Crossing Ties - Susi Hawke Page 0,21

too far, but I had to ask.

He considered me for a moment then knelt down to look at Da. He turned Da’s head to one side. He nodded, as if whatever he saw told him something. “It will be better if I hold him in my claws. We will need to carry him closer to the water where I can shift.”

“Okay, okay. Yeah, let’s do it. Misha?” Relief warred with worry, but I did my best to keep it to myself. Da was alive, but something was wrong. Had he regained consciousness at some point and found himself alone in the cave with no food or water? Had he been unconscious the whole time?

Misha shifted to carry him. I couldn’t imagine asking Wei to assist, especially when Misha was strong enough to carry him alone.

We hurried down to the bank of the creek, but cautiously. It wouldn’t do us much good to save Da only for one of us to slip and break a leg.

“He’s alive,” Misha said. “And once you get him home, if you can wake him up enough to get him to shift, he’ll heal quickly.”

His firm certainty did as much to ease my soul as finding Da alive did. I was able to smile, a true smile. “You’re right. The hardest part is over, isn’t it?”

We dressed quickly. Even as impatient as I was, I wasn’t bold enough to suggest riding stark naked on the back of a dragon, especially since my heat was still throbbing at the back of my brain. I doubted Wei would appreciate me riding my alpha while riding him. His mates probably wouldn’t appreciate that kind of unintended threesome, either.

Now that my concerns had faded to a fraction of what they had been before we found Da, it was much harder to ignore the demands of my body. I leaned back against Misha, rubbing against him a little extra as Wei’s undulations rolled our bodies together. Misha’s hands clutched at my ribs, and although I knew I would sport bruises there in the morning, it didn’t faze me.

Landing was a blur, but I remembered Wei hovering to gently drop Da on the front lawn—a maneuver that required even more vigorous undulations than before. And then he shifted without bothering to land, dropping Misha and I with a thump that cleared my brain enough to see where we were. Misha picked up Da, and I ran to the front door, shouting for Patrick. He stumbled from the living room, hair sprouting from his head in multiple directions, his shirt half unbuttoned and rumpled, his eyes blurry with sleep. The others followed him in various states of readiness.

And then my job was done as my family took over my responsibilities.

“Good job, Ro-Ro.” Patrick rarely used my childhood nickname anymore. He clapped me on the back and started bossing everyone around, calling for a doctor, calling for a bed. I weaved unsteadily on my feet, feeling lost and directionless now that my da was home.

And then Misha grabbed me, and every sensation and desire I’d been repressing came roaring to life. I grabbed his hand and looked around for the nearest closed door. I didn’t care which door. Just somewhere my family wouldn’t be. I opened it and shoved Misha in.

6

Misha

My shoulders hit the back of the closet Rory shoved me into, coats and jackets cushioning the sound. I started to tell him that the door hadn’t closed all the way because too much light was coming in, but Rory barely gave me a chance to realize what was actually happening—let alone speak—before he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled my head down to meet him halfway.

Then his lips were on mine and I forgot everything but him. His scent that had been hidden was bursting around me now, coming out in his sweat to reveal itself again in all its glory.

Our hands were everywhere as clothes got torn off or pushed away, both of us frantic to get rid of anything separating us. Rory was straining to reach me, and my neck was getting strained from leaning over, so I solved the problem by lifting him. He was on board, his lips never leaving mine as he scrambled up my body. Slipping my arms under his thighs, my fingers were free to explore the slippery heat where I wanted to bury myself and fill him with my knot.

I broke away, kissing his neck and scraping my teeth over the spot where