Page 20 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

My hands were trembling from the near-death experience, but I knew, I knew, that if I did as he said, if I climbed on his back, I would regret it. Death would be preferable to that outcome.

So, somehow, I found the courage to shake my head. To refuse to obey.

“Get. On. My. Back,” Dayvin growled, emphasizing each word as he curled around toward me.

“No,” I said, somehow getting the single word out without my voice cracking. But it was a near thing.

Smoke drifted from his nose.

“Insolent human,” he snarled, wings spreading wide as I backed away in terror. “I will show you how to properly respect a—”

A ball of fire exploded in front of him, driving the dragon backward.

“Stay away from her,” another voice barked as a second dragon came swooping in to land between us.

Chapter Eleven

Damon

My fireball pushed Dayvin back, preventing him from advancing on Elanya. Then I was there, the stone crunching underfoot as my claws dug in deep, wings spread wide, shielding her from him.

Blue flashed in the sun as the other dragon coiled, gathering himself after my surprise appearance. Teeth were bared, and growls of challenge filled the crisp, clean late-morning air.

“What are you doing?” Dayvin hissed angrily.

My dragon roared, struggling against my control. It didn’t care about the other beast, about the terse situation we’d created. Its attention was laser focused on the blonde scurrying back down the tunnel, out of the way of the two titanic beasts squaring off in front of her.

Smart girl.

“Taking what’s mine,” I announced, verbally staking my claim to her.

The other dragon laughed nastily. “Yours? I don’t think so. You had a chance. You were offered a spot in the Choosing, and you declined, turned it down. What were your words again? ‘Not in a thousand years’, that was it, wasn’t it? You were quite vocal about your disdain for the human women. Now, you come here, claiming this one? Why?”

“That’s none of your concern,” I spat, blocking his path. “Just leave. She’s coming with me.”

The blue beast did nothing of the sort. Instead, he rose high in response to my interference. Indicating he wouldn’t cave to my demands.

MINE.

I snarled mentally at the bestial side of me, urging it to focus on what was in front of us. The other dragon wouldn’t just let us waltz out of there with Elanya on our back. He intended to defy my challenge.

We would have to fight, and that would require my full focus. Our full focus. Otherwise, we might lose her.

“You’re clearly not interested in her yourself,” I pointed out. “So, why bother?”

“Because she’s mine,” Dayvin stated bluntly. “I’m not just going to let you take her.”

“She is not yours!” I roared angrily, wings snapping out wide. “She belongs to me. Not you.”

My dragon had latched on to Dayvin’s defiance and his claim that Elanya belonged to him. It heard that, realized what it meant, and the sudden frenzy that followed overwhelmed me. I was ready to wrangle it to resist going for Elanya.

What I wasn’t ready for was the all-out attack it suddenly tried to launch on Dayvin. We went at him, leaping forward, slamming into the monstrous dragon who was nearly as big as we were. The abrupt forward motion caught him by surprise as well, and the impact sent us both tumbling over the ledge.

Snarling angrily, we slashed and clawed at one another as we fell, bouncing painfully off the incredibly steep incline. At one point, Dayvin was able to gather his feet under him and launch clear, but a whipped strike from my tail smashed one of his wings against his side, killing his ability to fly.

We both hit hard and rolled, stones and even boulders coming loose to rain down around us as we wrestled.

From above, I heard Elanya shout, but I couldn’t go to her. Not yet. Not until any and all danger to her was dealt with. I had to protect her. It wasn’t a want or a desire. It was a need boiling up from somewhere deep within me.

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