Page 58 of Captured By the Dragon Warlord (Fated Mates of the Sarkarnii Warlords #2)

“ Y ou chose wrong,” the shadow hisses into my ear.

“I chose my mate. And I choose the Sarkarnii.” I struggle to grip the thing, to maintain my hold on it, to keep it away from Scarlett.

If it is frightened of the human females, then I will protect my mate until my last ever breath. Humans may be small, but they are fierce, and Scarlett is mine .

“The Sarkarnii belong to us,” the thing I’m holding hisses.

“Which is where you are wrong. No matter what you do to us, the Sarkarnii belong to the Sarkarnii.” I duck my head as Dalox lets rip with a flame of epic proportions, searing over my hide with no injury but hitting the shadow directly, making parts of it solid.

Solid enough for me to get my teeth into, so I do, because I can see Scarlett below me and she isn’t moving.

Rage descends. A rage so primal, so feral I thought I’d lost it a long time ago.

No one hurts my mate.

No one threatens my clan.

No one takes a Sarkarnii.

“It’s time,” the shadow entity says.

“You had better nevving believe it is time,” I snarl, snapping at the thing, breaking lumps off it and spitting them into the air, to flame them out of existence. “Time you understood you can’t play with a Sarkarnii warlord. You kill us or you are killed by us.”

Around me, the remainder of the warlords circle. Each one releases his own flame. I feel the entity fight me, only this time it isn’t trying to subdue.

It’s trying to escape.

“Too late,” I growl, flinging it into the air and firing a sheet of pure fire, the hottest I can muster, at the swirling shadow.

It squeals. Whilst it might appear to be mist, it is not, and it can be damaged. The other warlords join me in spitting fire at it.

Any desire I had for answers went in the moment I had to destroy the shadow to get to my mate. Whatever it is, whatever it ultimately wanted, I do not care.

I have to get to Scarlett.

I dive down to her body. Her chest rises and falls with a ragged breath, and I scoop her into one of my huge paws, clutching her to me.

“Hold on, little mate,” I rasp. “Stay with me.”

Above, there is a thin, long screech, cut off abruptly, and one by one, the warlords land, shifting into their biped forms. Darax rushes into his sector, no doubt going to check on his mate. Dalox stares at the female in my arms.

“Shift and assist her,” he says. “Give her your venom and your claim. Save her.”

“I cannot. This is the form I have chosen. If I bite her, I will kill her.”

Dalox snorts and turns away from me, shifting out his wings and beating away to his sector.

Dante and Driok stare at the female I clutch to me.

“You chose to stay shifted?” Dante asks and shivers. “Forever?”

Driok inclines his head, looking over my form with an interested eye before he turns like Dalox and launches himself into the air. Whatever we were, whatever we became just now, that time is over, and he isn’t going to work with us again.

I need to get Scarlett to the clinic, to put her in a pod, to bring her back from the brink after whatever the shadow did to her, but I’m not sure there is time. I search for any way there might be to bite her, to give her my venom, but it isn’t possible in this form.

By shifting, I was supposed to save her, yet Scarlett is not saved. I pull her against my neck, needing her warmth, her skin against mine.

I need her. I need Scarlett. I cannot be without her.

“Dexx?” Her soft voice whispers in my ear, and a hand is on my cheek.

I’m not sure I dare look at her because I don’t think I can save her.

“Dexx.” My name on her lips is like nectar, the sweetest of sweets. It shouldn’t feel this good when I can’t even save my mate who makes me feel like the only creature in the entire universe.

“Dexx, look at me,” Scarlett demands.

I look.

I am no longer shifted.

She is in my arms, her face pale, stark against the tumbling waves of her pretty hair. Her eyes are filled with pain.

“I need to claim you, little ember,” I murmur, marveling at how tiny she still is in my grasp, but not so small I can’t give her what she needs. “It is the only way.”

“Then claim me,” she says. “I want to be yours.”

I can feel the venom gathering in my glands, my fangs extending, the dip in my stomach as my cock hardens.

“You are already mine.” I lap over the skin on her neck, desire spiking through me. “You will always be mine, as long as the stars burn and the universe is endless. You belong to me and only me.”