She sobbed as the pain of her actions hit home. She would never forgive herself for the pain she had caused him. At least she wouldn't remember his pain for long, not if her mom's warning rang true.
She had only been thirteen when her mom frantically shouted in her head. “They've come for me! Baby, you must go to Dragon Valley and find a DeLeigh dragon before your eighteenth birthday. Dragons don't survive their first shift without – her mom shrieked – Oh, God, the pain!”
Leah shoved the memory away. As soon as she did, Derek's pain-filled roar thrummed through her head in aching clarity. She kept hearing his accusations. Now, that she had time to think, she thought of all the responses she could have said. None of them would have changed the final outcome, because death seemed inevitable and she wouldn't take him to the grave with her.
She rubbed her tear streaked face and glanced up. The area was filled with dark shadows as night approached. She must've sat in the same position for hours.
She stumbled to her feet and set-up camp in a trance-like state. She built a fire and rolled out their bedrolls. Her tears rolled faster than ever as she rubbed her face into the material of Derek's bedding. His scent was like manna from Heaven. Her shoulders trembled with a harsh sob.
A twig snapped.
She jerked her head up, hoping and fearing it was Derek returning. It wasn't.
Her face blanched of all color. Across the small glen, hidden within the foliage of the trees, a human-like face stared back at her.
Its lips widened, revealing huge yellow fangs. The Sasquatch shrieked. Its dual harmony cry shot through her head, flooding her body with deadly knowledge. She no longer needed to worry about dying during her first shift, not when eight feet of death lunged toward her.
When the Sasquatch attacked its beady black eyes focused on Leah. It leaped over the flames of the small fire. Long brown hair covered its entire body, giving authenticity to the mundane legend of a big brown monster called Big Foot.
Leah lurched to her feet, snatching her sleeping bag and throwing it in the monster's face.
The creature roared in fury, shredding the bag with shiny black claws.
She plucked up a small bag and scrambled up the trunk of the nearest furble tree. She sunk her fingers into the light blue fuzz covering the trunk. Thankfully the spongy surface gave her feet the added traction she needed. She flew up the trunk, wedging herself between two large limbs.
The Sasquatch surged up the tree coming after her. Its long arms - tipped with three inch long claws - reached farther than hers did, giving it a huge advantage.
She struggled to open the bag without dropping it. It flipped open and she madly scrambled as most of the contents flew out, falling past her desperate fingers. Wedged in the bottom of the bag, she found her large hunting knife and unsheathed it.
A huffing sound had her head jerking up, huge yellow teeth glared at her as she came face to face with the monster.
~ ~ ~
Derek swiftly passed trees and bushes, ignoring the dragon dictate to stay on the approved path. He ran until he reached a shear drop off, skidding to a halt, he skated several feet across the smooth surface. Once stopped, his lowered head hung over the edge. He surveyed the deep gorge without really seeing it. His sides heaved with deep breaths, while his mind refused to shut up.
He snapped at thin air, growling, he paced along the edge of the cliff. His frustration and anger grew with each step. She refused him, blunt and without remorse, she rejected him as a mate. He hurt!
The cage of his chest felt like his heart and ribs should be smashed to a pulp. He shivered with grief, replaying her refusal over and over.
Hours later, his thoughts remained the same, dwelling on one simple fact: She didn’t want him.
He wanted to rip something to shreds one minute. The next minute, he wanted to beg her until she accepted him.
He was furious. Her silly excuses made absolutely no sense. Sídhí were nearly immortal; only a very serious accident would kill her. If she didn't want him – which she obviously did not – then why not say it?
He paused, paw raised in mid-stride, his finger-like toes curled as he remembered their first encounter. He had said he would never want anyone from the Dhark Valley. Surely, she realized that he no longer thought that way. But what if she didn't? Maybe he should apologize for his hateful remark.
He shook his furred head, twitching his long tail in agitation. She wouldn't hold that against him. She didn't hold grudges. She might pay him back, but she wouldn't be angry over a simple comment about the Dhark Valley.
Then why? Why didn't she want him?
He flopped to his stomach, searching for any kind of answer. Her last words flickered through his brain. Tilting his head in a very khatt-like manner, he considered what she said. What did she mean when she said she couldn't take him with her?
He hissed in shock. Abruptly remembering she also said she wanted him. She wanted him! Crap! How could he have missed those words?
If she wanted him, why refuse him? He growled, snapping his razor sharp teeth together. He slowed his racing brain, actually thinking about what she said.
For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why she would condemn herself to thousands of years of loneliness and pain. And without a bonded lifeMate that's exactly what she was in store for. Her refusal didn’t make sense, not when she admitted wanting him.
Stupid idiot!
He groaned, not knowing if he called himself or her stupid. He had bluntly told her, he never wanted anything to do with the Dhark Valley. And it was true. He would never join the cause of darkness. She had all but admitted she’d never leave her mom alone in the Dhark Valley. Surely, she didn't think he would demand she abandon her mom.
He growled in anger, raking deep furrows into the rock with his thick claws. He clamped his jaws together, trying to stop his expanding temper.
He slowed his breathing, slamming his fist-paw against the rock. His thoughts raced, trying to think up all the points he wanted to convince her of.
First and foremost, he’d tell her he would follow her anywhere, including into the Dhark Valley. Then he'd explain to her, he would find a way to free her mom. After that... he groaned, because he wasn’t sure what he'd do. He knew one thing for absolute certain, if he couldn’t have her, he didn’t want to live thousands of years without a bonded mate. He’d have her or no one.
In the distance, a dual howl shrieked, echoing through the trees as a Sasquatch found prey.
The sound slapped him in the face like a bucket of ice water. His head snapped up and with a powerful surge, he lunged away from the cliff and into the trees. Smacking head first into a huge tree he dropped like a fly.
He lay sprawled in an untidy mess at the base of the fuzzy blue tree trunk, shaking his abused head. His short ears twitched and he lurched unsteadily to his feet, swearing he'd never run into a thick screen of trees without looking where he went.
He took off at a run, but not before another shrieking howl split the night air. The sound sent splinters of ice through his blood. He rushed through the trees, pushing his body to the outer limit of sanity. Every moment seemed a lifetime; he cursed the silver bracelet that curbed his strength and speed.
The Sasquatch stopped howling and his heart stopped with it. A Sasquatch howled during the chase, but grew silent after the kill when its mouth was too full of dinner for anything else.
He cursed his stupidity for leaving Leah unprotected. No matter how angry he had been, he should have never left her alone, not in an unknown forest. And not when he knew how dangerous this area was.
His night-vision filled with dots of red and black as his anguished regret wrapped around him. She meant everything to him; he simply couldn’t lose her.
It seemed like an eternity before he finally crashed through the shrubs circling the moss covered waterfall. He skidded to a halt in the middle of the small glade. A quick glance revealed signs of a desperate fight. The small fire cr
ackled merrily in the silence, untouched while the remainder of the campsite didn't fare as well.
Out of the turmoil, one thing latched into his fragmented mind. Leah's sleeping bag lay shredded amid pools of blood. His mind screamed its denial as he stumbled closer to the destruction.
The smell of blood hit him and his knees nearly buckled. He snagged the bag with his claws and flung it away. Hidden, under the bag, lay the big ugly feet of a Sasquatch. He growled and relief surged through him. Thank God, the bloody carnage wasn’t hers.
Two-thirds of the creature lay hidden amid the surrounding bushes, but that didn't answer Derek's biggest question. Honestly, he didn't care that the matted brown fur was soaked in blood. Nor did he care that Leah must've ripped out its throat. He gave a sigh of relief that she killed it, but that didn’t tell him where she was.
He started to put his nose to the ground when he heard a pain-filled moan.
He jerked around and found Leah across the small glen, curled up in a ball and nearly hidden under a thick bush.
Halfway across the open area he jerked to a halt. Shock rippled through him and his mouth opened, releasing a strangled hiss.
Leah remained unmoving, but a mirage hovered over his mate, a Soul Shadow reflecting her other half.
Soul Shadows, as shifters called the translucent image, reflected a shapeshifter's second form. It only appeared during a person's first transition. It was a visual surge of synth crystal attempting to push the human body into its new shape.
The Soul Shadow that hovered over his mate wasn't like anything he had ever seen before and he'd seen more than his fair share.
The image wavered and dimmed. She cried out in pain, her entire body convulsed as the soul shadow thickened and retreated, dimming into a thin mist. In less time than it took to blink, the process started over again.
This time, when the shadow thickened, she screamed. The shadow shuddered and grew sharper; its lines grew vivid, revealing the shape of a dragon.
Derek's eyes grew wide as fear clenched his gut. Leah was part dragon! He'd heard it wasn't possible, but it had clearly happened. The Soul Shadow proved it. Her mom had to be dragon.
His rapidly firing thoughts hit a brick wall. Leah had never met her mom and if dragons were anything like other shapeshifters that spelled her death.
Shifting was a natural bodily function with one small exception. Before a shifters first transformation they had to ingest blood from another of their kind. Without that infusion of blood a shapeshifter died during their first change.
Her screams grew achingly shrill and he grew desperate. She was going to die. Not simply die, but in excruciating agony. The thought of a mercy killing flashed through his head.
He snapped his jaws in fury, knowing what he had to do.
Mouth gapping, he lunged forward and bit her!
Sinking his teeth in her sweetly plumb ass, he pulled her from under the bush. Releasing his mouthful, he ripped the seat of her pants away and chomped his tongue. His mouth filled with blood and he frantically licked her bleeding backside, trying to get his blood into her trembling body.
Dragon!
Fire soared through Leah's veins, burning through every cell in her body. She reared her head up and screamed. The guttural roar echoed through the trees. She snapped her mouth shut and her eyes popped open.
The ground was a long way down. She froze, fearing to even breathe. The pain was gone. Well, most of the pain. Her butt felt like it had been through a meat grinder.
“Leah!” Derek's urgent voice broke through her stunned mind. She swung her head around and found him reaching for her. Blood dripped down his smooth chin.
“I thought I'd lost you.” He curled his hand around her arm, uh, her foreleg, her brown scaled foreleg.
She snorted and smoke billowed from her snout.
His eyes grew wide, but he stayed firmly attached to her arm.
“You bit me,” she said accusingly as she remembered glimpses of what happened when he pulled her from under the bush.
“I didn't know if it'd work.” He went on to explain how all shifters needed another shifters blood in them before the first transformation.
She shook her head, not completely believing him. “You aren't dragon.”
He snorted. “Not hardly, but I think it must have something to do with mixing unique synth crystal with your blood. I had to try.”
She watched him swallow convulsively. He reached up and laid a hand under her scaled chin. “Please believe me when I say I want you as my mate. Leah, I love you.”
At his words a tremble rushed through her big body.
~ ~ ~
Derek looked up into the beautiful violet eyes of his mate. He'd never seen such a dramatic color. Her dark brown scales shimmered in the glow of the fire, hinting at golden highlights. Her body was the size of a Smart Car. He didn't know how wide her wings were, but they felt as soft as butter. The tiny scales covering her face slid under the palm of his hand, warm and silky soft, he gently caressed her.
Several moments passed and she didn't say anything. He feared she might still refuse him, but he set his worries aside as she snorted. Her frustration came through loud and clear.
“I am not having that conversation with you stuck in the shape of a dragon,” she said, clearly miffed.
He chuckled. At her glare, his lips twitched into a smile. “Sorry, I'm quite thankful you made it into dragon shape.”
“Yeah, me too. Now, I want out of it.”
“No flying through the night sky?” he asked, knowing that's what most dragons would do.
She growled and his body vibrated as he leaned against her.
“There are more important things than flying,” she said, shoving her smoking snout down, she slowly bumped him.
He could tell she was trying not to hurt him.
“Focus inward and tell your body to shift into your human form.”
Hours later, they left the bloody campsite behind, finding a new one. She lay curled on the ground, still in dragon form.
He lay down beside her and they both slept like the dead.
The next morning, he woke with his arms wrapped around her very human body. He curled around her back, nuzzling the side of her neck where her scent was the strongest. He'd never tire of her scent, not if he lived to be ten thousand.
She wiggled and her very firm butt rubbed against his crotch, turning his pleasant tingle into a hard ache. He felt her body tremble then he heard her choked gasps.
Her laughter tumbled past her lips. “Shorts getting too tight?”
He grunted his response, rubbing his cheek against hers.
She twisted around and her twinkling eyes met his. She kissed his cheek then nimbly slipped from his arms.
“Hey, where are you going?” he asked, not ready to stop, not in the least.
She chuckled. “You might be able to hold it, but I need to visit the trees.”
With that, she hopped to her feet and he got an eye-full of a smooth, round cheek as her shredded shorts flopped open. With each step, her completely healed and perky butt winked at him.
He groaned and stumbled to his feet, heading in the opposite direction.
Ten minutes later, he waited for her to emerge from her side of the forest. The night before, they had moved downwind from the dead Sasquatch and into a thinner part of the forest. Well, it seemed thinner when she had been dragon size.
He looked toward the screen of trees and wondered if he should go looking for her.
The angry roar of a dragon had him running full tilt toward the old campsite. He'd know her voice in dragon or human form.
At a full run, he shifted into khatt, flying past trees and jumping small bushes. He emerged into the small glen and halted, skidding as all four feet put on the brakes. He blinked and his tail twitched as he tried very hard not to laugh.
Leah, in dragon form, stood near the mound of rocks the water slithered down. She was glorious. Her wings spread wide,
glinting golden and red sparkles in the sun. She stood on her thick hind legs. One forehand was wrapped around Mort's neck, holding him several feet off the ground.
Mort's eyes bulged, reflecting his shock and fear.
One of the twins was thrashing around in the water at the base of the waterfall.
The other twin, who had been sprawled on the ground behind Leah, slowly stood up.
Derek bunched his muscles, ready to spring at him when Leah's tail swiftly slapped the back of his head.
The tall elf went flying into the water, smashing into his twin.
“You will leave Leah alone. You hear me Mortimer?” Leah shook him like a rag doll. “If you don't leave her alone, I'll fry you into a crispy critter!”
Leah threw him and he tumbled head-over-heels toward the pool.
Mort smacked into the twins and they all went down splashing into the water.
Leah folded her wings and turned toward Derek. She flashed him a quick wink and gathered several items they left behind in their hasty withdrawal the night before. She glanced back at him and sauntered into the forest.
After he was positive the three idiots left the area, he followed her.
~ ~ ~
Leah took a bath and washed her hair. It felt wonderful to be clean. Though, her damp hair made the brisk morning air feel a bit cooler than she liked.
She settled on a patch of grass, waiting impatiently for Derek. She knew he must be following Mort, making sure her half-brother didn't follow them.
“Hello, beautiful,” Derek said, walking out of the forest.
“I've heard that greeting before. It was from a cocky buck who thought I – and every girl in a ten mile circle – should kiss his feet,” she said, a grin lighting up her face.
He chuckled and settled beside her, briefly skimming his thumb across the high arch of her cheek. “Well, you definitely knocked his ego down to a reasonable size. And as far as the girls go, I only have eyes for one girl, a brunette beauty with incredible purple eyes.”
She snorted, half choking on her laughter. “My eyes are not purple. They're a dull gray. You've got it bad if you can't tell the difference.”
A Dragon's Dream of Love (Song of the Sídhí Series #2) Page 7
