by Jo Ellen
The dragon lord turned back, resolute and ready to fight, but there was no need. Colin was in the air reaching for Amon.
Colin had pushed off and leapt five feet across the floor before Amon knew he was coming. Dragons may have strength and fire, but wolves had speed and extremely developed thighs. Colin tackled him and they both hit the ground rolling before Colin came out on top and pinned Amon to the stone floor.
“You need to think about this man, you can’t win. Calm down and apologize to your lord. Maybe he’ll go easy on you.” Colin huffed as he struggled to hold him down.
Stephanie didn’t think taking the reasonable approach would work. The cops she knew were well versed in trying to reason with someone, but she was convinced this guy was a zealot and believed his cause was righteous.
She was correct. Fear shook her entire body as Amon shifted, throwing Colin off in the process. The dragon lord, Colin, and Quinn shifted as well, while Robert pulled a sword from his back. She had no idea that was even possible since he hadn’t had a sword earlier.
The dragons hovered over the ground while Colin shifted and shook off his tattered clothes. This was no longer a fight Colin could win. As a wolf he was no match for the dragon and she really wished he would bow out and let the dragons handle it. But she doubted he would, as she was learning how protective wolves could be, especially Colin in particular. He stood on guard watching the dragons above his head, waiting for an opening, and he found one.
Amon flew close enough for Colin to leap and sink his teeth into the edge of one wing. Amon tried to shake him off, but Colin held firm until he heard Robert’s shout.
“Let go Colin, he’s going up!”
Colin shook his head abruptly, tearing out part of a wing before dropping to the ground on all fours. Spitting out the portion in his mouth, he growled as he paced and kept his eyes glued on the fight over his head.
Stephanie hugged the wall and sunk down so she wouldn’t be a target, trying to make herself as tiny as possible. She was thankful to see Robert still watching Colin’s back with Quinn and his father in the air battling Amon.
She could place-mark this moment as being another surreal point in time in which she watched dragons fighting right in front of her. They went as high as the ceiling allowed before diving and hitting one another with an impact that reverberated through her ears.
There simply wasn’t enough room for Quinn and his father to attack simultaneously. One would dive in while the other waited his turn. Amon was taking a beating, barely getting any hits in. His roar showed his frustration, and while his fire breathing was mind-blowing, it did nothing to the dragons he fought.
Relieved that he wasn’t throwing any fire her way, she was happy she wouldn’t be barbequed for tonight’s dinner. As far as she knew, he had taken no notice of her at all, for which she was thankful.
Amon landed, shifting back to his human form. His bruised body healed itself as she watched, cuts closing and sealing themselves. He was once again fully clothed she noted as she watched his chest heave beneath his shirt.
The dragon lord and Quinn landed with booted feet hitting the ground having shifted mid air, an impressible feat in her eyes.
The dragon lord stood with hands on hips, his ire still notable. “You would attack me?” He walked around his adversary, waiting to hear his excuse before pronouncing his punishment.
With a fanatic light in his eyes, Amon answered. “You are weak!” He looked around the cavern, spotting Stephanie where she hugged the wall. “There! That is what we would be up against. Can’t you all see how frail humans are? We are dragons, we deserve whatever we can take. Might makes it right!”
Some of the dragons shook their head in denial, while others looked on pitifully as they realized he wasn’t just a young dragon spouting a fantastical viewpoint, but instead he was deranged and unstable.
“Amon, you are a threat to all dragons and humans, therefore I must act to protect those you would harm…” The dragon lord abruptly cut off his pronouncement when Amon disappeared and reappeared next to Stephanie, moving so fast she didn’t register the move with her naked eye.
Her oh shit moment ended with Amon grabbing her around the waist and holding one sharp claw across her neck. Every dragon shifter in the room froze like an icicle hanging from a rain gutter.
She held as still as a column of cement, making sure not to move and accidentally cut her jugular by quaking in her shoes. Her quest had changed from fun to fear. The claw at her throat made swallowing the saliva pooled in her mouth difficult. The only movement she allowed was sliding her eyes to Colin, and he was pissed. He’d shifted back and was pawing through his tattered jeans. Seriously? Getting dressed was his priority? Maybe she needed to rethink this whole mate thing.
She saw Colin pull his gun out of the mess of material and turn, pointing it their way. Oh. Well okay then. He wanted his gun, not his clothes.
This was one of those times she was more than happy with her average height. Amon’s head would make a good target since he was so much taller than her.
“Let her go,” he growled. His voice was deeper, rumbling up through his chest to his vocal chords. His hands were steady with both hands gripping his weapon and his feet planted about shoulder width apart and head tilted slightly with Amon in his sights.
Ironically, Stephanie fought the urge to giggle at the naked dude with a gun. His nudity didn’t seem to bother him at all, which was all kinds of cool to her. He was her knight in nudity and she knew from somewhere deep inside that she could count on him to rescue her. But then, a shot rang out, almost deafening her. She felt the pinch of Amon’s claw when he flinched. What the hell? Did he miss his shot?
“Let her go or next time it’s your brain that takes a bullet, and it won’t be a little scrape like that one on your temple.”
Oh good, he hadn’t missed. The first was a shot across the brow, err bow. Ha! She was losing it. Making bad puns while silently freaking out on the inside obviously messed up your head.
“I’ll kill her wolf, just to show the dragon province how easy it is to kill humans,” Amon said.
“And then I’ll kill you. I’ll hunt you down wherever you go and make sure your death is long and painful.” Colin stood stoically staring him down.
Wait. What? She wasn’t ready to die. He was supposed to take out the bad guy and rescue his princess. Okay, she wasn’t a princess but she damn well deserved her happy ever after. Everyone did, in her opinion.
“You’re willing to allow your mate to die?” Amon asked, noticeably confused.
“We’re mates, we’ll be together in the after life or born again in another world. I’ll find her wherever she goes,” Colin stated adamantly.
Well, that was a new one to her and she didn’t like it one bit. Dead was dead. There was no sex in dead land and she wanted sex. Lots and lots of sex. A metaphysical world with no sex did not seduce her into being cool with this. No. If they got out of this, she would lay down some rules. No sacrificing the woman to save mankind would be rule number one.
Thinking about her new list of rules, she was startled when Amon pushed her aside and ran for a large opening in the cavern, which led to the ledge where dragons could land or take off.
Sitting now on the stone floor, she watched as he leapt off the ledge and shifted in mid air. Quinn was close behind as he too shifted while jumping off to follow Amon. Several other dragons did the same.
Stephanie was soon scooped up into Colin’s bare arms as he hugged her close to his body, smothering her against his skin.
The adrenalin rush that had gotten her through this mess decided to leave the building. She lay in his arms, weak and practically in shock. She’d be PTSD’ing over this adventure for quite some time.
She was having herself a grand ole pity party wondering if she could handle living in a magical world. But what choice did she really have? Going back to her mundane non-magical existence did not appeal either. This would be her life now, well maybe not bat
tling dragon’s everyday but living with magical beings. Which was really pretty awesome.
“Stephanie? Stephanie!” Colin yelled.
While she’d been tripping out, Colin had been checking for injuries and evidentially saying her name for a while.
“I’m good. It was just a small nick,” she said.
Someone had given Colin a strip of cloth to wipe the blood from her neck. The small trickle of blood had stopped flowing and would only need a small bandage.
“I think it’s time we head back to Wolf Creek. We still need to give the potion to Doan,” Robert said as he stood watching.
“Thank you for your help, Colin.” The dragon lord nodded his thanks before focusing on her. “I am sorry one of my dragons threatened you, Stephanie. We are protectors, not barbarians. I deeply regret that your visit here may have colored your views about us.”
Stephanie took a moment to clear her throat. “One mound of dirt in a field of diamonds doesn’t tarnish the entire field.” Wow, where did that come from? She sounded positively deep and clever with that one.
“Your gracefulness is as dazzling as your beauty.” The dragon grinned slightly when Colin growled. “Too much?”
She stroked Colin’s arm, soothing the beast inside. Learning how to handle her mate was coming naturally too her now. She figured he had been on the same adrenalin rush but was doing better with the crashing part. But she was still pissed at him and working up a nice rant when the dragon lord spoke.
“Go. I’ll be looking for Doan to report in soon.” The dragon lord walked away with a few of his dragons following.
“Shall we?” Robert asked before laying a hand on them both.
The world swirled around her as once again she was transported via the Fae Magical Express Ride.
Chapter 9
Stephanie pushed herself out of Colin’s arms and stomped off down the trail towards the castle. “Hey, Mr. dying is fine with me guy,” she threw over her shoulder, “you don’t tell the bad guy you’re all kinds of cool with offing the hostage.”
Her rant stopped when she stood in front of the castle. Hands on hips, she took in the home of the werewolf brothers. Who built a freaking castle in the woods? The huge door opened and out came the aforementioned with Rafe in the lead.
“Did you…” Rafe was cut off when Colin roared.
“I would not have let him kill you! I knew he wasn’t ready to die, he knew there was no way he would live if he hurt you.” Colin raked a hand through his hair in frustration.
“How could you be so sure? The guy was nuts,” she shouted back at him.
Colin’s teeth ground together, lips barely moving. “We’ll discuss this at home, come along Stephanie.”
“Oh man, big mistake,” Devlin whispered from where he stood by his brother.
“Bite me, asshole. I’m not going anywhere,” Stephanie stated as she poked him in the chest.
The three brothers had not moved from their place on the landing in front of their home, too enthralled with the show on their front lawn.
“See? This is why I’m single,” Ian claimed. “When I find my mate, she will follow my lead because she’ll know I’ll only do what’s best for her.”
“Yeah, I can’t wait,” Rafe said sarcastically. “And somebody go get Colin some clothes, naked after shifting is fine. Naked man arguing on my lawn is not.”
Ian nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we don’t need to see that crap.”
Devlin slapped Ian on the back. “I can’t wait to meet this make-believe perfect woman that will actually agree to be your mate.”
Ian shrugged his brother off, going back to watching the couple as Robert moved to stand next to Rafe so he could speak over the yelling.
Robert waved his hand and Colin was covered in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt.
“Where’s Doan?” Robert asked.
“He’s sleeping in one of the guest rooms. He and Dev were at Charlie’s last night and didn’t get home till this morning,” Rafe said.
“It was a good way to keep him occupied.” Devlin shrugged. “He thinks he got away with going to a bar and sneaking some beers. Man, he’s a really obnoxious sixteen-year-old. He hits on every woman he meets, online or in person and takes my headset to play Xbox with my friends while talking crap the whole time. It’s been four days since y’all left and I’m out of ideas to keep him entertained.”
“You’re just mad cause he has more kills than you,” Ian muttered.
“Weel, I appreciated the help. Now I just need to get him to drink the potion. I dinna want to try and hold a dragon down to pour it down his throat.” Robert sighed.
Rafe nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem since he’s likes his drink. Come inside and tell me what happened in Faery while Devlin takes care of the dragon problem.”
Ian still had eyes on the couple. He nodded their way. “What about them?”
Rafe looked over. “Looks like their winding down.” He let out a small growl, which got Colin’s attention. “Let’s take this inside.”
Stephanie grudgingly allowed Colin to take her arm and guide her into the house. She was starting to come to terms with Colin and his cocky confidence in his ability to protect her. She wasn’t used to someone who not only believed they could protect the whole freaking world, but believed it was his job.
He settled her on one the sofas and sat next to her with his thigh pressing against hers and clasping her hand in his as if he was afraid she would make a run for it.
She tuned Robert out as he explained to Rafe the problem they had with Amon. She had her own dilemma. Colin expected her to move in with him immediately and start their life as a mated never to be separated couple.
God, she’d never had a relationship last longer than six months and he expected a lifetime and beyond if he had his way. She knew what he wanted, but what did she want? Go home or stay? Except his protective personality disorder, she giggled a little at that thought, or go home and forget she’d ever met him.
Her stomach got a little queasy at that thought. Remembering her claim of ‘mine’ when they were in the valley, that small epiphany exploded into the realization that she had claimed him as much as he’d claimed her.
Wow, she would do it. Move here, work with him and build a new life in this small town. And oh yeah, become a wolf.
She was mindful enough to know their argument was not really about his telling her what to do, but about her fear of change.
Where was love in this pheromone induced mating? Yeah, she was attracted to him, but was that enough? Maybe it was like an arranged marriage where you slowly fell in love as you get to know him. Bah, that sounds positively boring! She wanted that grand declaration of undying love where she was the center of his world.
Watching as he told Rafe his part in their adventure, she felt that tingle in her chest once again. Maybe she was already there because she didn’t want to leave his side, and she sure as hell didn’t want some other woman making any claims on him.
She wished she could talk to Lisa, her BFF who she never kept secrets from. It’d be nice to hash out her inner struggles with someone who understood her so well. But boy, this was a biggie and she didn’t have a choice. Colin had talked about the need to be hidden from the human world when they’d gone to see the bitch/witch so she was on her own.
She was brought out of her musings when Doan marched into the room and plopped down on the sofa opposite her. Devlin followed, his face set in stubborn lines as he set the bottle of wine down on the coffee table situated between the two sofas.
“He won’t drink it,” Devlin snarled.
“Dude! You said it was a potion, I’m not drinking some strange shit that might kill me!” Doan crossed his arms, obstinately staring at Devlin.
Rafe rubbed his forehead, grumbling under his breath. “And you told him this why? Ever hear of the phrase, ‘too much info’”?
Ian grabbed the bottle and took a swig before slamming the bottle back dow
n. “Pussy,” he muttered.
Doan shot him the finger but watched Ian closely as if waiting for him to die horrifically right in front of him.
Robert took the bottle next and pointed at Doan before he drank. “Yer next, you bloody stubborn dragon. Yer Dragon Lord needs to ken how you were drugged and you won’t get those memories back until this spell yer under is gone. You ken I’m Fae, right? Look at me, no bad reactions, nothing but a sweet tasting wine. You’ll drink it or I’ll pour it down yer bloody gullet.” Robert threatened.
Doan grabbed the bottle and gulped, staring at both Robert and Ian. “I’m not a pussy,” he grumbled.
Ian snorted and walked off to lean against the huge mantle over the fireplace.
Stephanie whispered to Colin, “The spell in the wine won’t hurt them?”
“Naw, they aren’t under any kind of influence so it won’t have an effect on them,” he answered.
She didn’t take her eyes off Doan, watching as he closed his eyes and his entire body shuddered. A small puff of black smoke exited his nostrils before he opened his eyes and squinted at them. Without saying a word, he rose and left the room, heading to the guest room he’d slept in the night before.
They all looked at each other in confusion, wondering what to do next. Was he healed? Stephanie waited in nervous anticipation.
Hearing footsteps from the hallway, every eye was turned that way. Doan entered, pausing to tug the cuff of his dress shirt from beneath his suit coat.
Stephanie’s jaw dropped in amazement. Damn he looked good, like he just stepped off the cover of a men’s magazine of the perfectly dressed male. His suit fit perfectly, no off the rack for him. His hair was slicked back in a queue, highlighting his square jaw.
She heard Colin growl and shifted her gaze to him and saw an unhappy male glaring at her. “Aw come on, look at him.” She made no apologies.
“I ask for forgiveness for my appalling behavior.” He stood stiffly before Rafe.
Rafe nodded, slapping him on the back. “Relax Doan, it was the spell.”
Devlin plopped down next to Stephanie and quietly whispered, “I liked him better as a douchebag teenager, now he’s back to having a long stick up his ass.”