Shadow's Awakening: The Shadow Warder Series, Book One (An Urban Fantasy Romance Series) (45 page)

“Do you think we’ll stay here?” she asked, finally.

“I don’t know. For now, I think we should. The Shadows can teach you what you need to learn. And we’ll be vulnerable with you pregnant and then with a young child. It makes sense to stay. This place is fortified and we’re surrounded by Shadows.”

“But?” Hannah said. She must have heard the doubt in his voice.

“Everything is changing. A Director working with a Voratus? We’re the first Warder and Shadow to bond in over a millennia. Even before this, Kiernan and I were talking about changes in the way the Vorati are organizing. For now, this Sanctuary seems safe. But we can’t be sure. We don’t know these people. We’d be careless if we assumed all the danger is gone.”

“Yeah,” Hannah said, lost in thought.

In a shifting world, definitions of what was good had to shift as well. Safe used to mean a lack of danger. Now it seemed to mean that no one was trying to kill them for the moment. Conner was right. Just because they were with the Shadows, didn’t mean everything was going to be easy. Conner was a Warder. What was to say they wouldn’t turn against him? Or kick them out if Michael attacked the Sanctuary?

They really had no idea how this was going to play out. But for now, at least, they were welcome and reasonably secure. That would have to be enough. She had Conner by her side, which was more than she could have hoped for a week ago. Instead of worrying about the future, Hannah decided she’d be smart to focus on the present. She was with Conner. He loved her. She loved him. They were having a baby. And then there was the bond. While she still didn’t really understand how it worked, she could feel the connection with Conner, their shared energy twining around their bodies, as much a part of them as skin and bone.

“At least the accommodations are nice,” she said, resolved not to waste time worrying. “Did you see that bathroom? And this bed is the size of a football field.” She stopped tracing patterns on his chest and dipped her hand beneath the sheet.

Finding him hard, she stroked her fingers over his silky skin, loving the contrast between his steely length and the velvet-smooth head. She squeezed, then stroked. Conner’s breath caught in his chest. Pulling her on top of him, Conner ran his hands down her sides, over her ass, and along the back of each leg, hooking each knee and spreading her legs wide. With a tug, he settled her damp heat right where she wanted it. So much of their life was up in the air. Who to trust, what to do next. But this, their bond, their love, their bodies moving together—this was the one thing Hannah knew she could believe in.

Hannah reached between them, tilted her hips, shifted his cock, and took him to the hilt. Letting go of her hips, Conner reached up to cradle her face in his big, warm hands. Drawing her down, he fit his mouth to hers. She rode him slowly, unconsciously matching the rhythm of her hips to their kiss. This time, they were going to make it last.

Conner held back, even when Hannah lost her restraint and begged. Maybe it was knowing they didn’t have to rush, that they had a lifetime to enjoy each other. He lingered over her body, filling her with languid thrusts, sliding his hands over her sweat-slick skin. Finally, when he couldn’t wait another second, Conner rolled her beneath him, gripping her ass with one hand and the back of her head with the other. Claiming her mouth in a deep, possessive kiss, he took her hard, dragging one more orgasm from her even as his own release hit him in a bolt of sharp, sweet pleasure. Several heartbeats later, when he had his breath back, he rolled again, tucking her against his side.

“Love you,” Hannah whispered, her lips brushing his ribs.

Conner held her close, not ready to let her move away, even to clean up. In his arms Conner held everything that mattered in his world. Forget the Warders and the Shadows. Forget the Vorati and their human prey. This was his heart. His woman and their child on the way. Without them, he’d have nothing to give the rest. The man he was with Hannah was the man he’d always wanted to be.

“I’m going to take care of you. Both of you,” he vowed. He felt Hannah’s lips curve.

“We’re going to take care of each other,” she answered.

Conner’s arms tightened, sending a burst of warm energy through both of them, a pulse of emotion that carried their love more clearly than any words. It saturated their bodies, bathing them in the light of everything they were, all they would build.

Conner felt himself drifting off, sleep creeping in as the past few days caught up with him. He let it come, knowing that, at least for now, they were safe. Whatever the changes in their shifting world, as long as he held Hannah in his arms at night, Conner would greet the coming day with hope. With joy. As long as they were together, he had everything he’d ever wanted, the dream he’d never allowed himself to have, finally come true.

Epilogue

Michael surveyed his surroundings in disgust. The beige carpet and matching bland walls of the ranch house were nothing like the elegance of the home those bastards had blown up. All his carefully acquired possessions were gone in a blast of fire and smoke, leaving him with nothing except an ugly mess. Now he was trapped in this tiny house, surrounded by this scrubby yard, penned in by double-wide trailers and decrepit houses with broken-down cars on the lawn. The only strong point for his current accommodation was the basement. The ranch house had been built on the foundation of an older home with a large stone cellar. It lacked the pristine white walls and expensive equipment of the lab they’d abandoned, but it was secure enough to keep their captives from escape until they built a new lab. Druj’s voice, thankfully back in a human host, interrupted his contemplation.

“Stop sulking. This is no more than you deserve after your failures. Anything else would attract too much attention. Tell me what you’ve managed to accomplish in the past day.”

Michael knew better than to mistake Druj’s polite tone for anything other than a dire threat. The powerful Voratus would tolerate no more mistakes before he rid himself of Michael completely. Michael knew he was only alive because finding another partner would waste valuable time.

Before Druj could lose patience, Michael spoke. “The Shadows are behind the bars we installed downstairs. Three separate cells. I’m looking for a new assistant. I think a human would be a better idea. A biologist. If one of your Vorati has the control to hold off on consuming the soul, we’d be able to move faster than with any of the options I currently have.”

“And the pregnant Shadow?”

“I’m still working on it.” Michael cleared his throat. “As far as I can tell, she’s with Munro. Conner Munro, the Warder who got her pregnant, then brought her in. I’ve had him marked as a renegade. A Sicarius has already been assigned to his case. It shouldn’t be long before he’s brought to ground. I also have his handler contacting known associates to see if we can pin him down that way. If we can find the Warder, I have confidence that we’ll find the Shadow.”

“If they’ve bonded, he’ll die before he gives her up.”

“Then he dies. We have no use for him except to breed more Shadow-Warder offspring. If they’ve bonded, she’ll be easier to control if he’s dead.”

“Tell your assassin to try to bring him in alive.”

“The Sicari don’t bring in their targets alive,” Michael protested. “It’ll raise a red flag.”

Druj shrugged. “That’s your problem. Getting the girl back is a long shot anyway. If the Shadows have her, your Sicarius won’t be able to get anywhere near her. We’re going to have to shift our focus,” he continued. “I’m not giving up on circumventing the prophecy. I still want a Shadow-Warder child. But for now I think we’re best served by building our army. Get me a list of the best targets for infection. Once we have enough of your Warders on our side, we can do anything we want.”

A shiver raced down Michael’s spine. He watched Druj leave the small house, a peel of paint drifting to the floor when the door banged closed. The most dangerous part of their plan had come. Capturing Shadows and imprisoning them in their lab was risky enough. Infecting Warders was something else entirely.

Since they had first discovered how to infect Warders, more than ten years before, they’d moved slowly. Spreading their targets out over time and geography so the infections were almost unnoticeable unless you knew what you were looking for. So far, they had only a handful of strategically placed Vorati in the Warder ranks.

Infecting Warder soldiers with Vorati demons brought them to the edge of chaos. If the other soldiers discovered what they were doing—if they lost control of the infected Warders—far too many things could go wrong. Already they’d lost two infected soldiers. Fortunately, no one believed the Warder who’d killed them. If another was discovered, they could be exposed too early. But if it worked…

If it worked, Michael and Druj would control an army of soldiers strong enough to bring the world to its knees. That kind of power was worth any risk.
 

Turn the page for a note from the author and an excerpt from
Shadow’s Pleasure
, Book Two of
The Shadow Warder
series.

Thank You!

Thanks for reading Shadow’s Awakening. I hope you liked it!

*
Click Here
& Sign up for my New Release email list. I’ll email to let you know about new books – including exclusive, limited time discounts only publicized to members of this list.

* If you enjoyed Shadow’s Awakening, feel free to lend it to whomever you want.

* Reviews are a wonderful way for other readers to find books they’ll like. You can leave a review on 
Amazon.com
 or on
Goodreads
.

*
Click Here
to be added to my ARC team. I love to give out advance copies to readers who like to read & review books before they’re released.

Shadow Warder series order:

Prequel Novella: 
Shadow’s Passion

Book One: 
Shadow’s Awakening

Book Two: 
Shadow’s Pleasure
 (January 2015)

Book Three: Shadow’s Discovery (April 2015)

Do you want to know what happens next?

Read on for an excerpt from Shadow’s Pleasure.

Shadow’s Pleasure: Excerpt