Smolder (Clan of Dragons Book 3)
Page 23
More tasteful, he thought.
The only time he thought his coloring was a disadvantage was during a hunt. Dougal’s black wings, and their other brother’s purple scales and leathery brown wings, proved harder for game to spot. When hunting in the nearby forest, Wynn used stealth instead of speed. Dougal seemed to care less that Wynn’s stomach growled for good reason. Game was scarce, so close to their mountain caves, but who wanted to leave? Not when a miracle lived among them.
Dougal laughed at him. His brother used to be so full of himself, with a temper to match. That he jested at Wynn’s fall, and abrupt landing in the deep powdery snow, was unusual.
Sweeping aside the white flakes covering him from nose to tail, Wynn turned his back on his brother, and listened. Something had woken him from a deep, satisfying sleep. Had he heard a woman scream? Or, was a wolf hunting game close to their lairs? When another scream, this one from a woman in the throes of pleasure, drifted up from their younger brother’s cave, Wynn cursed beneath his breath. Smoke drifted out of his snout, but the incessant wind blew it in his eyes.
“Those two lovebirds kept me up late again, so I might have fallen asleep. They be the reason I awoke so abruptly, as well.” Wynn growled at a low flying cloud, not daring to upset Dougal.
Dougal laughed, and a shower of sparks shot from his nose, and singed Wynn’s white wing. The one he hadn’t fallen on. Now, they both hurt. He pushed up out of the snow and tucked both wings tight to his back.
“I beg your pardon, Wynn, but our brother and his mate be in love. Aye, ‘tis sickening, but a babe grows in her womb, a bairn that could be the savior of our dragon clan.”
Wynn knew their clan’s future was in peril. Their homeland, on the southern tip of Scotland’s Isle of Skye, lacked dragons other than their small clan. Evan had formed a bond to a human female from the nearby village of Morbhan, and they all hoped that she carried the dragon-shifter’s offspring to term.
With last year’s loss of Dougal’s mate Cliona, before Evan met Vika MacKinnon, they had lost hope of carrying on. Once Vika decided to follow Evan home, Dougal seemed a tad happier. Once Dougal sensed her condition, and shared it with all of them, he smiled a little more often. The pretty red-haired lass had agreed to dwell in their favorite cave until the birth. Unfortunately, the couple coupled every night.
And morning.
“Moans and groans not due to the killing and devouring of me dinner will not be tolerated much longer.”
“Wynn, why can you not accept that little Vika be the hope for a future for our clan? Our little brother has proved himself. The first time he tried to shift into another form was a success. He has long been jealous of your wolf-shifter persona, and of me red stag. That he chose to be a horse was brilliant. Gaining the woman’s trust, and helping her win a wager with that loathsome brute, Toal MacMorgan, was just the ticket.”
“He was lucky she took to his human form as well, or his mission would have died a slow death.”
“He nearly died, as did the lass. We also helped keep some foul-smelling pirates away. We never did find the men from the ship anchored in the bay. We must keep our eyes peeled and our noses ready.”
“No worries, Dougal. Vika talked at length about how this kind of weather makes humans seek shelter. Only a fool would walk about in snow this deep.”
“Which be why Evan suggested Vika stay here with us for the winter.”
“It made sense. We be the greatest hunters,” Evan said. He strode toward them in his human form, with a thick sealskin cloak covering his flesh. The scent of sex, and pleasured female, clung to their youngest brother.
When Dougal hung his head, and closed his eyes, Wynn kept his maw shut. Evan sensed Dougal’s sudden sorrow, and crouched beneath their older brother’s wing. He seemed to be thinking about Dougal’s words, and that Dougal had accepted a human into their home.
To Wynn, their older brother’s recent transformation was a gift, and he wanted him to continue to act happy. It must be difficult since Dougal had lost his mate and their unborn offspring. Human hunters had killed her, and Dougal wanted to either die, or kill the humans. That he now accepted little Vika was nothing short of a miracle.
Dougal had told Wynn that he didn’t blame Vika. Their death hadn’t been her fault, but he continued to blame himself. Cliona had changed into her favorite form, a red deer, but had underestimated the hunting prowess of the humans. Wynn had observed first-hand how well Vika and her brother, Orin, hunted. They had killed dozens of deer, rabbits, pine martins, and a huge tusked boar in order to win a three-day hunt. All that carnage due to a silly wager with a human who had threatened Vika?
“Why the frown, Wynn?” Evan chuckled, and crouched closer to Dougal’s warmer scales.
Dragons were hot-blooded creatures, with thick scales and healthy appetites. The snow would delay today’s food gathering excursion, which only made Wynn anxious.
“I was just thinking about all the meat Vika and her brother had piled in that cart, months ago. They won the wager, and the memory of that bounty they shared with the villagers has me stomach rumbling,” he lied.
No use bringing up sore subjects such as Toal MacMorgan. He had wanted Vika for nefarious purposes, and Wynn wanted to eat him. Evan wanted to tear the man limb from limb, but Vika had calmed him down. Fortunately for the human, he had disappeared. Toal and the pirates might wreak havoc, if they encountered Vika or her brother again, but Wynn and Dougal had assured the humans that they would watch over them.
Speaking of Vika. “Where be the lovely lass?”
Evan chuckled again. “She be fast asleep. I, ahh…wore her out.”
Dougal growled, then folded his wing over his back, which left Evan’s human body exposed to the snow and wind.
“Dougal, don’t be jealous. Vika be a lovely person, a mighty hunter, and she thinks all dragons be beautiful,” Evan said.
“Aye. Who be we to argue with such a smart individual? It be our duty to keep her warm, fed, and healthy.” Wynn turned to Evan. “How does she fare? Any physical problems?”
“She be perfect.” Evan blushed, another sight Wynn could not get used to.
Dougal roared with laughter.
“Dougal, you surprise me,” Evan said. “What be this newfound lighter side of you? You no longer complain, and I have witnessed impromptu acts of kindness. I do not recognize the gruff, angry dragon from a few months earlier.”
“Can’t a dragon be happy? Your woman be expecting your progeny. Three months have passed since you and she…you know.”
Evan’s cheeks turned deep red.
“Brothers, we do not know how long this mixed pregnancy shall last,” Wynn said.
Evan took a deep breath, the worry with regards to his mate and unborn babe creasing his brow. “Vika explained to me that women in her village take about nine months from conception to delivery. She had a feeling that our first…coupling…was a success.”
“I assume that did not keep you from trying many, many times? She be a bonny lass, for a human.”
“None of your business, Dougal.”
“I believe ‘tis true. Adding dragon to the mix changes everything. It has been so long since a dragon has been born in our clan, how can we predict this outcome?”
“I be the youngest, born two hundred and twenty-two years ago. Do you two remember me birth?” Evan asked.
“Nay. We were still young ones, and spent most of our days exploring the hills and caves.” Wynn said.
“Then this be new to us all. I will keep Vika happy, and await the outcome.”
“Aye, you seem to know how to make her happy, if the noises we heard this morning be any indication,” Dougal added.
“Quiet, both of you. She has experienced no pain, though her appetite has grown and ‘tis most unusual. She wants any meat we bring her barely cooked. I fear the babe’s influence be strong. She sleeps often, but the weather might be to blame. I appreciate the meat and the firewood you two bring us. I d
o not wish her to get cold or sick, and the human healer at the tavern gave her several medicines.”
“A healer? Medicines?”
“When humans become ill, they ingest certain concoctions made of herbs and other plants, to make them better. She worries for the babe, too, but until she gives birth, we must have faith that all goes well.”
Wynn was worried. “Birthing babes be a foreign concept to us. Evan, yours was the last birth of our kind in our clan, and that was over two hundred years ago. Will she lay an egg as our mother did?”
“All I remember be that our mother hid in a cave for days, alone and in great pain,” Dougal said. “I do not feel Vika be the kind of creature that wishes to be alone.”
“You speak the truth. She and I have discussed this, and she understands she might birth a dragon.”
“The bairn will be a dragon!” Dougal roared.
“Aye, ‘tis me wish as well, brother, but for her sake, I hope it comes out in human form. ‘Twill be easier for her human body. She wishes only for me help during the birthing, though she first thought to head to Morbhan. Mistress MacFingan be a healer and midwife, who helps bring bairns into the world.”
“She does not wish to go to her?” Wynn asked. He assumed she would be more comfortable with her own kind.
“What do you think would happen if the bairn came out as an egg, or in dragon form? They would kill it, probably kill her, and there would go our hope for the future of our clan,” Dougal said.
When Dougal roared, the rage Wynn recognized as Dougal’s normal state had returned. Snow tumbled off Wynn’s back, and Evan headed toward the cave with a quick, cowardly pace.
Maybe I should follow him, and give Dougal space to vent.
However, Wynn felt Dougal calm. His head had drooped, and the cinders he’d shot from his nose turned to sizzles on top of the snow. “Dougal, did you have to worry the lad? Vika could die at anytime. I believe he has feelings for the lass. You do remember feelings?”
Wynn never saw the tail coming.
When he awoke, he sensed Dougal had buried him beneath several feet of snow. He felt his brother lumber away, but Wynn waited. He saw no sense in freeing himself while an irate dragon was about.
As he waited, something sniffed along the drift above him, as if it tracked something along the pile of snow beneath which he lay buried. It wasn’t Dougal’s massive body, and Evan had returned to his mate. The pain had lessoned behind his right horn and ear where Dougal’s tail had connected in a strong, bone-cracking slam, but he dare not move. Under the snow, he could smell nothing, but he sensed the presence of something otherworldly.
A sixth sense kept him alive in certain situations, usually when he had shifted into his favorite form. He loved shifting into a wolf, and running through the forest. It was sometimes easier to chase down a rabbit in that form, his favorite meal. He had followed several different packs of wolves north of here, but he never got too close. Males of the species could act territorial, and Wynn assumed they would not accept an outsider.
During a recent sojourn, he had detected wolf scent on the wind. His dragon’s snout was an impressive hunting device, and it warned him that another predator trespassed too close to his family.
Above Wynn, the sniffing turned to a deep growl. He would not allow a predator in their midst, not with Vika nearby. He shoved aside the pain rattling his brain, mustered all his strength, and pushed up through the snow. A very pretty she-wolf tumbled off his back, and slammed into a tree.
“Oops.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks to the following editors: Kathy Rothenberger, Audrey Beegle, Donna Steele, and my dear hubby. Without you, I would be in this, alone. With your insights, my chapters are crisp and exciting, and my characters passionate and interesting.
AUTHOR NOTES
SMOLDER follows SMOKE and SPARK, the first and second books in my Clan of Dragons series. I hope my readers have enjoyed letting their imagination take them to the paranormal world where dragons live within the very real Black Cuillin Hills on the island off the Scottish coast called Skye. Using a harsh yet beautiful location gives my characters the perfect setting for dealing with all I throw at them and their human neighbors.
Books by Nancy Lee Badger
Clan of Dragons
Spark
Smoke
Smolder
Kilted Athletes Through Time
My Lady Highlander
My Dark Highlander
My Hunted Highlander
White Mountains Thrillers
Shiver
Ignite
Highland Games Through Time
My Honorable Highlander
My Banished Highlander
My Reluctant Highlander
Highland Games Through Time Boxed Set
Dragons
Dragon Bites
Southern Fried Dragon
Dragon in the Mist
Dragon’s Curse
Military
Unwrapping Chris
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Author Bio
Nancy Lee Badger loves chocolate-chip shortbread, wool plaids wrapped around the trim waist of a Scottish Highlander, the clang of broadswords, and the sound of bagpipes in the air. After growing up in Huntington, New York, and raising two handsome sons in New Hampshire, Nancy moved to North Carolina where she writes full-time.
Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, Triangle Association of Freelancers, and the Celtic Heart Romance Writers. Nancy and her family volunteer each fall at the New Hampshire Highland Games surrounded by…kilts!
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