Page 4

Fire streamed from the giant red dragon as it swooped down from the rafters and toward her. If ever stop, drop, and roll was going to come in useful, now was the time. Instead of stopping though, she broke into a run, and instead of dropping, she dove for cover.

Nataly didn't get to the rolling part. Red scaly claws grabbed her out of midair and wrapped around her hips and chest. A black lizard guy barely missed scratching her eyes out.

Holy Smokey the Bear. The red dragon had saved her. It flew up to the top of the building and busted right through the ceiling, flames exploding around them. To the firefighters below it would look like a flashover. They would all be scrambling thinking she was inside, and those fucking yahoos would try to rescue her.

“Let me down, you big, beautiful lizard. I can't let my guys go in there and get eaten by those things.” She wriggled trying to get free but also didn't want him to drop her a hundred and some odd feet to the ground. Her ass would make one hell of a dent in the ground from this height even if she was ten sizes smaller.

Beautiful? The word sounded in her mind with a Scottish accent. No one has ever called me beautiful. You, love, are the gorgeous one.

Huh. She clearly had died if the dragon was talking in her head. With a Sean Connery sexy accent to boot. To hell it was for her then. She'd go happily if all demons or dragons had panty-melting voices like this one.

MACKAY

The shard of Mac's soul glowed with the light of a thousand flames. She was the one. His soulmate. He never expected to find a mate of his own. Red Dragon Warriors were destined to battle demon dragons, not to have mates.

The touch of his mind to hers when she'd called him beautiful had felt... orgasmic. Like, he'd almost dropped her because he was that close to losing control of his own body.

She wriggled in his talons, but no matter, he was never letting her go.

“Put me down. I have to get back to the warehouse.” Her American accent did dangerous things to his libido. Even angry, it was cute as fuck.

He hadn't been in the US all that long and certainly hadn't hung out with a whole lot of American women. Of course not. He was here on a mission. But before today, just this moment, he hadn't found the lilt of the American tongue all that enticing. Americans were loud and brash and said things that didn't make sense like y'all and pumpkin pie.

Not his mate. Her voice was like hot melted butter on a fluffy pile of mash, and he wanted to eat her right up. Just as soon as he got her to safety. He would protect her with his life, and part of that oath meant keeping her from harm. Besides, he didn't trust the men with hoses. First of all, water was no friend of his. Second, they were men and thus would covet the lush curves of his mate.

He hadn't had a chance yet to mark her and claim her as his. Until he could do that, he would not be letting any man even look at her.

She was his.

The firefighters are in no danger from the plague of demon wyrms. My fires burned the wee bastards to ashes. They are nothing more than stains.

“Your fire? You fucking started the fires in the warehouses, didn't you? I knew it. Great. I've been kidnapped by an arsonist dragon. Which is not a phrase I ever thought I'd say.” She stopped trying to get free from his talons and stilled. “Maybe I slipped on one of those oily spots on the warehouse floor and hit my head. Yes, that must be it. Now I'm hallucinating from lack of oxygen from smoke inhalation. Okay. Okay. I can deal with that. I'll calm my breathing and wait for the boys to rescue me.”

Mac growled. He didn't even mean to; it just came out. “You don't need rescuing. I will protect you now. Not some boy with a limp hose.”

“Geez. Oxygen deprivation sure is making my imagination get really creative. I kind of like the idea of a jealous dragon. That has to be some kind of latent wishful thinking from the lack of sex in my life. I wonder how much of this I'll remember when I wake up.”

Lack of sex? That was something he could fix. Immediately if not sooner. He'd take her back to his lair, shower her with jewels and gold, get her naked, and lay her out in front of a roaring fire and lick her from head to toe with a nice long...

Fuck. He couldn't do any of that. His lair was thousands of miles away and he had a mission from the Wyvern to complete. Fine. If he couldn't shower her with jewels, he'd have to do the next best thing and drown her in kisses and other such pleasures of foreplay. Just as soon as he figured out where to take her so they were safe not only from demon attacks but from the prying eyes of the world.

She was his now, and he would not be sharing any of her delights with anyone else.

“Hey, since this is my weird-ass dream, I think you have to do what I say, right?”

Once she was writhing under him and screaming his name as he made her come over and over, she would believe just how real he was. “I'll have a hard time denying you anything, lass. Unless, of course, it puts you in harm’s way.”

Mac spotted an open space dotted with tufts of trees that looked just right for taking shelter in. He'd build a crackling fire and seduce his luscious mate. A nice warm volcanic cave would be preferable, but Colorado didn't have many of those. Which made this demon wyrm attack even stranger. How had they even gotten to this area if there were no gateways to hell nearby?

He circled the grassy area a few times, keeping to the cloud cover to make sure no other humans or demons were about. When he was satisfied he could land safely, he dove for the biggest copse of trees.

“Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap. This is why I don't go on the rollercoaster at Elitch's. I think I'm going to throw up.” His little mate covered her eyes with her hands, and even as he set her down gently on the grass, she didn't uncover them.

He shifted and took advantage of the moment to look her over from head to toe. She had on a thick jacket and some kind of overall trousers which interfered with him getting a clear view of what he knew were lush curves. The summer night was cooler than the hot day, but not enough for her to need this many clothes. Maybe she liked being warm.

That he could help with. In more ways than one. Mac scraped a circle in the grass, exposing the dirt and rocks, pulled a few dry branches from the undergrowth of the trees, and set them in the center. If he paid attention, he could easily keep the fire going with his power over the element, but he hoped dearly that he would be too distracted to keep the flames ignited.

A quick breath and a command to the fire, and his little fire pit lit up. Perfect.