Gripping as tightly as she could with the hand on the top of the trunk, she released the hand on the bottom. For a second she thought she was a goner. The currents were terrifyingly powerful. The river was strong and deep. If it took her again she probably wouldn’t survive. If she didn’t get out soon though… Candy slapped her other hand on top of the trunk. Using all of her waning strength, she pulled with all her might. It felt like she weighed a freaking ton. Like her legs had been carved from lead.

She somehow managed to get a knee onto the trunk. For a moment it felt like she was going to be sucked back. Her arms shook. Her whole damned body shook. With a mighty pull, she got her belly onto the rough tree trunk. Candy cried out as she pulled herself further out of the water. Unfortunately, that’s where her energy reserves dried up. Then again, she could count herself lucky. She was out of the water. Mostly out of the water. Her feet still dangled in the cold on either side.

Then she blacked out.

The sound of her own moaning brought her back to her senses. Her legs hurt. Everything hurt. She needed to get out of the water and needed to get dry. If only she could get her body to work.

She moaned again, this time in frustration. Shit! Hands closed on her waist and pulled her up. It was one of them. She tried to scream but a whimper escaped. She was in worse shape than she had thought. Her legs felt like useless pieces of dangling meat. How long had she been in that water?

The huge shifter pulled her against his body.

You’ll be torn to pieces. The words of the woman dragon shifter returned to her. These guys planned on using them in the worst of ways. She might have been a high-priced call girl. One with a list of terms as long as one arm, but she wasn’t ever going to allow herself to be degraded in that way. Candy began to squirm, she tried to get away from the big son of a bitch even though she knew that it would probably mean falling back into the river and to certain death.

Such small frail beings. Our males will hunt you and fight for you. The successors will get to keep you. To rut with you. The tall, dragon shifter woman with the red hair had been clear about what their fates would be. She seemed to enjoy telling them in detail what was waiting for them if they were captured by the much stronger shifters. You are to be mated and impregnated. I doubt you will survive the mating let alone the pregnancy.