The Dragon Shifter's Mates: The Complete Series

by Eva Chase

  Aaron nodded. Marco brushed his hand over my hair. “Then she should have it,” he said.

  Nate still looked worried, but he tipped his head in acceptance.

  So a few minutes later, we hustled through the night to the landing strip. “Sleep on the plane, as much as you can,” the healer who came with us told me. “Once you do get really started, you’ll want to be as well-rested as possible.”

  In the jet’s back room, I curled up on the bed with my arms cradling my belly and closed my eyes. My nerves were jumping with so much anticipation that I wasn’t sure I’d managed to drift off at all when Aaron came to wake me for the landing.

  Something in my heart brightened at the sight of my estate, the windows all along the walls of that miniature castle gleaming in preparation for our arrival. One of my mates had called ahead for the staff to be ready, and they’d expected us in the morning anyway. The four alphas formed a shield against the cold wind as they ushered me into the house.

  I’d just made it to my bedroom when the first contraction came, like a pinch expanding into an ache that spread across the base of my belly. My breath caught. I sat down on the edge of the massive bed.

  “It’s started, has it?” said one of the healers from my own estate—a wolf shifter named Lydia whose face was lined and whose hair was slate-gray streaked with white. She’d helped my mother deliver me and my sisters, and she guided me farther up the bed with a knowing look. “It’ll take some time before we have any real work to do. Rest as well as you can until the pains start coming close together.”

  “What do you need from us?” Aaron asked me.

  I swallowed hard, feeling abruptly uncertain with the unfamiliar sensations starting to rise through my body. “Just—stay with me.”

  “Of course.”

  They all climbed onto the bed around me, surrounding me so I could nestle between their forms. I breathed in their combined scents, my forehead resting on West’s shoulder, one hand clasped around Nate’s fingers while my other palm stayed on my belly, and right then I didn’t feel nervous at all. My daughter was coming. My mates and I were here, ready to welcome her. I was simply going to do what every dragon shifter before me had done.

  Bathed in that warmth and reassurance, I did doze for a while. When I woke to dawn light streaming through the bedroom windows, it was with a sharper pinch that radiated all through my abdomen. A shiver ran through me. I waited for the next contraction to come, just a few minutes later, but I was ready for it. I could feel it. She was on her way.

  My mates stirred when I sat up. “Should I call for the healers?” Aaron asked, studying my face.

  “Yes,” I said. “I—” My voice hitched as I rode out another contraction. “I think it’s time.”

  Marco brought me a glass of water and rubbed my lower back as I drank from it. Nate slipped out and returned in a few minutes with an orange and some toast with butter. The younger healer who’d already arrived in the room nodded approvingly.

  “It’ll probably be a long day,” she told me. “Best to keep up your strength.”

  I gulped down the meal I didn’t really feel hungry for as quickly as I could. In between swallows, I practiced the steady inhale-exhale the healers had taught me during the birth preparations over the last few months. A restless urge wriggled through me.

  “I don’t want to just sit here.”

  “Walk around,” Lydia said. “Find a good rhythm. That often helps carry you through the earlier stages.”

  West had already been pacing the room. He fell into step with me as I wandered from one side of the room to the other, pausing here and there to brace myself against those deepening twinges.

  “Don’t look so fretful,” I told him. “You’re not the one about to propel an entire dragon shifter out of her body.”

  His tense expression broke with a chuckle. “I can’t argue with that. I’ve never been good with waiting.”

  As another rush of pain shot through me, an idea sparked with it. “You can get the water running in the tub,” I said. “I think I’m going to want that pretty soon.”

  He gave me a kiss and a grateful look before hurrying off to the en suite bathroom. Marco had started my phone playing the songs we’d picked out ahead of time—I’d almost forgotten about that. The sweet music of my mother’s favorite folk singer filled the room. It brought a fresh inspiration.

  “Her book,” I said. “Where’s my mother’s book—the one Nate’s kin gave me?”

  The bear shifter grabbed it off the side table where I must have set it down last night. “Do you want to read it now?”

  I pressed my hand to my belly as another contraction rocked me and then started walking again. “I don’t know if I really can. I feel better if I keep moving. Can you read a few of the stories to me?”

  He gave me that warm smile I loved and sat down on the edge of the bed, opening the book. His low voice washed over me as he read a mouse shifter’s account of seeing my mother when she’d come to the disparate estate for the first time to officially claim the alpha as her mate and be welcomed by his kin. I could almost picture her there, a younger version of the woman I remembered, telling the assembled shifters how proud she was to be the one to serve them, already preparing an even-handed resolution for some dispute.

  He was on to the fifth account, from a bobcat shifter, when my legs started to wobble with the intensity of the labor. “West!” I hollered. “Is that bath ready?”

  “It has been for a while,” he said from the other end of the room. I’d been so lost in the stories and keeping myself steady that I hadn’t noticed him coming back in. “Let me make sure it’s still hot enough.”

  I followed him in and paced on the tiled floor while he and then Lydia adjusted the water. With their help, I clambered into the tub. The warm water closed around my body in a liquid embrace that gave an immediate relief. I sighed, leaning against the polished side of the tub.

  My mates took turns sitting by the edge, stroking my hair, rubbing my shoulders. After a while, the contractions blurred together so much that I wasn’t aware of much except bracing myself for each new wave and gripping the hands that reached out to me. As the pressure inside built, my dragon’s claws started to extend from my fingertips with each rush. Scales broke out on my sides.

  “Partial shifting is normal during this stage,” Lydia said, unperturbed. She made me sip some fruit juice. The other healer added more hot water to the tub. Then all at once my entire body seemed to clench from the waist down. Tears sprang to my eyes.

  “I think she’s ready to come now,” I gasped out.

  “We can do this in the water or out, however you feel most comfortable,” Lydia said, her voice so calm and sure that the momentary flicker of panic wisped away.

  I tested my arms against the water and grimaced. “I think out.”

  My mates had to support me on the way back to the bedroom, where the healers had set down sheets. The stool they’d brought looked suddenly appealing. I hunkered down on it, panting, and my mates circled me, all of them holding me up together.

  The time after that was a total haze. I breathed and I pushed, and voices murmured encouragement all around me. My clawed fingers dug into the sides of the stool. A small puff of dragon fire slipped from my mouth. And then, with one last pang that echoed through every muscle, my daughter emerged into the world.

  The healers fussed over her for a minute, cleaning her and whispering softly to her as she started to wail. My gaze stayed glued to that tiny form as my body shifted completely back into its human state. My heart was already swelling with even more love than I’d already had in me for this life I’d helped create.

  Lydia brought my daughter to me and laid her on my chest so her little infant mouth could find its way to my breast. I cradled her, tears in my eyes, as she drank her first meal. A sprinkling of dark hair covered her round head. Her skin was so soft I was almost afraid my embrace would break her. But I could already feel strength in h
er too.

  She wasn’t just a baby. She was a dragon shifter too. And she would be a great one. I’d be there to guide her, every step of the way.

  “Have you decided on a name?” Lydia asked.

  I almost laughed, hearing that question again. “Not yet. I think I want to get to know her a little bit first.” Maybe just meeting her wasn’t enough. It felt like an even bigger decision, looking at the little person I was cradling against me.

  The sky had darkened outside the window. A whole day had passed while I’d been bringing this treasure into the world. With a sigh, I let my mates guide me to the bed. They settled around me again as I lay on my side, tucking our daughter close to me.

  She blinked, peering around at us with squinty eyes. “Looks like she’s got Marco’s hair,” Nate said, beaming.

  “Lucky for her,” Marco said, his voice just as bright. “And our eagle shifter’s eyes, it appears?”

  Aaron grazed his fingers over our daughter’s back with a fond smile. “I think all babies’ eyes are blue to start out with. But we can always hope it’ll stick.”

  “Because there’d be something wrong with her ending up with green ones?” West put in wryly, kissing my shoulder.

  I offered my other breast to our little girl, and she turned her head away with a grunting sound. Marco started to laugh. “Clearly she got wolf boy’s attitude.”

  Despite my exhaustion, I started to giggle. “Hey!” West protested, but then we were all laughing. In the midst of that blissful sound, our daughter snuggled closer to me and shut her eyes. I slid my arm around her protectively and relaxed my head into the pillow, waiting for sleep to take me too.

  The last thing I heard was Aaron’s voice murmuring, “Merry Christmas.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Ren

  THE THIRD TIME my daughter woke me up to feed, the sun was up outside. I’d stirred awake before she’d made much of a sound to her delicate face nuzzling at my breast. My mates were all still sleeping.

  I lay there quietly for a short while, letting her have her fill. A lot of my body was still achy, but my legs itched to move. I carefully eased myself off of the bed without disturbing the guys, holding our little one against me with one arm and then the other as I tugged on a night gown. My slippers were right there waiting for me to step into. Then I picked up a blanket that had been left folded on the dresser and wrapped that around both of us.

  The gleam of the sunlight called to me. I shuffled over to the glass door that led to my chamber’s balcony.

  Chilly air washed over me as I eased it open. I cuddled my daughter even more carefully under the shelter of the blanket before I stepped outside. She let out a contented-sounding sigh. Her tiny hand traced over my collarbone.

  My breath caught at the scene that met me. It must have snowed overnight. A white crust sparkled across the valley and the mountain slopes as far as I could see. Frost glittered on the balcony railing. We’d gotten our white Christmas after all.

  My daughter tipped her head toward my other breast, and I helped her latch on. I gazed down at her for a moment before raising my head again.

  “This is your home,” I told her quietly. “It was mine too, when I was your age, and your grandmother’s and your great grandmother’s before me, going so far back I can’t even count. No one will ever be able to take that away from you. I promise.”

  For the first time I could remember since the first moment I’d felt her growing inside me, a sense of certainty rose up inside me with those words. I could keep that promise. Whatever it took, whatever happened along the way. I knew that, down to my bones.

  The rogues were gone. We’d made peace with the fae. The vampires were doing penance. The future that lay ahead of us could be a beautiful one.

  When I looked down at her again, a smile stretched across my face that felt as brilliant as the gleam of the sun on the snow.

  She was here. My daughter. And she’d woken up more love in me than I’d ever have imagined my body could contain.

  The door rasped open behind me. My mates stepped out, one by one, to stand around me. West set his hand on the small of my back. Marco rested his on my shoulder. We stood there for a minute, taking in the snowy landscape in silence, one united family.

  “Have you gotten to know her enough to decide her name?” Nate asked gently.

  I brushed my thumb over our daughter’s cheek, memorizing every detail of that perfect face. My mother had been Haven. My sisters, Temperance and Verity. Myself, Serenity. Running through those names in my head, reveling in the swell of emotion inside me, I found I was certain about one more thing.

  “I have,” I said, my smile stretching even wider. “Her name is Joy.”

  * * *

  Thank you for sticking with me all the way to the end of Ren’s story! I hope the finale brought some holiday joy into your life, not matter what time of year it is. :)

  If you’d love another complete series box set full of steamy reverse harem paranormal romance, don’t miss my The Witch’s Consorts set! Every witch knows the rules… but to claim her magic and her happiness, Rose will break them all! Find out how in The Witch’s Consorts: The Complete Series!

  The Witch’s Consorts: The Complete Series

  Every witch knows the rules: Stick to your own kind. Never reveal your powers to outsiders. Take a consort from the witching families or kiss your magic good-bye forever.

  For years I've been quiet, obedient Rose Hallowell. I accepted the man my stepmother chose for me. But I never stopped missing my childhood friends: brilliant Kyler, stoic Seth, passionate Jin, daredevil Damon, and Gabriel, whose self-assured warmth brought us all together.

  Now I’m back in town, and the boys I grew up with? Damn if they haven't grown up well.

  They've got no magic, no place in my life. Even friendship with them is forbidden, let alone more. But they're charming and sweet and infuriatingly hot, and I can't seem to stay away. The more I try to resist, the more secrets I uncover about my family, my betrothal, and everything I thought was true about the witching world.

  I've been lied to. I've been betrayed. So to claim my magic and my happiness, I'll break every rule there is—and then some.

  Don't mess with this witch. Every rose has thorns.

  Dive in now!

  Or read on for an excerpt…

  THE WITCH’S CONSORTS

  1

  To a stranger, Hallowell Manor would have looked like the kind of place where dark deeds happened. You know: skeletons bricked up behind the tall foreboding walls. A madman prowling in the attic beneath the steeply sloped roof. Cheating lovers pushed from the turrets’ arched windows to their death. Although as far as I knew none of those things had actually happened there.

  Let’s just say the house had a lot of character.

  My father pushed the control on the Bentley’s dash, and the automated gate whirred shut behind us. The car turned along the drive through the falling twilight. As the house loomed over us, my heart lifted with anticipation.

  I wasn’t a stranger, and to me this place was home. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t set foot on our country estate in more than eleven years. The manor and the massive property around it had set the stage for my fondest childhood memories. Through all that time in Portland, through my studies and the dinner parties and the strolls through fenced back gardens, part of me had always been waiting for the moment when I’d return here.

  “That is an eyeful and a half, now isn’t it?” Philomena said in her lilting British accent. She craned her neck as she peered out the window. “Just ripe for adventure.”

  “I’m supposed to be settling back in, not stirring up trouble,” I said.

  “Oh, I’m sure we can find time enough for both, Rose.” She shot me the classic Phil expression: lips curved, brows lightly arched, brown eyes sparkling with mischief.

  Dad parked by the garage. A couple of the staff were already hustling over to retrieve the few pieces of luggage we’d br
ought with us instead of sending it ahead. My stepmother let out a slow breath, her pale blue gaze fixed on the house.

  “Well, here we are,” she said. Her tone was so dry I couldn’t tell whether she was expressing relief or trepidation.

  I found it safest to care about Celestine’s feelings about as little as she cared about mine—which was essentially not at all. Ignoring her comment, I pushed open the door and stepped out onto the pavement. The cool breeze of the early spring evening teased through my hair. I pushed the black tumble of those locks back over my shoulders and drank in the lush green scents of home.

  The tang of fresh paint reached my nose. The staff must have been touching up the outer buildings to prepare for our arrival. The once-green slats of the garage walls now glowered a deep maroon.

  Something deep in my chest twisted. The change jarred with my memories. But it couldn’t stop the image from rising up in my head of the last time I’d seen the boys, standing just a few paces from where I stood now, watching a car very much like this one carry me away.

  I jerked my gaze away before Dad or Celestine could notice me looking. It was the company I’d been keeping all those years ago that had prompted our move to the city. Better if neither my father nor my stepmother suspected how much those memories still meant to me.

  Dad typed a quick message into his phone and tucked it into his slacks pocket. Probably letting one of the many people he did business with know he’d be available for conversation and negotiations within the hour. Celestine smoothed her hand over her sleek silver-blond bob and wrapped her slender fingers around his. He directed a quick but warm smile over his shoulder at me, and we started toward the house.

  “Good Lord, it looks even bigger from out here,” Philomena said, clutching her expansive skirts with one gloved hand while she braced the back of the other against her forehead. She stared up at the manor. “Are you absolutely sure you didn’t forget to tell me you’re a duchess or a marchioness or some such?”