AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Only hot-blooded males need apply.
Would anyone rip off my number and give me a call?
Turning, I started to head back home.
A thud rang out on the pavement behind me. Had a branch fallen from a tree?
My heart flipped over, and I realized how alone I was out here. My town was located forty miles from the Canadian border, with mostly dense forest and undeveloped lakefronts stretching between here and there. And while bear shifters, as well as deer and wolves, might be around, I wasn’t interested in running into a true beast.
More thuds were followed by a swooping sound I couldn’t define. I scooted to the edge of the road, my body quivering with a mixture of fear and, strangely enough, anticipation. As if I wanted some creep to rush over to me and tell me I’d be prettier if I smiled?
With a slam that I swear I felt all the way to my bones, a dragon landed on the road beside me. About the size of my two-bedroom house, his scales gleamed like garnets in the moonlight. He tipped his head back and shot fire toward the sky.
Kuunik was right. Was this how he looked in dragon form?
My knees knocked together. Maybe I’d be better suited for a raccoon shifter.
As I backed down the road, the dragon stalked me, its feral gaze locked on mine.
I stumbled and fell on my butt. I wasn’t hurt, but the position made me feel even more vulnerable than I already was.
“Don’t eat me,” I whimpered, holding up my hand. “Don’t hurt me!” My poor son would be left all alone.
Mate. The word reverberated in my bones, though it hadn’t been spoken aloud.
I’d heard it in my mind.
Mate. The dragon came to a stop right in front of me. His head nudged forward, and he sniffed me. Mate. I swore the word was spoken—thought? –with intense satisfaction.
The dragon scooped me up with its front legs and as I yelped and flailed, it took flight with a swoop of its wings. A few flaps, and it soared down the cliff to the left and over the forest that seemed to stretch forever. It continued flying northwest, passing over areas I wasn’t sure many had traveled. Only wild beasts lived out here.
And a dragon.
“Kuunik?” I asked, wondering for a second if this was some prank cooked up between my friend and her new husband. But no, they were on their honeymoon in Barcelona. He wouldn’t come all the way home just to do something like this, not when he and Zara needed this time together. And he was a kind, nice person. He’d ask if I was open to the idea of flight before he grabbed me.
Gravor. The name was spoken in my mind.
I’d heard it before.
“You’re Kuunik’s dead brother.”
I am.
Zara and Kuunik only mentioned Gravor a few times and in passing. When I asked about him, they hadn’t told me much, just that Kuunik had thought his twin brother was dead for the past five years but that he’d recently begun to suspect his brother still lived. That they both hoped he’d reach out to them soon.
Unless there were other, unknown dragon shifters around, it appeared Gravor had reached out—to me.
The dragon flew toward the Longfellow Mountains spiking up ahead. Before it reached the foothills, it swooped down, landing lightly in the middle of a small meadow surrounded by evergreen woods. It hunched over and groaned. The surface of its body rippled, flashing from skin to scales until the skin took hold. Its limbs shrunk, as did its long neck and snout, morphing into something very human.
Very male.
He straightened in front of me—towered over me, actually.
He was completely naked. His feral eyes were locked on mine.
And I recognized him right away.
He was Asher’s father.
