Dragon's Lover, Part 2 Read online

  Dragon’s Lover 2

  Carina Wilder

  Contents

  Introduction

  1. Ashlyn

  2. Aegis

  3. Reunion

  4. Fever

  5. Help

  6. Fire and Ice

  7. Heartbreak

  8. Parting

  9. Betrayals

  10. Intimacies

  11. The Heath

  12. The East End

  13. Dragon’s Lover, Part Three is coming soon!

  Afterword

  Also by Carina Wilder

  Introduction

  Dragon’s Lover is a three-part serial, and the third story arc in the Dragon Hunter Series. You can find the previous books here:

  Dragon Hunter

  Dragon Seeker

  Dragon’s Lover, Part One

  Ashlyn

  Hot tears threatened to streak down Ashlyn’s cheeks as she stared out the train’s window at the passing landscape. Though crying seemed completely inadequate, considering the idiocy of what she’d just done. What kind of twat-muffin walks out on an incredible, sexy, charming, perfect man after spending a glorious night with him? Who throws away the chance to feel something wonderful after years of heart-wrenching loss? Who the hell walks away from Mr. Fuckable, for crap’s sake?

  “This girl,” Ashlyn mumbled miserably, thrusting a thumb at her chest.

  The worst part was that she couldn’t come up with one good reason for leaving Aegis. Not one. “I live in the United States” seemed too insufficient an excuse. Yes, she had a home across the ocean. But she had no damned life there. What was the point in returning, when this place held so much promise?

  Maybe it wasn’t too late to change her mind. Would it be considered bad manners to ask the conductor to put the damn train in reverse and head back to Oxford? Because this whole leaving-the-sexy-Dragon-shifter-behind thing just wasn’t working out for her. In fact, she was fairly certain that it was hurting her.

  In addition to the mental anguish of tearing herself away from the most incredible man in the world, Ashlyn’s body had begun to ache the moment she’d stepped onto the platform at the station, and as the train sped towards London the ache was only growing stronger.

  They said that pain was the body’s way of telling a person that something was wrong inside, whether an injury or a symptom of something even worse. Well, there was no doubt in Ashlyn’s mind that she’d done some serious damage to herself by leaving Oxford.

  The question was, how bad was it?

  She clutched her satchel to her torso and leaned her forehead against the frosty window, seeking the soothing cold of its surface. She wanted to whimper, to release her self-pity in high pitched moans as an attention-seeking puppy would. But the thing was, she didn’t want attention. At least not from anyone on the train. Only from a certain light-haired Dragon man with a silver tongue and a body made for sex.

  It was all well and good to tell herself that she’d done the sensible thing, that she needed to forget what had happened the previous night. But how the hell was she supposed to shut Aegis out of her mind? How could she forget the sensation of his fingers on her skin, his lips caressing her own? Hell, his lips caressing her everything.

  The gorgeous Dragon shifter was branded on her now, his face, his scent, his body burned onto her soul. He wasn’t the sort of man that any woman could ever forget. But she’d have to; what choice did she have? It wasn’t as if she could have a proper relationship with such a god-like creature. He was…well, god-like. Wealthy, mysterious, fantastic in every way. No doubt he’d grow tired of her in a matter of days.

  Yep. It was best to get away from Aegis, who was probably still lying in his bed a few miles away. Oblivious to the fact that his one-night lover had taken off just before dawn, after he’d torn her heart from her chest to keep it for himself. Thing was, he probably didn’t even want the mutinous organ. He was a man, after all. Weren’t they generally satisfied with a little fooling around?

  Lucky bastard would wake to a typical Ashlyn-free day and proceed with his life without thinking twice about her. No doubt he felt mighty relaxed right now, without a care in the damned world.

  Meanwhile, the tempestuous bonfire that had set itself raging in Ashlyn’s soul was burning hard and bright, aching for the Dragon shifter to rekindle its flames before they faded to smoking piles of ash. Because when that fire disappeared, so would she. Or at least that was how she felt, melodramatic though the sentiment may have been.

  Holy shit, woman.

  She’d fallen hard, and she had no idea how she’d ever recover. But recover she must, if she ever wanted to return to any semblance of a normal existence.

  In a lazy effort to distract herself from her withdrawal symptoms she unbuckled her canvas satchel and opened its flap, reaching deep inside. Her hand wrestled for a moment with the bag’s contents, working its way to the narrow, cool cylinder that lay buried at the bottom. She pulled it out, relieved to see that her tiny treasure had survived all her misadventures.

  The gun-metal grey tube was cold to the touch as always, its exterior dull and unmarked except for the hair-thin horizontal line dividing it in two. Carefully Ashlyn unscrewed its two halves, gingerly pulling the rolled up parchment from within and unfurling it in the palm of her hand.

  She’d read the words scrawled on the yellowed paper a thousand times at least, and each time they’d brought with them more questions than they answered. This strange bit of writing was the true reason she’d come to this cruel, merciless country. It was also to blame for her meeting Aegis, for everything that she was now suffering.

  In spite of all that, the sight of the paper brought comfort. It was Ashlyn’s adoptive father who’d given her the tube when she’d turned twenty-one. He’d told her that a firefighter had found it in the crib where she’d been discovered as a baby. No one had ever opened it, her father had told her, despite all the years that it had been in his possession. He’d said that it was meant for her alone.

  Ashlyn’s lips moved slightly as she read, chanting silently as the solemn words worked their way through her mind.

  Once consumed by lightning and flames

  A place overgrown with moss and vine

  Lies at the heart of the city on the Thames.

  Seek it when you’ve found your Shield

  And remember who you are.

  Only then will the hidden stone be revealed.

  My child of flame,

  Daughter of the ancient,

  Girl with the fiery name.

  Ashlyn had spent weeks trying to decipher the note. But London was a huge city, and every time she’d asked a stranger about a “place overgrown with moss and vine,” they’d stared at her like she was mentally deficient. “Every place in London is mossy, love,” one woman had told her. “It rains here each day. You’d be hard pressed to find a place that isn’t overgrown with moss.” So after endless days of dead ends, Ashlyn had all but given up on her search.

  Until last night, of course, when Aegis had walked into a pub and into her life. It was in that moment that the words had begun to take on a whole new meaning. The strange, violent half-breed who’d attacked her—the Forsaken, Aegis had called him—had mentioned a “relic,” whatever the hell that was. Was there a chance that it was linked to the verse? Could it be that Ashlyn’s purpose in London was somehow tied to a world of blood drinkers and Dragon shifters?

  After she’d rolled up the parchment and tucked it back into its metal shell, she stared out the window again, more confused than ever. Damn it, she should have stayed with Aegis and accepted his offer to help. He’d taken her in and protected her when she was all alone, sheltered her in the comfort of his arms. But in
stead of taking advantage of his generosity and knowledge, she’d run away like a weak coward.

  A deepening regret renewed its attack on her insides for fleeing without so much as a kiss good-bye. She’d probably never see him again.

  And to add to all of it, she was beginning to feel like absolute crap.

  She leaned her head back against the hard vinyl headrest, overcome by a sudden wave of weakness. Great. This must be the aftermath of falling hard for a living god. Distance was supposed to be a remedy for this particular brand of pain, yet with every minute that dragged by, her strength seemed to wane.

  Damn it, Ashlyn, no one gets physically ill just from walking out of a man’s house.

  Okay, maybe walking out on a Dragon shifter was different. There was something drug-like about her attraction to him, so maybe it made sense to think that withdrawal was now setting in. Though it sure seemed like it might be easier to quit a heroin habit cold turkey.

  She pressed her hand to her forehead and shut her eyes against the dizzying sensation that she was falling, spiralling towards the ground, her head ready to shatter like fragile crystal. No, no, no. This wasn’t happening; she wasn’t really getting sick. She couldn’t afford to. The weakness was a figment of her stupid imagination, just a symptom of heartache. The disappointment of a love affair cut short.

  Foolish girl. It’s far more than that, and you know it.

  Ashlyn jumped in her seat, her eyes popping open when the words echoed through her head. Someone had spoken to her. No, someone had spoken inside her. What the hell?

  The strange, feminine voice had come from the depths of her mind, as if planted there. Like some strange creature had taken up residence inside her and was now attempting to gain control over her body and soul. Ashlyn squeezed her eyes shut again, pressing her fists into her temples in an attempt to shut the entity out and to regain control. But the voice returned:

  You were wrong to leave him. The Dragon shifter was meant to be yours. You did this to yourself; you walked away when you should have stayed. England is the place where you were born, the place that holds the answers you seek. You cannot leave before you’ve found what you need.

  You must not.

  The words came at her like bullets, relentless and cruel in their directness.

  Shut up, Ashlyn snarled quietly. She must have been going insane to think it was a good idea to engage with a disembodied voice, but fuck it. Even if you’re right, she continued, how am I supposed to explain to a man like Aegis that I came to England because of some badly-written poem about a rock? He wouldn’t understand. He’d think I was a lunatic.

  Great. She was having a silent, internal argument with…herself. Maybe she was crazy. After all, twenty-four hours ago she hadn’t believed that shifters and vampires were a real thing, and now she did. Hell, it turned out that the man who turned her on more than anything in the world could morph into a Dragon at the drop of a hat.

  None of that was even remotely normal. In fact, it was entirely possible that she’d imagined all of it. Maybe she’d even imagined him.

  But how could she possibly have imagined the sensation of his touch? Aegis had given her the greatest sexual pleasure of her life. Surely that hadn’t been some invention of her subconscious; it was all too real. She could still feel the aftershocks of her delicious orgasm, the endorphins coursing through her bloodstream. She could feel her body fighting against the misery of her separation from him, could still remember the sensation of his breath on her breasts, of his lips pursing around one nipple and then the other.

  She could still taste him.

  Biting her lip, she once again fought back the tears that had begun to gather like storm clouds before a torrential downpour. Aegis was real. She knew he was.

  Well, real or not, she refused to cry over a guy she’d only just met, and she flat out refused to carry on a conversation with an invisible woman. That would be ridiculous. The only way to fight off this pain was to get her ass to London and succeed at her task. It was time to figure out why she’d come to England and figure out what the mysterious note meant. Before a Forsaken came after her again, and before Aegis found her. In almost every conceivable way, the Dragon shifter was the more dangerous of the two. If he looked at her, spoke to her, touched her again, there would be no leaving. No escape. He would ensnare her with his eyes, his mind, his scent. He was a walking safe house, ready to contain her every emotion and vulnerability. A place of comfort, of security, of lust and erotic pleasure. A place where she felt wanted, even needed.

  A place built for her.

  The truth was that she would gladly walk back into that shelter, strip herself naked and tell him that she was his forever. His Ashlyn, the captive of his heart, mind and body. She would be his for as long as he wanted. That’s right, I want to be ensnared, she insisted to no one in particular. The voice had stopped harassing her for a little at least, but her defensiveness had remained intact. Hell, what woman wouldn’t want to wrap herself in the massive arms of a Dragon shifter? To feel lust, desire, to be completely and utterly turned on by a bastion of male perfection?

  Fuck. The thought of him was making her ache again.

  She squeezed her thighs together, trying to fight off her growing desire even as she fought back the tears that were still trying to force their way out. Her treacherous body desired the Dragon shifter far, far too much. He was a weakness.

  The thought of him deprived her cells of oxygen even as she fantasized about touching him again. A part of her wished so badly that she’d given in to him entirely, spread her legs wide for him, begged him to take her hard with that incredible cock that had felt so divine in her mouth. Maybe that would have satisfied her hunger and provided some sort of closure. Why hadn’t she claimed him when she had the chance?

  The answer was simple: Aegis was too addictive. If he’d made love to her, if his beautiful cock had found its way inside her, she would have fallen completely for him.

  Ashlyn buried her face in her hands and let out a quiet moan.

  The truth was that she’d fallen in love the moment she’d first set eyes on him.

  Aegis

  At seven a.m. Aegis stepped out into the brisk cold, closing the house’s front door as he sniffed the air. He peered down at the note clutched in his hand, its feminine script sending electrical pulses through his body. Each fluid curve made him think of the beautiful woman he’d been with the previous night.

  Dear Aegis,

  Thank you so much for giving me shelter for the night. You don’t know how much I appreciate your kindness and hospitality. It was very nice to make your acquaintance. I apologize for the early departure, but there’s something I need to do before I return to the U.S.

  I hope you understand.

  xo

  Ashlyn

  She’d been deliberately polite. Distant and cold, even. But her act did nothing to convince him of her indifference. Even now he could taste her scent on the air, could recall her body’s desire for his. He knew full well what had happened to her, because the same thing had happened to him.

  Now all that was left was to find her.

  His beautiful lover was heading back to London, of that he was sure. And the most logical way to do so, other than to ride on a Dragon’s back, was to take a train. He knew that one left at precisely 6:50 every weekday morning, and she would no doubt be settled into one of its seats right now.

  So he’d have to take a risk, even if it meant angering his Guild of Dragon shifters. He couldn’t lose her like this, couldn’t let this chance at happiness evade him. Everything inside him, his Dragon, his heart, his mind, and yes, even his cock, told him that they were meant to be together. He’d spent the entire night pondering it, and by now he knew it as well as he knew that the sky was blue.

  She was his mate.

  He’d left her room around three a.m. to head to his own bed. Pulling himself away had been painful, his mind a muddle of agonizing, conflicting thoughts. His Dragon
had told him from the start that she was to be his, but he’d tried to force the thoughts away for her sake as much as for his own. She can’t be, he’d said. This isn’t her home. I have nothing to offer her. I’d be asking her to move halfway around the world.

  When he’d awoken after a brief and fitful sleep, it had been with a new resolve. He’d marched down the hall to her room to tell her how he felt. That she shouldn’t, mustn’t, leave. That she needed to stay, to talk, to figure out where they needed to go from here. She needed to hear him out, and to understand that she was here for a reason. And that reason was him. It had to be.

  Her empty room had been like a punch in the stomach, and the polite, distant language in her note was simply proof that she was trying to extricate herself from the situation without pain. She was trying to do the right thing, even if the right thing meant denying herself and him their destinies.

  Nothing mattered now but getting to her. Taking a risk and telling her what he was feeling, how much he wanted her. How badly he needed her.

  He was pretty sure she needed him, too.

  But first he had to find her, and that was going to depend entirely on his Dragon. They would locate her together, regardless of how risky, how difficult an undertaking it may be. Then it would be up to Ashlyn to accept or reject his presence. It would be to her to decide their fate.

  “Apologies to my Guild for what I’m about to do,” Aegis said out loud as he closed his eyes, stepping towards the street. By the time his sole had struck the road’s surface, a dark blue Dragon was standing on the asphalt, its wings spreading, tips all but shattering windows on either side of the road.

  The creature wasted no time in arching into the blue-grey snow clouds that coated the sky and turning east, his bright eyes already searching for the tracks that he knew he’d find slashing through the landscape below.