Dragon's Bane

She wanted to find him ugly. Wanted to hate him for what he was. But she didn’t. As his all too gorgeous face stared down into hers, an inexplicable warmth swelled inside her chest. An affection for this strange man she’d never known, a man who should instil nothing in her but fear and loathing.

“Cat got your tongue, lovely?” the beast asked. Adding to his veneer of insanity, he slipped a hand onto her waist and pulled her towards him in a strangely intimate manner.

She shook her head, but the lack of words coming out of her mouth only confirmed that yes, some kleptomaniacal cat had in fact run off with her tongue.

“Tell me, why would a pretty thing like you want to spend time with a man like me, when it’s obvious that I scare the living **** out of you?” he asked.

His scent twisted around Luna’s head, intoxicating and dangerous. Confirmed: he was completely mad. It was awfully unfortunate that he smelled so sexy.

“You don’t…terrify…” she stammered, unable to convince her brain to fire on enough cylinders to formulate a proper lie. What sort of dark magic was he weaving through her mind? The bastard was pulling her strings. She’d suddenly become a puppet, and he was nothing if not a skilled master.

“You thought I was sad and lonely and in need of companionship, little thing.” He spoke low, his tone menacingly attractive. “But here’s the thing: I’m not, and certainly not for your company, Wolf. Oh yes, I know who you are.”

Luna trembled under his touch, her teeth threatening to chatter right out of her head. Never in her life had she been overwhelmed with such a cocktail of emotions.

“What do you mean, you know who I am?” she asked. Oh God. Maybe he could read her mind. Maybe he knew what she’d seen.

Maybe he was going to kill her.

“I can smell it on you.” He dipped his face down, bending his massive torso to bury his nose in her neck, inhaling deep. Luna relaxed for a moment, relieved to realize that he’d probably only meant that he knew she was a shifter. Perhaps he didn’t know she was part of the Warkshire Pack, after all.

As she relaxed, a strange sensation overcame her, a sort of euphoria at the feel of his hands on her body. As the tip of his nose caressed her skin, she felt her cruel core respond with desire. Stop it, she commanded in vain. Stupid, foolish body. How the hell could she possibly want this murderous creature? She was supposed to be running away from him. Fleeing for her very life. Protecting herself and her brother.

Weak Wolf. Bad Wolf. Stupid, stupid Wolf.

“I…”

She wanted to protest, to tell him that she wasn’t in fact a Wolf shifter. But it would be stupid to lie to a Dragon. He knew; of course he knew.

So she didn’t bother to finish the thought. Didn’t push him away. There would be no point in trying, anyhow; he outweighed her by at least a hundred and fifty pounds.

The Dragon shifter slipped his lips to her ear. “Sexy little she-Wolf,” he whispered before giving her earlobe a gentle nip that nearly made Luna lose her footing on the solid floor. The man pulled back to look into her eyes once again. “Pretty thing. I could eat you up. I could probably even take you for my own, couldn’t I? Yes, from the smell of how aroused you are, I could.”

Yes. You could. If you asked me to go into a dark alley and take my clothes off, I would, God help me.

She shook her head, her eyes wide, but the quiet thrill of fear whipped its way through her body. He was so dangerous. So alluring. So devilishly awful, which made her all the worse for wanting him.