Filed To Story: A Claim of Fortune Book PDF Free by Jaymin Eve
Yes, sir. Thankfully I managed to keep that thought inside my head.
Slade backed away from me and fell into a familiar pose. It was the one I’d been practicing with Horton all week, and I quickly recalculated my stance for a much taller shifter.
When Slade grabbed me, there was no hesitation in his touch, and I was so nervous that I all but slipped over my own feet and landed in a tangle on the ground. The dragon shook his head, his expression serious. “Up, Emmeline. You can do better than that. I’ve seen you do better than that all week.”
Grumbling and ignoring my embarrassment, I got back into position, and this time when he moved, I let my body fall into the series of steps I’d practiced. I nudged into him, hooked my foot behind his, tilted my shoulder for more leverage, and yanked him over the side so he’d lose balance. Slade being Slade, he barely moved, but I managed to knock him a few steps back.
Moving a wall of muscle would normally be reason to celebrate, but Slade didn’t encourage celebrations in the middle of training. I’d heard him drill into his squad over and over that an early celebration when your opponent wasn’t dead was a surefire way to get you dead.
With that in mind, I moved on to the next drill to knock out a grounded opponent. It did require a lot of contact, and my nervousness over that cost me as Slade moved faster than I could track, and encased both of my wrists in his massive grip. In less than a second, he reversed our positions so I was the one on the ground, under his mercy.
His huge body trapped me against the grass, and my instinct to struggle died off at the sensation of his muscles pressing against my curves. “You stopped fighting,” he growled, as he lifted my hands above my head and secured them in one of his palms. His gaze was biting as his chest rumbled, and I made a weak, sad attempt to free myself.
Oh no, I’m trapped by a sexy dragon.
With a shake of his head, Slade slid one knee between my thighs, effectively pinning me to the ground, my hands still trapped by his above my head. He’d subdued me so fast that it was embarrassing, and his weight was too dense for me to even hope to buck him off.
I was his prisoner.
“What are you going to do now, Snow?” Slade asked as his gaze bore into me. “You’re as vulnerable as you’ll ever get. My weight is too much for you to lift. You’re too weak to break my hold on your hands. And look at that,” he lifted his free hand. “I can now do whatever I want with you.”
My breath stuttered out from me, and as he pressed his knee into my core, demonstrating his statement, I barely kept a moan from escaping.
“Look, Scary Shifter,” I huffed out in time to the steady throb between my thighs. “You’re not giving me much incentive. I’ve dreamed about being held down by you like this too many times to escape now.”
For the first time since I’d met the infamously terrifying dragon shifter, I witnessed him speechless. I’d have laughed at his astonished expression, but I was too busy trying not to erupt from just being this close to him.
“Slade,” I whimpered.
His shock was replaced by a shadowed expression, and in a flash he was back on his feet. His chest heaved as he stared down at me, pupils slitted until all I could see was dragon in that green gaze. The part of the dragon that everyone feared.
The air sizzled, and with a growl he turned and shouted for Horton.
“Start her on the blades,” Slade said shortly as the eagle hurried over, and then he was gone, leaving me with a strong sense that I’d pushed him too far.
Horton’s gaze darted between me and his boss. “Everything okay?” he asked, reaching out for me. Just before our hands touched, a rumble rocked the ground, and while the dragon wasn’t nearby, we both jumped away from each other.
“Let’s give him a minute to cool off,” Horton babbled, sounding nervous.
He ducked over to grab a case from the ground nearby and pulled out two practice sets of wooden blades. Somehow, I managed to focus long enough for him to explain how to hold them, even though most of my brain was still caught up on Slade.
That dragon was never far from my mind, and as I fought to push down my need and desire once more, I wondered how it would all play out.
Slade might be resisting, but the goddess wanted us to be together, and shifter help me, so did I.
EMME
The rest of the week passed by in weird increments, going both fast and incredibly slow at times. We fell into a routine that had me training every morning, while the alphas went about their lives with work and hockey. Though one of them always kept an eye on me.
Every morning Slade dragged me out of bed to train with Horton, and every afternoon I came home to a new origami figure on my pillow, and a magazine on the end of the bed. A few of the intricate paper animals held the faintest hint of cherry, which led me to believe our resident bear shifter was the gift giver, and I found myself craving a deeper conversation with Finley again.
Like we’d had the day at the racetrack.
I wanted to know how he was able to craft animals from scraps of paper-my drawer now held a crane, swan, frog, fish, bear, unicorn, wolf, and a rabbit. I had a veritable range of creatures, all in various paper colors. So far, he hadn’t doubled up on either animal or color of paper.
Finding these gifts were a highlight of my day as I stumbled in broken and beat-to-shit from training. Today it was a navy horse, and as I’d done with the previous ones, I quickly googled what an origami horse represented: freedom, strength, and courage.
Which made sense today.
Finley had asked me to sit in on one of his therapy sessions to delve into his past, and we could both no doubt use a little strength and courage to get through it.
I was nervous, even as I craved the knowledge of who Finley truly was. The good, bad, and terrifying.
His appointment was in two hours, which left me plenty of time to shower, change, and grab some food. I’d already said hello to Hunter in his office, and Slade was down in the containment room, where he spent most of his afternoons. I had no idea what he did with Talon now that the torture had stopped, and I was too exhausted from training to push and find out.
Hopefully they were using the time to chat and learn about each other, though most likely the broody brothers were staring, expressions hard and arms crossed, as they attempted to bond by murdering the other with their gaze.
As I undressed my aching limbs, I wondered if Slade was watching me via the cameras. There wasn’t a single place in this house now out of his view.
So long, prank wars. You were fun while you lasted.
The glow-in-the-dark dragon eyes were my last reminder, and while one day I hoped to continue our game, until then I’d just have to be happy with the memory of all those googly eyes on his stalker wall. I wondered if he’d even noticed-he’d never mentioned it.