Chapter 22
Chardum
The clearing was a mess. Trees had toppled on all sides. The ground had churned up at the center, right beneath me, as if the prison had been ready to explode to the surface. Blood stained the grass, and wild vines had sprouted and climbed all over my body. A handful of bodies lay broken and bloody, scattered around me, and several wolves were standing over them, heads thrown back as they howled at the night.
My mate lay crumpled in my cupped paw, her eyes closed, her eyes rapidly moving beneath the lids. Her exposed arms and a portion of her neck were covered with fine tendrils of green, not on her skin, not around her, but curling through her flesh. A mark of magic, with a signature I recognized; the key.
From the trees lumbered the giant shape of Gregory in his Minotaur form. The body flung over his shoulder wore the torn and shredded remains of a pin-striped suit. The weretiger was out for the count, but he wasn’t dead. I thought I had crushed him beneath my paw, but it seemed he’d managed to crawl away after I collapsed.
Shifting, I caught Rosy in my arms and gently held her against my chest. The vines of the plants collapsed to earth when they could no longer climb along the massive body of my dragon shape. Clay clung to my bare chest, soaking Rosy’s shirt, and several tendrils ripped free from the packed but already rapidly healing wound when I strode across the clearing to where the wolves gathered.
Liz shifted when I reached them. Her body unfurled from a flash of gentle pink light, gray hair wildly curling around her face, her body clad in a simple nightdress and nothing else. “Is she alright, son?” she said, slipping easily into a warm, maternal role as she reached out and placed a soft palm across Rosy’s forehead.
I hoped so. Though I had never heard of anyone absorbing a key like she had. As far as my knowledge stretched, that shouldn’t be possible. Not unless her energies aligned perfectly with those of the nymph that had created that prison, and that was such an unlikely chance. The creator of the cage had lived a hundred thousand years ago, and though there were many immortal creatures, none chose to live that long.
Her pulse was steady, her breathing even, and the bond between us was strong, stronger than it had ever been. My guardian bond with Zachary had never reached this kind of level. I could feel her body like it was my own; I was that keyed in. I sensed her exhaustion. It was almost… But no, that kind of thing only happened when both parties chose it, and during sex at that.
“Oh, Char. Would you look at that?” Liz gasped, and I followed where she pointed, at a spot on Rosy’s breastbone. There were more curls from the key across her silky, dark skin, but over her heart, flames curled and glowed, so perfect that they looked real. I gasped at the sight and, sliding her to my hip, I started furiously brushing the clay from my chest to reveal a matching mark on mine.
So I wasn’t mistaken. It wasn’t wishful thinking. Mating marks. When Rosy healed me and absorbed the key, we’d ended up bound together like true mates. Finishing the bond between us, so it became unbreakable, forever. My heart swelled in my chest, any aches and pains forgotten, and worry for my mate sloughed away. She was alright, just exhausted; I could trust what I sensed.
“Congratulations,” the werewolf alpha said, her eyes briefly glimmering bright yellow at me. Then the woman smiled and clapped her hands, “A wedding is in order!” She spun around and started flapping her hands at the wolves still arranged behind her. I spotted Ted and his sons, some of the other town people that remained, but if this was the entire pack, it had dwindled terribly.
Gregory shifted to his human shape, and the Sheriff and Deputy joined him, who were slapping silver cuffs on the weretiger. A handful more creatures of various types were lurking in the shadows beneath the trees, staring at us but not approaching. Some of them strangers to me, some creatures as rare as my Rosy was. So the town had drawn some newcomers, outcasts, even as it had lost good wolves to more prosperous lands.
“Go, take care of your mate. We will clean up in here,” Sheriff Jackson said. His eyes were orange, letting me see the creature he carried beneath the surface, a griffin. “Just tell me one thing, the prison? Is it safe?” Is it safe? He meant, was it still closed, were we safe from the evil inside it?
I couldn’t check the same way that Rosy could. I couldn’t sense the box, the prison itself, but I had always sensed the evil of the Galamut when I focused on the ground beneath my feet. When I closed my eyes and checked if the creature was still there, that it hadn’t slipped away in the fight, my stomach lurched when I found nothing. It was gone.
Searching around, I tried to find the female vampire that had started all of this, and couldn’t find her either. Had she escaped, or was I just missing something? With no proper answer about whether the Galamut was gone or not, I went with the only option. “We’ll have to ask Rosy when she wakes up.”
***
Rosemary
I woke up from the deepest sleep I ever had. My eyes were sticky and crusted from sleep. My body felt so heavy that I didn’t want to move, but something inside me insisted I open my eyes and look. So I did, even if it felt like I was battling something evil all over again. No, not really. I was just so tired that it sucked to move so much as an eyelid.
When I succeeded, I struggled to make out what I was seeing at first. For one, I wasn’t used to waking up with a man in my bed, and the last time I had, he hadn’t been tattooed, but this one definitely was. Flames were depicted on his chest, framed by curling vines and some passion flowers in bright, ethereal colors. It wasn’t exactly a manly tattoo, though the flames were robust and powerful.
My eyes trailed up, noticing familiar, dusky skin, and an angular chin and sharp cheekbones. Chardum was fast asleep next to me, completely naked, per usual, and sprawled out so much that he was half dangling with a limb in the crack between the mattress and the edge of the bed. Since when did my dragon have such a tattoo on his chest?
My curiosity energized me, and I managed to move around a little more. That’s when I noticed the markings on my body. Tendrils and vines that glowed a soft green along my arms, shoulders, up and down my legs. Little leaves unfurling here and there, one in a heart shape on my hip, a pretty round leaf on my elbow. On my chest, the same flames and passion flowers decorated me, a mark that matched Char’s exactly.
“What the fuck?” I asked out loud. He rumbled, his head twitching, and then his lashes fluttered open. I hadn’t meant to wake him up, but I was relieved that he was, his golden gaze comforting when my body looked like a piece of art, but also completely unfamiliar.
“You’re awake,” he groaned huskily, his arms shooting out to cuddle me against his chest. He rolled us until I was pinned beneath him, all heavy muscle and warm male, mostly propped up on one of his elbows. “Are you okay, my love?”
Was I? I was exhausted. My body felt heavy as a stone, but I had no pain anywhere. Better yet, Chardum was alright, and there wasn’t even the faintest hint of a scar on his chest beneath the mark. He had healed. When I nodded, he covered my mouth with his and devoured me. Gladly, I gave in to the pleasure I knew he’d offer me.
My legs twining around his, my core falling open. He wasn’t the only one naked in bed; I’d been stripped of my clothes too. His cock rose between us, hard and hot, seed already leaking from the broad tip. All I had to do was move my hips just a little and there he was, pressing the head against my core.
He growled, taking what was offered with a fierce, powerful thrust. He filled me, stretched me, but after all that sex the night before, it was no longer an impossible fit. He fit just right. “Yes, Char, I love you.” The words were so easy to say that it surprised me. It felt like I’d said them a thousand times before. Maybe I had, in my heart, in my soul.
“My mate,” Chardum responded, “Lifegiver, my love, my heart, my soul.” He punctuated each declaration with a punch of his hips, his cock stroking into me so deep that I felt claimed, owned. Bound to my dragon forever. My eyes rolled back in my head, pleasure streaking through me hard and fast. The orgasm swept me away, pulling tears from my eyes from how perfect it was.
And when Chardum followed me over the edge with a shout, I thanked my father, thanked my lucky stars that I’d taken the plunge and come to this town to claim this farm.