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Chapter Five
Falling off the chair she’d been unceremoniously flopped onto, an agony unlike anything she'd known possible wracked her body. Her knees flew to her chest, her arms instinctively wrapped around her legs, and Macy's vision blurred as her body caught fire from the inside out.
Wailing, heart-wrenching shrieks ripped through her throat and tore out her mouth, reverberating back to her suddenly ultra-sensitive ears even louder and more robust. Herbrain rattled against the confines of her skull. There wasn’t a single fiber of her being not ripped, torn, and shredded asunder. For the first time in her very short life, all Macy Lindon, DVM, could do was wish for a quick death.
Arms suddenly flung open, legs shooting downward, her back bowed at an impossible angle as her head snapped backward, striking a rock wall with such force she felt the vibrations to the tip of her toes. Inundated with a wave of excruciating pain, it felt as if fiery shards of glass were being forced into the very top of her skull.
Scorching agony ripped down her spine. Muscles shredded. Tendons tore. Joints popped and snapped, and bones were crushed. Convulsions wracked her very being in an untold fury whose only wish was to end her very existence.
Eyes flying open, everywhere she looked was covered in a dense, impenetrable, crimson veil - and somehow, she knew it was on the inside, not out. She could feel the cells, the very DNA that made her who she was, being blown apart and then instantaneously sewn back together in an all new, incredibly frightening, and infinitely more robust manner.
Her body was no longer her own. Instead, every motion was being controlled by whatever alien had invaded her being.
Opening her mouth, gasping to inhale even the slightest breath, Macy was tossed into the air and immediately slammed onto her stomach. Being a living yo-yo sucked in the worst possible way, but the shit storm didn’t stop there. Knees jerking underneath her stomach at precisely the same moment her palms slammed into the ground, she was on her knees, then up on her feet faster than her mind could conceive.
Glancing at her arms as they flew out before her, the sight of glittering green scales, the same color as the Peridot of her birthstone, forced a gasp from her lips. Flames, the brightest, most beautiful kaleidoscope of red, orange, and yellow, filled the cave as the Wolfman roared, "This cannot be! I would've known! I will not stand for this! I will have my revenge! You will die! You are not Dragon! You cannot be!"
"Yes, she is," Jack bellowed in return. Appearing out of thin air, standing at her side, he was decked out in the copper scales of his Warrior Dragon she’d onlyonce before been blessed to witness. "And now, you will pay for daring to touch my Mate ever - especially during her first Shift."
Shocked by the lack of surprise in the voice of the man she loved, Macy ground out through gritted teeth, "Then I'm gonna kick your ass, Jack Thorntree. You knew all about this shit and never said a word? Not that I'm surprised. Communication is definitely not your thing."
“It’s no more than I deserve,”his voice floated through her mind, the sheer weight of his regret and sadness nearly driving Macy to her knees.
But there wasn’t time for explanations, or forgiveness, or even a sideways glance. Watching as the Wolfman morphed into an abomination defying all explanation, Macy searched everything she’d ever learned about the animal, insect, and arachnid kingdoms – but found more questions than answers. Chest growing rounder and more barreled as his arms lengthened until his knuckles were past his knees, it was the brown, green and black scales of the most poisonous Snake in the world, an Inland Taipan, replacing his thick, matted black fur that gave Macy a second’s pause.
“Watch out, Jack!”She screamed directly into his mind, not even having the time to be pleased with her newly found ability."There's no antidote for the venom of an…."
Poison flew from the Beast’s maw in a shower of thick, putrid green, mucus-like blobs aimed directly at Jack’s midsection. Macy had no clue if the toxin would eat through Dragon scales, but she wasn’t takin’ any chances. Spinning to the right, she opened her mouth, incinerating the poisonous droplets in midair with the fiery flames of her Dragon.
"NO!" The Wolfman roared, the low, rumbling timbre reminiscent of the Silverback Gorillas Macy had studied during her summer abroad unmistakable and unbelievable.
“What the fuck is this guy?”She spat into Jack’s mind.“How many more transformations can he… HOLY SHIT! A scorpion’s stinger?! This cannot be real! Science does not work that way.”
If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, Macy wouldn’t have believed it. The doctor, the Vet, the humanitarian that she’d always been felt horrible. It literally stabbed at her heart. What fucked up asshole had warped the beauty of nature in such a hideous and reprehensible manner?
Genetic manipulation without a thought for the wellbeing of the subject was heartless at best, deplorable to Macy's hard fought beliefs. There was no doubt in her mind that the Wolfman was the product of illegal, unethical, and highly immoral genetic testing. Still, the human side – and maybe the Dragon side once she came to grips with it – just couldn’t abide by what he’d done to the many victims she could see images of in Jack’s mind.
But still, she had to ask,“Does he have to die?”
“Yes.”
As if she hadn't understood her man's one-word response for what it was – a reaction to her attack – more pictures, followed by feelings and thoughts, came flooding from Jack's mind to hers. Sadly, it confirmed everything she’d always believed. Jack was one of the good guys – the best of the best. She could see it all in living technicolor, his every thought, all his emotions, everything he’d ever felt for her.
And the only thing that had kept him from her side had been his job – or rather, his commitment to that job. To saving lives. To catching the 'Lupine Master' and to preventing more senseless deaths at the hands of a science experiment run amuck.
She hadn’t been wrong. Her love, devotion, and undying respect hadn’t been misplaced. Jack Thornton loved her just as much as she loved him.
And my man believes in an eye for an eye. At least where my well being is concerned. I may have taken an oath to preserve life wherever I could, but I'm not sure this dude's worth it. There is no remorse. He will kill again, and he will never stop hunting Jack. His body and mind have been warped beyond recognition. There is no chance for rehabilitation. Sometimes, in cases such as this, euthanasia is the kindest and only answer.
Watching her man, her Dragon,her Mate,battle the Lupine Master was poetry in motion. Fighting had never been her thing, but Jack was too damned good not to watch.
It was as if he knew what his enemy would do before it happened. No matter what the Wolfman threw at him, be it poison, or a punch, or a slash of the stinger he’d magically produced from between his shoulder blades, Jack was ready.
"Ur ye gonna stand haur an' lit yer man doo aw th' woork?"A smoky, mezzo alto demanded in her mind."An' afore ye go askin' whoo Ah am, the name's Fione, an' Ah'm th' Dragon Queen wi' whom yoo've shared yer sool since th' moment ye werr conceived. Took ya' loong enuff tae git haur. Noow, poot me tae woork. Ah'm nae a body tae stand aroond."
“Aye, aye, Queen Fione,”Macy responded.“I’ll just let you do your thing and take some notes for next time.”
“Then hoold oon, Bairn. Ah don’t mess aboot.”
