Dragons at Midnight

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Dragons at Midnight

Selena Illyria

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Published By:

Etopia Press

P.O. Box 66

Medford, OR 97501

http://www.etopia-press.net

Dragons at Midnight

Copyright © 2011 by Selena Illyria

ISBN: 978-1-936751-99-0

Edited by Katriena Knights

Cover by Mina Carter

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Etopia Press electronic publication: December 2011

~ Dedication ~

To Vicki, Kayelle, The Wonderful Whipped Cream Reviews Crew, Dawn (Stop poking me! I’m writing), Di, Cynnie and Shar (I suppose you both want a dragon shifter too?), Silvia, Tara, Maria, Jessica, (Goodness this list is getting long), Lexxie, Mari, Rhian, Jess, Viv, Nic, Lissa, Shaz, Jade, Myc, Tina, Lena, Nik, Soph, Sienna, Dahlia and Mahalia. Did I leave anyone out? No? Good.

Chapter One

The plan was set, or at least Torsten had thought so. Every angle had been considered, from the food to the sex toys to when they were going to leave the bar and take her home. Fletcher had agreed to stay behind and clean up, and Brent had volunteered to cook breakfast for all of them. Tor had seen to making up the guest bed so that once everything was over she’d have her own space and wouldn’t feel overwhelmed by dragon-male testosterone.

He just wanted to make sure Brent and Fletch had everything down before they started the plan. “So we do it tonight?” Torsten asked. He looked at his best friends Brent and Fletcher. He prayed they would take tonight seriously. Lately, he’d begun to think of Louisa as his. The dragon that dwelled within him and lent him his strength had started to act territorial toward her. Any time a man came up and flirted with her, the lizard would roar and hiss and try to bring about the change.

It had taken all his strength to keep the dragon back. The New Year’s plan came out one drunken night after another unsatisfying bout of masturbation and wondering what Louisa was up to. He’d glanced at the calendar and realized they were only a week from the New Year. And once the Chinese New Year kicked in, all dragons would feel a sense of empowerment that would last the year. He figured starting early and going after what he wanted on January first would kick off the year just right.

Fate had been on his side when, the next day, still hung over and feeling bold, he asked Louisa her plans. None. Not a single thing. Maybe watching the ball drop and curling up with her furball companion Whisper. The cat had taken a liking to the boys, which Tor had taken as a good sign. If a woman’s pet hated you, then you were royally screwed, and if she got rid of it for you then stay the fuck away.

When he proposed the plan of a night of debauchery and seduction to Brent and Fletch, whom he knew were interested in Louisa, they’d been all for it. Now was the time to enact it, and if the other two weren’t organized, Tor knew he’d have to do it on his own. There was no one else he wanted to share Louisa with. If he couldn’t share her with his two best friends from flyling stage then he couldn’t trust anyone. He just hoped they felt the same way about Louisa as he did. He assumed they did, since they got just as territorial as he did when a guy hit on her.

Brent stood in front of a mirror, making sure his ink-black spikes tipped with green looked just right. Tor resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The man was always making sure his hair was just right. If his mug could be attached to a mirror without interfering with his sex life, Bret would do it.

Bret pulled one spike up and smoothed down the back of his hair before he turned around. His sky blue eyes danced with mischief. “Yup. It’s the New Year, and I heard the boss man say she’d be the one to close up shop tonight. Pretty sweet timing. But are we sure she’ll go for it? She hasn’t exactly told us she wants any of us. If we show up there and she turns us down we’ll have to find new jobs, and I for one want to keep mine.”

Tor resisted the urge to smack the younger dragon. At twenty-two, Bret still tended to act like a moron so as not to take too much responsibility. Louisa had exuded an arousing musk whenever she was near one of them. Her pupils would dilate, and her body temperature would go up a few notches whenever she was around one or all of them. Of course she was sexually attracted to them, but Tor didn’t want to point that out. He didn’t feel he should have to. Fletch saved him from stating the obvious.

Fletcher rolled his eyes. “Of course she wants us. She just refuses to admit it. You know what tiger shifters are like. Don’t worry—we’ll have her purring in acquiescence in no time. Just don’t forget the lube and the toys. I had a bitch of time shopping at Deluxe Delights. They keep looking at me funny.”

Trust Fletch to front a cocky attitude, even though doubt tainted his tone. Fletch didn’t believe anything until it was stated, even if he did use his brain and enhanced senses. He would still act confident just so he wouldn’t be seen as wrong.

Tor pushed aside Fletch’s distrust and snorted. “Maybe it was because you keep looking over the bondage gear and stroking the leather, you freak. All you bought was lube, flavored condoms and some scarves.”

Color spread through Fletch’s cheeks. “We don’t want to scare her the first time out.”

Bret laughed. “Of course we don’t. Which means” —he clapped Fletch on the shoulder and gave it a squeeze— “that Tor and I do the talking. You just shut up and try not to turn into a walking tomato.” He gave Fletcher’s short, dark red hair a quick ruffle before going to grab the bag of things for their celebration tonight.

Tor wouldn’t press them on the emotions or important issues like binding her to them all by the time the clock struck midnight. It would be lost on them. He’d just keep it in mind. At least he intended to be mated by this time tomorrow night. There may not be a mating heating—a fire that would consume him once he’d found his mate—to confirm his urges but he didn’t care. Especially since they were two different species and only in the last fifty years had the tiger shifters and dragons come to a peace agreement to stop killing each other. None of that mattered.

“So do we bring the champagne with us or use some of the good stuff at the bar?” Tor tucked a strand of dark blond hair behind his ear. He eyed the liquor cabinet with interest. Getting her drunk would defeat the purpose of tonight. Fun as it was, he wanted her clear-minded and sober. Besides, there were other ways to get a person drunk. He grinned at the idea of getting her intoxicated on them.

“Bring a bottle and the rum. And whipped cream,” Bret called out from the hallway. Fletch rushed off to take care of some last minute things while Tor headed to the wet bar.

Tor took down the bottles and added them to his bag of things. They’d already decided they would grab some food for later on the way to Dragon’s Lair. Once everything was packed, he called out to the other men. “Move your asses. I’m not wasting any more time waiting for Louisa.”

Time to bind you to me, sweetness. And if we’re lucky, you’ll belong to all of us.
No more flirting and innuendo. He just hoped that the confidence that empowered him held out. If she did turn them down he wasn’t sure his dragon wouldn’t demand that they kidnap her, bring her back here, and force her to admit she wanted them all. Nothing would get a tiger’s back up more than force and action. She’d be more inclined to beat the shit out of them, leave them bloody, and never speak to them again than fuck them all night long. Not only would they have lost a chance with her, but also their jobs. There would be no way they could work with her and not try again. At least he wouldn’t. Fletch and Brent wouldn’t want to show their faces in front of her again, despite this being a small beach town. There weren’t many places a dragon could go and feel comfortable. They had mountains to the east and the beach to the south and forested land to the north and west. This was home, and it wouldn’t be anymore if Louisa turned them down.

* * *

Louisa ran a rag over the dark, wood bar and glanced up at the clock. She had a few hours to get home, put on a party hat, and settle down in front of the TV before the ball dropped. Another year gone and alone as usual. Her sister was off partying Goddess only knew where. Not even a call to invite her to a party.

Her thoughts strayed to the Trio of Trouble, her co-workers, Torsten, Brent and Fletcher. The thought of those three sent a shiver down her spine and heat spreading through her stomach. From Brent’s laid-back, easy charm and smile and his sky blue eyes that always glittered with mischief and flirtation to Fletch—she could sense a sensitive soul under all the bluff and bluster. And then there was their leader, the quiet and intense Tor, whose gaze never seemed to stray far from her. In his brown eyes flecked with silver, she could see unspoken desires and emotions as well as thoughts he kept to himself.

Her feline curiosity was always piqued when she looked at him. There were so many questions he wanted to ask. For all the times she tried to ignore her desires for him and his friends, her brain refused to keep her thoughts in order. Like clockwork, the fantasies she tried to keep strictly to nighttime would rise as soon as she saw one of them, and they only increased in intensity when she looked at Tor.

As of late, those fancies had turned to the ménage variety. At first her dreams were plagued by singular encounters. The more she hung around them, the more all of them would filter into her mind during sleep. The idea of having one man had satisfied her, but three—especially those three—brought to mind her nightly fantasies. Her feline side would come to life, adding more intense wants like bondage, the chase, blood and good, long, hard sex. It had been so long since she’d indulged in her tiger’s wants and needs.

Being a tiger was a lot harder to manage than being a lion or jaguar. Tigers had darker wants and needs, more violence. Being pent up in one place didn’t suit. And unlike some other shifters they didn’t settle down with one person. Monogamy was a foreign concept.

Her parents hadn’t been married when she came along, and once she was old enough her father took off and her mother just kept going. Bouncing around from one place to another gave her a sense of never knowing home and, unlike her kin, craving one place to stay and live. Finding Shadowed Bay had been perfect—a haven for paranormal and human to live and work side by side without much fuss or muss.

Now that she had a home, there was nothing she wanted to do to threaten it, and getting involved with one dragon, much less three, wasn’t on her list of wants no matter how much they made her burn and yearn for sex. There was also the resistance to any sort of relationship. Lonely as her existence had been, she didn’t want to be mated.

As soon as she’d come of age, her mother had tried to pass her off to a tiger who was more interested in having a harem than a relationship beyond the sex. After a lot of yelling, threats, and a fight to escape him, she’d been freed, but not without a warning that she was a marked and exiled woman. It had been her luck to be set up with an Alpha Tiger who had a lot of pull and sway. He’d made it clear she was to be shunned by her kind. Tigers and other felines—out of fear—avoided her like the plague unless they had to interact with her, and even then they’d need a written declaration that they hadn’t initiated the encounter, she had.

It pissed her off but she didn’t mind so much. It kept the felines from hitting on her, and feline men could be extremely arrogant, self-centered, and stubborn. They felt they were the cat’s meow whether they were or weren’t. The women could be vain, selfish, and too absorbed in material things. She didn’t subscribe to any of that. Plain, simple and easy. No fuss and no muss and no complications of any kind was her motto, and she lived by that. To her, the young dragons were a complication, and a whole lot of fuss and muss. For one thing, they were young, in their early twenties, and far too good-looking for their own good.

She had no desire to be a notch on their bedposts or something to brag about. The division between dragons and tigers may have ended in a pact but that didn’t mean she had to trust them. Especially when they came in such delicious looking packages. It didn’t help that her cat Whisper loved to be around them—always rubbing up against them, purring loudly when any of them was near—and could always be found on their laps getting a good rub down or a scratch behind her ears. Slut, she thought. If Louisa didn’t know any better, she’d think her cat was trying to match her up with one of the dragons. Whisper didn’t act that way about anyone else, that was for sure.

Her boss, Rune, even commented on Whisper’s attachment to the trio. A soft meow came out of the darkness. The overly fluffy Persian padded toward her. The bottlebrush tail swished back and forth. Her large blue eyes blinked at up her mistress, an expression of contentment on her face. “You ready for the New Year, Whis? You’ll get an extra bit of tuna tonight.”

“Merow?” Whisper sat down. Her tail continued to sweep across the floor. She seemed to know words like tuna, treats, and nap but things like no didn’t seem to make a dent in her kitty brain. Just like a feline, Louisa mused. “Yes, tuna. And no, the trio isn’t here to give you extra treats. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re after.”

“Merow?” Whisper blinked up at her, innocence in her gaze.

Louisa rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to play the innocent. I know you try to get into the catnip when I’m not looking. Anyway, you’ll get extra tuna and some extra petting too. I’ll even make a fire so you can stretch out in front of it. You’ll like that, won’t you?”

Whisper got up and brushed against her in a sinuous glide of fur against denim. A loud purr drifted up to let her know the kitty was satisfied.

After a glance around, she saw there was nothing else to do but blow out the candles. The soft, dim glow had added a lovely, romantic, intimate feel earlier in the night when they’d served an early dinner to parties on their way to other festivities. Now the bar was empty. Louisa didn’t want to leave. She had all the champagne she would need, there was a TV, she had snacks from the kitchen, and her e-reader was in her purse. All she needed was someone to smooch, and the night would be perfect. Spending the night at work wouldn’t exactly be anyone’s ideal for New Year’s Eve, but she didn’t want to return to an empty house. Not again, anyway.

Her thoughts turned to the Triple Heat boys. At least that was what she called them. Usually she avoided even looking at anyone younger than herself. She wasn’t exactly young at thirty-five, but she’d always thought that she’d be married or in a serious relationship by thirty. Work and going back to college to study business management had kept her busy and her nights filled with homework and work schedules. Now that most of that was over, she was alone with only a cat to call company. It was by no means a bad thing but around this time of year, with Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day all coming one after another, she really did feel how alone she was. Especially Valentine’s Day. Glowering over the upcoming Cupid-friendly, couples atmosphere that would sweep through the town, she threw the cloth under the bar and made sure everything was as it should be.