by Julia Mills
There was no mistaking the threat in his tone and the menace in his dirty yellow eyes. Fear, the paralyzing kind that left her freezing from the inside-out, like ice water had replaced the blood in her veins, swamped Pippa. She’d been sure she was about to die, literally was whispering the Prayer of the Dead Sister Mary Margaret had taught her…then Fury burst onto the scene.
Never one to be a shrinking violet, always refusing to back down from a fight, Pippa was abruptly introduced to the feeling of helplessness that only comes from being outmanned and overpowered. She’d stayed where her dragon commanded and watched in awe as he fought the demon and saved her curvy ass with a strength she’d only ever imagined. Of course, she went all fluffy and feminine and fainted, just more proof of her crazy luck.
Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Shep always said there was a proper lady somewhere deep inside me, I’ll have to remember to tell him I got a ‘case of the vapors’. Crap, I never called him back. Way to go, Pip. Oh well, I’ll get to it, and I’ll be leaving out the part where my man, a dragon, saved the day. Lordy, Maudie, if this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up…
With her hands and body hidden by a soft cotton throw, Pippa lightly pinched the skin next to her bellybutton, to be sure she was truly awake. Wincing at the twinge, she squeezed her eyes tight, letting out the breath she’d been holding.
And there goes that. Reality reaches out and rips my delusional rug right out from under the chunky soles of my Doc Martens. But… maybe this time reality’s got something even better up its sleeve. I gotta be due some good luck, right? After all, dragons and demons are real and I just found out there are also guys that can turn into wolves… I mean, wolven. At least things won’t be boring.
Wait! Am I really buying into all this supernatural razzmatazz? Yeah, I guess I am. Wish Sister Mary Margaret was still around, she would lap this up with a biscuit and find a way to explain it with a quote from the Bible. Even from the grave, that nun’s still teaching me the most important of life’s lessons.
With her face still turned away from the voices, Pippa smiled into the pillow under her head, instinctually recognizing Fury’s voice as he said, “My brethren, Kayne, son of Lugh, will be here sometime just after nightfall with further proof of our numbers. I can also contact the oldest among us, Zachary, if ye need.”
The dragen, Graeme she’d heard Fury call him, scoffed, “Unfortunate choice of names.”
“K-a-y-n-e.” She heard the smile in her dragon’s voice. “He was not thrilled at the news either.” His low chuckle raised goose bumps on her arms. “But as soon as ye meet him, ye will see he’s as full of light as they come.”
She saw the face of the man Fury called Kayne as it floated through his mind. His white-blond hair and sparkling eyes were a drastic contrast to the dark-haired sack of crap who’d attacked her earlier. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that the demi-god was a good guy all the way to his core – just like her Fury.
Then it dawned on her…she was seeing her dragon’s thoughts. Her connection to Fury so strong, that there was simply no use denying his existence for a second longer.
No use fighting it. If I’m nuts, maybe they’ll give me a denim straight jacket with a Harley Davidson patch.
The pull of her dragon, of the man who calmed her visions of the past and made her feel things she’d never thought possible, the one who’d rescued her with no thought of his own safety, was so all-encompassing that from one heartbeat to the next Pippa’s world was turned upside-down and inside-out. Her perception switching to that of her dragon’s, going from reliving her memories of the demon and trying to shut out the echo of his whispered threat, “Never fear Promised One. We will meet again,”, to seeing a large room, about the size of the gymnasium at St Frances of Assisi Home for Girls through Fury’s eyes.
The wood grain of the enormous conference table under Fury’s fingertips tickled her own as he unconsciously outlined a scar she imagined had been made by the sharp blade of a hunting knife. Fuzzy, kinda wavy, like everything was being reflected in a flowing creek, her sight cleared the second she relaxed and accepted what was happening.
The name Wade and the word wolfen flashed in Fury’s mind, like a neon sign, as the man with silver hair and a firm but compassionate voice nodded, “This is a lot to absorb. I appreciate you opening your mind to us, allowing us to vet you and your intentions. We have females, the One True Mates, and new young ones to protect. I’m sure you understand.”
Everyone stared at Pippa’s back for a few seconds as Fury nodded with a smile. When her dragon turned back to the table, she saw the man from the clearing, the one who’d arrived on the scene with two of the biggest damn wolves Pippa had ever seen, staring at Fury. His hard, blue eyes sized her dragon up, the hint of a large black, silver, and gray wolf standing proudly at the forefront of the man’s consciousness ready to jump into action if needed. She plucked the name, Trevor, already knowing he was a wolfen, but shocked at finding out that the two wolves were his brothers, neither of which had ever shifted into human form.
Hey! Wait! I’m not picking up on anyone’s pasts, just bits and pieces of what they’re feeling right now. Did that blasted demon screw with my brain? Maybe that’s not all bad…
“Na, mo ghrá, ye are perfectly fine,” Fury’s low rumble caressed her mind, heating her body with a single thought
“You knew I was awake the whole damn time, didn’t you?” Pippa rolled her eyes at his deep, sexy chuckle, shivering as her body tingled and her heart skipped a beat.
“Aye, ceann álainn, but ye secret’s safe with me. I’m just happy ye no longer think I’m a figment of your imagination.”
“Yeah, about that, there’s way more to learn, isn’t there?”
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio. Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
“And he quotes Shakespeare, Be still my heart.”
“Aye, mo ghrá. Anything for ye.”
Chuckling at his beautiful accent, charmed by his sentiment, Pippa returned her attention to the shiften as Wade continued, “I’ve been in contact with the Citlali, our Spiritual Leaders, of whom I am honored to be a member, and they will be communing with the deities. They had no knowledge of other species of shifters on Earth either. The prospect is both exciting and daunting to all of us.”
A growl followed the older wolfen’s comment, drawing her attention to the ebony wolfen laying on the floor to the right of the table. The white patch of fur, shaped like a figure eight that adorned his shoulder, an exact match of the tuft at the end of his bushy tail, pulsed with power as his eyes also stayed glued to Fury.
There was something special about the wolfen and his brothers, but Pippa took her cues from her dragon and refused to pry. She’d come here because that’s where the dart landed, sure she’d left it all up to chance, but quickly realizing other forces were at work, namely her dragon and his magic, that had brought her to Serenity.
With the men talking about things that quite frankly blew her mind, Pippa needed a rest from the chaos. Looking through Fury’s memories, loving that he was an open book, keeping nothing from her, encouraging her to get to know him better, she started at the beginning.
Almost immediately, she realized that her dragon was a lot older than her twenty-five years – like centuries older. What once she would have run from, now intrigued her. She could only shrug, acknowledging that the bond she already shared with her dragon was beautiful, exciting, and just…well, felt right. He was the first person she’d ever immediately trusted, not just superficially, but to the very depth of her heart and soul.
Watching the young boy with long dark curls and big, brown eyes, who worshipped his parents grow into a young man was astounding. The breath caught in her lungs as she witnessed his first transformation, the first time his brilliant purple dragon soared amongst the clouds and was stunned to see the massively regal beast dive into the ocean, instantaneously changing into a dazzling sea dr
agon whose purple, blue, and teal scales glistened under the crystal-clear waters of Fury’s home.
All at once, the images began to fly forward with a dizzying speed that nearly gave Pippa vertigo. Fury’s recollections became a blur, spinning, seeking, searching, then stopping abruptly on the image of him standing atop an ivy-covered mountain, looking out at an angry sea.
Throwing his arms wide and his head back, Fury roared to the dark, cloudy sky, “After all these years, now that I have found me balance, learned to live with the loneliness of a life without my brethren? Now, ye send me a mate? Reveal the One made for me? Why? So, I can let her down as I’ve failed my brethren? What have I to offer her? I’m broken, lost, unredeemable, because of the bloody foresight ye wove into the very fiber of me being.”
Arms dropping to his side, chin dropping to his chest, Fury did an about-face, pacing the razor’s edge of the stony ledge so far above the sharp rocks jutting from the white caps of the furious waves that they looked like pebbles in the sand. “I donnae know why I expect answers. Why I think ye will give me direction.” He stopped again, bellowing over the thunder rumbling above. “Ye even denied me insight into my own future. What was that? A joke? Fun at my expense?”
The pacing continued as Fury mumbled to himself, going from angry to frustrated to worried. He worked hard to ignore the feelings of hope and acceptance that finding his mate was bringing to his soul, as the fear of past loss and disappointment overshadowed everything. Turning towards one of the most magnificent homes Pippa had ever seen, the shadow of a drop-dead gorgeous woman with long, flowing, dark hair, an easy smile that seemed to drive the clouds away and mesmerizing brown eyes, the exact shape and color of Fury’s, stopped her dragon dead in his tracks.
With her arms outstretched and a bright light haloing her silhouette, the woman spoke, her voice a lyrical contralto with the full force of her Irish heritage coloring her words. “Fury, mo mhac beloved. What troubles ye so?”
“Máthair?” He stepped forward, unshed tears glistening in his eyes. “Is that ye? I cannae believe me eyes. Are ye not in the Heavens, safe and loved, with Da?”
“Aye, my Fury, but the depth of yer grief and yer doubt of what Fate has laid before ye touched my heart.” She closed the distance between them, her light, ethereal hand stroking his cheek as she added, “I cannae bare yer pain.” She smiled, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “A mother’s love surpasses even Heaven’s boundaries. Ye are my son. I will ne’er leave ye achin’.”
As her hand dropped from his cheek to his shoulder, she continued, “Fear not what will happen when ye meet the One the Universe has made for ye. Remember the promise given to all dragons by the Ancients, hold tight to those words and know that she will complete ye as no other ever could.”
“But what of my visions? How can I go to her carrying the weight of the future on my shoulders?”
Shaking her head and smiling, the memory of Fury’s mother tsked, “Just like yer father, bull-headed to the core.” Laughing, the sound like the tinkle of tiny silver bells, she went on, “Yer mate will be your complement.” Her hand slid off his shoulder, covering his heart, pulsing with love. “Where ye are dark, she will be light. When ye are low, she will lift ye up. Just as ye will do the same for her.” She leaned forward, placed a tender kiss on his forehead and whispered, “Where ye see the future, her sight will show the past, equal in all things, a true mate. To quote the ancient text, ‘When the dragon meets his mate, their bond of love and trust will calm both man and beast, clear the clouds of confusion and together, they will fulfill what Destiny has written in the stars’.”
With her heart pounding and a true affection that could only be described as love filling her soul, Pippa exited the Guardsman’s memories and whispered, “Thank you, Fury. For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m right where I belong. I don’t how I’ll ever repay you, but I promise to try with all that I am every day of my life.”
Chapter Ten
Returning to the forest, just south of the city limits, Fury stood hand-in-hand with his mate, still grumbling about her not staying safe with the shiften.
“I wish ye would’ve stayed out of harm’s way, Pippa, mo chroí. I’ve got an uneasy feeling about having ye out here in the open like this.”
Looking up at him, her right eyebrow arched high above her eye, his spectacular mate cocked her free hand on her hip and sassed, “Look here, Fury, I’m coming to terms with all the hocus-pocus and supernatural stuff, but I refuse to be ‘the little woman’. You will not leave be leaving me at home to darn socks and polish the silver. June Cleaver does not live here.”
“But ye have ta understand, in my day…
She huffed, tapping the toe of her hiking boot on the soft leaf-covered ground, her anger making her even more beautiful as she interrupted, a head full of steam as she continued to rant, “Nobody puts Pippa in a corner.”
Her reference to a popular movie, one he’d actually seen, was priceless and her moxie irresistible as her tiny index finger poked him in the chest, making him smile despite her frown. “I fight alongside you, or you don’t fight. Ya’ get me?” She poked him again, adding, “I’ll never understand why bravery and stupidity can look so much alike in you Alpha men.”
Sweeping her off her feet, holding her tight to his chest, Fury could no longer resist the temptation of his Pippa. She was feisty, with a mind and intellect paralleling his own. They would be partners, real partners, together in everything, in all ways. His ma was right, he’d never felt so complete, so loved and they’d just physically met less than a day ago. For the first time in his life, it was his own future that looked bright and he didn’t need a vision to tell him so.
Slamming his lips to hers, he poured everything he felt, all the love, devotion, respect, and adoration that had been building since the first image of his mate had crossed his mind, into their first, electrifying kiss. Sparks of their connection shot through his body, igniting an everlasting flame of desire that only existed because of his Pippa.
Backing her against the trunk of a large maple tree, his hands on her back shielding her tender skin from contact with the prickly bark, Fury deepened their kiss. Growling low in his throat as Pippa’s legs wound around his waist, her hot center teasing his cock, already hard and pushing against the zipper of his jeans. The Guardsman reveled in the feel of her short, manicured nails digging into the muscles of his shoulders as they became closer to being one in body, as well as mind and spirit.
Sliding the tip of his tongue along the seam of her delectable lips, he devoured her mouth, marking her from the inside-out as she opened completely to him. Their embrace was hot, fiery, passionate, demanding in a way only coming together with one’s true mate can be.
Pippa seduced his senses, held his heart in her hands and invaded his soul with a mere glance in his direction, having her in his arms was nothing short of miraculous. The flutter of her heart, her moans of desire and the way her lovely rounded hips thrust against his drove both man and dragon wild with desire.
Gripping the soft, full globes of her beautiful bum, Fury lifted his mate into his arms, no longer resisting the call of Fate to claim his Pippa as his very own. The crackle of the dry leaves covering the forest floor, reached his lust-soaked mind at the precise moment, a chuckled, “Am I interrupting?” Threw a bucket of cold water on the couple’s hunger for one another.
Growling as Pippa gasped, Fury bared his teeth, snarling, “I dinnae hear ye. Where did ye land?” Setting his mate’s feet on the ground beside him, Fury kept Pippa close as he challenged his brethren, who knew better than to come between a dragon and his Beloved before they were fully mated. Not only was it dangerous, but deadly and the Seer was on the edge.
Kayne’s smile seemed off, the humor usually dancing in his blue eyes nonexistent and the light of the sun that had haloed his body since birth, dim and murky. Clearing his throat, still not looking Fury in the eye, the demi-god snickered, “You were otherwise enga
ged.” Pointing behind him, he added, “I touched down about a half a mile out of town.”
Something was off. Even Pippa felt it, the grip on his arm tightening as she melded into his body, putting his arm over her own shoulder for reassurance.
“But we agreed to meet here,” Fury tested.
“Yeah, sorry, I forgot.”
“Ye forgot?” Fury countered, his voice more dragon than man as he took a step forward, pushing Pippa behind him, whispering, “Stay there. Somethin’ is no right,” directly into her mind.
“You can say that again. Your friend is creepy,” she replied, her sarcasm failing to hide her fear. “And he seemed like such a nice guy in your memories.”
“Yeah,” Kayne finally replied, stepping to the right, ducking under a low-hanging branch. “I think it was all the flying.” He tapped his temple with his finger. “The altitude and all that.”
Not buying it. The hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention, the Seer tried to play it cool, adding a rusty chuckle he knew his friend, if this was Kayne, would tease him about as he beckoned, “Come closer, mate. What ye hiding for?” He winked, another expression that his brethren found amusing as he added, “Pippa will no bite.”
No reaction. No teasing. Not even a cocky grin. Something was most definitely wrong, and there was no way Fury was letting anything happen to his mate. Not now. Not when he’d just found her.
A weird, unnerving silence fell over the forest. The zing-zing-zing of the cicadas ceased, the clicks and chirps of the crickets no longer rang through the trees, even the rhythmic kay-tee-did of the katydids that had been the accompaniment to the couple’s passion was strangely absent. It was as if one of the gods had flipped a switch. Pushing his preternatural senses as far as they would reach, Fury zeroed in a large area of blank space, a null area, completely covering Kayne.
Shoving power into his enhanced vision, the Seer simultaneously tried to invade the void and touch his brethren’s mind. Failing to penetrate either, the Guardsman opened the unique mental link he shared with the demi-god to verify the man standing before him was indeed who he appeared to be when Kayne chuckled, “Are we camping in the woods or going to meet these new friends of yours?” He shrugged. “I’m totally knackered. It’s been a long time since I made such a journey.”