Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (112 page)

Robert laughed along with the woman. Aurora felt self-conscious and isolated. The woman glanced smugly at Aurora, as if she didn’t understand the inside joke.

I get it. Wolves, like dogs, eat grass when their stomachs are upset. I’m not ignorant
.

But there was so much she didn’t know, so much she’d never learned before her parents had been turned into ash by the Shadow Wizard’s energy bolt.

I’m all alone
.

The newcomer continued to ignore Aurora and took the baby from Robert. “Do you know where Paul is? He’s already missed little Jerry’s first words. I want him to see his first steps, I really do.”

“He’s in the store, stocking plants. Let’s go show your Daddy what you can do.” He gave Aurora a glance. “I’ll take you to see the playhouse tomorrow.”

Aurora pasted a bright smile on her face. “It’s okay. I really should get these seedlings over to the shade house.”

But she remained watching for a moment as the proud mother and the pack alpha walked away from her as if Aurora didn’t exist. As if she were… a slave. A nonentity. Go figure.

Fine. With Robert now distracted, she had time to search for clues to the existence of the silver dragon.

It was a perfect time to search the back fields he’d insisted she stay away from.

Abandoning the cart, Aurora followed a gravel path leading past the wedding gazebo. The path forked. Choosing the left fork, she followed it as it narrowed until it was flanked by thick trees. And then it ended at a tangle of brush and undergrowth.

She held out her hands and her fingertips tingled. The old magick working? She was a Dragon Seeker and her fingertips had tingled once before, warning of the presence of one of the creatures.

But the feeling faded. Perhaps it was false hope.

“What are you doing here?”

She jumped and turned to see a tall male shouldering a pick ax. Aurora’s heart pounded. The Lupine looked as if he wanted to use it on her, but he set down the farming instrument.

“I got lost.”

“Go away. You’re not supposed to be here.” The Lupine bristled with animosity. He cracked his knuckles and she noticed his claws starting to emerge.

She didn’t need another warning. Aurora left, but felt bursting with hope for the first time in months. Why put a guard in place unless you had something to hide?

The pathway had forked to the right as well. Time to search that area. For several minutes Aurora followed the right fork, wending through a lush garden of colorful flowers and bushes.

Then she spied something different.

A curved archway covered with thick vines, with thick bamboo stalks and trees flanking it. Another garden? Perhaps a secret one? It appeared to be a dead end.

It looked similar to the entrance of the grotto where Robert had lanced her palm and tried to remove her slave collar.

Maybe she could at least peer inside. Aurora walked up to the archway and touched a vine. To her amazement, the vines rustled and parted as if by magick, admitting her into the clearing.

Ringing the grotto were twelve white quartz stones, polished and smooth, each with an indentation, as if this were intended for seating. Six white stone pedestals surrounded the outside of the circle. Among the thick bamboo stalks, palms and gumbo limbo trees sat a tall mango tree, its trunk wider in diameter than a truck tire. The tree was dead.

The stone dragon stood tall as her hip, resting upon a squat pedestal of smooth, white, polished quartz. Its tail was curled up like a sleeping dog’s, its wings were outstretched, and its upper lip curled away to show two long fangs and a hint of a red forked tongue.

Squatting down, she searched the dragon and found a marking on its right shoulder - an intricate whorl of runes indicating this was a silver dragon. Aurora trembled with excitement.

Yes
. Finally.

She was here, at the home of the silver dragon.

The pack hid this secret and Aurora sensed Robert was behind all of this. No wonder they were so insular, and only opened their gates to the public once a month.

The clearing seemed like a place to worship, or meet. It wasn’t a gathering area for picnics or fun activities, but rang of solemn energy, a deep purposefulness.

She must find the dragon. Where did they hide him?

A cave, perhaps. Silver dragons liked to hide underground. But during her stints in the shade house this week she’d learned that Florida had a very high water table. There were no caves here, she’d been told.

Or basements.

Crouching down, Aurora studied the stone dragon. It stared at her with knowing eyes.

“Who are you?” she asked the statue, touching its nose.

As she scrambled to her feet, she caught a familiar scent and turned. Her stomach clenched tight and her heart raced.

Robert stood, silent as his wolf, in the grotto. He’d caught her.

“What are you doing here?”

His quiet tone sounded more menacing than if he shouted. Aurora backed up until her backside hit the dragon’s face.

“I was curious. I decided to take a walk and explore the grounds. This grotto looked so lovely and quiet.”

A low growl rumbled deep in his throat. “This grotto is off-limits. How did you get in? Did you cut the vines?”

“No! I just touched them and they parted.” Cold sweat streamed down her back. “I didn’t know it was off-limits. You never told me and since you left with that woman and the baby, I thought I’d take a short break.”

A shadow touched his expression, but he drew closer, until she could count every bristle on his face. His green eyes, the color of the moss in the grotto, burned into her like fire.

“This is a sacred area.”

“Oh?” Aurora gathered her lost composure. “What goes on here?”

Robert seized her chin and stroked a thumb across her trembling lower lip. “You’ll find out soon enough, after we are formally mated.” His smile spoke of dark secrets and sex.

Fear rippled through her. He was powerful and strong and could break her. Not daring to look up, she stared at his hands, wondering if he’d use his fists instead of an iron bar or a belt.

“Are you going to punish me for intruding?”

Gods, she hated how small her voice sounded, how it trembled. Robert raised her face to meet his fierce gaze.

“I don’t hurt women.”

Then he drew her into his arms and kissed her. Aurora moaned as he tasted her, his tongue skillfully slipping past her lips, thrusting deep into her mouth. He tasted like a hint of cinnamon and coffee, and of erotic pleasures that happened in the dark of night between a man and a woman. He kissed her, his mouth warm and authoritative, his tongue ravishing her mouth, the invasion reminding her of what he planned eventually to do between her legs. His kiss spoke of fire and pleasure and made her nipples tingle and her body thrill. She felt a hardness against her belly and realized the kiss had affected him as well.

When he broke away, his gaze darkened and a pulse thudded strongly in his neck. “That’s my punishment for your snooping.”

Languid with pleasure, she stared up at him. “Maybe I should snoop some more.”

He bent his head and nuzzled her neck, his tongue sweeping up the slope. Aurora’s nipples tingled with pleasure. She wanted him to strip her naked, lay her down and have his way with her.

Energy seemed to crackle in the air. Her entire body felt loose and pliant, the space between her legs aching to be filled. Aurora began to undulate her hips, her need for sex suddenly very great.

The image suddenly sprang to her mind. Robert, holding her still for his deep thrusts. Flesh sliding over flesh, hot and sticky with sweat as the cool air swirled around them. His grunts accompanying her shrill cries of pleasure as he took her, making her his.

And then the image vanished. But his mouth still skimmed over her neck, all her little sensitive points, making her writhe.

“Love this,” she gasped. “Lovely garden. Do you meet here?”

“After the formal mating ceremony.” He skimmed his mouth over her neck, tasting her and she moaned. Then he rubbed her breasts, making little circles over her hardening nipples. Arousal bit, sharp and grinding. She rubbed against his erection, moaning.

He muttered something about the ancient magick vibrating in the air as he squeezed and kneaded her breasts. Aurora flung back her head as he nuzzled her throat, dropping tiny kisses there.

“What kind… ancient magick?” she asked, panting. “Does it have to do with… dragons?”

The delightful sensations stopped. Robert raised his head and his gaze turned icy. “That’s not for you to know.”

Blinking in confusion, she touched her mouth. “But I’m to become your mate. Shouldn’t I know more of your customs? About your pack?”

He stepped back, all the hot need now vanished, though his erection still strained against his jeans. His mouth narrowed. “You and I will be mated, but do not think you’ll be privy to certain Lupine knowledge. You’re
Mage
.”

Her throat tightened. Mage, a dirty word in this pack. “I see,” she said quietly.

“Go back to work. They need those seedlings.”

The earlier pleasure turned to sharp disappointment. Aurora marched through the now-opened archway and headed back to her wheelbarrow, her shoulders slumped.

Robert’s hostile tone reminded her of the witch’s devious behavior. Acting nice, and then turning around and hurting her. Oh, he hadn’t physically abused her, except to leave her panting with unfilled sexual desire, but emotionally he had deeply wounded her.

The wolf might become her mate very soon, but she could never grow close to him, or as he reminded her, ever become one of the pack.

Ever.

As he worked in the shade house two days later, Robert couldn’t get that encounter with Aurora out of his mind. She confounded him. Intrigued him. And aroused his suspicion.

He’d reassigned her to painting garden sculptures they sold to tourists. The chore gave him a chance to keep an eye on her, engaging with her while keeping his distance. After finding her in the sacred grotto, he didn’t dare risk having her unsupervised.

There was something special about her. He sensed no animosity, only a haunting sadness. And something else… that sexual spark that flared between them. He’d almost forgotten the vow he’d made this past year to save his seed for the land until he was formally mated.

Aurora’s strong sensual nature was bad news, because if he lost his head over another Mage, he risked losing more than his head. What if Aurora snooped not because she was simply curious, but she planned them some harm, as Caroline had?

His pack came first. Always.

Why else would he have sacrificed his very freedom to that bastard Tristan? Robert sighed and rubbed his tattoo, the reminder of his indenture to the Silver Wizard.

Aurora was a slave as well. Yet she had powers.

The incident with the coffee pot… magick beyond that of an ordinary Mage. Caroline had possessed magick, but not like that. Caroline’s magick lay in knowing when to synchronize the elements of the earth. Weak magick. Then she’d turned to the dark arts to enhance her powers and destroyed all he held dear.

He’d never seen a Mage immune to fire.

Who was Aurora? He’d used his influence as alpha, consulting ancient texts, other Lupine leaders, even calling Aiden Mitchell in Montana because Aiden knew everyone. But Aiden had never heard of Aurora.

So Robert kept a close eye, ensuring she would not endanger his pack. So far, she’d proven to be gentle and a hard worker, one who preferred to keep to herself.

And now she was exclusively his, to do with her whatever he desired.

He wanted her. The scent of her, the touch of her soft skin, the shy smile she gave him had made him fully aware of her as a woman.

The day proved warm for February, overcast with a hint of rain. Robert removed his shirt as he trimmed leaves on the bromeliads, noting their progress.

His Lupine senses scented Aurora before he heard her delicate footsteps on the path outside the shade house. Robert walked to the entrance and saw her spread a drop cloth on a patio table beneath the protective shade of a wooden gazebo. Then she sat with a small garden sculpture of a crowing rooster and opened a baby-food jar filled with crimson liquid. She glanced backward, met his gaze, and smiled.

Not the smile of a slave, but the sultry smile of a woman very much aware of him as a man. Aurora stretched, the movement lifting her full breasts, and turned to her work.

The sharp smell of paint cut through her delicious floral aroma. Her strokes against the rooster’s head were smooth, languid, and their grace made him wonder what her fingers would feel like against his naked skin as he kissed her…

He thought of her hands caressing his back, then reaching around to clasp his erection, her delicate fingers stroking the tip of his engorged shaft.

Robert groaned. Last night he’d dreamed of taking her, hard and fast as an alpha did, on all fours. Pounding into her as she screamed her pleasure, his cock enjoying the exquisite sensation of her tight, wet, flesh squeezing him.

He should return to work, but could not stop looking at her, smitten as a new male wolf experiencing the sexual thrill of his first female. Beneath his faded jeans, he became hard as stone. Sweat trickled down his back. Robert drew in a deep breath, the fecund aroma of moist soil from the watered plants reminding him of the sacred promise to his people. He would protect them, keep them safe and thriving and if necessary, lay down his life for them.

They meant everything. And yet, for the first time, he wanted more for himself. He’d been fiercely devoted to his people and the secret that entangled them in his pledge to the cold, emotionless Silver Wizard. Tristan had them all in the palm of his hand.

Caroline, that bitch, had cursed the land and his people with her death. The silver dragon Tristan had bestowed upon them kept the curse at bay, muting Caroline’s dark magick. The pack was thriving and successful. The land was fertile, as were his people. They were strong.

Until recently, when patches of brown earth began showing up in the back fields. And the children, who’d always been healthy, started getting sick. Nothing terrible, just coughs and colds. But a troublesome sign that the protective spell was withering.