Claimed By the Sinful Dragon

Chapter 1

Kaylee

The egg hit me square in the back of the head.

I gritted my teeth, and my step faltered. Don’t turn around, Kaylee. Nothing good ever came from turning around.

Their laughter rang in my ears. I whirled around on my heel.

“I’m going to wipe that smile off your face, Madison.”

The blonde’s annoyingly pretty face contorted into a sneer. “I’d like to see you try, cur.”

The two other girls at her back cackled, and the guy behind them said nothing. I wasn’t entirely sure they’d mastered the power of human speech yet—they certainly hadn’t achieved independent thinking.

“We both know I’d win in a fair fight,” I told her, despite the little voice in the back of my head—not my shifter animal, just my human survival instincts—telling me to back down before I got yet another kicking.

“Fair?” She flicked her hair over one shoulder and looked me up and down. “You of all…people should know by now that life isn’t about fair. It’s about power. And you don’t have any.”

Her sneer smoothed out into a wide smile. “Face it, Kaylee. You’re worthless. And the only reason you’re still alive is because the alpha made your mother a promise.”

I stiffened at the mention of my mother, and locked every one of my muscles in place before I could do something really dumb—like break her nose.

Again. Which would get me a beating. Again.

And it was pointless, anyway—her shifter healing would make it good as new in hours.

Which was more than could be said for me.

These were all really good, sensible reasons for not smashing her in the face. They just weren’t particularly compelling. I was probably going to get a kicking anyway, and breaking her nose again would be satisfying right about now. Really satisfying. My hand clenched into a fist.

“Oh, look,” one of her friends trilled. “She’s getting all upset. Poor little Kaylee.”

“It speaks,” I said, canting my head to one side with the most menacing smile I could muster while Madison’s taunts were still ringing in my ears.

“I heard she’s still alive because she’s marked for the dragon,” the other friend said.

I snapped my gaze to her. “Aren’t you a little too old to believe in fairytales?”

“You should be more worried about the big, bad wolf getting you,” Madison said, cracking her knuckles.

One of the girls behind her rolled out her shoulders.

Despite appearances, they all knew how to fight.

We were members of the Red Ridge pack, and we’d been trained since birth.

Nineteen years of training can make a fighter out of anyone. And there were four of them.

“You know what?” I scrubbed some egg from the back of my head and flicked it onto the floor. “You landed a good shot. How about we skip the rest today?”

I shot a glance at Dean in her shadow, but he steadfastly avoided my eye.

“Don’t bother looking at Dean. He’s with me now.”

And didn’t I just know it? Madison hadn’t even bothered looking my way until my wolfless status made itself known and cost me my intended mate.

Dean and I had been promised to each other at birth.

It was a bloodlines thing, not that anyone knew who my father was since my mother had taken that secret to her grave, but apparently her genes alone were good enough for me to be paired to the third son of an alpha.

Still, I took some solace from the fact that Dean still might meet his fated mate, which trumped any sort of arranged mate and would give Madison a much-deserved taste of her own medicine.

But now we really were getting into fairytale territory.

Last time I checked, only three shifters in the whole pack met theirs.

That was why we had the matches in the first place.

Of course, Dean might only have been the third son, with no chance of inheriting the pack, but he was still too good to be matched to a freak with no wolf. An omega. Too good for the likes of me. And Madison took every opportunity to remind me.

“Still rankles that you got my castoff, huh, Madison?”

She lunged at me. I ducked under the first of her punches and sidestepped the second.

The third landed a glancing blow on my shoulder.

Of course, a glancing blow from a wolf shifter hurt like hell and guaranteed I was going to be bruised in the morning.

The force knocked me back, but I ignored the pain and straightened.

She made to step towards me but Dean placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Leave it,” he said. “She’s not worth it.”

I rolled my eyes. Of all the times for Dean to finally speak up, he had to choose the exact moment that was guaranteed to make things worse. My hopes of making it to sunset reasonably unscathed vanished faster than the best cuts of meat at a pack feast.

Madison shook off his hand and rounded on him.

“You’re defending her now?”

“No, of course not,” he said, pausing only long enough to send a scowl in my direction like it was my fault he’d upset his psycho girlfriend. I flipped him off. “But it’s the full moon hunt tonight. You don’t want an injury slowing you down.”

“Please. As if she could hurt me.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder again.

“I know, baby.”

“Do you? Because you don’t sound so sure of that. Maybe I should prove it.” She eyed me with cruel amusement. “After all, it’s not like she needs to run in the hunt tonight.”

The bimbos at her back cackled again, and I felt the last traces of egg working their way down the back of my shirt, which, if I’m honest, bothered me a whole lot more than the same tired taunts I’d been hearing for the last year. Egg was an absolute bitch to get out once it dried.

The three of them circled around me while Dean hung back, looking uncertain.

Never mind that we’d been friends for almost eighteen years, he’d stand back and watch me take a kicking just to prove he had nothing to do with me anymore.

And why should I be surprised? It wasn’t the first time. Probably wouldn’t be the last.

I sighed and rolled out my shoulders. I didn’t have a hope in hell of besting the three of them, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to fight back.

A loud howl resounded through the clearing, bouncing off the nearby trees and echoing back at us. All five of us froze. That was Alpha Landon’s howl. And it meant only one thing.

My asskicking was about to get postponed.

The three girls backed away from me, and turned without another word. When the alpha called, the whole pack obeyed. Without question. Without hesitation.

I hurried after them. If I was late responding to a summons, three bitches and my ex kicking my ass would be the least of my troubles.