Ancient Warrior

ANCIENT WARRIOR ANCIENTS RISING SERIES BOOK EIGHT KATIE REUS Ancient Warrior Ancients Rising Series Copyright © 2023 Katie Reus * * * Cover art by Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs Editor: Julia Ganis This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book. This purchase allows you one legal copy for your own personal reading enjoyment on your personal computer or device. You do not have the right to resell, distribute, print or transfer this book, in whole or in part, to anyone, in any format, via methods either currently known or yet to be invented, or upload this book to a file sharing program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work. ANCIENT WARRIOR The last time she saw him… Long before The Fall, before the world changed forever, tiger shifter Harlow worked in black ops for the safety of all shifters. She excelled at her job, loved everything about it, until the male she loved tried to kill her. So she was forced to kill him first. She killed him. Now Aodh is back. And this fierce, dominant dragon shifter won’t stop until he gets answers. But things aren’t what they seem, and now he has more than a battle with Harlow on his hands. If they want a chance at a future, they’ll have to eliminate an ancient enemy who has targeted not only them, but their friends—and it’s going to take uniting all their skills to survive. For Kaylea Cross, best friend and rock star all in one. CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Dear Readers Acknowledgments About the Author Completed Booklist CHAPTER ONE Something was happening. For the first time in years, he felt a crack in the spell encasing him underneath this blasted fae dungeon. Heat. Power. Not fae. Dragon fire. Something was affecting the spell from outside. Somewhere… Aodh shoved out with his own magic, felt a snap as the powerful spell that had been holding him hostage fractured. It was just a fissure, but that was all he needed. All he’d been waiting for. He shoved out again like a battering ram with the brute strength of his dragon and his magic. Roaring out his rage as his own fire engulfed him, he pushed out harder and stronger now that the invisible chains binding him had finally weakened. He might never get this chance again. Had to take advantage. Had to get free. Get revenge. Now that the spell was weakened, he shoved up through the stone slab that had buried him alive in dragon form, ignoring everything as it crumbled away, fell beneath him into the pit he would never return to again. He’d rather die than be imprisoned again. As he flew upward into the fae’s castle dungeon—the one above his own secret one—he saw night sky for the first time in… He’d lost track of the time. Maybe fifteen years. Nothing, for an ancient as old as him. Except it had been stolen from him. Everything had been stolen. As he emerged fully, he saw that fire and destruction bathed where the fae castle in the Domincary realm had once been. Hundreds of other dragon shifters were high in the air, their colors shimmering against the starlight. He didn’t recognize their clan colors or their scent. A lone naked female in human form stood amongst the rubble, her bare feet coated in ash, her hands on her hips as she surveyed the destruction around her with…satisfaction. That was when he felt her magic, as ancient as he was. He had no idea who these dragons were, but they’d somehow set him free in their battle against the fae. And he’d be leaving now, thank you very much. Ignoring them, he flew upward even higher, letting his dragon fire carry him as he called on magic he hadn’t been able to touch in far too long. Not since he’d been poisoned, then trapped. His dragon fire consumed him as he moved through time and space in the rare way his line of dragons could transport until he disappeared from the fae realm and ended up… In the middle of a Chicago street. But not the one he remembered. In human form now, he kept his camouflage in place as he surveyed his surroundings. All around him were high-rises that looked as if they’d been bombed. Most of the glass windows had been blown out of the high-rises, the tops of some of them completely ripped away. And that was only the buildings still standing—most weren’t. Foliage had started to grow as it slowly overtook the once bustling human metropolis surrounding him. He inhaled deeply. Scented life, but no humans. A wolf howled in the distance, and when he saw a shadow move in the building nearest him he narrowed his gaze, then laughed lightly at himself. A jaguar loped out of the bottom floor of a building, dragging a limp, dead deer. It paused and stared at him even though he was concealed.