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The man pursed his lips for a moment. “Well, the Drahk territory covers most of the old central Midwest states and down to what is left of the top of what isn’t underwater of the old Texas. I fly the route that borders the Lupine.”

“Lupine?” She paused to bring a forkful of veggies to her mouth.

“Wolf-shifters.” Chumana clarified. “The Ursine bears are on the other side of them meeting the new West coastline.”

Old Texas, new West coastline... Avalore’s brows dipped. She saw the picture of the country map she’d been taught in the learning center during geography and rectified it with what the Drahk were saying. It didn’t make sense.

Avalore set her fork down. Her appetite stalled for the moment. “But—but, we were taught about the fifty states. And how vast the country was before the people had to go underground.”

The redhead leaned in, not touching her, but close enough for her to get his intent. “Some things are better seen than explained. Say the word if you want my dragon to take you flying.”

“She’s Liekki’s...” Chumana warned but didn’t stop eating to try and halt the red man’s attention.

“I’m no one’s. I’m a grown woman and make my own choices,” Avalore growled. She was tired of being told that some big beast of a man had some authority over her.

He inhaled slowly, and she knew he was smelling her. Then, the man winked at Avalore. “Well, until he claims you, Avalore, you are free to take your pleasure where you see fit.”

She didn't plan to choose the handsome, bold shifter before her. He was attractive but didn’t cause her heart to race or her thighs to ache like—

Nope . Not going there.

“Back the fuck away, Brantley!” A growl erupted through the large room.

Maybe Brantley had an enemy here . Avalore thought as she turned and saw Liekki stalking from the entrance toward them, his booted feet pounding like thunder into the stone ground as his long, black hair flowed in the breeze.

His movement made him look like Archangel Michael , ready to defend Heaven’s gate.

Brantley launched up from the table to meet Liekki's barreling form.

Liekki was rounding the long tables, stride after stride, headed for them.

Avalore was surprised Liekki didn’t flip each steel table as he passed them, littering the floor in his wake.

The redhead wasn’t as broad or tall as Liekki, but he didn’t back down as he met Liekki's tangerine to crimson flames.

They growled, both their bare torsos and arms illuminated brightly.

“Don’t touch what’s mine, my friend.” Liekki’s voice was too textured and deep. It sounded like someone was pounding boulders against each other. Boom. Boom. Boom.

“The female says she doesn’t belong to you. Since you didn’t see fit to put a claim on her before you let your saucy, sweet-smelling, little human traipse around the territory, by Drahk law, she can fuck whom she desires.

Shooting to her feet, Avalore waved her palms out before her body, attempting to correct the dragon-shifter, Brantley’s, words.

Yes, she was using his flirting to get some answers, but she would not have taken it that far, not even to get out of this land of giant people. “Whoa...I wasn’t going to fu—”

Liekki let out more stone rumbling that seemed to come from some deep cavern in his chest. “What she desires, Smithee, ain’t got shit to do with you.” Liekki stepped closer, practically standing boot toe to boot toe with Brantley, the Blacksmith.

“Is that so—?”

“Hey, dick-swinging men!” She stepped into the narrow space between them.

Her head reached the top of his shoulder while the other she met eye to chest. She craned her neck back to stare into Liekki’s face, hating how much shorter she was than him when he had to be close to seven feet. “I can speak for myself—”

“Little lure, don’t test me further.” Liekki’s hot gaze dropped to her.

Boom. Boom. Boom. This time, the heavy sound she heard was her beating heart as she was caught beneath Liekki’s intense stare.

“Look, I—” her voice cracked. Trying to start again, she licked her lips.

He tracked her tongue.

“Everyone, OUT!” he bellowed. The stone walls shook with such a groan that it was impressive that they didn’t begin to crack and crumble around them.

“Let’s go, Chumana.” Avalore shifted and started to take a step back.

“Not you, little lure.” His voice was low, sensually menacing.

“Um, I will wait for you outside, Avalore,” Chumana rushed on before she dashed out the door with the flow of people like the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea fleeing from Pharoah.

Avalore gritted her teeth. No way was she going to tolerate this bully of a shifter ordering her and people around.

She’d stand up to him, even if no one else was bold enough to put him in his place.

She’d been taking care of herself since she was working at fourteen to help keep food on the table and a roof over her family’s head with her father and stepmother until they wanted her to do the unthinkable for money.

Letting those memories settle back into the recesses of her mind, she focused on the issue before her. Liekki.

Not waiting until the place cleared, she used her pointer and middle finger on her right hand and jabbed them into his chest. “Look here, Liekki—”

Shit . Pain shot up from the tips of her fingers to the joints and traveled up through her arm, making her realize that she should have thought about her move before she made it. Their Great Spirit must have carved him out of granite and lava because the man was hard and hot beneath her touch.

Choking back the pain and blinking away the tears, she continued her rant, “You’re not the Drahks’ Mckenna. So, as I see it, you don’t have any authority to order them or me around.”

Liekki’s scowl deepened as he cocked his head to the side, still holding her gaze.

His finger closed around her two before she’d seen him move.

He squeezed. The man had enough strength to break every bone in her fingers, but his hold was firm but not crushing.

He also didn’t move her fingers from him.

He just held them as if he were trying to keep her from hurting herself or. ..take away her pain.

She knew she wasn’t imagining the heat building in his palm, surrounding her two aching digits.

Instantly, it soothed her, diminishing the throbbing.

A part of her, the self-preservation part, told her to pull her hand away.

However, the part of her body that was allll woman, kept her in place, absorbing his warmth.

“First, Avalore...while my brother is still fucking the stuffing out of his new bride, I am in charge, and every Drahk in our Thunder’s territory knows it.” He moved his hand so that now he was pressing into the back of hers, making it flatten against his chest.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

His heart knocked hard against her palm.

Flummoxed, she stumbled closer.

“As for you, my feisty little lure...”

The ruby flame of a moment ago was smothered, and another color kindled: a flicker of blue. It started cyan, blended with the captivatingly beautiful amethyst of Liekki’s eyes, and quickly shifted to a vivid ultramarine...yet it appeared to darken more with each second.

Avalore couldn’t ignore that the darker his flames turned, the wetter she became.

“...until I say otherwise, you are under my protection and command in this territory.”

“What? I don’t want your protection!” She hissed and snatched her hand away.

His touch was doing too many strange things to her body.

She wasn’t a fool. She understood that her body was responding to the sexy, intense man with one side of his head shaved low and the other side flowing.

His long, raven-black hair dared someone to bury their fingers in it.

She maneuvered around the mind traps where Liekki was concerned.

“There has to be somewhere else in this big-ass territory I can find shelter. Even if I have to get a job to pay for it... I’m sure the Blacksmith can use an assistant.”

What the hell did she say that for? All she did was piss off the massive man.

She didn’t even have time to retract her foolish taunt before Liekki growled and stooped down, then grabbed her by the back of her thighs right under the hem of her short skirt, his fingers curling along the inside of her thighs, too close to her heat, as he then hoisted her up.

The shock had her flailing her hands out and gripping his shoulders. His muscles bunched tight and rigid, impervious to her nails as she dug for purchase.

In three steps, her backside smacked against the steel tabletop when she found herself deposited on the long table they had been eating on moments before.

In one fell swoop of his arm, Liekki cleared the table, sending platters, plates, and bowls sailing and crashing to the floor.

She screeched at the violence of his actions. The man was unhinged. She needed to get away from him. She began to scoot back, but he gripped the side of her thighs and hauled her forward.

His face was a mask of fury, and there was a savagery to him.

However, as she stared into his face where she expected to see crimson flare swallowing his violet irises, she saw sapphire, the same color that began to bleed through the markings on his arms, chest, and down his torso to disappear into his dark pants.

The bright coloring made the sharp edges of his lower abdomen chiseled into a more pronounced V.

The urge to trace her fingers over the taut muscles caused her to curl them into her palm.

“You want to play with fire, little lure? I’ll show you just how hot I can burn.”

Fire. Burn . She glanced up and met his gaze.

She wanted to shake her head and tell him no, she didn’t want to burn, but her body was already caught in a blaze—a blaze of lust. Her throbbing sex dampened, and she could not hide the two distinct points of her nipples pushing into the material of the shirt.

“Liekki...”