by Joyce, T. S.
She dragged her gaze back to the warring dragons above. She clenched her hands at her sides as waves of light pulsed from her body upward until it reached the clouds. Above her, the early morning sunshine disappeared as dark clouds drew around them, flashing jagged bolts of lightning time and time again. Ash from the dragon fire rained down over everything as Damon fought for his life. As he fought for hers. As he fought to keep the world safe from the reign of death and destruction Marcus would bring if there was no force able to oppose him anymore. He’d waited a very long time to build enough strength to carry out his vengeance on Damon. Was Clara’s death a part of his plan to weaken Damon? Was she a distraction he’d carefully aimed at the last Bloodrunner dragon? It was just like black-hearted Marcus to use love as a weapon.
The dragons were above the clouds now, nothing but flashes of orange above the gray.
Red fury filled her veins with purpose as she screamed and slammed her hands down onto the ground. The earth cracked under her touch, and a towering spray of steam shot up to open space in the clouds. There they were. The dragons who had caused her to wait for eons for this moment. One had driven her with hate, one with love, and today, as the last thing she ever did on this earth, she would right the wrongs done by Marcus’s evil.
Gritting her teeth, she thrust her palms upward, one at each dragon. Streams of power reached them, and she pulled them apart. With Markus roaring his fury, she slammed her fist into the ground, and the black dragon tumbled to earth and smashed against the surface, cracking the ground beneath her feet with the impact. The earthquake that followed rattled her to her bones, but she held her focus and lowered Damon slowly.
Everything made sense as she forced Marcus to Change back into his hideous human form.
Save him. Beaston’s voice brushed across her mind.
I’ll find you again, and when I do, I’ll be stronger. I’ll gift you mortality with the blood of an immortal dragon, and you’ll be free. She’d uttered those words all those centuries ago, and today was the day of reckoning. Today, she would follow through for the last Bloodrunner dragon.
I’ll find you again. She’d found him through Clara and had fed off his love to be strong enough for this.
God, let her be strong enough.
She slid Beaston’s knife from its sheath at her hip and held it steady at her side as she strode toward Marcus. Her bare feet made footprints in the blanket of ash, and it fell like snow in front of her as Marcus stood to his full human height. Burns covered his body, and he smelled of burned flesh.
His demon-black eyes narrowed with hatred. “You bitch. What have you done to me?”
She offered him an empty smile. “I took your dragon away. Payback for you killing me.”
“Obviously, Clara, I did not kill you. Not for lack of trying, though. I’ve put capsules of fire into every one of Nall’s red-headed descendants, just waiting for Damon to choose one of you. How could he not? You all looked the same. Exactly his type. Don’t worry, though. I’ll finish you off once I’m done with your mate.”
“You killed me and ripped my eggs from my womb!” she screamed.
Marcus’s face fell slack and his eyes went wide as he took a step back. “Feyadine?” He shook his head. “No, it’s impossible.”
His putrid face sagged like clay, and she reveled in the change in his features. He’d been a handsome dragon warrior once, but Damon had done this to him. Damon had burned him to avenge her and the rest of the dragons he’d murdered in cold blood. Pride surged through her as she whispered, “Do you remember the incantation you did on the ceremonial knife you used to cut me open? The one that allowed you to cut my skin so easily?”
Marcus backed up another step and shook his head, and the scent of bitter fear wafted from his skin.
“I do,” she murmured low, stalking him step for step.
“You’re just a seer.”
“No,” Feyadine said with a dark chuckle. “You were wrong about so much. I was never a seer, Marcus. I was a witch.” She murmured the incantation over Beaston’s blade, just a whisper of words so ancient and so dark, they tasted like poison on her tongue. The blade glowed orange, so bright, it was hard to look at. She clenched her fist, freezing Marcus’s body into place as she strode up to him and ran the blade over his stomach until black blood oozed from his skin and coated the knife, sizzling as it settled into the engraving Beaston had done of the Blackwing crest.
A wave of dizziness took her, and she stumbled forward, breath ragged as her power waned. Hold on just a minute longer. Finish this.
Marcus looked down defiantly at her, frozen under her will. “You meddling bitch. You can’t kill me, Feyadine. We’re bound. Now let me Change into my dragon so I can finish this.”
Her lip twitched as a branch snapped in the woods surrounding them. Feyadine backed up a few steps with the knowledge he was right. He’d done awful things to her when she’d been his so many lifetimes ago. He’d bound them. He’d made it so she could never kill him.
But she didn’t need to.
She spun in a slow circle. The woods were alive with towering, snarling grizzlies of every color. Two silverback gorillas beat their chest like war drums and pulled their lips back to expose long, razor sharp canines. Mason’s monstrous boar lowered his head and trotted closer, blood lust in his feral eyes. A falcon and a raven circled overhead, crying out a death chant, and clinging to the cliffs above was Diem’s green and gold dragon. Feyadine’s eyes stung with emotion as her gaze landed on Damon, Changed back into his human form. He was badly burned down one side, and his chest was heaving as he saw the same thing she did.
His crews had never left him as he’d asked.
They’d come for him just like he’d always been there for them.
The Ashe Crew, Boarlanders, Gray Backs, and Lowlanders had gathered together, ready to come help Damon finish this.
“I don’t need to kill you, Marcus. You thought Damon caring for others made him weak, but you were wrong. And now you’re at the end of your life, and you’ll spend your last breath as you deserve. Alone.”
Beaston stepped through a line of grizzlies, eyes blazing inhuman green over his empty smile. “Can we kill him now?”
Feyadine dragged her glare to Marcus. She’d never seen fear in his eyes before, but there it was now.
She stood back and nodded her chin once. A massive silver grizzly burst from Beaston and roared as he led the charge. The inhabitants of Damon’s mountains bore down on Marcus from all sides, and he screamed a doomed sound as he disappeared in the middle of teeth and claws.
Feyadine stumbled backward, arms tingling with weakness. Stay strong. Finish this. Damon’s love for Clara is infinite. It has to be to give me this much power. Clara is good. So much better than me. He deserves to grow old with his Clara.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured as she reached Damon and jerked his palm up. She ran the bloody, glowing blade across his skin, and she winced as the final pulse of power left her body.
Damon stared down at the blood that poured freely from the slice across his hand with eyes gone round.
She fell as all of the strength left her body, and Damon cradled her against his chest before she hit the ground. Looking up into those silver eyes, the ones that she’d fallen in love with once upon a time, she uttered the oath she’d made to him all those centuries ago, “You won’t be alone anymore. I found you again, and when I did, I was stronger. I gifted you mortality with the blood of an immortal dragon.” She gasped as she left Clara’s body, and on her last breath, she whispered, “Now, you’re free.”
Chapter Fifteen
Clara’s hands wouldn’t stop trembling as she rocked in one of the chairs on the sprawling porch of the old trailer in the Grayland Mobile Park. Damon and the Gray Backs would be home any moment now, and she had some big news that made her feel giddy and faint all at the same time.
So much had changed since Marcus’s death. Clara had fallen unconscious for two days after
Feyadine had left her body, and when she woke up, her world had been turned on its axis. She remembered everything Feyadine had done through her. And now, Feyadine’s presence was gone from her life completely, taking the headaches, nightmares, and memories with her.
Damon’s house had been demolished to nothing but a pile of rubble and glass. She’d been so scared that he would be heartbroken, but he hadn’t seemed to care one bit, and moving into the old singlewide trailer, 1010, in the Gray Back’s trailer park had been a seamless transition. Even Mason had taken up residence in Clinton’s abandoned trailer.
Perhaps Damon would rebuild his house at the top of his mountains, or perhaps they would live here for always, she didn’t know. But by God, it did her soul good to watch her mate thrive here.
Even in this old trailer, so different from his sprawling cliff mansion, he smiled constantly and filled their tiny house with the sound of his laughter.
She hadn’t ever imagined she could be this happy.
The sound of the trucks coming down the mountain switchbacks from the landing above perked her sensitive ears right up. Willa, Aviana, Georgia, and Gia came from the direction of the worm farm out back and stood by the bricked in fire-pit, waiting on their mates to return from a long day cutting lumber, as Clara waited for hers.
Damon was a logger again. He didn’t do it for the money. He did this job with the bears who had become a family to him because it made him happy. Because he was allowing himself to get close to the people he cared about now, instead of hiding away in his tower, protecting his heart.
As the lead truck came around the bend in the white gravel road, Willa whistled and called out, “A-team!”
With a laugh, Clara stood from her rocking chair and locked her arms against the porch railing as her heart rate kicked up to a gallop. Her Damon was almost home.
The procession of trucks was short, thanks to the boys riding together in the mornings. Damon slid out of the passenger’s seat of Creed’s gunmetal gray jacked-up Ford pickup and nodded his goodbye to the guys as they piled out. When his dark eyes locked on hers, she froze at how strikingly handsome he was.
He’d admitted that he’d worn the suits to hide the burn scars on his arms, but no more. A dirt-smeared white T-shirt clung to his muscular shoulders, and his jeans were frayed and had holes at the knees. His dark hair was mussed from being under a hardhat, and his shoes were no longer the polished loafers he used to wear. Instead, they were mud splattered work-boots. And damn, that bright smile nearly knocked her feet out from under her.
She mirrored his happiness with an answering smile and jogged down the porch stairs to meet him. He dropped his lunch pail and scooped her up, kissing her as if he hadn’t seen her in weeks. This right here, this moment, was her favorite part of every day.
Easing back, she rested her forearms on his shoulders and looked happily down at him. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh yeah?” He quirked his lips. “Is it meatloaf?”
Clara laughed and squirmed as he tickled her ribs. Swatting him, she muttered, “I’m serious, and no it’s not my famously bad meatloaf.” Leaning forward, she whispered into his ear, “I figured out why I haven’t been able to Change into my bear.”
Damon’s arms went rigid around her backside. “Why?” he asked on a breath.
“Because we’re going to have a baby.”
Damon buried his face against her neck as his breathing went uneven. “Love, tell me it’s true. Tell me.”
“I took a dozen pregnancy tests. All positive.” She nuzzled her cheek against his hair. “Are you happy?”
Damon bit her collarbone playfully and eased back, stunning her with the emotion that pooled in his eyes.
“Happiness isn’t a big enough word. You’ve given me so much, Clara. Your heart, my mortality, and now this? A child?” He settled her on the ground and stood back, gripping her hips and staring down at her stomach. He sighed and shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten.
He didn’t see what she did, though. She had lucked into a life she hadn’t even dreamed of, and it was all because of him. Damon had saved her in so many ways, and now he’d given her this gift. He’d given her a child. He’d given her the chance to be a mate and a mother. He’d given her his unconditional love.
Her heart was so full, it was hard to speak. Forcing words past her tightening chest, she whispered, “We’ll get to raise our baby here in your mountains. Our child can protect your treasure when we’re gone.”
“Don’t you see it, Clara?” Damon murmured, lifting that beautiful, silver gaze to hers. “The mountains aren’t my treasure anymore.” His smile was slow and adoring as he brushed his thumbs over her stomach. “You are.”
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Gray Back Bad Bear (Book 1)
Gray Back Alpha Bear (Book 2)
Gray Back Ghost Bear (Book 3)
Gray Back Broken Bear (Book 4)
Lowlander Silverback (Book 5)
Other Series by T. S. Joyce
Saw Bears
Lumberjack Werebear (Book 1)
Woodcutter Werebear (Book 2)
Timberman Werebear (Book 3)
Sawman Werebear (Book 4)
Axman Werebear (Book 5)
Woodsman Werebear (Book 6)
Lumberman Werebear (Book 7)
Fire Bears
Bear My Soul (Book 1)
Bear the Burn (Book 2)
Bear the Heat (Book 3)
Bear Valley Shifters
The Witness and the Bear (Book 1)
Devoted to the Bear (Book 2)
Return to the Bear (Book 3)
Betray the Bear (Book 4)
Redeem the Bear (Book 5)
Bear Valley Valentine (Valentine’s Day Novella)
Hells Canyon Shifters
Call of the Bear (Book 1)
Fealty of the Bear (Book 2)
Avenge the Bear (Book 3)
Claim the Bear (Book 4)
Heart of the Bear (Book 5)
Wolf Brides
Wolf Bride (Book 1)
Red Snow Bride (Book 2)
Dawson Bride (Book 3)
Standalone Shifter Romance
Coveted by the Bear
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Standalone Contemporary Romance
Shelter Me Home
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About the Author
T. S. Joyce
T.S. Joyce is devoted to bringing hot shifter romances to readers. Hungry alpha males are her calling card, and the wilder the men, the more she'll make them pour their hearts out. Experienced at handling an alpha male of her own, she lives in a tiny town, outside of a tiny city, and devotes her life to writing big stories. Foodie, bear whisperer, ninja, thief of tiny bottles of awesome smelling hotel shampoo, nap connoisseur, movie fanatic, and zombie slayer, and most of this bio is true.
Bear Shifters? Check
Smoldering Alpha Hotness? Double Check
Sexy Scenes? Fasten up your girdles, ladies and gents, it’s gonna to be a wild ride.
For more information about T. S. Joyce and her work, visit her website here.
Contents
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Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
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Other Series by T. S. Joyce
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Hells Canyon Shifters
Wolf Brides
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