A Dragon's Dream of Love (Song of the Sídhí Series #2) (7 page)

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 crackled 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.

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.”

His lips twitched and he leaned
forward, dropping a soft kiss on her cheek. “Yes, I do have it bad for you, but
your eyes really do change with your mood.” He mentally sent her an image of
how she looked at that very moment.

Her eyes grew wide and she shook her
head. “Go figure, maybe it's a dragon thing.” She plucked at a blade of grass
and looked hesitant.

When she spoke her words emerged in a
soft whisper. “I didn't want to refuse you.” She looked up and tears filled her
eyes, her heart ached for the pain she'd put him through. “I wanted you so bad,
but I thought I was going to die. I couldn't bear the thought of you dying with
me.”

His large hand cupped her face, gently
wiping away an errant tear. “I know or at least, I figured it out last night
when I thought you were dying.”

She gave him a watery smile, hoping and
praying he still wanted her. She leaned into his touch, desperate for the
physical connection. “Will you forgive me and accept me as your bonded mate?”

“Aahh,” his sigh didn't tell her much.
It could be anything from relief to regret. His shuttered eyes didn't help.

He slowly leaned forward. “There's
nothing to forgive, Mia Cara.”

With those words, she felt him mentally
open his end of the lifeBond.

Instantly, she felt the unopened end of
her lifeBond yearning toward him, desperate to connect with him. “I'm part
dragon.”

He grinned. “Yeah, you are. Now bond
with me, Mia Cara.”

She smiled at the order and opened her
end of the lifeBond. She felt the physical organ, the lifeBud, bloom into life
within the recess of her brain. It sent out a mental tendril that was met
halfway by Derek's. The ends of the lifeBond entwined together, forming a
permanent mental link between the two of them.

Derek's emotions flooded into her and
she shook as they whipped around her. Seconds later, she lifted her head,
surprised when she found herself gently cradled in his strong arms. His love
and concern wrapped around her like a thousand slender tethers, anchoring him
into her.

She rubbed her cheek against the tight
fabric of his shirt, sighing with pleasure as his purr vibrated through her.
Nothing she ever dreamed could come close to her intense happiness.

“You do know I love you,” she said,
looking up into his beloved face.

He chuckled. “Rather hard to miss since
it's flooding through every inch of me.” He sighed and his pleasure burst
inside her. “My Leah, your love is the most incredible thing I've ever felt in
my entire life.”

She grinned, carefully caressing the
bulge pressing against the bottom of her leg. As it grew thicker, he groaned
and she mischievously said, “Are you sure about that?”