The Panther's Rival

by Emilia Hartley

  Had the dragons’ leader seen that when he studied Cameron’s face? Was that why he forced her into a room with him?

  “I saw death,” she whispered. “It’s been a long time coming. Malcom has wanted my power since the moment we met. Bringing me into this fight will serve your leader best if he uses me as a distraction. When I can’t give Malcom what he wants I know he will kill me. I only hope that it gives you some time to do what you have to.”

  Before she could move or speak, Cameron’s hands gripped her hips. He pulled her into him and his lips fell upon hers. She didn’t have the power to fight. She gave in, opening to him. If she was going to die soon, she would die a happy, sated woman.

  He lifted her from the floor and she responded by wrapping her legs around him. He broke the kiss only long enough to warn her that he was going to rip her clothes from her body, a warning growled into her ear. His hot breath in her ear sent shivers through her. All she could do was nod. The gesture was followed by the sound of ripping as her shirt fell away from her skin as she clung to him.

  She rocked her hips against him and his cock grew in response to her. It pressed against her core, against her stomach. How she had taken all of him before was a miracle. He was bigger than any she’d ever tried to take before.

  Cameron’s own clothing fell away, his jeans kicked aside by his feet. He stepped over the lip of the tub that was fed by the waterfall. She expected cold water to touch her bare legs, but she was, instead, greeted by a gentle warmth that made her gasp with unexpected pleasure. Cameron laughed into her skin. His nose nuzzled her neck and left a trail of burning desire that made her dig her nails into his skin.

  Suspended in the water, Gwen reached between them to grip the long length of his cock. He hissed between his teeth as her hand stroked back and forth. She ran her thumb over the delicate tip and his mouth fell over her lips. She let him in, holding nothing back.

  Here, with this dragon man, no one was going to hurt her. Not even him. She couldn’t tell why she believed she was safe with him, but she realized it as he held her in the water. They made love once more. Their bodies moved together like they had done it more than once before.

  After, Gwen lingered in the water. She contemplated her decision not to use birth control. It didn’t bother her, as the memories of the Death card returned to the forefront of her mind. It wouldn’t matter, soon. Instead of dwelling on the implications of her foolish behavior, she pulled at the green magic inside of her and pulled the water in gentle whirlpools around Cameron’s sensitive cock, laughing when he hissed at the extreme sensation.

  “If I asked you,” Cameron began after her whirlpool eddied away, “would you stay here with me?”

  “In the mountain?” she scoffed.

  He shook his head. “When we get the territory back. Would you be willing to stay here in Snowdonia with me? I could offer you safety from whatever you’re running away from.”

  She looked up at him, a sad smile spreading over her lips. That wouldn’t be an option soon. But, were it an option, what would she do? Would she help these dragons and then run for the hills again? Or, could she build herself a small garden here? The lands of Snowdonia were rich with magic, the kind that welcomed her with open arms.

  “Maybe,” was all she could say. “Maybe I could.”

  Cameron didn’t seem to like that response. His lips twisted, but he didn’t say anything else. Instead, he leaned back into the water and let his head rest against the stone. Gwen could only wonder what was happening under the surface of that gentle dragon as the light streaming through the window played over his face.

  He could easily be the sunshine over her garden. She only wished that dragons could take witches as mates. It made her chest tight to think that Cameron had a woman out there, destined to be his lover for his long life. She looked away, choosing to watch the colored lights dance across the bottom of the pool instead of dealing with her emotions.

  He could be hers, a voice inside of her whispered. What she felt, how her body came alight when he touched her. It was like nothing else she’d known. The way her heart fluttered and her body burned tried to tell her tales of fate bound lovers. What if… No, she reminded herself. She was a witch and, therefore, it meant she would live a lonely life like her mother and her grandmother. Thankfully she thought, that lonely life was almost over. She was happy that she was able to spend the last moments of it with the sweet dragon man.

  Chapter Twelve

  Owain passed Cameron and his mate, the older dragon’s eyes dancing between them. The old dragon must have seen the bond because his eyes lit with surprise.

  “Well,” he grumbled. “That was not what I meant when I said show her love in return, but I hope the best for the two of you. I hope that her luck does not follow us here, into the mountain.”

  “What is he talking about,” Gwen asked, her voice becoming sharp.

  Owain pinned her to the spot with his glare. “If you dare betray my family I will unleash Elgar upon the world again. Be careful of how you step from here on out.”

  Gwen’s eyebrows knit together as she took in the older man before her. Owain cut an imposing figure with his barrel chest and thick beard. He looked like a man that had weathered thousands of years on this earth. It was Cameron that stepped forward, firmly placing himself between the old dragon and Gwen. His hand touched the old man’s shoulder, gripping it hard.

  “She will do fine,” Cameron growled. Fury was a new feeling, but it was one that he was quickly becoming familiar with. He did not like Owain threatening his mate. He stepped between them and let that fire pulse from him. He burned like a sun.

  Owain seemed to see something else in Cameron that made him step back. “Perhaps I will not need to unleash Elgar after all.”

  “What does that mean?” Cameron pushed.

  Only, Owain did not explain. The old man further studied Cameron’s face before his eyes flicked to the witch, to his mate. Cameron’s nose scrunched as his lips curled.

  “Perhaps you do not remember me, but we met when you were a child’s age.” Owain bowed low before Gwen. “You were the life of the party the night I first met you. The entire room seemed to revolve around you and your cards. It is a pity that your family shamed you for the power that you could not help.”

  Gwen swallowed. “Pity isn’t the word that I would use, but I think that spared me a lot of trouble. If my family would give me up for such a small thing, then they were not family to begin with.”

  “A very true statement. I hope that you can find family once and for all with us. It would be an honor to claim that the Witch of Caernarfon as a part of the red dragons.”

  She laughed, a small sound that betrayed how nervous she was. Cameron figured it was from the large dragon before her, but he couldn’t know for certain. He didn’t know how to read the thoughts in her eyes yet. He couldn’t decipher what his mate showed to the world and it was beginning to drive him crazy. He couldn’t tell if she needed protection or free reign. He couldn’t tell if she needed him at all.

  “I am here to lend aid,” she said, her voice flat. “That is all. I have no intentions of staying. Please don’t get your hopes up.”

  Gwen had turned to Cameron as she said the last sentence. Only an hour ago, he’d found home inside her, released his seed inside the witch during what he could have called making love. Now, she stared him in the eye and told him not to get his hopes up.

  His heart trembled. It threatened to break until the beast inside of him wrapped around it. The beast growled at him. It said to hope. They would love her until they no longer walked the earth, until they no longer breathed. He’d never known the beast inside him to be so ferocious, so vicious in its promises as visions of what it would do to keep her safe passed through his mind. Cameron agreed, surprising himself.

  “I’m afraid this one is already caught in your snare, witch.” Owain rocked on his heels, the smirk of a mischievous old man on his lips, only partially obscur
ed by his white moustache. “I’m afraid you cannot play catch and release with this red dragon.”

  With his wisdom said, Owain turned to leave them alone in the hall when a cry rang out through the mountain. Drystan’s voice boomed for all to hear. Cameron’s heart leapt in his throat. He was calling an emergency.

  He lifted Gwen from the floor, cradling her against his chest as he ran for the meeting point. She protested, but made no move to escape his grasp. He was running far too fast. When Cameron burst into the hall, he was surprised to find dragons standing still. They stood around an image projected on the wall.

  No, not an image. A news channel. It moved, people running in every direction. Bangor was in chaos.

  ***

  Together, they stared at the television. Maggie’s form fell into a chair. On the screen, her home was being destroyed. White dragons flew over Snowdonia, blowing frost and ice in every direction. Allowed free reign inside of the GOE buildings, the white dragons had wreaked chaos. They freed their captured brothers and left terror in their wake until GOE was nothing more than a mess of bodies and screaming humans.

  The news announcer was giving a play by play, describing the betrayal of the charismatic white dragons. The camera zoomed in on Malcom, standing on the front steps of the official GOE building, his signature smile splitting his face while people around him screamed. For a moment, he was an actor. Then, a massive white dragon burst into being. Its huge form crashed into the statues on either side of the steps. Its long neck lowered its head, horns curling from its skull to point forward, and dark eyes settling on the camera.

  The vision began to shake, the camera man rightfully quaking before he turned to run.

  “So,” Cameron said. “That was their plan all along? They gain the trust of GOE until they are in the heart of it, invisible because of a path of trust they paved. By destroying GOE, there is no one left that can organize an attack that could stop them. The white dragon family is free to not only attack us, but all of Bangor.”

  “He could have the city,” Maggie’s voice shook as she spoke. “If he wanted it.”

  “I think he already has it.” Drystan scowled at the screen. This was his home. He may not have been welcome in the city anymore, but he never meant it harm. He must have known it intimately before the Occurrence.

  Gwen stepped forward, hands shaking so hard that she crammed them into her pockets to hide it. “Let me go into town. My presence will have Malcom so shaken up that he won’t see your attack coming. It will buy you time.”

  “What about you?” Cameron growled. “Am I supposed to leave you in his hands? Am I supposed to stand by and watch as he hurts you?”

  She turned toward him, realizing for the first time that he hadn’t lied to her. She had lied to herself. Cameron truly was her mate. It was possible. A witch could be the mate of a dragon. She only had to wait for the right one to come into her life for that thread of fate to wind around each of them. It was a shame that she hadn’t gotten more time with him, but only knowing that she was loved, truly loved and cherished, made this much easier.

  This would have been so much easier if she could have continued to lie to herself. If she could have remained with her head buried in the sand, she could have walked toward her death with no regrets. Now, one hung heavy in her heart when she looked upon Cameron.

  “I’ll be fine,” she lied. She smiled at him, at the dragons and their mates that looked toward her. It might not have reached her eyes, but Cameron wasn’t going to buy it anyway. She could do more than just save the dragons. She could ensure the safety of a city. She could help fight for justice in the name of GOE.

  “Once this is over,” Maggie said, her voice bearing a center of stone. “I’m going to reopen this embassy that Malcom just wrecked. I’m going to make it work.”

  “That’s a nice idea,” Gwen said, her voice somber and reserved. After this, the city might be terrified of dragons for another handful of centuries. The red dragons might be contained to this mountain or forced to find another home altogether if they survived the war Malcom wanted to start.

  The dragons continued to argue amongst themselves on which move they should make next. The younger dragon that looked much like Drystan gripped the edge of the table and the wood groaned beneath the sound of demanding voices. The dragon mates stared at the television, watching the lives they dreamed for be wrecked. A female dragon stood with her arms crossed over her chest, neither part of the war talk nor the grieving mates.

  Gwen approached the stoic dragon female and gripped her arm hard enough to grab the woman’s attention. Eyes that flashed with gold met hers with ire. Gwen said nothing. Instead, she jerked her eyes toward the hall. Everyone else was too busy to see the two women casually walk out of the great room.

  Behind her, Cameron tried to craft a plan that would not involve his mate. She would not stand by and watch as they threw their lives away. If she could buy them time, if she could do what Malcom did to GOE and destroy them from the inside out, then she would do just that. Even if it cost her the life she’d tried so hard to preserve.

  A century and a half was a long enough life, she decided.

  “What do you want?” the female dragon snapped. There was a streak of violet in her nearly brown hair. Her shoulders slumped once she realized the attitude she held.

  “Take me to the city. I can cover us with a See Me Not spell until we get there. It is on you to get back unnoticed, but if you do this then I can put an end to this.”

  The female dragon’s spine straightened. “I’m quick. There’s no way they will catch me.”

  “Does that mean you will do it?”

  The female dragon glanced back at her family, arguing over this desperate situation. As they spoke, the white dragons were most likely claiming Snowdonia for themselves. The female dragon turned back and nodded.

  “Where do you think he’ll be?”

  “I know exactly where Malcom will be.”

  The two women slipped out, completely unnoticed. Gwen would play the part of the martyr if that meant she could protect the man who brought sunshine back into her life. It took Cameron an hour, as Drystan threw his desperate attempts at new attacks in his face, to realize that his mate was not among those present.

  ***

  Liana’s dragon was a lithe beauty that shot through the air. A purple streak ran up her forehead and between the two small horns on the top of her head. The small talons that wrapped around Gwen made her feel as though she might fall at any moment, but the sheer speed at which they flew replaced fear with astonishment. This time, the See Me Not spell did not falter. She wrapped her green and thriving magic around them, saving the well of darker magic for when they arrived.

  The ruins of Dinas Emrys came into view. The shape of a massive white dragon lorded over it. Liana, as the female dragon introduced herself before becoming the beast that now held her, landed about half a kilometer away from the ruins. The beast’s eyes flicked in the direction that the great, white beast sat.

  “Go,” Gwen told her. “Once I have his attention, he will be so wrapped up in me that he won’t notice you leaving.”

  The lithe, almost lizard-like, beast glanced down at Gwen before nodding. Deftly, she spun around and her wings propelled her into the air. The See Me Not spell was no longer in effect. All Gwen could do was run in the direction of Malcom and his cruel beast to buy the helpful female time.

  It had been a long time since she last ran through a forest. Gwen had become too accustomed to city living. Small vines and fallen trees caught her toes and made her stumble. Her run turned into an obstacle course that she was forced to falter through. The dragon had to hear her clumsy entrance. He had to know that she was coming, even if he couldn’t smell her.

  A familiar cold wrapped around her body. It made her shake, but not from the temperature. Memories came surging back only for her to slap up a clumsy wall against them. This was not the time for fear. Even though her knees shook, she pres
sed forward.

  “Malcom Whittaker!” she screamed into Snowdonia. The crumbling stones of a castle that the white dragons had once fought for came into view.

  A long, white scaled tail came into view, lazily slapping the earth like an irritated cat. When she stopped before him, the tail stilled. Two icy eyes looked down at her. They gleamed like the brightest light she’d ever seen.

  “Hello, Mal. I see you’ve been up to no good again.” Her voice was deceptively even. Even she could believe that there wasn’t a chill core of fear gnawing at her from the inside out.

  The dragon’s giant head lowered to the ground, stopping right before her. It would only take a snap of his jaws to devour her whole. His lips pulled back in a sneer, one that exposed sharp fangs. Gwen steeled herself. She waited for him to level her with the ice in his breath or devour her in one bite.

  She was only a little surprised when his dragon form peeled back and the man she once thought she could love stood before her. He smiled, not the charismatic smile that he’d fed GOE and the city, but one that promised pain before pleasure. His hands snapped out and latched onto her arms.

  Quick as a viper, she reached down for that dark magic that churned inside of her.

  But, Malcom was quicker.

  “Hello, my love. I command you, Gwynefar, to not use your magic.”

  The power that filled her disappeared. She felt empty handed as she stared up at Malcom with wide eyes. Why had she forgotten? No wonder her death was written on the cards. She was an idiot. He knew her true name and through that, he owned her.

  In the distance behind her, the screams of a female dragon pierced the air. Her heart felt like it snapped inside her chest. The pain that filled her was immediate and soul shattering. This was her fault. She’d handed herself over as a weapon, the weapon that the red dragons should have had.

  Her eyes filled with tears as the screams faded.