Forever Fated Mates: A Shifter Romance Collection Read online

  He laughed, too. “You’ve made me see life completely differently, and I think I’ve done the same for you. There is no one—not even close to anyone—on this earth that I would rather annoy the piss out of for the rest of my days than you.”

  I put my hand to my forehead. “Is this supposed to be a proposal?”

  He smiled, but turned serious. “A year ago, I almost lost you, and it felt like the world would never be right again. I don’t want to go one day without your laugh or smile or quick wit. Be my hunting partner and mate forever. Britt, will you marry me?”

  He held up a ring. But it didn’t look like the typical diamond ring. I squinted and moved closer to look at it.

  “Now, before you go having your fit, this is not a diamond. I didn’t think you’d want that.”

  I gasped. “Is that—”

  “I talked to Kat and Dezi and Kat’s gramma and they assured me—”

  “You didn’t!”

  “—that this was the only ring you’d want.”

  “Ezra!”

  He stood and slipped it on my finger.

  “Is that my gramma’s jade?”

  “Yep. And the band is made from your ma’s necklace, melted down.”

  I squealed and wrapped my arms around him. I’d never been into typical jewelry, it was true. If he’d given me a gold band with a diamond, I’d wear it, but I’d try to get out of wearing it whenever I could. I just didn’t like that sort of thing. But this ring? I couldn’t have designed one more perfect.

  “I think I’d have to say yes just because of the ring.”

  “Really?” He sagged with relief. “I was worried you might be pissed that I ruined two pieces of jewelry that were both super important to you.”

  “I can see why you’d think that. And if you’d screwed it up, I would be. But it’s perfect.” I pulled back to look in his eyes. “I had no idea I could love someone like I love you. You were totally unexpected and not at all who I ever would have pictured spending my life with, if I had pictured that at all. But somehow, we’re perfect together.”

  “We are, aren’t we?”

  “We are.” I kissed him hard. “Now come help me skin this croc.”

  He laughed. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” I took his hand and we blew out the candles as we went, starting out on the path to our forever.

  Xander’s Mate

  Daddy Dragon Guardians

  1

  Xander Mitchell ran a hand through his thick, dark hair as he rang the bell next to Holden’s front door. The man answered, one eyebrow raised. “It didn’t go so well, I take it?” Nora was still awake, smiling happily in Holden’s arms.

  Taking his daughter, Xander stepped inside. “You could say that.” He focused on her dark curls and touched them gently with his fingers. He had been her caretaker since he and the other men had fled to Earth, but he still hadn’t been able to get over how delicate she was. As hopeful as he had been about the evening, he found he was far happier to pick her up a little earlier than usual.

  Holden shut the door behind him and stepped into the living room. His son, Finn, was sleepily cuddling a stuffed bear. “I told you it wouldn’t work. Online dating was terrible for me.”

  “But it just makes so much sense when you look at the numbers,” Xander argued. “It’s a faster way to meet people. I know it’s not like Nora is suffering without a mother figure in her life, but you and I both know it’s only right to provide these children with the best parenting possible. From everything I’ve read about how life works here on Earth, and from everything we had experienced back on Charok, that means finding a mate.”

  “No,” Holden corrected as he turned off the television and picked up his son. “That means finding your mate. She’s got to be perfect, and you aren’t going to be able to tell that by looking at her picture on a screen. Just look at Leah and I.” Holden had indeed found the perfect mate for himself. Leah was a wonderful woman who was not only a good partner, but a wonderful mother to Finn.

  Xander wanted the same thing for himself and for Nora, but it definitely wasn’t happening yet. “You just got lucky.”

  Holden laughed, and little Finn giggled along with him, even though he didn’t get the joke. His big blue eyes shone brightly up at his father figure as he ran his chubby fingers through the stubble on Holden’s chin. “I don’t know if I would say that. Have a seat and tell me what happened. Let me know how awful it was. The night is still early, and Leah is upstairs meditating.”

  Settling onto the couch with a sigh, Xander rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I guess I can’t say it was awful, but I just know she’s not the one. There’s supposed to be some sort of spark between us, but there wasn’t even a chance. While we were at dinner, the only thing I could think about was how much I wanted the date to be over.”

  “You know, things might not be exactly the same for you and your perfect person as they were for Leah and I,” Holden theorized. “Trying to find a human to be with is likely to be far different than finding a dragon, although I suppose none of us will ever know that. I do know how I felt when I first met Leah, but it might be a different sensation for you.”

  Xander nodded. “Probably, but that still means there has to be some sort of sensation, right? I didn’t feel nervous or even excited. When she touched my hand across the table, it could have just as easily been you touching my hand for all that it did for me.” He frowned, wishing this didn’t have to be so hard. The pressure of knowing Nora deserved a mother only made things more difficult. If he only had to worry about himself, then he might not bother dating at all.

  “Okay. You’ve got me there.” Holden yawned and smiled. “I have a feeling it’ll happen when you least expect it.”

  “You know I love learning more about humans and living here with them, but you’re starting to sound like one of them,” Xander scolded, laughing. “Next thing I know, you’ll be writing a book of platitudes.”

  “They’re probably better than the ones we knew from back home. ‘Never turn your back on a drooling ogre’ wouldn’t go over well on this planet. And it doesn’t really sound like good dating advice.”

  “You’ve got me there. Maybe you’re right; I should just let this happen.” Back on Charok, the dragons didn’t have a dating protocol, so to speak. They knew when the time was right and when they had found their fated mates. It created a boiling in their blood, a thirst on their tongue that couldn’t be quenched by anything else—or so he had heard. The ogres had taken over before Xander had ever gotten the chance to find a female who made him feel that way. Xander, Holden, Beau, and Julian had barely managed to escape with their lives and with the last eggs that had belonged to their slain queen to start a new life on Earth. Sometimes it seemed much harder than Xander had ever imagined it would be.

  “Tell you what. Leah and I are going to a community picnic tomorrow. Why don’t you come with us? It’ll give you a chance to get away from your studies and your worries. We can leave the kids with Beau and just enjoy ourselves.”

  Xander considered this. They ate outside all the time on their home planet, but on Earth, it seemed to be a novelty. “A picnic? I can’t say I’ve been on one of those, but it sounds interesting. What does it mean if it’s a community picnic?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” Holden admitted, shrugging. “It’s something about business owners getting together and eating potato salad. Leah assures me it’s fun.”

  Always up for a new opportunity, Xander nodded. “Alright, then. I’ll be there.” He gathered up Nora’s things and headed home.

  As he tucked his sweet little girl into bed, he couldn’t help but stand over her crib and watch her for a moment. If things had gone differently, she would be a princess of dragons. One of the last eggs laid by the queen before she was killed, Nora had been lucky enough to escape with the men and come to Earth with the help of a rogue wizard who had sympathized with the dragons. She would have had zero chance of su
rvival if he hadn’t grabbed her dark emerald egg and made off with it, but he hoped he was doing the right thing by raising her in a world of humans.

  Stepping down the short hallway to his own room, Xander went into the bathroom to wash his face. He stood for a moment in front of the mirror, wondering how human females saw him. Xander had gotten used to his figure in the mirror: he was distinctly human, with a well-proportioned nose and smooth skin. Though he combed his thick, dark hair regularly, it often fought him and didn’t want to stay in place, and his eyes were the color of the earth: a rich brown hue.

  Even though he rarely had the chance to shift into his true form, he could still see the dragon that lay within. He knew that his filed nails would instantly transform into the sharpest of claws as soon as he began to morph, and his lips would extend back to reveal arches of gleaming teeth. Xander missed the way the heat in his chest used to vent out through his nostrils as little tendrils of smoke, along with the array of spikes that stood out on the back of his head. He was tempted to shift right at that moment, just so he could see it all again. But even though his apartment was a spacious one, there was no point in risking the damage he would do. Dragon bodies were much larger and bulkier than human forms, and it was next to impossible to control a lengthy tail in an enclosed space. No, he would have to wait for the time being.

  Xander went to bed, wondering what it would be like to have a woman lay next to him night after night. Holden had assured him that it was a pleasurable thing, and he was inclined to believe his friend. After all, human females were often just as sharply-tongued as dragon females, but far softer and more pleasant. He would find a mother for Nora, even if he had to go on a thousand first dates to find her.

  2

  Summer stretched and smiled. The sun was streaming in through the recycled glass windows of her little cottage, beckoning her to go outside and enjoy the day. There was nothing better than being part of nature, and Summer had even lived in a tent for a while just to be as close to Mother Earth as possible. But it did get cold in the winter and she was human, therefore, she had to settle for a cottage on the outer edges of town.

  It was a nice little place, though. With a Murphy bed that folded out of the wall to save space, an eclectic collection of decorations and knickknacks she had picked up in second-hand stores, and all her favorite books on a solid wood shelf on the wall, there was no place Summer would rather be.

  Dressing in a pair of loose floral pants that tied around her waist and a flowing white tunic, Summer slipped on leather sandals and prepared to take her usual morning walk, but her phone rang before she made it out the door. “Good morning, Autumn,” she said without looking at the screen. “Are you on the plane already?”

  Autumn, the precise opposite of her twin sister, confirmed this. “Of course. The earliest flight out always has the nicest people on it. I was just calling to remind you to process the weekly report this afternoon.”

  Summer rolled her eyes, but smiled. This was just how her sister was. Autumn had an incredible mind for business and was far more professional than any witch who ran a new age shop was expected to be. But it meant that they were always turning a decent profit and making money by helping others, which was made Summer happy. “Don’t worry. I’ll get it all taken care of.”

  Her sister sighed over the phone. “I feel bad for leaving this week and making you hold down the fort. It can be a lot to handle, and I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed.”

  “You’re thinking of yourself, not me,” Summer reminded her. She spent a lot of time meditating and keeping in touch with the universe. It was important to stay grounded and to remember what was truly important, something that Summer felt most people forgot about these days. The constant need that everyone felt to rush around and accomplish everything they possibly could in a day only caused anxiety and depression. It never mattered to Summer how much money she made as long as she was able to continue to grow spiritually and to help others with her knowledge.

  “I know, I know. But there’s a shipment of inventory coming in this week, and that’s going to have to all be counted, logged into the computer system, and put away in the back. Make sure you at least do the paperwork side of things, but if you don’t have time to integrate it into our stock, then it can wait until I get back. I’ve already sent in the quarterly estimated taxes, so you won’t have to worry about that, and I’ve paid the rent for the store. But we did advertise that big sale on incense this week, so you’ll need to get the signs put in the window and on the displays. Oh, I don’t think I programmed the sale prices into the computer…”

  “Autumn, I can handle it,” Summer said patiently. She was used to her “older” sister fretting over things, and she never took it personally. “You forget that I’ve been running The Enchanted Elm alongside you all this time. But I’m not doing any of it until this afternoon.”

  “You’re not opening the shop this morning? Why not? Saturday mornings are huge for us. Everyone comes into the downtown area to shop for antiques and eat at the bakeries. We’ll miss out on a lot of profit.”

  She could hear the panic in Autumn’s voice, and she felt bad for her, but Summer had things well under control. “Because this morning is the annual Small Business Association picnic.”

  “Oh, right. Ah…” Autumn hesitated for a moment. “Are you going to be alright going by yourself? I mean, you can skip it if you want to. I know how people can get at these sorts of events.”

  Though Summer was used to doing things with her twin in tow, she knew she didn’t need anyone to lean on. “I can handle it. Don’t worry. Besides, maybe people will be slightly less intimidated if there’s just one witch amongst them instead of two.” She giggled in spite of the situation.

  “Okay. Well, have fun. I’m sure Leah will be there, so tell her I said hi.”

  “I will.” Summer hung up, smiling to herself at her sister’s worries. They were both very talented witches and they had shared a womb together, but they couldn’t be more different.

  She stepped out her door and took the shorter path for her walk now that some of her time had been taken up by the phone call. Even so, she reveled in the way the summer breeze lifted her hair off her neck and sang in the leaves of the trees that surrounded her. Summer had chosen a home that was right on the outskirts of the city limits, where she had access to the woods, but could still get to the shop without too long of a commute. She paused as she finished her walk and came around the back of her cottage to pluck a few rogue weeds out of her herb bed before going inside to shower.

  Midtown Park was packed by the time Summer pulled up in her hybrid coupe. The parking spaces in the main lot were filled with cars, which had also spilled over onto the side streets that surrounded the park. Summer guided her car carefully along the curb, making sure she wasn’t blocking anyone in or obstructing someone’s driveway, then retrieved the fruit salad she had made from the passenger seat and headed toward the grassy meadow at the center of the grounds.

  Clusters of businessmen in polos and khakis gathered in the shade, nervously picking at their collars or smoothing their hair while they pretended to be interested in each other’s small talk. The women seemed to have their own ritual. The wives of business owners carefully placed their homemade potluck contributions in the shade on the picnic tables under the pavilion, keeping them carefully covered to thwart the insects and checking to make sure their coleslaws were thoroughly mixed. The professional women who ran their businesses themselves plunked store-bought angel food cakes, cupcakes and brownies down on the edge of a table in their containers and left to chat about marketing strategies.

  Summer was somewhere in the middle, not really belonging to either group, but she was used to it; that was how life was for a witch. She was always a bit of an outsider, and she had learned to ignore the stares that came from some of the women when they realized just who had walked into their midst. “Good morning!” Summer called out, waving her fingers in the air and smi
ling. No doubt, they were wondering what spell she had cast on them by making that particular hand gesture. The spell was a powerful one, indeed, but it was one they had cast on themselves.

  “There you are!” Leah said as she walked up. Her dark hair lay in a long braid against her back, and her blue eyes matched the dome of sky above them. “I got a call from Autumn just a little while ago. She was worried about you for some reason. Is everything okay?” Leah narrowed her eyes as she studied her friend.

  “Don’t start getting all psychic on me,” Summer replied with a laugh. Leah ran a psychic reading service just across the street from The Enchanted Elm, and she had quite a reputation in the area for being accurate and honest. “Autumn is just doing her normal thing. She’s a bit concerned about me running everything while she’s gone, and she only called you because she wanted you to check up on me."

  Leah smiled and set down her dish of scalloped potatoes. “I think she feels guilty for leaving town just for fun. It would be one thing if she was going to a marketing convention or doing some sort of seminar, but visiting an old college friend is a frivolous thing for someone like Autumn.”

  “Very true, but I’m glad she’s finally doing it. She and Marla have been saying they’re going to get together for years, and I was afraid they wouldn’t get it done before they turned gray.” She really didn’t begrudge her sister for taking the trip, and she secretly hoped she could get Autumn to leave town more often. It might get her to relax a little more.

  As she reflected on how to get her sister to be more in touch with her spiritual needs, Leah came up next to her and nudged her with her elbow. “There are a lot of good looking men here, you know. You should keep your eyes open.”

  Summer rolled her eyes instead. “No, thanks. I’m not really interested.”