by Starla Night
"Have you seen Darcy?" Amber shouted.
Nicole shook her head.
"Darcy?" Amber shouted at the other guests, including the shell-shocked wedding party.
Tara, Jackie, and everyone also said no.
Nicole pointed to the window at the top of the turret. "He's inside! Mom has him!"
Through the belching black smoke, Darcy's figure was just visible in the window. He was bent over. His mom had him by the ear. He was trying to claw his way to freedom while she screeched.
He locked eyes with Amber and pled for help.
Her mate. He was in danger. Trapped, tortured, hurt.
Amber's strict repression fell away for the very last time.
Darcy was her love. Her true love. He wanted to see her full power.
For the first time on Earth, she fully released her dragon.
Power streamed through her crackling like lightning. Fire roared in the back of her throat. Scales showered over her human skin, interlocking into impenetrable amber diamonds. Her clothes shredded as she burst, limbs elongating, neck shooting up to place her glittering dragon eyes level with the turret window, while below the ground sank under the weight of her massive limbs and dynamic, twitching tail.
Darcy's face blanked at her true, awesome, unleashed form.
And then, he smiled.
Her heart sang with freedom.
His mother yanked his ear, and he winced.
I am coming for you, my love.
She bugled her challenge at the sky. The roar echoed over the pitiful city. In the distance, the klaxon of fire engines intermixed with a new sound. The siren summoning human fighter pilots at DEFCON 1. Crowds shrieked below.
Come. Challenge me. She would crush their metal tubes in her teeth. She would swallow their tiny, insignificant souls.
"Amber!" Darcy waved and strained to reach for her massive neck.
He didn't fear her.
Good.
Amber snugged up to the blazing turret. Flames sizzled against her lighter-colored belly scales. She took hold of the dome in her teeth and ripped the roof off.
Darcy's mom clenched Darcy's ear in a death grip. "Go away, you freak! You monster!"
"Ow—ow—ow—Mom, let go! Amber's saving our lives!"
"We're going to die together the way we were meant to be! As mother and son!" Mascara and blush streaked her face painting her into unrecognizable colors and her eyes twitched with insanity.
Amber growled low. It was an unsettling, hair-raising noise that would make a big, burly grizzly bear re-evaluate his life choices.
But Darcy's mom was too far gone. She shrieked at Amber. "You'll never take my baby!"
Amber wanted to bite her a few times and spit her out like a poisonous chew toy. Fifteen hundred degrees would end her.
But that would also end the treaty.
Was she always destined to lose her temper and throw her superior firepower around?
No. This week with Darcy, Jackie, and Tara — and Nicole — had taught her another way. It wasn't the dragon way, but she was about to embark on another life together with Darcy, her human.
Amber reached for Darcy with her massive claws.
Darcy's mom held a shard of broken mirror to Darcy's throat. "No one can have you but me!"
"Mom!" Darcy pulled toward Amber as hard as he could, wincing at the bite of blade beneath his belabored ear. "It's time to let your son go! I'm leaving the nest!"
"You will never leave the nest!"
The turret floor broke off beneath their feet. His mother scrambled to keep her footing and the blade at his throat.
Tread carefully.
"You're right, Gayle," Amber boomed in her most normal dragon voice. "I'll never take away your son."
Darcy's face fell. "Please?"
His mom studied her with narrowed eyes. Smoke made her and Darcy cough and their eyes water, and the floor glowed hot.
"Your elderly wisdom, as shown by your honorable gray hair, has taught me so much about what it means to devote yourself to family."
His mom wrinkled her forehead to look up at her exposed gray-hair roots. Her eyes widened as if she'd forgotten to dye it. She glared at Amber with a new fury.
"As your daughter-in-law, I'll have the rest of your life to earn your favor." Amber clasped her claws to her bare chest. "Gayle? Can I call you Mom?"
Gayle's face transformed into an open-mouth hiss of war. She released Darcy and ran at Amber. "Never!"
The floor collapsed.
Amber swooped in, collected Darcy and Gayle in her massive arms, and rocketed to the sky, ahead of the flames. She shrank back to human and landed in front of the crowds.
Gayle stumbled to her knees.
Darcy turned and hugged Amber so tight she couldn't breathe. "I knew you'd come for me."
Amber held him just as tight. Her throat closed. She kissed him, giving her words to passion, and when she could breathe again, she gasped, "I thought I'd lost you."
"Never," he promised and hugged her tight again. "Never again."
Chapter Thirty-Four
As Amber comforted her Darcy, fire trucks wheeled into position and the fighters poured out.
Overhead, brown Jasper and green Mal unleashed two banquet tables' worth of water. The water slapped the turret, banking the flames. Pyro screamed up and bashed into the turret, separating it from the house.
The structure collapsed, and the firefighters unleashed their hoses until the soaked heap was smoldering rubble.
Darcy squeezed Amber again, reassuring her that he was fine, and then took off his singed coat and put it around her to cover her nudity.
His siblings gathered around. Jackie hugged him.
Tara waited for her turn but was clearly about to hug. "Amber, you saved my mom despite everything. Thank you so—"
"No!" Darcy's mom lifted the mirror shard.
Amber stepped toward her, keeping Darcy safely behind her, and brought her scales to her skin.
"I'm the one who should be celebrated!" Gayle shrieked. "I'm the one who everyone should love! Not you! Not again!"
Michael tackled her from behind.
Darcy's mom landed face-first in the soft, trampled dirt. The mirror shard went flying. Another guest collected it and carried it to the police cars pulling in behind the fire trucks.
Ed reached out a hand and helped Michael to his feet. "How did it feel?"
"Great." He brushed off the knees of his suit. "Thanks."
"And I have it on film," Nicole said, still following. "What an amazing wedding video. Maybe I'll go into wedding videography."
Darcy's mom got up onto her knees in her blackened dress with a look that said she was about to murder someone. "How dare you, a man who can be knocked out by an apple pie, touch me—"
"Excuse me. We need you to come this way." Two police officers flanked her on either side. "We have a few questions."
Darcy's mom hesitated, blinked several times, and then collapsed, sobbing. "Poor me, officers! You don't know what I've had to endure! All this time..."
They helped her to the arriving ambulance to have her checked over and then get her story.
Suddenly, Darcy's mother shrieked. "No! How dare you suggest to commit me. I am perfectly sane! That dragon beast is the enemy!"
Alex smoothly interjected, his hair and suit still perfect. "Before you go to a human ward, my mother invites you to visit her on Draconis."
Darcy's mom's face blanked. "What?"
"She's eager to meet you. Your dedication to your children is understood and valued there. She's expecting you to come and have a long, restful stay and get to know her."
"I would never—"
"Or I'm sure you can face human justice right now." Alex pointed to the officers.
Darcy's mom wavered.
"Oh, yes. My mother only had one question: If you break up your children's marriages, how can you get grand-dragonlets?"
"Grand...dragonlets?"
"
Grandchildren," Alex clarified, his two-tone eyes gleaming. "If you wreck their marriages, how can you spoil your grandchildren?"
"Spoil ... grandchildren..." she repeated as if it was a revelation.
Darcy sighed. "Thanks a lot, Alex."
"It will be harder to spoil anyone on another planet," the perfectionist dragon assured Darcy. "I'm told a new environment sometimes helps with perspective. And once she returns, I understand she broke several human laws, so she will have to face the consequences."
"You can't make me face consequences...No, Darcy, I was only trying to save you. No!"
The security team of dragons clamped on her to transport her to the ship.
"My babies. My husband! My home!"
But they had gone up in flames. Her babies were independent, her husband was going to sail to Aruba without her, and her home was still smoking. Her face seemed to register just how much she'd lost.
The transport ship door closed and the ship took off, gliding silently to Draconis for a long, long, long vacation before returning to what would be a court case.
Darcy let out a long, heartfelt sigh. "You rescued me."
"Like a damsel in a tower." Nicole laughed shakily. "Amber's your white knight. Except she's a dragon. Whatever. According to fairy tale logic, you're legally obliged to marry her now."
He snorted and tugged on his singed, soot-stained shirt. "Right now?"
Amber hugged him. She would protect him with her full power from anyone, even his mom. "Yes."
His arm slid around her shoulders and he gave her a familiar squeeze. The cheerful twinkle returned to his eyes. "Well, if you're up for it, I am."
Her heart glowed with full happiness.
Chrysoberyl stumbled to their group. The trio of dragon inspectors floated after him. "This is ... sniff ... proof that ... snerk ... Amber endangered a human and ... ah-choo!"
A harmless puff of smoke emerged from his mouth.
"...and her reckless transformation invalidates the ... ah ... ah... the treaty ... choo!"
Darcy sheltered Amber, which was very kind of him because she was busy trying to shelter him back. "Amber saved lives today."
"She nearly stomped on me and ... sniff ... killed me!"
"You're a dragon."
"Yes, but she could have ... snuffle ... squished anyone. And that sobbing mother has been bandaged for burns." Chrysoberyl turned his big, imperious eyes on the trio. He pointed accusingly at Amber. "Judge her!"
Amber's stomach dropped.
She had used her full power in front of everyone. Reveled in it. Even now, she felt more vivid, more excited, and more alive. She was no longer the same dragon. Thanks to Darcy, she'd never be the same again.
The dragon inspectors turned to face her.
Amber faced them chin-up, daring them to judge her. Darcy's jacket covered her private bits, and she unleashed her scales, sliding over her skin like molten armor, in defiance. Let them know she had changed.
Her brothers landed in a line behind her. They matched her stance. Not intimidated by her proud show, but ready to join in and fight by her side.
She had changed. They had changed.
Amber would never fully repress herself again.
Chrysoberyl's accusatory finger lowered. He swallowed and sniffled. "Uh, judge the, uh, dragon at fault..."
Serpentine narrowed his green eyes. "What do you think, my fellows?"
"Weak, risky, ill-formed plotting without any teeth," Ulexite said, staring at Chrysoberyl. "Involving our illustrious society for no real reason other than a personal grudge."
Graphite recorded the observations. "...weak...risky...ill-formed plot by a whiny aristocrat who's lost his teeth..."
Chrysoberyl swallowed. "What? Not me, judge the female dragon who endangered these humans."
"The female rescued the humans from fire," Ulexite mused.
"Since the aristocrat who chewed brimstone actually started the fire, perhaps he will be judged by the Gentleman's Society."
"Full judgment? Or permanent exile?"
"Both." Serpentine frowned at his mug. "My coffee is cold. We have wasted much time on this backward planet. All as a favor to an exile who brought brimstone - a weapon - onto a planet where he may not have weapons..."
Chrysoberyl blanched. "I can explain."
Serpentine fixed him with an icy gaze. "We're listening."
"I was coming to woo Amber, and we all know females are out of control and over-emotional, especially her..."
Her brothers growled low. Amber let her scales shiver across her skin in a show of ultimate control. The dragon inspectors stared at Chrysoberyl so hard they could burrow holes in his skin.
Chrysoberyl swallowed again. "I...ah...assure you if you judge her, she will not hold her temper..."
"Yes, we know what happens when she loses her temper," Ulexite said.
"We drank her coffee," Graphite said. "All of it. And it can't be replaced."
"What?" Amber interrupted. "It can't?"
Jasper, in line behind her, shrugged.
"There was a storehouse fire, and the coffee company went out of business," Graphite explained to Chrysoberyl as if he were the one who'd spoken, "and so she can never enjoy that coffee again. Because of us. We consumed every single bean."
"Except for the last bag, which I have stashed in my return luggage," Serpentine said.
Anger boiled in her belly. "What?"
"Oh, don't blame me." Serpentine pointed his mug at Chrysoberyl. "I never would have had to occupy myself if he hadn't summoned us and you hadn't shown such infuriating control."
Amber's fingers extended into claws and her fangs elongated. "My mistake."
Chrysoberyl backed away. "Amber, there's no need to give in to rage and rend me limb-from-limb now. You have had such, uh, incredible control today."
"It's been a long day."
"Oh, look at the time! My invitation expired. I must return to exile on my ship." Chrysoberyl rocketed into the sky so fast he nearly collided with a passing seagull. He flew to the silver speck on the horizon.
The dragon trio watched him go. Serpentine sipped his cold coffee and grimaced.
Darcy murmured to Amber, "Are we out of the woods?"
"Not yet, human," Serpentine replied. "There is still the matter of judging whether Amber is a dominant female in disguise and should run the Onyx Corporation. Although we arrived here as a favor, we still represent the Gentleman's Society, and we cannot approve of such extraordinary situations in any usual circumstances."
A long silence made everyone take a step back and re-evaluate.
So, the investigation wouldn't conclude today. That was disappointing. But, it gave them more time to execute a new strategy.
Tara hugged Ed. Both were dripping, and, now that the main excitement had ended, shell-shocked. She sniffled. "All this happened and we're still not married. We should have just eloped in Vegas."
Pyro shook off the last debris and stepped forward. "That can be arranged."
"There's a cute church where you can get married by Elvis," his wife, Amy, said. She had picked her way across the wet, scorched back lawn with Melody, careful of her crutches. Amy and Melody's boyfriend Josh carried in the last boxes of cupcakes. "They take last-minute appointments, you name it."
"How's their dress selection?'
"They have a bit of everything. Oh, and there's a costume section, so you could recreate the Lord of the Rings theme you've got going."
Tara hugged Ed. "Let's just do it."
He turned to his parents. "I'm sorry, Mama. We'll take pictures."
Pyro lifted a brow. "We can take passengers. It's no problem. You can crash at my place. Who wants to go?"
Ed's family celebrated. His parents, brothers, and everybody listed off the various things that they couldn't wait to do. "Pinball Hall of Fame! Gambling. Neil Diamond!"
His mother hugged his father and they danced around the wrecked, overturned chairs.
Melody
dried one of the banquet tables and then arranged her cupcakes. Her eyes rolled, wide and worried at the chaos. "Am I late? We got caught behind the emergency vehicles, but here are the cupcakes."
"Perfect timing." Tara clapped. "Everyone? You're all invited to finish this wedding in Las Vegas! And here is my favorite part of my wedding right here." She bit into one of the tri-color cupcakes and moaned with delight. "Yes. This was worth it. The fire, the deranged rantings, the honeysuckle murder. All of it."
Melody blushed and Josh hugged her.
The rest of the guests, the emergency crews, and the police officers enjoyed a rich, creamy, sex-in-baked-goods-form cupcake.
Jackie turned to Michael. "Want to go to Vegas and renew our vows?"
He hugged her. "I would love nothing more."
Nicole held up her camera videoing herself in front of the collapsed, still smoking arch. "It's a shame to waste this perfectly good, only slightly singed backyard wedding."
"Feel free," Ed said to her.
Nicole shut off her video, uploaded it, and scoffed. "I will never get married ever. Not even for another one of those amazing cupcakes."
"You haven't met the right man."
"There is no right man. Trust me."
Amber's older brother Alex tilted his head and looked her over with an enticing smile that could melt chocolate. He'd been known to react to ultimatums like hers. "Maybe you haven't met the right dragon."
She flushed. "I wouldn't marry anyone in the universe, human or shifter."
His handsome two-tone eyes gleamed. "Sounds like a challenge."
"And that's my cue to get another cake." Nicole deftly excused herself and grabbed another cupcake.
Alex stalked her. "I understand you have video of what might be critical evidence in a human-dragon trial. I'll need that."
Nicole showed him her social media. "It's public. Online. Like, share, and click that subscribe."
He studied her with interest.
She flushed a deeper shade and turned on her heel, leaving him behind.
"You know, Nicole's right," Darcy mused.
Nicole stopped at the edge of the patio and turned back. Cupping a hand to her ear, she said, "What was that? Did my ears deceive me? Did Darcy say I was right?"
