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Oh, and Thor wasn't buying Gryla's story.
Taking a threatening step forward, the spoiled, rotten, overgrown man-child with more Magic than any idiot should ever wield without a brain had the utter audacity to cackle tauntingly at his mother and scoff, "You can't call anyone. I placed the entire mountain in Magical Lockdown with a Spell of my own making when I saw that you told the Vikings to leave. I should have locked you up yesterday. I should have known I couldn't trust you. You always put everyone and everything before me. But I fixed you this time. There is nothing you can do." Another menacing step forward, and he mockingly jeered with a deep, resonant rumble in his tone that made the little hairs at the nape of my neck stand on end. "If you want to get out of here alive, Mother dear, give me Lucy Brown."
That was all I could stand. I couldn't stand it anymore. Helpless was not a feeling I was used to, and bullying just plain pissed me off. Jumping to my feet, I didn't even look backward as Ginger slid down my back, across my bootie, and traversed my legs while screaming my name into my mind.
Jabbing my finger towards the back of the biggest brat the world had ever seen, I opened my mouth to give Thor a giant piece of my mind – but the words were swiped from my mouth when a deep, booming baritone shot into my brain.
“Lucy! Lucy, it’s me, Noel. I'm here. I'm coming. Hold on, mo Charaid? I’m coming….”
He’d called me his Mate. Noel had called me his Mate. Could it really be true?
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I wasn’t even breathing. It was him. It was Noel. Noelwasthe Dragon Auntie Sorcha had seen in her vision. I knew he was just like I knew Ginger was a pain in the ass, but I wouldn't have her any other way.
(And if you tell her I said that, I will turn you into a frog and make sure you eat flies for the rest of your life.Capisce?Good.)
The brilliant, glowing light at the base of my soul, the one I knew was the Mating Bond I would share with the man made for me by the Universe, sprang to life, giving me the final confirmation that Noel Alexander Archer was truly my Mate. He was mine, and I was his, and that's all there was to it.
Our Mating Bond was bright and beautiful and more glorious than I'd ever imagined it could be. It symbolized hope, love, and loyalty that can only be shared by two souls meant to be one. It was magnificent, and I was thrilled. I wanted to shout it from the mountaintops and tell the whole world that my Mate had found me and that I knew for sure we would live happily ever after.
Then, from one beat of my heart to the next, reality crashed down on top of me like another ton of bricks as a barrage of memories flooded back. Flashes of images from my childhood and glimpses of times long forgotten were all there in vivid technicolor, just as incredible as the day they initially occurred.
Now, we all know I had never forgotten the bouquet of dandelions he'd given me. Yes, Ginger was right – even though I would never admit it aloud. I had put them in my grimoire and thought about Noel every time I opened it, but I hadn't remembered all the times he walked me home from school. Or when he tried to kiss me behind the barn at MacElfresh's farm, and I instinctively smacked him so hard my hand hurt, and his cheek was red for a week. And I completely forgot that he had carved L.B. + N.A. with a heart around it in the trunk of the old oak tree in the center of Nowhere, USA.
“And we both forgot the day you got to school, and he was gone,”Ginger whispered.“Remember that?”
“I do no… argh, ark, hrrrk, gak….”
My response was torn asunder as Thor's massive hand closed around my neck. As if that wasn't bad enough, he jerked my feet off the ground and shook me like I weighed little more than a bag of feathers. Clawing and scratching, I shredded his flesh as I fought to get free and prayed not to pass out. Kicking and fighting, I didn’t even have time to smile when my feet repeatedly made contact with his midsection, and he groaned in pain.
Sadly, his discomfort was over in less than a second, and the grip he had on my throat tightened with a renewed and rage-filled vengeance. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and my vision narrowed to a tiny, dimming dot in the distance. I opened my mind as wide as possible and screamed,“I’m sorry, Noel! I didn’t know where you….”
"DROP THE WITCH OR DIE, ASSHOLE!" Roared through the dungeon as six-foot-six-inches of gorgeously muscled man with dark curls that went past his shoulders and fire burning in his deep brown eyes appeared as if out of thin air. (And he had facial hair. Shame I was having the life choked out of me.)
I knew him immediately. He was everything I thought he would be and so very much more. He honestly and truly looked like a grown-up, uber-handsome version of the young boy who'd stolen my heart all those years ago.
“Oh, Noel,”I telepathically breathed.“You came.”
My heart filled with love. The piece of my soul I’d been missing for more years than I could remember clicked into place. I was whole. I was happy. I was dying.
And before I could tell the man the Universe made for me that I’d loved him since I was a little girl, my world went black.
6
Rage filled every fiber of my being. I simply could not believe my eyes. Some green-skinned Nordic guy dressed in furs and throwing Magic around like Mardi Gras beads had his hand around Lucy's neck. He was literally forcing the life out of my Mate.
This would not stand.
“Lad, you need to….”
But it was too late for reason. Sith was a day late and a dollar short and needed to get his scaly butt out in the open and kick some ass.
Pushing the Dragon King with whom I shared my soul to the forefront of our combined consciousness, I threw back my head and welcomed the flames that flew from my lips. Bellowing my fury to the Heavens, the tremors that shook my entire body only fueled the Shift my Dragon King was trying to control.
“Let. It. Go. Sith,”I mentally ground out, gritting my teeth with such fury that my metaphorical jaw cracked.
“As you wish, Lad. It will be your mess to clean up. Anger and Magic never make good bedfellows.”
And with that, the floodgates opened. The blood running cold in my veins flipped to hotter than Hades before my next heartbeat. In the following seconds, it was back to cold, then to hot over and over again. All I could do was hold on tight to the bond I shared with Lucy and welcome the transformation that would give me the strength I needed to save her life. Yes, our connection was new and completely untested, butshewas my anchor. I knew beyond all doubt that Lucy Abigail Bliss Brown was the tether that would always keep me grounded, sane, and whole. She was everything I needed. She was the Light to my Darkness, and as soon as I had her back, I would find the bastards who fucked with my memories and make them pay for all the time I'd lost with my Mate.
