SEVENTEEN
Ker woke to find himself coming in his boxers, in a bed by himself. Being with his mate these past couple days without being able to make love to her drove his body to the brink.
Dreams were not what he wanted. He needed to be balls deep in his mate doing her every way possible. A hot, burning sting sang down the outside of his thigh like a score of bees attacking at once. He threw off the covers to see a smoky image appearing on his leg. He rubbed it with the heel of his hand, trying to make whatever it was go away. But the burning continued. Maybe it needed water.
Bailing out of his shorts, he turned the shower on and stepped into the cold drops shooting out of the nozzle. A full shake cooled his heated body, but did little for the skin on his lower limb.
Lathering a washcloth with soap, he scrubbed the area until the skin was hid behind thick white bubbles. Finally, the scorching started to subside. Damn, that sucked for a minute. Seeing how the water had warmed, he ran the sudsy cloth over the rest of him and shampooed.
Turning off the faucet, he shook his head like a dog to clear the water from his eyes, then reached for the towel hanging outside the shower. Stepping out, he ran the fluffy material over his head, down his arms, chest, flat abs, under his balls, then froze.
Where the burn had been minutes ago, now a dark undulating dragon extended from mid-thigh to his knee. It was stunning, but he didn’t want it. He’d already decided who he wanted as his mate and some tattoo-like thing wasn’t going to change his mind.
Unless maybe the mark showed up on Tiana, also.
He dashed to his dresser and pulled out a pair of sweats and stuck both feet through the holes and stumbled down the hallway toward her room, pulling them the rest of the way up. Good thing no one else was at the cabin. He wasn’t in the mood for show and tell with anyone except his little mate.
Just before he knocked on her bedroom door, he heard her cry out with fear. Nearly ripping the door off its hinges, he barged inside, his dragon ready to tear into somebody. But it was only Tiana tangled in sweat-soaked sheets.
She twisted and murmured, throwing her arms about, thrashing her head side to side. He was at her side in a blink. He gathered her arms and body against his as he lay beside her, whispering into her ear soothing words. Gradually, she settled and her breathing eased as he rocked them.
Her body relaxed into him and her eyes opened. She looked a bit dazed, confused to where she was. “Hey, baby. You’re with me at the cabin.” He placed a kiss under her ear. A shudder passed through her.
“Ker,” she breathed out.
“I’m here. Did you have a bad dream?” he asked.
She sighed. “The usual.”
He unwrapped from her to see her beautiful face. “What do you mean the usual? You have a recurring nightmare?”
She nodded and closed her eyes. “The same one for a long time. It’s changed over the years, but basically the same.”
He snuggled her close. “I bet if you tell me about it, it will go away.”
She laughed and let herself be drawn into him. “If only it were that easy.”
“Tell me anyway,” he said, kissing her damp hair. “I’ll protect you.”
“Ooo, so brave to protect me from a dream,” she said with a smile.
“Tiana,” he cleared his throat, holding her tight. “Do you have any marks?”
She frowned. “What kind of marks? Like birth marks?”
“No, like…” he struggled to explain himself and then moved his leg to show her the dragon mark he’d gotten. “Something like this?”
She fingered the dragon and his entire body tensed. It was intensely erotic. Like she was touching his privates. “No, but it’s beautiful. Anyway, you don’t have to baby me,” she laughed nervously. “I’m fine. This happens enough times I should be used to it. It’s only a dream.”
“It is, now tell me all about it.”
“Ker!”
“Quit stalling.”
She let out a deep breath. “You know my mother died and my father abandoned us before I was born,” he nodded, but didn’t interrupt. “Well, the dream always starts out in the front yard of the woman who raised me. I’m playing in the grass as a little girl and I turn my head and there’s this male sitting in a car across the street staring at me.”
“Do you recognize him?” Ker asked.
“No. His eyes are creepy and beady. It’s like I get a close-up view of them even though he’s far away.”
“What does he want?” Ker didn’t like this dream already. What was to come would only make it worse.
“I don’t know. He just sits and stares,” she replied. “Then the dream jumps to when I’m in school on the playground. I’m maybe eight or ten years old. I’m with friends and I suddenly turn my head and there he is again. Looking through a fence at me. He doesn’t move or say anything. Just stares.”
He feels her body shake and holds tighter.
“The last scene is always something recent,” she continued. “I’m at the grocery store or sitting in traffic and I look around and everyone has turned into him. They are all staring at me. Angry, narrowed eyes, like they all want to kill me. I try to get away, but he’s everywhere.
“I run into a house where I know my mom is alive. But I see her body on the floor, blood everywhere. I run to my friend’s house, but she already dead too. Then usually I wake up. But this morning, the dream ended differently.”
Ker’s brows drew down. “What happened in this morning’s dream?”
Her lips pressed together and a tear slid from her eye. “I don’t want to tell you.”
He rolled her over and wiped the tear from her face. “Why not,” he asked.
She looked under her lashed at him. “I don’t want it to come true by saying it out loud.” More tears rolled.
Ker assured her. “You know dreams don’t come true.” Unless you’re Morgan or her mother or Nana, he thought but wasn’t going to say. Tiana shook her head, pinching her lips together. He kissed those cute lips. “What do you think your dreams are about?” he asked.
She shrugged and said, “The only thing I can think is my subconscious feels like my ex-boyfriend is stalking me.”
“Ever since you were a child?” Ker asked. “You’ve known him that long?”
She drew her brows down. “No.” Her lip was sucked inside her mouth. He was tempted to lean down and take that lip into his own mouth.
“Wait,” her words finally rang in his head, “your ex is stalking you now?” Anger and a protective urge roared to life within him. No way was anyone coming close to Tiana. He’d rip them apart.
“Who is this guy and where does he live?” Ker said.
She frowned at him. “Stay away from him, Ker. He’s bad news. He’s been calling me and hanging up. He or one of his guys broke into my house and trashed it. I couldn’t take anymore of him. But I’m betting, he followed me here the other night.”
“I haven’t heard from the sheriff, yet. So maybe it was just some kids looking for easy cash,” Ker suggested.
With a deep sigh, she snuggled under the covers. The heavy smell of depression hit his nose. No, she wasn’t getting away with that. He lifted the side of the blankets and slid in next to her.
“Ker,” she argued, “what are you doing?”
“I’m snuggling and you’re going to let me,” he said. The corners of her lush lips turned up. That was better. She didn’t need to be alone, right now. Having friends and family around when you were down was the best medicine. Especially when your oldest brother could drag you out of bed with one arm.
She scooted over, then cuddled into him, putting her back against his chest. He slung an arm over her waist, pulling her even closer.
“How about we visit my family home today?” Ker asked.
Tiana rolled over and looked at him. “Really? You want me to meet your brothers and their mates?” Fear and happiness came from her.
“Of course, I want you to meet them,” he replied. “They will love you as much as I do.” Oops, he didn’t mean to say those last words yet. He didn’t want to frighten her off by moving too quickly.
Instead of running, she lowered her hands down his chest, then inside the waist of his sweatpants. Shit. He was instantly hard and throbbing for her touch. He took her lips with his. She tasted so good.
From a distance, his cell phone rang. He decided to ignore it. He was right where he wanted to be: in bed with his mate.
She pulled away. “Are you going to get that?”
He leaned toward her. “Nope.” More of her flavor is what he wanted.
Tiana bent farther back. “What if it’s important?”
“Nothing is as important as you, love,” he responded.
Her hands pushed against his chest. “No. I mean what if it’s your family needing to contact you or something?”
If it was that urgent, one of his brothers would telepathically connect with him. But to appease her worry, he rushed to his room down the hall. By the time he got there, the caller had disconnected. Scrolling to the call log, he saw it was the sheriff. He pressed the return call icon.
“Hi, Sheriff. It’s Ker. Sorry I missed your call.”
“Not a problem. It is kinda early,” the sheriff replied, “but we found some things I’d like to talk to you about.”
Ker made his way down the hall, back to Tiana’s bedroom. She was sitting up, worry on her face. He plunked down beside her. “Sure. What do you got?”
“The car we spotted parked along the road a mile away from your place was recently reported stolen from town.”
“So that doesn’t help much,” Ker said.
The sheriff said, “We took prints. Waiting to see if anything shows up in the database. From the bodies we discovered, both men were human.”
“You found bodies,” Ker blurted unintentionally. He glanced at his mate to see her face drain of color. Dammit. He didn’t need her freaking out about all this.
She asked, “Do they have pictures of the faces? I want to see them.”
The sheriff growled. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. They were mangled badly.”
Ker lifted his chin from the phone. “You don’t need to be seeing any of that, love.”
Fire lit in her eyes. Oh fuck. He learned his first lesson when it came to his mate. Don’t tell her she shouldn’t do something she wanted to do. Tiana grabbed the phone from his hand.
“Listen, Sheriff,” she started, “you need someone to identify the body eventually, don’t you?”
The shifter was silent on the line. Finally, he said, “Yes, ma’am. Eventually, we’ll need someone to look at the remains.”
“Then send me the images of their faces to see if they are part of my ex-boyfriend’s gang. It would make things a lot easier for you.”
A deep sigh registered from the sheriff. “All right, I’ll send what I can to Ker and then let me know if you recognize the men.”
“Thank you, Sheriff,” she replied and handed the phone back to Ker. From there, she climbed from the bed and headed to the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
“What else did you find?” Ker asked.
It sounded like the shifter rubbed a hand over his whiskers. “It’s very odd.”
“How so?”
“My deputies found the two men in a patch of snow with no footprints or blood around them.”
“What?” he said, “How can that be?”
“Not sure. But the answer is out there,” the sheriff said.
Ker sighed. “I’d really like to know what it is.”
“I’ll keep you update. I’ll send pictures of faces when the coroner gets them cleaned up.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Ker responded and click his phone off. This wasn’t what he wanted to think about so early in the morning.