Claiming His Prize is a fast paced, erotic romance about a dragon shifter and his chosen mate…and what happens when something stands between the two. Don’t miss this steamy novella!
[Some Spoilers; Mature Audiences]
Claiming His Prize by Ellis Leigh
Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Hello, my name is Katie, and I have a new obsession. His name is Piers and he’s a dragon shifter. **fans self** This book, y’all. This. Book. Here.
This is the second novella in the Feral Breed Followings series, but it can be read as a stand alone book. You find out a little about The Pack House at the beginning, and that it’s a place for wolf shifters to fight each other to make some money, but also to pay off debts. Piers is a fighter there, but he’s a dragon shifter not a wolf. He had kept his true nature a secret, but it was outted in the first novella. Now, everyone knows and he has a bit of a target on his back.
Dragons are strong-willed and capable fighters, and they’re really competitive. If something or someone proves to be a bit of a challenge, it makes them want to win even more.
Enter the good doctor. Jane has been the doc at The Pack House for years. She’s working off a debt to the man who runs the place, Mickey. He paid for her medical school if she would come and work for him there. Even though that debt is paid, he still holds power over her in the form of her father and his care at a nearby nursing home.
Piers has been trying to get Jane to notice him, but she maintains a professional distance. This makes Piers work harder. Finally, after a vicious fight where Piers gets knocked in the ear, he ends up in the infirmary with Jane.
If the other fighters find out that hitting him there will throw him off so much, they’ll be doing it all the time, so he tries to carry himself like nothing is wrong until he’s alone. Then he face plants at her feet.
This is when things heat up for both of them. Jane has been trying to ignore her attraction to Tidal (his fighting name) by putting him in a “fighter” box, but it’s becoming increasingly harder to do. When she gets him fixed up, they lean in very close while talking and Piers ends up running a hand down her neck. In response, she knocks him right in his injured ear, throwing him off balance completely.
As he’s leaving, Jane asks him to tell her a secret to make up for the touch earlier. Piers agrees and she asks if dragon shifters can really see heat which leads to this exchange…
“Dragons see heat and taste scent.” I flicked my tongue out, nearly collapsing as the heady scent of her overtook me. “And my God, Doc, you smell delicious.”
Probably one of my favorite things about this story, though, is the huge part consent plays in it.
Piers never does anything that Jane doesn’t agree to first. He asks to touch her, every single time. I loved that about him. He wants her so much, but there’s no way he would do anything against her will or force himself on her.
This brings us to the problem of the story.
Mickey decides he needs to take Tidal (Piers) down a peg or two and bring in more money for The Pack House. Somehow, he finds another dragon shifter. This one, though, isn’t like Piers. Piers was raised by wolf shifters. He was always taught to let his human lead and keep his dragon pinned away. Saern is not like that at all.
Mickey brings Jane out to the cave where Saern is at to look him over and upon seeing her, he decides that Jane will be his chosen mate. He touches her and rubs against her without her consent. He tastes her by licking the skin of her neck. Jane is assaulted and Mickey makes no move to help because he’s a total loser and also because he knows there’s nothing he can do against Saern. The dragon shifter is not someone he can control no matter what he told himself before.
After that first meeting with Saern, Jane comes back to The Pack House and grabs Piers. Thing get hot between them, but don’t go further than grinding and kissing. She doesn’t know what to do about Saern, but she knows that she wants Piers and would rather forget with him for what little time they have left before Saern becomes a big problem.
It’s after this encounter that Piers’ dragon finally pushes forward enough to let him know that he has chosen her. It’s a common misconception that dragon shifters don’t mate for life or care as deeply for their mate as wolf shifters. The truth is, dragon shifters have a human type of courtship at first before it moves deeper.
It was much like how humans chose a spouse, except that once our dragon has chosen a mate, that was it. The chose once in their life, tying their soul to the one they wanted for their remaining days.
A perk of Piers’ dragon side is that he can taste the air. He’s also cold natured, so when Jane is with him, her body warms his and that just goes beyond intimacy to me. Piers words and the descriptions about Jane’s touch and scent/taste are just UNF.
I grabbed her hand gently and pulled it back to my chest, pressed it against the bare flesh that was no heated from her touch. “Feel how warm I am. That’s because of you. That’s your body and mine, together.”
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Mickey brings Saern back to the The Pack House early and he and Piers are immediately at odds. In fact, they don’t even wait until they’re supposed to have their fight. In a bid for Jane, both men fight, shift, and destroy the training center. The action in this scene with the dragons is absolutely superb. Piers’ drive, flight, and sight are so cool to read.
Not to mention the emergence of his possessive side.
I leaned over him so I could speak the language of my brethren.
“She is not my weakness. She makes me angrier, makes me faster, makes me hit harder. She give me the will to never give up. Jane could never make me weak.
…
“My mate is my true strength.”
I don’t hesitate to pick up anything by Ellis Leigh. Her shifter books are hot, well-written, and filled with great heroes and heroines. Put this novella on your “must read” shelf now! Oh, and if you order it today, you get an exclusive scene added into your copy!
You can also check out our other review for Ellis’ Feral Breed series, Claiming His Fate, and see where it all began!
Thank you to the author for the advance copy!