Healed by the Dragon: Part Three Page 6
Trusting his cousin had a reason for her absence, Finn started his speech. “Dragon-shifters take their mates very seriously. We protect them with our lives because they are our happiness and light.” He turned his head toward Arabella. “Arabella MacLeod, you will be my light and strength through good times and bad. With you at my side, I believe together we can make Lochguard the strongest clan in the United Kingdom.” He lowered his voice a tad for effect. “Sorry, but your old clan will lose to us. Only one clan can be the strongest, after all.” The crowd chuckled and Arabella did a mini-eye roll. He continued, “I offer you my protection, my home, and my name. I would like to kiss you in front of our clan, as a promise to uphold my offers. What do you say?”
~~~
Arabella hesitated. After all, it had only been two days. Would Finn always want her, even once the novelty wore off?
Arabella’s dragon growled. He is our mate. Of course he will want us. Kiss him. He is ours. Claim him.
Seeing as this is the most important decision of my life, can I have a bloody second?
No. I will count to ten before I unleash the frenzy lust. One, two…
Arabella mentally scowled at her beast before she finally answered Finn, “Yes.”
Cheers rose up as Finn placed his hands on her waist and drew her close. Nuzzling the side of her cheek, he murmured, “I meant every word, Arabella. After this, you’re mine and I will do whatever it takes to protect what’s mine.”
His possessive tone made her stomach flip in a good way. Rather than admit it, she whispered, “Just bloody kiss me, dragonman.”
Chuckling, he moved to look into her eyes. “With pleasure.”
Finn’s lips descended on hers. The second his warm, soft mouth touched hers, her beast roared.
Arabella ignored her to wrap her arms around his neck and parted her lips for his tongue. With each stroke, lust pulsed through her body. When he pulled her up against his hard cock, the strongest desire of her life hit her, causing her nipples to throb, her pussy to pulse, and her skin to burn. Every instinct urged her to toss up Finn’s traditional dragon-shifter outfit, wrap her legs around his waist, and ride his cock as if her life depended on it.
Judging by Finn’s possessive grip on her arse, he was no less affected as he dominated her with his tongue.
As Arabella tried to fight back and take control, Finn pulled away. She growled, “Not enough. Not nearly enough.”
His eyes blazed with heat. “Not here.”
Rubbing her body against his, she whispered, “Then hurry.”
Finn turned his head toward the crowd. As he spoke, Arabella kissed his throat. “I’m afraid you’ll have to enjoy the rest of the evening without us.” She nipped his skin. “As you can see, the frenzy is about to start.”
Arabella’s dragon roared again. Now. We must claim him. Let’s go.
As if Finn could hear her thoughts, he took her hand and raced down the stairs. The crowd parted, allowing them to pass. Normally, Arabella would study the faces to assess threats, but her eyes were glued to Finn. Both woman and beast wanted him with every cell of their body.
They exited the main entrance and Finn pulled her to the side to kiss her again. The quick, rough brush of lips and tangle of tongues was over before Arabella could blink. Finn whispered, “There’s plenty more of that once we reach my cottage.”
Digging her nails into his chest, she answered, “There had bloody well better be. My skin is on fire. I need you, Finn.”
“Come on.”
They all but ran toward his cottage. They were nearly there when Faye jogged in front of Finn and ordered, “Stop, Finn, and listen.”
Finn growled. “Not now, Faye. I’m barely holding on as it is.”
Arabella leaned into Finn’s side, the heat of his body helping to control the pounding need to mate. Somehow, she forced her brain to work. “Tell us, Faye.”
Faye nodded and answered quickly, “I was trying to reach you before the kiss. Even though I failed, I need you to listen, Finlay. It’s important.”
Finn growled. “Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
Faye answered, “We’re under attack. The Dragon Knights are here for Arabella.”
*~*~*~*
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Healed by the Dragon: Part Four will release on May 28, 2015. Turn the page to learn how to receive an alert when it’s ready and for glimpses of my other works.
Dear Reader:
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Also, I need to ask you a favor. Word-of-mouth is crucial for any author to succeed. If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review. Even if it's only a line or two, it would be a huge help!
If you like my dragon-shifters, then you might enjoy my recent Cascade Shifters series release, Resisting the Cougar. Turn the page for an excerpt from Resisting the Cougar as well as a glimpse into my other works.
With Gratitude,
Jessie Donovan
Resisting the Cougar
(Cascade Shifters #2)
Synopsis:
President of an organization fighting for the right of shifters and humans to marry each other, Claire Davis needs the support of a local shifter clan or her cause is doomed. Even though she's human, she finds a way to reach out to the Clan DarkStalker cougar-shifters. Once she arrives on their land, she learns what it will take to garner their support and her life will never be the same.
As head sentry of Clan DarkStalker, Aidan Scott has more important things to do than fetch a human from a secret location. Only because he's loyal to his clan leader does he agree. Yet before long, the human female tempts him in a way he hasn't felt since his mate died five years ago.
In order to make the world a better place for humans and shifters, the pair must work together and avoid being caught by the authorities. What neither expected was to find their own happily ever after in each other.
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Excerpt from Chapter One:
Claire Davis adjusted the glasses on her nose and tried not to think about how she was lost in the middle of the cougar-shifters’ land. Not lost in the sense she could stop at a gas station and ask for directions. Rather, she was lost in the middle of the damn Cascade Mountains with no cell service and no map.
So much for technology making life easier; it always failed when Claire needed it the most.
Pulling over to the side of the road, she put the car in park and laid her forehead on the steering wheel. If only she had thought of a back-up plan. Reading the directions earlier had made everything seem so simple. What she hadn’t accounted for was the low-level fog a few miles back.
Think, Davis, think. She wasn’t the head of the Shifter Equality Alliance by luck. Stubbornness was her middle name, and she wasn’t about to give up. Especially since her upcoming meeting was important. No, scratch that, the scheduled meeting with the cougar-shifters was goddamn historical.
Kian Murray had invited her to DarkStalker’s land through a human acquaintance they shared. Because it was illegal for her, or any human, to be on any shifter’s land without the federal government’s permission, she’d been given detailed directions to help hide her true destination. Once she reached the final location in the directions, a DarkStalker sentry, named Aidan Scott, would blindfold her and take her the rest of the way.
She’d made it to step number forty-three out of forty-five before the fog had prevented her from finding her next landmark. So close, yet so far.
The number of steps jogged her memory. Raising her head, she then switched on the interior car light and picked up her printed directions. Scanning the page, she reached the end. “Aha. I was right. I’m only a few miles from the final destination. Maybe if I honk my horn
and sit here, the cougar-shifters will find me.”
Since she was alone on a tiny mountain road, the noise wouldn’t attract any humans. Only a fool would try driving these mountains in March with snow still on the ground.
Well, a fool or a woman on a mission. The Shifter Equality Alliance, or SEA, needed this meeting. Without the shifters’ help, SEA’s push to make shifter-human marriages legal was doomed according to every set of data analyzed in the last few months. Clan DarkStalker was her best chance at making that happen. She needed to make the meeting, at any cost.
Taking a deep breath, she pressed the horn and held it for fifteen seconds before releasing it.
Claire scanned her surroundings, but five minutes later, she was still sitting in her car with no cougar in sight.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. The saying might be childish, but it pretty much described how she’d run her life over the last five years.
Placing her hand on the horn, she geared herself for the noise and pressed down. Rather than make it a straight noise, she beeped the horn to “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Maybe the kids’ song would signal she wasn’t a threat.
As she waited in silence again, she kept a look out for any cougars. Eventually, they had to find her.
Right?
She refused to think about the alternative.
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Resisting the Cougar is now available on all major online retailers.
Blaze of Secrets
(Asylums for Magical Threats #1)
Kiarra Melini overhears the dangerous secrets of her blood and decides that if Feiru elemental magic is to survive, she needs to die. However, before she can finish the deed, a strange yet determined man shows up in her cell, throws her over his shoulder, and carries her right out of the prison for elemental magic users.
Jaxton Ward is ordered by his superiors to train the stubborn elemental fire user he rescued. There's only one problem—she claims her magic is gone and he has no idea how to train a woman who spent the last fifteen years inside a prison cell. He's determined to keep his relationship professional, but as the danger amps up and they're forced to go on the run, he starts to fall for the newly confident woman who ignites his temper like no other.
Kiarra's final secret is the key to them staying alive, but can they outrun the prison enforcers long enough for her to embrace her unique magical talents and finally learn to love again?
———————
Blaze of Secrets is available on all major online retailers.
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 (Late June/early July 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)
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: Part Three
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: 978-1942211181