Authors: Natalie Frost
“No,” he said when they reached the family room. He took her hands in his and pulled her down onto the couch next to him. “Nothing is okay.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, scared and worried.
“I was wrong to send you away, Margaret. I need you.”
“What?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her heart began to beat faster.
“I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since the day you left. I feel hopeless, almost lost without you! I tried to force myself back into my old routine, but it didn’t work. The house feels so empty without you. I feel empty without you.”
His words slowly consumed her, making her feel light-headed. She wasn’t sure if she was really hearing what she thought she was hearing. Could this be a dream? “What are you saying?” she asked, not wanting to let herself get too carried away without being sure she understood what he meant.
“I want you to come live with me, and not as my caretaker. I want to start a life with you. I want to spend every minute of every day with you.” He looked at her intensely. She could sense that he was speaking with sincerity. It was in his eyes—he felt what he was saying down deep. “I love you, Margaret.”
Her emotions overtook her, and she felt her eyes burning with tears. “I think you can call me Maggie now,” she smiled at him as she reached out to throw her arms around his neck and pull her to him.
He laughed, reaching up and placing his hand on her cheek. “I love you, Maggie,” he whispered.
“I love you too, Joshua,” she said as she leaned in to kiss him. In the instant their lips met, she knew she would never have to say goodbye to him ever again. She knew that there was nothing else she needed in the entire world. There, in his arms, she was safe; she was happy. And she would be for the rest of her life.
The Dragon Shifter’s Wild Mate
CHAPTER ONE
Waking up, sweat clinging to her body, Jocelyn felt her heart racing in her chest. The dream had come again. The same one she had had for the last five nights since she had been taken into holding by the Dtor and his chief advisor the Docart. A month ago, the reality of where she was would have seemed unimaginable.
Orphaned at a young age, Jocelyn’s demeanor was quiet and reserved. She always felt like an outsider, and struggled to create long-term relationships with anyone—friends, men, even her adoptive family. When she started her job as a psychiatric social worker a little over a year ago, she dreamt of making an impact on other’s lives. She hoped that through helping them she could somehow help herself. The reality was, however, that Josey’s job filled her with nothing but frustration.
The majority of the patients she saw were men. She hated working with men. They always challenged her, and never seemed to give her respect. While she tried to convince herself the reason for this was her passive nature, she knew that in reality it came from her physique. Being a curvy, voluptuous woman had always brought with it its own brand of attention. That, coupled with her round, almost childlike face and large green eyes made working with the men sent to her by court mandate almost unbearable.
Kain Connelly was like all the rest. He sat, slumped in the small wooden chair across from her, muttered something occasionally, but was more or less uncooperative. He was a large, muscular man, with shaggy strawberry blond hair, deep hazel-green eyes, and the ability to fill her with a sense of intimidation just by looking at her. His overall presence was overbearing, and his stance always aggressive.
During their first three meetings, Jocelyn learned very little about him. He had been in and out of prison multiple times, usually for petty theft. But the last charge brought against him was assault on a police officer and landed him his longest stint in jail, along with an order from the court to meet with her weekly upon being released.
The morning of their fourth meeting started like all the others. She asked him questions, and he refused to answer. That day, though, she decided to push him a little more.
“You just need to answer a few questions, Mr. Connelly,” she insisted. “At least tell me why you felt the need to assault that man.”
“You want to know why I beat the shit out of that self-entitled son of a bitch?” Kain said leaning forward quickly clutching the arm rests of the chair.
Taken aback by his sudden hostility, Josey forced herself to resist the urge to move away from his aggressive gesture. “It would be a good start.”
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said in a low, almost haunting tone.
“He was a police officer. He was called to the scene because of a disturbance; a disturbance caused by you.”
“He should have left well enough alone,” Kain said. A smirk spread across his face.
“You’re proud of yourself,” she noted, reaching across her desk for a pen to make a note in her file.
Quickly, he reached out to grab her hand. In the brief instant that their skin touched, Jocelyn felt a hot almost fire like sensation run up her arm. She pulled her hand back quickly, examining it. When she looked up, his eyes were looking deeply into hers. The aggressive, defensive look he had written across his face during all of their previous meetings was gone. He looked almost as surprised as she felt. Something had happened in that moment. She wasn’t sure what it was, but something changed.
CHAPTER TWO
Sitting in her stone walled cell, Jocelyn thought back on that day. She ran her fingers along the place where she first felt his touch, and smiled to herself. So much had changed since that moment. She got to her feet and paced back and forth across the small space. The ground beneath her bare feet was cold, but it didn’t bother her. It soothed her in a sense, and as she moved back and forth she ran her hand along the stone wall, letting the cooling sensation play on her fingertips.
Since being brought to The Cave, Jocelyn always felt hot, even though the structure was hidden away deep in the mountains and the air temperature couldn’t be more than forty degrees. The heat that constantly clung to her wasn’t coming from the room; however, it was coming from inside her. The feeling reminded her of the night that Kain and her became forever intertwined.
After the exchange in her office he slowly consumed her every thought, and a feeling of familiarity began to surround the image of him in her mind. She had the feeling that she had always known him, but couldn’t figure out how.
A few nights later, when she found him in the bar a few blocks from her apartment she hoped to get answers. She had decided to go out with friends, something relatively out of character for her. When the group had finished with their night and began heading for the door, she sensed it. The air in the room became heavy. It felt like a sudden wave of heat had consumed her. Scanning the room quickly, she saw him. He was standing at the opposite end of the bar, leaning against a wooden table, his eyes on her.
Her gaze still fixed on his, Josey pushed her way past the small crowd of people separating them and planted herself square in front of him. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
He laughed heartily and threw back the last drops of the beer in his hand. “What am I doing here?” he took a step in her direction. “I’m drinking. What does it look like?”
“You’re on parole. You’re not supposed to...” she began. He moved even closer, causing her voice to trail off. He wrapped his strong muscular arms around her and pulled her close. The sensation she felt rush through her body was all consuming. Her knees went weak and her palms became sweaty.
“It seems like I’m doing a lot of things I’m not supposed to be tonight,” he said, looking down at her, his eyes filled with passion and fire. He leaned in closer, causing her body to become overwhelmed with heat.
Trying to focus on his words more than his touch, she forced herself to turn and look up at him, his face brushing against hers. “You’ve had too much to drink,” she whispered into his ear, trying to resist the urge to pull him closer.
“That’s the problem, Jocelyn.” The way he said her name made a shiver run down her spine. “I haven’t. I would love to explain away this whole thing with an excuse like alcohol. But since that day in your office, I haven’t been able to think straight. Drink or no drink, I’ve thought about you every moment since.”
His words reached down inside her and pulled up the emotions she had been suppressing. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that her feelings were unreasonable, she couldn’t deny that in the instant he touched her she felt a sort of bond with him. It was something she had never felt before, and she knew she would never be able to let go of it.
Against her better judgment, she accepted his invitation to return to his place with him. It was something she never did. She didn’t go home with men from the bar, and especially not with patients. But the longing to feel his touch again overtook her.
When they got to his house, high up in the mountains outside of the small Montana town she had lived in her entire life, the first thing she noticed was the condition of the home. It was large, but in an advanced state of decay. The air inside smelled moldy and stale, and there was a layer of dust covering everything.
He led her down the hall and into a small sitting room. All of the furniture was covered in sheets. She looked around the room, trying to make out her surroundings in the darkness. “The lights don’t work,” he explained as he walked passed her and over to the large fireplace. She didn’t see him light a match or pull out a lighter, but in the blink of an eye a roaring fire appeared, filling the room with a soft orange glow.
“It looks like no one has lived here for years,” she observed glancing around the room.
“No one except me,” he said as he took a seat on the large rug in front of the fire. He gestured to his side, inviting her to join him. “There’s no heat either. You’ll get cold,” he explained.
Carefully she walked towards him, her heart pounding in her ears. “How can you live here? No electricity, no heat,” she began once she had taken her spot next to him.
“Is that really the question you want to ask me?” he said to her, avoiding making eye contact. In the warm light of the fireplace his features seem soft. His usually defined face appeared smooth and innocent.
“No,” she began. “It’s not.”
“Then ask,” he insisted, still looking down at the ground between them and not up at her.
“That moment, in my office, what was that?” she asked hesitantly.
“That was something you can’t understand; something that shouldn’t have happened.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” she replied.
He slowly reached out and placed his hand on her leg, letting the sensation run through her body again. “That,” he said quietly, looking up at her. “That shouldn’t happen.”
“But what is that?” she asked, her breathing becoming heavy. When she felt that he was beginning to pull away she quickly grabbed his hand, holding it in hers.
“It’s called ‘the spark’,” he replied almost remorsefully. The air around them became heavy with tension. The burning sensation she felt spreading through her filled her with a dull ache. The feeling she had been trying to push from her mind for the last week became too intense, and she found herself unable to resist the urge to move towards him any longer.
As she leaned forward he did the same. He took his hand from hers and reached it up, wrapping it around her neck and pulling her closer to him. With every brush of his skin her body surged with a pulsing heat, and when he softly pressed his lips to hers she felt a blaze of warmth mixed with a chilling sensation that ran up and down her spine. He moved his hand down, pushing the heavy coat off her shoulders letting it fall to the ground behind her.
She wrapped her arms around his strong, defined body, feeling the muscles in his back flex under her fingertips. He ran his hands through her short, dark hair as his lips moved from hers down her neck. Filled suddenly with an insatiable passion, she let her hands find the edge of his white T-shirt, which clung tightly to his massive frame. In a quick movement she pulled it up over his head, and pushed him back, holding him at arms length to examine him. His chest was muscular and toned, and had an enormous dragon tattoo going across it, with the tail wrapping around his shoulder and down his arm.
He leaned back, clutching her hand to his chest and pulling her down with him. He spun her around in a quick, smooth movement, placing himself on top of her. He ran his hands down her sides, feeling the curves of her body. When he slipped her shirt off over her head and leaned in to press his body against hers she felt like she was melting into him.
Being with him was like nothing she had ever felt before. The warmth that spread through her body when they were together was a mixture of raw passion and a burning heat that seemed to radiate out of him and consume her. The closer she pulled him to her, the more intense the sensation became. His movements were powerful and delicate at the same time, making her feel both safe and terrified. Her heart raced in her chest, and she had to reach up and dig her nails into his back to keep her hands from trembling. When they pulled apart, a cold, empty feeling filled her, leaving her longing for his embrace.