Page 14

Lucan

Bone to Pick

The talons in front of me swiped through the air, missing my snout by inches as I reared back. Pale underbelly scales—the telltale color of the MacAlister Clan—flew past the reach of my jaws.

I’d planned to rip a chunk out of the youngest brother’s neck before he’d gotten smart and flipped out of reach.

Even if his yellow and green coloring hadn’t given him away, I would’ve known this particular dragon was Shawn. He still had the scars on his right flank from the last time I’d kicked his tail a few centuries ago.

I should’ve ended the MacAlister line then, back before they rose to such power. They’d always been a thorn in our sides. But Malachy had ordered peace despite the threat they posed to him.

Over the centuries, as they amassed a following of idiots, they’d grown bolder in their attempts to take over the O’Sullivan birthright. Kieran—curse him and his diplomatic ways—along with Malachy had allowed such foolish behavior to continue, going so far as to indulge them when the oldest brother thought he’d be able to take on the role of guardian and change the prophecy.

Predictably, it hadn’t worked.

As far as I was concerned, they’d overstepped their boundaries one too many times.

I would’ve killed them for less.

Verminous snakes.

Shawn’s dragon let out a furious roar as I slammed my barbed tail into his side, sending him spiraling toward Earth in a freefall.

I beat my heavy wings, rising higher into the troposphere as I checked the horizon for the other two. If one MacAlister were here, the others weren’t usually far behind. By the looks of Malachy, it would’ve been an ambush from the three of them after he was weakened from guardian duties.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

I couldn’t wait to end this.

But the air was calm except for two smoke trails cutting paths through the blue sky leading to me and Shawn. Mine ended at my tail. His went spiraling downward.

It seemed as though they’d abandoned him.

I didn’t sit with the knowledge for long.

Shawn’s eyes blazed a furious, feral red as he caught himself and changed course, heading my way.

He’d chosen today to risk it all and I wasn’t about to keep him waiting for the consequences of his actions.

I tucked my wings in tight, allowing gravity to take hold and turn my body into a missile. Years of studying various warfare techniques and this was still one of my favorite moves.

Unfortunately for the dragon below me, he’d never engaged in this style of fighting before and his moment of confusion caused too long a delay.

Because of my velocity, he missed the window to move his giant body until my skull crashed into his shoulder, crunching bone and knocking him tail over head as his painfilled roar echoed through the sky.

That cry only fueled my anger.

He was the one who started this, attacking my brother and causing a ruckus outside my wards that frightened my mate.

So I’d finish it.

My wings unfurled, stopping my descent, and the force at which I whipped upward allowed my body to turn almost impossibly fast.

I grabbed Shawn’s spine with my front talons, digging in tight as he tried to flee, and snapped my jaw closed around his exposed neck column.

The position gave me complete control.

If he tried to move, he’d snap his own neck. Or I’d snap it for him if I decided.

But I hesitated, breathing slow as I scanned the ground with one eye.

We were too high up for her to see me if she was looking this way. I’d worked hard today to show her I wasn’t a monster and I worried about the delicate trust we were building.

Shawn struggled under my hold, testing the limit.

I bit down harder to remind him who was in control.

“Why?” The human question came out garbled with the voice of my beast and muffled by the mouthful of the idiot dragon’s neck. The two of us didn’t share a telepathic connection because we weren’t close kin.

Nor were we friends.

Shawn seemed to remember that as he stilled beneath me. He didn’t speak.

End this now.

For some reason, I couldn’t.

Not quite yet.

I beat my wings slowly, moving further and further from my property until I found a place to touch down within a deep mountain ravine, hidden enough that not even a dragon flying in the sky could witness what I was about to do.

My hindlegs hit the dirt first as I shook Shawn’s body, reminding him of his place before releasing my hold.

“Shift,” I commanded.

I might not have been the guardian, but I possessed the dominance and size of one and the blood of it ran in my veins. The younger, weaker, more foolish dragon had no choice but to obey.

On bleeding human limbs, Shawn tried to scramble away through the sagebrush and brambles.

I shifted and grabbed hold of his neck, dragging him back into the air as if I could shake some sense into him.

Dragons fighting each other was nothing new, but this defied anything rational. One alone couldn’t challenge me or come close to finishing off Malachy even in his weakened state.

“What were you thinking?” I asked. “Where are your brothers?”

Little twitching shakes rocked Shawn’s human body and I realized he was laughing silently when I turned him to face me.

But that wasn’t why I threw him down as if he was diseased. Dark, angry magic poured from his nostrils and tried to wrap itself around my wrists.

I closed my fists, allowing the protective ward magic I carried in my soul to pulse around me, cleansing the taint from my skin and pushing away whatever evil he carried.

He hadn’t been a magic wielder before. This was new. It was weak enough that I knew he couldn’t contain it or be any real threat, but I had to wonder what the MacAlisters had gotten into this time.

“Don’t worry.” Shawn’s eyes were still blood-fueled and feral even as a smile curled his bruising mouth. “You can tell your guardian that my brothers will be coming for him again, soon.”