by Julia Mills
Recognition of Brannoc’s plan came a split second before she felt the heat of the flames. “Are you trying to kill me?” she yelled, but her dragon was too busy extending the magic that made him flame resistant to cover her while continuing his pursuit of the bears, to answer.
As they cleared the wall of fire, Annie loosened her grip, let her toes touch the ground, and within a few steps, was running beside her mate. Brannoc broadcasted everything he saw and his plans to stop the male bears through their mating bond. It was amazing how quickly his mind worked and the strategic prowess he possessed. He appeared to have a contingency for anything.
She knew he worked with computers but had never thought about how precise and technical his thought process truly was. When they had talked while she was still in the clinic, he always downplayed the work he did by marking comments like, ‘the computers do all the work’ or ‘I just press the keys’, but now that she was witnessing his intelligence first hand, she had to admit his mind was almost as much of a turn-on as his body.
Racing through the winding corridors of the cave, trying to get ahead of the bears who were somehow effectively staying a step ahead, Annie saw light at the end of the tunnel. All they had to do was force the bears out into the light of day where her sisters and cousins were waiting to drive them back to the errant males in the village.
Keeping step with Brannoc, Annie burst onto the ledge just outside the huge opening to their cave at the same moment as her mate and gasped at the same time that he spat, “Son of a bitch!”
There, standing before them, was every single male, even the young ones, from the Golden Bear Sloth, armed with clubs and staffs. Glaring down at them as her grandmother had taught her as a way to assert her rank within the community, Annie stood tall with her shoulders back and announced, “Party’s over, guys. Take yourselves back where you came from before there’s trouble you can’t handle.”
Waiting for a response, listening to Brannoc trying to come up with a way out of their present dilemma, Tabby asked, “Want us to take a couple out to show them we mean business?”
She heard her mate’s chuckle and decided it was a good sign that he took her family’s dysfunction in stride while she quickly answered her sister, “That would be great if they didn’t have at least six arrows pointed at Brannoc and I.”
“Oh, sorry. Missed that,” Tabby gulped.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t light a few and drop them at their feet,” Leanne suggested. “Then you’re big, bad dragon can grow those pretty wings and get us all the hell outta… waaaiiiittttt!” Annie’s younger sister’s proposition ended in a squeal that everyone could hear as the male she knew as Noah stepped out of the crowd and demanded, “Come down without a fight, Annalissa, and we’ll let your sisters go. No one has to get hurt.”
So mad she could spit and ready to ask Brannoc if he could just fry them all, she stepped to the edge of the outcropping and answered, “Name’s Annie, Noah, just like it’s always been, and what you’re doing here is considered an act of treason against the Elders. You really think to take my sisters without a fight? If I were you, I’d think long and hard about your next move.” She stopped, took her hand down from her forehead where she had been shielding her eyes from the sun, and stared right into the male grizzly’s nearly black eyes and growled, “Because it may be your last.”
Laughing like she’d just told a joke, Noah turned to the crowd of male bears he was leading and guffawed, “Did you hear that guys? She thinks we need to be careful. That little bear,” he pointed over his shoulder at her, “thinks that scaly piece of shit beside her is gonna take care of,” he made air quotes, “all of us.”
All of the males laughed along but Annie could feel the anxiety rising from the group. It was obvious most were there out of fear or coercion. She knew Cyrus had run back to them with his tail between his legs telling stories of the dragon that almost ate him alive for no good reason. Noah and his lackeys were no fools. They knew what a full-sized dragon could do to them if provoked, but for some reason they’d chosen to take him on anyway; probably because of their sheer numbers.
Focusing on Damon, a younger bear she’d been a babysitter for when he was a cub, Annie pushed through the layers of blocks she herself had taught him to build and ruthlessly rifled through his mind. It was a talent she’d been given by the Mother Ursa, a talent all Matriarchs had, that allowed her to read the minds of the members of her sloth. She hated doing it without his permission, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Skimming through all the useless thoughts, most of which made her want to laugh out loud, Annie finally found Damon’s memory of Noah’s rally speech just before they left the village. “Cyrus here says the guy who thinks he’s gonna take Annie from us is a dragon and that the bastard actually turned while in the cave. I know some of you are scared and you have a right to be, but there are more of us than there are of him. All we have to do is trap him before he can grow scales and tie him up. Then Annie’s mine.”
Just the thought of Noah thinking there was a snowball’s chance in hell that she would ever do more than shake his hand was ludicrous. Annie actually thought she might barf, but that would have to wait. She needed to get Brannoc up to speed and see what he had come up with.
“They think…”
“Yeah, I heard,” her dragon growled. “No matter what happens, Noah’s mine.”
Deciding not to argue with her furious mate, Annie simply nodded and asked, “Any ideas?”
Before Brannoc could explain, Noah was once again yelling, “So what’s it gonna be, Annalissa?” The bastard purposely emphasized her given name, knowing only her family was allowed to call her that. “You gonna come down peacefully or are we coming up? Either way, I’ve decided since you took so long to decide, we get to keep your sisters.”
“You stupid son of a…”
“Noah Blackwater, is that you I hear threatening my family?” Niamh’s voice rang out loud and clear from somewhere overhead.
“Not threatening, Ms. O’Bairne. Just staking claim to what’s rightfully mine.”
“And who are you to doubt the will of Mother Ursa and the Universe. Have you not seen the mark on Annalissa’s neck? Do you not feel the truth of their mating? Are you so blinded by greed and pride that you cannot see the truth when it is standing right before you?”
All eyes were on her. Annie could hear the mumbling of the crowd. Her grandmother’s words had rung true for a lot of them, but Noah was not going away that easily. Taking another step forward and shaking his fist in the air, Noah bellowed, “Ruling side-by-side with the next Matriarch is my birthright. One promised to my family over four centuries ago by your ancestors. There’s no getting out of it, Niamh. Annalissa is mine.”
Trying hard to stay calm and let her grandmother handle it, Annie stepped to the side and grabbed hold of Brannoc’s hand. Fiery rage coupled with a flood of jealousy and an uncontrollable need to rain dragon fire down on the entire crowd roared through her mind. Snapping her head to the side, the bear was shocked to see her mate standing as if nothing was wrong, looking down at Noah with a relaxed expression and stance.
“Damn, you’ve got a helluva poker face,” Annie whispered into his mind. “Remind me never to piss you off.”
“It’s something we learn at a young age. Think about a hormonal teenage boy with the power to burn down a village when he sneezes. Control is key.”
His voice shook as he spoke. She could feel his incredible strength as he held back not only himself but also his dragon, who wanted nothing more than to have roasted bear for dinner.
Her grandmother spoke again, “Fate has a different plan, my boy. One that neither you nor I have any control over. Annalissa’s soul and her bear call to another. That union has been blessed.”
Niamh took a step forward, casting a long, tall shadow over not only Annie and Brannoc, but also Noah. “Now, take your males and go home. This is the last time I will tell you.”
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br /> “I call for a Fight for Dominance,” Noah roared.
Chaos broke out among the male bears. Some whooped and hollered, chanting, “Fight for Dominance! Fight for Dominance!” While others stood quietly, looking as if they wanted to be anywhere but there.
“What do we do now, Grandma?”
The words had barely rolled through her mind when Brannoc let go of her hand, stepped to the very edge of the outcropping, and shouted, “I accept.”
Chapter Five
“Have you lost your ever-loving mind?” Annie asked for at least the hundredth time since they’d put out the fire in the tunnels, got her sisters back, and made sure her family was okay before returning to her grotto. “And I thought you were smart.” She paced toward the pool at the back corner of her cave. “I told my grandmother you were the most intelligent man I’d ever met.” She threw her hands in the air and spun back toward him, mumbling under her breath about stupid dragons and how wrong she’d been.
Brannoc tried to reason with her. Tried to tell her that everything would be okay, but no matter what he said, his volatile mate yelled louder and paced longer. Finally, needing to explain and actually have her hear it, the Guardsman jumped to his feet and stood directly in the path of his stomping bear.
As soon as her hands collided with his chest, Brannoc wrapped his arms around her, pulled her tight to his body, and looked down into her deep brown eyes. He could see her fear, her anger, her resentment at what Noah had forced them into, but more than that he saw love and devotion and the need to fight by his side. Nothing had ever meant more to the dragon in all his very long life. Suddenly, it wasn’t important that he explain his actions, only that he kiss her.
Lowering his lips to hers, yielding to the temptation of his beautiful mate, Annie had just begun to return his affection when Tabby groaned. “Oh, my Goddess, is there nothing else you guys can think to do than make out? This love crap is giving me a toothache.”
“Go away, Tabs,” Annie growled, but it was too late. The moment was gone and Brannoc was laughing.
Frowning, his bear swatted his chest as she looked up and asked, “You really think that’s funny? Well, you better get used to it, cause the interruptions never stop around here.”
Still chuckling, he rubbed the spot she’d hit on his chest angling for sympathy, then laughing out loud when his bear raised a single eyebrow and shook her head, the Guardsman snickered, “Actually, I was thinking how much like home it is around here.”
Tilting her head to the side and furrowing her brows, Annie asked, “You’ve got sisters? I didn’t see any.”
Shaking his head so fast the room spun, Brannoc held up his hands. “Oh no, but you’ve met the guys who are like brothers to me. Did you see them giving me a moment’s peace?”
He loved that she already knew the people he called family, but her question had brought the past hurdling back, making him remember his sisters, Amelia and Evelyn. They had been the apple of his eye, the only women, before Annie, to wrap him around their little fingers. Those two little girls had been his world until the day the wizards arrived.
Brannoc had just celebrated his sixteenth birthday by going out with his father to hunt for meat for their clan. They had been gone little more than a day when the call of the raven drove both father and son to their knees. It was as if their bodies were on fire. Neither man could think as visions of the girls and their beloved mother, Melissa, being tortured at the hands of the zealots flooded their consciousness.
Pushing through the pain, Atticus, Brannoc’s father, had gotten to his feet, called forth his dragon, and flown with his son on his back to the lair. But it was all for naught. As the paws of Atticus’ dragon touched down, both men saw the rubble of their homeland and the broken and bloody bodies of their clansmen.
Running through the lair, Brannoc reached the smoldering remains of their home. Roaring to the skies, he dove into the fiery rubble only stopping his search when the bodies of his sisters and mother were laying under the old oak tree at the far corner of their yard. It was then he saw his father carrying what remained of his older brothers in his arms. The bastards had destroyed them with silver, leaving only charred scales and horns to mourn.
Rage, pure and all-consuming, filled the young drake. It pushed aside the last vestiges of childhood and called forth the mighty beast within his soul. From one second to the next, Brannoc transformed from man to dragon.
For months, father and son searched for the wizards who had killed their family and massacred their clan, but it was as if the zealots had vanished. Atticus sought out the help of his old friends and within days, Brannoc was left in the care of the O’Reilly’s and the Blue Thunder Clan while his father flew off to save dragon kin. It was the last time the young Guardsman ever saw his father or any of the men they called the Enforcers.
The sound of Tabby clearing her throat pulled Brannoc from his thoughts just as Annie grinned and snorted, “I think I’ll like a lair full of dragons better than a cave full of bears.”
Stomping over to the couple, Tabitha rolled her eyes and demanded, “Come on. Grandma and Mom are waiting for you in the Elder’s Chamber. They want to make sure Brannoc understands what he’s gotten himself into.”
Stepping back from Annie when her look turned thunderous, Brannoc barely made it out of swinging range as his mate tried to give him another swat and frowned. “See, even Mom and Grandma are worried. This is bad, Brann. This is real bad.”
He wanted to tell her for the thousandth time that everything would be all right, that he had a plan, but he knew from recent experience his grumpy bear wasn’t ready to listen. Instead, he took her hand in his, gave her a quick grin and a wink, and together they followed Tabitha through the cavern.
The mood inside the Elder’s Chamber was grim to say the least. Gone were the smiling, welcoming women he’d met earlier in the day and in their place, female leaders with looks of worry and downright fear. There had to be something more to this Fight for Dominance than he’d originally thought, because there was no way Brannoc was going to admit that his future mate’s family simply had no faith in him.
Reaching the end of his patience, the Guardsman waited until Annie had taken her seat while he stayed standing and inquired, “May I ask a question?”
Nodding, but still looking as if she’d lost her last friend, Niamh replied, “Yes, you may.”
“What is the problem? I defeated them once. What makes you think I can’t do it again?” The longer he spoke, the angrier he got, making his next question sound more like an accusation than an inquiry. “You do remember I’m a dragon, right? Weigh a couple thousand pounds? Stand a couple stories high?”
If possible, the mood in the room darkened. Not one of the female bears, including his mate, would look him in the eye. Finally, just as Brannoc was about to completely lose his temper, Niamh stood, walked around the circle, stopped by his side, and quietly said, “The Fight for Dominance is a fight to the death. Winner takes all. It is hand-to-hand combat. You cannot call your dragon or use any of his power. You can use no weapons, either manmade or mystical. It is brute strength against brute strength.” The Matriarch stopped, leveled her stare at the Guardsman, and added, “It is something Noah has trained for his whole life.”
Understanding at least some of the fear she felt but needing to set the record straight, Brannoc nodded, “I understood what I was getting into when I accepted the challenge. I may not be three or four hundred years old but I am old enough to have experienced what other species and clans do to select a leader, or in some cases, a mate.”
He paused and looked around the room, stopping when his eyes met Annie’s. “This isn’t some macho thing for me. I’m nothing like Noah and his merry band of idiots. I’m not staking a claim. Yes, Annie is my mate but she is not my property.” He stepped forward and knelt beside his bear while speaking so everyone in the room could hear. “This is about protecting your way of life and the laws of the Universe. Yes, I will b
e showing everyone in attendance that I am willing to fight to live my life by your side, but that is a very small part of a bigger statement.” He took her hands into his. “You were made for me from the top of your feisty little head to the bottom of your adorable toes, every molecule in its perfect place so that I may protect you, defend you, fight by your side and most of all, love you with every fiber of my being. Just as I was made for you.” He kissed the backs of her hands. “You are a gift to be cherished. The Universe, Mother Ursa, Goddess of All, and Fate have intertwined our hearts and souls so that we may live together, forever in love.”
Letting go of her hands and standing to address the entire group, Brannoc made sure all eyes were on him as he stated, “I hope this will end without death, but if that is how far I must take it to protect the family I have so graciously been accepted into then that is what I will do.” He looked back to Niamh before adding, “He may have trained a lifetime for this fight, but I have waited my whole life to have the light of my soul, my mate, my Annie, by my side, and there is no way that mangy bear or any of his cohorts can take me down, not when I’m fighting for our love and our future.”
There were several long moments of silence in which Brannoc worked hard to stay out of Annie’s thoughts and all the other women in the room by default. He felt the gloom and doom of doubt and fear slowly lifting but waited until Tara stood and looked at both he and his mate. There was a light in her deep grey eyes that hadn’t been there when he’d entered the room and when she spoke, he could feel hope returning to not only his mate’s mother, but everyone in the room.
“You have once again amazed me, Brannoc. You are a blessing to not only my daughter, but to our entire sloth. I have no doubt that you and Annalissa will govern our people with justice and fairness.” She paused and looked at her nieces, Aimee and Lorna, then to her daughters, Tabitha and Leanne, before continuing, “You will train with Brannoc for the next three days.” Tara looked back to him. “You will not be allowed to see Annalissa during the Fasting, the period between when we leave this room and the next three risings of the moon. She will stay with her grandmother in the farthest cavern while doing her own preparation for the duel and your mating. On the night of the full moon, you and the second of your choice will make the journey to the clearing by the lake. We will all be in attendance, as well as Noah and his second and the officers of the male sect.”