Healed by the Dragon: Boxed Set (Parts #1-4) Read online

  The male researcher spoke up. “They’re going to start a new, larger test group in a few weeks and see if they can stop the first-borns from going insane and/or committing suicide. If we don’’t get the insanity rate below ten percent, then we’ll never be able to implement this planet-wide.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get there. We have a few million first-borns to burn through to get it right.”

  Kiarra opened her eyes and embraced the guilt she felt every time she thought about what had happened to those poor first-born teenagers.

  Because of her blood, not only had five teenagers already gone insane, but their insanity was driving an untold number of them to suicide.

  And the researchers wanted to repeat the process with a larger group.

  She couldn’t let that happen.

  They needed her blood, drawn and injected within hours, as a type of catalyst for the Null Formula to work. If they didn’t have access to her blood, they wouldn’t be able to conduct any more tests.

  There was a chance the researchers might find another catalyst within a few weeks or months, but it was a risk she was willing to take. Stopping the tests, even for a few months, would prevent more people from going insane or committing suicide.

  Kiarra needed to die.

  I can do this. Think of the others. Taking a deep breath, she tightened her grip around the shiv’s handle and whispered, “Please let this work,”” before raising the blade with a steady hand and plunging it into the top half of her forearm.

  Kiarra sucked in a breath as a searing pain shot up her arm. To prevent herself from making any more noise, she bit her lip. Despite the AMT-wide staff meeting, a guard would come to investigate her cell if she screamed.

  You can do this, Kiarra. Finish it. With her next inhalation, she pulled the blade a fraction more down toward her wrist. This time she bit her lip hard enough she could taste iron on her tongue.

  While her brain screamed for her to stop, she ignored it and gripped the handle of the blade until it bit into her palm. Only when her heart stopped beating would the other first-borns be safe—at least from her.

  An image of a little girl crying, reaching out her arms and screaming Kiarra’s name, came unbidden into her mind, but she forced it aside. Her sister had abandoned her, just like the rest of her family. Her death wouldn’t cause anyone sadness or pain. Rather, through death, she would finally have a purpose.

  This was it. On the next inhalation, she moved the blade a fraction. But before she could finish the job, the door of her cell slid open.

  Kiarra looked up and saw a tall man, dressed head to toe in black, standing in her doorway and pointing a gun straight at her.

  Shit. She’d been discovered.

  ———————

  Want to read the rest? Blaze of Secrets is available on all major online vendors. Click here for links to all major vendors!

  Author’s Note

  I’m both relieved and sad that Finn and Arabella’s story is over. This has been one of the hardest stories I’ve written, but I hope I did it justice. Arabella very much deserved her happy ending!

  I didn’t do this alone. There are some people I’d like to thank for their help:

  Clarissa Yeo of Yocla Designs is an amazing cover artist and I’m lucky to have her. The attention to detail on my covers is just mind-blowing. I’m not sure how many other cover artists would be able to portray Arabella so well, with her scars and all.

  Becky Johnson and her team at Hot Tree Editing. Becky really pushed me on this one and I’m grateful. She doesn’t allow me to be lazy. I’m sure my readers appreciate that!

  Iliana, Donna, and Alyson are my beta-readers and their input has been vital to this series. These ladies catch typos missed by five other sets of eyes. Not to mention they point out when something is off. I’m extremely grateful to have them.

  My readers. The support and enthusiasm from you all is amazing. You help make writing that much more awesome.

  Before I go, if you would like to interact more with me and my fans, you can join my Facebook Fans of Author Jessie Donovan group here:

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/335945189923923/

  Thanks again for reading and I can’t wait to for you to see what I’m cooking up in my next dragon story. It’s about Kai, Stonefire’s head Protect, and Jane Hartley, the reporter from Revealing the Dragons. After their story is the first book in my Lochguard Highland Dragons series. To keep up to date on news for that book, make sure to sign up for my newsletter on my website.

  See you around! :)

  Books by Jessie Donovan

  Asylums for Magical Threats

  Blaze of Secrets (AMT #1)

  Frozen Desires (AMT #2)

  Shadow of Temptation (AMT #2.5)

  Flare of Promise (2015, AMT#3)

  Cascade Shifters

  Convincing the Cougar (CS #0.5)

  Reclaiming the Wolf (CS #1)

  Cougar’s First Christmas (CS #1.5)

  Resisting the Cougar (CS #2)

  Stonefire Dragons

  Sacrificed to the Dragon: Boxed Set (Parts #1-4)

  Seducing the Dragon: Boxed Set (Parts #1-4)

  Revealing the Dragons

  Healed by the Dragon: Part One

  Healed by the Dragon: Part Two

  Healed by the Dragon: Part Three

  Healed by the Dragon: Part Four (May 28, 2015)

  Healed by the Dragon: Boxed Set (Parts #1-4)

  Reawakening the Dragon: Part One (July 21, 2015)

  About the Author

  Jessie Donovan wrote her first story at age five, and after discovering The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey in junior high, she realized people actually wanted to read stories like those floating around inside her head. From there on out, she was determined to tap into her over-active imagination and write a book someday.

  After living abroad for five years and earning degrees in Japanese, Anthropology, and Secondary Education, she buckled down and finally wrote her first full-length book. While that story will never see the light of day, it laid the world-building groundwork of what would become her debut paranormal romance, Blaze of Secrets. In late 2014, she officially became a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.

  Jessie loves to interact with readers. When not reading a book or traipsing around some foreign country on a shoestring, she can often be found on Facebook either on her Author Page or in her Fan Group.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Healed by the Dragon: Boxed Set

  Copyright © 2015 Laura Hoak-Kagey

  Mythical Lake Press

  First Digital Edition

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Art by Clarissa Yeo of Yocla Designs

  ISBN: 978-1942211211