Dragons' Bounty

Choosing to be a surrogate for an alien race wasn't a hard decision for Katrina Paxton. Framed for a murder she didn’t commit, the former FBI agent had a choice between prison and becoming a mom. Helping to repopulate a dying planet sounded ideal to her.

Best friends for eons, the idea of sharing a female seemed perfectly natural to Daven and Shade. When they met Katrina, it was nothing short of miraculous. When horrible accusations from a past Daven doesn’t remember and can’t dispute threaten their hard-fought happily ever after, can Katrina convince him to let her in?

With his fate hanging in the balance and their bright future quickly becoming a distant memory, Katrina and Shade race against the clock to clear their stubborn, sullen alpha’s name or lose everything. And Katrina refuses to lose again.

Chapter 1

“Have you ever killed anyone?”

Katrina looked up from her laptop and met the sad blue eyes of the teen she was protecting. Emily was a witness to a murder that brought down one of the biggest crime lords in the nation, Daniel Franks. 

Sadness gripped Katrina’s heart and squeezed. Even though Katrina had seen murder play out in front of her, she couldn’t imagine what was going on in Emily’s mind. The girl was too young to watch her parents be killed in cold blood, and most likely needed to see a therapist. 

It wasn’t fair when kids got wrapped up in the middle of the darkness that plagued the world. That’s what crime was to Katrina. A plague.

Studying Emily, Katrina shook her head and answered her question. “No, I’ve never killed anyone.”

“Oh.” Emily went back to reading her book, long blonde braid falling over one shoulder.

Katrina focused on the report she was typing, detailing the last forty-eight hours. She was surprised the fifteen-year-old was holding up as well as she was. The scene was so horrific, Katrina had a hard time being in the house longer than she needed to be. 

The murderer was in custody, waiting for his arraignment. Until he went to trial, Emily would be placed in the witness protection program with a couple who were also agents. It was better than placing Emily in the foster system that couldn’t protect her from Franks’ men. 

For the time being, she and Emily were staying at Katrina’s family cabin. It wasn’t among the list of FBI witness protection safe houses, nor was it in Katrina’s name. It’d take Franks’ men some extensive digging to find them. By the time they discovered the cabin’s whereabouts, Katrina and Emily would be gone.

The muffled sound of a car door shutting put Katrina on alert. She wasn’t expecting anyone. Meeting Emily’s wide-eyed stare, Katrina placed a finger over her lips and rose from her seat at the dining room table. She pulled her Glock from her holster and clicked off the safety as she moved to the door. She peeked through the curtains of the small window beside the door. There was nothing there.

Glancing at Emily, Katrina frowned. “Did you hear a car door?”

“I thought I heard something.” Emily drew her brows together, a hint of fear in her stare.

Katrina tightened her grip on the gun and moved to the window on the other side of the door. She lifted the curtain just enough to look outside. The cabin had motion lights surrounding the house, yet none of them had been tripped. Had she imagined the noise? It’d been a long, tiring day. Who the hell would be out in the middle of nowhere in the Rocky Mountains?

Gun still in her grasp, she crossed the room to Emily. An uneasiness settled in her gut, and as she reached for the girl, the front door blew open. The wood splintered into pieces, a large chunk smashing Katrina in the knee. Pain radiated up her leg, slowing her reaction to the large man rushing toward them. Katrina lifted her Glock and fired. So did the man.

Searing pain tore through her shoulder and she fell backward, slamming her head on the corner of the coffee table. She caught a glimpse of Emily on the floor, blood all around her. “No!”

Katrina shot up in bed, a scream lodged in her throat. Sweat covered her body and her heart pounded.

The scar on her shoulder from the gunshot wound burned. She rubbed it as tears blurred her vision and she trembled all over.

Shade burst into her room and fell into a defensive stance before locking gazes with her. His black hair had a bad case of bed head and his brown eyes were wild with concern. Shaking her head, she waved to him to go back to bed, but the stubborn male crossed the room to her before the words left her mouth.

He wore only a pair of black shorts that sat low on his hips. Sitting on the bed beside her, he pulled her into his arms and held her to him. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his bare chest. The rapid thump, thump of his heart soothed her, reminding her she was safe and no longer on Earth. 

“Want to tell me about the dream?”

She shook her head. “Later.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d woken him with one of her nightmares. And she had always avoided talking about the dreams. She was relieved he didn’t push her for information. In that moment, he let out a growl but didn’t pressure her to tell him.

Instead, he crawled under the covers and cuddled her to him. Movement at the bedroom door made her glance up to Daven. He filled the doorway with his wide shoulders. A darkness surrounded him, and she swore she caught a glimpse of his dragon peeking out from his eyes at her. His long auburn hair hung to the top of his shoulder in a mess of loose curls. Like Shade, Daven only wore a pair of shorts, dark blue. He stood perfectly still, watching her and Shade before asking, “Everything good?”

No, ass, it’s not. She kept that thought to herself and just laid her head back on Shade’s chest. Shade answered for her. “Just a dream.”

Without a word, Daven left. About five minutes later, she heard the front door to the house open and close. Sadness washed over her. He could have come in and laid down with them.

As if sensing her disappointment, Shade said, “He’s not a cuddler.”

“Obviously.” She sighed.

Daven had done everything in his power to avoid her. The only times he couldn’t was when she went shopping with the other females. Shade would pretend to have other things to do, forcing Daven to play bodyguard. It was his job, after all. Daven was an enforcer for the king. And Voss wanted her and the other females guarded when they went out since they were still the only group of surrogates to arrive on Daeria.

Katrina was there because she was given a choice to live in prison for a murder she didn’t commit or volunteer in the program. The word volunteer was the FBI’s word to her when they gave her the ultimatum.

Daeria sounded like a dream compared to prison. She was told it was a shifter planet that made a trade deal with Earth to get surrogates to rebuild their species and planet. 

A century—maybe longer—of war left their planet in despair. The rogue wolf alpha who started the war created a magical poison that killed most the female population. The only ones spared were the children who lived in secured villages around the planet.

Nigel, the program liaison and a council member, told her during their initial meeting that the program was voluntary. She had a choice on who she dated, but she was not going to be forced into anything. He also mentioned how a number of her skills in law enforcement and technical training would be beneficial to the Daerian people. If she didn’t want to be a surrogate, she could easily find a job.

Then she met Shade the night he and three of his friends picked up her and the other three surrogates from the hotel. Shade intrigued her and he was hot.

“I don’t know how to connect with him. Nor do I understand why he agreed to take a surrogate if he didn’t want one.” She sure in the hell wasn’t chasing him.

“He does want one.” Shade kissed the top of her head. “He just…he’s an ass.”

He could say that again. 

She wasn’t sure she’d be able to go back to sleep. Her brain was awake and the need to move made her muscles twitch. Before coming to Daeria and meeting her alien dragon shifters, she’d go for a run to clear the nightmares from her mind. She could still go for a run, but she didn’t know her way around yet. Her runs tended to stretch on for several miles. The point was to force herself into exhaustion.

Everything about the dream was fucked up. She didn’t remember being in a cabin with Emily. That dream was different from the others. In fact, each one had some kind of element about them that was different.

Two days ago, she dreamt she was escorting Emily to the safe house where she would stay with a married couple who were also FBI agents. Handing Emily off to the couple was the original plan. They’d agreed to keep her until the trial was over so she would have a normal family-like setting to grieve in.

Yet, Katrina didn’t remember the hand-off. She remembered the crime scene, Emily’s parents murdered in their sleep, and the call that said Franks’ hitman was taken into custody. Then nothing until she woke in the hospital with a gunshot wound in her shoulder and no memory how she got it.

Shade caressed her cheek before pressing his lips to hers in a soft kiss. “If you want to get Daven’s attention, you will need to meet him on his terms. Get him to train with you. Don’t take no for an answer. Outright challenge him.”

“In other words, become Daven.” Katrina laughed, imagining all the ways she could hand Daven’s ass to him.

Shade flipped her onto her back. “Exactly. And do it seductively. Make him mad with need.”

He kissed the base of her neck and she groaned. The shakes from the nightmare melted away, replaced with desire for Shade. “Are you trying to distract me?”

“Is it working?” He lifted his head and stared down at her. His handsome, structured features mesmerized her. Sharp edges, tanned skin with red undertones like he spent his life working outside. It was a perfect contrast to his pitch-black hair.

She cupped his cheek. “Maybe. I think you need to try harder.”

A wicked smirk formed on his face. His brown eyes turned gold, then back to brown. “Oh, I’m hard, baby.”

He rocked his hips into her, pressing his cock into her core. A moan escaped her, and she fisted her hands in his hair. Then she wrapped her legs around his waist. The only things that separated them were her panties and his thin shorts. Still, it was too much fabric.

As if having the same thought as she, Shade rose to his knees. He tugged her to sit up to remove her thigh-length nightgown. Then he roamed his gaze over her, igniting an inferno within.

When she reached for him, he gripped both her wrists and held them above her head with one of his. With the other hand, he ripped her panties off and tossed them to the floor. His shorts suffered the same fate and landed beside hers.

“You’re hot.” He gripped his cock and she groaned.

No, he was the hot one. And he was killing her with the way he stroked himself with slow, seductive purpose. “Shade…”

His name came out as a half-plea, half-demand, like she couldn’t make up her mind if she wanted to beg him to fuck her or command it. Either way, he needed to hurry before she flipped him onto his back and rode him.

“What’s going on in that dirty mind of yours?” He leaned down, positioning his cock at her entrance.

Her pussy pulsed and ached, wanting to milk his thick, rock hard dick. “Just calculating how to flip you over and fuck you if you don’t stop your damn teasing.”

A growl rumbled from him and he spoke in a language she didn’t recognize. She knew it was his native tongue—the Daerian language.

With a quick thrust, he entered her. She cried out and dug her heels into the mattress while lifting her hips to meet his in-and-out motion. Pleasure coiled inside her, growing with each thrust.

He hooked his arms under her knees, lifting her hips higher as he pounded deeper into her. God, it felt too damn good. She fisted the sheet and rode the wave of an orgasm that seemed to go on longer than it had ever had.

Shade’s body tensed right before he roared in his own climax. Pulling out, he lay on his side and rolled her into the curve of his body. She cuddled into him, feeling boneless. Soon, sleep pulled her under.