It was good to have time to focus on his mate, especially after everything that had happened.
And now he wanted to make things extra official.
“Where are we going?” Sierra asked, attempting—and failing—to look past him.
He grinned at her from over his shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll be there soon, sweetheart.”
They weren’t far now.
When they came to a stop, Beck stepped down off of Clive first, then held a hand up to help Sierra.
His mate.
Damn, he would never get tired of the way the word sounded in his head, the way his dragon roared its approval deep within his heart.
A warm, gentle breeze tousled her hair as she stepped down and looked around, then back up at him.
“This is on the edge between our properties,” she said. “Why did you bring us here?”
A small smile lit Beck’s face as he stared at the ground. More specifically, the shape of a certain dragon permanently imprinted from years and years of repeated landings.
They were standing smack in the middle of it, and he looked down and took her hands in his.
“This is where I used to come just to be near you.”
She looked confused for a second, then looked around and gasped at the shape in the ground.
“That’s right,” he said, laughing. “Every time I was drinking and feeling low, this was where my dragon would come. Deep down, he’s always known that you were the one for me.”
She smiled up at him, and it sent another wave of warmth, belonging, and affection for her through his body.
God, he loved this woman. More than anything.
Beck had never been one to be nervous, but he sure was now. But everything from the clear, beautiful day to the warmth of the sun’s rays on his face told him that this was right.
Even more right than the last couple of weeks had been, if that were possible.
So he pulled the small box from his shirt pocket and got down on his knee.
Sierra gasped and held a hand to her mouth. “Beck, you don’t—”
“I do, Sierra. I love you, and I’ll be damned if I don’t ask you to marry me,” he said. With that, he opened the box.
He watched proudly as she took in the stunning sapphire set in a beautifully gilded golden ring. It absorbed the afternoon light and refracted a million different shades of blue, all reflected in her eyes.
“This sapphire, along with the dragon talon, is the only thing I kept from my past life,” Beck said. “In the back of my head, I always thought I’d keep it for my mate. It’s beautiful, but I reckon it’ll be even more beautiful when you’re wearing it.”
Tears were shining in her eyes now. Tears he’d seen and caused before. Only this time, he was proud to know that the tears were from happiness. He hoped.
He took the ring from the box and held it out to her. “Sierra, will you marry me?”
Her response was instantaneous. “Yes! Yes, you big, wonderful dragon, I will marry you.”
Beck couldn’t help the huge smile that spread over his face as he put the ring on her finger. It was a perfect fit, and it looked even better on her hand than he thought it would.
She stared at it for a second, then threw her arms around him and kissed him. He held her back and kissed her in a rough, passionate embrace. Nothing tasted better than her lips on his. Nothing felt better than this moment.
Mated and soon to be married.
When they broke apart, she admired the ring for a second, then smiled amusedly up at him.
“You look relieved,” she said with a laugh. “Were you worried I was going to say no?”
“Nope,” he replied a little too quickly. “Not even a little. Well, maybe a little.”
Sierra was about to respond to that when the sound of a truck engine and tires on dirt broke through the silence.
Beck looked up, taking in a fancy, shiny bronze truck that he recognized as Clancy’s coming toward them, sending up dust clouds here and there.
Just in time.
When it came to a stop, Clancy got out of the driver’s side and held up a hand, looking fancy as usual.
“She say yes?” he asked.
Sierra held up her hand. “Absolutely!” she shouted back. “A million times yes!”
A bunch of hoots and hollers rang through the air as the rest of the gang got out of the car.
Everyone was here: Harrison, Marian, Clancy, Dallas, and Reno. Marian walked over to them as Reno and Harrison unloaded a large picnic table from the bed of the truck.
“Look at that shiny piece of jewelry,” she said, winking at Sierra. “The men at Dragonclaw really know how to do engagement rings, don’t they?”
“That’s not all they do well,” Sierra replied, laughing.
Beck stood up proudly at that just as Clancy called out from the truck again.
“I got a feast prepared so we could all celebrate after Beck popped the question,” he said as Dallas walked by with a large box, presumably full of food.
As he stepped past Beck, there was a loud hiss, and Gary the raccoon emerged long enough to grab the engagement ring box from Beck’s hand. Gary looked at it for a moment in his tiny, black raccoon fingers, then glanced over at Clancy and brought it to him, earning a snack from Clancy in return.
Beck scowled. “You reward this varmint when he steals from me? Real classy.”
Clancy just grinned. “Not this time. I just got your ring box back. Thought you might want it.”
Meanwhile, Sierra had leaned down and was holding a hand out to Gary, who seemed to be eying her curiously while he munched his treat.
“Come here li’l guy,” she said. “I won’t hurt you.”
To Beck’s surprise, the raccoon approached her and, even more surprising, let her pet him on the head.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Clancy said. “He likes you.”
“Ain’t no surprise there,” Beck said, grinning as he leaned down next to her. Was there any way someone could not like his mate?
Tentatively, Beck reached out to pet the raccoon, who was now nuzzling Sierra’s hand. As soon as his hand was within an inch of Gary’s face, however, the raccoon hissed fiercely and scampered away, disappearing into the bushes.
“Damn Gary,” Beck muttered, scowling.
Sierra laughed. “He’ll warm up to you eventually.”
“Should have seen the first time Marian met him,” Harrison said, chuckling as he and Reno set up the table. “Scared the hell out of her.”
Everyone laughed at that, and together they set up the rest of the picnic things under the perfect blue Texas sky.
As they were all sitting down to eat, Beck cocked an eyebrow at Harrison. “I was going to ask. Been any more word on basilisk activity?”
“Nope,” Harrison replied. “Haven’t been any sightings lately, what with the weather being so nice and all.”
Sierra looked confused. “Wait, so that one you fought, is it just underground over there, waiting to come back up?”
Harrison laughed. “No. Funny thing about basilisks is that they never show up in the same place twice.”
“Damn annoying and unpredictable more like,” Beck said with a grunt.
“Don’t worry, Beck,” Reno said, grinning wolfishly. “If any come back, I’ll take care of ‘em this time.”
Beck scowled.
Clancy laughed. “I’d like to see that, a wolf trying to defend a mountain dragon.”
A laugh came from the other end of the table, and to everyone’s surprise, Dallas was chuckling.
He looked up, finding everyone’s eyes on him, but didn’t say anything.
“That’s what you laugh at,” Reno said, unamused and cocking an eyebrow. “Not a peep for days, and then you laugh at a joke making fun of wolves.”
“It was funny,” Dallas said, shrugging and going back to his food, leaving Reno looking mildly offended.
Beck fought back a smile as he leaned down to kis
s Sierra. He loved the way the ring looked on her finger, loved the way it felt to be next to her.
Now that her lifespan was tied to his, he could also look forward to a future with her. A quiet homestead, he and Sierra tending it for the rest of their lives.
Beck didn’t think there was anything that could sound more wonderful than that. To top it all off, he’d never thought the coin he never planned on giving to another person would one day bring him to the person he’d spend forever with.
A dragon talon for a mate.
It was the best deal of his life.
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Sample of Onyx Dragon
Zach, Isaac Morningstar III, touched the chunky iron chain around his neck as he caught his reflection in one of the dingy shop windows he passed. Anger contorted his expression as he withdrew his fingers and started again down the street of the bad neighborhood he’d been dropped in.
He was still getting used to the modern world since he’d been woken up some months ago, but even he knew this wasn’t the type of place he would ever have chosen to go back to when he had full access to his dragon powers and a massive treasure trove that allowed him to live in comfort whenever he felt like being in human form.
And yet here he was, leveled, humbled, shackled by this collar until the oracle who watched over shifters was sure he could be “trusted”, barely able to partially shift, with no money and nothing but the clothes on his back.
Despicable state of events.
Not that he blamed the oracle. In his day, hundreds of years ago, dragons had been more akin to powerful, despotic demigods who terrorized humans when it pleased them and roamed the countryside freely. In human form, they were often dukes or lords with power to match, able to hide in the countryside in a massive estate if they so chose. To hell with caves.
Here, dragons had been remodeled to become something much more civilized. Now they worked in pairs, enforcing the laws of the shifter community and protecting shifters and humans in their area.
Protecting them.
The thought was ludicrous. Zach had never in his life met someone he wanted to protect, and he doubted anyone here in the selfish, petty human world was going to change that for him.
Thunder cracked overhead and he looked up with an annoyed scowl to see dark clouds overhead. A few more steps and he felt the patter of rain on his shoulders and shook his head in disgust. He looked around him to gain his bearings and saw a shop across the street that seemed friendly.
A human woman stood in the front window, smiling as she chatted with a man in front of her in a low chair. She had long hair, a mix of dark brown and red that shimmered over her shoulders. Soft, pale skin with rosy cheeks. A sweet mouth.
She was touching her male client’s hair, and Zach felt an odd rumble of jealousy at the sight of it.
She was providing some kind of service. Zach would go over and see what, and get out of the rain at the same time.
When he pulled open the heavy glass door, all eyes turned to him. Various men and women with striking colors of hair looked up at him in shock. Their clients, all arrayed in black cloaks, stared as well.
He saw seats to the side of the door and sat in one, glaring at the humans to try and deter the stares he was receiving.
He was a dragon, a powerful one. The world could rise or fall on the whims of him and his friends. They should show him respect, not this mixture of shock and disgust.
The girl he’d seen from the window turned to him with soft blue eyes. Kindness. That was unexpected. “Did you want to make an appointment?”
He pursed his lips and leaned back in the chair. “For what?”
“A haircut, of course,” she said, a smile touching her full lips.
Zach sat up a little straighter as a little bolt of warmth coursed through him. Most unexpected. He touched his shoulder length mop, tangled from the trip here and damp from the rain. “No. I do not need one.”
She smiled and shrugged. “Okay.”
Other customers sent nervous glances around and Zach ignored them. He picked up a magazine from beside him and pretended to hold it in front of him while he studied the people.
He wasn’t wholly ignorant of the modern world. He’d been living on a shifter-only island, but they had all of the technology. Just none of the humans.
As he assessed the people around him, he realized when this place closed, it would be evening, and time to find lodgings. He’d been walking all day, and would need somewhere to stay at night. If he could still take his full dragon form, he could go out into the woods and sleep there. His dragon form was impervious to cold. But his human form would probably freeze.
Drat.
He stared at the human again, narrowing his eyes. The man in the chair in front of her stood as she removed his cloak and took him to the counter where payment was taken. On the way there, he turned to Zach with a scowl.
“You could stop staring, hobo,” he said, before turning his back on Zach.
Zach gaped. Hobo? As in, a homeless beggar? For a moment he was speechless at the audacity of it. He was the furthest thing from that. Or was he? After all, he had incredible wealth but none of it was accessible. Incredible power but no way to use it.
He was kind of a hobo, wasn’t he?
“What is he smiling about, anyway?” the man muttered.
“Shush, Gerry,” the woman said. “You know I welcome anyone here.”
Negative one point for humanity for Gerry, Zach thought. Plus one for the girl with the kind eyes. He glanced around the shop. Probably not going to be any more positive points around here.
The oracle had said she’d remove the collar when she felt she could trust him with humans. He had no idea what that meant, but probably it meant hating them a little less. Being less aghast at the thought of protecting them.
When the man had left, the girl with kind eyes removed her black apron, revealing a soft, curvy body in a short pink dress with black leggings underneath. She sat next to him, just a chair away, and gave him a kind smile. It made him tingle slightly.
Dragons did not tingle.
He shifted uncomfortably.
“My name is Erin,” she said, leaning forward with a smile.
“Okay,” he said curtly. For some reason, this little human set him off balance. He was still considering what that meant.
“Can I help you with something?” she asked. “I can call a shelter or maybe someone you know…”
He pursed his lips. “How about you just let me stay here and continue my observation? Or is that too much trouble for you?” His tone was slightly sarcastic and she raised an eyebrow in amusement.
“No, it’s no trouble at all,” she said sweetly. “You’re welcome to just stay in out of
the rain as long as you like.” She looked at the clock. “Well, until we close. I was just making sure you didn’t need help.”
“I don’t,” he said flatly. He was frankly a little offended that she thought he was some kind of invalid seeking help. What about him was giving her that impression?
He flinched back when she reached for a lock of his hair that was falling over his face. “At least let me give you a wash and a shave,” she said. “On the house.”
He frowned. He didn’t want to accept this human’s pity, as in his other form he could eat her in one bite. But he’d seen her hands in the other man’s hair, and he wanted that. Wanted her touching him. Looking at him.
“All right, human.” He bit his lip and ignored the way he’d referred to her as she let out a light, tinkling laugh and led him over to her chair.
He sat down, sinking into the soft cushion with a sigh. She had to put the chair all the way down to work on him because he was extraordinarily tall compared to most humans. And good-looking, and muscled, if he said so himself.
As he faced the mirror, he admitted he was a little the worse for wear after his travels. He had an overgrowth of black beard, but that was manly. And his hair was tangled from wind and the slight rain.
He’d worn a long black trench over his clothing because it would provide shelter from the rain and elements and he didn’t know how long it would take to find lodgings.
But he didn’t see anything wrong in the mirror. If anything, he just looked masculine. Strong.
She leaned him back and helped rest his head on the sink. “I bet you’ll be a whole new person after this,” she said with a wink.
His eyes skimmed her curvy body, so close and warm, and then came back to her eyes, a beautiful clear blue like wildflowers.
Her hands worked through his hair, soaping and kneading, and he relaxed into her touch, her scent, the soft sound of her voice. The look of her kind face. The press of her body as she leaned over him. Even being a dragon, and very impervious to heat, he was on fire.
He stared at her, feeling shock unlike anything he’d felt as she finished washing and wrung his hair dry. Then she reached for a razor and foam to start the shaving.
Rancher Dragon Page 15