Gathering her strength within her, Opal cupped her hands in front of her mouth and blew outward. A cascade of bubbles materialized from nothingness before her, filling the sky with thousands of gleaming, pearlescent spheres that surrounded her.
But these bubbles weren’t filled with happy thoughts or memories. And as the wyverns dove toward her, popping the bubbles in their descent, their minds overflowed with visions of the horrific nightmares contained within each tiny, translucent globe.
Like flies, the wyverns began to fall from the sky, shrieking and writhing in an effort to escape the terrors visible only to them, tormenting them and chasing them.
Suddenly, Opal finally understood Aegis. All those times he had been so violent, so intent on protecting her no matter the cost, she knew what he’d felt now.
What she had only seen as overbearing and impulsive she now recognized as protectiveness. A desire to protect someone so strong it burned like a firestorm. The very feeling that was coursing through her as she sought to save her mate from oblivion.
As Opal dodged the last of the wyverns as it plummeted past her, she beat her wings with determination upward. Above her, the oracle stood in the air, looking down in utter shock.
Without fear or hesitation, Opal snatched the dark oracle by the collar of her cloak, staring into cold, soulless eyes she had seen so many times while she had been held captive but only now truly hated, truly loathed.
The oracle had dared threaten the opal dragon’s mate.
And now she was going to pay.
The oracle brought her staff upward defensively, but Opal saw it coming this time, and she swatted the small, gnarled stick away with a flick of her hand, sending it disappearing into the darkness beneath them. Below them, she could hear the voices of the dragons calling out to each other to coordinate their defense. Inside the house, she could hear windows crashing and breaking outward as the dragons inside fought to protect their mates.
“Take the collar off, damn you,” Opal grated out, feeling her claws elongate in rage as the oracle struggled feebly.
“Never!”
“Do it!” she shouted, her patience wearing thin at the thought of her lover slowly dying on the ground.
“Don’t you understand? I’ve already won. You can’t stop what’s coming. I will have this world, even if I have to burn it to the ground,” she spit back, undaunted despite her position.
Surely enough, as Opal looked up, she could see a leathery mass off in the distance. Hundreds, maybe thousands of wings flapping, approaching with crushing inevitably, row after row of bright-red eyes quickly coming into view.
The old Opal would have been daunted by something like this. The old Opal would have run, fled to safety.
But the new Opal didn’t know surrender.
All she knew was her mate needed her. And anything that stood between her and Aegis’s happiness would be crushed.
“Have it your way, then,” Opal said darkly as she focused her energy on the oracle.
Suddenly, the air around them darkened, blackening until it blotted out the stars above them, and the earth beneath them faded into nothingness. Then with sudden realization, the oracle’s petulant grin faded into panic and dread.
“No. Don’t!” the dark oracle screeched, looking around her, trying to escape the darkness that was closing in.
But Opal hadn’t even started. Focusing on the oracle’s mind, her deepest fears, she created her living nightmares, played them all around her as if on screens that shone in the darkness. The oracle’s face went pale, her eyes wide as she looked around her.
The oracle saw herself aged, ugly. Saw herself dying a thousand painful ways. Losing everything she wanted, being forgotten forever. She witnessed the culmination of all her greatest anxieties and worries, all coming to life before her very eyes in a thousand different ways, all in the flash of a moment’s time.
“Remove the collar,” Opal said one last time, her voice calm, only the slightest shred of pity remaining for this horrible person.
“I’ll do it. I’ll do it,” she said, speech slurred, confusion setting in as her mind was pushed past its physical limitations. She waved her hand limply, and Opal looked to the earth below them.
Sure enough, the collar fell off Aegis’s neck, and he rolled to the side, coughing violently.
Finally.
Her mate was safe.
She pulled back her hand and punched the oracle in the face, knocking out the woman who had almost killed him.
But instead of dropping to the earth, she blew a large bubble that materialized before her, and set the oracle on it as it drifted slowly to the earth.
As much as she wanted to kill the bitch, she knew there were a lot of questions still to be asked.
Now to deal with the wyverns quickly making their way here.
But as Opal started to head toward them, hoping to frighten them off with nightmares before they reached the house, a long, jagged arc of blue electricity sailed past her, narrowly missing as it collided into the ground with a violent explosion.
“You didn’t think this was over, did you?” Topaz’s cocky voice called down through the clouds as his massive, yellow shape came into view, his bright-yellow scales glistening as his enormous wings beat the air.
Opal tried to shift fully into her dragon form, but her strength was all but spent, and only now did she realize she barely had the energy to keep her wings beating to avoid falling to the ground.
And behind them, as if on cue, the wyverns filled the air around Topaz, hissing and screeching as they waited for the order to attack.
“You’re going to regret doing that to Irial.”
Beneath her, Opal could see the dragons still fighting off the initial onslaught of the hideous wyverns, only barely managing to contain the threat, all of them surely exhausted from the prolonged melee.
And try as she might, there was nothing left inside her to resist with.
“Bye-bye, Opal. See you in hell,” Topaz said, his overtly cheery tone darkened by a coldblooded viciousness.
Opal readied herself for the onslaught. But just as Topaz opened his jagged jaws to spew forth electric death, a green blur zipped past her at impossible speed, colliding with the yellow dragon with incredible force, the impact so loud it sounded like thunder.
“Keep your fucking hands and everything else to yourself, asshole,” Aegis shouted as his claws ripped into the topaz dragon, and they plummeted to the ground, the emerald dragon on top.
But before anything else could happen, the two gigantic shapes crashed into the earth, and everything seemed to stop as a pillar of dust and dirt rose into the air, then slowly settled.
And when it cleared, she could see the shape of Aegis’s dragon atop the topaz dragon’s prone form.
“Oh, I wish I could kill you right now. So very, very badly," Aegis grated out. “Nothing would make me happier than to watch you melt your own limbs off with your dragon fire right before you electrocute yourself to death. But I need that fire. So get ready to be my bitch.”
With a huff, the emerald dragon got off of the still-dazed dragon beneath him, then issued his command.
“Topaz, kill those abominations in the sky.”
Immediately, the topaz dragon got to its feet, looked skyward, and shot out a cascade of electricity, which flew into the sky, connecting with the wyverns with shocking force. With terrible efficiency, the bolts arced from beast to beast in prolonged chains. Dozens of the creatures fell to the earth with terrible shrieks as the rest began to descend in attack.
“Again,” Aegis commanded.
Once more, lightning shot out in impossibly long bolts as everyone watched in both surprise and horror as Aegis coolly gave the command over and over.
Before the wyverns could even reach them, most of their ranks had been singed to nothingness, and the few that remained turned tail and fled, their wings beating desperately to save their lives.
“That’s enough. Now shift bac
k and knock yourself out, bastard,” Aegis said, sounding a little more pleased with himself at the turn of events as the topaz dragon responded by shifting back to his human shape and running headlong into a nearby brick wall.
By now, the other dragons had returned their efforts to cleaning up the last few wyverns that had, for reasons unknown, remained loyal and fighting to the end. With a smile that was as happy as it was horrible, with his long rows of jagged teeth, Aegis in his dragon form looked skyward to Opal.
It was only then she felt the last drops of strength run out of her, and with one last, weak beat of her wings, she started to fall from the sky.
All at once, the ground fell out from beneath her, and her vision clouded as she felt herself caught gently by gigantic claws.
She let out a sigh of relief as her vision faded to nothing. It wasn’t how she expected, but she was back in Aegis’s arms.
Chapter 17
Several hours later, Aegis stared down at his mate in awe. She was on his bed, where she’d been ever since he’d carried her in after the fight. No wonder she was tired; she’d singlehandedly taken on the dark oracle.
It was sort of fitting that Opal had done it, since Opal was the one who hated her most, having been imprisoned and used by her.
Still, Aegis was a little touched that what had really made Opal angry was someone hurting him. No one had ever been angry for him before, and even though he’d been in agony that he couldn’t help his mate while he was dying, he’d still been in awe that someone as special as her would fight for him.
The other dragons had been happy to help clean up and secure the house while he took Opal inside. Everyone had fought admirably, and no one held it against him that he’d nearly gotten himself killed by taking his own stupid plan too seriously.
He’d been so blinded by finally having a selfless impulse that he’d done something stupid and utterly exhausted his mate. But Sapphire had reassured him she was physically fine, just resting because the multi-shifting had taken a toll on her after so many years of not shifting and being in hibernation.
Aegis just wanted her to come back to him.
Her eyes fluttered, and his heart pounded. He scooted closer to her on the bed, holding her hand.
“Opal?” he asked. “Can you hear me?”
She stirred with a groan and put a hand to her head, where her hair was loose and spread all over the pillow. He’d undone her ponytail and brushed it out for her. Aside from dressing her in comfortable sleeping clothes, what else had he to do?
She sat up, shaking her head with a wince, and looked around. When her eyes landed on him, she smiled. “You look terrible.”
“I suppose I haven’t had time to freshen up, what with saving your life and all,” he said, folding his arms.
She pulled him in for a hug, forcing him to relax his stiffened posture, and then let him go to flop back on the bed, still weak. “Can you believe it?” she asked, smacking her hands triumphantly against the bed. “We got her. We won.”
“We have her in custody, yes,” Aegis said. “I believe Zach took off to deliver her to her sister, the other oracle, for now.”
“What happened with Topaz?”
“After he knocked himself out, we captured him as well and delivered him along with the dark oracle.”
“Right,” she said. “I did good, huh?”
Aegis hugged her again, not wanting to ever let go. “You did amazing. I was stupid.”
She rubbed his back. “I can’t be that mad because I’m actually really proud you would do that for your friends. For me. I can’t believe you would do that.”
He kept his arms around her, holding on because she was the only thing that felt solid in a world that was constantly changing. “I know,” he said bitterly. “You’ve turned me into some kind of good guy, hero person. I’m not sure I like it.”
“I’m not sure I do either if it gets you in trouble. Then again, as long as I’m here to save your butt—”
“No,” he said sharply. “No, I don’t intend for that to become a habit. I’ll save your butt, but you shouldn’t have to save mine, as my mate—”
“Aegis, I’m a dragon. I’m meant to fight, too.”
“Fine, by my side, then,” he said. “But never with me in chains, hopefully.”
“Agreed,” she said, pulling him on the bed with her so they could sit side by side. She looked at the window. “It’s raining.”
“Yes, it started after the battle,” Aegis said. “Sort of poetic, like it can wash away all the blood.”
“There wasn’t any of our blood though, right?”
“Just tons of wyverns. Topaz chased most of them off with lightning. Zapped them right out of the sky.”
“That was you, though,” she said.
“He tried to attack my mate,” he grumbled.
She put her arm around him and snuggled in. “You know, I know how that feels for once, seeing your mate threatened. It’s awful. I don’t blame you for kicking ass all those years. I wish you had just told me. Maybe if we had just gotten together, if we had been more secure…”
“But hey, if we’d gotten together then, maybe we wouldn’t have been here to save everyone’s asses today.”
“That’s true,” she said. “It’s been a long road but a good one.” She reached up and kissed him on the lips.
Never able to have a simple kiss with him, she wound her hands up around his neck and into his hair, and he let out a soft groan as he parted her lips and slipped his tongue inside, sweeping through and warming her. Her body melted in against him, and the whole world disappeared until it was only her and her dragon.
She pulled back until their lips were just barely touching and then until they were just a hair’s breadth away. “So what happens now?” she asked, brushing his lips lightly with hers.
His hand found his way around her waist and then gently squeezed her ass. “I guess this is happily ever after.”
“Oh really?” she asked, scooting even closer and then sliding her knee over him so she was straddling his lap, feeling his warm, hard heat against her. Loving the feel of his hard muscles under her thighs.
His hand ran up her back as the other cradled her head, stroking her ear lightly as she leaned into the embrace. “I suppose so. If you consider living in this world and fighting alongside these dopey dragons a happy ending.”
“I think that sounds perfect as long as it’s with you,” she said.
He raised her hand in his and looked at their rings. “I think that’s pretty much set in stone now.”
“Right. Emerald and Opal,” she said.
He let their hands fall to the side and buried his face against her neck. His breath and soft lips tickled her as he rested there, keeping their bodies together.
“Hearing those words, I can’t even say what it means. All those years waiting. All of that heartbreak. All the fighting. I can’t even begin to deserve to come home to you.”
“You don’t have to deserve it,” she said. “That’s why it’s home.” She brushed a hand through his hair. “Everyone deserves a home, Aegis. A family.”
“I didn’t have one until I met you, though.”
“Then I’m glad you met me,” she said. “I’m glad we went through everything that led to us being here. Now we just have to be so happy that the hard times are just a blip in eternity.”
His hands wound tightly around her waist, and he pressed a kiss to her neck that sent a shock of pleasure right down to the tips of her toes. “So happy that we have to make many, many years a blip in eternity, huh?”
She nodded, pressing her neck forward, wanting more of his lips. He kissed over her skin and down her shoulder, over the sensitive skin of her upper arm, pushing her soft sleep shirt aside as he did so.
“Then I guess we better get started, right?”
She dug her nails into his back, murmuring her assent, and he pulled her onto his lap. Together, holding each other as the rain fell around them, th
ey made the past a distant memory.
All that mattered was the future.
Chapter 18
Three weeks later…
“Aegis, uh, oh, yesss…” Opal moaned as she rode out her release, twisting her hands in her hair as she threw her head back and let her orgasm ripple through her.
Beneath her, Aegis grinned and pumped harder, loving the way he could squeeze every last bit of pleasure from her if he kept thrusting through her release.
“You’re merciless,” she said, flopping forward and resting her hands on his hot, naked skin and looking at him through a veil of her hair.
His body was tense, poised on the brink, hard as a rock, but he knew he had more in him. He moved slightly, and her eyes flew open, excited to start again.
He moved his hands from the headboard to her waist, holding and lifting her as he thrust deep inside, loving the way each thrust seemed to stroke her perfectly, making her let out a little moan or bite her lip or dig her nails into his chest.
Her soft thighs were on either side of him, and he loved her gentle weight, the swell of her breasts as they bounced pleasantly when she rode him.
After several weeks together, he knew her body inside and out. If he would have known just how beautifully compatible they’d be in bed, just how much sense they would make making love to one another, maybe he could have convinced his shy, restrained self to make a move sooner.
But maybe not. Maybe everything had happened perfectly. Maybe history should be left as it was if it resulted in such a perfect present.
He looked up to see his mate’s gorgeous, iridescent-blue eyes glazing as she came closer to release, and he reached up to flick her nipples gently, knowing that always sent her over the edge when she was this close.
“Oh, Aegis,” she said, arching and digging her nails into his hard abs as she came again. What was that? The eighth time? He wasn’t sure. There’d been the oral, and they’d tried a little bondage, and then they’d—
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