by Amelia Jade
Hopefully.
“You’re going to regret those words.” Randy’s eyes were bright blue now, crazed fury entering them.
Werewolves were so predictable. They had horrific tempers and were quick to fight. It’s no wonder they were shunned by the rest of the shifter world. Palin was barely trying with his insults, and already he’d worked their leader into a frenzy. Imagine if he put some effort into them.
“Well listen, you flea-bitten mongrel bastard son of a whore, if we’re going to—Yikes, okay, it’s on!” he yelped as Rusty changed and leapt at him.
CRACK!
His fist connected with the Alpha’s jaw, changing his direction midair and sending him tumbling into a pair of his followers.
Palin spun, palm outstretched. Gas erupted like fire around the pair of them, cutting off the bulk of the pack in a wide arc. Howls erupted from everywhere around them. Several cut off shortly thereafter into pained coughing noises.
“Palin!”
He turned at Sandy’s panicked cry to see one of the wolves, a huge tawny beast, come flying over the gas barrier in a huge leap. The size and confidence of the beast told him it must be one of Rusty’s lieutenants, perhaps even the Beta.
Too bad he didn’t have time to give a shit. Palin opened his mouth and he roared. Not like a bear or even a mighty lion. This was the battle challenge of a full-fledged dragon. The noise picked up the wolf, the grass, any loose debris, and the top few inches of grass and blew them all back through the gas wall like a tornado. Too late he realized his efforts had ripped away half their protection.
But damn it was cool.
More wolves streamed through the opening, but Palin met them head-on. Scales appeared across his body, brilliant emerald green protection that shone brightly even in the flickering firelight.
He swung left and right, but the sheer number of them meant they eventually overwhelmed him, taking him to the ground. Hunched over on all fours as they tried to get at his vulnerable bits, he focused his efforts there, where they couldn’t see.
“Get clear!” he shouted at Sandy.
“How clear?” her voice grew more distant even as he spoke.
Thankfully the wolves seemed to realize he was a major threat, and knew that if they got rid of him they would have Sandy with ease, so for now she was all but forgotten.
“More than that!” he shouted from under the dog pile.
Heh. Dog pile.
“Ow.” He lashed out with an elbow at a wolf that bit down on his face. The creature’s jaw dislocated so badly the bottom teeth swung out and almost poked it in the eye. Yelping, it extracted itself from the pile.
Convinced he had the majority of them struggling to rip him to shreds, and that Sandy was at a safe distance, Palin unleashed the attack he’d been building. Gas swirled up around them and then drifted downward like a massive snow globe that refused to dissipate, obscuring all sightlines.
Immediately the wolves began to howl in pain and flee as the caustic gas melted the fur from their bodies. That was the worst thing they could have done as the corrosive gas poured down their throats.
There was no way he was letting them leave the circle. The last thing Sandy needed to see was the results of his attack. But he was still buried under a pile of the most stubborn. Time to change that. Palin went on the attack, lashing out. Wolves flew away from him. His dragonsight easily allowed him to see the fleeing beasts through the gas. He dashed after the nearest, grabbing it by the tail to pull it back in.
The tail popped off in his hand. “Ew.” He settled for dropping a hammerfist on its head. The beast collapsed and the gas continued to eat away at it.
Turning, he ran round the perimeter of the circle, picking wolves up bodily and tossing them back into the center until eventually all movement had ceased. Palin slowly shrank his circle while increasing the toxicity of the gasses within. Finally he’d achieved his purpose, and with a disgusted wave of his hand dismissed the ball of gas.
From off to one side he heard a gasp. “Where did they all go?”
Palin spun. Sandy was there, unharmed, staring at the near-perfect circle of completely dead ground surrounding Palin. Anything living had been eaten away beyond recognition. Human. Wolf. Even the grass was gone, leaving nothing but dead, unusable soil.
“It doesn’t matter,” he told her, hating himself for what he’d done, but knowing it was inevitable.
Once werewolves pick an enemy, they don’t stop until it’s dead. The only way to stop them was to kill them all.
He started walking over to Sandy, but before he could get there a figure lurched out of the night and grabbed her by the neck.
“One more step and she dies!” Rusty growled, his words slightly slurred from speaking through a swollen jaw. He wobbled back and forth, still unsteady on his feet from the first blow Palin had delivered to his head.
The dragon shifter lifted a hand, pointing a solitary finger at the Alpha. “Rusty, you really, really don’t want to piss off a dragon. You’ve already done that by being a royal ass and uttering threats to my mate. Now you’ve put a hand on her. You have to the count of five—because I’m generous—to let her go. Otherwise I’ll kill you where you stand.”
Rusty’s eyes went wide with fear at the admission that he was up against a dragon. But his hand around Sandy’s neck reminded him of where they were, and he smiled nastily, believing himself to have the high ground.
“One more step and I break her neck. You’re fast, flyboy, but you aren’t that fast.
Palin’s finger was still in the air. Concentrating, he pushed power from his body into the tip of the finger. Gas swirled there he knew, but in the dark of night the tiny ball was nearly invisible.
“One,” he said calmly.
Rusty shook his head. “I don’t think you unders—”
“Two.”
“Don’t be stupid, dragon. She’ll die if you do anything dumb, y—”
“Five.”
The ball of gas suddenly shone bright green before flicking across the distance between them.
Rusty stopped talking very suddenly as a hole the size of a penny appeared in his forehead.
“Close your eyes!” Palin barked as Sandy started to turn to see what had happened as the grip around her neck relaxed. “Don’t look!”
He ran over and picked up his mate in his arms, relishing the feel of her body pressed against his. Combat was a powerful aphrodisiac, and he had to fight down the sexual urges coursing through him. Right now his mate needed him to be strong and stable for her. She was going to have questions. Lots of questions.
Like how he’d just killed a dozen or so wolves—in truth Palin hadn’t even counted—without batting an eye. That was not going to be a pleasant conversation.
“They’re all dead, aren’t they?” she asked as they walked back down the walkway.
“Yeah.”
One or two pairs of orange eyes appeared in the darkness, but one look at his hard eyes sent them scurrying. He was the undisputed master of the pack now, even if he wasn’t a ruler. He’d nearly wiped them all from the face of the earth. Only the latecomers and drunkards were left. They would be of no threat.
“You killed them.” Sandy wasn’t questioning him.
“Yes. Otherwise they would have kept coming after you. They gave me no choice. It’s not the first time I’ve run afoul of werewolves. They’re much more common than anyone thinks. Perhaps too common.”
“You don’t sound upset about it.”
“I’m not. They threatened you. I hold no remorse for someone dumb enough to threaten the mate of a dragon.”
“You seem so convinced of their evil.”
“Not all werewolves are evil. Many are just wanting to exist. I have no quarrel with those. If they leave me alone, I will do the same. But I will defend what is mine, and you are mine,” he finished with a protective rumble that echoed in the night.
He wasn’t just telling her. He was telling the world.
Sandy was his, and anyone who tried to do her harm would have to deal with one pissed-off dragon by the name of Palin.
“Now, let’s go home,” he said softly. “We never did get to eat. I’m starved.”
Despite all that had happened, he felt his mate laugh into his shoulder. He knew everything was going to be okay. It wouldn’t be easy, but in the end she would recover from the ordeal.
“Palin?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about Rusty.”
He shrugged. “If I’d not been so blind I would have realized beforehand that they were wolves and I would never have let you go. Truthfully, although I didn’t believe it, I wanted him to be telling the truth about mending fences as well. I know that was wearing on you, and I hoped that maybe this would be the end of it. I am sorry it worked out this way too.”
They reached the car then and she slid into the passenger seat.
“Palin?”
He glanced over at her to see her looking at him. Eyes of the most nondescript brown stared back. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about her eyes, and yet they were also the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. And Palin loved the way she looked at him.
He almost thought he could see love in the depths of her pupils. His soul ached to tell her again that he loved her, but the last thing she needed just then was more pressure. He would have to wait until the time was right, no matter how much it hurt.
“Yes?”
“Thank you. I…” she hesitated. “I really value having you in my life. I trust you.”
Palin stared, caught completely off guard by her admission. For most people that might not have been as big a thing, but for Sandy he knew that to be on par with telling someone they loved them in terms of significance to the person. He didn’t know what to say in return.
“You’re a good person.”
He smiled, reaching out to take her hand in his as he fired up his truck and spun it around, heading back down the drive and to her place.
Just before he turned onto the main road he lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. No words were needed. She understood him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sandy
“You had all this shipped over?” she asked as the tractor trailer pulled into the yard out front her house.
Palin was waiting down on the grass while she watched from her favorite chair on the porch. Champ sat at the top of the steps, supervising everything. His tail thumped from side to side in a slow repetitive pattern that threatened to lull her to sleep.
“Relax,” he chuckled, looking back over his shoulder at her. “It’s not full.”
“I thought you were banished from your homeland?”
He shrugged. “I thought so too. Maybe I am. I didn’t really ask. I just said I wanted everything shipped here and they agreed.”
Sandy let it drop at that, not wanting to press him on the subject. It hurt her to know that he’d been forced between choosing the home he’d known all his life or her. She never wanted to be that sort of ultimatum for someone, but he’d done so before she could give her opinion, and according to him there was no going back even if he’d wanted to.
“You know, I said you could move in, not that you could take over.”
Palin looked skyward. She could just imagine him rolling his eyes, a lazy grin on his face. “Half your house is closed off and unused because it’s just been you living here,” he shot back. “This place is big enough to house a family of like eight. We’ll be fine. I’m just going to add my stuff to a few rooms. I’ll build an addition or a proper storage room in the barn or something for the stuff you don’t like.”
“I didn’t say anything about additions!” she yelped, sitting up so fast her book went flying.
Palin hunched over slightly, his shoulders bouncing. He was laughing at her.
“Oh, real funny. Reallll funny.”
The big semi hissed to a halt, the engine making all sorts of noises as the driver turned it off.
“Well, come on then,” Palin said, motioning to her.
“Where am I going?”
“To help.”
“Ah. Ah hah. Ha ha ha. You’re funny. You wanted to bring stuff, you unload it. I did not sign up for moving boxes.”
“We need this stuff,” he countered.
“No we don’t.”
“Sandy, you don’t have a TV. I’m not living without a TV.”
“You don’t need a semi-truck for your TV,” she shot back, sticking out her tongue.
He looked sad at that.
“Now take off your shirt and get sweaty unloading,” she commanded imperiously, giving him her best royal “wave.”
“Pervert,” he shot back, but did as he was told.
Sandy grinned. It was late October, but they had been blessed by a stretch of warm weather. Though she felt like she should be working, after everything with Rusty had gone down, Palin had revealed to her one secret he’d been keeping. One very big secret.
He was rich. Not just like, wealthy, but filthy disgustingly rich. He’d tried to keep it a secret, but when he’d bought Rusty’s property when the bank seized it—apparently he had no living heirs—without batting an eye she’d been forced to notice. He simply bidded an extra hundred thousand dollars over the other highest bid.
With the massive farm around them generating income, he’d told her that her days of working herself to the bone were over and done with. From now on she was to be a hobby farmer only. He didn’t want her to be bored, but he forbade her from pushing herself as hard as she had been. Which was perfectly okay with Sandy. She wanted a job, but she wasn’t interested in continuing the lifestyle she’d been living.
Now she thumbed slowly through her book, watching as Palin worked away slowly. Eventually he had worked up a good sweat and she got up and started helping.
“You look like you’re getting tired,” she told him, swatting him on the rear.
“Oh fuck you,” he swore with a grin.
“Later,” she promised. “Work first.”
They unloaded the rest of the truck over the course of the afternoon while the driver sat in his cab and did absolutely nothing to help. Finally the truck was empty and they watched the driver head out, thankful to be rid of him.
“That wasn’t as much as I’d thought,” she admitted, surveying the boxes and other items piled in the main room in her house.
“Told you. Just the important stuff.”
“And the TV,” she said, pointing to a gigantic box.
“And the TV,” he agreed, grinning from ear to ear.
She sighed, pulling him close and kissing him again and again. That was something she would probably never get used to, the freedom of being able to just kiss him at will. It was a pretty good perk of having him move in. Not to mention the perks that came with continued kissing, as they were doing now.
“Sandy,” he said, taking her by the shoulders and keeping her still.
At first she thought he was making her work extra hard for it, but when she looked into his eyes the seriousness there registered with her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong. I just…with me officially moving in now, I wanted to give you something. Something to commemorate it by.”
“Like what? I’m not so sure I’m interested in getting matching tattoos.”
Palin laughed, reaching into a pocket. “No, but I was hoping maybe you would wear this.”
He pulled out a brilliantly polished silver necklace with a locket attached to it. It was beautiful, each link hand-carved and glowing in the light.
“Oh Palin. It’s beautiful.”
Intricate carvings on the outside swirled and danced in a pattern that invited her to just do nothing but stare at it. Gently she opened the locket. It was empty inside. One half had his name carved in it, but the opposite where a picture might sit was devoid of anything.
She glanced up at h
im. “I don’t have a picture to put in it.”
He grinned. “You don’t need one.” Without another word he lifted his hand to her neck and spoke a word. Sparkling gas leapt from his hand, coiled around itself and slid home into the empty locket.
Sandy flinched, knowing what his dragon abilities could do, but Palin just smiled gently. “You have nothing to worry about. It won’t harm you.”
The gas swirled in the locket, condensing until it was a vibrant powerful green so bright and beautiful it looked like a gemstone.
Then she gasped as it settled, the shape of a dragon appearing in the center of it in a lighter shade of green. “Palin I…” she trailed off, at a loss for words. How does one go about expressing their feelings about something so beautiful?
“Will you wear it?” he asked nervously.
“Of course!” She slipped it over her head, pulling her ponytail through it gently so she didn’t break anything. “It fits perfectly.”
“Good.”
She pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the cool metal on her skin. “We really are meant to be together, aren’t we? It seems that everything with you is just perfect.”
“I do try hard to make it that way,” he grinned. “Yes, we are meant to be together. Not everything will be perfect. We will have our arguments I’m sure. But fate will always draw us back to one another, no matter what happens. I may irritate you, but I give you my word that I will never fail you, Sandy Talbert. Ever.”
She shivered as he spoke that pronouncement, something running down her spine at the permanency of it.
“Good. Because otherwise I’d have to bend you over and spank that sweet ass of yours until it was red and you cried out for me to stop.”
Palin’s jaw dropped so hard it popped, and she wondered if he’d dislocated it.
“Pardon me?” he asked, stunned.
Sandy started laughing. “I’m sorry, I don’t do so well with solemn moments. They make me nervous and I say weird things.”
“Apparently.” He swept her up into a hug, spinning her around.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment.