I was halfway to the boardwalk before I heard him shout to Brendan to gather up the kids. Cookie raced on my heels.
“Gotta save your other dad.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cinder
After Seth and Cookie left, I doubled checked everything for dinner and headed out into the backyard. The week before my heat hit, we ordered a big sunning boulder that was delivered while I was lost to the world. I didn’t remember much about that time except for desire, pleasure, and how Seth never left my side for a second.
I took my shirt off and stretched out face down with my head hanging off the boulder. The sun danced on my back warming my flesh. Looking down at the green grass made it easier to forget about the world for a minute. I scanned my body searching for changes that might indicate we conceived an egg. My stomach had some butterflies, but that was new love and nerves mingling together.
“Soon. We’ll show soon,” my dragon assured me.
“What do you think, Sivan?” I asked.
When I lived alone, I talked to Sivan aloud all the time. It made me feel closer to him. Several times it also changed my mind about searching out an Other World gateway to go looking for him.
“You always did want an egg,” I continued. “Hell, the Alps were our last stop for a while. We could have a little one almost nine or ten by now. Instead, I have Cookie. You’d love her. She’s small and feisty and demanding and sneaky sometimes. You might even say that she reminded me of you. Well, minus the fact she’s a girl and a furry basket of curly fries. I wouldn’t mind some curly fries. What was that place we used to go to when we were in London to get them? Cheesy Markie’s? Markie’s Cheeses? I don’t remember. I’ll have to look it up online later. I didn’t bring my phone out, because I wanted to talk to you without distraction.
You were always so good to me and now even in the Other World you’re looking out for me. I can’t believe I’m getting married again! Can you? I’m not wearing the stuffy Moonscale robes this time, though. You didn’t even like them that much. We should’ve had a nudist wedding and shocked them all. Maybe I can talk Seth into doing that.
You should know just because I’m marrying Seth doesn’t mean I’m going to stop talking to you. I just wanted to say I’m sorry I wanted one more adventure before we tried for an egg. If I hadn’t, you’d still be here. I was so mad at you for a while for saving me. I wanted to be dead with you, because I didn’t know how to live without you. Maybe I still don’t since I’m out here talking to you. But thank you for always loving me and taking care of me.”
A sharp pang zapped through the center of my back.
“What the..?” The world went fuzzy and Reggie’s scent overtook me.
“You were always off with your head in the clouds.” Three blurry Reggie’s laughed circling the sunning rock.
“He’s cloned himself.” I muttered. “Sivan, get Seth.”
Reggie pulled my head up by my hair. His pupils were dilated to the size of saucers and his nostrils flared. I struggled against whatever was on the arrow but couldn’t move. Maybe I’d see Sivan again sooner than I thought.
Chapter Thirty
Seth
My bare feet hit the grass hard as I cut across the yard of a man I’d never met. Cookie barked as the direction of the wind changed bringing a new scent to our noses. My wolf growled and rushed my rib cage too fast to hold him back. The shift happened suddenly and shook me to my core. I stumbled and slid on the grass. Reggie’s scent permeated the island, but if he was here there was only one man he’d sniffed out: mine!
Giving into my primal nature, I howled calling to family members no longer alive. Rhett answered the call and howled back. Baby Stacy and Elwin whined somewhere further back. I prayed to Frost, Brendan took them somewhere safe and didn’t charge after us. One omega and a possible unborn child in danger was more than enough.
My insides twisted and I pushed my furry paws faster, but it still wasn’t fast enough. My eyes scanned the blurred horizon looking for dragons.
“FASTER!” My wolf growled.
Out of the corner of my eye an ethereal white dragon with a golden glow.
What the fuck now? More ghost dragons?
The dragon circled over me. I swerved to dodge his talons, but he scooped me up under my belly.
“Stop wiggling, Seth. I don’t want to drop you. Cinder needs you more than ever. I can’t fight this fight, but you can.”
My heart leapt into my furry throat.
“Yes, I’m that dragon.” He chuckled.
Trees, ocean, sand, and sky all blurred together as the dragon flapped his massive ethereal wings. The flight passed in a blink of an eye and he dropped me gently into the garden behind our house. I spun trying to gain my bearings as he faded to a wisp.
“Take care of my Cinder.” His words circled the garden as my head stopped spinning from the unnaturally quick flight.
Then Sivan was gone. Reggie and a strange Alpha dragon stood over Cinder’s prone body.
“Let’s just take him and go. We got what we came for!” The strange dragon growled.
“I owe the mutt a lesson in meddling in the affairs of dragons.” Reggie narrowed his eyes.
I surrendered control to my wolf and embraced the chaos pulsing through my veins empowering my muscles and tendons for the fight ahead. I leapt landing on Reggie’s massive back. He stumbled backwards and groped at the other dragon’s shirt. We all tumbled to the ground in a heap. I rolled away in the seconds before the other men landed on top of me.
The dragons growled. The unfamiliar one snatched at my tail and missed. Snapping back at him, I caught his hand and tore a chunk of flesh from his palm before he pulled away. I spat out the meat and growled. I didn’t bother cussing them out, because the overgrown lizards were too dense to understand wolf.
Reggie reached for his bow. I pounced landing square on his arm before his fingers could close around it. Cinder stirred. An arrow protruded from his back. The same back I ate ice cream and maple syrup off. Anger coiled around me. I howled again. Reggie covered one ear and tried to pull away his other arm. I let him have the arm back and pounced at his throat. The other dragon grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and tossed me. I hit the grass with a hard-sharp thud. Pain seared through my side, but I couldn’t let it slow me down.
Another wolf leapt into the mix knocking the strange dragon to the ground. Rhett’s scent hit my nose at the same time Reggie brought his fist down on my gut. The pain shifted me back into my human form. If he wanted a bar fight, he had one.
“Not so easy to fight me without your stupid little getaway boat, is it?” Reggie laughed.
I slammed my fist into his kneecap. He fell to one knee and I climbed to my feet. His roar echoed over the island and others came out to see what was going on.
“Get inside!” Rhett growled to the onlookers who gathered around the commotion. “NOW!”
He’d shifted back too and had the dragon in a headlock.
“GET OFF PROFESSOR WARREN!” A teen girl shouted and jumped the garden gate.
“Karen, go home!” Rhett growled.
He was too late. Other students flooded into the garden. I swung at Reggie as he watched bemused at the onslaught of new people. He swerved and my punch caught him on the edge of the chin. My knuckles throbbed but I swung again.
Two Alpha students joined me. One grabbed each of Reggie’s arms. I punched him in the face. He spit blood everywhere and roared as his nails shifted into claws. The students startled away. They were too young to know what a real fight was.
I charged, headfirst into the giant’s gut. We toppled over to the ground. Other students piled on top of him as Reggie struggled to stand up. Pulling away from the tangle of limbs and punches I sprinted across the yard to Cinder. Reggie roared and rose above the crowd with his wings extending from his human back. He darted to the ground and grabbed his bow. An arrow cut through the air soaring toward Cinder’s prone body.
I leapt
, but my heart sank. I couldn’t make it there in time. My lungs burnt for air as I leapt and fell short.
“CINDER!” My howl cut through the noisy chaos of the fight.
“NOT MY SON!” The other dragon growled and tossed two students aside with a massive arm. His wings erupted from his back. He beat the arrow there, but it caught him in the arm.
Shadows passed overhead as I pushed my way towards Cinder. He stirred. I stepped over the dragon with the arrow in his bicep and leaned over Cinder.
“Come on, Cinder. Wake up. It’s time to wake up. We have our whole lives ahead of us. You’ve got to wake up.” My hands trembled as I stroked his hair.
“It’s just a sedative,” the injured dragon said pressing his back against the boulder hard. “It’s a green arrow. It’s a sedative. This one’s a kill shot. It’s red. There’s an antidote for the sedative in the bag, but not for this one.” He ripped his shirt at the stomach and tore a strip of fabric from it with his teeth. He wrapped the fabric around his arm crafting a makeshift tourniquet.
The shadows descended over the crowd and students scattered. Clarence’s scent reached my nose, but I didn’t move from Cinder’s side. I scanned the crowd for Reggie, but the bastard was escaped into the chaos.
Chapter Thirty-One
Cinder
The black world slowly faded into translucent gray. Shapes and outlines of people moved nearby. I took a deep breath. My chest stung with each labored inhale. I hung limp like someone deboned me. Maybe the same someone who was wiggling the arrow in my back tearing flesh and sending shocks of pain boring into my groggy brain. I growled, but the sound that crept out of me was more a desperate whimper from my dragon.
“Shh… It’s okay, Cinder.” Seth whispered.
His touch was soft as he stroked my cheek.
“What happened? Where’s Reggie?” I managed to croak out.
“Gone for now,” Augustus said from somewhere nearby.
“Shut up, Auggy, and save your breath. You’re going to need it.” Clarence growled.
“What?” I blinked up at Seth through the haze.
“Reggie and Augustus attacked. Reggie hit you with a sedative laced arrow and then went in for the killing blow. Augustus took the arrow. Clarence took care of him. He’s not going to die.”
“Okay. I think it’s okay anyway. It’s so hard to think. Who’s trying to cut my back open?” I tried to reach back and slap the fingers away, but I was too exhausted to move.
“The antidote should kick in soon,” Medwin said from behind me. “I’m pulling the arrow out slowly so that it doesn’t get stuck inside you as you heal.”
Slowly the antidote to the sedative cleared my brain. I held onto Seth’s arm for dear life. The others stood guard waiting for Reggie to swoop back in. Seth was right. It didn’t matter where I went. I’d never be safe as along as Reggie was alive. The world around me sped by in colorful blurs leaving me an immobile rock.
A hoard of flight medics arrived followed by a jet. The medics took Augustus off on a stretcher. As they carried him aboard the jet, I saw the bloody stump where his arm once was.
“That’s one way to stop the poison from killing him,” my dragon mumbled.
Bile rose in my throat. He was pale and shaking, but it didn’t matter to rock-me. Nothing mattered, because I couldn’t move.
“Relax. Stop fighting,” my dragon urged. “This is it. This is the thing we can’t come back from. We died for a sunning rock. No wedding. No babies. Babies? Shit. Babies. We might have babies?” He bucked and rushed my ribs, but nothing changed.
“Reggie even turned on Father,” I whispered.
“We’re going to get him. As soon as I know you’re okay Clarence and I are going to get that bastard and skin him alive for the trouble he caused. He’s not going to have a chance to hurt anyone else. Augustus will be taken back to prison. They probably won’t execute him since he took the arrow for you, but he won’t be back any time soon either.”
“I heard them talking. They were going to take me and try to make me marry him as a front for their business. They thought if they forced me to tell Clarence I was in love with Reggie he’d be more lenient on them.”
“This ends today,” Seth whispered. “Then we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together, babe. Me and you and all the kids we can manage. Somewhere in there we’ll exchange the claiming vows. Sivan saved us all today. He swooped in all ghost-assed and brought me here way quicker than I could’ve run across the island.”
“You want to exchange the claiming vows with me?” I blinked up at him.
“Yes.” He grinned.
“Good, because then I could’ve yelled for you over our link and know what’s going on inside your head right now.”
“The inside of my head isn’t a nice place right now. Besides, your other mate heard the call.”
“Come here,” I said and beckoned him with the sleepy wave of a single finger.
“What is it?” Seth leaned in.
I gave him a sleepy kiss.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Medwin ‘awwed’ behind me.
Shit! That’s right we still had to tell them.
“Clarence are you here?” I raised my head up just enough to look around.
“I’m nearby, but we can speak on the flight link,” he answered.
“Seth and I are getting married for real. At first it was just a scheme so that I’d be free, but now it’s real.”
“I knew it wasn’t real to begin with. Seth and I hang out a lot and he would have mentioned you. I said what I did as a joke and you guys went along with it. Medwin and I figured it would either backfire and you’d fall in love or you’d make a great marriage of convenience. Either way, it would work out for us.” Clarence chuckled.
“You’re a flying asshole. Why would you do that?” I laughed and drifted back off to sleep.
My dreams were twisted with color and darkness entwining. Hands touched me everywhere as I floated on a cloud to a place full of children and dragons. I sniffed the air but didn’t find Seth.
“Are you awake, Cinder?” Prince Brendan whispered. “I need you to drink some water so you start coming around, but only if you can. The arrow’s out now.”
“Where’s my mate?” I whispered and reached out through the darkness to find him.
“Seth’s not here right now.”
“Seth.” I tried to reach out over a link that didn’t exist.
“Rest, Cinder. I’ll be back soon. This ends today. Once and for all,” Seth answered over the flight link.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Seth
Riding on Clarence’s back I saw the world. The ocean stretched far and wide beneath us. Clouds hung fat and ominous above our heads. Others searched for Reggie too, but he was our kill. My kill.
“Keep a level head,” my wolf said. “Anger has undone better shifters than us.”
Anger coursed through my veins, but the wolf was right. Anger clouded the vision of the best warriors and I wouldn’t count myself among those. I was more of a strategics and logistics man. Get in and get out. Fight if you had to. At least I was when it came to work. When it came to Cinder all logic went out the window. Hell, all logic went out the window when a ghost dragon carried me across the damn island.
“Focus,” my wolf brought my attention back to them moment.
It didn’t matter who I usually was. I’d fought my fair share of fights, but this time I wasn’t out to maim. Reggie was too dangerous to let live. He’d proven unremorseful for his crime.
“Quit worrying so loudly. The others will here you,” Clarence said over the flight link.
The old dragon was an expert at manipulating the flight link to talk one-on-one to whoever he wished. It was a skill not everyone possessed.
“They are safe. Your mate and mine. The prince and your brother too. They’re guarding the young and injured. Brendan might be madder than a hornet in a
jar. He never expected to initiate this particular safety protocol so soon, but no one ever does. Today we kill Reggie. Then we feast and you claim your mate. Life is good, but sometimes you have to fight for the good life.”
The wind changed directions and whipped around my face and neck making my eyes water.
“How the hell do dragons stay up here so long without going blind?” My wolf grumbled.
I squinted against the wind and spotted a yellow dot on the horizon. As a yellow lizard Reggie lost the genetics lottery. There weren’t many places for him to hide. I leaned forward on Clarence’s back and took a deep breath.
“I see the bastard,” Clarence said. “I see him and I’m going to eat him.”
“Not if I gut him first.”
“A gutted rival is much easier to eat than a whole one.”
Staying a ways behind him we followed Reggie. He soared through the air turning erratically at times as if searching out his pursers. After a few minutes of tracking him from a distance the wind changed directions giving our location away.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I picked up my crossbow. I didn’t fight dirty with poisons and sedatives, but if I shot the son of a bitch in the eye he’d go down.
The massive yellow lizard flipped belly up for a split second. His huge reptilian eyes landed on me. I shot off an arrow, but the wind carried it away.
Never gonna see that arrow again.
I needed to be closer to get a clean shot. Clarence snorted and fire erupted from his snout. His wings flapped harder chilling the already cool air to ice. Reggie roared, but didn’t bother with a show of strength. He was younger and smaller than Clarence and when the fire of the Moonscale leader was seen across the skies his dragons answered his call. Dragon fire soared from this direction and that lighting up the skies.
“Seth…” Cinder’s soft voice reached out across the flight link.
“We’ll be together soon,” I said and slammed my side shut.
Saving Cinder Page 17
