Page 16 of Thrilled By Her Protector

“Screeeeeech!”

“Ohmygawd!”

“Jennifer Dylluan, you stop that right now!”

The second she understood what Candy was insinuating, her Owl wrestled her for control. She’d started to shift, holding it before she went full on Owl. It was a rare thing to be able to stop mid-Shift, but Jennifer was stronger than she looked. Her wings had ripped straight through her blouse.

She craned her neck to the side, her eyes bleeding to black as she pinned the female with her angry stare. Her heart hammered inside her chest. The animal inside her was incensed at the idea of Zircon bonding to any other female. And didn’t that make her asshole of the year?

Shit. Her bird screeched again, and Daeja covered her ears to mute the sheer volume of Jennifer’s rage. She closed her eyes, shaking her head and pinning down her Owl inside her mind’s eye. When she opened them again, she was completely human again, and the other females in the room were staring at her wide-eyed.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, still trembling from changing back and forth so rapidly.

Everyone simply stared, and Jennifer had never felt quite so low. What the hell was she doing with her life? She should really just leave. Sure, Carolina and Kimberley were her friends, but here they were more than that. They were the mates of Jasper and Larimar, important women here.

That was another thing Jennifer had to wrap her head around. The Wessex brothers were not just Wyverns anymore. Not simply the WPU. They were princes of the Flamebound Clan. Heirs to actual motherfucking thrones of power, destined to rule over their group of Wyverns Shifters,er, Drakeins.

She’d already fucked up by sleeping with Zircon once. She couldn’t afford to do it again. Maybe Daeja was right. Maybe he would find a true mate in the single Drakein females in residence, and then Jennifer could—she could what, exactly?

Her heart squeezed inside her chest, and no matter how much she wished for the pain to cease, it wouldn’t. She couldn’t do this. But what else was left for her? If she left her job, what then? Maybe she could simply ask for reassignment. That might work, she thought, trying to fix her hopelessly ruined outfit.

“Well, I guess that clears one question up,” Carolina said, interrupting her thoughts.

“What does it clear up?”

“No matter what you will or will not admit to, Jenn. Your Owl already sees Zircon as hers. I think you better get your human side on board before your beastie takes the decision away from you.”

The second she made sense of Caro’s words, her Owl loosed a long cry that echoed inside her mind’s eye. Her best friend wasn’t wrong. Her beast was becoming quite possessive of Zircon. And Jennifer could not have that.

Nope.

There was only one thing left to do. Jennifer had to get the hell out of there.

ChapterSix

“What do you mean, she left? There are people kidnapping Shifters and she left without protection?”

Zircon was holding on to his Wyvern by the tail. When the blue haired Drakein female cornered him in the kitchen of his family home, he immediately moved, putting the granite topped island between them.

“Kidnapping Shifters? I did not know,” Aliza faltered, looking less certain.

“Where is she, Aliza? Where did Jenn say she was going?”

“Why do you care so much, Prince Zircon?”

“Do not call me that, please. I just need to know where she is.”

“I heard her cavorting with the mates of your brothers. Soon after, the female, Jennifer Dylluan, took one of the motored vehicles and left the compound,” Aliza told him, almost gleefully, he observed.

“Aliza?” Kizzy entered the kitchen with Hydra, Luna, and Serene close behind.

He’d noticed the five women often traveled together, and wondered about it, but not enough to ask. Earth girls did shit like that, too. Like going to the bathroom in groups when they were at restaurants and bars. Of course, none of the other women he knew were as potentially dangerous as these five.

Wyverns were apex predators, powerful and strong as fuck. The females were just as formidable as the males, even if they were treated as second-class citizens on their home planet, and later, in that spaceship where Cass Viper had ruled. That was the main reason his father had offered their home and grounds for this little assimilation experiment.

Arthur Wessex was a clever man, and though he was retired, he still had connections within the government. The DPCA and the Wessex Protection Unit often worked hand in hand, but even Zircon had to admit the task of keeping Alien Shifters on the down low was the wildest one he’d ever heard of.

There was something he didn’t trust about these newcomers, though. Sure, they towed the line, so far, but there was something about them that set the hair on the back of his neck to standing. Like Aliza. She was staring at him across the way like he was the six foot plus version of a salty, hot, and crunchy French fry that she wanted to gobble up.

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