ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection) (26 page)

She had stayed up late, immobile on her bed, crying and regretting asking Sebastian to leave. She must have slept at some point, as dawn was breaking through the curtains when she awoke.

When she pulled opened her window the air smelled sweet, the thunderstorm of the night before had drenched the dry land leaving it dewy and fragrant.

She staggered slowly downstairs in search of coffee, trying to shake off the chasm of disappointment that she felt. In the morning light, last night seemed like a far away dream; in some parts tragically horrible, yet with moments that each reached a pinnacle of bliss that she’d never known would be possible. It was her recollection of those moments that made this morning’s dawn truly feel like the start of something new, as if her world had altered drastically in the night, and would never go back again.

She needed to find Sebastian. She was devastated by her father’s death, and Sebastian’s role in it, but she acknowledged it was an accident. She had been told the stories of the Tanana tribes as a child, and ironically, back then she imagined that her father was one of the brave shape shifting wolves.

She had looked for magic everywhere when she was little, believed there were fairies in the garden, flitting about from flower to flower, she thought all of nature’s creatures were mystical. Now as an adult realizing that her childhood fantasies were real, she didn’t want to turn her back on them. She knew that she could get on a plane back to New York, apologise to Jimmy and live the life that lay waiting for her. But Leslie-Anne’s word’s echoed in her head – she would die on the inside.

On that thought, a sense of urgency grew within her, half afraid that Sebastian had already slipped away, gone while the scent of him still enveloped her body. She gulped her coffee down and rushed upstairs to shower and dress. She didn’t know where to start looking, but Logan seemed like the logical first port of call.

She flung on jeans and a t-shirt, leaving her hair damp. Rushing back downstairs, her heart started thumping wildly in her chest, excitement and anxiety building. Busting through the front door she blinked in the bright sun, and then came to a standstill. There was a wolf waiting for her in the front garden.

The hair she had thought last night was jet black, was a rich dark brown in the sunlight. She recognized his eyes, the same luminous white and blue that she had seen last night. He had been sitting, but now moved up onto all fours as she approached.

“Sebastian?”

Eva.
His voice echoed through her head, as clearly as if he were speaking out loud. It was soft and caressing, with the faintest sound of a throaty purr beneath it.

As she stood and stared at him, she got the feeling that he had waited here all night for her, and the realisation made her heart felt like it was being torn in two.

“Sebastian – I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have sent you away.”

Don’t apologise. I’m who should be sorry. Forgive me Eva.

“It was an accident. I’m ashamed at how my father behaved – it shouldn’t have happened that way.” She tentatively edged closer; his wolf form alienated and excited her at the same time. She longed to reach and stroke his thick fur.

It doesn’t matter anymore. Eva, you need to leave here – go and live your life. You can do anything you want to.

“Why does everyone insist on sending me away? Sebastian, I want to be here. With you. What you said last night…I feel the same way. I want to be with you, I feel like we’ve wasted years – and I want to start living my life.” 

With a wolf? In this place? I can’t offer you anything, Eva.
Sebastian was determined not to give in this time.

If a small slice of heaven was all he would experience in this lifetime, then that would be enough. It was best this way. He knew he had already bonded with her, that she was his crow mate, but that didn’t mean that he had license to ruin her life. He would set her free, let her fly.

“Yes with a wolf – with you. I like Beaver Creek, Sebastian. But I’m in love with you. So in love with you that there’s only one place that I ever want to be, and that’s wherever you are.  Why do you think I keep coming back?” Her tone was passionate, but he could hear the pain that she was trying to cover, and he didn’t know if that pain was caused by feeling like she had to leave her old life behind, or if it came from fear that she couldn’t have this one.

“Sebastian” she continued, “I’m going to be a Harvard business school graduate, and you’re going to own a lumber business – we can transform this town, you don’t have to worry about my life – this is the one I want.” She hesitated then, as if she had run out of steam. “Unless you don’t…want that? Want me?”

Sebastian lost any resolve he had been clinging to at her question. His frustration dissipated – if she wanted him, really wanted this, then there was nothing that would stop him taking her and spending the rest of his life making her smile the way she did last night.

Eva, I want you. More than you could ever imagine.

At that, she walked toward him slowly and then bent down gracefully in the soft grass to kneel in front of him. She started to stroke his fur, sending tremors throughout his body.

“I want you too – like this, wolf form or human form. I’ll take you anyway you come Sebastian Waverly.”

She guided him down with her into the grass, and buried her hands into his fur, curling up to him so that there wasn’t a sliver of space between them. He shifted back into his human form, his body wrapped protectively around hers, keeping out the morning chill.

Slowly their bodies and heartbeats moved as one, and Eva and Sebastian spent the morning with the sun reflecting off of their sweat-glistened bodies as they basked in their newly expressed love.

The wolf and his crow.

THE END

DRAGON LOVED

Over a decade ago, Alisa was a rebellious teenage runaway with fond memories of the day she spent with Matt, another runaway, especially the part when he quietly confessed that it had been the best day of his life.

Now, years later, Alisa is alone in the Nevada desert on a clear, starlit night when she witnesses an eerie scene. The moon becomes eclipsed by a fierce battle between horrifying flying creatures that appear to be... dragons?

The next thing she knows, as per dragon law, having seen too much Alisa is sentenced to death.

Fortunately, a strikingly sexy male dragon shifter whisks her away in the hopes of saving her from the dragon clans demanding her extermination.

Imagine Alisa’s surprise when she discovers her handsome rescuer is Matt.

With the two of them on the run together like old times, will a spark of attraction be fanned into flames of desire?

More importantly, can Alisa’s handsome dragon save her from a deadly fate?

              The blares and
bings
—along with a grown man’s cheers—snapped Alisa’s attention to the side right as someone won the jackpot on his slot machine. People gathered around him as the man in the tropical floral print shirt and flip flops danced and jabbed his fingers in the direction of his machine.

If only casinos would be that kind to her…

              Well, despite losing most of her money in this place, at least she currently stood next to a cute guy who seemed to enjoy flirting with her. She certainly enjoyed flirting with him. In her best red dress—with a sweet alcoholic beverage in her hand—she smirked with appreciation; things weren’t perfect, but they could be much worse.

              She returned her focus to Mr. Cutie beside her.

              That was when she noticed him dropping something in her drink.

              Alisa stumbled back, her arm immediately swiping up to push the guy away from her. “What do you think you’re doing?”

              “What?”

              Rage, twisted by betrayal, seared through her. “You put something in my drink, you bastard!”

              “What? No I didn’t.”

              “I just saw you.”

              “You’re being paranoid, sweetheart. I’m not perfect, but I don’t think I deserve that.”

              She raised her glass eye-level. Two different sets of bubbles jittered up to the liquid’s surface; one set was a natural part of the drink, the other clearly not.

              Clenching her teeth, she threw the drink right in his too-cute-to-be-true face.

He reeled back, flailing his arms out like a baby bird adjusting to its new wings. “The hell is your problem, bitch?”

“People like you. You’re lucky I was the one who noticed what you did and not my friends, because if they witnessed what you were about to do to me—” She turned to search for the group of close friends she came with. They all partnered together on this impromptu trip to Vegas like the fun-loving sisters-from-different-misters they were. Once she gave them the okay, they would swarm like hornets and give this criminal a piece of their mind.

Except… she didn’t see her friends anywhere. Maybe they were near the slot machines, or drinking themselves stupid. They probably didn’t even know she was still here, let alone that she had been on the verge of getting drugged.

Alisa’s heart shattered, her perception of her close friends quickly warping. The criminal was still watching her, pink fruity drink dripping from his expensively highlighted hair, so she honed in on her anger and sneered at him. “Get away from me before I call the cops.”

The guy raised his hands in mock-surrender and backed away. “Fine. I don’t need this.” Then he lowered his hands and walked away, his expression contorted with irritation.

Tears stung at the back of Alisa’s eyes. The empty glass in her hand felt heavier than it actually was, and she let herself sag forward. Looking around for her friends one last time confirmed that they were nowhere to be seen and either didn’t know or didn’t care that she wasn’t with them.

But…to be fair…she hadn’t exactly been paying attention to them either.

In the center of a crowded casino, people still gathering to congratulate the jackpot winner, Alisa felt completely alone.

She walked away, setting her glass on the first flat surface she came across. On the way out, she grabbed a security guard and stopped him to tell him about the guy who nearly drugged her, before she headed for the exit.

Taking one of the rental cars, Alisa drove around the city awhile. The neon lights, sounds, sights—she had thought they would distract her from her sense of loss, but instead, they served to aggravate her senses. It was too much—too noisy—and she still felt alone.

She drove outside of the city—through the desert and headed toward the mountains. In her rearview mirror, the city was a flashing beacon of multicolored lights. Sin City. It seemed lovelier from a distance. Ahead was the clear night sky, sprinkled full of stars and a waning moon. The soft white light reflected off the dirt and sand, making it appear to glow.

Alisa rolled down the windows to let the chilly night air of the Nevada desert fill the car. The chill slowly numbed her flesh, and calmed her heartrate. She inhaled deeply. Now
this
was soothing. Funny…she had never taken comfort in nature before- or the cold.

After fifteen or twenty minutes, she parked on the side of the road and opened up the car’s sunroof. She leaned her seat back so that she could gaze at the stars, the cool air fluttering around her as the occasional gust of wind blew by.

Why was she here? In the middle of nowhere with friends who weren’t really good friends? Alisa’s heart twisted. She had thought her life was fine before tonight. Sure, she’d been through some troubled times when she was younger. She’d partied hard, experimented with a lot of things and with a lot of people, and gotten into trouble with her parents and with the police more than a few times. In fact, she’d had to transfer from high school to high school until she finally graduated with a relatively clean record.

Her father got her a job cleaning offices through his company so she could earn some college money, but she ended up dropping out of college and working full time as a janitor. When her parents weren’t too happy about her choices, she rented herself a cheap apartment with a few of her friends. Working as a janitor was a stress-free job, and afforded Alisa enough downtime and decent enough pay to allow her to go out often, and have fun. Like tonight.

The thought deepened her frown. Tonight hadn’t been so fun.

Roaring winds caused her to startle and turn to her left squinting into the darkness. Dark clouds swirled in the distance, and they moved at a rapid pace. Must be a storm. A huge, nasty, fast-moving storm, from the looks of things.

Suddenly, the clouds sharpened and swooped toward the ground.

Alisa’s brow furrowed. A strange tornado?

The clouds shot up, twirled, separated, and then collided into one another. Alisa had no idea what to make of it, and she wracked her brain trying to think of a logical explanation for this strange weather phenomenon.

Fire bursts shot between the clouds. The brief bursts of light illuminated the clouds revealing their true identity. And they were not clouds.

Alisa’s breath caught in her throat, her body going limp. Fire continued to shoot in bursts between the two figures, and each time, she caught more details. Nope, they were not clouds. Definitely not clouds. They were monsters of some sort. Scaly skin, snake-eyes, massive mouths with long, razor-sharp teeth, leathery wings…no…it couldn’t be.

Stunned, Alisa got out of her car to get a closer look at the monsters dancing in the sky. The longer she gawked, the more she came to terms with the sight before her.

Dragons.

Not possible. This isn’t real. This can’t be real
. She repeated the phrases over and over again to herself, unable to comprehend the sight before her.

And then the dragons twirled and crashed against the ground, their massive bodies tumbling rapidly toward her.

There was no denying it anymore.

Screaming, Alisa ran into the side of her car before her fumbling hands found the handle. Once she opened it, she threw herself inside and crawled over to the driver’s seat.

The dragon’s tumbling bodies made the ground rumble and shake-hard.

Her breathing wispy and squeaking, she just managed to get her seatbelt on when a dragon crashed against her car and sent it rolling.

She screamed again. Her world spun around and around, screeching metal and other jarring sounds piercing her eardrums. Her body felt like it was twisting itself into a tight ball, and something beyond panic—much stronger than panic—iced through her veins.

When the car finally stopped moving, it lay on the floor of the desert upside down, its roof pressed against the sand.

Alisa was wrapped around her seatbelt with her eyes wide, waiting for her vision to returned. Distantly, she was aware her pulse was racing and her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest. She felt cold and nauseous.

The continued rumbling of the earth—softer but nonetheless threatening—woke her from her stupor.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and crashed to the ground.
Ouch!
She crawled out of the wreckage and was poised to run when she glanced over her shoulder and froze. She could no longer get herself to move at all.

A dragon rose to its feet, its bright yellow eyes locked on hers. It was too dark to make out the small details, but the creature’s silver-gray scales shimmered in the starlight.

When it bared its long, sharp, glistening teeth, Alisa, awash with horror, was certain she was going to die. The instant that she knew her demise was imminent, a giant torpedo zoomed down and plowed into the dragon, the both of them spiraling and crashing over the ground. The third dragon, behind them, followed with its wings outstretched before flapping once and shooting itself off the ground.

It was all too, too much. Alisa could only stand gawking, her jaw trailing the ground. She couldn’t even catch her breath as she watched the torpedo unfurl itself from the ground and stand upright on its hind legs.

Not a torpedo, another dragon.

Bile rose in the back of Alisa’s throat.

The dragon shook itself off and turned to her just as the other two commenced fighting one another again—balls of fire, ungodly wars, swiping claws, flapping wings—it was a cacophony of noise and action.

The torpedoed dragon rose and flew toward her.

Alisa didn’t know what she was expecting. Death? To be ignored and forgotten? Either way, before she could process what was happening, the dragon was flying over her head, and as he neared, he swooped down and grabbed her with his large claws.

Alisa had the good sense to scream.