Stranded with the Cajun (Captured by a Dragon-Shifter Book 3) Read Online Free

result of one of those raids.”
    “What happened?” Lori didn’t remember hearing about the events he was talking about. “Did your family keep your land?”
    “We petitioned the Draig royals to help us stop the attacks to our borders. The Myrddin clan denied it and, being as they are one of the oldest noble families on the planet, they were not questioned. Our royals brokered a deal with the Var royals, and we lost some of our family’s property to the Var because they claimed to have found old territorial documents that proved it was their land, and we were trespassing. Never mind that my family had been growing on it since anyone could remember, and the validity of the documents could not be proven.” The man sighed. “It is one of the reasons I left Qurilixen and came here.”
    Draig? Var? Qurilixen? These weren’t people and places she recognized.
    There was a sadness in him when he talked about it, but also a detachment as if he’d come to terms with whatever the past had given him. When he once more moved toward the airboat near a half-sunken dock, she grabbed his uninjured arm to stop him. “Just stop for a second.”
    He looked down at her hand. As much as she tried to ignore it, she felt attraction bubbling inside her. He narrowed his eyes and leaned closer. “You are not frightened by me?”
    Lori shook her head in denial. “No. Why would I be? You saved me. I’m very grateful to you. I don’t know why you were out on the swamps last night, but thank you for being there.”
    “I was tracking hunters. They’ve been causing trouble in the shadowed marshes. Forgive me, you call them swamps. I am told the hunters are probably drunkards acting without thought of their actions. They sit on their boat at night and shoot toward the shore. They almost shot me more than once, and I worry they will injure the next person. I thought your boat might be theirs.” As if skeptical, he studied her carefully and questioned, “You feel it as well?”
    Lori swallowed nervously at the abrupt change in conversation. She wanted to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about but couldn’t bring herself to play coy. There was something between them, a very real connection that snapped through her fingers each time they touched. She gave a very weak, single nod. “You haven’t told me your name.”
    “Here I am called Drake,” he stated. “Ursa found me in the swamps and thought it a fitting name. She said if I was to be Cajun I needed a new name that people could pronounce.”
    “Ursa?” Lori wondered who this woman was to Drake. He had already mentioned her several times. It seemed strange that she would be jealous over someone she’d just met, but the feeling was there.
    “She owns this property.”
    “And elsewhere you are called?” She gave him a small smile.
    “Dimosthenis,” he said, his accent thickening to make the word nearly impossible to attempt repeating. “But I am not to go by that anymore. I am Cajun now. That was my old life, and I left it behind.”
    “Nice to meet you, Drake. I’m Lori Johnston.”
    “We met last night and, it was not so nice,” he stated.
    Lori made a weak noise, unable to fault the literal translation of his logic. “So do you live here with family?”
    A wife maybe? The last thing she wanted was to be attracted to a taken man.
    “I have no family. I am the last of my bloodline.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, again sensing the loneliness in his statement.
    “Then I will not tell you more. I have no wish to say things that displease you.”
    “No, I meant I’m sorry for your loss. It sounds by the tone of your voice that maybe you lost your family. You may tell me whatever you wish. I won’t tell you not to speak.” Lori started to reach for him but then pulled back.
    “My family is dead. They did not make the journey to Louisiana with me. I left soon after my brother’s death. He was killed by a cat.”
    “I’m sorry. It can’t be