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

easy to lose someone without warning, like to an animal attack.”
    “Why do you keep apologizing? None of these events was of your doing.” Drake eyed her. “Unless you believe you are a god?”
    “Nope. Not a god.” Lori didn’t bother to further that course of the conversation. Instead, she gestured to his bandaged arm. The sock wraps had loosened. “Please, let me take you to a doctor to have your arm looked at. You saved my life last night. The least you can do is let me save yours today.”
    He arched a brow.
    “Infections can kill,” Lori explained. “It might not be as terrifying a foe as an alligator, but I’m not going back in that swamp anytime soon if you decide to go swimming.”
    “It will be fine,” he stated. “You may save my life another time if you so wish. But I agree you should not go into the swamps. Flailing in mud is not an acceptable form of combat.”
    Lori started to laugh, but Drake looked very earnest. “I’ll try my best to remember that,” she said.
    “You were not trained very well. If you like, I will show you proper survival skills in case you are trapped again on an airboat in the swamps.”
    “Thank you for the offer, but I’m pretty sure that won’t be happening again.” She wasn’t sure what the fates had in mind by bringing her to his doorstep, but she was very curious to see where their budding friendship might go. Even though he spoke in clipped words and had very solemn expressions, she felt as if she understood him on a natural, unspoken level.

Chapter 5
    F inally . The gods had blessed him. Drake had found his mate. His one true wife.
    They were meant to be together. Lori knew it as well. She’d said as much. She felt their connection.
    Drake wanted to smile and shout to the cypress trees how happy he was to have finally found the woman destined to be his. It was just as the Draig elders had said it would be. When he’d opened his eyes that morning to find her tending him, he’d known. Something inside him had burst forth. However, with his somber responsibility to deliver the dead man to his family, Drake had to try very hard to remain calm.
    There was not much he could do to prepare Big Daddy beyond wrapping him in a shroud. When he finished, he found Lori waiting for him near the house. She had just showered, and the mud was off her body. As she’d bathed, he had stripped off everything except for the arm bandage she’d made for him and rinsed off with a hose so he wouldn’t smell like the swamps. He slid on a pair of stiff jeans that had dried on the clothes line.
    “Ursa will have a way to contact the authorities to bring the man home,” he said. “I radioed her to send help. Now we wait.”
    “Why don’t you radio authorities yourself?” she asked. Her eyes were on his naked chest, and he glanced down wondering why she stared at him with such a strange expression.
    “My radio only goes to Ursa,” he stated.
    “This Ursa really keeps you under her thumb, doesn’t she?” Lori muttered.
    “I do not—” He started to ask her to explain the comment, but she cut him off.
    “I don’t see a vehicle. Do you have a way to drive out of here?” Her eyes finally lifted to meet his.
    “No need. I swim or run when I need to go somewhere.”
    “What about a phone?”
    “No need. I have a radio.”
    “That only goes to Ursa,” she clarified. “You are living off the grid, aren’t you?”
    “Unfortunately, though this grid looks similar to home, I cannot survive solely off the land here.” He lifted the black device he’d found in the boat. “Does this flashing weapon belong to you?”
    Lori chuckled and reached to take it. “I have never heard my camera referred to as a weapon before, but I suppose there is power in images.”
    He enjoyed her smile. Their fingers touched, and he found himself unable to let go of the device. Instead, he used her hold on it to pull her closer. The magnetism of her body was unlike anything he’d