Sea Dragon's Hunger: BAD Alpha Dads (The Fada Shapeshifter Series) Read online

  Sea Dragon’s Hunger

  BAD Alpha Dads: A Fada Shapeshifter Story

  Rebecca Rivard

  Wild Hearts Press

  Contents

  The Fade Shapeshifter Series

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Also by Rebecca Rivard

  About the Author

  The Fade Shapeshifter Series

  Prepare to be ensnared…

  The fada.

  Shapeshifters created during Dionysus’s infamous bacchanals from a mix of fae, human and animal genes.

  They’re ruthless, untamed—and when they love, it’s forever.

  The Rock Run River Fada (a clan of river-based shifters)

  Stealing Ula: A Fada Shapeshifter Prequel (Book 0.5—Nisio & Ula’s story, set in the Shannon Sea Fada world)

  Seducing the Sun Fae: A Fada Novel, Book 1 (Dion & Cleia’s story)

  Claiming Valeria: A Fada Novel, Book 2 (Rui & Valeria’s story)

  Tempting the Dryad: A Fada Novel, Book 3 (Tiago & Alesia’s story)

  The Baltimore Earth Fada (a clan of land-based shifters)

  Saving Jace: A Fada Novel, Book 4 (Jace & Evie’s story)

  Coming soon: Books 5 & 6—Marjani and Adric’s stories!

  Fada Shapeshifter Short Reads

  Lir’s Lady: A Fada Shapeshifter Story (Book 3.5—Lir & Isleen’s story, set in the Shannon Sea Fada world)

  Shifter’s Valentine: A Fada Shapeshifter Story (Book 3.6—Jenny & Chico’s story, set in the Rock Run River Fada world)—available soon

  Sea Dragon’s Hunger: A Fada Shapeshifter Story (Book 4.5—Cassidy & Nic’s story, set in the Shannon Sea Fada/Rock Run River Fada worlds)

  To stay informed and be eligible for special giveaways and sneak peeks of upcoming novels, sign up for my newsletter. http://www.subscribepage.com/i6x3j1

  1

  They were closing in.

  Cassidy’s entire body prickled with awareness. She dragged a hand over her cropped hair and stared out the grimy window as if she could somehow see them coming.

  A small hand touched her leg. “What’s wrong, Mam?”

  “Nothing for you to worry about, love.” Cassidy swung Rianna into her arms and planted a kiss on her worried little face. “How about a swim?”

  At three, her daughter was still easy to distract. “Yes!” She pumped a fist.

  Setting her down, Cassidy moved swiftly around the room, stuffing clothes and other necessary items into a waterproof rucksack. She’d have to leave whatever didn’t fit behind at the motel, but there was pitifully little, anyway. She and Rianna had been on the run for three weeks, crossing the Atlantic from Ireland and then zigzagging across America from Maryland to California.

  Making their way toward Nic.

  She scowled, because she’d sworn she’d never ask him for anything, but she had no choice. Besides, Nic owed her, damn it. Big time.

  She unconsciously rubbed the scab on her right calf. The center was a starburst with lines snaking around her leg.

  “Let’s go.” She pulled on the rucksack and took Rianna’s hand.

  The motel was a half mile from the Pacific. The two of them trotted down the narrow road toward the beach. A human child wouldn’t have been able to keep up, but Rianna had a shifter’s strength. She ran alongside Cassidy, her sturdy little legs pumping. When her energy flagged, Cassidy swung her into her arms and continued jogging.

  Her injured calf started to burn, but she ignored it as the sense of impending doom increased. Her heart pounded in her ears.

  Hurry, hurry, hurry…

  She drew a sobbing breath and picked up speed. Their pursuers were closer than she’d realized. Her every instinct told her she didn’t have much time. She raced down the road and darted across the Pacific Coast Highway.

  Above them, heavy gray clouds rolled in—a storm was on its way. On the TV in their room, the forecast had been for a near-typhoon. Between that and the fact that it was Thanksgiving Day—a big American holiday, apparently—she and Rianna had the beach to themselves.

  Cassidy halted on the edge of the sand, her breath scraping in and out of her lungs. But there was no time to rest. Setting Rianna down, she shrugged out of the rucksack and pulled off first Rianna’s clothes, and then her own. She shoved everything into the pack and sealed it back up.

  She donned the rucksack again, and crouched down, her back to Rianna. “Climb aboard.”

  The little girl wriggled into the special straps Cassidy had sewn onto the rucksack for her. “All set?” Cassidy asked.

  “Yep.” Small arms wrapped around Cassidy’s neck as she rose to her feet.

  Hurry, hurry, hurry…

  A jeep screeched to a halt on the side of the highway.

  Cassidy sprinted into the ocean. Icy water slapped her naked legs.

  “Stop them!” someone shouted. A bullet pinged into the surf to their right.

  Rianna flinched and whimpered. A blinding rage gripped Cassidy. She knew it was only a warning shot—they wanted Rianna too bad to shoot directly at her.

  But bullets could go astray, and even if they didn’t, they’d scared her baby. At that moment, if the bloody arse with the gun had been any closer, Cassidy would’ve ripped his throat out.

  At least it wasn’t a fae ball. They’d hit her with one of those in Ireland; Cassidy still bore the mark on her right calf. Normally fada shapeshifters healed quickly, but the fae ball had left an angry scab that still hadn’t healed.

  A chill blue wave towered above them.

  “Take a breath,” Cassidy shouted to Rianna—and dove into the wave’s center.

  2

  Nicolau do Rio gazed out at the ocean from the sea caves he called home.

  The Pacific was in a wild mood this afternoon. A storm was blowing in from the west, whipping the waves to an icy froth. It called to his animal. Nic dropped his head back and howled, long and mournful, letting the power of the coming storm wash over him.

  Behind him, his motley crew played cards in the high-ceilinged cavern they used as a combination kitchen/dining hall. All three men rejects—like Nic.

  Marlin and Joe were both water fada like Nic, Marlin’s animal the blue marlin that was his namesake, and Joe a mako shark. The third man was Ben, a burly Navajo earth fada whose animal was a cougar.

  Marlin appeared at Nic’s side. “Going for a swim?”

  “Thinking about it.”

  Marlin nodded. Tanned and wiry, with dreadlocks halfway down his back, he’d grown up in a California sea fada clan, but had been eking out a living as a Ventura bartender when they’d met. Marlin hadn’t told Nic why he’d been kicked out of his clan, and Nic hadn’t asked.

  A week later, he’d arrived in a kayak at Nic’s hideaway on an uninhabited island off the California coast.

  Nic had snarled threateningly. Marlin just laughed and spread his arms wide. “Kill me, then. What do I fucking care? I’m tired of living with humans.”

  Nic had stared at him, baffled. Then he’d turned
back to the fire where he was roasting fish. “You have to catch your own damn fish,” he said in a voice rusty from disuse. “I’m not sharing.”

  Marlin had dragged his kayak onto the cavern floor and unloaded his belongings into one of the half-dozen caves that honeycombed the island. By then, the tide had come in, and the entrance was underwater. Marlin dove into the ocean, returning a half an hour later with four spiny lobsters.

  He roasted them in the fire and cracked open a bottle of red wine. “Here.” He handed Nic a metal cup and a lobster.

  Nic had taken it with a curt nod of thanks.

  The wine slid down his throat, reminding him of home. In Maryland, his clan—the Rock Run River Fada—owned a large, successful vineyard. And the lobsters were a welcome change from the fish.

  Despite what he’d said about sharing, Nic had reciprocated by cracking open a can of corn and another of black beans. Mixed with onions and chili peppers, they made a tasty side dish.

  The two of them had been friends ever since. If Nic was the alpha, Marlin would be his second.

  But Nic wasn’t the alpha. He didn’t even have a clan, just three men who were outcasts like himself.

  Outside the caverns, the wind rose to a howl. Marlin stirred. “This is going to be a big one.”

  “Yeah.” Nic’s grin was ferocious.

  “But you’re going out into it anyway.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Have I told you you’re one crazy amigo?”

  “Not today.”

  “Enjoy.” Marlin clapped him on the back. “I’m going to win the rest of Joe’s cash.”

  “You can try, mofo,” the shark shifter called back. Joe was a lean, mean, ukulele-playing sea fada from Hawaii whom Nic had met when they were both in the Merchant Marines. Joe had shown up on the island one day not long after Marlin. Joe’s only explanation was that he’d tired of the human world, but his scarred body told a different story. Nic suspected that after the Merchant Marines, he’d become a freelance assassin. Those scars could only have been left by iron knives, and fada frequently hired themselves out as assassins and mercenaries to the fae.

  And then there was Ben Nightwarrior. Nic wasn’t sure how or why a desert-born half-Navajo shifter had ended up on the island, but he suspected he’d lost a dominance fight and left his clan. The big, soft-spoken man was a world-class cook, and so was welcome to stay as long as he wanted.

  Nic stepped out of his shorts and stowed them on one of the shelves carved out of the walls for that purpose.

  All day he’d been restless. He’d blamed it on the coming storm, but it was growing worse. His Irish mother had been a powerful Seer. Nic couldn’t see the future like his mom, but he’d learned to trust his premonitions.

  Trouble was on the way.

  He dove into the water. The tide was low enough that he could stay on the surface as he passed under the archway to the open sea.

  Out here, the ocean was a seething mass. A wave crashed over Nic’s head. Even in his man form, he could hold his breath much longer than a human.

  But his animal wanted out.

  Nic dove deep and let the shift take him. Energy rippled over his skin. For a few seconds, his body was a cluster of incandescent lights—blue, purple, green—then it shaped itself into the powerful body of his sea dragon.

  Nic arced in and out of the waves, reveling in the slide of salt water over his skin. He had rudimentary wings and could fly in short spurts, but the ocean was his element.

  A school of common dolphins scattered at his approach, chittering anxiously to each other. In this form, Nic measured twenty-five feet from nose to tail, and he had the teeth and claws to match.

  Nic ignored them. He might be a half-savage dragon, but he drew the line at eating something as intelligent as him.

  In the sky above, lightning flashed, followed by a crash of thunder. Rain slashed down, pelting his dark gold hide.

  He dove beneath the waves. The ocean here reached depths as much as eight hundred feet, but he stopped a couple hundred feet down. Above him, the storm still raged, but this deep, the sound was muted, the black waters calm.

  He glided through the midnight liquid, the premonition riding him like an itch that couldn’t be scratched, teasing at a part of him buried so deep, he could go weeks without thinking about it.

  Trouble.

  Cassidy O’Byrne.

  Pain sliced through him, fresh as the day he’d left Ireland—and her. He gritted his teeth and bore it.

  Then his spine prickled. His dragon was racing for the surface before his mind caught up.

  Cassidy was here—and she was in danger.

  3

  Cassidy knew where Nic was. She’d always known where he was—approximately, anyway.

  The two of them shared a bond, even if Nic had blocked it from his side.

  As she dove beneath the waves, she shifted to her bottlenose dolphin. The shift took longer than it should have, but she was exhausted from the last few weeks on the run. On edge and snatching sleep when she could. Eating less than she needed because her money was running out and her daughter came first.

  Behind her, Rianna let out a gleeful yip and shifted. Tiny claws dug into Cassidy’s back. She focused on her own shift, wrenching herself with grim determination into her dolphin form.

  Ah, that was better. She rose to the surface and the two of them sucked in another breath as the straps adjusted to Cassidy’s new shape, and then she jackknifed in the water and went deep.

  She opened herself to the mate bond. It existed, whether Nic wanted it to, or not. Slender as a thread, but still alive.

  Cassidy’s heart constricted at its beauty—a shimmering spiral of rainbow colors. With it came the familiar hurt that Nic could deny this beautiful thing between them. But the mate bond only came into full flower if both members of the pair accepted it—and Nic had refused.

  Cassidy shoved the hurt back into the corner of her heart where it lived and turned in his direction. She swam hard, her powerful tail propelling her through the water.

  Above them, lightning bolts lit up the sky. Cassidy kept swimming and prayed the bolts wouldn’t strike the surface near them.

  But Nic was farther away than she’d realized, and Cassidy was weighted down by Rianna and the rucksack. They passed through the Channel Islands. Cassidy had expected to find Nic on one of the islands, but the bond tugged her onward.

  She’d traveled another mile past Santa Cruz Island when a rogue wave scooped them up like a monster hand and slammed them back onto the surface.

  Rianna whimpered, her excitement gone. She flopped limply in the straps on Cassidy’s back.

  Cassidy had no choice but to shift back to human. She shrugged out of the rucksack and grabbed Rianna. “Hang onto my neck, baby.”

  The rucksack sank out of sight as Rianna gamely obeyed. The little girl was dangerously exhausted. Her eyes closed and she shifted back to her human form.

  Where the bloody hell was Nic anyway?

  Anger twisted through Cassidy, followed by despair.

  She should’ve stopped at Santa Cruz, but their pursuers were too close. They might not be able to travel in this storm, but tomorrow, they’d be after her and Rianna again. She needed Nic’s protection. Not for her, but for her daughter.

  But pushing past the Channel Islands had been a mistake. They weren’t going to make it.

  Rianna tightened her grip on Cassidy’s neck. She shook off her despair and somehow found the energy to keep swimming.

  In their human forms, they had to stay closer to the surface. The waves battered them. Water fada didn’t feel the cold like humans, but they’d been in the ocean for over an hour now. Rianna started to shiver.

  Cassidy enfolded her in her arms. “Hang on, baby. We’re almost there.”

  She slid into unconsciousness—or maybe she was dreaming.

  Because it had to be a dream when strong arms enfolded them and bore them to the surface, and a gruff voice said, “I
’ve got you safe.”

  4

  Nic set Cassidy and the girl on the dining hall floor and vaulted out of the water next to them.

  The men threw down their cards and hurried toward him. Ben arrived first. He reached for the little girl, who even semi-conscious was holding onto Cassidy for dear life.

  At Ben’s touch she roused. “Mam!” she cried. The fear in her voice made Nic’s heart wrench.

  Cassidy muttered something and tightened her arms on the child.

  Ben patted Cassidy’s shoulder and murmured in his deep voice, “It’s okay—I’m here to help. Give your daughter to me.”

  “No,” Cassidy whispered, but her arms released.

  Cassidy was a mother? Nic’s stomach sank, even though he had no right to be upset.

  “Come here, little one.” Ben reached for the small, dark-haired girl. “I’m going to wrap you in a warm blanket. How does that sound?”

  The kid’s eyes were big and alarmed, but she didn’t protest as Ben eased her from her mother’s arms and cradled her against his big chest.

  Nic picked up Cassidy again as Marlin stepped forward with two wool blankets. He wrapped one around the girl while Joe tucked the other one around Cassidy.

  “My room,” Nic said. “They can use my bed.”

  He’d claimed a spacious cavern a little way off the dining hall as his quarters. Split into two rooms—a living room and a bedroom—it was big enough for his dragon, although he rarely shifted inside. One end of the bedroom dipped to form a saltwater pool with a tunnel to the Pacific, serving as both a private bathing place and an escape route.