Ancient Enforcer

by Reus, Katie

  Hunter covered his face with his wings, as if he’d actually understood, and for a moment Mikael felt a little guilty—until Hunter drew his wings back and actually stuck his tongue out at him.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Avery said as she loosened her legs around his waist.

  Though he didn’t want to let her go, he did and quickly took stock of the surrounding area. It looked as if he had singed a few roots but there was no overt damage to any of the leaves or any other full foliage. Still, they needed to get out of there in case the trees decided to attack.

  “We’re going to talk about why the hell you’re even here.” The words came out harsher than he’d intended. He just… She should not be here. She should be at home, safe, protected.

  “I’m here because I wasn’t leaving you to rot.” She set her hands on her hips. Wearing jeans, a T-shirt and a button-up flannel shirt over it, she’d at least come prepared with a small backpack, he could see.

  “I’m going to kick my brothers’ asses when I see them for letting you do this.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Good thing I didn’t ask anyone for permission.”

  Ice coated his veins. “No one knows you’re here?”

  “By now I’m sure they do. I didn’t know what would happen when I got to the cemetery. And when I unsheathed the key, things went sort of haywire.” She glanced around curiously. “It’s hard to tell because of the thick canopy, but is it getting darker or am I imagining that the suns are setting?”

  This conversation definitely wasn’t over but he nodded. “Yes. We need to find shelter before it gets fully dark. I know a place we can go. I’m going to shift and then fly up through that opening,” he said indicating another breach in the canopy. “You’re going to ride me and… Hunter.” He looked at the dragonling. “I want you to do the same.” He wasn’t sure of the dragon’s flying skills and right now they needed to scale up the side of a sharp mountain.

  “I’ll make sure he gets on with me,” Avery said. “I’m so happy you’re okay,” she whispered, her eyes slightly dilating.

  The relief that rolled off her was sharp. There was a lot he was going to say to her once they were somewhere relatively safe, but until then… He brushed his lips over hers for far too brief of a moment before stepping back and putting enough distance between them so he could shift.

  She’d actually come after him. It made no sense that she would put herself in such danger for his sake, but he would have obviously done the same for her. So…he should not be surprised that she had done the same for him.

  Her feelings for him were stronger than she’d admitted aloud. He’d waited millennia for her, even if he hadn’t known she existed. And she was definitely worth the wait.

  Chapter 34

  Avery leaned against a snoozing Hunter, soaking up his warmth and the heat from the fire that Mikael had made. He’d brought them to a cave high up on one of the mountains and they were just inside the mouth of it.

  It curved inward, almost like a giant ice cream scoop had carved it out, going back maybe fifty feet into the mountainside. The ceiling was all jagged angles but at least there’d been no animals living here. According to Mikael only a few were native to this place, with the plants being the real predators. That knowledge was… Well, it was something she was still trying to wrap her mind around.

  She was very aware that there was no barrier on the protruding cliff edge and that if something happened to either Mikael or Hunter, there was no way she was getting down from here. So…that was terrifying. And she was trying very hard to pretend it wasn’t true.

  It was kind of amazing he even knew this cave existed. Even if it was so high up that the wind whistling outside reminded her of a hurricane, she still felt safer here than she would have on the ground. Especially after seeing that creepy thing that had been stalking her and Hunter. She had no idea if the pendant hanging around her neck would have stood up to an attack by a supernatural beast like that.

  And she was glad she hadn’t had to find out.

  She sat up when she heard the distinctive flap of wings. A moment later, Mikael’s huge form landed on the cliff edge and he shifted, magnificent and beautiful as usual. His wings glittered under the pale moonlight right before colors exploded, a wild burst of magic lighting up the darkness behind him, and then a moment later he strode through the cave opening.

  The look he gave her was scorching, burning her straight to her core. Hunter barely stirred, peeking one eye open then closing it again when he realized it was just Mikael.

  The sweet dragonling had definitely overindulged on the meat that Mikael had brought him earlier. Right now he was basically acting like a bear in hibernation.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  He’d wanted to do one last reconnaissance flight before they settled in for the night. The two purple moons illuminated the land below, showing thick, lush forests sprouting in all directions, crisscrossed with a spiderweb of rivers and streams.

  “Everything is quiet below. And I will be able to hear or see anything if it attempts to breach this cliff.”

  She nodded, some of her tension easing. “This place is pretty,” she said. “I mean, down on the ground.” Minus the panther-scorpion thing that had wanted to eat her. “This cave is kind of bare.”

  “This realm is beautiful but it’s deadly. At night most of the plants…come alive, I guess you could say. Everything here is more sentient than you and I are used to.”

  “That’s why we’re all the way up here?”

  “It is why almost no supernatural beings inhabit this place. Trying to settle here is not worth the hassle. So,” he said abruptly. “I’m happy to see you. More than happy. But I’m angry that you went off without telling anyone. What were you thinking?”

  She moved around the fire so that only a couple feet separated them, but still stayed close to the warmth. And still kept a teeny bit of distance between them. “I was thinking that my friend was in danger and he had left me with the actual key to get him.” Which she’d since given back to him. He had it around his neck—apparently it was magic too and could reform when he shifted from human to dragon and vice versa. “I wasn’t going to let you die here. How could I know you knew the way out? No one knew where you’d been taken and they couldn’t get the door to open again. I thought…you’d be gone forever.”

  “You should have told my brothers. Or King. Or Aurora, or anyone in that house.”

  “You gave the key to me, not them,” she stressed. “Besides, I talked to Thurman and he basically told me it was fine for me to come after you.”

  Mikael narrowed his gaze, storm clouds looking back at her. “He said those words?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “More or less. I don’t even know why you’re upset. I’m here and I’m okay. We’re together.” She was still terrified about her missing brothers, but being here with Mikael eased a lot of her fear. The world seemed to make sense when she was with him.

  He crossed the distance and dragged her into his lap—and he was still naked. He hadn’t had any clothes on when he’d been pulled through the portal, so of course he was still naked. She hadn’t even thought of bringing him anything to wear.

  “If anything happened to you…” He swallowed hard, his eyes those same storm clouds.

  “Yeah, well, I feel the exact same way about you,” she snapped. “You’re like family to me.” Hell, more than that. He was things she was afraid to admit out loud. Because then it would become real and she was opening herself up to heartbreak.

  “Is that all I am? You look at me like a brother?” His tone was dry.

  She squirmed against him, against the intensity of his expression. “You know it’s more than that between us.”

  “Do I? You told me that I’m not your boyfriend. Which is a bizarre word.”

  “Why are we talking about this right now?” Avery had jumped through a portal into a Hell realm to find Mikael because she would do anything to s
ave him. But having this uncomfortable conversation? She’d rather try to scale down the side of the cliff. She loved him, but she didn’t understand how anything would work. She was human and he was a dragon shifter.

  “You have something else you need to be doing?” His gaze fell to her mouth, pure hunger there. Not even simmering at this point, but on full display.

  Hunter chose that moment to stir, sitting up and scooting closer to them. He tripped over his own feet and let out a yelp of surprise as he tumbled over the log she’d been using to sit on earlier.

  Though she felt like a coward, Avery took the easy way out and slid off Mikael’s lap, sidling up next to Hunter on the log. She scratched behind his ear. “You are a brave little dragon,” she murmured, kissing his face.

  As he rubbed his head against hers, Mikael grumbled behind her.

  She looked over her shoulder. “What?”

  “Apparently I’m jealous of a dragonling,” he muttered, but his mouth kicked up all the same.

  Shaking her head, she grabbed her backpack and pulled out a sweater. “I’ve got some nutrition bars if you’re still hungry?”

  He and Hunter had devoured some sort of charred animal he’d killed—she didn’t want to know what it was. Her apple and nutrition bar had been enough for her.

  When he shook his head, she continued. “I’m kind of tired. We can share my backpack as a pillow if you want.” She’d brought some food, water and some extra clothing, but that was about it. She really hadn’t thought things through as much as she should have, and now she was kicking herself for not being more prepared.

  “How about you just use me as a pillow?” His voice had dropped a couple octaves, his gaze landing on her mouth.

  Oh, wow. She swallowed hard. “Okay. Are you ready to get some sleep?” Then maybe they wouldn’t have to return to that conversation.

  In response he stretched out on the hard stone next to the fire. She wasn’t sure how it was possible that he actually looked comfortable, like a warrior god stretched out, naked and glorious, not a care in the world about his nudity or the hard ground beneath him.

  Feeling flustered—and internally cursing her flushed cheeks—she stretched out next to him and laid her head on his chest. He immediately wrapped his arm around her, holding her close. Yep, there was no way to keep her hands off him. Not that draping her arm over his rock-hard middle was a chore or anything.

  “My mom would have adapted well to this new world,” Avery said, the sound of Hunter’s breathing and the fire crackling filling the air. The winds outside had died down, making everything quieter, less creepy. “I mean, not this Hell realm, but back home.”

  Mikael shifted slightly under her but his grip didn’t lessen. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. She was always up for adventure. I think it’s why my father—” she said, managing not to want to throw up for once. “I think that’s why he fell for her. She was so much fun, this bright ball of energy. They took a lot of trips over the years, all of them her idea. She would coax him to visit random destinations, to try new things. She liked meeting new people, learning about new cultures. She had an adventurer’s soul. They were so different, and my father was never as involved in our lives as she was…but she still loved him. It was easy to overlook his flaws because of course no one is perfect. And if I’m being honest, the fact that my mom loved him made it a lot easier to overlook those flaws. I mean, if someone as great as her loved him, then he must be a decent person. But I guess once she stopped being fun and going on adventures, he just… God, he just proved what a needy, pathetic man he was.”

  “Your mother sounds like a wonderful woman who loved him despite his shortcomings and in the end he proved to be unworthy. I’m sorry, Avery.” His deep voice wrapped around her, soothing her jagged edges.

  A few tears spilled over but she brushed them away. “I know that. I just…I wish she’d had someone better than him at the end.”

  “She did. She had you and your brothers.”

  She swallowed hard, fighting back the burn of wetness against her eyes. She wondered where her brothers were right now. If they were okay. Whether they were cold and hungry and in pain. “Tell me about your parents,” she said, wanting to talk about anything other than what she had brought up.

  “My parents were both warriors, as I’ve told you.” Though she wasn’t looking at his face, she could hear the smile in his voice. “My mom was a very typical female dragon warrior. Tough, didn’t take shit from anyone, loved her children more than life itself. She taught us to take care of ourselves from a young age. With supernaturals, clan or pack are always important. And our particular tight-knit clan had been tasked with looking after this key.” He briefly touched it, where it hung around his neck.

  “That seems like a big responsibility.”

  “It is.”

  “How did your parents first meet?”

  He let out a soft snort and started stroking up and down her back gently. “My mother had been promised as a mate to my father’s oldest brother. His brother was well known for his warrior prowess and my mother was as well. Both clans decided that they would make excellent allies and that the two should mate.”

  “I didn’t think dragons were into arranged matings.”

  He lifted a shoulder. “Some clans are. And back then it was common enough only because dragon births had started to stagnate. Though if one of the dragons didn’t want the mating, for whatever reason, then there would be no mating. It wasn’t a forced thing. No one can force a dragon female to do a thing she doesn’t want,” he murmured, amusement in his tone.

  “So, did your father steal her away, then?”

  He laughed again. “More or less. From the way they told it, he was smitten the moment he arrived to escort her back to his clan’s homeland. He fell hard and fast.”

  “Why didn’t your father’s older brother come himself?” That seemed like the kind of thing you’d do if you wanted to impress your future mate.

  “He was busy fighting with a neighboring clan. Which my mother saw as a sign that he would not be a good mate if he couldn’t even put her first enough to court her— She was a wise female. So when my father made his interest clear, and according to her, he was not subtle,” he said on a laugh, “she decided that she would have fun with him before returning home. He managed to prove to her that he was a worthy mate and that her home should be with him.”

  “How?”

  “In ways none of my brothers or I ever want to know about.” His tone was dry, pulling a startled laugh from her.

  “I see.”

  “Yes. They were very affectionate mates.”

  “How did their clans handle everything? Did it cause friction?” She wanted to understand more about dragons in general. They were such a secretive bunch.

  His chest rumbled slightly as he laughed. “The two of them got so consumed in each other, so carried away with the mating heat, they lost all track of time. And I mean literally. They holed up on a small island off the coast of my homeland and were found months later. By that time both families had gone into a frenzy, thinking they’d been killed or attacked by neighboring clans or packs. Nope. My mother was pregnant with Zephyr already—and for a dragon to be pregnant so quickly is a big deal. Sometimes children won’t come for hundreds of years or even longer, if at all. There was a big celebration that night, and the rest, as the human saying goes, is history.”

  She sighed against his chest, her hand resting on his abs. “That’s so romantic.”

  “Dragon shifters mate for life,” he said a few moments later.

  “I’ve heard that.” She’d seen plenty of mated shifters and they always seemed so happy. So…devoted to each other. But she’d seen humans like that too. Humans who’d ended up divorced, hating each other.

  “Do you know what it means? Really means?”

  “That…they’re stuck with each other no matter what,” she said dryly.

  To her utter surprise, he swatted her b
utt.

  She jerked up to look at him. “What was that for?”

  Smoky gray eyes watched her hungrily.

  Oh no. She couldn’t resist that look, couldn’t resist him. She ducked her head back against his chest. “Don’t think about a repeat of the other day. Apparently I lost my senses for a while.”

  “Lost them?”

  She pinched his side. “Whatever. I went crazy or something. And I don’t want to talk about it. Or anything else.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” Oh God, she was such a coward!

  “Because?”

  “Ugh. Leave me alone,” she muttered. She burrowed against him, soaking up his warmth. He didn’t seem to care that he was naked—and she was very much ignoring the huge cock between his legs.

  “When shifters mate, it’s for life,” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken at all. “Our devotion to our mates is different than humans. Or…other beings I’m likely not thinking of right now. Mating is for life. We don’t leave because we get tired of someone—I will never get tired of my mate.”

  Oh. Oh, oh, ohhhh. She felt his words deep in her core, couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t think as heat speared through her. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? This was what she’d secretly craved from him.

  Mikael shifted his body and tipped her chin up to look at him. “I’m not your father. I am not some pathetic excuse for a male. My dragon recognized you even before I did. You are mine, Avery. Mine.”

  She blinked, trying to digest what he was saying as her mind refused to fully wrap around the words, the intent. He was clearly trying to kill her. “You mean… What do you mean?” she whispered. She needed it spelled out, apparently.

  He cupped her cheek casually, his big thumb stroking over her skin. “I’m torn as to whether I should be completely honest with you, because I don’t want to scare you off.”

  “Be honest,” she whispered. She needed it. She really did.

  “My dragon recognized you as my mate before I did.”