Chapter 1 Lost
This is Book 5 in the Mate Cruise short story series but can be enjoyed as a standalone novel.
Content Warning: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
This book contains explicit sexual content, including frequent and detailed intimate scenes. It also contains lots and lots of naughty cheating, emotional manipulation, violence, and other mature themes. Reader discretion is advised.
Please read at your own discretion. If you prefer lower-spice romance, lovey-dovey relationships, or fluffy endings, this book may not be for you. 💀
Chapter 1
“Lost”
POV Amelia
A man confesses his feelings to me, and I run.
Not just any man, mind you, but the most beautiful, breathtaking man I’ve ever met. The kind of man who can set my world on fire with a single touch and leave me burning long after he’s gone.
I’ve run from men before, but this time is different.
This time,** I’m starting to develop real, terrifying feelings.**
And the worst part is, I think I feel the same way about him.
I need to disappear and figure out who I was before all of this happened.
Instead of following my sister through a portal with her new wolf lover and waiting for the next Mate Cruise, I flee through the wrong portal without thinking.
I end up on the outskirts of the lycan kingdom.
For the first week, I stay in a cheap hotel, mostly lying in bed feeling sorry for myself.
During my second week, I start exploring and spend more time in the hotel’s pub. Chase, the owner and bartender, keeps me updated on the local gossip.
The Lycan King and his beta are due back from the Mate Cruise tomorrow with their new mates, and the kingdom is excited to meet their future queen and the beta’s mate.
Chase tells me he’s grown bored with the woman across the hall and offers me free room and board if I agree to be his lover for a while.
It’s tempting, considering he’s annoyingly handsome.
The next day, Chase hands me two letters.
One is from the Mate Cruise, inviting me back in five days.
The other is from my father.
I know where you are. If you don’t attend this cruise, I will come and collect you myself, and there will be consequences.
Crap.
The pub door opens, and a ravishing man with heavenly blue eyes steps inside. The kind of man you climb like a tree and make terrible, maybe even illegal, decisions with.
Every woman in the pub notices him immediately.
He strolls to the bar and drops onto a stool.
“Hey, Chase, I’ll have the usual.”
“Where’s your mate?” Chase asks.
“I fucked up, and she moved on. Thanatos found a girl, and he’s happy. He’s demanding I go on the next cruise, but I don’t see the point.”
His voice drips with sin, like his very existence was created to ruin women like me.
“Oh, Cash, come sit with us!” a woman calls.
Cash doesn’t even turn around.
“Go find that girl from the cruise and apologize if she’s that important to you,” Chase says. “Give her whatever she wants.”
“She wants me to be loyal only to her.”
“Is that really so bad?”
“For a moment, I thought I could be, but… I can’t talk about her. Is Lacey here? I need a distraction.”
“Still here and still waiting for you.”
“Any new gossip? Any new girls?” Cash asks.
“A few are eyeing you from that table.”
“You’re hiding something.”
“I’ve decided to move on from Lisa. I’ve met someone new. She’s heading to the next cruise in five days after staying here for two weeks.”
“Where is she?”
“I’m not losing her to Mr. Sin himself. Go see Lacey.”
Cash stands and scans the room.
I hide under the bar.
A pair of long legs stop beside me.
“Well, hello, beautiful.”
He offers me his hand and helps me up.
All I see is a sea of blue.
His touch sends tingles through me, just like Armond does, and for a moment, I don’t want to let go.
Sphinx purrs in my head.
“I adore dragons. They’re one of the most beautiful creatures on earth.”
“Cash,” Chase warns.
“I’ll trade you Lacey for this divine goddess.”
“Lacey would never agree to that.”
Cash releases my hand.
“I’m not looking for anyone, and I’m not a bargaining chip. I’ll be on the next Mate Cruise, so don’t waste your time.”
I sit back down and focus on my drink, already planning my escape.
He slowly looks me over.
“As you wish, Kitten.”
He finishes his drink, winks at Chase, and leaves.
“He’s nicknamed you,” Chase says. “You’re not going anywhere now. Cash will chase you to the ends of the earth for a chance with you.”
I finish my drink and hurry back to my room.
I slam the door shut, but someone sticks their foot in it.
Cash smiles.
“Hmm, such a cozy little place you have here, Kitten.”
“I’m sure all the rooms look alike,” I hiss.
He walks me into a wall, pinning me in with one hand on the wall and the other on my hip, leaning his full, hard body against mine.
Sphinx purrs, and I can feel her peeking out.
“Wow, a black dragon? How rare and intriguing.”
His blue eyes focus on mine intently, like he wants to claim every part of me.
I won’t let him, I tell myself. I need to deal with my feelings before I get wrapped up with another pretty boy who’s only going to break my heart the moment his girl shows up.
He lifts his hand from my hip and rubs it against my lower lip, making my lips quiver.
“Such a sensitive little thing. You will be mine, Kitten. You can’t run from me.”
He leans down, presses his soft lips to mine, sliding his tongue into my mouth as my lips part for him.
My body wants him more than I do.
He tastes like bubblegum, then suddenly bites my lower lip and sucks on my blood like a vampire.
My body leans into him more, allowing him to do whatever he wants.
Stupid fucking body.
I feel his massive hardness against me, and my cheeks flush.
“You belong to someone, don’t you, beautiful? Someone powerful has marked you. I’m surprised he let you go. I would never let you go if you were mine,” he growls, dragging his teeth deep into my skin without drawing blood.
Sending shivers down my spine.
He suddenly licks my neck.
“Hmm, you taste like cherries, my favorite. I’m going to enjoy fucking you for a few days. Don’t run far, Kitten. I have some things to take care of. Then I’ll be back for you.”
He bites my ear hard, sending heat to my core, then he’s gone.
I lay on my bed, exhausted from fighting him off.
“Why was he so hard to fight off? What’s wrong with my body?” I ask Sphinx.
‘He is bound. His Lycan is a dark, powerful demon that is slowly escaping. He needs us to set his demon completely free,’ she purrs.
