Stolen and Seduced - Christine Pope Page 0,20

She felt so gooey and nice. "I knew I recognized her. You get her out of here right this second, dragon. You'll get my whole operation shut down."

Dragon? She'd thought her kidnapper man was the caterpillar, not the Jabberwocky. No, no. None of this was right. They were at the tea party, so he must be the Mad Hatter. Where was his hat?

Ever since she'd seen the Tim Burton version of Alice and Wonderland, she'd had a crush on the Mad Hatter. Sigh.

The woman, or was she the March Hare? The hare grabbed her teapots, cups, and saucers and shoved them into a canvas bag. "I can't believe you would kidnap the disgraced sister of our new princess and bring her down here. Where did you even get her? You mark my words, you'd better hide her somewhere far, far away or you'll have every vampire from here to Chaltor Nine after you. Better yet, claim her and take her off the market."

"Claim her? Don't be ridiculous." He looked at her and flames flashed around his face, melting into his skin. Oh, it was his eyes. They were twinkling with a burning light... for her. Pretty.

"I will not be claiming anyone but my true mate.” Even his words were a hot blue flame in her mind.

The Xion Hare gave him a pointed look, but Ruby had no idea what it meant. Then the Hare stepped into the steady stream of beings filling the underground market and disappeared. Poof.

"Fuck," her Mad Hatter growled.

Ruby understood. She hated for a good party to end too soon. But she was tired and wanted to go home. Maybe she could talk him into joining her.

The voice filtered into her head again. "What the hell am I going to do with her now. I sure as hell hadn't counted on having her around for more than a few minutes."

"Frr nrrr, nrrph nrr. Louis Vuitton." She couldn't get her mouth to work right, but she was pretty sure she'd commanded him to take her home right now. That done, she turned her head, so she was tucked neatly into his shoulder as a lover might be, and snuggled up. He smelled so good.

"Shh, princess. I'll get you out of here."

"Whoever the hell this Louis was, he couldn't save her now. Unless...Maybe I could ransom her to him?"

Ash

There was still a good eighteen hours before he had to report back for his mistress's next feeding. Hopefully that would be enough time to get rid of his new burden. Shit. He'd have to take her back to his quarters and start searching Earth's databases for her lover, or whatever this Louis was to her.

The dragon inside of him rankled at the thought that she had a lover. Ridiculous. Ash held Ruby tighter and moved through the sides and backs of the vendor's stalls. He didn't want her jostled. But that took far longer than he wanted, and the sun was already rising by the time he got to the slave quarters.

No one would question him bringing a woman to his bed, even if he never had before. They all found what little joy they could in this world, until their mistress called on them. She was cruel and Ash had known many blood slaves that did not come back from her feedings. He was luckier than most that even without being able to fully shift, his dragon could heal him. It's why he was her favorite.

It was why he had to break her bond and leave this planet. Go home.

He laid Ruby on his cot and pulled the sparse blanket over her. It was clean and practically new. His own dragon's fire kept the small cubicle warm enough for him. Humans were fragile.

Maybe not her. She had freaked out when she was scared, but when she thought she was going to die, when the vampires were taking her away, she'd fought. Maybe behind her high and mighty exterior was a warrior woman.

His dragon liked the idea of that. It wanted a fierce mate, someone who would challenge him as women on Dragos did their men.

Claim her.

The thought popped back into his head unbidden.

No. Absolutely not.

Mate her.

Fate chose his mate, not him. She wasn't it. If she was her skin would already be alight with his fire marking her.

Fuck fate. Mine. She is mine.

Scales rippled across his skin and the fire in his chest pushed out, lighting the warrior marks he wore. The marks that only ignited when he was