Free A Dragon for December (Wiccan-Were-Bear Book 11) by R. E. Butler

approximately a
foot and stop. A thick mist rolled from the tubes, and Deci
shielded her eyes, ducking her head as the mist settled around her.
It soaked into her skin and made her flesh goosebump. It smelled
like lavender, but underneath the cloying scent was a deeper
chemical stench. Her stomach rolled, and she fought nausea.
    Her fingertips tingled, and then an almost
soothing warmth spread up her arms. It felt as if someone caressed
her skin. She shivered and rubbed at her arms where the mist had
soaked into her skin. She still couldn’t feel her bear or her
connection to Tosh, but suddenly she couldn’t think about anything
else except how warm she felt. Her skin tingled pleasantly and a
wave of warmth spread over her. She went to her knees and settled
back on her heels, rubbing her palm across her collarbone. Her
pulse thundered under her fingertips as she stroked her throat.
    She knew she should be worried about the
chains that rattled every time she moved, but she wasn’t. The door
opened with a soft whooshing sound, and Deci opened her eyes,
finding her vision a little blurred around the edges. Two naked
males were pushed into the room by the guards she’d seen earlier.
They fell to the floor with grunts of pain as the door shut,
locking them inside the room with her. Her brows rose as she
watched them roll to their knees. They were well-built males, but
had clearly been mistreated – their hair was long and shaggy, their
faces bushy with untrimmed beards. While they were muscular, they
seemed far thinner than they should be.
    She scented the air, but all she could smell
was the lavender chemical scent. Opening her mouth to ask them who
they were, she felt a wave of pleasure pass over her. It started in
the center of her body and spread swiftly, making her skin tingle
and her stomach clench. She gasped and fell forward, catching
herself with one hand as she pressed her other palm into her
abdomen. She heard soft growls and lifted her head to see the two
males crouching near her, their eyes the amber of their beasts and
their fangs elongated in their parted mouths.
    Tosh’s name flitted through her mind, and she
scrambled back as far as the chains would allow. Finding her voice,
she said loudly, “I don’t know who you are, but I’m mated to a
dragon, and you need to keep yourselves far away from me.”
    “You smell good,” the dark-haired male said
with a growl.
    Anger roiled through her, and clarity burst
through the haze in her mind. She looked up at the ceiling where
the black tubes were still visible. “They drugged me. I don’t smell
good for anyone but my mate.”
    The lighter-haired male tilted his head
slowly, his eyes shifting between amber and blue. He put one hand
on the dark-haired male and shook his head. “She’s not ours.”
    “I don’t care. She smells good and ripe,” the
dark-haired male said as he loudly scented the air.
    “Oh gross,” Deci said, shivering in disgust.
“You didn’t just call me ripe.”
    She looked around the room, pushing past the
strange, warm feeling she had and found what looked like a tiny
camera in one corner by the ceiling. Staring at it, she said, “You
need to let me go now before my mate comes here and destroys
you.”
    A crackling sound was followed by a tinny
laugh as the scientist’s voice came over a speaker. “You’re not in
any position to make demands. Your mate is far from here,
completely clueless as to what happened to you. When he fails to
produce you for the ceremony at sunset, Yuon will take his rightful
place as king. Not that it matters to you.”
    “Tosh won’t stop until he finds me,” Deci
said, wrapping her hands around the chains and tugging with all her
strength.
    “He won’t find you.” He snorted. “You
shifters think you’re the be-all and end-all of the evolutionary
scale. I hate to break it to you, but we’re not even in the same
state as the dragon nest and we’re underground. In a few hours,
Yuon will be king,