Her Sexy Beast

by Karin Shah

  Panic washed over Roan. His heart constricted.

  A purple-tinged dragon bellowed, “Gun, eleven o’clock!” and split off in that direction with another brother on his tail. More gun shots and the sounds of a scuffle erupted from the trees as soon as they entered them.

  Sofia sagged in her attacker’s grasp, dropping to her knees.

  Roan’s blood froze in his veins. Had she been hit? He threw his big body between her and the shooter. A couple more bullets pinged off his scaled sides. To his relief, Sofia appeared unhurt. Maybe she’d hit the deck because of the gunshot. Her move had partially freed her from her assailant.

  The man had lost full control, but he clenched her wrist hard enough her skin blanched around his gloved fingers, and tried to haul her away from Roan.

  Acting purely on instinct, he lashed his tail like a whip and struck the man on the side of the head. There was a thud, and the man staggered, dropping Sofia’s arm and collapsing into the dirt.

  Encircling Sofia with his body to protect her on all sides, Roan took stock of the situation.

  Several human shapes emerged from the trees. Two tall forms, the twins, gripping two strangers by the arm, one short, the other as tall as his escorts.

  The situation was under control.

  Finally, able to breathe, Roan flashed human, not caring for a second that he was bareassed naked.

  Con and Ty clearly had better control of their transformations than he, because they were somehow wearing pants.

  Between them, they had an older, tough-as-nails looking woman and a man who resembled a Mara so much that Roan would have thought he was one of his brothers, if he’d been introduced to him.

  Each twin had numerous weapons in their arms. Since they hadn’t been armed earlier, they must have confiscated them from their prisoners.

  A couple more flashes reflected behind him and Ethan joined them, shoving a pair of pants Roan’s way. He dressed quickly as Jake entered the ring gathering around Sofia.

  Ky, also half-dressed, stepped forward, completing the circle, his hand locked on the shoulder of a weedy, ginger-haired man who seemed vaguely familiar and appeared to belong in a lab coat instead of overlarge black tactical gear.

  But Ky’s attention wasn’t on his captive. He stared at the tall prisoner as if seeing a ghost, his face pale. “Caleb?”

  A shockwave seemed to explode over the brothers at the question.

  The older woman seized the brief distraction. A knife materialized in her hand. She vaulted toward Sofia, maybe thinking to use her as a hostage, but even as the brothers moved to intercept, Roan blocked her way and a female voice said. “Oh, no you don’t.”

  The woman’s arms abruptly appeared to be pinned to her sides as if invisible ropes bound them. The closest twin grabbed her before she could fall over. The ginger and the man on the ground stiffened as well, as if the same thing had happened to them.

  Thalia approached with Spirit at her heels. She muttered a few words and suddenly the boundary of the campground glowed blue for a moment, as if a forcefield had gone up around them. “There. Now our guests can’t leave early.”

  The woman sputtered and directed a glare at the slighter man in his cumbersome clothing. “You said she wasn’t very strong.”

  Thalia stepped into the woman’s personal space. “You’ll have to forgive your compatriot. I’m afraid I was quite drained when we last met.” The witch/vampire hybrid’s eyes flashed red and she bared her pointed fangs. “I had a fairly good meal since then, but there’s always room for dessert.”

  The stink of fear clouded the air around the older woman as Thalia spoke. If he hadn’t been so worried and enraged, Roan might have laughed since the witch preferred bagged blood. As it was, he basked in the woman’s reaction.

  They should be afraid. They should be very afraid. They’d come close to killing Sofia. He had no intention of allowing them to leave alive.

  He burned to erase the threat they posed immediately, but Ky’s earlier question needed to be addressed. He turned to his oldest brother. “You know this one?”

  Ky’s features tightened. Roan smelled pain on the breeze. “Don’t you recognize him? This is Caleb, the brother born between you and me.”

  Rage boiled inside Roan. His brother? “I don’t care who he is. He tried to kill Sofia!” He lunged toward the man, but Ky and Ethan held him back. He fought them, but they were immovable. One on one he might have had a chance, but together? He subsided with a snarl.

  Caleb rolled his head on his neck. “I was supposed to kill her.” He shrugged. “I didn’t have to miss.”

  Roan growled, but Connor nodded, the former Army Ranger eyeing the direction of the sniper’s nest. “He’s right. With our vision and reflexes, it was an easy shot. He didn’t fight us either.”

  “Why are you with them?” Ky’s voice held a thread of menace as he spoke from beside Roan.

  Caleb tilted his head from side to side. There was something “off” about him, but what it was Roan couldn’t put his finger on. Caleb crossed his arms and turned to stare at the older woman. “Ask her.”

  “Well?” Ky said.

  The woman snorted, her nostrils flaring, and didn’t answer.

  “Thalia?” Ky’s voice was so stern and implacable he might have been directing an attack dog.

  “No problem.” Thalia moved closer again and fixed her gaze on the other woman. “Tell us.”

  The timbre of Thalia’s voice held the same edge it had when her eyes had flared earlier. She must be using some kind of magic or compulsion on the older woman.

  His suspicion was confirmed when the woman replied, her voice flat and mechanical like a computer. “It’s feral. If it wasn’t for the Proteus serum, it would be uncontrollable.”

  As if being forced to speak had broken her resolve to stay silent, she added in her own voice, sounding disgruntled, “It’d probably already be dead or on an Ethereal Council kill list if it weren’t for us.”

  “We’ll be sure to send you a thank-you note.” Thalia’s words were so dry she could have turned a rain forest to desert.

  “There’ll be no place to send it.” There was no mistaking Ky’s meaning.

  The woman whitened and then flushed. “This is all your fault Holcomb. If we’d known it had backup, we would have scrubbed the mission. Amateurs.”

  Thalia cleared her throat, but turned her shoulders toward Ky as if the woman no longer existed. “I agree they deserve to die, after all they clearly intended to kill Sofia or Roan, but the Ethereal Council might look poorly on a summary execution.” A contrite expression knitted her forehead. “I hate to say it, but I think we should hand them over.”

  Ky bared his teeth. “What about Caleb? If she’s telling the truth and he’s feral, the Ethereal Council will order him destroyed.”

  “They don’t have to know we have him.” Thalia jerked her head toward the intruders. “I’m at full power. I can tweak their memories enough so they think he’s escaped. They won’t offer up their weapon to be killed. Not if they believe they can reacquire him.”

  Caleb interrupted the discussion by scratching his neck. The twins had released him when he’d been identified. He weaved forward. There was a looseness to his limbs that made him seem almost drunk.

  He ambled over to Sofia. “You’re pretty.” He announced like a five-year-old and before anyone could interfere, he put his face close and took a deep audible sniff. “Not my mate though.”

  He pouted, his lower lip protruding, and stepped back before Roan could rip free of his brothers and tackle him, then turned to Thalia.

  He barged into her personal space and lifted his chin to scent the air around her. “This one either.” He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his black tactical pants and scuffed the gravelly weeds with the sol
e of his right boot. “Got to find my mate.”

  The brothers looked at him and then at Thalia. “What’s wrong with him?”

  Thalia nudged the female prisoner with her elbow and the witch’s eyes flashed red again. “You going to answer or do I have to compel you?”

  The older woman looked away. “It gets like this when the serum starts to wear off.”

  Caleb had made full use of their distraction to roam away from the group. “What smells so good?”

  He approached the door to Roan’s trailer and tore open the locked door. He was inside before any of them could react.

  “Hey!” Roan yelled after him.

  Ky released Roan, an unspoken order not to pursue in his older brother’s gaze. The glare was unnecessary.

  Roan wasn’t leaving his mate anytime soon, especially not with her attackers nearby. He returned to Sofia and wrapped her in his arms, letting her warmth forestall the shivers he could feel building. He’d come whisker close to losing her. She clung to him and he chafed the chilled flesh of her arms beneath her short sleeves.

  His brothers could handle Caleb. She needed him.

  He cuddled her closer, burying his face in the curls at her crown. She gazed back into his eyes and hers crinkled at the corners, though no smile curled her lips.

  Or maybe he needed her. Whatever, they needed each other.

  Ky nodded his chin at Con, Ty, and Ethan. “Get him under control. We’ll have to plan how to transport him in dragon form once he reverts.”

  They nodded and headed toward the trailer, but before they could enter, he burst back out, his arms filled with a large battered leather trunk Roan used to hold the junk he’d been driven to collect wherever he went. Even now the crusty rock he’d picked up at the hotel bulged in his pocket.

  Why would Caleb want that crap?

  Connor and Tyler flanked Caleb, reaching for his shoulders, but a flash seared their retinas. The trunk fell to the ground, smashing open and spilling the dirty chunks of whatever Roan had hoarded over the years.

  Roan’s dragon spurred him forward a step, but it was confused. Torn between the scattered detritus from the trunk and his mate. There was no contest. Roan stayed put, even as a giant red dragon screeched and beat the air with enormous wings.

  Air displacement cracked in their ears like rolling thunder.

  Connor and Tyler lurched forward as if to grab him at the ankles, but Caleb was already out of reach. In the span of a heartbeat, the red dragon swooped down, scooped the older female prisoner into his claws and flew through the barrier, disappearing into the distance.

  Ky, Connor, Ethan, Jake, and Tyler moved as one, dashing toward the perimeter as if preparing to follow. A buildup of current in the air warned Roan his brothers were about to shift, but Thalia yelled, “No!”

  The word had the ring of compulsion beneath it. Roan doubted anything else would have gotten through to them.

  They turned toward her in query.

  She shook her head. The compulsion had drained from her voice, but her tone was emphatic. “He’s feral. He’ll fight to the death. Someone could get killed. We need a plan.”

  Ky raked a hand through his hair. “But what if we never find him again?”

  Thalia walked to him and clapped his shoulder. “He must have dropped a scale, or hair, or something. I can use that to track him.”

  Ky’s head sagged forward, but he nodded.

  Roan could only imagine the turmoil his oldest brother must be feeling. To have finally had his lost brothers together for one short moment, only to lose one again to his feral side. His fury at Caleb abated, his behavior made it clear he wasn’t in control of his actions.

  Jake glanced in Thalia’s direction in that way he had of not quite looking at people. “What happened? Did your barrier fail?”

  Thalia’s face twisted. She pressed both hands to the top of her head. When she spoke, her voice was rueful. “No, I set it to only stop strangers. Caleb’s mass protected the woman. I didn’t realize he would choose to leave.”

  Ethan came up on his eldest brother’s other side and squeezed Ky’s neck. “He didn’t choose, his dragon did.”

  Tyler and Connor re-joined the group.

  Jake gazed toward the tree-line Caleb and their attacker had disappeared over. “Why do you think he took the woman?”

  “In feral form, I doubt he knows either.” Connor shrugged. “But I’d guess it’s for that serum.” He shook his head. “We’re going to have to get our hands on some.”

  They all shared glances of agreement and started back toward the tent.

  Jake jerked his head toward the exit after they neared the risers. “Do you want some help later collecting the contents of that broken trunk?”

  Roan hugged Sofia to his side and peered down at her face. She’d had a shock and probably needed a drink. “Naw, it’s just junk. I don’t know why I picked it up.”

  Tyler laughed. “It’s not junk, bro.” He withdrew something from his pocket. It lay on his palm like any dirt-encrusted rock from anywhere. He passed it to Thalia. “A little help?”

  She rolled her eyes, but placed one hand over the lump and lowered her eyelids, muttering something. A second later, there was a blue flash and she lifted her hand, revealing an angular object atop a circular band sitting in the middle of a pile of dirt. It sparkled with green fire in the meager illumination of the task lighting. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Or in this case actual treasure.”

  Roan gaped at the object, an emerald ring. “That was in there?”

  Ky nodded. “Your dragon has been hoarding things all along. You just didn’t realize it.”

  Connor chuckled. “Never thought to inspect that stuff?”

  Roan shrugged. “It was embarrassing enough to feel compelled to pick this shit up.” He stuffed both hands in his hair. “You have no idea how many times I tried to throw it all away.”

  Thalia passed him the ring. “Don’t expect magical cleaning for the rest of it.”

  The ring was really beautiful and now that his dragon had fully integrated he could sense it was quite old, more than two hundred years. Whoever had once owned the piece was long dead and the way it had been entombed in aggregate suggested it had been lost for almost the whole time.

  He glanced at Ethan, who’d been a salvage diver after his stint in the SEALS. “Does this have to be returned to someone?”

  “Since there’s no hope of telling which piece came from where”—Ethan’s gaze sliced at Thalia and then back to Roan—“by human means, I’d say it falls under ‘treasure trove’ law. In other words, finders-keepers.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Roan’s arm solid and warm around her, Sofia leaned in to inspect the delicate piece. It really was very pretty. She was suddenly conscious of her bare left ring finger. Her lips compressed. Roan had said he loved her, but they’d never spoken about making it formal. Did he want to marry her?

  She brushed away the thought. There was time to think about that later. They loved each other and that was enough for now.

  She opened her mouth to comment about the ring, but pain abruptly shafted through her body. Every ounce of breath was knocked from her lungs. Her muscles twisted. Needles prodded at her skin. What’s happening? Terror mingled with the pain. Am I dying?

  She buckled, plummeting to her knees, despite the support of Roan’s strong arm.

  The agony was so severe, she couldn’t speak. A glaze of sweat iced her cheeks and the world began to gray. The last thing she heard as the world blacked out was Roan’s anguished voice calling her name.

  Chapter 34

  Sofia winced as the bright light of morning sliced through a window and into her eyes. She blinked to clear the tears and surveyed the area. She was in her bed in her own
RV. An unfamiliar black-haired, golden-skinned woman bustled in along with Lu and Thalia.

  “Roan?” Sofia tried to ask, but her throat was too dry, and the name emerged as little more than a croak.

  “Don’t try to speak yet,” said the stranger, a pretty pregnant woman with a musical East Indian accent and a glossy ebony braid.

  Lu handed the woman a glass of clear liquid and the woman passed it to Sofia. “Drink some water.”

  The chilled water felt like heaven to her parched, aching throat. When she’d drained the last drop, Sofia tried again. “What happened? Where’s Roan?”

  “I’m here.” Roan stooped, putting his hands on the soffit above the door to her bedroom. He was in his fully human form and Sofia glanced away for a second, feeling weirdly shy in the face of his inhuman beauty.

  But the worry and love creasing his green eyes reassured her. He gestured inside the room. “It’s a bit low in there for me.”

  Sofia reached up to finger-comb her hair. She must look like something the cat dragged in. Thalia sat down on the edge of the bed. She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the pregnant woman. “This is Anjali. She’s a doctor and Jake’s mate.”

  Memory of the previous night flooded back. She’d never felt pain like that before. She swallowed, almost afraid to ask, but scanned their faces in turn.

  Roan’s eyebrows were knitted over his eyes. His silky black hair tangled, as if he’d yanked his hands through it repeatedly.

  She frowned, taking stock. Her muscles ached like they did after a hard workout, but she felt fine otherwise. “Am I sick?”

  Anjali toyed with the end of her long braid. “Only if you consider pregnancy a sickness.”

  Sofia thought back to high school health classes. “Isn’t it too early to know I’m pregnant? Besides, I was on birth control. And what caused all that pain?”

  The other woman grimaced, liquid dark eyes soft with sympathy. “Unfortunately, birth control can be iffy with chimeras. You usually need at least two kinds. As for the timing, chimeras conceive faster than humans. The pain was your cells reforming. It happens with conception.” She bit her lip. “Um, you’re a chimera now.”