Fire Breathing Beast: Dragons of the Bayou Book 1 Read online

  Instead, I was lying on a tiny piece of furniture trying to figure out a way to position my large body on it in a more comfortable pose. It was old, saggy, and uncomfortable and things poked me from inside of it.

  Then, I was awoken by some large mutant rodent purring at me from atop my chest. I pushed it off and shuddered. I had no cause to harm a small, non-threatening creature, but I wasn’t fond of furry things that crept up while I slept. No sooner had the vile thing touched the ground, than it was back on my chest. It swatted at my face then settled in, getting comfortable while I stared at it.

  It stared back with bright yellow eyes, the dark slits in the middle reminding me of a snake I’d known in the old world. That snake had had a nasty streak and I wondered if perhaps I should be more cautious. Perhaps I should destroy the tiny creature for the safety of my mate.

  “Mate!” I bellowed out to her, hoping she could explain what the hell the thing on my chest was and whether it was of the harmful variety.

  She came stumbling out of her room a few minutes later, her hair standing up and her eyes only half-opened. “What in the world are you shouting about?”

  “What is this creature?”

  She blinked a few times and then smiled. Her smile was so sweet and unguarded that I lost concern about the rodent on my chest and focused only on the blood rushing to my dick. “That’s Bax. He normally stays outside at night. He must’ve got in through the door you busted down.”

  “What is a bax?”

  She laughed. “He’s a cat, silly.”

  I frowned. I’d heard of cats before. I’d even seen them. The thing on my chest was no cat. It was huge and it looked like something out of the horror movies Armand watched. “This is not a cat. This is some sort of deformed, mutant rodent.”

  She scooped the thing into her arms and held it against her chest. “That’s not a very nice thing to say. He’s just a little rough looking. He went up against a gator several years ago. He came out on top, but he has some battle scars.”

  Battle scars. I had those. That knowledge caused me to look at the little creature in a different light. “Okay. Put him back. He is a worthy companion, I guess.”

  She shook her head but put the creature back down on my chest. Her fingers grazed my bare chest as she did and I heard her suck in a breath. Instead of staying and exploring, though, she hurried away. Her door shut a second later and a lock clicked.

  I chuckled. My female was cute. A lock, as though I couldn’t easily level the entire house to get to her.

  The little rodent settled back on my chest and purred when I touched its head the way Sky had. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. Fierce little creature.

  Sky

  I woke up to the smell of…smoke! Something was burning! Thinking of the boys’ safety, I shot out of bed and flew through the house. Instead of the boys, I found the unhinged stranger, Beast, standing in front of the stove staring at it like he wanted to smash it to pieces.

  Eyeing him at the stove, all incredibly hunky inch of him, brought back memories of the night before and I had to put my hand out to brace myself on the counter. He was still just as sexy. And still here. Yep, it wasn’t a dream. I was still harboring a stark raving mad hottie.

  “How do you work this contraption?” He glared at the stove, grabbed the cast iron skillet by the hot handle, and swore up a storm when it obviously burned his fingers. Tossing the skillet across the room, he slammed his fist down on the stove creating a severe crater down the middle of it.

  Alarmed by his injury, I ignored my ruined stove and rushed over to grab his hand. His flesh was red and blistered, but as I watched, it faded back to normal skin like time-lapse videography.

  I turned his massive hand over in mine, too focused to realize that touching him felt like sticking my tongue on a battery to test if it still had juice. His skin was rough and callused, rougher than I expected for a man who lived in a fancy house like his. What did he do for a living? I really hoped it wasn’t illegal drug running or something.

  His olive skin was dusted with dark hair that matched the dark waves on his head. He had beautiful hands. Masculine, strong. Strong enough to crush my stove. Strong enough to lift me as if I’d weighed nothing.

  “The burn…” I looked up at him. “Where’d it go?”

  Standing that close to him was a mistake. He was devastating that close. I could see the colors of his eyes, black with glittery flecks of gold that seemed to burn and glow, the stubble covering his jaw and chin, the softness of his mouth. A scar ran through one of his eyebrows and stood out, paler against the darker tone of his skin, another on that soft upper lip.

  “I told you. I am a dragon. We heal. Fast.” He caught my fingers in his and pulled me into his hard chest. “Good morning, sweet little mate. I tried to make you breakfast.”

  My insides swooned. It was stupid and weak, getting all jelly-legged because a man tried, unsuccessfully, to cook me breakfast—then broke my stove. The bar was low, apparently, and swoon I did. Internally. Externally, I tried my best to hide what the feel of his chest pressed against mine did to me. Judging by the growl emanating from Beast’s throat and the giant rod poking me in the stomach, I didn’t think he was oblivious to my swooning. Or maybe he was doing swooning of his own.

  “I think I shall have you for breakfast, instead.” His deep voice was intense, full of promises. His hands took my sides, the soft parts of my body that I’d rather no one touched, and squeezed as he pulled me even harder into his chest.

  My mouth opened, whether to tell him to stop or to moan, I wasn’t sure. I was instantly acutely aware of that strange buzzing. Energy, intense, right before the point of stinging, sizzled between us.

  “What’s he still doing here?” Nick’s angry voice cut through my lust-fog and sent me tumbling away from Beast.

  I almost toppled straight to the ground, but Beast caught me and righted me. I smoothed down my night shirt and moved back towards my bedroom. “Be nice, Nick. You’re the one who went trampling through his property uninvited. And illegally, I might add.”

  “He’s…” Nick shook his head. “I think he’s dangerous, Aunt Sky.”

  Beast shrugged and puffed out his chest. “I am dangerous.”

  I cut my eyes to him. “Not helping.”

  “I mean… He’s not like us. He’s a…” Nick stopped himself and looked around. “God, this is so crazy.”

  Casey strolled into the room and looked around. “It’s not crazy. He’s a dragon.”

  I groaned and ran my hands through my hair. “Okay. I’m going to go get dressed and then I’ll take you guys to school.”

  “No way. We can take ourselves.” Casey’s eyebrows furrowed. “What happened to the stove?”

  “Nothing.” I kept my eyes away from Beast, afraid of the look I’d see on his face. How had he convinced the boys that he was a dragon? “How do I know that you won’t leave school? Or just not show up at all?”

  “Maybe you should just trust us?”

  “Trust you? After the stunt you pulled last night?”

  “Jeez, Sky, don’t have a freak out.”

  Beast growled, loudly, and, for the briefest of seconds, I wondered about the whole dragon thing. “I may not have the pleasure of eating you for an afternoon snack, but I will still make you suffer if you talk to my mate like that.”

  “Can you not threaten my nephews, please?”

  “The small male started it. He is disrespectful to you. He deserves to be upended and spanked like the baby he is.”

  “I’m not a fucking baby!” Casey’s outburst shocked the room. His hands were balled into fists at his sides and there was a dark scowl on his face.

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Casey, in that moment, didn’t look anything like the little boy I’d brought into my house five years prior. He looked like his father—angry and raging, ready to tear apart the world for whatever injustices, real or perceived, he felt had been thrust upon him. “Stop it, Casey.” />
  “You stop it!” He shook, his small body vibrating with rage and whatever other extreme emotions were surging through him.

  “Casey…” Nick stepped forward, but Casey shoved him away.

  “I’m sick of both of you! I hate you. I hate everything here!” He tried to run past me but I stepped in front of him and wrapped my arms around him. “Get off of me! Get off! I hate you!”

  I held him tighter, even as his fists landed a rain of punches on my stomach and sides. “Stop it, Casey. This isn’t you. We can’t behave this way. We have to talk and work things out. We’re a family.”

  Casey was suddenly yanked away from me and suspended in the air. Beast glared at him and shook him when Casey tried to strike him, too. “Why do you treat the female caring for you that way? Does she not feed you? Does she not give you a room and a home with your brother? What would make you think that it is wise to talk to her like that? That it is a wise choice to strike her?”

  I put a hand on Beast’s arm and fought back tears. I didn’t know why things were falling apart all of a sudden. I supposed they had always been skating the edge of collapse, or at least explosion—but this? Casey’s behavior was shocking. I still didn’t want Beast to actually shake him senseless, though.

  “No, you will not defend him right now. Not after he just laid his hands on you. I will fight my every instinct to bite his little head off, but you must stand back and let the young male answer.”

  I stepped back, unsure of my place in my own house. As much as Beast talked about hurting Casey, somehow I knew instinctually that he wouldn’t actually do it. Which was stupid. How could I possibly know what an unbalanced stranger who followed me home and wouldn’t leave would do—in any situation? Maybe I was behaving unbalanced. I didn’t know Beast. He’d just let himself into my house and there I was, suddenly co-parenting with him.

  “I want to go home!” Casey screamed it at the top of his lungs, tears filling his eyes. “If dragons can exist, then I should be able to get my dad back. And my mom. I want them back. I don’t want to live here!”

  My heart broke into a million pieces for the little boy in front of me. He acted so tough most of the time, so beyond his years, that I’d forgotten that he was just a kid. He still had baby fat on his cheeks that made them preciously round. He believed in dragons, for Christ’s sake. He was wandering, lost. We were all wandering lost.

  Sky

  Beast lowered Casey to the floor and rested his hands on his shoulders. “Where are your parents?”

  Casey said nothing. It was Nick who spoke. “Gone. Our mom left when we were little and Dad’s in prison.” Nick stepped forward and shoved Casey. “And he’s not getting out. Mom’s not coming back, either. Get it through your head. You want to go back to foster care? Don’t mess up what we have here because you think you can wish them back.”

  Casey covered his face with his hands and sobbed, his whole body shaking with the effort.

  I snapped into action, realizing I’d gone comatose for too long. I grabbed him and pulled him into my chest again. When Nick sighed from behind him, I grabbed him, too. I held them both to me and tried my best to keep myself together. I did suck at this.

  How did single moms do it? I felt as though I was treading water and the undertow kept tugging, threatening to drag me below the surface. And it was only getting worse. Now that the boys were in their teens, becoming young men, I was responsible for not only playing the role of mom, for which I was ill equipped, but also trying to ease their transition into manhood by being a substitute for the dad that was no longer around.

  At twenty-nine, trying to raise two teenagers felt an awful lot like an insurmountable task on good days. Today was not one of the good days. I didn’t have a choice, though. They needed me and I loved them. I would never abandon them. So, I held them tighter and took deep breaths to calm myself.

  Finally, Nick pulled back. “We have to get to school.”

  Casey wiped his eyes and pulled away, too. He didn’t say anything to me, just grabbed his backpack and walked out the door. Nick squeezed my arm as he hurried past me to follow his brother.

  “I love you guys.” As usual, I received no response. I slumped against the counter and blew out a ragged breath. I was at a loss when it came to them. I wanted desperately to make their lives better, but I was afraid I was just messing things up for them up even more.

  “You are sad.” Beast heaved a big sigh and moved towards me. “I’ll fix it.”

  I looked over at him and forced a smile. “If you suggest killing them or eating them one more time, I’m going to scream.”

  He cupped my face in his hands and stared down at me with a sincerity that took my breath away. “No. No killing. The young males are okay. I don’t like when they aren’t kind to you, but that will change. I will make sure.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “I told you. You are mine. Do you think I would find you simply to let you go? Is that how do humans do it?”

  When he asked about humans doing it, my face burned. Lord ha’ mercy, I was acting like some hormone-ravaged teenager. The fact was, I couldn’t tell him how humans did it. I didn’t really know. I’d never done it. I was, embarrassingly, a twenty-nine year old virgin. Not exactly by choice. It had just happened.

  It had been years since I’d dated. I hadn’t had time since the boys arrived. And, for several years before that, I’d been so completely immersed in tracking them down, both living with different foster care families, then trying to gain custody. Dealing with lawyers, the courts, not to mention working extra shifts to pay for it all, ate up all my time and energy. There was never time for romantic relationships. I was lucky to have time for a full night’s sleep.

  He lowered his mouth and pressed his lips against my cheek. “You are warm. Are you okay? Why is your face heating like this?”

  If there was ever a time for a hole to open up in the floor, it was then. “I’m fine.” Who was this sex-starved hussy taking over my body every time Beast was near?

  He easily lifted me and put me down on the counter, stepping between my thighs and wrapping his arms around my waist. “I don’t like you being sad. I want to make it change. Tell me how.”

  I put my hands against his chest, intending to push him away, but nothing happened. My wrists refused to put any power into the movement and I ended up just caressing him. “Sometimes, people are just sad. Overwhelmed is a better word, I guess.”

  “I will fix it.”

  “You keep saying that.”

  He nodded, his unusual eyes intent on mine. “I am a strong warrior. If I can’t defeat your sadness, then I don’t deserve you as my mate.”

  I let my head fall back to rest against the cabinet. “This is too much.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You. You thinking you’re some kind of warrior dragon. The boys. I’m too young to parent them and too old to believe you.” I finally managed to push him away and hopped off the counter scurrying out of the kitchen, heading to my bedroom. “You have to go. As interesting as this, uh, visit, has been, I have the real world to get back to. I have a job. I have bills. Real life isn’t a fairytale with castles and imaginary dragons.”

  “You’re starting to frustrate me again.”

  I spun on him and threw my hands up. “Are you serious? I’m frustrating you?”

  “Yes!” He grabbed my arms and yanked me against him. “You’re acting like you don’t know that we are meant for one another, as though you don’t feel it throughout every morsel of your being. Every time I look at you, my cock hardens, my heart races and my mouth waters. You know why I react that way, little one? Because you are mine. I am yours. You know this. I can scent you. You are wet for me. Even now, you are aroused—for me.”

  Equally horrified and turned on, I yanked away from him and stalked into my bedroom. “You are completely bonkers!”

  He was there, grabbing me again, only this time it was his front to my back. “Wh
y are you fighting this?”

  Breathing heavily, I felt my whole world caving in to just that moment. It didn’t make any sense, but his hands on me, him touching me, it made everything stop. All the questions and concerns I had about some psychotic stranger just inserting himself into my life and grabbing me like I belonged to him, all of the worries I had, all the responsibilities, they all just faded. Everything melted until all that remained was his touch, just Beast, just him.

  “You’re mine, little one.” His words were barely more than a growl in my ear before he spun me around and his mouth descended on mine, his tongue parting my lips.

  It wasn’t my first kiss, but it was the first time I’d really been kissed, a kiss with truth and passion behind it. He held my head with one hand and my hips with the other, keeping me where he wanted me as he tasted and explored with his tongue. Slow and intense, it was a kiss meant to make me forget everything, including my own name. I knew that I was being seduced with a kiss, and I was all in.

  I gripped his shirt at his waist, trying to ground myself otherwise I was going to float right away. His hard body under the shirt was just more temptation, though. His tongue tangling with mine had my feet leaving the ground.

  I pulled back with a start as I realized my feet actually were leaving the ground. Beast held my ass cheeks in his hands and stared at me through heavy-lidded eyes. A hungry look, as though he wanted nothing more than to devour me whole. My legs were wrapped around his waist, my ankles locked tightly behind his back. I didn’t even know how that happened. What was I doing…

  “Come back, mate. Don’t allow your mind to leave us.” He moved back and sat on the edge of my bed. Then his mouth was on my neck and he was stretching out my shirt to kiss down my collar bone. “You taste even better than I imagined.”

  I tipped my head back, white-hot desire shooting through me and I was eager to feel more of what he was doing. That had never happened before. I’d read about sizzling passion in romance books, seen a few soft-porn movies that tried hard to depict it, but I’d never felt it. It was fucking amazing. His lips were soft and hot and demanding, his beard stubble, rough. The mix of it had me wiggling on his lap. Suddenly a thought popped into my head and I laughed. “Were you thinking about eating me, too, huh?”