by Jadyn Chase
Golden helices twined around his crimson length. I couldn’t tell the Longtails apart anymore. One of them squirmed to his head and wound its body around his neck. Its tail whipped through the air and the pointed end stabbed him in the eyes. He bowed before the blow and collapsed to the ground.
I couldn’t watch anymore. I didn’t want to see him go down like this. I would rather close my eyes and let the inevitable take me.
A strange sound caught my ear. I cast one last glimpse toward Brayden. The man I loved lay chest down on the ground with the four dragons perched on his back. He didn’t try to fight them. “Shift, Morgan!” he roared. “Shift now!”
Shift? I took a second to understand what he meant. Me—shift? Wait a minute. I was Los Diablos, wasn’t I? My father was one of these dragons. I didn’t know about my mother, but that made me at least half of one of them.
I could shift. I was a dragon like them, like Brayden. Shift? I didn’t know how to do that. Shift, Morgan. Shift now.
I thought it over, and when I did, my eyes drifted downward. The tattoo artist sneered ready to blow my brains out. When I took my gaze off him, I noticed something wooden sticking out of his belt. Shift, Morgan. Shift now.
I couldn’t shift, but the dragon buried in my being raised her head. Her eyes glowed blood red. She didn’t have to accept this defeat. The weak, pathetic human part of me might, but not her.
I barely moved. The whole thing turned out to be so easy in the end. I observed the microscopic adjustments of the tattoo artist’s fingers on the trigger guard. I could measure them down to the micron. This new awareness gave me all the time in the world to make my move.
When I did, I acted with slow, deliberate care so I never made any mistake. I put out my hand cautiously, almost lovingly. Nothing he could do could make me hurry. He didn’t scare me. How could he scare a dragon?
My fingers closed around that wooden handle and I pulled. The knife slid out of his belt. His eyes bugged open. The leering grin on his face froze in surprise and I thrust home. The blade entered his ribs effortlessly, so enticingly. How delectable it felt to kill. How luscious and delicious his blood smelled gushing down my arm and dripping from my elbow.
He hovered there with his shotgun still trained on my face. His features went rigid. I didn’t need to see anymore. I didn’t even have to bother to check if he was really dead.
I hurled him away venting all my colossal rage on the world. I vaulted to my feet, but I didn’t stop there. I would never stop. This was my fight. It was all mine.
A deafening roar exploded out of my guts. It grew and grew to a mind-boggling magnitude. I would bellow the whole world down before I quit. It carried me higher until I peered down on the scene from above the house roof.
The four dragons stopped thrashing Brayden to stare up at me. Their eyes bulged out of their heads and their mouths hung open in shock. Why should I shock them so much? This was just me, a bigger me, a purer form of me.
Brayden gaped up at me, too, but without that stunned horror in the dragons’ faces. A beatific smile spread across his features and his cheeks glowed down there underneath his writhing enemies.
Without a second thought, I snapped my tail around and sent the four of them spinning off to nowhere. I shot my flinty gaze around the yard in search of anyone foolish enough to stand up to me.
In seconds, Brayden leaped to his feet and changed. He shot off the ground brimming with dragon fury. He rose as tall as me before he leveled off. He arched back his wings and screamed to the heavens beating them in challenge.
The four dragons who attacked him cartwheeled into the hedge. They bounced off the foliage and wheeled around for the counterassault. When they saw both of us standing there, though, they checked themselves.
At the same moment, Brayden and I pivoted around to confront them. I screeched with all my might and he screamed at the same time. I lowered my head and advanced on those insignificant pests.
Just then, a phalanx of brilliant red dragons came barreling up the hill. They streaked over the roof chasing a horde of golden dragons before them. They swept them far and away inland and disappeared.
At the sight, the remaining four took wing and joined their comrades running for cover. They fled for the hills and left Los Diablos alone and unchallenged crisscrossing the clear air above my head.
14
Brayden
I landed in the yard outside the warehouse. The rolling doors stood open to the evening breeze. A few young bucks guarded the fence with their weapons propped on their shoulders. Other than that, the rest of the club lounged on the couches or tended the barbeque according to their preference.
A row of bikes glistened under the floodlights. José sat cross-legged next to one twisting a socket wrench on the chain tensioner. Carlos leaned against the door frame while his young daughter jumped up and down in front of him. She caught hold of his shirt and tried to climb him like a tree. He did his best to ignore her while he carried on a conversation with Tomas.
I couldn’t hear him over the bouncy music floating out of the building. This scene hearkened back to so many nights just like this, but tonight turned out to be different, didn’t it?
While I stood there regarding everything, a whirl of wings made me look up. Three dragons alighted near me and shifted into Logan, Kane, and Cisco. They laughed and clapped each other on the backs before they strolled off to join the party.
A second later, a fourth dragon drifted into the ring of light. Its scales flashed iridescent red and vermillion. It took a step, folded its wings in, and tripped. It stumbled and went down on its chest before it corrected its posture and shifted into Morgan.
I bit back a grin. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
Her cheeks colored and she peeked around. “I guess it’s gonna take a while to get the knack of this flying thing.”
I allowed the faintest hint of a smile to show on my face. I couldn’t let her think I was laughing at her efforts. “That’s right. Just keep practicing. You’ll get the hang of it.”
She brushed her hair out of her eyes and eased closer to me. “You guys make it look so easy.”
“We’ve been doing it all our lives,” I pointed out. “We grew up watching others do it, and the minute we came of age, we were flying all over the place. It comes naturally to us. Don’t you worry. Everybody understands. You’re among friends here.”
The blood flushed across her cheeks again. “Thanks. I need to be reminded of that.”
“I’ll remind you as often as you like.” My hand drifted toward her and I clasped hers. “Come on. Let’s get in there before they eat all the food.”
She hesitated, but I drew her toward the warehouse. A few of the boys turned around when we approached. Kane raised his bottle to me. “Good work today, Brayden.”
Cisco elbowed Logan where they stood next to the fridge. “Did you see the looks on their faces when she shifted? Damn, I wish I had that on video!” They all burst out laughing—all but Carlos. He kept his place and only smiled.
I steered Morgan toward the fridge. “Do you want a beer?”
A brief smile flickered across her face before she went back to staring at everything. “Okay.”
I took out two frosty bottles and handed her one. “I never would have believed she could shift like that,” Cisco was saying. “They thought they had Brayden on the ropes and wham! Here she comes shifting right in front of God and everyone. Man, she slapped those fuckers so hard they never knew what hit them. They didn’t know whether to scratch their asses or change their briefs.”
The guys laughed again. I sidled into the circle. Morgan stuck close to my side, but she didn’t join the conversation. She hung back and listened. They might as well be talking about someone else.
She sipped her beer and said nothing. Part of me wanted to draw her into the general levity, but I stopped myself. She had to learn her way around this club on her own. It would take time. She had to get used to this. I couldn�
�t expect her to walk in and make herself at home like none of this ever happened.
In answer to my thoughts, Logan bumped Cisco’s arm. “Hey, do you remember when he asked her to put those cuffs on herself? Shit, you couldn’t get near her for the thorns.”
Another round of raucous laughter greeted this reminiscence. I cast a sidelong glance at her, but she still didn’t join in the fun. She didn’t understand these people. She probably thought they were making a joke out of her. She didn’t get that this was their way of processing the danger past and integrating her into our society. She didn’t know yet that they joked and laughed about everyone this way.
I scanned the circle. Over Logan’s shoulder, I spotted Carlos eyeing me. He raised his beer bottle to me and dipped a single clipped nod.
I nudged Morgan to get her attention. When she looked at me, I inclined my head to signal her to follow me. I detached myself from the circle and walked around to where Carlos stood.
Morgan halted at my side. She matched my movements step for step. That alone told me she didn’t feel comfortable here.
Carlos extended his hand to her. “Thank you for your good work tonight, Morgan. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
She blushed again. “I should be the one thanking you. I’m embarrassed when I think about the way I behaved the last time I came here. I hope you can all forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” he told her. “You did what any normal person would do in that situation and we all know you didn’t remember anything. Now you’re one of us. You proved yourself in battle tonight and that’s all any of us can ask for.”
Just then, a grinding buzz came from inside. The three of us glanced over to see Miguel settling himself on a stool with the tattoo machine in his gloved hand. Martín took the chair in front of him. Miguel bent over his bare chest.
“I suppose you want me to get the new brand,” Morgan remarked.
Carlos chuckled. “You don’t need it. You’ve got a perfectly good brand already. You don’t need another one.”
She spun around to stare at him. “Really? You don’t mind that I gave it to myself?”
“You earned it tonight,” he told her. “Keep it. It means something to you and it’s as good as any other brand to us. I don’t see any reason to change it.”
She lowered her eyes to the ground. “Thank you, Sir.”
He shoved himself off the wall. “You kids enjoy yourselves tonight. I’m sure when word gets out what happened today, you’ll be able to move freely around the city. No one will bother you again now that you’re a fully patched member of this club.”
He took another swig from his bottle and sauntered away. Morgan blinked down at the drink in her hand. “What the hell just happened? I never expected him to let me go like that.”
“What did you think he would do?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I thought he’d be a lot stricter about letting me in. I thought he’d make me go through some kind of initiation or something.”
I couldn’t keep my hands off her a second longer. I slipped one arm behind her back and towed her against me. “You just did, darling. You’re in. You inherited this club from your father. There’s nothing you need to do anymore to get in. You’re Los Diablos for good now.”
Her eyes drifted to mine. They sparkled and her pupils dilated in a sultry, inviting way. “I guess I am.”
I darted in and kissed her. This night changed things as much for me as it did for her. I ought to wonder if the blissful dream of our encounter at the beach house could withstand the onslaught of company and attention here at our club headquarters.
For some reason, I didn’t wonder any of that. It all just kind of fit into the overall scheme of things. She always belonged here. She never should have left. Her old man should have brought her here when she came of age. He should have introduced her to Carlos and guided her in the ways of dragons.
He didn’t do that, though. He couldn’t. She took the roundabout route, but she got here in the end.
She looped her velvet arms around my neck and threaded her fingers into my hair. Her nearness and her silken softness swallowed me in a blizzard of sensation. I couldn’t stop gazing into those eyes. She was a dragon through and through.
When I looked at her, when I desired her, when my body buzzed all over with throbbing pulsating heat for her, I saw her that way. I saw her gargantuan and blistering mad. I saw her narrowing her eyes at her enemies to smash them to pieces.
God, I wanted her so bad like that! I wanted all of her. I wanted to fly with her far out over the open sea the way we flew back to LA from Malibu tonight. I wanted to hunt elk in the hills and fight our enemies on the wing over the desert. I wanted every dragon inch of her and I wanted her soft and sighing in my bed at night.
She didn’t know yet what being a dragon meant. She would learn. For now, she didn’t know I could crave her dragon self. She didn’t know how much hotter she made me like that, how hard she made me.
The memory alone of her launching out of her skin to attack those Longtails excited me out of my mind. No other female ever ignited my fire like this. I dug my fingertips into her spine and reveled in the quivering electricity rippling up her back.
She flexed her pelvis toward me and a tiny mew of ecstasy came from her mouth. She whimpered between my lips and delicious heat washed through her. Fuck, I wanted to take her here and now. The danger lay behind us, so I could enjoy her the way I did last night—even more than I did last night.
A shrill wolf whistle pierced the night air. Cisco and Kane brayed with laughter. Morgan pulled off my mouth, her cheeks and ears pink with embarrassment.
She ran her hand across her lips and glanced over her shoulder. The four guys leaned on each other’s shoulders smirking and snickering at us. My ears burned, but I only smiled back at them. “Go watch a movie, brothers. You’ll see more skin.”
Tomas doubled over laughing. “It’d take a monster like her to tame you, Brayden.”
The others enjoyed the general hilarity, but when I checked Morgan, she wasn’t smiling. A jumble of confusion and fear clouded her features. I threw my arm around her shoulders and pulled her away. “Don’t pay any attention to them, darling. Come on. Let’s go sit down somewhere.”
I guided her to the nearest couch. I pushed two little boys out of the way and sat Morgan down next to me. She still stared out at the yard, but the guys lost interest in us now that we no longer offered them a target for their jabs.
Cisco migrated to the dance floor where a bunch of women danced around with their partners. Tomas wandered over to the bikes and squatted next to José. They talked while he worked, and Kane went inside to watch Martín get his latest tat.
I put my arm around Morgan and tried to pull her close again, but she didn’t soften. She held herself stiff. “I’m a monster, Brayden.”
I cursed Tomas. “You’re a beautiful monster, darling. You’re the most magnificent monster on the block.”
She looked down at the bottle in her lap. “Don’t try to make light of it. It’s not funny.”
“Do you see me laughing?”
Her head shot up. “How can you even think about…..touching me…. after that?”
I considered my options here. If I played my cards wrong, she would never come to grips with what she was. “Let me ask you something. Do you think I’m a monster?”
“No!” She checked herself. “Well…. yes…..a little. I mean, you are, but you’re not.”
I cocked my head to study her at close range. “Do you think I’m ugly…. like that, I mean? Do you think I’m so hideous and disgusting and monstrous that you would never want to touch me again after seeing me like that?”
“No,” she breathed. “Of course not.”
“There you go. Now you can understand why I would think you’re beautiful like that. You can understand why I think you’re a thousand times more beautiful and more desirable like that than if you weren’t a mons
ter—I mean, a dragon.”
“It’s different for you,” she returned. “You’re a man. How can a woman be beautiful…. like that?”
I pointed toward the dance floor. Cisco wrapped one arm around Christina’s waist and gyrated his hips in time to the music. She slithered up and down him in sensuous movements that mimicked the dance of intimacy. Rita and Isabel and Julia all danced around beaming and laughing and having a grand old time. “Do you think they’re monstrous and ugly?”
“No!” she exclaimed. “Not at all.”
“They’re women,” I pointed out, “and they’re all dragons, just like you. If they’re not disgusting and horrible and repulsive, how could you be?”
She averted her gaze. “I don’t know.”
I laid my palm to her cheek and turned her around to face me. When she did, those eyes of hers caught me in their sway. I had to convince her. I had to make her see just how magically beautiful she really was.
“Listen to me, sweetheart,” I whispered. “When Tomas said you were a monster, he didn’t mean you’re ugly or disgusting or any other thing you’re imagining. He meant you’re powerful. You’re fierce. You’re strong in the best possible way. You’re everything we prize in a woman—in a person. You’re everything we could hope you would be and you proved that today. You shifted in battle and you attacked our enemies. You put yourself in harm’s way to throw the advantage to our people and we won. Do you think he meant someone disgusting and horrible and repulsive could win my heart?”
She tried to look down, but I maintained my hold on her cheek. I kept her there to look into her eyes. If I looked deep enough, I just might be able to convince her how much I wanted her.
“You are incredibly, impossibly, mind-blowingly beautiful to me,” I breathed. “I never thought anyone could be, but when I saw you today, I couldn’t believe I ever lived without you. You’re a thousand times sexier and more beautiful and intoxicating, now that I’ve seen you like that. I want to see you like that again—forever. I can’t decide which way I like you better. When I see look at you now, I see you like that—huge and devilish and deadly.” I gasped out loud at the thought. “It was awesome!”