Can't Get Enough (Dragon Kin) - G.A. Aiken Page 0,49

another realization.

“This was your mother’s cave, wasn’t it?”

“Aye. I was born here.” And close to where his mother had died.

Once outside, he released her hand and she mounted Nightmare’s back and took firm hold of his mane.

“You know your way back?”

“Aye.”

“Then go. Protect our people, Shalin.”

Ailean slapped Nightmare’s rump, forcing her horse to sprint off into the forest.

Ailean waited until they were far enough away, then he shifted and grabbed hold of the outside cave wall. He easily climbed it until he reached the top. Then he lay flat against it, using his gods-given skill to change his coloring to blend into the rock face.

He waited, and it wasn’t long before four of them came into sight. Ailean closed his eyes, his other senses taking over. Their scent moved closer, but Ailean waited until he heard their wings and felt the air around him move. When he knew they’d passed him, Ailean rose up into the air and grabbed one, his arm wrapping around the Lightning’s throat. The outsider roared and his comrades turned to face them. That’s when Ailean unleashed a ball of flame that forced them back. While he had the moment, Ailean flipped the smaller dragon in his arms upside down and used his talons to rip apart his soft underbelly.

Ailean had only just reached inside the screaming dragon and yanked out his intestines when a harsh bolt of lightning hit him in the shoulder. He dropped his prey and slammed into a tree, the leaves surrounding him, momentarily confusing him. Once he’d pulled himself out, another Lightning waited for him.

Before Ailean could react, the bastard unleashed a bolt of lightning aimed right at his head. Ailean began to move out of its way when a glint of metal momentarily blinded him. He jerked to the side and his vision cleared. One of his aunts hovered in front of him, her large shield up. The lightning hit it and bounced off, slamming back into the sender.

“Go!” his aunt yelled. “I’ve got them. Go!”

Nightmare tore through the forest while Shalin held on to his mane and kept low. She did know the way back, but she didn’t need to.

The horse kept close to the trees, using them as cover, and kept away from the clearings. But no matter what they did, unless they wanted to go days out of their way, they’d have to cross the clearing near the lake.

And, as Shalin had predicted, as soon as Nightmare made it out of the forest, he had to scramble to an abrupt halt. They dropped from the sky, stretching out in a line from the lake, and across a good portion of the clearing. They didn’t attack. They didn’t want her hurt.

They wanted her to shift, hoping she’d panic and try to go over them. The glint of their sharpened weapons told her exactly what they’d do. With one wing, she wouldn’t be going anywhere and then they could carry her wherever they’d like. She’d read that’s how they kept dragonesses they stole, but Shalin had always hoped those were merely lies told by their enemies. Now she saw there was truth to it. And although Theodoric obviously had hoped for more from his kin, some of the old ways were simply too hard to give up when desperate. For although they could sate their lust with a human, they could never breed with one.

“Dragoness,” one said, and the voice sounded familiar. She remembered him.

“You’re Theodoric’s brother.”

“Aye. Erdmann. Twelfth oldest.”

Shalin didn’t even want to know how many they had in total to warrant that answer.

“Theodoric won’t be happy with what you’ve done here today,” she told him.

“Not at first. But once we battle for the right to be your mate, he’ll understand.”

“Ailean will come for me.” And she knew it to be true. She knew it with all her heart. “He’ll destroy all of you to get me back.”

“We smell him on you,” one of the others remarked. “But I’d bet gold he hasn’t marked you. So how attached could he be?”

A few of them moved in a bit closer, slowly trying to surround her. Nightmare stood perfectly still but Shalin could tell by his tense muscles he knew what was happening; he was just waiting for the right moment.

“It doesn’t matter, Shalin the Innocent, if he comes for you,” Erdmann told her softly. “The queen of this land will never send an army out to bring back one dragoness. And if he comes alone, he’ll die alone.”

Slowly, Shalin