Her Dragon: An Urban Fantasy Romance (Silver Shifter Book 2) Read online

  “Ever since Owen told us he found his mate, I’ve been just dying to get a look at you,” Pam said as Owen opened the door and stood aside to let the women enter.

  Well, that explained why they weren’t treating me like a precious political pawn.

  “You told them already?” I hissed at him.

  “You try keeping something from my mother,” he muttered. He rubbed at his beard with his knuckles, avoiding my eyes and going pink all the way to his ears.

  I hadn’t expected this, but as it sank in, I decided I kind of liked it. I’d already gathered that Owen was close with his family. I hadn’t had a family in so long I’d almost forgotten what it felt like. Besides, it was flattering to know he’d told her about me. And it was nice to have a break from the pressure of being treated like some sort of savior.

  “The guys are out back playing with Dad’s new grill,” Kimberly said. “You know how they get. Boys and their toys.” She rolled her eyes and grinned at Owen as she stepped past him into the kitchen.

  If the sight of Owen carrying babies had woken a primal urge inside me, the smell in the kitchen woke another. I thought I’d faint from the aromas swirling around me—frying onions, creamy potatoes, and something sweet and chocolatey. Fuck, I was hungry.

  “Tell me all about yourself, Ariana,” Pam said, stuffing her hand into an oven mitt and cracking the oven door to peek inside.

  “Ma,” Owen said, a note of warning in his voice. “Give her room to breathe.”

  “Oh, don’t be silly,” Pam said, waving away his concern. “Why don’t you and Maximus go out back and say hello to your brothers and let us ladies gossip?”

  “Ana?” Owen said, his brow furrowing as he searched my face.

  “Go,” I said, giving him a playful push. “I’m fine.”

  “You heard the woman,” Kimberly said. “Go on. We need to tell her some embarrassing stories she can tease you about.”

  “Great,” Owen grumbled, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

  Maximus gave my hand a quick squeeze before he followed Owen.

  “Now, where were we?” Pam said when Owen had disappeared through the back door with Maximus in tow. “Oh, yes. You were going to tell me how you snagged my son.”

  “Um, it just kind of happened,” I said. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to be your son’s mate?”

  “You’re good,” Kimberly said with a grin.

  I couldn’t help but smile back. I’d said the right thing because it was true. I couldn’t imagine a woman who wouldn’t adore Owen. He was everything I could ask for. In fact, I would have been lucky to have any one of my mates. But I didn’t have to choose. I had all four of them. Well, actually only three. Jett was still playing hard to get.

  “To tell you the truth, I didn’t know if he’d ever find a mate,” Pam said, pulling me from my thoughts. “He works so hard. I’m always telling him he needs to lighten up and have some fun.”

  Kimberly scooped up a blond toddler and started bouncing him on her hip. “Looking at my brother, you wouldn’t believe it, but that man hasn’t brought home a girl since he was a teenager.”

  Beastie glowed inside me with smug satisfaction.

  “You can see I’m not hurting for grandbabies,” Pam said with a wink. “But you never can have too many.”

  That doused my inner gloating in a hurry. Babies? Was she serious? I’d just started being human again. I wasn’t going to be ready to bring another human into the world for a good long time. Sure, Owen looked hot carrying around a baby, but I’d been busy admiring Owen, not longing for one of my own. One day, I’d be ready to give a child the life I’d never had, but it wasn’t going to happen until the clans were at peace, and there was no chance that the horrors of my life would be repeated in the next generation.

  Before I had to answer that awkward statement, the back door opened, and Owen entered pushing a wheelchair with a middle-aged man in it. His shoulder length hair was a mix of blond and grey but as thick and wavy as Owen’s. He smiled when he saw me, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners. “You must be Ariana,” he said, holding out a hand.

  “My dad,” Owen said, his chest swelling with pride. “Arthur, meet Ariana.”

  I stepped forward and shook his hand, which was large and calloused from hard work. Two other men entered after Owen, both of them looking like slightly older, smaller versions of my mate.

  “These are my brothers,” Owen said, introducing them as James and Steve.

  “So, you’re the woman who’s going to make an honest man of Big O,” said James, giving my hand an enthusiastic shake.

  “If he’s not treating you right, you just let us know, and we’ll kick his ass,” Steve said, shaking my hand and leaning in to hug me at the same time.

  A knock sounded at the front door, and Cash stuck his head in. “No suspicious vehicles in a ten-mile radius,” he said.

  “Come on in,” Pam said, waving a hand. “We’re just about to eat.”

  “Bring in your guards, too,” Owen said. “Can’t have anyone going hungry.”

  “Let’s get some plates on the picnic tables,” Kimberly said, setting a stack of plates in the hands of a little girl who had just walked in the front door. She handed me another stack, and I followed the girl out, my chest filling with emotion. These people didn’t even know me, and yet, they had accepted me as if I belonged.

  Now, I was getting a chance to see what I’d missed out on all those years in captivity. More than that, I was being given the chance to experience what I’d never had with my own family. Even when we’d been owned by a kind man, our lives had never been our own. We hadn’t had a chance to have a life like this, a family like this. Without warning, tears pressed behind my eyes. I hadn’t just gained a mate when I’d claimed Owen. I’d gained a whole family.

  16

  Ariana

  After the barbecue, Owen invited some of the neighbors over to meet me, but they all treated me like his mate rather than the esteemed Silver Shifter. It seemed that bears in general were more casual than wolves or dragons, and it wasn’t just Owen.

  When it got dark, Owen’s brothers started a huge bonfire in a fire pit in the backyard, and everyone had a beer and stood around chatting. Again, that sense of sadness washed over me as I took in the laughing groups. They were family, but more than that, they were all friends. I’d never had a friend in my life. As a kid, I’d never done cartwheels on a grassy lawn while my friends tried to imitate me, or played chase through endless rows of blueberry bushes. I had missed so much that I could never get back.

  “You look sleepy,” Kimberly said when I’d yawned for the fifth time in as many minutes. “You’ve had a tiring couple of days from what I hear. Let me show you to our guest room.”

  I followed her across the grass to the house next door. Owen’s parents owned the house we’d first entered, while his sister and her husband lived next door. Both his brothers lived in the third house with their wives and kids. Maximus and Cash were staying in the guest room at the parents’ house, while I was staying in Kimberly’s guest room. I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d purposely separated me from my mates for propriety’s sake.

  No one had commented on my having more than one mate, but they knew. Did they think we were going to have a big orgy and keep them up all night?

  Hmm, a big orgy sounded kind of fun now that I thought about it…

  I smiled to myself at the thought of Maximus and Cash trying to share me in the bedroom. They were having enough trouble out of it. Still, it might be kind of hot seeing my sexy mates kiss and make up.

  Kimberly left me to the guest room, and after showering and brushing my teeth, I collapsed onto the bed, sprawling out like a starfish and sighing into the blissfully soft pillows. I flopped over a minute later, restless even though I was exhausted. Ever since the naughty thought had crept into my mind, I couldn’t stop picturing Cash and Maximus wrapped around each other. All that hard muscle bumping up agains
t more hard muscle.

  I fluffed the pillow, barely catching a glimpse of white falling to the floor. I leaned over and fished a slip of paper out from under the bed. On the torn piece of notebook paper someone had scrawled in ink pen: “Flash the light three times if you want company tonight.”

  A smile spread across my face, and my heart picked up speed at the thought of one of my mates sneaking away from the cookout earlier to leave me this note. I turned the paper over looking for a name, but it was blank on the back. I reached over and flashed the light on and off three times, then lay back on the bed, eagerly awaiting company and relishing the mystery.

  Which of my mates would make an excuse, leave the gathering, and slip through my window and into my bed? Sweet, gentle Owen, who might disappoint his mother if she found out he’d slept in my bed? Protective, dominant Maximus, who had asked me to sneak away with him at some point? Sexy, cool Cash, who had said he didn’t want to wait until I’d claimed all my mates before we were intimate again? Or would aloof, snarky Jett show up out of the blue to claim me at last?

  Despite my inner beastie clamoring in anticipation at the thought, my human side wasn’t so sure. I still found Jett suspicious as hell. I just needed to convince my other mates. Still, the thought of him sliding into my bed in the dark might have been the most thrilling of all. He was my mate, dangerous or not. My inner beast was not afraid.

  By the time I heard a tap on the window, I was squirming with anticipation. I jumped off the bed and threw open the window.

  “Hey,” Owen said, a silly grin on his big, burly face.

  I couldn’t keep the huge smile from spreading across my face in answer. “Hey, you.”

  Owen was the mate I’d least expected to break the rules and come sneak into my bed, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want him to. If anything, it made his visit even more exciting.

  He gripped the sill and pushed himself up and in, barely scraping his massive shoulders on the window frame.

  “Not the first time you’ve done that?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

  “Usually I was sneaking out, not in,” he said with a little smile.

  “Sneaking out a girl’s window?” I asked. “I thought you were the sweet one.”

  “Sneaking out my parents’ window,” he said. “I had brothers and sisters who needed looking out for.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s the only reason?”

  “Well,” he said, rubbing his beard. “I was a teenage boy at one point. I did enjoy the occasional party.”

  A pang of sadness darted through my happy mood. He may have been a typical teenager, but I never had. I’d never had the chance. That had been stolen from me by a bunch of fucking vampires and an evil warlock.

  “What’s wrong?” Owen asked, slipping an arm around my waist and pulling me to him. His brow furrowed with concern, and he swept a lock of hair back from my face.

  A sigh of contentment escaped me at his touch, and I wrapped my arms around him, squeezing his treelike body against mine. I may have been a slave most of my life, but I couldn’t change that now. I couldn’t get back the years they’d stolen from me. But I’d be damned if I was going to let them steal one moment more. Thanks to Maximus, my life was now my own, and I meant to live it on my terms. And thanks to Owen, I got to have a boy sneak in my window like a teenager.

  “Nothing,” I said, laying my head on his chest. “Everything is right now that you’re here.”

  “We should probably turn off the lights,” Owen said. “The bear community is pretty tight-knit, which means they can also be nosy.”

  I switched off the light and slid into bed, patting the space beside me. Owen kicked off his boots and joined me, lying down on top of the covers. My beast growled at the distance between us. With a chuckle, I scooted over and rested my head on Owen’s shoulder, laying an arm across the expanse of muscle that made up his barrel chest. I wasn’t sure if he was all bear or half giant. The fact that he was a big teddy bear only made his hugeness more attractive.

  “Your family is amazing,” I said. “Thank you for letting me meet them.”

  “They’re your family, too,” he said, leaning down to kiss my forehead.

  “Now that I’ve met them, I can see where you get it.”

  Owen pulled back, a funny little grin on his face. “Where I get what?”

  “Your giant ego, obviously,” I teased. “Does it need some stroking? Want me to tell you how you’re such a sweet, good guy?”

  “I can think of something else that wouldn’t mind being stroked,” Owen growled, rolling toward me and tickling my side.

  I pushed his hand away, laughing. “Of course you can.”

  “I wasn’t asking you to stroke my ego,” he said, laying a gentle hand on my hip. “And I wasn’t always the kind of person that you’d call a good guy.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re a womanizer, too.”

  “A womanizer?” he asked, looking surprised. “No. I just… I had some anger issues.”

  Suddenly, my heart thrummed in my chest, and I had to swallow hard before asking the next question. I didn’t know if he was sensitive about his father’s disability. “Because of your dad’s accident?” I asked.

  I expected Owen to tense up, but he just nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Can I ask what happened?”

  “It wasn’t exactly an accident,” Owen said. “He was injured in an attack. I took it pretty hard. I was only a teenager, but he insisted on retiring. Said it was better for the clan to have a physically strong leader who could get around quickly.”

  “I’m sure he was doing what he thought was best for the clan,” I said. “And he was right, wasn’t he? You’re a great leader, Owen.”

  “I’ve tried to adopt his philosophy on leading,” Owen said. “I do meditation and exercises. But I’m not half the leader he was. He was naturally that way. I have to work at it.”

  “That doesn’t mean you’re not as good,” I said, feeling suddenly protective.

  “You didn’t see me ten years ago.”

  “Well, you had to see your dad go through a lot,” I said. “And take over before you were ready. You’re not who you were ten years ago.”

  “Fair enough,” he said after a pause. “Good thing, too, because I’d never have shared you with Maximus back then. I probably wouldn’t have even let you come meet the bears, Silver Shifter or not.”

  “What?” I asked. “Why not?”

  “It was the wolves who attacked Dad.”

  This time, I sat bolt upright. “What? Maximus did that to him?”

  “Not Maximus personally,” Owen said, tugging me gently until I lay down beside him again. “His pack did. Relations between the clans haven’t been friendly for a long time, Ariana. It’s been a hundred years since we had a Silver Shifter. Think of all the human wars this country has been in during that time. The clans are no different. We’ve had dozens of little wars.”

  I lay flat on the bed, my heart pounding. “And you were able to forgive them and make peace after that?”

  “It’s still a bit tentative,” Owen said. “But Dad made his peace with what happened to him, and I don’t hold it against Maximus. He’s a good leader, and I respect him.”

  “And you’re okay with sharing a mate?”

  “I’m okay with whatever makes my mate happy,” Owen said, wrapping his huge arms around me.

  “You’re a bigger man than most,” I said, running my hands over the swell of muscles in his arms. “And I don’t just mean your ability to forgive and forget in this situation.”

  “What do you mean, then?” Owen murmured, a smile in his voice as my hands slid under the sleeves of his T-shirt, my fingers spreading wide over the huge ball of muscle that formed his shoulder.

  “Why don’t you show me?” I asked.

  Owen rolled me onto my back, his body staying with mine. He propped himself up on his elbows, resting just enough weight on me to make me want more. “Show you what?” h
e asked, teasing edging his words.

  “Show me how big of a man you are,” I said, my body purring with excitement at being in this position. Most of the times I’d been under a male, I was pinned in a fight and trying to get out before he ripped my throat out. It was a disconcerting feeling to be under such a mountain of man… and to like it. I felt small, like something more fragile than a wolf. Like I’d be helpless if he wanted to make me feel that way.

  But I knew that he didn’t, that he would never hurt me. Owen would give his life to make me safe. I didn’t feel scared by his size. I felt protected.

  My hands moved up his sides, bunching his shirt as they did. His skin beneath was hot and smooth, and my fingers marveled at the ridges of muscle covering every inch of him, muscles I didn’t even know existed.

  “Is this what you want?” Owen asked, his hips rolling gently against mine.

  “Yes,” I breathed, remembering his skillful fingers inside me the night he’d given me my first orgasm. This time, I wanted more than his fingers filling me. I wanted the rigid length I could feel through his jeans.

  I ran my nails lightly down his back, delighting in the tremor that went through his body at my touch. His mouth dipped to find mine, his lips soft but firm as they caressed mine, then teased them open. A shiver of longing went through me when his warm tongue slid between my parted lips, stroking mine. I tried to clamp my knees together against the growing ache between my thighs, but Owen’s body was between them. He growled low in his throat, rolling his hips against mine. My clit throbbed and I gasped, arching up to meet the pressure.

  I wrapped my legs around him, relishing the hard bite of his jeans into the tender place between my thighs. This time, I ran my nails across his skin with more force, digging them in, quivering with anticipation.

  Owen reached down to pull my knee higher, grinding his cock against me. My core clenched, needing him to fill me. I arched up, and his hand landed on my breast. I could feel the warmth of it through my T-shirt, the size of it easily cupping my entire breast as he massaged it. My nipples stiffened, and he pinched one between his fingers, rolling it gently until a helpless whimper escaped my lips.