Rancher Dragon

by Terry Bolryder

  She hissed a curse and shoved his face away with all her effort. He stumbled back only for a second, then lunged forward, kneeling in front of the couch this time, tall enough to grab her hands and still pin them over her head.

  “You stop that struggling, you little bitch, or you’ll just make this worse than it has to be,” he hissed, so mad he was practically spitting.

  His face was red, and his eyes were like dark, soulless sapphires. Then his expression calmed slightly as he tried to regain his composure and moved both of her hands into one of his so he could use the other to tilt up her face.

  He seemed to enjoy forcing her to look at him. “I’m looking forward to seeing his face… after I do this.”

  “How could you?” she yelled. “Why would you do this to him?”

  He stroked her cheek. “I don’t know. Ever since I met Beck, I wanted to hurt him. I hated him for being everything I wasn’t. Strong. Tough. Bigger than everyone. Able to take whatever he wanted.”

  She sucked in a breath, pausing in her struggling to listen and catch her next wind.

  “And then on top of it, that fake-nice personality, even toward worthless humans like he made friends with in that town. It wasn’t enough for Beck to be the biggest. The most powerful. The strongest. He had to be the nicest. The one everyone liked.”

  “You were jealous!” She gasped. “That’s all this was all this time? You were trying to destroy him because you could never be half the man, or dragon, he is!” She kicked out at him, but he dodged back, keeping his hold on her arms.

  He grinned. “I’m twice the dragon he is. I outsmart that big doof all the time. He thinks I like him. As if a sophisticated man like me could like a backwoods piece of trash like Beck. I do have fun messing with him. Putting him in his place.” TJ grinned malevolently, delightedly, like someone thinking about their favorite meal in the world. “I love crushing him and seeing despair on that big, stupid face—”

  “You’re sick!” She kicked out again, swinging her body side to side and fighting his grip as he once again regained his hold on her chin and forced her to look into his horrible dark-blue eyes.

  Like wells into empty space with no stars.

  “What good is it being a rain dragon like me?” TJ sneered, bringing his lips closer. “Healing. Soothing. Helping the crops. I wanted to fight. I wanted to be powerful. And I do feel powerful when I trick Beck, when I hurt him.” TJ grinned, his mouth only a breath from hers now. “And I will feel most powerful when I take you from him and completely break him once and for all.”

  Her absolute rage at TJ’s words filled Sierra with strength she’d never felt before, and she kicked out as hard as she could with both legs, catching TJ in the midsection and sending him stumbling, the wind knocked out of him.

  Not bad for a human, she thought as she scrambled for the door.

  But TJ caught her around the waist, and she screamed as he lifted her, dragged her to the couch, and threw her down on it, raising his hand in the air as though he were going to hit her to try and subdue her.

  And then she did it. She screamed even though she knew no one was around for miles to hear her.

  She screamed to break his eardrums and to show she wouldn’t go down without a fight in this world.

  She screamed at the thought that she might not be able to tell Beck what she knew about TJ if she didn’t survive this fight.

  But she wasn’t able to scream long before TJ cursed and shoved a wet, sweaty hand over her mouth.

  She tried to pull it off, but the sound of wood cracking and hinges tearing distracted both of them as the front door of the cabin disappeared, revealing a furious, hard-breathing Beck.

  Beck tossed aside the broken door, and his eyes took only milliseconds to assess the situation. He stepped forward furiously, stopping in shock as TJ released Sierra and turned to face Beck.

  Beck’s face went white beneath his beard, and he looked over in confusion at Sierra. “Why, TJ?” he asked his friend. “Sierra, are you okay?” He started to walk toward her, but TJ stepped in between them, pushing Beck back with a firm hand on his shoulder.

  Beck grabbed his hand and threw it off, trying to go around him again.

  But TJ moved faster and prevented Beck from getting any closer.

  Sierra was just so glad to see him. She had no idea how he’d gotten there or how he’d heard her, but she knew that now that he was here, she was safe.

  She felt bad about what he was going to learn about TJ, but she knew it was finally time he faced the true betrayal of his so-called friend.

  TJ sighed, cocking his head and pushing Beck another step back from Sierra. “I thought you’d be drunk longer. You always go moping and flying around in dragon form when something’s wrong.”

  Beck still looked frozen from shock, his eyes moving quickly from TJ to Sierra. “TJ, let me see my mate. I need to get to her.”

  TJ shook his head slowly. “I thought I’d have time to take your mate before I got to watch you understand my betrayal as you were slowly, terribly killed by basilisks. But I’ll accept watching you die by them all the same.”

  Beck’s eyes went wide. “You can’t!”

  TJ just shrugged as thunder cracked like gunfire overhead, and rain began to pour heavily all around them. “I can. I did once before too. It was funny, watching the mud go down over that town after I’d made it rain long enough in dragon form. It was nice feeling powerful. Drowning out their screams, knowing in the end, I stood the victor. Almost as good as the feeling when I told you it was you instead. Almost as good as knowing that, even though you almost made it to happiness, I came just in time to stop you.”

  TJ smirked as the rain began to pour even heavier.

  Past the doorway, Sierra could swear she could see something rising out of the ground in the darkness, past the open door and the windows.

  Something enormous. Something moving the ground around it.

  Something that should be impossible.

  Just outside the bounds of her ranch, it rose like a dark mountain in the moonlight, covered in craggy rocks.

  As it continued to rise up and up, gigantic, Sierra wondered if she were losing her mind.

  Or if this was real and they all might be about to die.

  22

  Beck stood locked in place for a moment, watching with rage as the realization dawned on him that one of the only men he trusted had betrayed him so long ago.

  And then had the audacity to lay a finger on his mate.

  Outside, the rain fell in unending waves as the basilisk continued to rise from the ground, awoken from its slumber by the rain and wet earth.

  And from the sound of it, it was even bigger than the one Beck had fought the day Sierra had saved him. So large it seemed to fill the sky above as lightning cracked, casting its gigantic, reptilian outline into bright relief for a breath of a moment.

  Its footsteps were getting closer.

  TJ backed away from Beck, using the moment of distraction to pull Sierra with him. “She’s coming with me while you fight that thing. It’ll be fun watching you get buried by that monster.”

  Beck’s hand flew out, catching TJ by the throat. TJ choked, but his smile just widened.

  “You’re not going anywhere with my mate, you fucking piece of trash,” Beck said. Behind TJ, Beck could see the worry in Sierra’s eyes, but thankfully, she looked unhurt. “I’ll end you first.”

  Beck aimed to make sure she stayed that way.

  TJ scoffed. “Please. We both know I may not be like you, but I’m still a dragon. In the time it will take you to kill me, that thing outside will probably have already made a lunch out of your mate.” He finished with a cackle that sent pure fury seething down to Beck’s toes.

  The betrayal of believing he’d hurt all those people so long ago was nothing near to the white-hot rage that both he and his dragon felt at seeing TJ above Sierra, his hand over her mouth.

  THUMP. THUMP. Colossal steps pounded the eart
h, rattling the house and sending a vase toppling off an end table.

  Beck’s grip tightened on TJ’s neck, and TJ let out a choked sound, dark-blue eyes still full of mirth. He looked in the direction of the hole where the back door had been and grinned.

  The floodlights on Sierra’s back porch were bright enough to illuminate the monstrosity outside. It was shaped like a lizard but something even dinosaurs would have been afraid of, walking on all fours with huge feet and talons like giant scythes. Its body was the length of a football field, covered in thick, plated scales on its sides and rows of poisonous, razor-sharp spikes that went down its back and ended in a clump of even more spikes at the end of a long tail.

  Its head was more akin to a dragon, though, with rows of teeth and two big horns and big reptilian eyes that glowed red, darting around the landscape.

  And then Beck watched as the basilisk’s eyes peered down at them in the little house, settling directly on Sierra with sudden interest.

  “Oh, look, it even looks like it’s interested in your human too,” TJ said.

  With a deafening roar, the basilisk started to charge. In moments, it would level Sierra’s property with a single foot.

  And whether Beck was guilty or not for all those people’s deaths, whether or not his friends were right about him or if TJ had been right all along, Beck knew he’d fight anyone—or anything—to protect his mate.

  He didn’t have time for anything else. He rushed for the door as TJ stepped aside, his hand still holding Sierra back.

  TJ just laughed gleefully, the sound of his voice being drowned out by gargantuan footsteps headed for them as Beck shifted into his dragon in a matter of moments, making directly for the basilisk.

  Sure, the damn thing was two or three times bigger than him, but that wasn’t going to stop a mountain dragon from protecting what was his.

  The basilisk barely seemed to notice a huge dragon taking shape in front of it as it charged. But before it could even cross the property line of Sierra’s spread, Beck roared with all his might just as he swung his tail forward, catching the basilisk across the face and knocking it over to the side where it skidded in the thick mud.

  It was so dark outside that only his enhanced vision allowed him to see through the thick sheets of rain and the blackened night sky. Another flash of lightning lit the land, showing the colors of blue and green and red intermixed through the creature’s scales as it stood back up, its gaze narrowing on Beck.

  In Beck’s experience, basilisks knew only two things: sleeping and fighting.

  And by the look he saw in this monster’s eyes, Beck was about to get the latter.

  It roared angrily, squaring off with Beck, its form still covered in mud and loose earth. Beck just braced himself, knowing that if he wasn’t careful, he’d soon be buried himself.

  It charged again, this time directly toward Beck as he angled himself away from the ranch, drawing it out into the open terrain.

  As it gained on him, Beck lashed his tail outward again, aiming for the thing’s eyes. But the basilisk batted it away with its meaty front foot, and Beck heard the snap of its multiple rows of teeth as it lunged for him.

  Confident he’d pulled it away from Sierra for now, Beck took off, only able to barely get off the ground. The rain was so thick. He turned, hovering above the basilisk, ready to dive down when the deluge thickened even more, probably at TJ’s command, pelting his dragon with so much water he couldn’t even see very far in front of him.

  Damn that fucker TJ.

  The basilisk raised its tail, flicking it upward, and a huge, spearhead-shaped needle the length of a car went whizzing past Beck, barely missing as he dove low. Then Beck reached his claws out, tearing into the thick hide of the basilisk as he flew past, then landed behind it.

  It was bleeding but only barely, its impossibly armored skin needing more than just a few scratches to scare it off. With the rain thickening, flight was almost entirely out of the question now, so Beck’s normal tactics for taking a basilisk one on one were out of the question.

  So like most problems he’d encountered in life, he’d take the damn thing head on.

  They both charged at each other now, the footsteps of two huge beasts shaking even the mountains as they locked horns with a thunderous crash so loud it put the lightning to shame. Beck pushed with all his might, twisting his head left and right, trying to topple the much larger, much heavier beast over so he could expose its more vulnerable underbelly.

  The basilisk’s eyes zeroed in on Beck, red and alert and vicious. It made a rumbling noise from its throat, like the sound of an earthquake, as it pushed back on Beck, heaving forward with its weight. Beck’s talons dragged through the mud, and he nearly lost his footing. But he was a mountain dragon. Even more than basilisks, he was familiar with rock and stone and earth and mud.

  This was just a bit of bad weather.

  He growled, then pushed up with all his strength. Their horns unlocked, and Beck opened his mouth and sprayed a stream of fire and superheated rock into the basilisk’s face. It winced backward, eyes shut as it moved back a step.

  Even though the damn things were basically immune to dragon fire, it still couldn’t possibly see through the hail of smoke and stone and flame.

  Beck charged, not knowing if he’d get another opening like this, reaching forward and biting down on the thing’s neck. The basilisk’s neck was so wide he could barely get his teeth around the half of it, so he focused on the partially exposed throat, chomping with all his might.

  The basilisk roared, yanking backward, dragging Beck forward as it shook and pulled, trying to wrench him free. But Beck just tightened his grip, ignoring as one huge row of claws raked across his side, cutting through his scales and sending rage-inducing pain scorching through his insides.

  Beck was up on his hind legs now, his front claws digging into the monster’s shoulders, anchoring himself as he yanked back on its thick neck. He watched as the basilisk’s tail rose, sending two spikes flying toward him. To avoid it, he angled to the left, and one went over his shoulder while the other grazed his back leg.

  The telltale hiss of basilisk poison punctuated the dull roar of the rain and wind, followed by a dull flash of pain in his side. But it wasn’t bad. Not nearly enough to end a mountain dragon.

  Beck gritted his teeth as it flailed and started to lose its wind. “Give up, you fucking sunuvab—”

  Suddenly, something rammed into Beck’s side with formidable speed, hard enough to knock his back legs out from under him. He didn’t see what it was, just heard a dull whoosh as it pounded his shoulder.

  The basilisk knew Beck’s footing was gone the instant it happened, and it dug its feet in and threw Beck to the side with a heave of its giant head. When Beck looked up, he couldn’t see what had hit him, just thick, billowing storm clouds and bright arcs of lightning as they filled the sky above them.

  And the basilisk in front of him, though bleeding from the neck, just bared its teeth and charged again.

  Beck leaped forward and slashed the basilisk across the face, then spread his wings, hoping to get a moment in the air to position himself better before trying to face the emboldened beast.

  Then, again, Beck heard the sound of nearly noiseless wings disguised by the rain above him. He looked up, still barely hovering above the basilisk, at the same time as a grey and blue shape with wings appeared from the thick clouds high above and sped downward. It was so unexpected Beck didn’t have time to dodge as it flew past him, hitting one of his wings with its tail and sending Beck falling to the earth with a crash.

  As it disappeared into the clouds again, he heard a loud, familiar, eerie laugh that seemed to reverberate through the clouds above him, making the sound seem as if it were coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

  TJ’s dragon.

  Apparently, the bastard didn’t believe in fair fighting.

  Then again, if what Beck had heard back in the house was true, unfair figh
ting was the least of this bastard’s sins right now.

  Beck got up, shaking himself off as the laughing continued.

  “Having fun, loser?”

  “Fuck you,” was all Beck had time to respond with before the basilisk appeared at his side, rushing at him with bloodlust in its eyes. Beck blew more fire, but it didn’t stop the monster’s warpath as its horns connected with his side. He barely deflected one of the long, jagged, telephone-pole-length points just barely with his wing, but the other pierced his side deep, making pain so powerful it nearly knocked the wind out of him, shaking him to his core.

  Beck lunged for the basilisk’s neck, and it thankfully pulled away. He needed space, a second to fight either TJ or the basilisk, because taking both at one time was getting worse by the moment.

  He heard TJ diving toward him this time, even as the rain dragon’s hide made him nearly impossible to make out amongst the clouds. He swung his tail, but TJ just spun to the side, much smaller and more agile than Beck’s mountain dragon would ever be.

  “Keep trying. You’ll never catch up to me. You’ll always be one step behind,” TJ called down to him with glee.

  Then there was a heavy thunk sound as something sharp and long pierced Beck’s shoulder, and with shock, he realized that while he’d been trying to fight off TJ, the basilisk had gotten a clear shot.

  He stumbled back, using one claw to rip the spike out of his side, sending blood gushing down his dragon arm. All the better, there would be less poison that way, even if he was risking bleeding out.

  The basilisk’s eyes narrowed, and if Beck wasn’t mistaken, it almost had a smile across its horrible face as it strode toward him with murderous intent. In the clouds, he could hear TJ still laughing, hidden amongst the thick black billows above.

  This was bad. He looked over to see Sierra standing in front of her house, soaked to the bone, watching with horror as Beck put himself between her and the basilisk.

  But no matter how he tried, he couldn’t shake the things TJ had told him. Couldn’t ignore a lifetime of betrayal that had led Beck to believe that he had been the monster all along, not someone else.