Zane Read online

  He moaned as her hand slid up and down along his length. Sticky pre-come oozed from the little slit on the top of his thick head, and Gwen licked her lips as she brought it to her mouth.

  She puckered her lips around it, licking up every last drop with her tongue. Zane was already breathing heavily as he tucked her brown hair behind her ear, watching her every movement closely.

  “Your lips feel like heaven,” he moaned as she opened her mouth further and took him in deeper.

  His cock felt like heaven. She would have told him too, but she was too busy swirling her tongue around his shaft as she dipped her head forward, sucking him harder and harder.

  Having him in her mouth felt so good that she lost all concept of space and time. She got lost in the moment, and it was over too soon. His big dick began to pulse in her mouth, and his hands tightened their grip in her hair, signaling that he was about to come.

  “Oh, Gwen,” he grunted as his arms and chest flexed. “Oh, fuck.”

  She desperately wanted to feel the warmth of his seed in her mouth, so she sucked him so hard that her cheeks hollowed.

  “I’m going to come,” he moaned as his body shook. Gwen’s pussy clenched as she took him deep in her mouth, moaning hard as he shot a warm load of come into her hungry mouth.

  She slowly stroked his thick cock as his jaw clenched and he grunted savagely. “Mmmm,” she moaned as she drank his seed down.

  Gwen had always wanted this, she just never wanted to admit it to herself. Until now. Zane was hers and she was his. They could do this all day and all night if they wanted to, and it seemed like they both did.

  “On your knees,” Zane grunted, staring at her with a fire in his eyes. “Put that curvy ass in the air for me.”

  He had just come, but his dick was still rock-hard. Most guys needed a long intermission or a nap after coming, but he was already ready to go. Maybe bear shifters are different. Lucky me.

  Gwen’s heart was pounding as she climbed onto her hands and knees, thrusting her ass in the air for him.

  “Fuck, that’s a beautiful sight,” he said before leaning down and giving her warm pussy a long slow lick.

  She giggled as he climbed onto her bed with his fist pumping up and down on his enormous cock. The giggles didn’t last long.

  “Oh, God,” she moaned, as he dragged the thick tip of his cock up her folds, and then slowly slid it into her tight hole.

  They had done this before, but she was still shocked at the size of him. She grabbed onto the headboard as his powerful hips drove forward, stretching and filling her with his massive cock.

  He gripped her round ass cheeks, squeezing them as he thrust in and out of her, making her scream out his name.

  Zane hit her with deep strong strokes, increasing the pace with every thrust until they were both sweating, crying out, and crashing over the edge together.

  They both came hard, melding as one as their thunderous orgasms slammed into their exhausted bodies, sending them spiraling into paradise.

  Gwen smiled as they collapsed onto the bed. Zane pulled her into his embrace as the rush of heated pleasure slowly dissipated throughout her body.

  She felt so tiny in his huge arms. She had never felt so safe and protected—so loved and cherished.

  This was the beginning of something great.

  She never would have guessed that her neighbor from hell would make her feel like she was in heaven. She smiled as she pulled his big arm closer, hugging it tightly.

  Gwen had never felt so happy to have been wrong.

  “So, how many bear shifters are there?” Gwen asked as she laid in bed with Zane the next morning. They had just finished a passionate round of lovemaking and were still lying in bed talking.

  “I don’t know,” Zane said with a shrug of his round shoulders. “I don’t think anyone knows that. We’re pretty good at hiding it.”

  “You can say that again,” Gwen said with a chuckle. “I was living next to one for a year and a half, and didn’t even know it.”

  “You were living next to five,” he corrected.

  “What?!?” Gwen answered as she jerked up to a sitting position. The blanket tumbled down her naked breasts, and Zane licked his lips as his gaze fell down to them. “The other guys too?”

  “Yup,” he said with a nod.

  “Even Axel?”

  “Even Axel. He’s hiding a polar bear inside him.”

  “What?” she asked, squeezing her eyes shut. It was a lot to take in. She was still getting used to the fact that Zane could transform into a bear, let alone all of the other firefighters.

  “It’s true,” Zane said. “Jax and Gunner are lion shifters. And Draven is a dragon shifter.”

  “A dragon shifter?!?” she said, staring at him in disbelief. “You’re shitting me.”

  He laughed. “You saw one last night. Why is that so hard to believe?”

  “Uh, maybe because I’ve talked to him every day for the past year, and I’ve never noticed.”

  “Well, he is,” Zane said with a chuckle. “Colwood is full of them.”

  “Who else?” Zane had opened a whole new world to her, and she desperately wanted to know all about it.

  “You know, Rory? The guy who’s always at your shop?”

  Of course, Gwen knew Rory. He came in to buy about four buttermilk chocolate chip muffins almost every day.

  “He’s a wolf shifter.”

  Gwen shook her head as she stared at him with wide eyes. “You’re blowing my mind right now.”

  “Come here,” he said as he grabbed her and pulled her close to his muscular body, “and I’ll really blow your mind.”

  “Not yet,” she said, laughing as she placed a palm on his massive chest and tried to push him away. He didn’t budge. “I need a break. I’m not a shifter. I can’t keep up.”

  He laughed as he released her and laid back down on his pillow. “We have to build up your stamina.”

  “So, when do I get to see him again?” Gwen asked as she laid her cheek down on Zane’s chest. She listened to his heart beating as she traced the outline of his thick abs with her finger.

  “Who, Rory?” he asked. “He’ll probably be here looking for his muffins any minute.”

  “Not Rory,” she said with a laugh. “He’ll have to wait until I can buy another oven. I’m talking about your bear. I want to see him again.”

  Zane smiled. “You can see him whenever you want.”

  “Now?” she asked, climbing up to an elbow.

  “Not unless you want your bedroom trashed,” he answered with a laugh. “He’s not very graceful in small quarters. Maybe this afternoon.”

  Gwen smiled as she rested her cheek down on his chest. “I want to do something nice for him.”

  “Like what?” Zane asked as he threaded his fingers through her hair.

  “What do bears like to eat?”

  “His favorite is salmon and elk.”

  Gwen had an idea. “Do bears really like honey or is that just in Winnie the Pooh?”

  “Not just in Winnie the Pooh,” he said with a laugh. “They love honey.”

  She bit her bottom lip as she thought about it. “I still need an oven.” And she didn’t have any money.

  Although, she did have an idea.

  She sat up in bed and grinned at her new man. “I have to go see someone.”

  “You’re sure you’re okay with this?” Gwen asked as she counted the crisp one-hundred dollar bills. There were thirty of them. Three-thousand dollars, just the amount she needed for a brand new oven.

  “Of course,” Rory answered, already licking his lips. “You know I can’t live without my buttermilk chocolate chip muffins.”

  She laughed as she looked at the wannabe cowboy. He had just given her three-thousand dollars in cash as a down payment on fifteen-hundred buttermilk chocolate chip muffins.

  “How long is it going to take you to go through that many muffins?” she asked as they left the bank.


  He tilted his cowboy hat as he looked up at the sky. “I’m guessing about a month.”

  Gwen laughed. She glanced down at his chest, wondering if there really was a wolf hiding inside him. She was still having a hard time getting used to that thought.

  “So, you’ll be back open tomorrow?” Rory asked. “I need my fix.”

  “Bright and early tomorrow morning,” she promised. “I’m going to buy my new oven now, thanks to you, and then I’ll get back to work.”

  “All right,” Rory said with a tip of his cowboy hat. “I’ll be there the second you open.”

  She had no doubt he would.

  They said their goodbyes, and Gwen hurried back to her van to drive to the store. She was excited to get the oven and try out her new idea.

  It just might be the new thing she was looking for. The thing that would have everyone in the town racing to her muffin shop, desperately trying to throw money at her.

  It might be crazy enough to work.

  But first, she had to go buy a new oven.

  Chapter 10

  Zane

  “A gray dragon?” Draven said, listening carefully. “It must have been my half-brother Jarin.”

  Zane was sitting around the kitchen table in the firehouse with Draven, Jax, Gunner, and Axel. He was telling them what had happened the night before in the forest.

  “He wants you to return home,” Zane said, watching his alpha closely. “He said they were going to bring humanity back into the shadows of time, and that you should be leading them. What does that mean?”

  Draven took a deep breath as he stared down at the table, thinking long and hard before answering. “It means that I have to stop running from my past.”

  “He called you Dravenous,” Zane said. “Is that your real name?”

  Draven nodded. “I blend in better with Draven.”

  “Also, Dravenous sounds like anus,” Axel pointed out.

  Draven just shook his head at him.

  Jax slammed his fist into his palm as he looked around the table. “If these dragon shifters are threatening our alpha, I say we go over there and snuff them out.”

  Zane’s stomach dropped as he thought back to Jarin’s staggering power. He could still feel the crushing force of the dragon shifter’s fist when it smashed into his face. He had never felt anything even close to that before. One devastating punch and he had been completely immobilized. And Draven had three more half-brothers. How were they supposed to stop all four of them if they could do that kind of damage with one punch?

  “It’s not that easy,” Draven said with a sigh. “Two of my four half-brothers, Jarin and Valerius, are mated dragons.”

  “So?” Jax asked with a shrug. “Are you afraid their mates will hit us with their purses?”

  Draven took a deep breath before explaining. “A dragon shifter’s core ignites when they bond with their mate, and their true powers are released.”

  “What kind of powers?” Zane asked, trying not to gulp.

  “Every dragon shifter has a unique ability hiding inside their core,” Draven explained. “My brother Jarin, who Zane encountered last night, is incredibly fast. He can cross the ocean by the time it takes Gunner to get a manicure.”

  Gunner looked impressed. He also looked down at his fingernails to see if he was due for one. The lion shifter was obsessed with his nails. He was always going for manicures and obsessively trimming his fingernails and toes. Zane often wondered if it was a lion shifter thing.

  “My other brother Valerius is an ice dragon,” Draven continued. “His core froze when he found his mate, and he can spew out blue fire that turns anything it touches into ice.”

  Axel was staring at him in shock. “So, if you find a mate you’ll get a cool superpower too?”

  “Theoretically,” Draven answered, rubbing his fiery beard.

  “Shit, Draven,” Axel said as he pulled out his cellphone. “We have to get you on Tinder.”

  “It’s been centuries and I haven’t found her,” he said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t count on finding her now if I were you.”

  Axel snapped a picture of him anyway and started thumbing around on his phone.

  “What are you doing?” Draven asked, glaring at him.

  “How do you spell Drav-anus?” Axel asked right before his alpha slapped the phone out of his hands.

  “I’m a little bit lost,” Gunner said, raising his hand. “Can you start at the beginning?”

  They all listened closely as Draven explained how his family was one of the great dragon houses who ruled in Medieval Europe, and how his father King Artorius was one of the old dragon kings.

  “I didn’t read that in my grade ten history class,” Axel said, looking at him funny.

  Jax laughed. “That’s because you were too busy jerking off to the bra section of the Sears catalog.”

  “Who do you think hired the writers of history?” Draven asked with a raised eyebrow. “History is written by the winners.’

  “My father was a great king,” he went on. “He’s known in literature as King Arthur.”

  “Like King Arthur from the Knights of the Round Table?” Zane asked, staring at him in shock.

  “Dragons of the Round Table,” Draven corrected. “But there was never any round table. I don’t know where that came from. My father always needed to sit at the head.”

  Draven explained how his father was a womanizer and gave birth to five sons and one daughter with six different women. Draven’s mother was the Queen, which made him the legitimate heir to the throne.

  “When my father was killed,” Draven explained, “my four half-brothers and my half-sister turned on me. They tried to kill me, but I managed to escape. I flew my dragon across the ocean to America and never returned.”

  “You flew across the ocean?” Gunner asked, staring at him in disbelief. “Did they not accept your frequent flyer miles?”

  “There were no frequent flyer miles back then,” he said. “There was hardly even an America. I landed in Ellis Island, changed my name to Daniel Boone and made my way to the west coast.”

  “You were Daniel Boone?” Gunner asked, staring at him in shock.

  “That was a long time ago,” Draven said with a shrug. He looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. “Why are they coming back now? I don’t get it.”

  “And how did they find you?” Axel asked.

  “They probably found my name listed as the owner of my cottage,” he said, running a hand through his red hair. “They may have this address too.”

  The five shifters looked around nervously, but there were no dragons swooping in to attack. It was just a regular sunny morning in Colwood, Montana.

  After warning everybody to stay vigilant, Draven turned to Zane with a knowing grin. “How was the rest of your date?”

  “Pretty amazing,” he said with a wide smile. That was a huge understatement. “I bonded to her.”

  The four guys exploded out of their seats, slapping his back and giving him congratulatory hugs.

  “I’m so happy for you, bro,” Axel said, squeezing him hard. “Does she have a sister for me?”

  Zane laughed as Jax pulled him in for a hug. “I’m glad you’re finally getting a chance to start a family,” he said. “If anyone deserves it, it’s you.”

  “Thanks, Jax,” Zane answered, “but you’ve always been enough family for me.”

  “A real family,” Jax said with a nod. “Just, please, don’t have any fucking kids.”

  “What the hell is that?” Zane asked, staring at the monstrous muffin in shock. His mate was smiling widely as she struggled to hold the large platter with the enormous muffin on it. It was bigger than her head.

  Gwen placed the platter on the table in front of him, and then stepped back, standing proudly with her chin in the air.

  “That is for your bear,” she said with a grin. She was watching his face to see his reaction.

  “Is that… salmon?” he asked as he turne
d back to the muffin. There were large pink chunks of salmon sticking out of it, and big bits of… “Is that elk?” he asked as his mouth started watering.

  “It sure is,” Gwen said, hurrying back to the counter. She grabbed a big jar and hurried back. “I wanted to make a treat for your bear. Do you think he will like it?”

  “I don’t think he’s going to have a chance to try it,” Zane said as his stomach grumbled. He lowered his nose and took a long sniff of the delicious-looking muffin. “I want to eat it.”

  “Wait,” Gwen said. She opened the jar and poured sticky golden honey all over it.

  Zane’s bear whined and grumbled within his chest, wanting to get out and devour the snack made for him, but Zane wasn’t about to let it go without a fight. It looked too good to give up, even to his bear.

  “Can I try it?” he asked, looking up at her with hopeful eyes.

  “It’s for your bear,” Gwen complained.

  “He won’t mind,” Zane lied.

  She didn’t look too convinced. “Fine,” she said with a laugh. “Eat it. I’ll make him another one, but you have to promise to give it to him, and not eat it yourself.”

  “I promise nothing,” Zane said, licking his lips as he stuck his finger in the fresh honey. He hadn’t even tried it and it was already making him salivate.

  Gwen watched on proudly as he picked it up with two hands and took a large bite. It was like the inside of his mouth was having an orgasm. It was the best thing he’d ever eaten in his entire life.

  “And?” she asked as he stuffed another mouthful into his mouth. It was too good to stop and compliment her. It was too good to stop and breathe.

  “Fahcking fontostick,” he said with his mouthful. It had all of his favorite things: salmon, elk, muffin, and honey. What was not to like?

  Gwen clasped her hands as she jumped up and down. “Great!” she said, smiling so hard that her cheeks turned red. “I’m thinking of selling them in the shop. Do you think the bear shifters in town will buy them?”

  “I think you’re going to be a millionaire by the end of the weekend,” he said before stuffing as much of the muffin as he could back into his mouth.