Lukos Heat: Heart of Fire, #1

By Megan Derr

Najlah is on the hunt for the traitorous coward who attempted to assassinate the king and nearly killed Najlah's brother in the process. But the hunt has taken his team deep into the Shide, the treacherous, freezing mountains controlled by the mysterious Lukos, feral wolf shifters who do not tolerate trespassers.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Megan Derr
• Release date: Oct 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393342601

Megan Derr

Megan is a long-time resident of queer romance and keeps herself busy reading and writing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her wife and cats, or watch movies. She loves to hear from readers and can be found all over the internet.meganderr.compatreon.com/meganderrmeganderr.blogspot.comfacebook.com/[e-mail]@meganaderr

Book preview

Najlah is on the hunt for the traitorous coward who attempted to assassinate the king and nearly killed Najlah's brother in the process. But the hunt has taken his team deep into the Shide, the treacherous, freezing mountains controlled by the mysterious Lukos, feral wolf shifters who do not tolerate trespassers.

When the Lukos come upon them, Najlah is reluctantly intrigued. The Lukos, especially the one called Barkus, are nothing like the soft humans he spends most of his time around. They thrive in the brutal cold the way he thrives in volcanic fire. For the first time, it feels like Najlah may have found someone who can equal the fierceness of dragons, and see them as more than demons.

But if he hopes to explore the bond forming with the Lukos, he must first survive the enemy—and the Shide.

Lukos Heat

Heart of Fire 1

By Megan Derr

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

Edited by Samantha M. Derr

Cover designed by Julie Wright

Lesserkeystudios.com

This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

Third Edition August 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Megan Derr

Printed in the United States of America

Lukos Heat

HEART OF FIRE

MEGAN DERR

Najlah grumbled and shifted restlessly on the campfire until he found a more comfortable position, thinking longingly of his homeland, Tahjil. He hated Restuel's winters. It did not seem fair that the cold was so much worse in the mountains that formed the northern border. He had thought the city wretchedly cold. The mountains were unbearable, like he had died and gone to the deepest levels of Eternal Torment.

Back home, it was all hot sand, hot sun, hot stones. Only natives could endure the brutal heat. When foreigners had begun arriving in droves, the dragons had struggled to keep the idiots from getting themselves killed.

He shifted again, hissing his discontent. The men closest to the fire regarded him sympathetically, and a couple built the fire up higher for him. Najlah thanked them with a soft rumble. To distract himself, he flicked his tongue out, tasting the air, but came away with nothing more than wintry forest, fire, and his companions, the cat and bird shifters that comprised their small unit of the Restuel Royal Shifter Corps.

It was frustrating to be so close to their goal only to be thwarted by the mass and might of the Shide Mountains. They had hoped to catch Kay sooner, but he had proven to be slicker than a brown scale bitch on the prowl.

Najlah tasted the air again—and jerked his head up with a spitting growl, alerting the others, sending embers and sparks flying into the air and out across the snow. Uncoiling his sinuous body, Najlah flexed his claws and sought for stable footing in the snowy ground. His black scales glistened wetly where they were struck by moonlight and flickering flames. Spikes sprang up down the length of his spine to the tip of his tail, drops of poison gleaming at their ends.

He growled loudly, baring his teeth as seven figures came out of the shadows, their scent the most feral thing he'd caught since leaving home. It was similar to dog, but sharper, untamed, with the bitter tang that always accompanied shifters. They also carried the smell of predators: the hot bite of blood and lust for the hunt. Najlah's battle brothers were by no means soft, but they did not compare to these interlopers. Similar to dog and dwelling in the Shide Mountains... these could only be the wolves he'd heard about.

Najlah growled again and dug his claws into the snow, firming his protective stance, ready to attack on a moment. His companions might not have been the equal of these wolves, but to Najlah they would be little more than sand sprites. He was intrigued enough to let them live for the moment, but if they so much as twitched wrong he would happily break their bones, drink their blood, and feast on their flesh. It would warm him better than conversation.

The wolves growled back at him, hackles rising, but Najlah held his ground. They were large, reaching as high as his brothers' hips, and obviously built to thrive in the Shide, but Najlah doubted they knew how to fight a dragon. The foremost of them, a wolf of pure black with eyes the same silver-gold as the moon, stepped forward and barked, then let his tongue loll.

Unimpressed, Najlah turned to Fayth, the captain and his brother-in-law, for orders. Stand down, Fayth said, motioning to Najlah and the others before turning to the wolves. You're slow, Lukos. I expected you to find us hours ago.

The lead wolf barked again, and the air grew thick with the tang of wild magic as the Lukos began to shift into their human forms.

Najlah huffed and began his own shift. He did not particularly care if everyone thought him rude if he did not shift, but he would not reflect poorly on his battle brothers. Not that shifting really made much difference in the end. Unlike most shifters, dragons did not have a completely human-looking form. Such a fragile form would get them killed in Tahjil.

Shifted, he stood about as tall as most of his brothers, shorter than the towering Fayth. He was slender, but well-muscled, and his skin was as black as the scales that still covered the majority of his body.  His head was smooth, jaw shaped to accommodate his fangs. Even in his