MADD
TWELVE
We'd been on the highway for twenty minutes when Flint told Ranger to pull over.
“Why? What's wrong?” Ranger checked the mirrors, though if a vicious dragon was overhead, the mirrors were useless and the car would be flattened.
“Just do it.”
Ranger found a gravel patch at the edge of the tree line. It was the kind of spot truckers used to sleep, and he cut the engine. Flint had the door open and was out of the car in seconds.
“Madd, get out. We need to talk.”
Conrad tensed beside me, and so did I as I wondered if this was where we said goodbye to the dragon shifter.
No, you can’t let him go.
I told my wolf to cool it because even though Flint was family, he was also my Alpha.
My shoulder protested as I got out, and my legs were stiff from sitting, but the night air cleared my head.
Flint walked far enough from the car that the others couldn't hear. He put his hands in his jacket pockets and stood with his back toward me. If I’d been an enemy, I'd have guessed this was the moment when he gunned me down.
“I need the truth. Is the dragon shifter your fated mate?”
There was no point lying. Besides, the more information Flint had, the safer we’d be.
“Yeah.”
“That’s what I thought.” He raked his hands through his hair. “Gods, our family and fated mates. But congratulations on choosing a shifter, though commiserations on him being the enemy.”
“Until we escaped, we’d spoken only a handful of words to one another, but he’s been fighting the connection as much as I have.” I sounded as though I was making excuses, but I was trying to make sense of it.
We both glanced over our shoulders at the car. Ranger was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, Grandpa was pretending to be asleep but with one eye open, and Conrad was staring straight ahead. Was dragon-shifter hearing more precise than wolves and could he hear every word?
“Here's the problem.” Flint turned back to me.
“I can protect you and so can the pack. But not him.” He jerked his chin toward the car.
“His father will come for him. And if he's unmated, there's nothing stopping the patriarch from dragging him back and doing whatever he wants.
He's the man's son. It's a family matter, and we'd have no grounds to intervene.”
Oh gods, I knew where this was going, and I wanted to slap a hand over his mouth.
“But if he's mated to one of mine,” Flint continued, “harming him means doing the same to La Luna Noir. That changes everything.”
I had to voice that niggling thought in my head. “Do you think that might be what his father wants? For us to take Conrad and start a war between the pack and the dragons?”
Flint rubbed his chin. “Did the patriarch have any idea that you and Conrad were fated mates?”
“You’d have to ask his son, the one in the car.” If he had, he might have removed Conrad from the equation. My eyes filled with tears, but I blinked them away. “But he might know now.” I shrugged. “If anyone picked up on it after we left, it would be his twin.”
“Mmmm.” Flint paced the forest floor. “You have a decision to make.”
“You want us to mate.”
“I want you to decide whether you're going to do it.” He held my gaze. “I won't force this, Madd. Not after what his father tried to do. If you're not ready, we’ll figure out another way to protect him.”
Do it. It’s what we’ve been waiting for.
I refused to make a decision that would affect the rest of my life solely based on what my wolf said I should do. But instead of telling Flint that, I said, “He might say no.”
“That’s not going to happen. I’ve met the guy.”
“But you don’t know him.”
“I’ve been in a car for hours with him. He’s simmering with tension, and it’s because he’s fighting for his happiness.”
I looked toward the car. Conrad was clenching his jaw, and he was sitting up straight.
He looked like my wolf did when he braced himself for a kill.
This was the guy who broke out of the compound for us, destroying any chance he could return to his family.
But he did that because he chose me, before I did the same for him, though his method was to demolish the building, whereas I just followed.
I’d made my decision.
We walked back to the car, and Flint opened Conrad's door.
“You two need to mate.”
Conrad erupted with a loud, “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Now, before your father's people catch up. The mating protects you both. Without it, you're just a runaway son and I've got no authority to keep the patriarch from reclaiming you.”
Conrad's eyes moved from Flint to me. He raised his brows and mumbled, “Is this what you want?”
I nodded.
“But when dragons mate, we have a ceremony followed by… you know.”
His cheeks reddened in the car's interior light, and I was squirming because it was embarrassing enough but my family was here, and Ranger would have ammunition to tease me for the rest of my life.
“Mating requires…” He bobbed his head back and forth.
“I know because I've done it.” Flint stepped back from the door. “Mark each other. The rest can wait.”
Conrad got out of the car. I wanted to shove my family in the car and race into the woods, but we were on the clock. Conrad and I faced one another, standing on the gravel with my family hanging on every word. This wasn’t what I would have chosen for this moment.
“This is romantic.”
Conrad grinned, a real smile that reflected in his eyes. “It could be worse.”
“Yeah, I could be in the clutches of that dragon who flew overhead.”
Heat was rolling off his skin despite the cold night as his dragon prepared to mark me.
“I’ll go first.” One of us had to, and I wanted to get this over with, my wolf had been ready for days.
Conrad pulled the collar of his shirt aside, exposing his shoulder. His skin was pale in the moonlight, and I performed a partial shift where my wolf’s teeth replaced mine. Conrad’s scent tickled my skin, and I wondered how I’d resisted it for so long.
My wolf’s incisors sank into him, and he took hold of my arm. He wasn’t hurting or pushing me away, but I sensed, maybe hoped, he was anchoring himself to me.
He was my mate, not in theory but according to my mark, and my doubts vanished and the words, “He is the one,” repeated in my head.
I pulled back and admired the mark I’d made on his shoulder.
Conrad's eyes were darker than usual. He put his hand on my good shoulder and tugged at the fabric. Heat built in his palm and the warmth spread across my skin and intensified. It was way past comfortable, and I expected my body to start hissing as smoke curled from between his fingers.
From inside the car, Ranger yelled, “What the fuck? Madd’s on fire.”
The car doors flew open, and my three relatives jumped out. Smoke was pouring off Conrad's hand and my shoulder, and the air smelled like burned flesh. My wolf was howling, though he wasn’t in pain. This was primal, a sound that reached back to the distant past.
“Not the car.” Ranger was patting the doorframe. “This is my baby. There better not be scorch marks.”
“Madd’s fine, Ranger.” Grandpa was standing six feet away with his arms folded. “This is the way it is with dragon shifters. Your grandfather and I witnessed a few when we were younger.”
The searing peaked and ebbed. Conrad pulled his hand back, and on my shoulder, there was a different kind of mark.
It wasn’t a bite but a burn, and pressed into my skin was a pattern that looked like dragon scales.
It hurt but not in the same way as the bullet wound.
This had a purpose, and it linked us together.
Conrad was breathing hard, and his eyes faded back to normal.
“Done?” Flint wasn’t a man to waste time.
Conrad looked at me, and I stared back. I almost wished we were alone and could complete the mating process. Our connection was undeniable, and my body hummed. I couldn’t read his thoughts, but I could feel a second heartbeat just out of sync with my own.
“Done,” Conrad said.
“Good. Everybody back in the car.”
Ranger climbed in, still muttering about the upholstery, and Flint joked that it was a shame his love of cars didn’t include learning to parallel park, something Ranger’s mate had teased him about years ago.
Grandpa patted Conrad on the arm as he passed, the same way he did to everyone in the family.
We got back in the car, and my mark throbbed. Our hands found the space between us on the seat, and this time, neither of us pretended it was an accident.