by Jadyn Chase
“There’s nothing to forgive,” he told her. “You did what any normal person would do in that situation and we all know you didn’t remember anything. Now you’re one of us. You proved yourself in battle tonight and that’s all any of us can ask for.”
Just then, a grinding buzz came from inside. The three of us glanced over to see Miguel settling himself on a stool with the tattoo machine in his gloved hand. Martín took the chair in front of him. Miguel bent over his bare chest.
“I suppose you want me to get the new brand,” Morgan remarked.
Carlos chuckled. “You don’t need it. You’ve got a perfectly good brand already. You don’t need another one.”
She spun around to stare at him. “Really? You don’t mind that I gave it to myself?”
“You earned it tonight,” he told her. “Keep it. It means something to you and it’s as good as any other brand to us. I don’t see any reason to change it.”
She lowered her eyes to the ground. “Thank you, Sir.”
He shoved himself off the wall. “You kids enjoy yourselves tonight. I’m sure when word gets out what happened today, you’ll be able to move freely around the city. No one will bother you again now that you’re a fully patched member of this club.”
He took another swig from his bottle and sauntered away. Morgan blinked down at the drink in her hand. “What the hell just happened? I never expected him to let me go like that.”
“What did you think he would do?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I thought he’d be a lot stricter about letting me in. I thought he’d make me go through some kind of initiation or something.”
I couldn’t keep my hands off her a second longer. I slipped one arm behind her back and towed her against me. “You just did, darling. You’re in. You inherited this club from your father. There’s nothing you need to do anymore to get in. You’re Los Diablos for good now.”
Her eyes drifted to mine. They sparkled and her pupils dilated in a sultry, inviting way. “I guess I am.”
I darted in and kissed her. This night changed things as much for me as it did for her. I ought to wonder if the blissful dream of our encounter at the beach house could withstand the onslaught of company and attention here at our club headquarters.
For some reason, I didn’t wonder any of that. It all just kind of fit into the overall scheme of things. She always belonged here. She never should have left. Her old man should have brought her here when she came of age. He should have introduced her to Carlos and guided her in the ways of dragons.
He didn’t do that, though. He couldn’t. She took the roundabout route, but she got here in the end.
She looped her velvet arms around my neck and threaded her fingers into my hair. Her nearness and her silken softness swallowed me in a blizzard of sensation. I couldn’t stop gazing into those eyes. She was a dragon through and through.
When I looked at her, when I desired her, when my body buzzed all over with throbbing pulsating heat for her, I saw her that way. I saw her gargantuan and blistering mad. I saw her narrowing her eyes at her enemies to smash them to pieces.
God, I wanted her so bad like that! I wanted all of her. I wanted to fly with her far out over the open sea the way we flew back to LA from Malibu tonight. I wanted to hunt elk in the hills and fight our enemies on the wing over the desert. I wanted every dragon inch of her and I wanted her soft and sighing in my bed at night.
She didn’t know yet what being a dragon meant. She would learn. For now, she didn’t know I could crave her dragon self. She didn’t know how much hotter she made me like that, how hard she made me.
The memory alone of her launching out of her skin to attack those Longtails excited me out of my mind. No other female ever ignited my fire like this. I dug my fingertips into her spine and reveled in the quivering electricity rippling up her back.
She flexed her pelvis toward me and a tiny mew of ecstasy came from her mouth. She whimpered between my lips and delicious heat washed through her. Fuck, I wanted to take her here and now. The danger lay behind us, so I could enjoy her the way I did last night—even more than I did last night.
A shrill wolf whistle pierced the night air. Cisco and Kane brayed with laughter. Morgan pulled off my mouth, her cheeks and ears pink with embarrassment.
She ran her hand across her lips and glanced over her shoulder. The four guys leaned on each other’s shoulders smirking and snickering at us. My ears burned, but I only smiled back at them. “Go watch a movie, brothers. You’ll see more skin.”
Tomas doubled over laughing. “It’d take a monster like her to tame you, Brayden.”
The others enjoyed the general hilarity, but when I checked Morgan, she wasn’t smiling. A jumble of confusion and fear clouded her features. I threw my arm around her shoulders and pulled her away. “Don’t pay any attention to them, darling. Come on. Let’s go sit down somewhere.”
I guided her to the nearest couch. I pushed two little boys out of the way and sat Morgan down next to me. She still stared out at the yard, but the guys lost interest in us now that we no longer offered them a target for their jabs.
Cisco migrated to the dance floor where a bunch of women danced around with their partners. Tomas wandered over to the bikes and squatted next to José. They talked while he worked, and Kane went inside to watch Martín get his latest tat.
I put my arm around Morgan and tried to pull her close again, but she didn’t soften. She held herself stiff. “I’m a monster, Brayden.”
I cursed Tomas. “You’re a beautiful monster, darling. You’re the most magnificent monster on the block.”
She looked down at the bottle in her lap. “Don’t try to make light of it. It’s not funny.”
“Do you see me laughing?”
Her head shot up. “How can you even think about…..touching me…. after that?”
I considered my options here. If I played my cards wrong, she would never come to grips with what she was. “Let me ask you something. Do you think I’m a monster?”
“No!” She checked herself. “Well…. yes…..a little. I mean, you are, but you’re not.”
I cocked my head to study her at close range. “Do you think I’m ugly…. like that, I mean? Do you think I’m so hideous and disgusting and monstrous that you would never want to touch me again after seeing me like that?”
“No,” she breathed. “Of course not.”
“There you go. Now you can understand why I would think you’re beautiful like that. You can understand why I think you’re a thousand times more beautiful and more desirable like that than if you weren’t a monster—I mean, a dragon.”
“It’s different for you,” she returned. “You’re a man. How can a woman be beautiful…. like that?”
I pointed toward the dance floor. Cisco wrapped one arm around Christina’s waist and gyrated his hips in time to the music. She slithered up and down him in sensuous movements that mimicked the dance of intimacy. Rita and Isabel and Julia all danced around beaming and laughing and having a grand old time. “Do you think they’re monstrous and ugly?”
“No!” she exclaimed. “Not at all.”
“They’re women,” I pointed out, “and they’re all dragons, just like you. If they’re not disgusting and horrible and repulsive, how could you be?”
She averted her gaze. “I don’t know.”
I laid my palm to her cheek and turned her around to face me. When she did, those eyes of hers caught me in their sway. I had to convince her. I had to make her see just how magically beautiful she really was.
“Listen to me, sweetheart,” I whispered. “When Tomas said you were a monster, he didn’t mean you’re ugly or disgusting or any other thing you’re imagining. He meant you’re powerful. You’re fierce. You’re strong in the best possible way. You’re everything we prize in a woman—in a person. You’re everything we could hope you would be and you proved that today. You shifted in battle and you attacked our enemies. You put yourself in harm�
�s way to throw the advantage to our people and we won. Do you think he meant someone disgusting and horrible and repulsive could win my heart?”
She tried to look down, but I maintained my hold on her cheek. I kept her there to look into her eyes. If I looked deep enough, I just might be able to convince her how much I wanted her.
“You are incredibly, impossibly, mind-blowingly beautiful to me,” I breathed. “I never thought anyone could be, but when I saw you today, I couldn’t believe I ever lived without you. You’re a thousand times sexier and more beautiful and intoxicating, now that I’ve seen you like that. I want to see you like that again—forever. I can’t decide which way I like you better. When I see look at you now, I see you like that—huge and devilish and deadly.” I gasped out loud at the thought. “It was awesome!”
She colored again and looked down at my mouth. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I had to kiss her.
This time, she dissolved to pure sugar in my mouth. Her tongue tasted of honey and orange blossoms. Her warm breath infiltrated my beard and enveloped my skin. Her delicate fingers crept around my ribs and under my vest. That feather touch woke all kinds of visions of her hair cascading over her face in the maelstrom of ecstasy, her sobbing noises succumbing to my….
Another high-pitched whistle echoed across the yard. Morgan stiffened, but I didn’t bother to check who it was. I eased back just an inch and whispered low. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Where can we go?” she asked.
“Back to the beach house. We’ll be alone there. We don’t have to worry about anyone interrupting us.”
“How will we get there?” she asked. “You don’t have your bike.”
I cradled her lovely face in both hands. My heart ached with love and desire for her. Poor precious lost child, she had no idea. “We don’t need no stinking bikes. We’re dragons, darling.”
I seized her hand and pulled her to her feet. In a heartbeat, I took to the air, screaming over land and sea, burning north into the dark. I didn’t bother to check if she followed me. If she hoped to master this dragon business, she better learn how to shift with a single thought.
I rocketed into the heavens beyond the glow of streetlights and traffic. I stooped down the wind on a headlong course for the open ocean when she hurtled up alongside. She took a position at my wingtip. When I veered around the coast, she matched me wing stroke for wing stroke.
I almost hesitated to descend. I wanted to show her so many things. I wanted to show her the midnight sun rising over the tundra. I wanted to show her volcanos burbling lava down scree slopes. I wanted to dive to the bottom of the ocean and show her the giant squid hunting whales and feeding on sharks.
All that would have to wait. She needed to build up her strength. She had to get comfortable with herself before she ventured out into the wild world of dragons.
I folded my wings against my sides and plummeted toward the dark headland of Malibu. A cluster of lights marked the town and I took my heading a few miles south of that.
She circled the beach with me and eyed the yard. The boys got rid of all the bodies, but the landscape still revealed the unmistakable scars of battle. Oh, well. The trees and bushes and grass would grow back. In time, she would come to consider them the badges of her own victory. She would appreciate them as well as her own scars.
I touched down in the backyard. I enjoyed the delightful memory of her transformation. I would never be able to look at this yard without remembering that moment.
Like Cisco, I replayed again and again the stark gaping astonishment on her enemies’ faces when they beheld her rising out of the ground to become their worst nightmare. It truly was a memory worthy to be enshrined in Los Diablos lore for all time.
A pang of nostalgia stabbed my heart. I wished her father could have been here to see it. He deserved to witness the fulfillment of his daughter’s destiny, but that would never happen.
Morgan alighted at my side. She shifted in the blink of an eye with no awkward stumble. She straightened up and grimaced when she cast a wary glance around the place. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”
I took her hand. “Come on. It’s too late for that now.”
I escorted her inside. The house rested in darkness. No sign remained of her death struggle with the tattoo artist. It looked exactly the way she found it when I first sent her here from The Zone.
We lingered in the dark listening and holding our breath, but no sound disturbed the night. No enemies leaped out to attack us. No danger threatened us in any way.
I rounded on her and she looked up at me at the same time. Could I? Nothing stood in my way. She was all mine in all her dragon greatness.
She wasn’t huge and deadly and dominant now. She was just little old Morgan, small, fragile, lonely, uncertain. I put my arms around her and she folded herself against my chest. She took shelter there from all the bad memories, all the nightmares, all the monsters outside.
I cupped her chin and lifted her lips to my mouth. I savored the heady wine of her taste on my tongue. A thousand images flooded my mind when I kissed her, but that dragon obliterated them all.
She draped back against my bicep. Her head drooped to one side and she whined soft and high. That sound shot straight to my crotch. She was mine, all mine. I could take her. I could taste her in every pore of my skin.
She drifted in my embrace, so supple and responsive and charged with captivating tension even as she relaxed into the moment. Her hair sizzled when it cascaded through my hands.
I built up power to overwhelm her with my dominance. She succumbed before the tidal wave. The harder and faster I kissed her, the more she panted and shivered all over with awakening desire.
I seized her by the back of the neck and my fingers tightened in her hair. She froze, but she didn’t pull away. She stared into my eyes from millimeters away. I read my fate unfolding in those eyes. This was my moment, our moment.
I tried to pivot her toward the bed and missed. She hit the wall and cried out. That cry sounded so like the spiking crescendo of orgasm that I couldn’t hold back. I rammed into her throbbing hard. I nailed her against the wall ready to tear her apart.
She gasped louder and mewed into my mouth when I kissed her. She didn’t fight me away. Her fingers gripped my shoulders in clasping motions. She wanted it, too.
My blood pulsed between my legs and strained to get inside her. How hot and wet was she down there right now? My heart and soul ached to find out, to feel her blistering channel clamping down on me in successive spasms of ecstasy.
I crushed her mouth in manic kisses. I shoved my tongue into her throat and gloried in the sobbing relaxation of her legs around me. I strapped both hands under her ass and picked her off the ground.
She welcomed me into her spongy folds. She glided up and down with my strokes, but our clothes still frustrated my efforts. I had to get inside there or die trying. I needed to belong there, to find rest there, even as her heat and her breath drove me insane.
I stripped my hands around to her front and ripped her pants open. I just didn’t care anymore about anything but satiating my unstoppable lust for her. She fed me and nourished me. She gave me strength I never knew I had. She anointed me with blessed relief from a disease I couldn’t name.
She landed on her feet just long enough to kick her pants away. I yanked open my fly and dove in headfirst. She screamed when the tip touched her engorged tissues. She caught her breath and stared at me in shock when I hefted her off her feet and rammed her into position.
She screamed again when I drove in hard, but just as fast, she arched her back and rode down on my shaft singing loud and long. Her juices bubbled around my veins.
I wanted so bad to close my eyes and sink into that hot, wet morass of sacred goodness, but I couldn’t take my gaze off her transfigured face. She cried and sobbed and wept and convulsed on my spike moving inside her. Her eyelids drifted half-closed before she hauled her awareness back to me.
Her inner muscles stroked me so rock hard it hurt in the most exquisite possible way.
I chewed her lips in primal furious passion, but she never protested. She bucked her hips into my strokes and shrieked at every skewering penetration. I planted my hands on the wall for leverage, but only for a second.
I ripped up her shirt and exposed her succulent breasts to the ravages of my teeth. She screeched and pulled my hair. She thrashed in all her wild abandon against the force of my pounding rhythm, but her voice and her features told me all I needed to know. Her skin glowed in the dim light. Her screams pierced my flesh and stamped me as hers for all time.
15
Epilogue
Morgan
I poured coffee into two mugs and added a splash of milk and two sugars to one of them. I smiled to myself when I remembered my time in The Zone. I worked so hard to hate Brayden back then. At least it paid off in some ways. At least now I knew how he liked his coffee.
I tucked the package under my arm, took a mug in each hand, and padded barefoot to the porch. I found Brayden sitting on the step in his black tank top. He rested his arms on his knees so all his tats showed up dark and clear against his skin.
I handed him his cup and sat down next to him. He took a deep sniff and sighed. “Thank you, darling. To what do I owe the honor?”
“Just for being you.” I kissed his thick shoulder. “When you finish that, I’ll make breakfast. I thought we could sit here and enjoy the sunrise for a little while first, though.”
He chuckled under his breath and lowered his lips to the mug. “Here I thought I would be consigned the chore of housekeeper for life after waiting on your hand and foot at The Zone.”
I shot him a knowing grin. “I figured you did your duty to the cause back then. Now it’s my turn to wait on you for a change. You earned a break.”
“Thank you.” He took a sip. Then he nodded at the package. “What’s that?”
I set my cup down and rotated the bundle into view. “The courier just dropped it off while I was in the kitchen. It’s from Logan Melia.”
