Claiming Carina (4 page)

Sit near her but don't touch her. She doesn't fully
trust us not to hurt her yet.

He communicated
to both of his brothers as he lowered himself down near her on the blanket. As
soon as he sat he began pointing out various things to her. After a short time,
her body relaxed, and he watched as her eyes followed his directions around the
farm. When he pointed out the stables her gaze softened. So, she had a soft
spot for horses? That he could work with.

"So, baby doll,
want else do you want to know about?"

"Are you
really dragons? You look so normal."

Hart snapped
around to look at her as his jaw hung loose. Her response was so unexpected he
couldn't help his reaction. A quick glance told him his brothers were equally
shocked.

"Dominic
and Max shifted at the ceremony earlier. We just have different colored scales from
them."

Carina pulled
her knees up close to her chest and wrapped her arms around them as she tucked
her chin in, hiding once again behind her thick black hair.

"I, ah, I
got distracted.
Lost in memories.
I didn't see most of
the ceremony."

Her words were
so quiet that he needed his shifter hearing to pick up what she'd said. His
poor Desired, her mind was ripping her apart.

"No
problem. We'll just shift now and show you."

Her eyes flicked
up to him in panic. "You have control over the dragon, right? You're not
going to eat me or anything?"

Hart tried
really hard to not think about eating her. About how good it would feel to
slide his dragon tongue inside her and vibrate her to climax.

"We are
equal parts dragon and human. We have full knowledge in both forms of the same
things. Our dragons will never harm you."

He waited until
Carina nodded before he looked at his brothers. "Shall we?"

They all moved
off the blanket and flashed to their dragon forms. When his vision cleared, he
saw Carina had jumped to her feet with a hand over her heart and her mouth
gaping open. He lowered his head as he watched her, telling his brothers to do
the same thing. Ten plus feet of dragon, times three, would be enough to freak
anyone out. Carina started walking toward them, stopping just out of touching
range.

"So, Denver
would be the slightly bigger one." Hart watched Denver lift his head
slightly, "and Phelan would be the one with darker scales." Phelan
cocked his head to the side.

She stepped
forward and tentatively placed her hands on Hart's snout. He briefly closed his
eyes as he felt her with every inch of his body. She was part of him now, and he'd
be able to find her anywhere now she'd touched his dragon. "And you must
be Hart. Your eyes still look gentle and kind, just bigger now."

Hart couldn't
help his response. He purred and nuzzled into her hands.

She smiled wide,
and he preened as he saw the twinkle in her eye. He'd made her happy. She moved
a hand lower on his snout, near his mouth, and he couldn't resist the chance
for a taste. He pushed his tongue out and swiped at her palm. Her eyes flew
wide with shock.
"Your tongue.
It vibrates?"

He pressed his
tongue into her palm again as he started purring louder, increasing the
vibrations.

****

Carina burst out
laughing as her hand and arm began to vibrate from Hart's tongue. The three
dragons had her feeling so relaxed and calm. Movement caught her eye, and she
watched as Denver moved over to the blanket. He lay down, curling his body
around the edge of the rug. He then looked up at her expectantly.
Damn
. These animals might not be able to
speak, but they had no trouble communicating with their eyes and body language.
As if he drew her in on strings, she pulled away from Hart and moved over to
Denver. She stroked her palm down the side of his big beautiful scaly face and
felt the same jolt of awareness flow through her body as she had when she'd
first touched Hart. She slowly sank to her knees and turned. Carefully, she
leaned against his side, near his front leg. As she settled against his warm
scales she watched as Phelan and Hart slowly crept toward her. They both lay down
with their heads on the blanket near her. She raised her hands to stroke both
their snouts. She felt the now familiar sparks fly up her arm as she touched
Phelan for the first time. She noticed his eyes briefly close, like he was
feeling the same thing as she was.

"You three
are so gorgeous. Just being near you makes me feel relaxed and calm. I—I
haven't been able to relax in over ten months.
To take a deep
breath without feeling pain inside."

She felt a tear
leave her eye, and all three dragons pressed their heads against her. Denver
partly covered her with his wing, embracing her shoulder and upper body as
Phelan and Hart nuzzled their noses against her legs. She felt so safe,
surrounded by these three gentle giants. Her mouth started to move, words
pouring out without her consent. She spilled the entire story of that horrible
day, more details than she'd even told her friends. She wanted to stop. She didn't
want these men to know her weakness, her shame. But she had no control. Her system
needed to purge the event so she could move on and heal.

"They
wouldn't stop. I begged. Pleaded for them to stop hurting me but they didn't
care. They told me to shut up and take it because I'd asked for it. It was my
fault, for walking past, leading them on. I was just walking home from
university. I didn't even notice them until it was too late."

She turned into
Denver and cried against his leathery chest. She felt him cocoon her with his
wing as the weight of the others' heads nuzzled into her legs again. She
couldn't stop the tears. They came from a never ending spring inside her. She'd
been battling to survive ever since the attack. She felt one dragon's weight
leave her before a bright light flashed, Denver lifted his wing, and suddenly
she was being held in Hart's gentle embrace. She stiffened for a moment as she
waited for the fear and repulsion to sink in, but it never did. She inhaled his
fresh masculine scent and looked up into his gentle green eyes.

He ran his knuckles gently down her cheek. "It's going to be all
right, Carina. Lean on us. We can help you heal."

As she looked
deep into his eyes, she felt so lost. Her tears kept coming, dripping off her
chin.

"They hurt
me.
So much pain.
I begged them to kill me."

She buried her
face against his shoulder and shook with the ferocity of her sobbing. She
didn't want to see his pity or his anger at her words.

"
Shhh
, baby doll.
No more pain, it's all over now. And we'll protect you and make sure
you never get hurt like that ever again."

With her face
pressed against Hart's skin she didn't see the flash, but a second set of hands
began massaging her shoulders and soothing her. She raised her head when she
felt it darken to see Denver had lowered his head to her and wrapped his wing
over all of them, embracing them all.

"But I
don't think I can heal. I'm too broken. You are all virile men, and you need a
woman who can—” She blew out a breath.
"A woman who can
do things.
Things I can't anymore."

Phelan gently
laid a kiss on her shoulder. She flinched away on reflex and wept harder as she
felt the loss of his touch and realized she truly was damaged beyond repair.

****

Phelan pulled
back from Carina when she flinched away from his kiss. He closed his eyes tight
as pain assailed him. His poor Desired. She'd been so hurt. Her injuries ran
deep, all the way to her heart and soul. Her words about having begged her
attackers to kill her sliced his heart into pieces. He wanted to go hunt down
the bastards responsible. To hurt a female was unthinkable, but to hurt her
like they had, it was one of the most horrendous crimes possible.

Phelan, she didn't mean to reject you. I think she's
upset now because she flinched. You didn't see her face like I did. The flinch
was reflex. As soon as you withdrew from her she looked in pain and started
crying hard again.

Phelan nodded at
Hart's statement. He had hoped it was just reflex, not true rejection. Phelan
gently laid his hands back on her shoulders where he continued to massage her.
He felt the tension flow from her body, and slowly her sobs lessened as her
body slackened. He brushed the hair back from her face to see she'd passed out
with exhaustion from her crying. Hart cuddled her in closer to him and kissed
the top of her head before he rested his cheek on her hair.

"How about
we take her back to our room and tuck her into bed? Poor female is exhausted."

"Yeah, sounds good, Phelan.
Let’s
get moving."

Phelan watched
as Hart easily stood with Carina curled in his arms. Carina nuzzled her head
into Hart's chest as the movement jostled her,
then
settled back down to sleep as they all walked back to the castle.

****

Denver opened
the door and let Hart pass with Carina. Phelan strode into the room right
behind them.

"How do we
do this? I don't want to leave her here alone. What if she has a
nightmare?"

"I'm not
sure, Denver. I'm pretty sure waking up to three men in her bed is going to
freak her out." Phelan spoke while rubbing his chin.

"Well, how
about two of us stay as dragons? We'll sleep on the floor. The remaining one of
us stays human and sleeps in the bed with her. How does that sound?"

Hart was ever
the logical one. Denver grinned at his brothers as they both raised an eyebrow
in his direction.

"I'm eldest
and am pulling rank. I'm in that bed with our Desired tonight."

Denver chuckled
at his brothers' whining and moaning, but they didn't challenge him. As eldest
brother he had final say, and he didn't often pull rank, but to be the first
one of them to spend an entire night sleeping beside their Desired was most
definitely worth it.
Even if they didn't end up having sex.

He moved closer
to the bed and turned the sheets down before Hart settled Carina on the sheets.
All three of them began removing her outer clothing, leaving her in her
undergarments. Denver wasn't sure how Carina would cope with never being able
to wear these under-things again. Their women hadn’t had such things. He
guessed if she wanted, or the others wanted, they could arrange to have them
made. He hoped she'd like not wearing any. Denver pulled away and headed to the
walk-in closet, adjusting his erection in his pants as he walked. He returned
with a loose fitting shirt. He slipped it over her head with his brothers' help,
and they got her settled into the bed. They all pulled back when she was
comfortably sleeping against the plush pillows.

"Glad we
decided to keep that wardrobe filled and this room cleaned all these
years."

"It was fun
to see who would win the arm wrestle each week to see who would have to clean
it," Phelan said before chuckling.

Denver chuckled,
too. All three of them hated any domestic chores. The cleaning crews that came
through and cleaned the entire castle refused to do the master bedrooms. With no
females they didn't see the point. So the three brothers had started having
weekly arm wrestling matches to see who would clean it.

"Well,
guess we'll all settle in. May I suggest you two flash out in the hallway so
she doesn't wake up?"

"Good idea,
Denver."

He watched as
they left the room before he turned his attention back to the bed and the most
beautiful female he'd ever seen. His heart clenched at how vulnerable she
looked lying there in the cream colored shirt lying in their big bed. He closed
his eyes as pain assaulted him at what had been done to her. His poor Desired.
He took a deep breath, stripped out of his pants, and slid under the covers. He
heard his brothers reenter the room, and out the corner of his eye he saw them
both settle around the base of the bed, instinctively lying between their
Desired and the door to protect her should the need arise. He reached out
toward Carina and stroked her cheek with his knuckles. Her skin was so soft and
the most gorgeous caramel color. She smiled and nuzzled into the pillow, so he
withdrew his hand and just watched her sleep as he didn't want to wake her.

A few hours
later, Denver woke to the most divine sensation of Carina's lush bottom
wriggling against him. At some point, probably while still asleep, she'd moved
over to snuggle in against him. His arm was wrapped around her tummy as he
spooned up behind her. He lowered his nose into her hair to inhale her sweet
scent. He flicked his gaze around the room and saw Hart watching Carina's face
with intense eyes.

Is she still sleeping, Hart?

Yep, I'm pretty sure she's dreaming about us
—
well, with the look on her
face, I hope it's us she's dreaming about.

Denver chuckled
back at his brother.
Maybe she's just
dreaming of me?