by Riley Storm
“Well, well, well,” Doran said merrily, clapping his hands as he approached, as naked as could be. “I’m surprised Asher let you go like this, without his supervision.” He stroked his chin, hips waggling as he got nearer.
Emma wanted to throw up.
“I spent a long time searching the sky and around to see if he was nearby, trying to trap me. But he’s not, is he?” Doran taunted victoriously. “Was there a lovers’ quarrel, maybe? Did he reveal his true nature and send you running back to Five Peaks, I wonder?”
Emma kept looking at the sky. “No,” she said fiercely, lashing out with the temper that had been building inside her, a result of both her fear at her predicament, but also her hatred of this man for what he was trying to do. She didn’t bother keeping her voice down.
“Well, what happened?”
“Does it matter?” she snapped. “No, it doesn’t. Not that you deserve to know either!” she shouted, fiddling in the car and then stepping away as Doran surged forward and took her by the arm hard enough to make her yelp in pain.
“You are going to pay, you miserable bitch. I think it’s time I taught Asher another lesson. After all, what better way to teach him that he can’t have anything valuable, than to steal it all away from him. Don’t you agree?” he asked, roaring with laughter while he dragged her down from the rock outcropping.
“That’s your grand plan?” she asked, terrified and yet disappointed all at once. “Kill me to send a lesson to Asher? Really? You couldn’t come up with anything more imaginative than that?”
Doran was going red with anger as she made fun of him. Emma wasn’t sure where the strength was coming from that allowed her to mentally resist.
“Why are you so arrogant?” Doran raged. “How is it you have the strength to be like that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I was wondering the same thing myself. You’re threatening to kill me. I should be terrified. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m no longer afraid of dying. Or if it’s because your pathetic plan is just so exhausting. Or maybe it’s because I’m not actually in danger of dying. I don’t know.”
“What do you mean? I am going to kill you!” Doran sneered. “Throw you off a cliff. Look.”
He burst through a group of hedges, and suddenly, Emma was terrified. Less than five feet in front of her, the ground suddenly ended.
“Oh,” she yelped, and twisted her ankle. The motion tore her arm from Doran’s grasp, and she fell to the ground with a cry. “Please don’t.”
“That’s right. Beg from your knees.”
Behind Doran, Emma saw the trees sway slightly.
“Who said anything about begging?” she said. “I was just getting out of the way.”
“Huh?”
Doran spun back to face the trees from where they had come, but he was too slow. A brilliant crimson red figure shot through the trees, grabbing him by the chest and launching both of them off the cliff.
Emma spun just in time to see Asher’s half-human, half-dragon form spread its wings wide and toss Doran from his grip.
The evil dragon shifter plummeted from the sky.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Asher
He didn’t hesitate in going after Doran.
Folding in his wings, Asher dropped from the sky. A simple fall wouldn’t kill his foe, simply because the other shifter was already changing, his wings bursting free, spreading wide and catching the air, slowing his descent.
“So, you were there!” Doran roared. “Where were you hiding, I wonder? It could not have been far, to have snuck up on me so!”
Why does he act like he’s some sort of evil genius?
There wasn’t a lot of interaction between the various dragon clans. They met four times a year to discuss everything dragon-related, but otherwise they generally kept mostly to themselves. So, Asher didn’t know much about his enemy, but he would never have pegged him to be like this.
The rest of his clan had been just as surprised.
Asher wanted to find out, but his first priority was beating the other shifter. He had to, to ensure Emma was kept safe, even though he knew she was already racing for a hiding position.
Oh crap, he muttered to himself and banked away, narrowly avoiding a stream of ice that tried to knock him from the sky.
Doran wasn’t content with his hybrid form and had continued shifting. Now a brilliant ice-white dragon rose into the sky, fifty feet long from nose to tail and packed with lethality.
Asher’s wings beat hard, taking up into the sky. He was faster given the relative sizes, though not by much, but he was far more agile. Still, he couldn’t hope to take down the full dragon and would need time to complete his own shift if he was to battle Doran on equal footing.
He gained altitude, looking over his shoulder, judging the distance, hoping he’d guessed right.
Spinning around in mid-air, he breathed in deeply, feeling the glands on either side of this throat activate, and then spitting fire straight down in a blast as wide as he could manage.
Then he folded his wings in and dropped after it, breathing for as long as he could. Ice exploded through the center, but Asher slid out of its way. The cloud of breath weapons disappeared, and he whipped past Doran, the other shifter not having realized he was coming down at him, the cloud of fire and ice hiding his descent.
As soon as he was past, Asher focused on his own change. The ground was rushing up at him, giving him little time to complete it. He spread his wings and angled out over the cliff, giving himself extra time as the ground continued to slope downward.
“I will kill you!” Doran bellowed angrily, much closer than Asher was comfortable with.
Whipping his head up and over his shoulder, he saw the ice dragon coming at him, wings tight to his side, preparing to launch another attack with his breath.
Asher beat his wings hard, his own dragon form now completely shifted, nearly sixty feet long and more than a physical match for the ice dragon. If he could get a chance at him.
A chunk of ice spat from Doran’s mouth. Asher was a hair too slow in moving and it glanced off the side of his head. He growled, knowing he was going to have a bump there at minimum, though it wasn’t all Doran’s fault.
Emma had started the process when she’d gone over that pothole. Concealed in the trunk with no room to move or brace himself, Asher’s head had slammed off the metal painfully. He’d kept himself silent, not speaking or calling out. He wanted to give absolutely no indication that he was there with her, ready to come out and attack.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to give Emma grief. She’d known exactly what she was doing, he was positive of that.
The dragons swirled and dove, banking hard, gaining air, neither managing to land any attacks as they sought dominance of the skies.
Finally, Asher had had enough. Without warning, he flipped over on a wing and went straight at Doran, launching a fireball at the ice dragon. The yellow eyes went wide, and Doran tried to get out of the way the only way he could. By diving down.
But Asher had expected that, and so he didn’t continue the same path as his fiery attack. He’d dropped below it, and now his claws scraped across Doran’s back as he passed by, spilling ivory scales and red blood to the ground far below.
Doran roared, and Asher’s left hind leg went numb as it was blasted with ice. He grimaced in pain, but flew on, knowing full well he’d gotten the better of that engagement.
Now, he was on the pursuit. White dragons were smaller and a little faster, but it looked like he’d managed to hurt one of Doran’s wings in his attack, because Asher was gaining on him.
“You’re mine now,” he snarled, spitting a stream of flame that scorched a line up Doran’s flank. Scales withered and died under the attack, blackened husks falling to the ground while the exposed hide underneath shriveled and bled.
I have you now.
Asher caught up to his prey and with a vicious sweep of his front claws, tore g
iant shreds in his left wing. Doran immediately made for ground, doing his best to favor the injured membrane, in hopes that it would stay intact until he could reach the ground.
He was about ten feet short when it failed completely, ripping wide open and sending Doran into a spin as he hit the mountainside, bouncing and sliding, bringing down trees and sending up a pile of dust and dirt into the air.
Asher landed nearby, his impact enough to shake the ground.
“You,” he growled. “Have a lot of answering to do.”
The only response he got was a cone of ice sent right at him. He countered it with fire, and more of it. Fire dragons were the strongest of all, and Asher used that to his advantage now, pushing his enemy’s attack back until it failed, and fire slapped the lizard head down to the ground, blackening one side of Doran’s head and closing his eye.
“You’ll have to kill me,” Doran said, launching himself at Asher.
Dragons fighting in the sky were graceful, deadly, majestic creatures. On land they were like ungainly elephants. Insanely destructive, but not overly pretty in their actions. Asher dodged to the side, then his head shot forward, teeth the size of a human arm crushing scales under the tremendous bite power.
Doran bellowed in pain, thrashing wildly, but Asher didn’t let go. He bore the head to the ground, managing to get one claw on the long neck as well, pinning it down.
Somehow his foe managed to spin over onto his back, and razor-sharp claws lashed out at Asher’s face and unprotected belly. He pulled back in alarm, then spat fire at Doran’s exposed underside.
The scales melted and skin split. Blood poured out, soaking the ground around them as Doran writhed in pain.
“Yield!” Asher roared, trying to get his opponent to submit. He had questions to ask, answers that were necessary to understand just what was happening.
“Screw you,” Doran spat and came at him again, mouth open wide as he went for Asher’s neck.
Asher spat a gust of fire down the other dragon’s throat, burning it from the inside out.
It stopped the attack in its track, but he also knew he’d just ruined his chances of ever getting any answers as the fire killed his foe. Without any scales to protect him from the extreme heat, his insides liquefied almost instantly.
Doran’s eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the ground, letting out one last exhale as his lungs deflated. Forever.
“Dammit,” Asher snarled, angry at himself. He could think of a dozen ways that he could have thwarted that attack without killing Doran. But in the moment his anger had gotten the better of him, and he’d killed one of his kin.
“Asher!”
His head whipped around as Emma cried out his name. She was crouched on the edge of the cliff high above him.
There was his reason for doing what he did. The being that allowed him to not feel guilty about his actions this day. Emma had been threatened, her life in danger. Asher vowed he would never hesitate to do what it took to ensure her safety. Even if it meant killing another dragon if they threatened her.
This was his mate, and he would burn the world to a crisp if it would keep her safer.
Just try and stop me.
Spreading his wings wide, he launched himself into the sky, heading for her side as fast as he could.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Asher
He hadn’t told anyone of the plan, so when they arrived back at the mountainside house, on foot, there were a lot of questions.
“You know you haven’t gotten out of this entirely,” he said as the gate rumbled open.
“We’ll see,” Emma said forcefully. “I’m really still not sold on the idea, and it’s going to take some time. That’s just the way it is Asher, no matter how convincing you think you are.”
“It’s perfectly safe,” he promised. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You can’t look at me and tell me with all serious that flying ten-thousand feet in the air unsecured on the back of a dragon shifter is perfectly safe!” she yelped, her face going a little paler.
Asher was only mostly teasing her. He would never force Emma onto his back and into the sky, but he sure would love the chance to soar through the early-morning light with her one day, just the two of them, together, as it should be. That, he knew, would be his paradise, a moment he would treasure until the end of time.
“Can too,” he muttered as they walked inside, Logan emerging from inside, Pace on his left, and Zavier, the brother closest to him in age, on his right.
“Can not,” Emma shot back, getting in the last word before they pulled up in front of them.
“So. What did I miss?” Logan asked casually. “Because I swear you left in a car this morning,” he said, inclining his head in Emma’s direction.
“Well you see, the thing about that is,” Emma said.
“You had a plan!” Pace said, crossing his arms. “And you didn’t tell me.”
Asher watched the interaction curiously. Pace and Emma had quickly become close friends, forming a trio with Clarice that was weird and yet thoroughly enjoyable to watch as well. He’d never quite seen anything like it, but the three of them certainly had lots of laughs together.
Knowing that his mate had friends among his family was more than Asher could hope for, however, and he would encourage that friendship to grow strong. Maybe they could even find a mate for the slightly nerdy dragon shifter. He certainly deserved that kind of happiness.
“We didn’t tell anyone,” he said. “Because I didn’t want any sort of commotion, or to risk that somehow Doran would pick up on what we were planning.”
“Did it work?” Zavier asked, eying Asher and his newfound wounds casually.
“Yes,” Asher said quietly. “A little too well, unfortunately.” He looked at Logan. “We’re going to need to send a team to retrieve the body and clean up the area. He’s in his dragon form, so it’ll be noticeable from the skies.”
Logan turned and spoke to Zavier, who, with a nod at his younger brother, went to go organize that team.
“I’m sorry it came to that,” Logan said quietly.
“Same,” Asher said. “But I wasn’t going to risk something happening to Emma.” His arm went out automatically, wrapping around her, pulling her close. “Priorities.”
“Priorities,” Logan echoed, understanding completely. “I’m glad that this is settled then.”
There was silence.
Logan’s eyebrows knitted together. “It is done, isn’t it?”
“With Doran, yes. But I think something else is going on.”
“What do you mean?” Logan asked.
Asher finally relayed the story of where Doran had hidden his treasure. He would leave it up to his brother to go to Clan Rixa’s house and deal with them in getting his treasure back. It would be best that way.
“He was trying to stir up things between the clans,” Logan said. “That’s what you mean.”
“Yes. And he almost succeeded too,” Asher said. “Only a bit of luck stopped him.”
“Luck,” Pace said, his eyes darting between Asher and Emma. “Or fate.”
“She doesn’t believe in fate,” Asher said with a smile.
“Maybe I do now,” she told him, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“Be that as it may,” Asher said quietly. “It still doesn’t explain how Doran found my treasure in the first place. Someone must have told him. I can’t figure out how else he would have known.”
“Someone else, you mean.”
Logan nodded. “Someone must have followed me there. I’ve only been there twice in the past year. Once with Emma, to pay her out, and once the day after I damaged her house, because I knew I was going to have to pay her. So, I took some out to exchange for cash.” He turned to her with a smile, despite the gravity of the subject. “Turns out I didn’t take out quite enough.”
Emma swatted at him half-heartedly.
“This is indeed unnerving,” Logan s
aid. “We will have to notify every dragon, they will have to check their vaults, their stores, ensure that everything is accurate and how it should be.”
At that moment, Clarice came outside. She took one look at the two of them and shook her head.
“Come on,” she said to Emma. “Let’s go get you some wine, and maybe some clothes that fit. You can’t wear sweats all the time.”
Emma grinned. “See Asher. Someone who understands.”
He just shrugged, giving her a wicked grin. “I’m just going to be ripping them off you in a bit anyway. So, don’t get too fancy.”
Emma’s face went red and she sputtered for an answer to his blatantly sexual innuendo.
“This is what happens when you play with fire,” he said, blowing her a kiss.
She rolled her eyes and then went inside with Clarice, leaving the three dragons to confer within themselves.
“I don’t like this,” Logan muttered.
“Me neither,” Asher agreed. “First the Gate activates, letting something loose among the humans. Now this? I liked things back when they were calm. Boring. This is too much excitement for one month.”
Logan nodded. “We’ll have to warn the others. I get the feeling this isn’t the last excitement for us.”
Asher was unfortunately forced to agree. He had a bad feeling about this.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Emma
Asher rolled off her onto his back.
They lay on the bed for some time, side by side, chests rising and falling with the increased rate indicative of what they’d just finished doing. There wasn’t much talking, and only the barest of skin caresses where her leg brushed against his thigh.
A warm, satisfied glow filled her body with each passing second. Part of it was a result of what Asher had just inflicted upon her body, a pleasant afterglow of sexual bliss. There was more to it than that however, more than just a satisfied carnal longing. She was happy with him, in any capacity, in any way. Just being with Asher made her smile, made her content.
“Emma.”
Her head rolled to the side so she could see him, but when the look on his face registered with her brain, Emma immediately rolled up onto her side.
