Light His Fire: Paranormal BBW Dragon Shifter Mail-Order Bride Romance
Read Light His Fire: Paranormal BBW Dragon Shifter Mail-Order Bride Romance Online
Authors: Anya Nowlan
L
IGHT
H
IS
F
IRE
S
HIFTER
G
ROVE
B
RIDES
B
OOK 3
BY
A
NYA
N
OWLAN
Copyright © 2015 Anya Nowlan
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Light His Fire
Shifter Grove Brides
Book 3
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of
Anya Nowlan
. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
Ares
“Holy shit. Is that what I think it is?” Deacon asked, cocking his head to the side and arching a brow in surprise.
“What else could it be?” Warren noted with an incredulous tone, though it was obvious the man wasn’t entirely his usual calm and collected self.
“I thought they didn’t make ‘em so big anymore. Global warming and what not. But this one… Man. Um… Shit. What are we going to do with it?” Deacon asked, throwing glances at the rest of the dumbfounded crowd.
“Probably ask it if it wants a more comfortable place to sleep,” Diesel offered blandly, his arms crossed over his chest.
Deacon, Warren, Rush and Diesel had been on their way to do some chores at Deacon’s ranch but were now standing at the edge of a clearing with their trucks parked right behind them, looking at what appeared to be a sleeping golden dragon. What they didn’t quite grasp yet was that they were not the only ones doing the watching and the judging.
“Everyone’s a comedian,” Rush said dryly, flicking his head back.
“Oh, sure thing, Mister Billionaire. I’m sorry if we don’t mingle with a bunch of dragons on a daily basis. I just didn’t think they were quite so…”
“Imposing?” Warren offered.
“Large?” Rush commented.
“Lazy?” Diesel shot in, presenting a surprising amount of humor for the usually reserved werepanther.
“In the way,” Deacon finished, eyeing the gigantic golden dragon that was sleeping on the only road leading to his ranch like it was some particularly unruly dog, making a mess and getting in everybody’s way.
I can hear you, you know,
Ares interjected, making every single shifter that had been eyeing him jump back a little.
It wasn’t fear so much as simple self-preservation – a fly does not go and try to fight a freight truck, and the analogy was as apt as it was correct in this case. There was a dragon in the way and not a single shifter present, even all combined, could make him move unless he wanted to, and Ares wasn’t sure if he did.
“Well, would you mind getting up then? I’ve got horses to feed,” Deacon shouted. “And get out of my head.”
Apologies,
Ares added, yawning toothily.
He couldn’t hide the note of sarcasm in his tone, even if it was transmitted right into the heads of Warren, Deacon, Rush and Diesel.
Ares hauled himself up, stretching with mild satisfaction as the sunlight glistened off his wide, yellow scales, and the small crowd of Shifter Grove natives stepped back another few feet. Ares couldn’t blame them. He was rather… large. And it wasn’t all that common to have to deal with the rarest and biggest of shifters these days – dragons. At least none of them looked outright hostile. If anything, they seemed to be curious, and curiosity he could handle.
Not that he wanted to. With a resounding plop, he sat back down to eye the small gathering of men. His head arched over most of the treetops and the triple crown of horns that went down both sides of his head glinted as he moved. His wings were tucked by his sides neatly enough, though he could feel them brushing against the foliage whenever he moved a little.
The clearing he had landed on – one of the few that was big enough to accommodate his rather hefty size – had been a welcome sight late last night when he arrived in the area. Had he been any less of a… well, a dragon, then he might have felt bad about imposing on someone else’s property and blocking their path. Luckily, Ares Goldplains didn’t really suffer from such simple emotions as guilt or embarrassment – much to the chagrin of everyone around him, of course.
“So, you goin’ to move or what, mate?” Deacon asked, scowling.
Anyone in Shifter Grove could have told Ares that Deacon wasn’t the kind of man to get upset easily. Few things could rattle him, but apparently one lazy dragon was all it took to ruin the otherwise pleasant day of one of the town’s founders.
What’s in it for me?
Ares asked, feeling the corners of his massive jaws twitch just a bit.
It was an entirely human reaction, but he’d had plenty of time to perfect the connection between his dragon and human sides while killing time in Colorado. It was probably another thing that made him as bloody unbearable as he was. There was only so much self-assurance one could take from a man and when that was combined with the overwhelming sense of self that dragons had… well, the result was bordering on obnoxious.
“The fact that you might be able to make a friend in Shifter Grove in the future?” Deacon growled.
With mild amusement, Ares watched as Deacon’s hands balled into fists. Diesel, the local sheriff, put his hand on Deacon’s chest and pushed him back a bit, urging him to keep his cool – no use in getting into a fistfight with a dragon, after all.
A thin pillar of smoke rose from the corner of Ares’s mouth, the eternal fire in him coming to life along with him. His golden eyes, their dark pupils narrowed into slits, considered the woods around him. He huffed in a breath and it was like the sweetest balm – there was gold in those mountains, that much he knew. Of course, he hadn’t come here for the gold alone. The real reason was something much more desirable, if that was even possible for a dragon.
“Why are you here, dragon?” Warren asked, his voice steady and authoritative.
Must be the Alpha,
Ares mused to himself, keeping these thoughts out of everybody else’s heads.
Brave. Good for him.
Why is a dragon ever anywhere? For gold and a woman, of course,
Ares projected, his heavy tail swishing back and forth once or twice, felling a few small trees in its path.
“Spirits above, man, watch where you flail that thing,” Rush snorted, jumping out of the way when the boulder-like tip of the golden dragon’s mallet-tail came flying past him too close for comfort.
“Okay. You asked what’s in it for you. How about you tell us what you want?” Warren asked, tipping his hat back as he stared up at Ares, eyes squinted.
Ares quirked his head to the side in apparent contemplation. As much fun as it was to play heavenly overlord to all the little shifters, he had to remind himself that he was in Shifter Grove with a bigger goal in mind – a goal that would have to be achieved sooner rather than later in Ares’s opinion.
Any of you know Pearl Landon and where I might find her?
Warren and Diesel shared a puzzled look, but clarity edged over the features of the other two.
“Yeah, I know her. She’s the woman leasing the grocery store from Rhett. But I think she’s been going by Mae Landon here,” Rush said.
A predatory grin bubbled forth in Ares, appearing as a grimace on his leathery jaws.
I’ll get out of the way if you take me to her.
“Deal,” Rush said easily, shrugging his shoulders. “As long as you promise that you have no bad intentions towards her. Is she expecting you?”
In a manner of speaking,
Ares noted dryly, imagining the look of pure fury he was going to see on Pearl’s face.
Ah, it was going to be heavenly.
“If you hurt her or cause her any distress, your big size won’t help you none,” Diesel said darkly, the Navy SEAL’s eyes projecting the promise of quick and painful retaliation if anyone in his town was hurt.
Noted but disregarded.
Ares let the shift take him and he distilled the sounds of surprised gasps deep within him, reveling in them – apparently the other shifters weren’t accustomed to the change of a dragon shifter. Though he hadn’t been on stage in a while, Ares couldn’t help but miss the sounds of impressed fans, dazzled by his presence. It was the dragon way. They always needed to make a bit of a show out of everything, and that was doubly true for Ares. As the brother of two of the biggest rock stars on the planet and one of the founding members of the Gold Dragons, he’d got his share of the limelight and was still sort of sour it got taken away from him. So, he had to make due with what he could get.