Wolf Lover: Konochur (New Scotia Pack Book 2) (9 page)

The dragons roared furious protests, but each in turn met humility when he was blasted and plummeted from the sky. Pop. Whistle. Thud. Pop. Whistle. Thud.

From her secret perch, Grenhelde continued to watch the werewolves confirm the dragon shifter deaths with keen eyes that could focus from a great distance. When some of the werewolves began to climb the mountain, with apparent intent to make sure there were no survivors, she turned and flew to the far side of a great rock that rose from the sandy expanse on the back side of the mountain range. And there she began to nurse her wounds and contemplate what it meant to be the last. The last dragon.

CHAPTER 8

After a three-night-long joint celebration of the werewolves’ victory, the Black Swan knights said their goodbyes and left. The Council members agreed that they would divide the weapons among them, seal them against damage from the elements, and bury them in places only known to the alphas and their seconds.

Lunark quickly returned to normal. Children ran and played outside in the sun, while adults soaked in the joyful sounds. Likewise, sheep and bison could graze during the daytime and hunters could hunt wherever, whenever there was need.

The New Elk Mountain tribe turned their attention to building to accommodate the expansion that reunited the tribe and made them whole again.

Konochur continued to court Lestriv according to the model of patience his uncle insisted would bear fruit. Eventually.

Enjoying the sight of Lily running free in the fields, he had turned to Lessie with the sexy grin she had come to look forward to. She allowed the corners of her mouth to twitch because she knew that what would come out of his mouth next would be something completely inappropriate and blush-worthy, but just as sexy as his grin.

While the two adults were busy flirting, Lily was chasing a fuchsia colored butterfly from one wild flower to another. Conn searched Lessie’s face for confirmation that her feelings matched his, when he saw her eyes shift to something behind him. In less than a second her face froze into a mask of fright and she shrieked Lily’s name.

All werewolves were quick, but Konochur was quicker than most. Just before he changed into his werewolf form, he screamed for Lily to lie down flat. She turned toward him and looked stunned, but thankfully, for once, did as he said without question. He knew that the dragon would have a harder time grabbing her if she was prone flat on the ground.

As Conn sprinted toward Lily he was trying to estimate his chances of reaching her before the dragon did and didn’t like the result of his calculations. As he pushed with all his might, he begged his body to give him more, to stretch his limbs further, stretch his nostrils wider, make his muscles crave speed and eat up the distance that separated him from Lestriv’s child.

During the two weeks since the attack, Grenhelde had not shifted back to two-legged form. That had enabled her body to heal faster, but her brain as a dragon wasn’t nearly as adept at complex thinking. The dragon brain fixated on the fact that werewolves had destroyed her home and killed everyone in her nest. Except her. Though she had been ready to leave them before the attack, she was sore with the indignation and insult of massacre.

As she descended into something akin to depression, her only hope was that she could visit some of her misery on the creatures who had caused her suffering. Every day she climbed to the ruins of the fortress and looked over. Even in the darkness of her madness, she knew that, if she bided her time, there would be an opportunity to give the wolves a taste of cold vengeance.

Her elbow had gotten strong enough so that she could shift and fly without too much pain. The pains that remained weren’t of the body, but the mind.

Conn’s clothes shredded around him as he ran with ears laid back against his head signaling that he would burst his own heart to protect the little girl he loved like his own child.

The dragon saw him rushing toward her prey, but didn’t worry. She could easily swat him away with her mighty tail. She could tell by the intensity of his speed, that the prey meant something to him. And she was glad. That moment of elation caused her to flap her wings again, gauging the downdraft so that she could coast on the breeze, talons at the ready, to snatch the tiny thing and carry her away screaming while the wolf pack wailed and regretted the day they had thought to challenge dragons.

Lessie had begun screaming for help as soon as Conn started running for Lily. Several of the New Elk Mountain wolves were close enough to respond, including Stalkson Grey. All those who were close enough to see watched in horror as the dragon dipped to grab Lily. But just as Conn had guessed, it was harder for the dragon to grab her from the ground.

Grenhelde hesitated for just the extra second that Konochur needed to reach Lily. When the dragon came close to the ground, he sprang into the air with a mighty leap born of desperation and locked his powerful jaws onto her throat. With werewolf ears, Conn heard Lily’s little girl sobs and it tore at his heart. He knew that her mother would reach her and comfort her and that gave him the peace he needed to keep his attention single-mindedly focused on the purpose at hand.

To not let go.

To never let go.

Three of the wolves had shifted while running and were now trying to follow the path of the dragon’s flight from the ground. Normally, that would have been hopeless, but Grenhelde was quickly weakening from the loss of blood pouring from her neck and running down her body. She left a trail of falling red liquid in the air.

Conn tried not to swallow the dragon blood, but it was impossible. It trickled down his throat and ate at his insides all the way to his stomach, burning like acid. The smell stung his eyes so badly that he was nearly blinded. He never questioned that he was going to die. He knew it. But he was determined that the dragon would die with him.

All he had to do was hang on.

At one point he thought to himself what an odd sensation it was to be hanging from his teeth high above the earth, all four paws dangling in the air.

The dragon flew closer and closer to the earth as she gradually lost both blood and the will to live. Eventually she was forced to land, dragging in ragged breaths through the wound caused by the werewolf’s teeth.

Still, Konochur held onto her throat.

She fell to her side and collapsed into human form.

Still, Konochur held onto her throat.

By the time the werewolves who had been following reached them, Grenhelde was dead, but still, Konochur held onto her throat.

Stalkson Grey took human form and tried to pry Conn’s jaws away from the corpse, but Conn growled a warning that couldn’t be ignored and refused to let go. Grey sent the other two wolves back to the settlement with a message to have Luna prepare a sedative for Conn. One was to bring the potion as fast as possible. The other was to prepare a bison cart with a mattress and bring it to take him home.

While he waited, Grey talked to Conn in soothing tones, assuring him that the dragon was dead, that Lestriv and Lily were both safe, but whenever he moved toward Conn’s jaws, he got a growl and raised hackles for his trouble.

“Not ready to give up yet? Very well. We can wait a bit longer then.”

Half an hour later a wolf came charging toward them with a jar tied around his neck. Grey took the jar and waited for the wolf to shift.

“She says to open the lid and hold it under his nose until he goes to sleep.”

Grey lost no time in doing exactly that.

Conn growled, but was caught in a dilemma. He would have to let go of the dragon shifter’s neck to stop Grey from putting him to sleep. And he wasn’t going to do that. So he growled and threatened as best he could while refusing to let go of the dragon. He snarled his protest and shook the female back and forth, which snapped the neck of Grenhelde’s lifeless body. Without enough energy left to remain standing, he fell over, his big chest heaving from exhaustion and strain.

After another minute of holding Luna’s jar under Conn’s nose his growls became softer and his eyelids were barely staying open. In another minute after that, he was out completely, jaws gone slack.

Grey and the two other wolves hoisted Konochur’s sleeping weight onto the pallet in the back of the wagon.

The alpha shifted and trotted along behind the wagon so that he could watch his nephew all the way home. Luna was standing outside her clinic waiting with a very worried-looking Lestriv by her side. As soon as Grey shifted, he turned to the cart driver.

“Send people out there to burn the body. No ceremony,” he ordered.

The cart driver nodded and hurried away.

In fact, Grenhelde had not been the last dragon. But she had been the last dragon on Lunark. The Black Swan Department of Endangered Species had been alerted that there could be a problem if the dragon shifters were not contained someplace where they would be prevented from causing harm to humans and other shifters. Perhaps they would find a solution before the next critical incident. Perhaps not.

Conn was unharmed except for the fact that he’d swallowed so much of the dragon blood and the fact that dragon blood was poisonous and highly damaging to internal organs.

Luna looked up at Lessie. “There’s really nothing else to be done. The poison has to work its way through his system and he needs to heal internally. I’d say it’s a blessing that he’s sleeping because being awake would be painful.”

“Well, he shouldn’t stay here.” Lessie looked around at the clinic as if it was completely unsuitable.

“Where do you think he should stay?” Luna asked softly.

Lestriv didn’t hesitate. Konochur was a male who had performed a feat so heroic it would be legendary for generations of werewolves to come. She was sure there would come a time in the distant future when descendants would say it was a myth, that no werewolf could bring down a dragon alone. But Conn had done exactly that to save the life of Lessie’s little girl, at great, almost surely fatal, risk to himself.

Then there was also the fact that she loved him.

“He can stay at my cottage. You can treat him there. Whatever you say he needs, that’s what will be done.”

Luna simply nodded. “Of course, Lestriv. That’s a fine solution and one that will certainly please Konochur when he wakes.”

Lessie’s attention jerked to Luna. “So you’re sure he will wake.”

Luna bit her bottom lip and hesitated. “I wish I could promise, but the best I can do is to say that I have firsthand experience that when Conn wants something, he lets nothing stand in his way. And I’m certain he wants to live.”

CHAPTER 9

When Conn’s eyes flew open, he tried to sort through the haze. Where was he and how did he get there? He began to see flashes of a dragon in flight, heading for Lily. He felt adrenaline prick at the nerve endings in his body as he relived a smidgeon of the terror he’d felt.

Just as the monster banked its wings and dipped toward Lily, it had lifted its head and looked at Conn. He could have sworn he saw a cruel smile distort its face. That was followed by the memory of being carried away in the air, the odd sensation of hanging by his teeth, and his determination to keep his jaws locked even if the creature flew him to dragon hell.

He remembered hearing the sounds of death throes coming from the very throat he held in the vice grip of his jaws and the sensation of descending too fast. Falling.

Jerking his gaze to the left he recognized Lessie’s cabin. The fire had died down to hot glowing coals and he was glad of that because he suddenly felt too hot and needed to throw the covers back. He turned his head to the right and was stunned by the sight of Lestriv, her hair looking like a whirl of multicolored ribbons of auburn, chestnut, and amber.

There was only one thing in the world he wanted more than to reach out and touch her and that was to see Lily. He knew she must be fine, but that terror he had felt wouldn’t be appeased until he saw that for himself.

He eased himself out of bed, careful not to wake Lestriv and padded quietly to Lily’s little room. Willing the door not to creak, he opened it slowly, and smiled to himself when he saw her curled on her side hugging three stuffed, fur covered animals to her chest.

Closing the door, he realized there was one other thing he wanted more than to be in bed with Lessie and that was a good long piss. He almost groaned with the sweet relief of draining his bladder. Before going back to bed, he drank water like he’d had none for days. It overflowed his mouth and ran down his chest. That also felt good against his heated skin.

As he walked toward the bed, his erection sprang to full bloom in anticipation of claiming the woman who had been dallying long enough. As he was hanging in the air, jaws latched tight on the throat of a devil in dragon form, believing that he was flying toward his death, he remembered thinking that he had one and only one regret. That he’d never had the pleasure of sinking balls deep into the woman who’d been chosen for him by the whims of fate.