Iron Master – Jennifer Ashley Page 0,1
bulk of mountains resting against the clear sky. “Yeah.” He let out a breath. “Let’s go back.”
He felt Peigi relax behind him, and at last, he turned to her.
Her presence always smacked him like a physical blow. She was almost as tall as he was, as bears were in human form. She had very dark hair that waved back from an arresting face and eyes of deep blue that pulled at him.
He wasn’t supposed to be attracted to Shifters. Feel sorry for them, sure, as they’d started as slaves to the Fae who’d fucked them up as much they had Reid’s own people. Commiserate as fellow sufferers who’d kicked free.
Peigi was different. She had a strength that went beyond that of other Shifters, yet it hadn’t made her hard. Compassionate and caring rather, and so very beautiful.
Reid wanted to kiss her, right here, right now. Feel her body against his, taste her lips, absorb her warmth. He slept in her house much of the time, but down the hall from her room, walls between them.
He pressed down the temptation with effort. Once Reid started kissing Peigi, he’d never want to stop.
A dark Fae and a Shifter. Could it happen?
Reid fought it, not because Shifters and Fae never mixed, but because one day, he might go home. He belonged in his own world, not this crazy one where humans ruled, Shifters lived in Shiftertowns, and people flocked to enjoy themselves in this city of games.
But Reid’s world, filled with high Fae out to destroy all dokk alfar and enslave Shifters, was no place for Peigi and the cubs. So he fought his desires and let himself go slowly insane.
She studied him, as though knowing what went on behind his eyes. Peigi had a quietness that belied being captive for years to a crazy bear Shifter, forced to be his mate.
There was pain deep inside her, and much more besides, but on the surface, she was calm and watchful. Made Reid wonder what would happen if she ever cut loose.
“You all right?” she asked.
No. And he’d never be. “Sure,” he said. “Come on. Before the cubs wake up.”
She gave him a faint smile, knowing what he meant. They were noisy, the cubs, and if they woke up too early, all the Shifters on this side of town would complain for days.
They turned and walked back together. Very close together, but their bodies never touched, no matter how much Reid wanted them to.
Peigi overslept in the morning and blinked awake to bright if cold daylight.
She recalled the strange sense of wrongness that had pulled her out of the house last night to find Stuart on the edge of Shiftertown staring out into the desert, but everything seemed perfectly normal today. Her tiny room, the smallest in the house, her clothes neatly hung in the open closet, shoes lined up and waiting. Nothing out of place, and no warning inside her that all was not well.
The racket of voices down the hall told her the cubs were up. The deep rumble of Stuart’s reply made her breathe out in relief.
He had been spending more and more nights in this house as time passed—he’d originally lived with the alpha bear family of this Shiftertown, but when Nell and Cormac had mated, Stuart had taken to sleeping at Peigi’s to give them more room. Not finding Stuart in the kitchen in his DX Security shirt, making coffee and starting breakfast, had become unusual.
His room was the farthest from Peigi’s, as though he needed to reassure her that he’d never come closer than she wanted, and also tell the world there was nothing going on between them.
Who knew a Fae would be shy? Dokk alfar, as Stuart quickly pointed out when the topic came up.
Peigi was willing, and lonely, and tired of everyone thinking she was completely broken. She was only half broken. Eric, the Shiftertown leader, had been wise letting her take charge of the cubs, because it had brought her back from the edge of despair and kept her alive.
Stuart was the other reason she stayed alive.
Peigi threw off the covers and slid out of bed, clad in a tank top and shorts. She was too large for the frilly nighties human women wore—bears were on the big side—but she didn’t care. Tank top and shorts suited her better anyway. Easier to shift in, run, fight, or chase wayward cubs.
She pulled on sweatpants against the cold, thrust her feet into sneakers, and crept out of