I was expecting him to be surprised or to show some consideration of my terms. Instead he just tipped his head back and laughed. “You’re pollution on the bloodline of my people, and I will wipe you out and take your power as an offering to the great Ardan.”
Well, if I was going down, I might as well do so with gusto. “That douchebag? I heard he was too lazy to kill dragons himself. Makes all of his bitches do the dirty work.”
That’s right, bud. I just called you a bitch. I grinned for effect. Screw these racist jerks.
In one blinding move he jumped forward, face contorted in rage, arm raised high. And that’s when I heard the cry of a falcon overheard. I covered my face and looked to the ground to protect my neck, preparing for the slice of a knife on my skin. But the pain never came.
I saw the druid’s feet lift up in the air and I dropped my arms, craning my neck to see that he was airborne, flying across the alley, before slamming into a wall.
My heart pinched at the sight of Logan, one fist clenched at his side, the other holding a Glock to the druid’s head. But his eyes, those green eyes, were pinned on me, swimming with … relief. Sophie was in her human form, holding her beloved harpoon gun, while the rest of the pack was in their animal forms. I wanted to cry seeing Nadine’s black wolf at the end of the alley, sitting next to Coop’s red fox. And my breath caught in my throat seeing two large brown bears and lion, but…
They came for me.
Keegan’s large grey wolf crouched in front of the druid and launched himself right at Steven’s neck just as Logan pulled the trigger. But it was no use. One loud crack and the druid was gone—there against the brick wall one second and gone the next. Like magic. Crazy, freaky, unheard-of magic.
At the end of the alley, I noticed another human form, Eva, doing some wild spell work; a yellowish gauze was creeping up the two walls, closing us in from the open street like a spider web. Closing us off from whom? I wondered. Probably Jeanine. Danny stood at her side, adding his own magic to strengthen hers.
I stood there stupidly, unsure of what to say or do, fighting the tears that wanted to spill down my cheeks. I nearly got killed—nearly got them killed. I was an idiot and I never should have left, but … If they knew…
“Sloane Murphy!” Logan roared from his place halfway down the alley.
I paled, clenching my arms to my sides. Here it came. He knew. He knew I was a monster, I could feel it. All of them peered at me then. Aside from the anger and hurt on Logan’s face, it was Nadine’s wide, painful wolf eyes that killed me the most. Betrayal. I had betrayed them all and the feeling sank in my stomach like a stone. I stepped forward, ready for whatever they threw at me.
Logan was stalking forward with all of the grace and speed of a large cat and I was trying not to be terrified. What would he do? What would he say?
“Don’t. You. Ever. Leave me again,” Logan said through gritted teeth. His eyes were flaring green and my dragon was roaring inside of me. Again, it was as if she was trying to tell me something but couldn’t speak.
I sighed, trying to keep the tears at bay. “You don’t understand!” I yelled at all of them, making sure that even Eva could hear me. “I’m one of him, okay?” I gestured to the space in the wall where the Irish asshat had teleported or whatever. “I’m half druid. Part monster.”
It was Sophie who answered first. Logan was almost to me and didn’t seem to be able to find his words. He was just a raging ball of anger coming at me full force.
“No shit. Eva told us. We don’t care,” Sophie said in her exceptionally bitchy tone.
Confusion and relief poured through me, and the tears I had been holding leaked from my eyes. “But you talk about all the ways you want to kill druids. Beheading them is your favorite, right, Logan?” My voice was soft now, only meant for him. Logan had reached me and without hesitation his hands came out and cupped the bottom of my face, forcing me to look up at him.
“Was I shocked? Yes,” he stated, letting his thumbs stroke my cheek in a way that made my dragon melt. “Does it change the way I feel about you? No way.”
The way he felt about me? Suddenly I was an insecure little girl. “But…” I didn’t know what to say, what to do. I’d messed up. I never should have left, never should have doubted them.
“But nothing. Sloane Murphy, you’re stuck with me. For life.” Logan’s eyes flared green.
For life. My dragon purred at those words, but I huffed. “Because I’m half dragon?” Was that the only reason he was so hell-bent on protecting me? On sticking together? Just to live out his mission or whatever? A large part of me hoped not, because I felt something for him too, and I wasn’t sure I could run from that anymore.
He ate up the distance between our bodies, pressing his hips into mine and causing me to inhale sharply. “Because you’re my mate.” His lips crashed onto mine then as pleasure and pure shock exploded inside of me. My dragon burst to life as magic thrummed through my veins and fireworks of warmth and desire erupted in my belly. Mate … yes. Logan was my mate and I should have known it all along. My dragon did. I realized that now, what she had been trying to tell me. Logan was my mate. Just as Nadine said, there was a knowing, a magical explosion, a rightness in my soul that he was mine and I was his. I wasn’t in some perpetual heat, I had been denying myself my mate. Logan’s tongue reached out softly, caressed mine, and I moaned. My fingers reached out and ran down the length of his torso, stroking the hard muscles there.
“Alright, get a room,” Sophie called from the end of the alley, and I grinned as Logan pulled away from my lips and met my eyes once more, this time with a huge smirk. Being like this with Logan, kissing him, it felt so right I wished I hadn’t waited so long.
I was about to speak when a glow below me caught my eye. Looking down, I sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of my purple magic and Logan’s teal magic intertwined and dancing between our two bodies. It’s as if my body was a light bulb and my magic was hovering twelve inches off my body, reaching out for Logan.
The light display attracted our friends. They walked over, all gaping at what was happening. The magic swirled in arcs, flaring out bigger and bigger, tingling my abdomen as it moved.
“What is it?” Logan asked breathlessly to no one in particular.
Eva responded, stepping closer, eyes open in awe: “You’re mates … a magical bond stronger than any other, closer than even a mother and child. Your life force is now dependent on each other.”
The colors were dying down now and both Logan and I looked at each other with wide eyes. “What does that mean?” I asked Eva, craning my head to see the sorcerer.
Eva peered at me from behind her top hat and frowned. Then she looked at the ground as if she couldn’t meet our eyes. “If one of you dies, then the other goes with you.”
Keegan had shifted to his human form, wearing a pair of low-slung sweats and no t-shirt. At Eva’s words, he let a curse word fly. I let what Eva said sink in as pure shock saturated my being. Now it was back to being like they had only one dragon, because if one of us died we took all of humanity with us.
‘It will be okay.’ Logan stroked my cheek but I jumped back with a yelp, because his lips hadn’t moved and yet I’d heard him clear as day in my head.
‘What the hell!’ I thought back.
Logan’s brow furrowed, at first in confusion, and then surprise, which turned to delight and he grinned.
“What now?” Sophie groaned, watching our loved-up display.
Logan was grinning ear to ear. “We can speak into each other’s minds.”
Sophie made a gagging noise and Nadine reached out and smacked her arm hard, shutting her up.
“And this is funny how?” I asked him, because it was totally freaking me out. Talk about a privacy violation. Mate or not, I wanted to be able to control who was in my head!