Chapter 18

Ward

O nly Noth was old enough to remember a time when there were dragons and even the one he met was dying. Noth said the creature smelled like old parchment and rotten vegetables. The dragon had bestowed upon the elf a golden crown he used as a plant holder for the past couple hundred years. It didn’t do anything. As the ultimate instruments of the Goddess Veretis, dragons collected some strange things before hunters extinguished them in the Harrowlands.

Or that’s what we had been told, because shifters had done the hunting. Too powerful, too elemental, the monsters of the Harrowlands couldn’t contain abuse or magic dragons into submission. Dragons were the only shifters that managed to use magic in both their animal forms and human forms. Not to mention their size, cunning, and pure brute strength. Where there was fear, there was death.

It was those soul-shaking thoughts that had my bear frantically digging us a large den to hide in when Evie passed out and crashed to the ground in the middle of nowhere.

Help me, he asked.

With my magic tapped out, I could barely lift a finger.

Fine. I will do it, he huffed. My bear gathered bracken, pine needles and moss to make her comfortable.

His only thought was to keep his mate safe and let her recover from the giant expenditure of energy it took to transform into a massive dragon. Evie was easily three times our size in bear form. Her gleaming black snake scales translated into plate-sized dragon scales, golden light leaking from each overlap. She picked me up like the teddy bear she called me and my magic remained too exhausted from fighting Noth to contain my bear.

Anything more than slouching along for the wild ride was impossible, even though he hated his feet being off the ground. My mate absolutely did not know how to fly and did it anyway.

We watched her sleep in our den. Only her regular breathing kept my bear from destroying everything around us.

You cannot hide me away, my bear spoke as he let me take over our form, exhausted in his own right. She will need both of us in equal measure now.

He was right. When we started, I was supremely confident I could lead Evie through the mate bond and into life as a shifter. Now, I had no idea what we would be when she was a powerful, hunted monster the Harrowlands hadn’t seen in a millennium. I was strangely excited to find out. She would need my knowledge of magic and shifting more than ever to contain her dragon. Her beast was capable of leveling cities without trying and I had learned enough lessons about accidentally harming people to never want that for her.

Something settled as I watched her sleep. Fate had been leading me to this day my whole life. My strength, diplomacy as King, hard-earned mage craft, all served to become her champion. She would need every skill we both possessed to stay alive and control her power. We really were perfect mates. I just needed her, more than ever, to see it. Our individual pasts were nothing next to the future we had together.

Evie kicked out in her sleep and I caught her ankle before she hit me. The action woke her enough that she blearily blinked at me.

“Wait, did I tell you I love you?” Evie croaked.

Goosebumps broke out all over my skin. She what?

“Why are you over there?” she asked as she struggled to get up.

“I didn’t want to smother you while you were recovering.” I shuffled over to bring her some water and berries I’d found after we landed. It would have to do until we got back to the brood.

Evie sipped with a grateful smile. “I think I need some smothering.” She crawled into my lap and I hugged her loosely in case she still hurt from the fighting and the fall.

“Tell me what hurts,” I urged her.

“Nothing,” she said into my chest. “That shouldn’t be right. Noth almost bit me in half, but the shift healed everything. I was coming to tell dream you ‘I love you’ before you showed up with my sister on your arm. Please tell me that was not real.”

I froze, hands balling into fists as I worked to swallow. Noth’s nightmares really were hideous. “Please tell me the ‘I love you’ part is real.”

She wouldn’t look at me, but firmed her resolve and met my eyes. Hers said everything I had ever wanted to hear. “I’m going to be bad at this. My ex popping up as my nightmare and me stumbling through a conversation about feelings proves I’m bad at this. But I love you. I won’t let anyone take that away from me.”

My heart thundered in my chest. Her certainty left me breathless. My bear was ready to lunge forward and bite her immediately.

Evie shifted in my lap. “We’re going to need to be a team if a dragon is after us.” Genuine worry crossed her features. She didn’t know.

I stroked her hair, rubbing my thumb across her cheek. “Viper. Evie. My love.”

She violently shook her head. “No. No. No. Now, every time you start like that, it’s something terrifying or disgusting. I ate the relic as you told me to. It was awful, by the way.”

I held her close and kissed her cheeks, her forehead, her mouth. That she settled against me made my vow to be her champion even more real. “You are the dragon, Evie.”

She choked. “I’m a what?”

“A dragon, love.” I drifted a hand down her back in comfort.

“I thought they didn’t exist. I already collect too many things. I can’t start hoarding gold too. Where do you get gold? That’s a requirement, right?” The words jittered right out of her.

My bear was grumpy that we were making our mate panic. “It’s not a requirement. You can collect whatever you want.”

Evie laughed. “Finally, a use for my pin collection! And all those mismatched socks…”

Evie continued listing her various collections that sounded like I would need the entire keep to hold. I stroked her back with my fingertips, letting her come down from the high. I could watch her mouth move for an immortal lifetime. When she ran out of words, I ventured a response.

“You’re still just Evie to me, no matter what you are. I’ve loved you from the first moment I stole you from Dane’s bar. I will always love you. Even if you only said it to nightmare me.”

She thrust forward and kissed me—a searing joining that ripped all rational thought from my head. Air desperate to get into my lungs, I pulled back. “I need to know if you don’t want this because I can’t live without you. I never could.”

She cupped my face in her hands. “I need this, Ward. I need you. Never leave.”

“Mine.” I growled and hauled her against me, capturing her mouth with mine, hands diving into her hair so I could bring her closer. Her generous curves pressed against my body as her kaftan rode up, the heat of her core warming the cock that had been hard for her for a month now. I didn't give her a chance for her body to grow awkward. Rubbing her against me, I worked her hips until she had no choice but to move her body with mine and she gasped out an orgasm that had my bear snarling.

“That wasn’t fair, teddy bear. All you’ve been doing is giving. I can give too.”

She tore down my braies, and I lifted my hips to help her. Kicking them off my ankles, she fell down onto my pulsing length, her mouth a kind of heaven I hoped to live in for the rest of my days. I didn’t care that she had little finesse. Her tongue still danced up my cock, and I helped her when she took too much and gagged.

“You do that so well, viper. Don’t stop.” Evie kept my hand in her hair, caressing, as her head bobbed up and down. Coupled with the visual of my cock sliding in and out of her mouth, I couldn’t hold back. Everything tightened, and she squeaked when I came. Her eyes lit up with a golden light in true shifter fashion before she sucked in earnest. I thought she was going to pull my spine through my dick as I emptied into her mouth, down her throat. She popped off, licking her lips.

“You taste like honey.” Evie’s mouth turned down and tears sheened in her eyes. “But I ruined it. I was just trying to take you to the edge. I hope we’re stuck here for a few more hours.”

Pressing her hand against my still hard erection, her eyes widened. “My mate is letting me touch her. We might be stuck here for days.”

I laughed as she fell back into my arms, digging her little kitten claws into my chest, kissing my neck right where I wanted her to bite me. She finally said she loved me, but was she ready for that? The ultimate binding of our souls? I didn’t want to lose this moment to find out. If I had her in this, she would wear my bite eventually.

My cock wept between us and I grabbed her ass to spread her wetness all over me and mingle our scents. Evie panted in my ear, her nipples rubbing hard points across my chest. I tossed her into the nest I made her, needing to wrap her up in me, needing her to feel my weight against her smaller frame. I wasn’t afraid of hurting her. She had the strength to smash me out of this den with one hand if she knew how to control her dragon.

“You’re going to take me so good, viper,” I said into her hair.

Her legs came around my hips automatically as I curled to lick her nipple in my mouth, kneading the other with my hand. It filled so much of my palm I was delirious. Her little cries forced my mouth to her neck so I might tease her like she did to me.

“I don’t want to wait.” Her hips worked to line us up, but I kept just out of reach.

Her frustrated growl leaked a bit more fluid from my tip.

Hauling her up, I held her above my cock, hands flexing on her hips. “You needed an orgasm before you take me. I would have preferred two, but you’ll still come on my cock like a good girl, won’t you?”

“I willlllll?”

Just the tip breached her entrance, and she choked off a cry. It was everything I had in me to stop and let her adjust and not slam her down until I had her completely wrapped around me.

Evie pushed on my forearms, trying to lever herself down. “I'm going to make you fit!”

“I will. You were made for me. Trust me.” I pulled her down another inch and her mouth opened. Massaging her clit in delicious circles, I watched the most beautiful thing I had ever seen slide down the rest of my length. I fought the snarling need to fuck up into her as she adjusted while I played with her clit. Every flicker of pleasure across her face fascinated me. The heat, the bond, shimmered between us.

“So full. Please move,” she gasped, her hips chasing my hand.

I started her rhythm, so she had something to follow, but soon Evie rode me with ease, her eyes glowing in the dark den.

“That’s right. I absolutely adore feeling you on top of me. Use me just how you want.”

Her flushed mouth opened and closed as her rhythm stuttered. “I can’t… I need…”

“I have you, love.” I tipped her back into the nest and stroked into her in earnest, her channel squeezing me.

“Don’t stop.”

The bond intensified between us, but I wouldn’t make her seal it yet. My strokes grew jagged and rougher. “I won’t. Not even when you come so pretty all over me.”

“More,” Evie cried, her body shaking as I palmed her ass, her breast. She grabbed my forearm like a life raft, arching up into my powerful strokes, so we both buzzed with the start of an orgasm so deep it would shoot us across the sky.

Evie broke apart first and her pleasure walloped the bond so hard I was helpless but to follow in her wake, pumping all I had into her channel. Light and magic crackled through the bond, my body, my soul. Our shared release cemented the last ties between us, the bond unshakable even if it was missing the mark. We fell back into the nest, regaining our breath, before Evie crawled on top of me.

“Again,” she said.

I happily obliged until night settled in the sky. I made good on every position, every touch, every way I could think of to show my mate I loved her.

When I was casually stuffing my release back into her with my three fingers, she finally batted me away.

“Cease fire,” Evie panted, her forearm coming over her eyes.

My bear was ready to claim her again, but I would allow us a break for more food and water so we could keep going. I was hungry, so her dragon must be downright insatiable. We ate the few things I found. I shifted to scout for danger outside the den.

Wait here while I ? —

But Evie was already growing, pushing me out of the den before breaking it apart in a shower of rock, dirt and roots that rained down around us. Plopped on her ass, a small tree balanced on her head, she blinked into the evening. I had to step back as she shook off the dirt covering her. Somewhat clean, Evie stole my breath. Her diamond-shaped head didn’t look that different from her snake’s, but it came with an assortment of horns and a mane under her hood that covered the back of her head. Her ice-blue eyes remained large in her face, that now sported fangs longer than my human form. Those stubby snake legs lengthened into delicate limbs tipped with death machine claws. Most beautiful of all, her various-sized scales ranged from obsidian to smokey on her belly, golden light faintly glowing through the overlap of them. Her tail twitched like a cat’s as her eyes narrowed on me.

I’m more hideous, aren’t I? she asked.

I sent all my love and admiration through the solid bond, and I saw her smile when it hit her. You could never be hideous and no one else would call you that now, either.

I am hungry, though. Evie twisted around, looking into the unfamiliar forest. Light dripped from her jaws. Let’s hunt.

I raced to keep up with her, and her footsteps shook the entire wood. No animal would miss she was coming for them, but the white-hot beam of light she produced from her throat felled a forest ox, anyway. Her power was awe-inspiring, and she wielded it completely unconsciously. My bear delighted as she let him have the liver and the heart before she ate the rest whole. His dreamy thoughts about his giant mate, now dripping blood from her jaws, made me smile. This was better than I ever imagined. I was pretty much incapable of hurting her physically. At least with my mate, I could finally lay down those fears. There was no way we would fail getting the last relic with a dragon at our side.

Full? I asked her.

Not really, but we should find the others. If they’re willing to be a part of our brood still.

She didn’t understand that shifters would flock to her power now with both noble and murderous intent. I shifted so I could send up a magical flare for our little army and we returned to the road to wait for them to catch up. I polished Evie’s scales with a conjured rag until we saw a dust cloud in the distance. Our brood picked up speed as they approached. They all halted when they saw Evie in her dragon form. I blocked her from everyone’s view the best I could as she shifted, her kaftan floating around her. I would go completely feral if anyone said anything negative to her.

“Hey guys!” she chirped, stepping around me.

Declan barreled into her, knocking her to the ground, licking her face.

I snarled as I pulled him off with one hand. I didn’t care if Evie could take a hit to the ground. No one would touch her like that. “Keep it civil with my dragon.”

Noora clapped her hands, leaning on her mate. “Everyone is going to lose their shit with a dragon in the Harrowlands again.”

Evie blushed as she stood up. I offered her the rag I had been polishing her with so she could wipe the slobber off her face. She looked at me like I was her hero and it distracted me until she gasped. Evie ran forward and knelt next to a bruised and bloody Noth. His chained hands drooped before him.

“Don’t go near him,” Declan said.

I wanted to edge her away as well. The Noth I knew would never hurt my mate. That didn’t mean the relic, combined with whatever the wires were on his head, hadn’t altered him forever. I went to her side and subtly inserted myself between them. Or not so subtly, if Noora’s snicker was any indication.

“What happened to him? I didn’t think I hit him that hard,” Evie said.

“He got testy when we told him we were taking him to his execution,” Noora said.

“Absolutely not!” Evie and I said at the same time. There was no way we were executing my friend for being under the influence of the relic.

“I wasn’t in control.” Noth’s voice cracked in a way I didn’t like. He was an extremely powerful shifter that also happened to be King, much to the elves’ dismay. His dirty hair sat tangled on his head and venom still covered his side. Usually polished like midnight, I had never seen him in this state.

“Shame on you,” Evie shouted into the brood. “Veretis’ relic didn’t show you at your finest, either. I found you all in a cage, waiting to be transported to who knows where. You were all ready to tear us apart in that pit.”

They all had the grace to seem ashamed. It was important this witch hunt stopped. We didn’t need the Elven kingdom raining mistfire down upon us.

“No matter what nightmares you saw, we all have things as shifters we might not be proud of. Not all of us shift into something beautiful or easy. Will you hunt Evie next because of what she’s become? Are there limits to your inclusion?”

That put a stricken look on every face in the brood.

Noth cleared his throat, and everyone turned to look at him. He sat back on his heels, regaining some of his kingly aura, shaking his hair out of his face. “If it’s any consolation, the wire those bastards fixed to my head completely blanked my Nightmare Walker and my human mind. I remember nothing after they gave me orders like a puppet.” Noth spoke around his cracked lips. Not all the damage could be from his fight with us.

“And trust me.

They.

Will.

Pay.”