow in her sleeve as had been arranged, leaving the case, they edged to the treasury door and opened it up into the throne room, appearing behind the chairs.

  What greeted them was a rather unwelcome sight of pristine blue and a chill that radiated through the air. They moved into the room, stepping on the clear blue floor in disbelief, seeing the king and queen frozen in their chairs, and some of the royal subjects iced over in glimmering sculptures.

  “Well, fuck,” Aizen said. Now they knew why no one had come for them in the treasury all that time.

  Chapter Five

  “She’s found us,” Faye said. “Must have been unhappy to find you’d escaped.”

  “You’re telling me,” Aizen said, his yellow eyes wide in alarm. Faye extracted the unstrung Ice Bow from her sleeve and prepared herself for action. She didn’t want to be turned to ice again, to lose another few centuries or more in the grasp of this horrid, tiny ice witch. They heard her cackling through the halls, her voice magnified by some sort of spell.

  “Now, now, me dearies, where’s me dragon, where’s me little princess that escaped…? I’ll find ye… oh yes, I will!”

  “She’s fucking crazy,” Aizen said, actually shivering in fear. “And insanely strong!”

  Faye privately agreed. Any witch who could cast this kind of spell on a whim was not someone you wanted to mess with. Only the enchantments protecting the treasury had prevented them from following the same fate, but as they walked along, Aizen’s movements became sluggish. He glanced down at his feet in horror, realizing that the ice had started creeping up his veins.

  “I’m being frozen!” He checked Faye, who still strode with relative ease over the floor. “But you’re not.”

  Faye shrugged. The warmth from the bow emanated inside her. “It’s my weapon. It’s shielding me. I –” She turned to face Aizen, and stiffened when she saw the ice shooting up his body, wrapping around his throat, mouth, nose and eyes, before expanding outwards into a solid block. Whatever words he intended to say were frozen on the tip of his tongue, and Faye realized she was horribly, irrevocably, alone.

  She examined him for a moment before squeezing her Ice Bow. It gave a reassuring melody and an extra wave of heat in her skin.

  “Not these statues up here,” the witch’s voice came out in a sing-song way, followed by that girlish snigger. “Or these ones here! Oh, where are you, little dragon, little princess?” A short pause. “Perhaps I’ll make the whole castle my own, as revenge for your escape. Always thought I’d need a change of scenery. It does get rather boring when no one wants to visit you anymore…”

  Faye prowled carefully through the castle, which she still knew like the back of her hand, careful, calculating, barely making a sound, except for her breaths and the chime of her feet when she stepped down too hard.

  The ice witch’s voice kept drifting back, taunting her, mocking her ability to do anything.

  “So many dragons here! Why, I could make a whole army of dragon souls. Mm… yes…”

  Stepping into the banquet room, with the empty tables covered with blue tablecloths, Faye spotted the ice witch. Alicifer saw Faye walk in and her eyebrows popped up in surprise. “Oh! There’s the little princess!” She gave a gurning smile. “Not frozen? You know, I’ve been wondering for a few days now how you could have broken the curse. You showed no magical spark all that time… and now suddenly, you break it?” Before she finished speaking, she shot out a bolt of blue energy towards Faye. The princess blocked it with her bow, which chimed in anger. Now Alicifer stared at the bow. “What’s this?”

  Faye didn’t bother answering. She retracted with her arm, and a shining blue arrow materialized in the bow’s notch. Alicifer gaped, before letting out a squeal as the bolt shivered towards her. She flung up a shield, but the arrow ignored the shield as if it was made of nothing, and she needed to dodge frantically. The arrow continued following her, and she was only able to stop it by vanishing at the very last second and reappearing elsewhere. “Skies, child, how did you get your hands on one of those?”

  Alicifer appeared furious rather
than frightened. She jerked out her fingers, and Faye felt a strong, invisible tug on her bow. She resisted, and shot off more arrows, making the witch curse. While Alicifer was busy dodging, Faye had the time to charge up multiple arrows at once, before fanning them through the room.

  A shard of ice slammed into her hand, making Faye gasp. She dropped the bow and it instantly slithered to the woman’s palms. However, the witch couldn’t stay still, unable to stop the arrows directly. She teleported a few meters at a time to dodge.

  “Wish I’d mastered long distance teleportation,” Alicifer panted. “Why are these arrows still following me?” She attempted to draw the bow back to fire at Faye, who was pinned to the floor, but nothing happened. “Why aren’t you freezing?”

  Faye didn’t know, but the warmth in her grew stronger. With a supreme effort, she yanked her hand away from the ground, whimpering in pain, before rolling to her feet and charging after the witch. She rolled and dodged more bolts, calling for the bow to return to her.

  The bow cried out in a mournful note, clearly trying to move out of the ice witch’s hands.

  “Oh, you’re one of them,” Alicifer said in utter disgust. “The royal family that once married one of my ancestors, getting the touch of ice. Took you long enough to defrost, didn’t it?”

  Faye didn’t have time for banter. She launched herself at the woman, who dematerialized, and several of Faye’s arrows hovered in confusion before she willed them to keep chasing the witch. It seemed that the massive ice spell the witch had cast, along with her quick teleports, drained her of energy. But if she decided to teleport through the walls, well, that was it. Faye focused on the Ice Bow, her neck tendons straining until, with a cry of triumph, the bow ripped itself from the ice witch’s hands and happily spun back into Faye’s.

  “Shit,” Alicifer said. Her attempts to resummon the bow no longer worked. Her ice shards were now effectively blocked by the bow.

  “I do hope killing you releases the curse,” Faye said, redrawing the bow and firing. “And if not, well, I kind of want to kill you anyway.”