Even as the others yelled in fright, she loved the image of him maintaining his human form while he called his Dragon’s fire forth. Very few managed that sort of control and balance. Kingston Baldric was the only Dragon Shifter she had ever seen, but since the first she had recognized what she was to him.
His Dragon brushed across her mind, the splendid beast growling softly to get near her. Kingston aimed his flames at the metal and after they’d been heated, could then tear them apart. The heat to her had been a mere tickle, but she got the distinct impression that others there would have burnt to a crisp had he spat flames in their direction.
But not him. Kingston Baldric was a seasoned warrior. A noble Guardian, loyal and devoted to his cause. She knew they were fated, just as she knew he would fight it. Her ancestors had told her that when she’d last spoken to them through the veil.
Beware the white-scaled beast, for he has the power to destroy what men and centuries could not.
Those had been her Granny Rose’s parting words at their last meeting. Holley never thought much about them, but even as her brain registered that she was almost free, her body seemed downright paralyzed with fright.
“I am sorry about this,” the voice of her fated mate spoke as though whispers sifting through the sands of time itself.
She could make out the words, but it was unclear what he meant. Well, it was unclear, until she felt raw pain exploding from her shoulder and travelling through her body at an alarming rate.
She felt fire, his fire, in her very veins. It continued to burn and sizzle until her whole being was aflame. Then there was the flame itself. The spicy, smoky flame of her mate’s Dragon fire pulsing new life into her body.
She felt her own magic, from both her Lenape and her English roots, rise up to meet his. It was beyond anything she could have ever imagined. A lightning storm of fire and sparkles, flames, and starlight like universes blinking in and out of existence in that single moment suspended in time. It was nothing she could have ever imagined.
Then her back arched and she seized. Her entire body was a mass of pins and needles. Cramps and burning pain filled her. Holley tensed, her back was all the way up, off the stone slab as that lightning strike of flame tore through her.
Her eyes opened wide, but she was still lost in that fierce storm. Unaware of the arms that lifted and held her, the chest that cradled her, and the hands that smoothed across her face.
“It will pass. I got you,” a deep, rumbly voice spoke into her ear and Holley relaxed, sinking exhausted into his solid embrace.
It was him. Her own mate. She was safe. She could finally rest, but not before she looked upon him. Willing her heavy lids to open, Holley gasped at the golden-hued stare of the most breathtaking man she had ever seen. Of course, she had seen his face before. Had watched the handsome Shifter for years through the hollows of the Keep, and yet nothing could have prepared her for the impact of his unwavering stare in the flesh.
Her body quivered helplessly as she warmed and swelled in places she could barely comprehend. So this was desire, she thought as her mind raced with a million images of the two of them touching and embracing. Consummating their bond as was their right, their need.
The scandalous image of his naked body flitted through her mind and she felt hot all over. It felt so good, so delicious to be warm again. After centuries in the cold and the dark. Her mind immediately went back to the swell of his manhood she felt pressed against her side.
Holley was a Witch, not a saint. Kingston’s lips were a hard line across his chiseled face, and how she wanted to soothe them. To make him smile and laugh.
She had tried to honor the privacy of the Keep’s inhabitants, especially during intimate times. But ever since she’d known Kingston Baldric was her mate, she’d tried reaching out to him.
So, yes, she’d spied him in the shower and out. Seen every inch of his glorious naked form. He was a work of art. Sculpted and refined by the finest masters and architects of them all, the Fates, and they had done so just for her.
His nostrils flared as his gaze bore into hers and, though she had no strength to speak of, Holley lifted up in his arms and pressed her mouth to the rigid slash that was his. He was still at first, but the second he understood she was kissing him, her Dragon wrapped the steel band of his arms about her waist and returned said kiss tenfold.
“Mate,” he growled and pressed his forehead to hers, but Holley could only sigh before she slipped into the first peaceful sleep, she’d had in three centuries.
Five
“You need to explain, cump,” Furio demanded.
“Are you fucking nuts? Cump?” Storm mocked his friend and shoved him aside, “He’s the leader! Our fucking Alpha, man, and he don’t need to explain shit.”
“Well, I’d like an explanation,” Elena’s pink eyes flashed at him, but Kingston was only half listening.
The woman had kissed the common sense out of him then proceeded to pass out. He’d rushed to his suite of rooms and called Egros and Byram to aid his mate. Both had confirmed it was merely sleep.
She was okay. Whoever she was.
Mine, hissed his beast and he closed his eyes against his Dragon’s anger.
Possessive fuck that he was, Kingston nodded his head, sating his beast’s claim and turned to face his Guardians. What would he tell them? What could he?
Fuck. It was an impossible situation, but they deserved the truth from him.
“I should start at the beginning,” he said.
“Good place as any,” Fergie smiled, and he snorted at her unique brand of humor.
“Yes, it is,” he leaned back in his chair and glanced once at the open door to his sleeping quarters where his mate was curled in the soft six-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets.
“When I was younger, my brother and I-”
“You have a brother?” questioned Furio.
“Had,” he corrected the young Shifter and his voice filled with sadness, “Edgar was killed many decades ago. A century almost. Anyway, it was before I said my vow to become a Guardian of Chaos. Before I came here to lead you, I was Kingston Baldric of the Skye Clan. I had a brother, Edgar. He and I were more than family, we were best friends, and oftentimes, we were our own fiercest competitors.”
“Sounds fun,” said Fergie.
“It was,” he agreed.
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, he thought and so he continued, “We shared everything. Games, toys, secrets, hunts, conquests.”
“You mean women,” said Elena.
“Sometimes,” he shrugged, “Our parents passed into the void together as centuries old Dragons sometimes do. We were the last of our kind, the last two Diamond Dragons in the world. Then there was Neela. She was part of our Clan, a rare and dazzling Sapphire Dragon. We competed for her affections-”
“And you won, right boss?” smiled Storm, but Fergie frowned, shaking her head. Women’s intuition was real, he mused as she elbowed her mate.
“No, actually, Edgar won her hand,” he huffed out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck, “Back then the Skye Clan had opted to stay apart from the troubles of the world, both supernatural and normal. We had no allegiance to either the Guardians or the Loyalists side in the fight against magic, but as everyone knows Dragons are one of the most pure magical beings around, and we are scarce at that.”