Soul Scorched by Donna Grant
To Casey Rogers –
Wonderful person and cherished friend,
I’m very thankful to have you in my life.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Words can never express how much I love working with my extraordinary editor, Monique Patterson. I love our partnership!
To Alex, Erin, Amy, the truly amazing art department, marketing and everyone at SMP who was involved in getting this book ready. Y’all rock!
To my agent, Natanya Wheeler, thank you for falling so hard for my dragons!
A special thanks to my family for the never-ending support.
CHAPTER
ONE
Dreagan Industries
October
Warrick reclined in the overstuffed chair, his feet propped on the stool before him as he randomly looked through Facebook pages, Twitter posts, and Instagram pictures.
He was constantly amazed at the brilliant and idiotic things humans imparted about their lives. For some reason, the mortals truly believed everyone wanted to know every detail of their lives like when they got up and what food they chose to eat.
Warrick didn’t understand this need humans felt to convey such mundane intricacies. Nor could he fathom why he looked at their posts almost every day.
He clicked on a link that took him to YouTube where he watched a video of a kitten attempting to jump from a table to the windowsill, only to miss by several inches and falling.
To his horror, he watched it three times—smiling each time.
There was a kind of lull at Dreagan, and had been for a few weeks. It began once Rhys broke the spell preventing him from shifting into dragon form. It was their true form, and it had been the worst sort of hell for his friend.
Rhys also found love in the arms of Lily, a human. But he wasn’t the only Dragon King to do so. Hal, Guy, Banan, Kellan, Tristan, and Laith had also fallen in love with mortals. Kiril was the only one among them to choose a Fae as his mate.
Thinking of the Fae turned Warrick’s thoughts to Rhi, the Light Fae who had loved—and lost—a Dragon King. No matter what Rhi said, the Kings knew she still carried love in her heart for her King.
If only the bastard would realize what he was missing and take Rhi for his own once again. The Light Fae had helped the Kings more than any other ally they had. And since the Dragon Kings were the strongest beings on this realm, they had few allies.
Warrick went to Rhi’s Facebook page—The Real Rhi. He chuckled when he saw yet another picture of her nails. She loved nail art, and she was constantly having her nails painted, changing the colors almost daily.
This photo was of her nails done in racing stripes using OPI’s Ford Mustang colors. He laughed at the color names that Rhi always mentioned. The base of her nails was a hot pepper red named Race Red, and the two white stripes running down her nails was called Angel with a Lead Foot.
Rhi never posted a picture of her face. She, like most Fae, was fascinated by the humans. Both the Light and Dark Fae craved being around them. Where the Light would have sex with them once only, the Dark would kidnap mortals and use them until they drained them of their souls, making the humans dependent on sex with the Dark just to stay alive.
It was one of the many reasons the Dragon Kings had gone to war with the Fae. That war lasted for countless decades with the Dragon Kings finally winning. For all of that, it looked as if they were about to go back to war with the Dark Fae.
At least this time the Light Fae were on the side of the Kings.
Warrick didn’t want to go back to war, but there was no denying it now. Not after all the Dark had done to the Kings and humans. Then there was the matter of Ulrik.
He was a King, or he had been. Everything had changed in one day, shattering the peaceful world they had lived in with the mortals. All because Ulrik’s human lover tried to betray him.
To this day Warrick didn’t know how Constantine had discovered what the female had tried to do, but then again, the King of Kings had his ways of gaining information. It was lucky Con learned of her treachery before she could put her plan into action.
Warrick had never questioned any of Con’s decisions. When the King of Kings sent Ulrik on a mission and called the rest of them to find the human, Warrick was one of the first to Con’s side.
He was also one of the first to thrust his sword into the mortal. It’s what she deserved for even thinking of betraying Ulrik. Ulrik hadn’t just sheltered her, clothed her, fed her, and loved her. He was going to bind himself to her, which would have ensured she become immortal and live as long as he did.
The Kings were doing Ulrik a favor in taking the mortal’s life. Or so Warrick thought until Ulrik returned. To this day, thousands of years later, Warrick still wasn’t sure if Ulrik was angrier at them for killing his woman, or Con for going behind his back.