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“I know that,” I responded, just as silently.
Looking across the field to where the females were all standing, looking back towards the bar, my dragon rose to the fore, already pushing for my skin. With his heightened senses, I could smell the curl of toxic smoke on the wind. That shot hadn’t come from just any gun.
It was rotten from the inside out. Some kind of magical blast.
Drakon Hunters. It had to be.
Onyx and Cadmium were trying to shepherd the females back to the bar, but they refused to run from the battle. Bolting from cover and exposing myself before I’d located the enemy wasn’t what I’d been trained to do, but seeing my mate just standing there, vulnerable on the summit of a very light incline in the middle of a clearing, tossed every ounce of military training out of my head.
Protecting Tess was my only goal.
I could taste the fire in the back of my throat as I sprinted across the field, completely weaponless, to my mate. Quasar sprinted silently behind me. Knowing that even weaponless, he was at my back and following my lead–no matter how insane–bolstered my confidence. Quasar might be our sunshine, but his combat skills were second to only myself and Asteroid.
Reaching the females, I grabbed for my mate, urging her to be in the protection of my arms, if only so my body could shield her from the oncoming attacks of the Drakon Hunters which were surely soon to follow. Magic wouldn’t penetrate my scales as quickly as it would tear through her soft and tender skin.
“Something’s burning,” Tess said, accepting me into her arms as soon as I reached her. Her hands slipped unconsciously into my hair to tug on the tresses as she demanded my attention. “Radon, what’s going on?”
“Hunters have made the first move.” Looking over the group of females, only Onyx was holding a gun. The determined look in her eyes said she didn’t give a fuck that both Zinc and Argon had told us to keep to Earth weaponry. She would use whatever was in her possession to protect the pregnant female. I nodded to her, offering my silent support of the call. “You have another one of those?”
“If I did, I’d be giving it to your mate,” the warrior snapped, showing me her teeth. Onyx was pricklier than I was on a good day. The only soul she wasn’t instantly cranky with was Tungsten, and even then, she had proved to be the worst knot blocker in the universe. He had been pining for her since I’d met them, but the male’s worshipful gaze just bounced right off of her hide. “If you can make it to my temporary accommodations, you are welcome to raid whatever you find.” She looked past me to where Quasar was loading up on training weapons. They were meant to be soft on the scales, but if wielded correctly, anything could be used as a weapon. Especially if we could get close enough to our target to offload at close range. “As it is, I would take the cue from your mate. He seems to have gotten the general idea.”
I turned to watch Quasar give me a cocky salute, then rush off to disappear into the canopy of trees, burdened with weapons. The trees weren’t as close together as I would’ve liked, leaving room for sunbeams to strike the forest floor and making the undergrowth thick and difficult to penetrate. However, I could just see the branches shake as my mate navigated his way carefully through them, body not touching the ground.
“Aren’t we going to follow him?” Tess asked, looking up at me with fire in her eyes.
I smirked at my fierce warrior mate who, now that her territory had been breached, was ready to wage war.
“I am circling around and attempting to gain arms from the warrior’s tent,” I said firmly, doing my best to hand my mate over to Cadmium, who was leading the rest of the women toward the far treeline, and back towards Valhalla’s Pass proper. “You will go with Eden and the scribe.”
“Like hell I am.” Tess stood up on her tiptoes, her chest bumping into mine as she attempted to stare me down. “I’m defending my fucking bar, asshole.”
“Asshole is an insult, yes?” I asked, my lip ticking up just a bit as I gazed down at my puffed up mate. “Just like you use pussy to insult a male who you believe has a lacking in masculinity. Correct?”
“Of course it’s a fucking insult.” She tried to pull herself out of my grasp, but I just locked her tighter to my body. My female was headstrong and defiant, and I fucking loved that most of the time. But this wasn’t the time. “Let me go, Radon. Or you’re going to regret getting in my way.”
“Only if you promise to go with Cadmium.” The golden warrior had already reached the far treeline, not stupid enough to wait behind for a single straggler when there was a pregnant female in her charge. “This battle is better fought by dragon fire, little mate.”
The growl that escaped her lips made my cock tighten.
Every moment in her presence, our bond grew stronger.
“It’s my fucking bar.”
“And you are my fucking female,” I hissed back, my heart pounding in my chest. Each moment wasted arguing was another moment that the Hunters could burst through the trees, leaving us both vulnerable and weaponless. “Get a fucking clue, Tess. I can’t fight this enemy if you aren’t safe.”
“Gonna tell you something about us Earth girls, Radon.” Tess poked me hard in the chest and bared her teeth. “We’re stubborn, and pretty much always right. If I go with Cad, I won’t be there to watch your back. Did you ever think of that?”
I took a slow measured breath and let out my building frustrations. “Fine,” I gritted out between locked teeth. “You stay behind me. You listen to every order that I give. And when I say run, your fucking legs better be moving at hyperspeed. Got me?”
“I want a gun.” Tess had already started striding toward the trees on the far side of where we had settled our tents. Onyx’s was the furthest out, which was exactly how she liked it. “And I’m not yours yet, Drakon, so mind your fucking manners when giving me orders.”
“You are now and will always be my mate. Now shut up, Tess, or everyone will know we’re coming.”
She flipped me the bird as she stalked straight into the trees. Seeing the shadows fall over her made my heart leap. The Hunters could be anywhere. I jogged to catch back up with her, and pushed her behind me. I could hear the huff of her annoyed breath, then she grabbed my tail. Not at the base, actually rather far down the shaft. It wasn’t an area that I normally thought of as being particularly erotic, but the tight grasp of her hands sent a sensation shooting up my spine which pooled with giddy intent at the base of my cock.
Now was so not the time to be thinking about throwing my mate down on the forest floor and fucking her brains out. But with her gripping my sensitive appendage like she that, I nearly gave into the mating instinct and did exactly as she was unconsciously begging for.
I was about to tell her that this wasn’t the time, nor the place, to get frisky when a bright green blast split the trees, leaving only charred remains in its path. A branch came down between us. I only just managed to get my tail out from under the thick log as it fell.
