Scorch (Dragon's Destiny:Fated Mates Book 2)(25)

     



 

The huge creature landed on the rocky shore in front of me, his wings  flaring out to slow him as he touched down. He was a gorgeous creature,  and I still got a little thrill at the sight of something that shouldn't  have existed. The dark dragon shifted seamlessly into human form,  scooping up a bag he'd brought and slipping into a pair of loose pants  before approaching me.

His hair was darker than Maks's and his build was slightly smaller, but  he had the same pale blue eyes as my mate-and he was smiling, which put  me at ease.

"Я ищу Максим," he said, then shook his head with a little laugh at my  look of confusion and tried again in English. "I'm looking for Maksim."  His eyes dropped to my obviously-pregnant belly. "You are his human?"

This man looked young-even younger than Maks-but if he was a dragon,  that didn't mean much. His accent was Eastern European, and I remembered  Maks's comment about his father's territory being there. I smiled in  welcome. Maks had said that they'd had a disagreement, and I loved the  idea that maybe the rift could be mended before our baby came. Family  was important.

"Yes, I guess am," I answered. "I'm his mate. Are you his father? Er, ‘sire,' I mean?"

The man's eyes widened, and then he burst into laughter. "Ah, human," he  said once he'd caught his breath. "No, I am not that old beast. I am  Ivan, Maksim's brother."

Maks had a brother? I suddenly flashed back to Ty, Wes's brother, and  how head-over-heels that dragon-loving man was about his niece. I would  love for our child to have an uncle, too. I wondered why Maks hadn't  told me.

I sent my mate the happy news through our bond.

I wasn't prepared for what he sent back.

"Are you okay, human?" Ivan asked, coming close enough to clap a hand on my shoulder. "Does the child pain you?"

I clutched at my stomach as I tried to catch my breath and focus on the  here-and-now, and not the sudden blast of fear and anger that had just  erupted from my mate. I knew it wasn't directed at me, but it had been  so unexpected that it had almost brought me to my knees. I was still  shaking.

Maks was not happy to hear that Ivan had come. He was terrified that his  brother meant to hurt me. I had no idea why, but I trusted my mate, and  he wanted me away from his brother. Now.

Unfortunately, I had no idea how to accomplish that.

Ivan kept a firm grip on my shoulder, and now I could see that his smile  was predatory, rather than friendly. The eyes that I had thought were  the same as Maks's weren't at all. Where Maks's glowed with a warm, blue  heat, Ivan's were like ice.

"Where is my brother?" he asked, glancing behind me at the house.

"Close," I said, wishing the answer were "here."

Ivan smiled coldly. "I can tell he is close, but your answer means he is  not on the island, nyet? Good. You will come with me then, human."

He said the last part with the echoing vibration that I recognized as a  dragon's power to compel. If I hadn't had Maks's fire in me, I would  have had no choice but to obey.

"No," I said, shaking his hand off. "I won't."

His eyes widened in surprise at my resistance, but then we both realized  that he didn't need that particular power to make me do his will. In  his human form, he was both bigger and stronger than me.

And then of course there was his otherself.

"Why do you want me?" I asked, backing away and trying to stall.

An ugly look flashed across his handsome face, and he spat something out  in bitter Russian that I didn't understand, grabbing for me again. The  venom in his voice scared me, and I covered my stomach in a vain attempt  to shelter the child within me from whatever he intended.

And then a shadow moved across us, and Maks was there, diving out of the  sky like an avenging angel. Ivan cursed and leapt away from me,  shifting as his feet left the ground and engulfing my mate in a blast of  dragon fire as he launched into the air.

Our bond suddenly cut off, and my heart seized in fear.

Maks.





23





~ Maksim ~





I had never felt anything like the terror that filled me when I found  out my brother had come for Devin. Thank God I was close, and the last  stretch of ocean passed under me in a blur as I extended my senses ahead  of me, pushing myself to reach him in time to save him from …  I didn't  know what.

I didn't know why my brother had come.

I didn't know him at all, but I knew the way he had been raised.

Our sire saw humans as disposable. I'd watched the old dragon tear my  newborn brother from his human father's body, leaving behind the broken  corpse of the man he'd used to bear his young without a second thought.  I'd wanted to save my brother from growing up like that, the way Dane  had saved me, but I hadn't been able to.         

     



 

And now, for some reason, he was here. With my mate, who had my child  growing inside him. Devin had to be okay. Nothing else mattered but  that.

When I finally swooped over the island, I could feel my brother with the  subtle sense that we always had when another of our kind was near-and I  felt the ripple of his dragon's power. He was trying to force Devin to  do something against his will.

I found them on the far side of the island, and he had his hands on my mate.

A burning rage filled me, and I dove toward him without any plan other  than getting him away from Devin. My brother leapt at me, shifting and  flaming the minute he saw me, even though he had to know that his fire  wouldn't harm me.

At least, that's what I'd always believed.

I barely felt my brother's fire as it engulfed me. Heat would never harm  me, in any form, but to my shock I suddenly went mind-numb. With the  flames dancing over my body, my dragon senses were gone. I was blinded  on every level, with no idea where my brother was and no way to feel  what he was doing.

Worse, it cut off my bond with Devin.

The sudden loss stabbed at my heart like physical pain, and I was  flooded with the irrational fear that my mate had suddenly been harmed,  even though I had just seen him safe on the ground below a moment  before.

I flew upward, hoping to lead my brother away from Devin and to shake  the flames off my hide. My vision cleared before my senses returned, and  I saw that it was working. The silvery-blue dragon was chasing me up  into the sky, and as soon as we were high enough I flipped in mid-air,  diving under him, determined to stay between him and my mate.

I flamed at him, but he dodged the blast easily. For a split second, a  twinge of sadness intruded on my rage. This was my brother, the babe I'd  seen so briefly years ago. The way he moved told me that he'd been in  aerial battles before, and I hated the thought of the life he must have  lived under our sire's tutelage. But when he feinted and tried to dive  past me, toward Devin, any sympathy I'd felt disappeared.

It didn't matter who he was. I wasn't going to let him harm my mate.

I slashed at him, crashing into his shoulder and feeling his wing  crumple between us as my claws found purchase in his flank. The flesh  healed almost as soon as I tore it, but his wing stayed misshapen, and  he started to tumble to the ground.

Go! I yelled at Devin through our bond-thankfully restored now that I  was free of the other dragon's fire. He raced for the house, and I  followed my brother to the ground, landing to block him from going after  my mate.

As he touched down, he shifted, his human shoulder dislocated and a grimace of pain on his face.

"Why are you here?" I demanded, keeping the form of my otherself to better protect what was mine.

Despite his obvious discomfort, he smirked, looking me up and down. "You  look like him," he said, his lip pulling back in an ugly sneer. "So  pale."

Our sire was silver, and I knew my brother was right, but I was thankful  that my coloring and shape were the only legacy I'd inherited from the  old beast.

My brother was trying to jerk his shoulder back into the socket, and I  knew from past experience that trying to do so would be both frustrating  and painful. His body's ability to heal quickly was actually making it  more difficult, locking the limb in place as his body sought stability.

I sighed and shifted. "Let me help, brother," I said.

"Ivan," he spat. "My name is Ivan. I make no blood claim on you."

"Well, claim or not, you're still my brother. Let me help." I grabbed  his arm and stretched it out, twisting and popping it back into the  socket before he could protest.

He flinched and grumbled, moving away from me and rubbing at his shoulder.

"Why are you here, Ivan?" I asked him again, pleased to see the pain start to ease from his features.

"Your child," he said. "I am going to take it when your human is ripe.  Our sire's blood runs in its veins, and he has tasked me with saving it  from your soft-hearted weakness. We've been expanding our territory, and  we will raise your hatchling to join us in holding it, as is its right  and duty."

My vision went red. My otherself raged inside me, any familial ties  forgotten as it strove to burst free and drive this threat off of our  land. I trembled with the effort of keeping my human form, but I  couldn't stop my dragon's power from coming through my voice.