Dragon's Ward by LeTeisha Newton Page B

her away. That he would not help her. She dug her nails into his chest, feeling the muscles ripple. On the edge of her vision white dots were floating and she knew she had only seconds to say something, anything to make this man take her in. It had to count, or she would slip away and would not be safe. She took a deep breath and forced herself to speak.
    “Help me,” was all she could whisper before darkness, sweet oblivion, claimed her.

Chapter Two
    Stefan didn’t know what to expect when he’d heard the pounding on his door. He was not a sapling so had not opened the door until he’d sent his senses flaring out to find out what it was. The pain and horror that had whipped back at him had nearly taken him to his knees. When he swung the door open he’d expected to find a broken and bloodied soul lying on his deck, pounding at his door with the last of their strength, not a small slip of a woman with a riot of messy auburn waves around her shoulders to the center of her back. She wasn’t voluptuous. It wasn’t that she wasn’t curvy, it’s just that she wasn’t overwhelmingly so. Her body was honed, lightly muscled, as if she had grown use to using them. They were functional, rather than crafted to look a certain way. Her drab gray sweats hid her shape but, as he carried her slumped form into his house, he could feel the swell of her hips, the roundness of her ass pressed against his upper stomach, and her slender waist. Her bones were delicate, almost birdlike. Her chest rose and fell softly in her unconscious state, the mounds small but perky.
    But it was her face that captivated him.
    She had an oval-shaped face, not overly long, but framed nicely by her long hair. Her mouth was shaped differently than he had seen in quite some time. It was more of a rounded pout, where the line around the top lip wasn’t dented. Her nose was slender and flared out softly above her mouth. Her eyes were almond-shaped but large. Even closed they looked nearly too big for her face. He could remember the rich chocolate of their color though, as she had whispered for him to help her before falling into his arms unconscious. Her skin was the color of a peanut shell, not quite caramel and not quite dark tan. Individually these features may have appeared unattractive, but the sum of them was startling. He felt his body tense as he lay her down on his couch.
    That was unexpected.
    As Ryuichi of his kind, he should not have felt desire for a human female. They would not be able to handle his…attentions safely. That didn’t seem to matter at the moment. His cock was thick and hard, pressing against the zipper of his jeans enough to drag a hiss from his throat. Passed out and in obvious need of help, the slip of a woman who wouldn’t weigh more than a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet, would not stand up to his nearly seven-foot frame, and the proportions that came with that. He sighed, ignoring his hard-on long enough to pick up his phone and dial a friend. He could not turn away someone in need, and he had a feeling that this woman had a lot of need. He’d have to deal with his libido later.
    Cadoc answered on the second ring, despite the late hour. “You have need, zhu ?”
    “Come to my home. I have a bit of a situation.” The woman moaned in her sleep, curling toward him at the sound of his voice. Her hand reached out and gripped his biceps, and she settled back in her sleep. He frowned down at her reaction to his touch. He could smell her desperation, her fear, and yet he could detect her resolve, her inner core of strength. Somehow he knew that she had come to him by choice, even with the fear.
    “Sounds like fun,” Cadoc said, a painfully hopeful note filtering into his voice. It had been some time since he and his guizu , or his nobles, had shared a woman. They had been searching for their Phoenix, the one that would complete their quartet and help them rule the dragonkin. Until they had their Phoenix, no new