“You dare enter my lair!” Kirall growled, his gaze traveling over the males that were quickly trying to retreat. The scent of their fear filled the room as he let his claws extend to their full, deadly length.
“Now you will find out what happens when a Dragoon’s mate is threatened.” An enraged roar coming from behind him, followed by the sounds of furniture breaking, and metal hitting the floor had Kirall spinning around to find a small, red Dragon charging into the room. Tendrils of smoke escaped flaring nostrils as eyes, as silver as the tips of the scales covering its body, wildly searched the room before settling on him.
It was Autumn! Of course it was! He was truly a stupid male!
She had told him how she had clawed at General Terron’s face, trying to protect her brother. He had seen the evidence of that attack himself, but he had never put it all together. Somehow, as a ten-year-old, she had been able to partially shift! It was something he’d never heard of a female Dragoon being able to do. No wonder the Varana had attacked her so viciously. Somehow they had known that Autumn and her family descended from Razeth, and had set out to eliminate them as they were trying to do all the Dragoons.
He should have realized earlier that she couldn’t have been an Other.
She openly challenged him, a Black Prime.
She didn’t fear either his Beast or his Dragon.
Her fire had burned just as strongly as his when they had kissed. He just hadn’t realized it. He also hadn’t realized that the extra burn that had filled him when he had mixed their blood wasn’t from desire, but because hers was the more powerful blood. His bite wasn’t going to change her. He would be the one changing, becoming a Supreme, once her Dragon marked him as her mate.
She was only twenty-two, and she was already able to shift into her Dragon form.
His mate was truly amazing.
And by the looks of it, she was truly pissed!
“Kur! It’s a Supreme!”
Dacke’s whispered words drew the gaze of Autumn’s Dragon, and the smoke she was emitting began to darken.
Seeing it, Kirall quickly moved to stand between the two, shifting back to his Other form, his arms outspread.
“It’s alright, Autumn. I am fine.” But her eyes continued to look wildly behind him, focusing on the remaining males, her smoke darkening.
“No, Autumn!” He stepped in front of her, his arms spread. “You will incinerate us all! You must calm, my love.” He carefully put a hand on her snout, caressing it. “You are so beautiful, Autumn.”
She snorted in disbelief, but when her gaze met his again, the wildness in her eyes had begun to retreat, and the green he so loved was starting to return. “Your Dragon is so beautiful, Autumn.”
Autumn frowned at Kirall. Her Dragon? What was he talking about?
Looking down, she discovered that instead of the normal skin and hands she was used to seeing, there were now scale-covered limbs with long, sharp claws. Her startled gaze shot back to Kirall.
Kirall saw the fear and confusion in her eyes, and realized she hadn’t known she’d called her Dragon. She probably didn’t even realize she had partially shifted when she tried to protect her brother.
“It is alright, Autumn,” he told her. “Just shift back.” The panic filled gaze that met his made him realize she didn’t know how.
“It is alright, my Autumn,” he cooed to her, “just imagine yourself as you were.” He ran a soothing hand along her long neck as he spoke. “With your long, red hair and those flashing, green eyes. I’ll be right here with you.”
He felt her large head settle on his shoulder as a shudder overtook her. One minute he was holding a beautiful Dragon in his arms, and the next his very beautiful and very naked mate. She lifted her head, smiling up at him when suddenly her face contorted, and the most horrific pain-filled scream he had ever heard filled the room. It could still be heard when she collapsed in Kirall’s arms.
“Autumn!” he cried out, slowly lowering her to the floor not understanding what was happening. Changing from her Dragon form to her Other form shouldn’t cause her any pain. Looking at her, he was shocked to see her left leg was at an impossible angle as was her right arm.
Oh Kur! The rods! That’s what those metal sounds had been.
They’d put metal rods in for the bones the Varana had crushed. Changing into her Dragon form had forced them from her body. It was how a Dragoon was able to heal from even the most severe of injuries. The power of their Dragon would heal them, but it took time, and Kirall had called her from that form too soon.
“Autumn! Call your Dragon!” he ordered, but she didn’t seem to hear him as she continued to scream. Carefully scooping her up into his arms, he turned to Dacke. “Where is the healing unit?!!” he demanded.
“This way.” Dacke shoved the remaining human males aside, clearing the corridor so he could lead the way.
“It’s going to be alright, Autumn,” Kirall murmured, his lips moving against the top of her head. “You’re going to be fine. I’m getting you help.” Autumn’s screams had turned into small, pitiful whimpers the longer he carried her. “Make sure there is a Healer there,” he demanded.
“No!” Her single, shaky, pain-filled word had Kirall’s stomach clenching, as did the words that followed. “No doctors. No meds. Never again.”
“He will only help you, Autumn. It won’t be like before, I promise.” Reaching the room, he carefully laid her down on the table that housed the healing unit. “Where is the Healer?” he roared over his shoulder.
“He’s nearly here,” Dacke reassured him, his eyes remaining locked on Autumn.
“Do not look at her!” Kirall spun around, his Beast taking over. “She is mine! My mate!”
He gripped Dacke by the throat, pinning him against the far wall as his claws began to draw blood.
“I know that!” Dacke croaked out, lowering his eyes to the more powerful Dragoon. “I meant no challenge. I have just never seen a Supreme before!”
Bonn slipped into the room unnoticed while Kirall and Dacke fought. Moving to the healing unit, he glared down at the woman who was threatening his livelihood.
First, she misrepresented herself, getting through his security making the aliens question his ability to serve them. Then she didn’t take the bolus. If the aliens found out she hadn’t taken it, that would be it; and they would find out, when Talfrin wasn’t able to alter her memories.
He couldn’t let that happen. He wasn’t going to let some stupid woman ruin the lifestyle he’d been able to achieve by supplying women to the aliens. He hadn’t been sure how he was going to do it, but the aliens had just given him the opportunity, what with the injuries that had been inflicted on her.
Seeing the pressure syringe sitting at the head of the table, the one he knew Talfrin used on the girls to alter their memories, he picked it up. He knew it would be filled with multiple doses of the drug used to relax them. If he gave it all to her it should be enough to kill her, then he could claim he was only trying to help her, that he didn’t know it would kill her. They would all blame the alien, Kirall, who had hurt her.
Smiling down at her, he pressed the syringe against her neck and pulled the trigger, again and again and again.
“No!”
Autumn’s desperate cry had Kirall spinning around to see Bonn pressing a syringe against his mate’s neck.
“What are you doing?!!” Kirall sunk his claws into Bonn’s back, ignoring the male’s scream as he threw him away from his mate. “Autumn!”
Looking down into her eyes, he saw more than pain. He saw defeat.
“Autumn…” he repeated desperately.
“I can’t,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. “I can’t go through this again, Kirall. I can’t go back to that hell. I won’t survive it again.” She felt the cold emptiness start to fill her body. The way it had before, only it was stronger this time, more deadly.
“You can!” Kirall argued back. “You are strong.”
&n
bsp; “I’m not,” she told him, wishing she could experience his kiss one last time. But her lips were already numb, and she knew these would be the last words she’d ever say to him.
“I love you,” she whispered, and darkness consumed her.
“No!” Kirall roared.
“What is going on?!!” Healer Talfrin demanded as he stormed into the room. He took in the crumbled body of the curator, Dacke’s bleeding throat, and the broken female on his table. Had Kirall’s Heat driven him mad?
“What have you done to her?!!” he demanded angrily.
“Nothing! The Varana attacked her years ago. Human Healers put metal rods in her arm and leg to replace the crushed bones. When she changed into her Dragon, her body rejected the repairs. I called her from her Dragon form before the injuries were fully healed,” Kirall told him in a tortured voice.
“She is Dragoon?” Talfrin stared at the small female in shock. “She survived a Varana attack?”
“Yes, at the age of ten,” Kirall told him, “and she is my mate.”
“Then why would you give her this?” Talfrin picked up the empty syringe, shaking it at him.
“I didn’t!” Kirall instantly denied. “Bonn did!”
“Bonn?!!” Talfrin turned back to the dead curator and spit at him, thinking his death had been too quick.
“Help her!” Kirall demanded.
“I cannot,” Talfrin told him regretfully.
“What do you mean?” Kirall’s Beast growled angrily.
“She is Dragoon. This amount of drug would render even you immobile. As small as she is… the chances of her surviving are slim.”
“NO!” All three parts of him roared, as Kirall’s knees slammed into the floor, not feeling the pain as the tile cracked. His head dropped to rest beside his mate.
Talfrin took a startled step back from the naked Prime. The waves of pain pouring off of Kirall were staggering. He had heard about the connection between a male Dragoon and his mate, but had never witnessed it for himself. Kirall helped save his people, his planet. He had to at least try to help him save his mate.
“There might be one way…but she is so young,” he said hesitantly.
Kirall raised his head, his Dragon’s eyes piercing Talfrin’s. “How?” he growled.
Autumn felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into that dark hell where only pain existed. For a moment, for just the briefest of moments, she had found happiness, acceptance, and love. She knew that was what she’d seen in Kirall’s eyes when he’d looked down at her, ready to make love to her again. Then it was ripped away from her, just like her family had been.
As another wave of pain wracked her body, she tried to scream. If she screamed, she knew Kirall would hear her and help. Kirall…was he even real? He’d promised there would be no drugs, but he let Bonn give them to her. Maybe he was just a figment of her imagination, and they had finally broken her.
Maybe she was still in that hospital where they liked to poke and prod her. Where they talked about her like she wasn’t even in the room. Maybe they were right, and she really was crazy.
She couldn’t turn into a Dragon. Kirall couldn’t exist. He had to be a figment of her imagination, and that thought crushed her.
It was time to give up, time to join her family. Then maybe she would find some peace.
“How?!!” Kirall demanded, his eyes piercing Talfrin’s.
“If her Dragon will respond to the call of yours, and if it is strong enough, it should be able to burn the drug out of her system. Then we can worry about the injuries caused by the Varana.”
“She will respond to me,” Kirall told him confidently rising to his feet. “She is my mate.” Kirall didn’t even have to think about calling his Dragon, for he was already rising inside Kirall calling out to their mate.
Chapter Ten
Autumn wasn’t finding the peace she thought she would by finally giving up. Instead, her dark world was filled with a deep, rough, coughing sound. It irritated her because it made her want to fight, and fighting only caused more pain.
“Autumn…” it called. “Come back to me. Don’t leave me.”
“Leave me alone,” she screamed into the darkness. “I don’t know you.”
“You do know me!” Slowly the figure of a Dragon began to emerge from the darkness that filled her world, a Dragon with crystalline eyes. “I am your mate. You are mine,” it told her. “You will obey me!”
“Mate? Right!” Something inside her had her hissing at him, challenging him. “I have no mate! I would not be here if I did. All those I loved, and who loved me, are dead!”
“I am not dead! But if death is what you wish then I shall follow you there.”
“What?” That brought her up short.
“I will not live without you now that I have found you. So it will be your choice whether I live or die.”
“No! No!” she screamed even knowing no one could hear her. “No one else dies because of me!”
“Then fight!” he demanded. “Fight for me, my mate!”
“I don’t know how!” she screamed.
“Let your Dragon out, Autumn. She will guide you. She can use her fire to burn away the drug that is hurting you.”
“But it will hurt her too!”
“For a moment, yes,” he admitted. “But she is strong. She is Dragoon and even though she is young, she will know how to protect you, as she has always done. Then we can heal you. I promise you this.”
“You promised that before and it was untrue.” She could feel the pain her words caused him, and what was inside her howled in rage.
“It was,” he admitted contritely. “I should have been more vigilant with you. You are the only thing that matters to me and I failed you, not once but twice. I should have remembered your words. Should have realized your Dragon needed more time to heal the injuries caused by the Varanas. None of this would have happened had I not been an arrogant male that believed himself more than you. Please. Please, do not punish yourself for my mistakes.”
She could hear the honest plea in his voice. Could hear the need. But could she believe it was real? Or was this all in her mind?
A growl came from deep inside her. “You know I am real, so is our mate,” it told her. “Ever since I first emerged you have held me deep inside, and have protected me. Now you need to let me protect you. I can do this. If you let me.”
Autumn had no more than nodded her head when she was engulfed in flames, and all she could do was scream…and scream…and scream…then everything disappeared.
Autumn’s body arched up off the table, stunning everyone as her tortured scream filled the room. She partially shifted, the claws from her good arm extending to slash out blindly at Kirall, the healing unit, and at herself. Anything she could reach.
Kirall paled, wondering what he had done to his mate? “Talfrin!” he begged, even as his eyes remained locked on his mate.
“I can do nothing that will not cause her more pain. Not until the drug is out of her system. I’m sorry. This is a fight she must win on her own.”
Kirall crawled up onto the healing bed, lying across her upper body, holding her as gently as he could so she wouldn’t harm herself more.
“Please, Autumn,” he pleaded, resting his forehead against hers. He could feel how high her temperature had become, and knew it was her Dragon trying to burn the drug out of her system. He just didn’t know if she could survive it.
“Please fight, my love,” he whispered, not caring if other males heard him begging. “Just a little longer. I am here, fighting with you. Feel my strength. Take what you need. Take all of it, if that is what you need for I am nothing without you.” He captured her lips with his own, and breathed his life into her.
As suddenly as it started, Autumn went completely still, her claws retracting and her body cooling.
Talfrin put a hand on Kirall’s shoulder. “You need to let me treat her now, Kirall.”
“No! I won’t leave her!” He couldn�
��t.
“The unit can’t heal her with you covering her like that.”
“What?” Kirall gave him a confused look.
“Your mate’s Dragon is strong, Kirall. It was able to burn the drug out of her system. Now let me heal the rest, starting with her arm.”
Kirall reluctantly rose, giving Talfrin and the machine the room they needed to heal his mate, but he kept a hand on her, reassuring himself that she was alive.
Talfrin harrumphed his displeasure that Kirall wouldn’t move completely out of his way, but his fingers still activated the healing unit. “Dacke,” he called out. “Make yourself useful. Get me a blanket for her, and some pants for Kirall. Both are in the cabinet behind you.”
“I’m fine,” Kirall growled. “And my mate’s name is Autumn.”
“I’ll remember that, but I have no desire to see any more of your cock than I already have.”
“Here.” Dacke slapped the pants against Kirall’s chest then held out the blanket to Talfrin.
“I’ll do it,” Kirall said, ignoring the pants thrust at him as he reached for the blanket. “She is mine to care for.
“Cover everything except the arm I’m working on,” Talfrin ordered, closely watching how the machine healed Autumn. “And for the love of Kur, put your pants on!”
Kirall stepped into the pants, keeping a hand on Autumn. They were too short for him, but at least they had a self-adjusting waistband.
“Her arm has healed nicely, but it would be best if she were on her stomach to heal her leg.” Talfrin reached out to roll her, only to stop as Kirall released a deadly growl.
“Do not touch her.” Talfrin and Dacke both watched as Kirall struggled to control his Beast and Dragon. Finally, he was able to speak. “I will move her.”
Slipping his arms under her, Kirall rolled her over as carefully as he could, praying to Kur he wasn’t hurting her. When the blanket slipped away, he heard the shocked hisses from the other two males.
Bound By Heat - Dragon Shifter Page 12