Speaker 1: Dragon called a slow burned, sexy paranormal romance written by
Carl Lockhart and Cassie Alexander, read for you by Victoria
may Hi. This is Cassie Alexander, and welcome to chapter two.
The second Damien's car door opened that evening, Grimalkin appeared
as a seal point Siamese nearby. Grimalkin had been with
him his entire life. All Royalty of the Realms had familiars,
but he still wasn't sure if he knew Grimalkin's true form,
only that it favored cats. So about that cheese, Grim
began trotting over to wind around Damien's legs. Can I
place another order? Damien knelt down to knuckle the cat's head.
Grim had been patient for him, and getting cheese delivered
was likely the easiest task on his list of things
to do today. Certainly, what would you like? He asked,
as Grimalkin purred loudly and started to drool ill. Damian
wiped his hands on his jeans, standing up. I can't
help it, okay, Grimalkin trotted beside him as he made
his way to the mansion. I need one wheel of
homageis d'a Finois and one entire wheel of aged parmesan,
the good stuff straight from Italy, with the crunchy crystals
that they don't usually export. What happened to the last one,
Damien asked, knowing full well Grim's appetites. Don't ask Grimalkin said,
with a whisk of his tail, running inside as Damien
pushed the door open before stopping to look back. The
dog has his human skin again. It's about fucking time,
Damien's attention surged. It had been a long week since
they discovered a fucking mini portal inside Zach, which Andyan
he had surgically removed from him. If he closed his eyes,
he could almost smell her apple and salt water scent. Soon,
he promised himself, and inside his dragon rumbled. Zack had
been a wolf ever since the full moon that had
put him back together after their operation. His brother Austin
said it was a consequence of all the damage he'd
taken while human. He could believe that, seeing as he
and Andy had sibved through all of Zack's intestines to
look for the portal. But that didn't mean Damien wasn't
impatient for answers. It's time to have a conversation, Damien said,
letting some of his dragon's magic carry his voice through
the house. A door slammed, and then a half dressed
man in jeans came racing down the stairs while fastening
his belt, without shoes or shirt on. He was the
embodiment of Summer, a golden, well tanned blur with shaggy
bronze hair and ocean blue eyes. He was muscular, like
all wolf shifters, and unusually for a were wolf, covered
in tattoos. Werewolves had such an accelerated healing factor that
ordinary tattoos didn't take. But once the brothers had decided
they wanted them, Damien had researched and arranged for a
particular type of wolf spain to be added to their
ink and flown in a shifter aware tattoo artist who
was willing to take the risk of working on them.
The wolf's spain meant that all of their tattoos could
never be healed away, and that they always burned a little,
but the brothers thought the pain a small price to
pay to permanently commemorate the members of their murdered pack.
The urge to do what you could to remember important
people to your life after their passing was something that
Damien understood all too well. He's coming too, said Austin,
his shaggy hair and half nakedness making him look more
savage than usual. Where have you been stalking your little nurse,
Damien growled, As strongly. As Damien had been tempted to
watch Andy for the past week, he was and have
to physically stalk her. He was a magical being from
the realms. He could just watch without her knowledge through
her own damn mirror. He hadn't, not yet the creature
inside him slithered scales over scales, waking up, but you
could it tempted him in this, as in all things,
his dragon had much less compunction. Damien's jaw clenched as
Austin frowned deeply and went on worried for his brother.
Zach didn't betray us. Whether or not his brother was
a traitor, Austin's pain was genuine. You may have thought
he was doing it for good reasons, Damien granted. But
beings from the realms are experts at twisting words and minds.
I'm sure they wouldn't have gotten him to betray us outright,
But it's entirely possible. They could have convinced him that
he needed to do something terrible to save the people
he loves. In the realms, pain was currency, Damien knew
from watching his human mother try to survive. There. Let's
see what he says, Austin said, wearily. Yes, I'm sure
he can explain, Damien said, letting his familiar cool impassivity
roll over him again. Perhaps it was his own draconic nature,
or the fact that he'd had to share his body
for most of his life. He could detach when it
was required, see the bigger picture and not let his
emotions ride him. He liked to think he'd gotten very
good at it, until he'd met a certain nurse. There
was another door slammed farther down the upstairs hall, and
soon Zach was on the stairs. I can't explain, Zach announced.
When he reached the bottom. Everything about him seemed more controlled,
more civilized, combed hair, expensive clothing, tighter, subtler movements. With
his black hair and pale skin, he was a cool
winter compared to Austin's heat. And it was why, with
the help of a little magic, he could so successfully
pretend to be the elder Damien Blackwood when it was required.
The dress shirt he'd raised down in was loose, making
the tattoos it exposed appear more threatening in contrast. But
I have some educated guesses. Damien glanced at the half
naked Austin, who looked like a Barbarian enforcer compared to
his brother. Grimalkin sensed the mood, and suddenly the entryway
became a cozy den with a crackling fire and warm
brown leather couches and a large cage in the corner
with a comically large padlock. He had no use for
the dogs and had made his opinion clear to Damien
on many many occasions. Luckily for Damien, nobody else on
earth could understand him grim Damien reprimanded and the cage disappeared.
He sat down on a couch and Zach took the
one across from him, as Austin paced back and forth
in front of the fire in bare feet, so Damien said,
looking at Zach, do you know what happened to you
in the hospital? I told him. Austin confessed, like literally
two and a half minutes ago, and you were surprised.
Damien didn't take his eyes off of Zach. Fuck yes,
Zack's nimble hands, the hands of a white collar boss,
unlike his brother, were quickly working up the buttons of
his dress shirt. And do you have any idea how
the portal got there? Damien asked, watching the werewolf's pupils
and pulse for any signs of lying. Oh, I didn't
even know that was possible, much less that one was
in me. Zach clutched at his abdomen. There was no
way he would have survived so many people mucking about
inside of him if he hadn't been a werewolf. How
could you not know, Damien pressed, as Austin watched him.
Damien was no fool. He knew where Austin's loyalties were.
If he had to act against Zach, he would lose
both of them today. And your father would have killed
both of them already, his dragon said, watching everything through
his eyes. His dragon was right, I am not my father.
Now you are not, his dragon agreed with a dismissive snort.
Zach leaned forward, holding his head in his hands, his
dress shirt so tight across his muscled shoulders it looked
on the verge of tearing. He was the very definition
of a man racked by guilt, or the way that
a man would act to buy time to come up
with a cover story by making someone else think he was.
Damien hated having to think like that, but couldn't risk
not I didn't want to tell you this, Zach said,
raising his body slowly, looking not at Damien but at
his brother. But a local Peck reached out to me
to talk about an increase of hunter activity in the
area Hunters. His dragon growled, I know this time. Damian
agreed with his dragon sentiment. Just because most people didn't
know that magic was real didn't mean that everyone didn't,
and some of the people who did know of magic
were unscrupulous. One way to gain magical powers was to
take a piece of a being that had them innately
and incorporate it on yourself, in yourself or in your rituals.
There were almost no fresh water mermaids anymore, that all
been fished to death for their scales. And what was
worse was that once hunters gained magical abilities, it made
it easier for them to find other magical creatures to harvest,
like mermaid scales allowing humans to breathe underwater, setting up
more mermaid traps, which was why Austin hadn't wanted to
put Zack into a public hospital to begin with, and
why he'd felt compelled to guard his injured brother there personally. Austin, however,
had gone still at the first mention of local pack,
the kind of still all predators knew, which Austin asked,
his voice low and full of danger because he already
knew what the answer would be. Zach took a profoundly
long inhale, during which Austin started shaking his head. It
was probably a good thing that Austin wasn't wearing a shirt,
because he seemed to get larger just standing there. Damien
knew it was theoretically possible for the wolves to shift
on a no moon night if driven to it, although
he'd never seen it happen before, but his desire for
empirical information was outweighed by the fact that if both
of them shifted to fight, he'd have to shift too
to stop them. After the morning he'd had with his dragon,
he did not want to open that cage wide starry sky,
Damien said, seeing what Zack couldn't the name of the
pack that had massacred Zack at Austin's own pack the
wind Racers in a blood feud decades ago, Zach finally
met his half dressed berserker brother's gaze. Yes, Grimalkin decided
to do Austin a favor and materialize one of his
weapons closer, putting a well loved axe on the end
table beside the couch. Grim Damien chastised. Not now, Grimlkin
moved the acts to a table halfway across the room,
but didn't allow it to vanish entirely. Zach spoke directly
to Damien, ignoring his brother's concerns, focusing on the facts.
Several of their pack mates were tracked, captured, and ritually dismembered,
which means that hunters are officially back in town. The
hunters moved in packs, slowly following their prey. Intelligent magical
creatures would run from them and set up elsewhere with
new identities, new lives, even if the cost of fleeing
hunters was overlapping packs and territory disputes like the one
that had pitted Starry Sky against the wind Racers generations ago.
Weren't smart enough or thought that they couldn't fight, might
get taken down and When an area was hunted out
or the remaining creatures were too strong, the Hunters would
move on until the next time they came through. Damien
had been careful to hide his presence from the Hunters
the last time they'd hit town ten years ago, which
isn't to say that his dragon wouldn't have gleefully killed them.
But he was busy enough guarding Earth from unearthly rifts
he didn't need to worry about earthly interest in his
dragon's hide. So he'd done what any other irritated billionaire
in his situation might have. He paid a lot of mercenaries,
a lot of money through shell organizations to run them
down mercilessly. That was when he'd first hired Zach and Austin,
and he'd kept them in his employ ever since. Damien
stared into the den's fire. If the Hunters knew this
town was inhospitable to them, why had they come back?
And whose word do you have on that one of
their Austin pressed his brother, the potential for violence between
them crackling just like the fire behind them. You said
you saw a hunter at the hospital, Damien reminded him,
still considering no I was worried I'd seen a hunter.
I saw a short, bald guy with a lot of
tattoos who didn't belong there. Maybe he was just there
to take a picture of Zach for the papers. I
told the hospital to make him a no info but
I also told you taking him there was a horrible idea.
Shit like this is why Austin's anger exploded with a
snarl as he caught the nearest side table and up
ended it, and Grimalkin disappeared it in mid air before
it could land. Everyone knows whose family owns this place,
and we had five EMTs and pyramedics in here. Who
you fucking told about a tiger attack? Blaming Zack's bizarre
injuries on a quickly transformed Grim had not been Damien's
finest moment, but it had worked in a pinch, and
Mills had been able to get him a wildlife permit retroactively. Now,
Austin went on, shaking his head strongly. The fact that
a lurker chose that moment to rise out of my
brother could have been totally coincidental. One of their own
was murdered by hunters, Austin, Zach said, his tone imminently reasonable.
I saw the photos of what was left of him.
Damien felt his dragons Talon's flex from somewhere deep inside,
as though the beast were cracking its knuckles. It was
always looking for a fight. Even if that's true, and
I doubt it, so why should I care