by Mina Carter
The weight of responsibility, of the crown he hadn’t wanted, slammed down on Roc’s shoulders. They could take on the dragons, yes, but if they did, how many would die. Haki was too small and couldn’t shift… Johan over on the other side of the plateau was still healing. They would never survive. Even Zahra, with her sleeping dragon, was at risk in an all-out battle.
And a battle for what… for him to keep his mate by force?
“Zahra…” he looked at her directly, keeping his voice low even though he wanted to rage and order her back to his side where she belonged. Where her dragon, if it was awake, would know was her place in the world. “Come here, love. Please.”
She looked at him and then at Talon, whose expression was forbidding and closed. For a second, he thought she would free herself from her brother’s clutches and come to him, but tears filled her eyes. In the half-second before she shook her head, he knew he’d lost her.
She didn’t want him… didn’t want a wyvern for a mate. Despite her pretty words yesterday, when push came to shove, she was a dragon.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered but he ignored her, looking directly at the dragon king.
“You got what you came for. Now go,” he ordered, his voice harsh and cruel to conceal his breaking heart. “Leave. If any dragon is left in these mountains by midday, then I will extend no mercy.”
And with that, he turned and walked away from the woman he’d been stupid enough to allow himself to love.
Chapter 9
She was his mate, and she’d left… how was that possible?
A week later Roc still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Zahra had left. How could the fates be so cruel as to give him his mate only to snatch her away again? Had she not known she was his mate… could it be possible that she was his mate but he wasn’t hers?
He shook his head, shaking his tendrils as he focused on the rocks in front of him. Opening his mouth, he spat a gout of flame and super-heated the pile of boulders until they glowed white-hot. It served as a beacon to warn all that they were about to enter wyvern territory, and they weren’t welcome. Since Zahra had left, no one was welcome… and he intended to keep it that way. Assholes, the fucking lot of them.
Satisfied that the beacon was bright enough, he dropped backward off the high peak and plummeted through the air, wings folded tightly to his body. With abstract fascination, he watched the ground hurtle up toward him, the razor-sharp rocks below racing to meet him. What would it feel like to crash into them… would it stop the ragged, aching hole where his heart had been?
He plunged past two winged figures, belatedly realizing one was a lot smaller than normal. Arnor’s massive wingspan and coloring he recognized, but the other… Shit, it was Haki. Since Zahra had gone, Arnor had taken the youngling under his wing. After a week, he’d obviously managed his first shift. Instantly, Roc snapped his wings open, unwilling to let the young wyvern see his moment of weakness. Beating his wings, he came up level, the two older wyverns flying guard for the youngling.
Hey, Haki, looking good, Roc rumbled, genuinely pleased for the youngster.
Casting an experienced eye over the smaller wyvern, he tried to get some idea who his father might have been and suddenly realized why Arnor had taken such an interest in him. Haki hadn’t yet attained his full growth, he wouldn’t for a couple of years, but his build and coloring… he was a smaller version of Arnor, right down to the vivid orange stripes on either side of his spine.
Banking slightly to the side, Roc made eye contact with his friend… letting him know that he knew. Sometime, somewhere, Arnor had gotten a woman pregnant, and the result was flying between them. Before he could say anything, though, another set of wingbeats brought a wyvern alongside them. Nesren.
Roc curled his lip back, still not having forgiven the trouble maker for setting Johan up.
Roc… the councilwomen is here, Nesren said, using the mental pathway common to all wyvern-kind. She’s waiting at the meeting fires.
Roc frowned, already wheeling about to head that way. How the hell did she get up here? What about the guards and the beacons?
I found her on the lower slopes and brought her up here, the wyvern answered. Please, my lord, you should listen to her. You’re… he paused, rolling to look Roc in the eye. You’re our king, I see that now, and we need you at your best, not how you are at the moment.
Roc sighed, the wind beneath his wings as he banked and glided over the low peaks that surrounded the meeting grounds. Sure enough, there in the center was the small figure of the councilwoman, her arms crossed and, yes, that was a pissed off expression on her face. He landed with a thump in front of her, kicking up dust and small pebbles in an arrogant little show. Since he could land and shift quieter than a cat, he was only doing it for show and the sudden pursing of her lips said she knew it too.
“Roc, about time you got your ass down here.” Whereas before the councilwoman had been all friendly smiles and pleasantness, now her voice contained a growl. “What the hell do you think you’re playing at”
He blinked, not at all expecting the level of ire in Darina’s voice. “Currently, wondering what you’re talking about.”
She stomped forward, stabbing him in the middle of his broad chest. “I’m talking about an idiot wyvern about to cause a fucking war. What are you doing here?”
His eyebrow winged up. “Other than talking to a frankly insane woman? Doing my job. How’s that?”
She growled, fire flashing in her eyes. “Stop being obtuse. Why aren’t you with Zahra?”
A growl trickled from the corner of his lips. “I didn’t let her go. She wanted to go. She left me. She’s my mate and SHE LEFT ME! Happy now?” he demanded, ignoring the hurt and anger that had colored his voice. Sure, he was hurt, he was devastated, but what good was it going to do him? It wouldn’t bring his faithless mate back.
Darina shook her head, a “so done with this shit” look on her face he recognized. He wore it himself a lot.
“You stupid, slow-witted… man!” she hissed. “Zahra can’t tell you’re her mate. Her dragon is asleep, you idiot. You need to wake her beast up, and then she’ll know who you are! You’re the only one who can save her and look at you.” She raked a glance up and down him. “Sulking up here because you’ve got butt-hurt feelings. Pull yourself together and get your ass over to the dragon castle or you’ll be sorry.”
He barked out a laugh. “I’ll be sorry? Really? What are you going to do to me? Tell Talon? Like that asshole car—”
“Zahra is dying.”
The three words rocked his world, and not in a good way. His jaw gaped, expression blank as he stared at her.
“What did you say?”
“Zahra. Is. Dying,” Darina said bluntly, her arms crossed over her chest. “Already the dragons are in mourning for her. She’s not expected to last the night. Unless you do something, they’ll be burying her come morning.”
She’d been born during a storm. It seemed fitting she would die during one.
Zahra sat in the deep windowsill of her room and looked out into the dark chaos of the weather outside. Thunder and lightning raged, shaking the very foundations of the castle as though nature itself sought to erase the building and all who dwelt within from existence. Rain clattered against the panes in front of her, but she couldn’t rouse herself to do anything other than watch the patterns it made against the glass.
She was tired, so very tired. Exhausted right down to her soul and more than could be sorted with a good night’s sleep and rest. No, this was a different sort of tiredness, one that invaded every cell and leached the very life itself from her body.
Death came for her. She knew that but couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Leaning her head against the wall, she sighed as regret filled her. Why hadn’t she met Roc earlier? Perhaps the presence of the big, handsome, powerful wyvern in her life could have persuaded her dragon to stay with her, to stay awake… to choose life.
/> Not even the doctors her brother had brought in, the ones who had poked and prodded her for the last week had been able to wake the sleeping beast. Finally, they’d told her there was nothing they could do.
She was dying. Would be dead by morning most likely.
And she would never see Roc again.
Ragged pain tore at her heart and she closed her eyes, biting back the small whimper that tried to escape. Even the memory of his hard body curled around hers and his kisses wasn’t enough to lift the tiredness… instead, it just brought a tear to her eye and pain to her heart.
She knew the end was near.
The storm intensified, and she looked out, wanting the chaos to soothe her soul as she closed her eyes for the last time. Movement caught her eye and she frowned, squinting to make it out. The shape of wings materialized in the swirling darkness and ragged light of the storm, and her frown deepened. What dragon would be insane enough to fly in this? It was a death sentence for sure.
The shape got bigger, closer and she gasped, her eyes widening in recognition.
It wasn’t a dragon.
It was a wyvern.
“Roc!” she gasped, scrabbling to her knees, her hands flat against the window pane as she looked out in disbelief. He’d come for her, fighting through the storms to reach her. Amazement filled her and then, unbelievably, she felt the last thing she’d ever have expected…
Slowly, something moved within her. It was lethargic at first, barely more than a hint of movement, but because she’d been waiting so long, instantly every cell in her body was alert and focused on it. The feeling expanded, became bigger, more defined as the sleeping creature wrapped around her soul stirred and uncoiled. Scales brushed against the inside of her skin and she caught her breath as her dragon woke. The warmth of its soul joining hers again lifted the exhaustion weighing her down and she laughed, crying and grinning at the same time with sheer and utter joy.
“Oh my god, Roc!” she cried, throwing the window in front of her open in elation. Her dragon was awake again, finally. It was okay, everything was going to be alright… even as she looked at the approaching scaled form, the wind brought his scent to her and she breathed it in, desire and awareness thrilling through her.
Roc was her mate… the male to bring her dragon back to life was the man they’d both been looking for all their lives.
“My love!” she called out, waving at him to hurry up, to get out of the wind and rain, to reach her so she could hold him in her arms again. Claim him as her mate, finally. Properly.
He saw her, his wingbeats increasing in speed as he fought his way toward her window. Love and pride filled her at his power and speed, combined with fear as she watched the storm increase in ferocity. Then it happened. Just when it looked as though he would reach her, the sky above him cracked. She screamed as a tongue of forked lightning snaked toward him, moving so fast yet in excruciatingly slow motion to lick across his back.
He jerked, his entire body in spasm for long moments, and then his wings went lax and he fell from the sky. Something fluttered up as his back claws relaxed, a gust of wind catching it. A single flower, a purple rock rose, landed on the windowsill by her knee, its petals battered and bruised.
“No!” she screamed, her pain given voice and then deepening as her dragon roared its loss. Before she could think, before she could reason that her broken wings wouldn’t hold her weight, she launched herself forward into the night, already falling as she triggered the change.
Her dragon exploded out of her fragile human form, its better eyesight easily picking out the falling form of Roc below them. He was unconscious and already changing, his wyvern form folding back within his human one. Her massive heart almost stopped in her chest. If he hit the rocks at the base of the cliff, he wouldn’t stand a chance… he’d be dead on impact.
A prayer in her heart, she folded her wings close to her body and turned herself into an arrow, racing after him. Common sense and her survival instincts screamed at her to pull up, that she couldn’t stop them in time as the ground raced up to meet them, but she gritted her teeth and ignored them. There was no her without Roc, and if he died, she would rather go with him.
The wind buffeted her, trying to toss her off course, but she was too heavy and moving too fast.
Roc was just ahead of her now. Just a little more… she reached out with her front claws, thanking all the gods she’d been born a dragon—no wyvern would have been able to reach out like that—and managed to wrap two of them around him.
With a bellow, she snapped her wings open, spreading them as wide as she could while she brought her body parallel to the ground rather than arrow-like. Anything to create wind resistance as, for a moment, they hung in the air.
Triumph surged through her, and she caroled to the skies. She’d done it. Her wings, once broken, had held. She could fly again. Something cracked, loud even above the storm, and pain tore through her left side from shoulder to wing-tip. She cried out in distress, feeling the wing weaken.
Glide, Roc’s voice reached her—weak, but there—and relief filled her. He was alive. He’d survived the lightning strike. There, below us to the left.
Roc’s heart broke for Zahra as he heard her cry of pain. He felt the agony lacing through her body when her wing almost gave, and he wished he could take it from her. Struggling against her claws gained him nothing. She simply tightened her hold as she dipped a wing and turned them toward the cave he’d spotted.
The short flight seemed to take an eternity, and he wrapped himself around his beloved’s claws, trying to touch as much of her as he could and wishing he could take her pain as his own. Fury at the storm raged through him. The lightning had stolen his ability to shift for the moment. His wyvern was totally unconscious, a dead weight against his soul, so all he could do was look up at her. Finally, her dragon form… and she took his breath away.
Sleek and serpentine, she was a wonder of dark purple, almost midnight scales with huge, chiffon-like wings and a long, strong tail. He let his gaze wander over her, marveling for a moment that this wondrous creature was his mate. How did he get so lucky?
Then his eyes narrowed as he spotted the scars on her delicate wings, the lumps in the bones that indicated healed breaks, and his heart clenched at the pain she must have gone through… the pain she must be in now as she battled the storm to save them both.
The wind knocked them sideways and she cried out in agony, a loud crack in the air signaling another weak bone breaking. He roared, battering at his wyvern deep inside to wake the fuck up. By some miracle, it heard, and he got a sleepy response from the creature. Instantly, he forced the connection between them wide, shoving the scene he was seeing—their mate in pain as she tried to save them—right into the beast’s mind.
There was a pause, a half-second delay, and then he felt the wyvern snap awake. With a tremendous bellow, it erupted from his soul, bursting out from his human form to wrap around the more delicate form of their mate. He slid beneath her as her wings gave out, his own opening wide to bank and take them down into the little cave he’d spotted. They plunged toward the opening like a spear. The shift had to be split second timing or they’d be splattered across the rock wall.
Zahra… Zahra, darling, SHIFT… he ordered, voice deep in her mind, and for a moment he hadn’t thought she’d heard him, the rock looming right in their faces. Then he felt the shift energy surround her and released his hold on his beast at the same time, the change surging through them both as they tumbled into the cave, soaking wet and freezing but alive and out of the storm.
“Oh my god, Zahra… are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay,” he begged, on her in a heartbeat to drag her into his arms. She was pale with pain and shivering, but her eyes sparkled as she looked up at him, reaching out to stroke gentle fingertips against his jaw.
“You came,” she whispered softly.
“How could I not?” He pulled her closer, using the heat of his wyvern to dry their clothe
s. For a moment, he paused. Perhaps he’d read it all wrong. Perhaps she didn’t want to be with him and that’s why she’d left. Determination steeled his spine. Fuck it. He’d almost died and she’d risked her life to save his. That told him all he needed to know. “You needed me… I didn’t realize how much and I’m sorry. I was an ass.”
“I would never have left you,” she purred as she settled closer to him and as he watched, her color returned. “My brother had doctors brought in from Earth to see if they could wake my dragon. It didn’t work… it was only when I thought you were—” She broke off with a small sound of pain and his gaze narrowed.
“What is it? Tell me where it hurts, my love,” he demanded, looking down quickly. She wasn’t bleeding anywhere, not that he could see, and her breathing seemed to be good.
She held up her arm, rubbing at her elbow with a small pout. Leaning down, he kissed it. Her gaze shot to his, eyes wide but she didn’t move away.
“Anywhere else?” he asked softly, struck by just how beautiful she was. But it had nothing to do with the riot of scarlet hair that fell around her shoulders, or the petite, pixie-like features. Her heart drew him in, trapping him in her siren’s web.
Slowly she lifted her hand, showing him the smallest bruise on the back, soulful eyes watching his. He smiled and, taking it gently, kissed her knuckles. “Anywhere else?”
Her other hand slowly lifted and she touched her nose. Leaning forward, he was about to kiss it when she moved, her lips meeting his. They froze in place for a moment, and then he groaned, kissing her softly. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done to pull away, but the words welled up from his heart and he put space between them—only enough to whisper against her lips.
“I love you. You’re my mate, my heart, my treasure… but it’s not just that. I’ve been in love with you since the moment I saw you… that’s why I stole you away. I had to have you.”
Silence stretched out between them and he closed his eyes. “Please… say something. Tell me I have a chance… that you at least want me too, even if you don’t love me yet, and I’ll spend a lifetime making you fall in love with me.”
