Thrilled: Dragon Mates, #2

By J.K. Harper

★★★★★ "A water dragon that can also fly, sign me up!! Kai is my new book boyfriend!" ★★★★★

Passion. Secrets. And danger...

Devastating loss haunts water dragon shifter Kai Long--until he meets spirited Gabi Santos. But she has a terrible secret. The kind that can wreck any chance for true love...forever.

Tragic loss haunts water dragon shifter Kai Long. His only focus now is to break the death spell that locked away his gold treasure. It seems an impossible task--until a fascinating human woman discovers his dragon wealth hidden beneath the sea.

Daredevil underwater archeologist Gabi Santos focuses on work only. Sexy, intriguing Kai could change her mind, but she can't get close to him. Not after she's made a desperate choice that will crush her soul--and wipe out her career.

Kai is entranced by Gabi's fiery passion and witty retorts, despite his deeply submerged heart. But Gabi has a dangerous secret. The kind that can wreck not only a dragon but any chance at true love...forever.

To the reader: This book is filled with hot times, delicious romance, and the dangerous secret world of dragon shifters. If you love shifters, bright lights in the big city, and the beautiful power of love to always triumph in the end, this read is for you.

Dragon Mates
Dazzled - Sebastian & Lacey
Thrilled - Kai & Gabi
Burned - Ash & Teagan

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.K. Harper
• Release date: Mar 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781386623960

Book preview

1

Gabriela Santos stretched her arms straight overhead, tipped her face up to the gloriously perfect day, and let out a yodeling war whoop.

This is awesome! She yipped and howled again, head flung back in joy. This is officially the best day of my entire life!

Laughter rippled out behind her as the crew chuckled at her antics. They were used to Gabi's crazy ways by now. She was never actually crazy on the job. No, she worked damn hard and pulled her weight as much as any of them. She was very, very good at what she did.

But there was one thing Gabi did better than her beloved job. She lived her whole life in the most exuberant manner she could, taking no prisoners and enjoying every single second of it. She and the crew had worked together for several years now, since her grad school days. Watching her standing on the deck, clad in a dive suit from the waist down and a sensible yet still cute swim tank on top, screaming her head off into the breeze and laughing like a banshee, was nothing new for them.

Besides. California University's maritime archaeology department, the jokingly self-dubbed Ancients Quest Exploration Team, had just made one of the biggest discoveries of the century. Nobody blamed her for being excited. She simply channeled the energy of the entire team.

Okay, Gabs. New memory card is in. We're all set. Everson Booth, the shrewd leader of the exploration team as well as Gabi's boss and mentor, flashed her a thumbs up as he handed her the underwater camera she'd been using to record their major find.

Stupidly, she hadn't paid attention to the memory card before she and her dive partner went down on their first dive that morning. After the initial overwhelming shock and joy that their suspicions had been correct, that the surprisingly intact remains of the Santa Maria were nestled atop ocean ledges many nautical miles distant from where history had always insisted the shipwreck had occurred, she'd been so fascinated as she took picture after picture that it had practically devastated her when the memory card full message started flashing.

She was usually more prepared than not, but she'd been too excited this morning. Everyone had. She and her dive partner, Shane, had had to come back up to the boat so she could get a new memory card. At least they'd used the time well. An impromptu, thoroughly ridiculous dance of overjoyed excitement had gripped the entire crew for several minutes once Gabi and Shane got back on board. They mightily entertained a few seagulls who watched their antics with cocked heads and quizzical expressions.

Definitely ready, she answered Everson with a grin. She was always ready to go back into the hidden depths of the Pacific Ocean.

And continue filming. Her smile practically ripped her face in two as she wrestled the top part of her dive suit back on, zipping up and donning her mask and tank.

Everson, a seasoned oceanic explorer who had been a second father figure and definitely a strong shoulder to lean on for Gabi during the stressful past few months, smiled. Then he put a bit of steel into his voice as he admonished both her and Shane. Take it easy down there. You guys are excited. Take a deep breath first, and remember to follow protocol. No mistakes, no problems just because we're excited. Raising his head, he cast the rest of the crew a firm look. The rest of you too. Focus on your job, record the data, and pay attention. Liesl, he added, tipping his chin at the willowy blonde, keep a sharp eye out. The last thing we need is visitors.

Liesl nodded solemnly from her lookout post at the research vessel's prow as Gabi got her mask and tank appropriately situated with the help of one of the crew members. The Santa Maria was the holy grail for underwater archaeologists and commercial treasure hunters the world over. After she'd sunk in 1702, legends about the vast fortune in gold and jewels she'd carried with her to the bottom of the sea had persisted throughout the centuries. Careful research by many people over the years confirmed a genuine treasure had been lost with her. Modern estimates conservatively put the value at around $200 million.

As of today, Ancients Quest had first dibs on the massive find. Even so, they needed to keep this tightly under wraps until they were ready to make an official announcement to the world. There were definitely some unethical modern treasure hunters out there who would swoop in and take it for themselves if they so much as got a whiff of the site location before the team could accurately catalogue the basics of their find, then announce it to the world.

From this point onward, it was a race against the clock.

Pushing away the deep twinge of guilt that stabbed Gabi at the deadly seriousness in Everson's voice, she gave her equipment a final check before exchanging a thumbs up with Shane as a signal to one another and the crew that they were ready to go back down. Seating herself on the low edge of the boat, she gracefully flipped herself backward into the cool embrace of the ocean. Moments later, Shane plunged in near her.

As she entered the water, Gabi pushed away all thoughts except two. One, she was part of the team that had just made one of the biggest discoveries in nautical history. Two, she was back in her favorite place on the planet. The ocean.

She began her descent back down to the shipwreck just fifty feet below, glancing over at Shane's bubbled form as he did the same. Gabi allowed the usual goosebumps of joy to wash through her body. She'd been a daredevil and a thrill seeker since she was a toddler, creating many premature gray hairs for her parents as she grew up.

But nothing compared to the wild, electrifying charge of deep sea diving. There was an entire world beneath the waves. A world few ever actually got to experience. The exploration, the knowledge that she walked a tightrope of potential disaster if anything should go wrong with her equipment, her crew, or the environment, fueled Gabi like nothing else.

Yeah, it was a little sick. But it was also the only way she felt truly alive anymore.

This is the best! she said to Shane over the voice communication built into their expensive, university-owned helmets.

He nodded as they headed down, his flippers propelling him through the water as easily as Gabi's. Best damn thing in the world, he said. Well, second best. You know me. I'm a dog.

Gabi laughed, buoyed by the waters, the rush of the hunt for antiquities, the sheer truth to what he'd said. You and me both, buddy.

Shane shook his head, though she could tell he chuckled too. He and Gabi were both affectionately known as the hound dogs of the crew. The two of them had never hooked up with each other, partially because neither was attracted to the other and partially because they both knew that would be the death knell of a smoothly operating dive. And, of course, because Everson had only half-jokingly threatened them both with bodily harm if they even thought about it. But they sure had a hell of a lot of fun comparing notes with one another the days following the casual hookups.

A hookup was the only thing Gabi would ever allow in her life again. Her ex-husband was a sad bastard who'd proved to her that serious relationships were for fools only. She didn't much care that her very Catholic family was pretty sure she was going to go straight to hell if she never got married again.

This was her damn life, and she liked it.

Well. She did care what her abuela, her grandmother, thought. Despite her intentions as she'd entered the water that she would focus only on the moment, another quick emotion stabbed at her for a moment. Paralyzing fear and worry for her grandmother. Setting her jaw, she shoved all other thoughts away again. Time to work.

As they reached the stunning old shipwreck, Gabi's breath caught again as it loomed up before them through the murk of the seawater. Listing to one side, half caught in a shallow, narrow underwater canyon, the Santa Maria was in startlingly good shape. The centuries in salt water had done some damage, but it was far less than most ships of her age. The original mechanism for the sinking, as Gabi and Shane had discovered on their earlier dive that morning, was a gaping wound low on the side of the ship that neatly went in one side and out the other.

Nautical history had always said that the Santa Maria had sunk during a violent storm. But their find threw that accepted thesis into question. It looked as if the ship actually had been attacked by pirates instead. That made sense, of course. If pirates had made an attempt to nab the ship and its loot, but then inadvertently sunk the ship and not been able to retrieve any of its treasures themselves, they certainly wouldn't have wanted the knowledge of their own poor sea battle skills to get around. They probably simply sailed away and never said a word of it to anyone.

Leaving the Santa Maria lost in her watery grave for so long.

Gabi and Shane hadn't seen any evidence yet of the deceased sailors, although she was prepared for the sight of bones when they started to explore the interior more. The enormous holes from what presumably was a cannonball meant that she would have sunk far too quickly for there to have been any survivors. While it was possible that some of the crew had escaped in lifeboats, history had never recorded the comments of any of them. Without a doubt, most if not all of them had been trapped and gone down with the ship.

It was a terrifying death. Yet the thought of it didn't frighten Gabi in the least. She'd been born with some sort of crazy immunity against the fears that kept so many people trapped in unexplored lives. She pretty much preferred to live on the reckless edge of danger, because nine point nine times out of ten, she went into situations well-prepared enough to know when she needed to stop pushing and just get the hell out.

Gabi was a big fan of keeping herself alive in order to enjoy yet another day on the wild edge of adventure.

As they approached the beautiful hulk, slowing their smooth pace in the fairly still waters, Shane said into the helmet's mic, Circling to the east, begin recording now. His words carried not only to Gabi, but to the crew above as he flicked on the recording switch. He was the official recorder on this dive. Gabi's words could be heard only by herself and Shane, as the recording device on the boat could only effectively capture one dive helmet mic at a time.

Shane swam to the left of Gabi, his own camera up and recording both video and audio that were transmitting back to the crew on the boat far above them. He began cataloging what he saw as he went along, his voice moving into the cadence of official notation. Gabi slowly drifted her way along the edge of the boat on its western side.

She reached out her fingers, encased in her suit's glove because the cool Pacific water was too cold for her bare skin. Very gently, she touched the side of the ship. Barnacled, substantially sized for the era, its presence poured into Gabi's soul that usual rush of both adrenaline and certainty.

This was exactly what she was meant to be doing with her life. She was literally and figuratively in her element right now. It was a high almost better than sex.

Okay, fine. It was a high better than pretty much any sex of her life, even though she'd had some pretty epic experiences. But no guy could top this sort of rush, no matter how talented he was in the bedroom. This was her ambrosia.

Tilting her camera up, Gabi continued to drift along the side of the ship, gently propelling herself away from it again so she could capture more of it with her camera. There had been a bright scatter of coins over the sea ledges beside the ship that she'd noticed almost immediately during their first dive.

It almost certainly meant the complete treasure was still within the ship. The team had to be rigorously scientific about this and carefully record everything. Gabi had never been well blessed with patience. It was half killing her right now to be thoroughly professional and not just dive straight into the enormous hole inside of the ship and start looking for the gold and jewels.

Although it was something most of her crew mates didn't share, she'd always secretly been thrilled by the actual treasure hunting part of underwater archaeology almost as much as by her desire to preserve history for future generations.

Actual treasure hunters weren't very well-regarded in the academic world. As a teaching assistant and associate managing director of the university's exploration laboratory on Catalina Island just off the coastline of Los Angeles, Gabi had a hell of an image to upkeep. Swallowing hard against the surge of conflicting images and thoughts that once again managed to briefly shove themselves past her control, she quietly floated along, occasionally paddling her suit's fins as she recorded the ship.

A glint of something catching the light shimmering down through the darkening water beneath her drew her gaze downward. Widening her eyes, she flippered herself down to a small shelf just beside the listing hull of the ship. Something small glinted there, tucked beneath waving, glassy green fronds of giant kelp. Reaching out to the ledge, Gabi felt around beneath the fronds until her hand closed around a small object about the size of a half dollar, but considerably heavier. Bringing her closed fist up to her face, she uncurled her fingers.

A brightly sparkling gold nugget lay in the gloved palm of her hand.

Wow, she breathed. As a trained scientist, she looked critically at the gold nugget, wondering about its provenance and historical significance with a dispassionate eye. As a girl who'd been fascinated by old tales of high seas battles over fortunes from faraway lands that her grandmother had told her in vivid detail throughout her childhood, however, she had to admit to a very unprofessional kick of excitement at the sight.

And as a person who was out of options, desperate to do anything that would save the life of someone she loved, a thrill of huge relief mingled with jittery, queasy nerves shocked through her at the knowledge of what she was about to do.

What's up? Shane's voice was clear through the helmet's speakers.

I think I found a piece of the treasure the Santa Maria carried.

Shane's low whistle sounded in her ears. The Santa Maria's lost treasure was legendary. It was also the main reason the research crew was keeping their expedition on the down-low.

Gabi's chest constricted as she gazed at the small piece of both fortune and history in her hand. Firmly, she pushed aside her doubts. Her team might never forgive her, but her own conscience would.

I'm cataloging, she said. Her camera, however, hung down by her side. Glancing up to be sure no one watched her, even though she knew Shane was on the other side of the ship, she very carefully slipped the shining little chunk into the inside of her glove before resolutely turning her back on the place she'd found it. Leaving it undocumented. Unrecorded. And as far as anyone on earth knew, untouched.

She felt sick. It went against every single thing Gabi believed in. Every single thing she'd been trained in as a protector of the past. Every single piece of paper she'd signed prior to joining this crew.

It was also crucial proof she needed in order to save the one person in the world who meant more to Gabi than life itself. The one for whom she would do anything in world. Even jeopardize her own morals and her career.

Forcing down her emotional upset, Gabi slowly swam back to the ship, the nugget making a sharp, accusing lump against her finger where it was hidden in her glove.

2

Kai Long barreled through the water, diving far down into the black depths, then using powerful strokes of his wings and tail to catapult himself back up to the lightening surface of the ocean. He shot straight up out of the water, closing his eyes against the brightness of the sun glancing across the open miles of ocean as he spread his wings out into a soaring dive through the air before gracefully curving into an arc back downward. Pinioning his wings against him, he dove back into the gorgeous, salty depths.

He could feel his gold, calling to him with ever-increasing strength as he got closer to it. Its presence infused him with a magnetic energy and awareness that would sustain him for weeks.

It was nothing like the actual strength he should be at, though.

As he sliced back down into the coolness of the water, startling a pod of dolphins and narrowly missing the flank of a killer whale, Kai shook his head once, hard. The memory of his true power faded every day. What he experienced now every time he was near his hoard seemed to him to be just as potent as it had once been. Yet intellectually, he knew better. He wasn't at full strength. He never would be until he could finally figure out how to break the death spell that encased the mingled hoard that had once belonged to both him and his mate.

A tiny shard of pain bit at him as he thought of her. It was much fainter than it used to be. But it was still there. Opening his mouth, he unleashed a bellow of sheer rage and frustration. It reverberated throughout the water. Entire schools of nearby fish turned as one and fled into the distance as the sea's most incredible predator raced through it, throwing all those damned emotions into the depths so they would leave him be.

So they would allow him the blissful luxury of being unable to feel anything at all.

Mouth still open in a terrifying grimace, Kai swooped down into the blackening depths that few creatures could withstand. Yet the pressure hardly bothered him. Water dragons were made for this environment. This place was his natural home.

Several moments more through the darkness, then he turned and swam upward. Toward the surface of the ocean, where light came through again. His dragon form actually had an excellent mix of vision as well as sonar that helped him navigate in the deepest, darkest depths of the sea. But his treasure was located in more shallow waters. Besides, the land was going to start angling up again in a moment.

As he followed the contours of the underwater valleys and canyons, some of them more sizable than the largest ones upon dry land found anywhere on earth, he felt the sweet nothingness surround him with its soothing balm of quietude and peace.

After another round of yelling with his brother that morning on the phone—yelling by his brother, really, who just got more and more incensed as Kai stayed calm and non-reactive on the other end of the line—he'd known he needed