Page 18 of Tempting Her Grumpy Protector (Kindred Tales Spicy Shorts #7)

GREER

Greer was deep asleep, sprawled across the ridiculously high bed, one arm flung over his eyes.

He’d been doing his best not to think about Sunny before he drifted off, but now his dreams were full of her—her soft curves under his hands, the way her nipples had tightened when he’d washed her in that cold tub, the sound she’d made when he’d cupped her sweet little pussy and slipped his finger into her slit to stroke her Goddess pearl…

He shifted, trying to get comfortable, when suddenly?—

“Greer.”

The whisper was faint, threadlike, brushing against his mind like a dream. He frowned in his sleep, not moving.

“Greer, please… I need you.”

His breath caught in his throat. That sounded like Sunny . But it couldn’t be—he was asleep and she was in the hut, wasn’t she? Probably curled up under the thin leaf blanket, still annoyed with him.

He rolled onto his back, closing his eyes tighter as he pushed the dream away. He needed to rest. Needed to stop thinking about her mouth, her scent, the way she’d?—

“GET UP , WARRIOR !”

The female voice boomed in his skull, cutting clean through the haze of sleep. There was no mistaking who it was.

Greer sat bolt upright, blinking.

“Goddess?” he gasped hoarsely.

“Your woman calls for you—she is in peril!”

The cold weight of fear dropped straight into his gut. So it hadn’t been a dream, after all. Sunny really did need him!

“Where?” he asked desperately. “ Please , Goddess —tell me where she is and I’ll go save her!”

“Follow the sound of her mind-voice. She is still calling, though it may be faint. Hurry , Warrior —she doesn’t have much time!”

Greer didn’t waste another second. Still in his sleep trousers, he vaulted down from the high bed, landed in a crouch, then sprinted for the door. He shoved it open, the humid night air slapping his bare chest, and focused—searching for that faint pull at the back of his mind.

There.

“Greer… Greer …”

Sunny’s desperate call was weak—it was like a trail of heat, drawing him between the shadowed huts, deeper into the village. He followed it at a dead run, the pounding of his heart louder than the distant drums.

At last he reached the Communal hut…and then he saw her—held by a tall Thropp’ian woman at the edge of the gathering, Chief Lowhung was looming far too close, a satisfied grin on his triple-eyed face.

“Come, my lovely one,” he was saying, as he took Sunny’s arm and began leading her away. “ We will go into my hut and make the music of Mating together. Then you may stay with me as one of my Bound wives all your days.”

“N…no, please. Don’t want…can’t…do that.” Sunny’s cheeks were flushed, her pupils blown wide, and she was swaying on her feet. Clearly she’d been drugged, though he had no idea with what.

A bloody red curtain of Rage dropped over his vision and Greer’s fangs grew long and sharp. His woman was in trouble—the bastard was trying to take advantage of her! He’d drugged her and now he was going to rape her.

No, he’s fucking not! She’s MINE !

And he would kill if he had to, to get her back.