Chapter 13
Livvie
Holy shit. A wolf was coming right for me. Then, seconds later, a dragon… Dragon! A dragon landed on the gravel in front of me. The entire world shook when he hit ground.
It was Wes. Wes was the dragon, and the dragon was Wes. I’d seen him change into it, a split second after I saw Calvin, my new restaurant manager, turn into an enormous wolf.
And this all happened so fast, yet it was like it went in slow motion.
Sammy appeared beside me and clapped her hands together hard, and both the wolf and dragon disappeared. “Hand!” Sammy barked.
I blinked at her, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about, but she reached over and grabbed my hand, then, suddenly, we weren’t on the lane in front of the bed and breakfast. We just weren’t.
We stood in front of Anthony’s house, and a roar in the distance made me whirl around. Sammy disappeared again.
“What’s going on?” someone yelled from behind me.
Turning again in time to see Anthony run down his front porch steps, I nodded my head. Okay, that was one thing that made sense. Sammy had popped me to Anthony’s house.
“Calvin turned into a wolf, an actual wolf, then Wes turned into a dragon.” Tears of shock began to roll down my cheeks. “And Wes landed in front of me, so I didn’t see the wolf after that, but then they both disappeared.”
Another roar from the distance made me flinch. Anthony put his arm around me, but it didn’t have the same steadying, grounding effect that Wes’s hugs did. It was more like a cousin or brother or something. Just a regular bit of comfort.
“Come on,” Anthony said. “I think we’d best get inside.”
He led me up the porch steps, and inside where Skye was coming out of the hallway.
“I just got the kids down for their nap, what is all that commotion?” She hurried over to me.
“You’re shaking! What happened?” I couldn’t speak.
All I could think about was what happened, and whether or not Wes was okay.
Was a dragon a match for a wolf? It seemed like the wolf wouldn’t stand a chance, but shit, I was thinking about people who shifted into animals.
All bets were off. Who knew which would have the upper hand?
Anthony explained. “It seems Calvin is a wolf shifter and he shifted and went after Livvie here, right in front of Wes.”
“Oh,” Skye said in a small voice. “I take it Wes…”
“Yep. Shifted into a dragon and went after him.” Anthony looked at me. “Where did this happen?”
“Outside the B&B,” I whispered.
He nodded. “So, then, Sammy popped the shifters here and then herself and Livvie. And now she’s gone, presumably going after the wolf. She was pretty offended that he’d gotten in.”
Skye sat beside me and put her arm around me, freeing Anthony. He stood and went to the open front door, looking out at the woods.
“I wasn’t close enough to tell for sure,” I said. “But it seemed like Sammy knew Calvin. She called him a different name, but I couldn’t catch it. It definitely wasn’t Calvin.”
Anthony’s head whipped toward me. “I don’t know much of Sammy’s past. She doesn’t like to talk about it.”
I didn’t have to wait much longer to find out if Wes was okay. Anthony backed up a few seconds later. “Ah, here he is. I’m sure he’ll fill in a few details.”
Wes walked in and practically ran across the room to me on the sofa. He dropped to his knees in front of me and cupped my cheeks, something he seemed to like doing. “Are you okay?” he whispered. “Are you hurt?”
I moved back and grabbed his hands, pulling them down to my lap. “I’m fine. I was worried about you!”
With a laugh, Wes pressed his forehead to mine. A rush of feelings flowed into me, feelings that weren’t mine and I couldn’t explain in the least. It was like my heart stopped for a second, then started again, beating to a new rhythm.
Wes leaned back and stared into my eyes, then pulled one of my hands up to cover his chest, over his heart.
My breath caught in my throat as I felt the beat of his heart under my palm and realized mine had just synchronized with his. “What is happening?” I asked in a weak voice. I was confused, worried, and overwhelmed, but with Wes in front of me, I was no longer afraid.
“I’m not sure,” he said.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “I’m fine. Calvin, uh, Leonard got away.”
When he said the name Leonard, a sharp pain hit the back of my head, painful enough to make me cry out.
“What’s wrong?” Wes said. “What can I do?”
I snatched my hands out of his and gripped the back of my head. “I don’t know. I’m having flashes of sharp pain in my head.” Another one hit me, making me whimper again. “I don’t know what they are.” It stopped, but a few seconds later, another one slammed into me.
Wes put his hands on the back of my head, over mine, and put his forehead to mine again. “We’ll figure it out. You’ll be okay. I promise. We’ll get through it together.”
I didn’t understand any of this, but I believed him reverently. An intuition told me to trust Wes, to believe him. That he was mine. What a strange feeling.
After that little intuitive feeling crept in, the pain stopped. Almost like it guided me out of the recesses of my mind and back to reality.
“We’ll figure it out,” Wes said again.
“I believe you.”
He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. And my heart beat harder. I felt his heart in my lips, in his hands, against my own heart. They moved in unison, as one.
Together.
He didn’t try to slip me tongue. He just caressed his lips against mine and then pulled a tiny bit away, staying close, our lips almost touching. His breath tickled across my cheek. When he’d sucked in a couple of breaths, he leaned back on his heels and looked up at me with eyes full of wonder.
“I’ll show you two to our guest room. I don’t think it’s safe for either of you to leave,” Skye said. “We only have the one guest room.” She chuckled. “I hope you don’t mind sharing.”
The sun shone low through the window, nearly about to go down. Skye put her hand on the door. “I suggest you both rest for a while. There’s no telling what this night will bring.”
After she shut the door, I plopped down on the bed and forced myself to look at Wes, my mind whirring.
He nodded at me. “She’s right. We should try to sleep if possible. Anthony will be working on dealing with Calvin, but I’m staying with you.”
Nodding toward the other side of the bed, Wes casually pulled his shirt over his head. “Do you mind sleeping over there? I want to be near the window, just in case.”
There was so much on my mind, the least of which asking if he really thought Calvin would try to come in the window and not the door, but everything fled at the sight of his chest. Just like last time, I turned into a blubbering idiot. A second later, I realized neither he nor I had moved.
“Enjoying the view?” he asked with a chuckle.
“Don’t be a dick,” I retorted, hoping my cheeks wouldn’t redden, but a second later they heated up, so no doubt they were the color of tomatoes now.
He chuckled and moved toward me, sitting beside me on the bed. “How are you holding up?” I’d been resolutely looking at the dresser, but he put his finger under my chin and tugged my gaze toward him.
“I have a million questions,” I said. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
He moved his finger up my jaw to cup the back of my neck. “Just ask whatever pops into your mind. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think there’s anything you don’t know about at this point. It’s all details now.”
Shaking my head, I blinked and lowered my eyes before realizing I was staring right at his chest again. Jerking my gaze upward, I looked into his eyes. “I feel like I’m going to crack down the middle,” I whispered.
“I won’t let you break.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, his hand still on my neck. It made a difference, having him touch me. I actually felt stronger. “There’s so much to take in, though. I have a question for you.” He leaned back and met my gaze again. “Are you afraid of me and what I am?”
I considered his question thoughtfully, thinking about the moment he’d shifted.
“It scared me when you landed in front of me,” I said.
“But that was more like being startled by the sudden appearance of a dragon. I don’t think I was actually in fear of being hurt.
” I cocked my head. “I think I knew you were protecting me, but it’s sort of like watching a horror movie.
I wouldn’t actually be scared the bad guy was going to come out of the TV and hurt me, yet I still jump when someone says boo. ”
Wes threw his head back and laughed. “I understand. I jump at horror movies, too, and I am the monster in the night.”
I snorted. “Hardly. But no, I’m not afraid of you.” His grip tightened on my neck. “I realize you could’ve exposed yourself and your kind by shifting where you did. I assume most of my kitchen staff aren’t dragons or wolves?”
He shook his head. “No, but I didn’t care about that. I just wanted you safe.”
“That’s why I don’t fear you. I knew that, even at that moment.”
Wes leaned back against the headboard, shifting to turn his body to face me, but it meant he wasn’t touching me anymore. I missed his warmth immediately. “A lot has happened in a very short period of time, for both of us. But you have to know that right now, my top priority is keeping you safe.”
Shaking my head, I kicked off my shoes and climbed across the bed to sit beside him. “Why? You barely know me?”
His face softened and he leaned over, pressing his lips to mine. Only his lips touched me, yet I felt like I was enveloped completely in him, body, and soul. This time, his tongue slipped out and traced the seam of my lips, begging me to open to him.
I did, parting my lips with a sigh of pleasure. I’d never been kissed like this. Always before it had been sloppy, not sexy.
This was another level of intimacy entirely. It was more than a kiss. It felt like a promise.
“We have time to get to know each other. But my soul knows who you are and so does my dragon.”
My breath came in long, slow pants as desire raced through my body. “How? What do you know?”
A growl erupted from his chest. Not scary. It rumbled through me, antagonizing my desire. “Mine,” it said, yet it didn’t quite sound like it came from Wes’s lips.
“Is that a dragon thing?” I asked as my body quaked with lust.
He pressed his forehead to mine again and chuckled.
“It is.” After several deep breaths, as if he were composing himself, Wes stood.
“I’m going to shower. But you’re safe here, and I’ll just be in the next room.
” He stopped at the doorway and looked back at me.
“Please stay here.” He looked at me, looking conflicted.
I had to chuckle. “I’ll be here when you get back.” He looked like he was afraid I’d disappear. I had no reason to deny his request, so as soon as he shut the door, I crawled under the covers.
His bare back lingered in my mind, and I couldn’t stop imagining what it would feel like to trail my fingers around his pecs, down his side, and then up his back as he pressed himself against me.
My body heated up as more thoughts of what his body could do to mine flitted through my mind.
I’d never felt like this with anyone. I’d long ago decided I was asexual, but with the eruption of this intense lust and longing, it must be that I was demisexual.
I only felt desire toward someone I had an emotional connection to.
And what an emotional connection it was. He’d said I was his. Or his dragon had said it, maybe. Either way, I wanted Wes in a way I’d never felt before.
I drifted to sleep with my hands clenched tight, still thinking about Wes touching my body, flaming the desire that made my whole body quiver.
My thoughts turned into dreams, dreams of him licking my stomach, touching me at my core. Circling my clit with his tongue. I cried out in my dream and settled into a deep sleep after having a really potent dream-orgasm.