Read Gambling on Her Bear (Shifters in Vegas) for Free Online

helped, which was the only reason he’d kept his bear leashed.
    Jesus, he was crazy, risking his heart to a woman like that. He was bound to sprout gray hair and die young from a heart attack she gave him with one of her escapades.
    His bear grinned.
Dying young and happy beats old and bored, you know.
    Tanner pursed his lips. Fate was just messing with him. That’s what it was. Karen wasn’t his destined mate. She couldn’t be.
    But his bear sniffed her trail dreamily long after she’d been led out of the room. The only reason the beast allowed her out of sight was the knowledge that her dragon blood kept her safe.
    “You.” Schiller snapped his fingers.
    Tanner held back a growl. God, he’d like to take the vampire on, face-to-face. But fate was messing with him on that count, too, because he had to be sneaky and bide his time. Christ, it was unworthy of a bear. But he had his clan’s welfare to think about, so he held back his tongue — and his claws.
    “I want the whole building searched. Find out how she broke in.”
    He arched an eyebrow and pointed straight up. “Well, she is a dragon.”
    He had to hide a smile, imagining Karen swooping down on the roof. God, he’d like to see her in dragon form. She’d have the same reddish-black coloring as her hair, he’d bet. A flap or two of her wings and she’d be airborne. What a sight that would be. And what a feeling it would be for his bear to lope along a mountain ridge as she soared overhead. The moonlight would glint off her wings, and they’d meet in some lofty place, shift back to human form, and kiss. Kiss and touch and explore, with the earthy scent of dragon mixing with her human scent.
    Imagine not one night, but a lifetime of that,
his bear sighed.
    “Find out who’s responsible and punish them,” Schiller snapped.
    Ah, law and order in the vampire world. So black and white.
    Schiller and his entourage disappeared inside the penthouse suite, and Tanner spent the next hour affirming what he’d already surmised. Karen had broken in through the roof entrance, set a fire a few floors down as a diversion, and then backtracked to steal the diamond. The fire would seal the fire doors leading to Schiller’s apartment, too, which bought her time to steal the diamond. If she hadn’t tripped the witch’s trap, she would have escaped with the diamond.
    He walked down the ashy hallway of the twenty-seventh floor, telling himself he had it all figured out. Elementary, right?
    Except some things didn’t add up. The lock on the roof door had simply been sprung as if she’d had the key. And how had she set the fire? Of course, as a dragon, all she had to do was spit a few flames, but the hallways of the two levels below didn’t bear the phosphoric scent that went with dragon’s breath. Or so he’d heard, because he’d never met a dragon before. They were few and far between, more legend than real life.
    She’ll be a legend, all right,
his bear hummed, dreaming of her.
    They’d both be legends — Karen and her sister, Kaya, who’d torched half the underground fighting arena Schiller ran in his spare time. Tanner wished he had been able to witness that, but he’d been working in the casino that night. He would have loved to see Schiller’s face as not one but two dragons slipped out of his grasp.
    His brow furrowed with the thought. If he had been there, would he have been able to let Karen go?
    And now she was back. While part of him cried to see her taken captive again, another part of his soul sang. He had a second chance!
    But really, a second chance at what?
    At love. At forever,
his bear said.
    Tanner took the stairs all the way down to the tenth floor, where Schiller kept his occasional “guests.” They came in all shapes, sizes — and flavors, he figured, grimacing — and while some went willingly, others had no choice. Like Karen.
    The willing ones weirded him out. There’d been a whole group of college-age women through here his first