Renegade Dragon

Book 4: Dragon Heat

by Lolita Lopez

Genres: Erotic & Steamy Romance; Fantasy Romance; Paranormal Romance

Synopsis

Nothing Hotter Than a Dragon's Fire When her best friend disappears, bio-engineering student Eris Jones embarks on the quest of her life. Her search leads to a secluded estate where she experiences visions of a powerful, winged creature who's transformed into a tall, dangerously sexy man at her touch. But the feel of his rock-hard abs and lean, sinewy arms tells Eris this is no dream . . . it's real. Niko Drakon is dangerous and he knows it. When the call to mate is too strong, he has no choice but to lock himself away in his basement saferoom. Otherwise, people get hurt. The moment Eris walks into his home, nothing can keep him from claiming her. However, she could also be the key to bringing down the dragons' greatest enemy, which leaves Niko with a devastating choice: keep Eris for himself or lose her to the cause he's served for most of his life . . .

Release date: October 4, 2016

Publisher: Forever Yours

Print pages: 74

Sample

Chapter One

Nico Drakon snorted furiously and jerked at the chains holding him hostage in the lair beneath his great manor house. His scaled golden skin blazed with a prickly sensation. Forced into a mating heat by a massive injection of synthesized lust root, he raged within the fortified bunker and wished for a female dragon to ease his pain and hunger.

But, in his shifted form, he was much too dangerous to be unleashed. He had to stay here, safe underground, until sunrise.

Silently, he acknowledged the nights of discomfort he would suffer were a small price to pay for his betrayal. His motives had been true, but he had broken a promise to his dear friend Reynard.

Stretching his aching neck, Nico exhaled with a shuddery growl. His reptilian eyes watered, and his heart raced like a hummingbird’s. Whatever the cost he now paid in physical torment was worth the knowledge that Ivy was safe. Forever mated to Madoc, she had a powerful partner to protect her. She also had her new mate’s tribe to back her up when trouble came. As precious as she was with that psychic matchmaking gift of hers, she needed all the guards she could get.

Locked in a blood feud with the humans known as the Knights of St. George, Nico and the rest of the Brotherhood of the Green Hide had been fighting to protect what was left of their species. Entire breeds were dying out and tribes were falling down to single-digit numbers. His own tribe now consisted solely of himself and Ivy. Between the lives lost to the Knights and the ongoing fertility issues among their species, the annual census hadn’t been very reassuring.

In the last year, the attacks on dragons and their mates had been increasing again. The Knights had attacked Cora on an open highway just miles from Stig’s home. They had attempted to kill Avani and Griff in Mad’s house and destroyed the place in the process. They had kidnapped Ivy from a highly trafficked spring break spot. The Knights were growing bolder.

Nico feared the darkest magic of all might be at play. As a gifted alchemist, he had encountered forces like this in the past. It never ended well for anyone involved.

A snap of energy burned his neck. He lifted his head and held his breath. Eyes closed, he listened intently. The layers of wards he had placed around his home had been strengthened after the Knights’ last incursion. Only dragon blood could pass through them now.

Someone probed at the edges of his property. It was a woman. In his lust-crazed state, her feminine pulse of energy called to him. He followed her movements as if tracking a blinking beacon on a radar screen. She didn’t push at or attempt to break the wards surrounding his home. Did she even know of their existence? She seemed more concerned with scaling his gates at their easiest, shortest spot than with finding the weakest layer in the magical protections.

When she put her hands to the gates, she encountered the slightest resistance but no pain. She wasn’t stopped by the wards, but they didn’t admit her very easily. His dragon rejoiced upon the discovery that this female who had trespassed upon his land was like him. The resistance she had encountered alerted him to the human blood mixed in with the dragon. Was she some long-lost member of a dragon tribe, her bloodline diluted from years of human breeding?

As swiftly as a cat climbing a tree, she scaled the gate and hopped down on the other side. He tracked her movements across his property. When she reached the house, she entered through a side door after expertly picking a lock. Was she a burglar? Did she intend to rob him?

Her close presence inflamed him with desire. He stamped his feet and jerked at his chains. Her scent finally reached him, and he growled, the rough, low sound rumbling through him and into the very ground beneath his feet. Could she feel him? Did she know that she wasn’t alone and that something very dangerous and very scary lurked in the darkness?

Room by room, she searched the house. She seemed to have a purpose, but what? When she entered his lab and lingered there, he thought perhaps she had come to steal one of his potions, experimental pharmaceuticals, or research. Whatever her purpose in the house, she seemed to find the lab rather interesting because she spent more time there than any of the other rooms she had investigated.

Eventually she moved out of the lab—and into the courtyard. He tensed with worry. Would she try to touch the ancient and mysterious fruit tree his family had guarded since the days of Troy and Odysseus? The golden apples were rumored to grant the gifts of the gods of Mount Olympus. Knowledge. Prophecy. Bravery. Inhuman strength. Immortality.

The woman walked a slow circle around the tree. His heartbeat did quite the opposite, speeding up to a wild pitch that stole his breath. If she touched even one apple, the tremulous control his human half held over his dragon would snap. The oath he had sworn—to protect the apples from all mortals—demanded that he hunt her down and snap her fragile neck.

When her delicate hands brushed the leaves of the tree, Nico felt her fingertips on his own skin. The electric sensation made his gut clench. She ran her curious hands along the branches and rubbed the waxy leaves between her fingers. When she finally touched one of the apples, he snarled a warning she couldn’t possibly hear. She plucked one of the golden fruits, and he furiously jerked on his chains.

Put it back, he silently willed. Don’t bite it.

But she didn’t take his unspoken advice. She brought the apple dangerously close to her mouth and inhaled the sweet, ripe scent of it. Her tongue flicked at the shiny peel to test the fruit. As if in slow motion, she pressed her teeth against the apple. With a snapping crunch, she took a bite of the apple…and sealed her fate.

Though the forced mating heat had rendered him beastly and a slave to his dragon’s needs, the woman’s theft of the apple pushed him right over the edge. An uncontrollable urge to catch and kill her gripped him. The human center of his thought process crumbled. Now only the primal, animalistic side of him mattered.

Gathering a mouthful of the venomous acid his breed was known for, he spat the sizzling stuff on the chains attached to his left wrist. The fluid spattered on the ancient metal enhanced wit. . .