The Dragon’s Game Excerpt

NEW Dragon Shifter book coming out in ten to fourteen days!

Blurb:

Evil has crept back into the human realm, and only two people can banish it. A fire dragon with a heart of ice, and the only woman who can melt it.

Hazel

Igor Davydov is a dragon shifter with a godly body, a sculpted face, and deadly skills. He’s been protecting me from afar ever since the serpent god Apep was banished from the human realm, but now evil is back, and so is Igor. Up close. In front of my apartment building. Crashing my date that’s gone terribly wrong anyway, and asking to come up.

To him, I was always just a sickly girl that depended on meds to keep herself on her feet. Still, for this mission, he needs me, because despite my weakness, I have one mysterious supernatural strength. Problem is, there’s only one way to defeat the serpent god, one that will bind Igor and me to each other forever, for better or for worse. And right now, things are bad, going on worse. But somewhere along this dark and dangerous road I discover the tragic life story behind Igor’s tough shell, and the more I learn, the harder I fall for him. He wasn’t always a brute that thrived on war and blood. He was once a beautiful boy that now only I can see, and that I’m falling madly in love with. Hopelessly in love, because there’s no way in hell he can ever feel the same about me. Is there?

***

First Meet

“Let me out of here right now,” I demand, but my voice is shaky. He laughs, clearly not impressed, putting a hand on my thigh. I look down with a sense of dread. I’ve gained some weight since I started taking my medication regularly, but Darryl’s hand is still big enough to grab the entire girth of my thigh.
“Give me one kiss then,” he says. “Come on, it’s the least you can do for all the time and money I invested in us, don’t you think?”
A wave of nausea travels up to my throat, and I go light-headed. This can’t be actually happening to me. I press myself against the door as he leans closer, his hand tightening on my thigh, until a terrible force yanks the door open. Reality becomes sharp as hell as I stumble backwards, a strong arm catching me before I hit the ground. The first thing I recognize about the intruder is his scent, one that I would recognize anywhere. Campfires, and dragon skin.
“Okay, this is where you call it a night.” Igor Davydov has the deepest voice I’ve ever heard, and if the situation weren’t making me so sex-adverse right now, I’d probably mention how sexy it is.
Failing to find the balance I need, Igor keeps his concrete hold on me, looking down at my face out of those brutishly blue eyes. He doesn’t say it, but ‘what were you thinking?’ is written all over his face. A wave of shame runs through me, causing me to lower my blushing face, but why, damn it? I haven’t done anything wrong.
“Who is this dude?” Darryl asks after a few moments of what I expect was stunned silence, which makes total fucking sense. It’s not every day that a guy reaches into your car for your date, much less one like Igor Davydov, who looks like the modern Viking role was created based on him. He’s big, blonde, and seemingly sculpted out of a piece of rock. There’s also something unmistakably brutal about his face, with eyes like rough blue diamonds, which would place him just right among the Northern warriors—or, better yet, their gods. His mouth is particularly sensual though, if you ask me.
And maybe not just me. Women forget how to breathe whenever he walks into a room, I’ve witnessed that more than once. Igor is a dragon shifter, and dragon shifters have that effect. Most people don’t know that they exist, they don’t know there are supernaturals out there at all, but still, you can’t look at this man and not realize he’s different. The power contained in those muscles, it emits its own freaking aura, and somehow when he’s dressed in a simple Diesel T-shirt, jeans and army boots, like tonight, the effect is even more compelling. My sister, Vienna, said it was the dichotomy of it, their supernatural looks wrapped in our all too mundane fabrics that make them so impossible to look away from.
Under the impact of first impression, Darryl blinks up at Igor as if something just hit him in the head. In a few moments though, his subconscious mind has already crafted a story that makes sense, and animosity rearranges his features.
“I’m talking to you, Hazel, who is this guy?” he demands like a husband that was just screwed over.
“That’s none of your fucking business,” Igor replies in my place.
“Is she seeing you, too?” Darryl pushes, his voice too high-pitched.  “Were you trying to play me, Hazel!?”
“We’re, we’re not—”
“We live together,” Igor cuts in. He turns to me and raises a very dominant eyebrow when all my brain does is scream ‘Whattt?’ inside my head. “Tell him, Hazel. Tell him how long we’ve been room-mates.”
“So you live with your sister, right?” Darryl spits, glaring at me like I’m a cockroach worth squashing. “I should have known. You looked like trash the first time I saw you, I should have never expected you to be anything else.”
That should offend me, but my confidence is leaving me. Maybe I did lead him on. The way he reacts, as if I owe him something, it confuses me.  Inexplicable guilt crawls up from my stomach, but Igor’s deep voice tears through that.
“You better watch your language, you sorry piece of shit.”
Darryl’s lips become a hard line as he prepares his comeback. I can feel the muscles in Igor’s arm work around my shoulders, and one glance at his large hand confirms he’s clenched his fist. Shit, if this escalates, he’s gonna rip the guy apart.
“Listen, why don’t we all take a deep breath, all right? This has been nothing but a big misunderstanding.” I hold up my hands, but I get the opposite effect of what I wanted. Igor’s body heats up, his arm like a stove around my shoulders in the chilly evening. His dragon fire is mounting, and he’s staring daggers at Darryl.
“Darryl got the wrong impression, that’s all.” I turn to my date, placing a hand on my heart. “Listen, you’re a great catch, any girl would be lucky to have your attention. I was flattered, too, so I went along with it, and that wasn’t fair to you, because I wasn’t ready. You see, I—” But he interrupts me before I get to tell him about my strange condition of autophagy and draining energy, and how I desperately needed contact to the outside world, to people, because I was going to go insane in isolation.
“Oh, save it,” he bites out. “I get it. It’s fucking obvious.” His eyes spit venom at Igor and me. “You were hopelessly into your room-mate. You probably fuck, too, whenever he feels like it, of course. But if you think you can fuck your way into a real relationship with him, let me burst your bubble now. Guy’s top of the food chain, he probably fucks a second-hand rag like you every other day.”
My skin burns in indignation, but a second later I just stare with an open mouth, flabbergasted. Igor reaches in and grabs Darryl by his throat.
***
 

The book’s gonna be ready for you by the middle of the month! But here are the first two books of the series, if you’re feeling impatient.
DRAGON CHRONICLES

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