As she rounded his hind quarter and came to his tail, she was once again reminded that these creatures had been created to defend. Nothing brought that into glaring clarity better than his twelve foot tail with four foot tail spikes running its entire length. If that wasn’t enough, at the very end was a four foot triangular shaped spade. One swipe and anything in its path would be completely decimated.
She had no idea how long she stood there before she felt a wave pour over her body, it felt as if butterflies were landing all over her. She looked up and realized there were five other dragons, in addition to her mate, standing in the clearing. One very large royal blue with shining green scales throughout which she knew from his earlier description and sheer size was Royce. He was most clearly the largest of them all but even in dragon form he had a gentler demeanor than the others, not that she doubted his voracity in battle in the slightest.
To her right were two silver dragons with distinguishing black scales running down both sides of one and the other with the same sparkling black scales covering his underbelly. She knew these were Aidan and Aaron. It all made sense, twins as men equated to twins in dragon form.
As she continued looking around the circle of dragons surrounding her she came to a golden dragon that appeared more compact. It was as if his muscles were coiled and ready to spring forward at any moment. She looked up into this dragon’s large face and knew immediately it was Lance’s dragon. Even in this form it looked like he had a smirk on his face and those laser blue eyes were a dead giveaway.
As she came to the last in the circle, it was obvious she was looking at Devon. Although she had not spent much time with this member of the Dragon Guard, she recognized him from his mother’s description of his father. He was the most unusual opalescent white that she had ever witnessed. As he shifted from paw to paw an array of colors appeared and disappeared over his gigantic body. He stood just a bit taller than Rayne’s dragon but not near as tall as Royce’s dragon. His body was sleek and had a longer thinner tail like the twins. But one constant remained, each dragon had an array of deadly spikes and thorns she knew would be lethal in battle.
She felt the rush of butterfly kisses again and realized it was the dragon magic Rayne had talked about. She turned and there stood Rayne in human form walking toward her in only a pair of low hung jeans just like the night they had met. “What do you think, mo ghra’?”
“That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I believed every word you told me even when I tried not to but nothing will replace actually seeing it with my own eyes.” She turned until she was facing the other members of Rayne’s Force still in dragon form, “You have all given me a gift I will never forget. Thank you very much.”
Rayne pressed his front to her back and wound his arms around her waist. She leaned back and released the breath she had been holding. A tear slipped down her cheek as Rayne leaned his chin on the top of her head. She watched as the men changed back to their human forms and came walking towards them. She had to laugh to herself as she swiped the tear from her cheek, hoping no one noticed, at least they had jeans on when they changed back to human form. She probably would have spontaneously combusted if all that muscled man flesh had been naked and heading her way. She was learning that the Universe had a way of taking care of everything.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Spitfire just wiped a tear from her cheek,” Aidan sent directly to Rayne.
Rayne spun her around and searched her face for any signs of distress. He pulled her closer into his chest, “Why are you crying, mo chroi?”
“I’m just so happy. I’m home, finally home.” She whispered into his chest.
Rayne lifted her off her feet and spun her in circles, “Yes, mo ghra’ you most definitely are and now it’s time that I officially make you my mate.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
It had been a whirlwind twenty-four hours. After seeing the men in their dragon forms, Rayne had taken her to meet the Elders. They were nothing like she had imagined. She had thought they would be a bunch of stuffy old men who sat and judged everyone’s actions but they were actually pretty cool. Most of them had retired from the Dragon Guard. There was one very old man, Zachary. He was a Healer and the only dragon shifter she had met that actually looked old, really old. He looked at her with a wisdom that she could only imagine came from all he had seen over his many years.
Zachary took her hands in his, seemed to concentrate all his energy on her and after several minutes told her he was glad she had finally made it to them. She wondered if dragon shifters got dementia or Alzheimer’s. She chalked it up to an Elder being happy for the continuation of his race and moved on. They all seemed incredibly happy that she and Rayne had found one another.