by Lisa Ladew
“Oh shit,” Mac breathed.
Stop!
Graeme’s voice, booming. Too much will harm you. He pulled his front leg away from Rogue, but she came with it, unwilling to stop.
“Roe,” Mac called sharply, sticking his finger in the side of her mouth to break the suction. “He said too much isn’t good. Stop.”
Graeme looked at him strangely. You hear me?
Mac shot him a look, just as surprised as he was. “Yeah, shit, I guess so. That’s new.”
Twin bellows came from the other room, as something slammed into the wall between the two rooms hard enough to make the wall of emergency food buckets lurch forward, before settling back again.
Who is in there?
“Bruin. He’s fighting a marked foxen.”
We must move fast. Check her neck. It may have healed already, but you must set her arm, or it will nae close. The bone is out.
Mac pulled away his shirt and ran his fingers over Rogue’s neck. Unbroken. She licked blood from her lips and her eyes rolled in her skull.
“Dragon,” Rogue whispered.
“Yeah, he’s a friend. Relax, we’ve got you.”
Mac scrambled to the other side of Rogue and took her hand in his, expecting her to scream, but she didn’t even look. Her big eyes were focused on the dragon.
“Rogue, I’m going to pull. You hang in there.”
“Go for it.” Her voice was strong, but quiet.
It may not hurt her, Mac. Do it. She has much dragon blood in her.
Mac did it. He pulled and Rogue’s bone went back where it was supposed to be. Rogue didn’t even whimper, like she hadn’t felt a thing.
Graeme moved his front leg over the wound, while Rogue watched the two of them, something like awe on her face.
Squeeze out more blood onto her wound. Just a drop.
Mac gripped Graeme’s leg and did as he’d been told. As soon as the blood landed, Rogue’s wound knit before his eyes.
Something bellowed in pain in the other room, and sounds of crashing came to them.
“Bruin, he needs help,” Mac said.
Graeme shot upright and ran the short hallway between the two rooms, then came back.
Bruin is holding his own. Let’s get you both out of here and then I’ll come back and help Bruin finish off that foxen.
He inclined his wing. Take the pendant from me. I don’t need it now and we musn’t lose it.
Mac jumped to his feet to grab the chain and pull it off Graeme’s claw. Rogue pushed herself to a sitting position, still looking dazed, still staring at Graeme like she was a Belieber and he was the Beebs himself.
Is one of those hers? He motioned to the pendant on her lap and the one spilled out on the floor, still partially wrapped in cloth.
“Rogue, Graeme wants to know if that’s yours.”
She shook her head no, never taking her eyes off the dragon.
Tell her the ride will be bumpy, but the pendant will still take her where she wants to go. Tell her to hold it in her hand and imagine the place, then tell the pendant to take her there.
“Does she need to go to the hospital?”
Nay.
Mac repeated Graeme’s instructions, then picked up the pendant and held it out to her, tucking the other two into her pack. Rogue seemed dazed. Not herself. Maybe disbelieving.
“Rogue, did you hear me? You’ve got to get out of here. Where do you want to go?”
Rogue licked her lips and looked down at it, nervousness flooding into her expression. “This shit is whacked, all of it,” she whispered, then looked up at Mac, her face shining, her cheeks rosy with health that made him want to cry for the first time in decades. “I want to go to the happiest place on Earth, my version of Disneyland. Take me to Mac’s bed.”
And she was gone, winked out of existence like the foxen.
Chapter 47
Mac flopped over on his back in his bed and groaned, long and loud. “That was it, woman. I can’t do it again. You took too much dragon blood and now you literally are going to kill me with sex. I gotta stretch. Fuck that, get me to a chiropractor.”
Rogue pushed herself up on her elbows and eyeballed him. “Hell, yeah, that was good stuff. He should bottle it. Next time I see him, I’m gonna bite him. Get some more.” She bared her teeth and mimed biting, tearing, and chewing.
Mac put a hand over his eyes. She was going to kill him. Sex, knives, biting Graeme. Something. “You do that, and I’ll have to kill him. ‘Cept he’ll probably kill me instead. Bad scene all around.”
Rogue pushed his hand off his face so she could see his eyes. “What? He was tiny. You could take him.”
Mac groaned again. “He can grow.”
“How big?”
“As big as he wants. Fifty fucking feet high, maybe. And he breathes fire. Just crisps shit right up. Barbecued wolf, coming up.”
Rogue was quiet for a few moments. “Oh. I won’t bite him.”
“She sees reason.”
Mac tried to pull a blanket over himself, but Rogue whipped it off, then poked his flaccid penis with her finger. “Wake up,” she whispered.
“No! No more. It’s been two days and I’ve gotten exactly three hours of sleep and we’ve had sex thirty-four times. I can’t do it again, woman.”
She bounced to her feet. “Ok, let’s go outside, then. Run laps or something. Let’s go to the park, climb some trees.”
Mac pushed himself to his feet, praying the dragon blood got out of her system soon. Maybe he could take her to a climbing wall or something. Bruin could hang with her while he napped in the spectator bleachers.
It didn’t matter, though, she could keep him up for the next week straight, demand anything she wanted from him, use his body like a whipping post, call him princess, he didn’t care. He had his mate with him, and she wanted to be there. She’d asked to go to his home, and hadn’t mentioned leaving since. She wasn’t a big talker about serious stuff, his Roe, but she’d had a change of heart. It was in her expression, the sweetness of her touch, and the way she snuggled into him at every opportunity. She’d accepted him. She’d accepted who she was. She’d accepted how good they were together.
Rogue had already pulled on her clothes and headed out into the living room. He could hear her talking to Bruin.
“Hey, Bru, how’s the head?”
“Good,” the male said and Mac could imagine him thunking himself on his noggin with his fist. He and Rex both had such thick fur that neither of them had been able to use their teeth to do any damage, so they’d taken to ramming each other like mountain goats, trying to shatter each other’s skulls or smash internal organs. They’d had to take Bruin to Remington when he’d been dizzy for the twelve hours after the fight and a few shifts hadn’t helped. Concussion had been the diagnosis. Rest and no stimulating activities had been the treatment. He was all better after a Cake Apprentice marathon.
Mac pulled on his clothes and headed out to his living room, where Rogue was eating the rest of the cold pizza. She flopped down in a chair and faced Bruin. “I never got a chance to thank you.”
Bruin shook his head. “Don’t mention it. I just wish he hadn’t gotten away from me.”
Mac dropped onto the couch next to his friend. “With him being able to pop in and out of the Pravus like Khain, there wasn’t shit you could do about it. You let me and Rogue get free, and that’s more than I had hoped for. I was pretty terrified going down those steps.”
Rogue and Bruin both stared at him, like he’d said he had grown a uterus and was going to start popping out pups. He scoffed. “What? I get scared. I can admit it. Everyone gets scared.”
Rogue looked down at her pizza, her eyebrows sky-high. “Not me.”
Bruin examined the wall, not meeting Mac’s eyes. “Me neither. Blast, Mac, I don’t know if we can still be friends.”
Rogue smirked and Mac caught her, but she hid it quickly. “Right, Bru, we gotta start accepting applications or something. ‘Badass
wolf wanted for sidekick. Serious enquiries only.’”
Bruin pushed himself up from the couch and headed into the back room. “I’ll get the laptop. Put it on Craigslist.”
They were going to gang up on him? Not cool. Funny, but not cool. “You’re the sidekick, big boy, not me.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Bruin disappeared around the corner, then called out. “Oh, Wade’s coming over.”
“When?”
The doorbell rang.
“Now.”
Rogue grabbed another slice of pizza off the table and disappeared into the kitchen. Mac watched her go, then opened the door.
Wade almost looked happy, a small smile on his face. Mac had never seen one pointed at him from the old male before. Then Wade surprised the hell out of him by sticking his hand out. “Mac, good to see you. You look good. You did good.”
Mac let his hand be shaken, then backed into the room. “Ah, ok.”
“Where’s your mate? I need to talk to her.”
“Ok then, I’ll be right back.”
Mac hit the kitchen, found Rogue leaning against the counter, eating her pizza, watching him warily. He pressed against her, his hands finding her hips, pulling her close. “Wade wants to talk to you,” he whispered. “You cool with that?”
“Yeah.” She threw her crust in the sink and wiped her hands on her pants. “Let’s get it over with.”
She wriggled out of his grasp and headed out to his living room, pulling a chair from the dining room table as she went. He followed. She placed the chair backwards in front of Wade, straddled it, and sat down, lifting her chin at him, her eyes narrowed. He was beginning to be able to decipher her moods, just a bit, and this one meant, one wrong move and I’m out of here.
Wade leaned forward, his hands on his knees. “First, thanks are in order. There was indeed a bomb inside the station, placed in the basement, directly under the duty room. The thing was huge, and it would have leveled the station and sent debris flying out into the entire block. At ten in the morning, the station would have been full of patrol officers, dispatchers, and our civilian staff, not to mention the people who live and work in the area. Because of you, we were able to evacuate everyone, and get the ATF in there quick enough to disarm the bomb and save the station and hundreds of lives. You’re a hero.”
Rogue’s face slackened just a bit, her wary expression turning disbelieving. She glanced at Mac. He smiled at her, his heart overflowing. No wonder the chief was happy with him. He’d done good. His mate had done amazing. If she hadn’t been who she was, if she hadn’t broken a few laws, made a few mistakes, they’d all be in a world of hurt right now.
Wade nodded sharply. “We can talk about that more later. We’ll want to recognize you, of course, but right now I only have a few minutes here. We need to talk about the pendants.”
Rogue shot to her feet and held out a finger, then disappeared down the hall. Mac wasn’t sure if he should follow her or not, because he was certain she had all three of the pendants in that flat pack around her waist, so she was heading to his room for something else. To compose herself? He knew she didn’t like people to see her vulnerable, not even him most of the time. He stayed where he was.
Bruin came out and dropped onto the couch. “Chief.”
Wade smiled at him and gave him a punch on the shoulder. “I heard you tangled with your first marked foxen. Gave yourself a concussion.”
Bruin nodded, a grin on his face. “Yeah, that big son of a gun was no joke. I learned a few things, though. Next time, I’ll chew him up.”
Wade shot Mac a look and Mac could read it, even though no voice sounded in his head. He wondered if Wade had heard he could hear ruhi now. The look said, ‘things are gonna get bad before they get worse, if Khain marks more foxen the way he marked Rex.’
Mac nodded. Didn’t he know it. “What’s to keep Rex from planting another bomb?”
“Ah. You know that smell? The smoke from the pravus Rex brings with him when he comes or goes? Canyon and Timber came up with something that they say can detect it. The station is completely wired. They are wiring Trevor’s farm right now. We’ll know if Rex shows up, even if no one sees him.” Wade dropped his voice. “We’re going to have to talk about where you and Rogue are going to live.”
Shit. Rogue was going to hate this part, he knew it. He was going to have to convince her to move out to Fort Fuckall with the rest of the gang. “Yeah, I know. Just give me another couple of days.”
Wade nodded. “Don’t let her leave the house without you and Bruin. I know she’s strong, and I know she can take care of herself, but you’ve got to make her realize how dangerous our enemies are.”
“She knows, she learned that lesson.” He hoped.
Rogue came back out, her face flushed prettily, three pendants dangling from her hands. Mac watched the wolves, the dragon, and the angels twirl below their chains. She gave them all to Wade.
He separated one. “This one’s Heather’s. Have you heard the story yet, how Graeme knew he was needed?”
Mac shook his head. Graeme had told him to shift, wrapped him in his wings, then did that funky sidestep through fucked-up firetown twice, and then he’d been in his own room, staring at his mate on his bed. Graeme had disappeared again while Mac and Rogue huddled together, waiting for word on Bruin.
Wade spoke. “Your voice, Mac. It came out of the pendants. All of them. Ella’s, Heather’s, Dahlia’s. Gray or Khain has Cerise’s so we don’t know about hers, but we have to assume it came out of that one also. It woke up everyone in those households. Graeme transformed and went to you, allowing Heather’s pendant to lead him.”
“I owe Sparky a beer,” Mac said under his breath. He wished he had something more to offer the male than smart words and loyalty. A talent. Something sentimental he could make with his own two hands and offer to the male’s young. But no, all he had to offer was his life, which he now owed to anything the male loved. Of course, he’d always felt that way. He would give his life to protect any of them, even if he’d never shown it.
Wade curled his fingers around Heather’s pendant, then offered the other two back to Rogue. “I know these aren’t yours, but I think you should have one of them. Pick one and I’ll give the other to Cerise. Until we can find who they belong to, they should be spread out amongst you. We have only begun to discover their powers.”
Rogue picked one seemingly at random, no thought needed. He could tell she was happy to have it, tucking it back into her pack. To Mac’s eyes, the two had looked the same, but maybe there was some difference she could see. He frowned, wondering why she didn’t have a pendant of her own. He’d have to ask-Wade stood. “I have to go. Big meeting. You three are wanted out at Trevor’s place in two hours, and, if you don’t go, they are all going to pack into the van and come over here. Rogue’s sisters are dying to meet her.”
Rogue’s expression hardened, but in a different way. Mac studied her and decided she was nervous. He stood next to his mate and put an arm around her, waiting for Wade to leave so he could reassure her. “We’ll be there.”
Rogue stopped Wade just before he could step out the door. “If you knew where Boe was, what would you do to him?”
Wade turned back to her. “We’d question him.”
“Would you hurt him?”
“No.”
“Arrest him?”
Wade threw a look at Mac and Mac shrugged. The guy was important and who knew if he needed to be arrested or not.
Wade focused on Rogue again. “What if I say we’ll try very hard not to, but he’ll have to cooperate.”
Rogue shook her head. “He’s an old man. He’s frail, and innocent, and gentle. He’d never hurt a fly.”
Wade nodded. “I’ll take that into consideration if you choose to tell me where he is.”
Rogue stared over his head, out into the street, then focused and recited an address for Wade.
Wade gave her a reassuring nod. “Out of respect
for you and your wishes, I promise you we will do our best to treat him well. If we can keep him where he’s at, we will.”
Rogue frowned for a moment, then nodded back. “Thank you,” she said, then came quietly back in the house.
Mac watched Wade leave. The male was a diplomat for sure, and Mac liked how he had left things, especially what he had said.
Out of respect for you and your wishes…
Chapter 48
Rogue snuggled in closer to Mac in the back seat of Bruin’s tiny car, feeling the need to poke at Mac, prod him, nip at his shoulder. He tightened his arm around her, trying to give her the stability she felt like she needed so bad. He never once admonished her or said, “Quit it,” and she admired that about him. He knew her. She was nervous, and that meant her mouth was going to be worse than ever.
“I’m nervous,” she whispered into his ear. “Sometimes I get mean when I’m nervous.”
He looked at her, his lips curling. “No. Way.”
She twisted his nipple. “Shut up or I’ll make you fuck me again,” she whispered.
He leaned back against the seat, looking content and happy. “You can’t get steel out of a marshmallow, Roe.”
She nipped his neck, then his earlobes. “You’ve got fingers, and a mouth.”
He laughed at that, then kissed her full on the mouth. Her hand went to his dick through his jeans and she felt a little bit of a kick there. Hell, yeah, she was getting some when all this was over.
“I’m glad you came for me,” she said, the words spilling out on their own.
He curled her body into his harder, tucking her against him as much as her seatbelt would allow. “I’ll always come for you.”
“I know that. You…” Shit. Why was this so freaking hard? “You-I… Ah, fuck it. I think you were right that we were made for each other.”
His eyes met hers once, briefly, then looked away again, out onto the street. He obviously knew serious shit was easier on her when he wasn’t looking at her. He smiled at the window. “I know I’m right.” He found her hand and put it to his chest. “I feel it here every time I look at you, every time we touch. You’re it for me, Rogue. I love you.”
