Page 28 of Wildfire Witch

“Hey, now,”she said, offended.

“Red winged rat,”I muttered. Closing my eyes, I passed my fist to my mouth and placed the crumpled note on my tongue.“Scraggly crimson crow.”

Aodhnait settled in my chest, subdued. We’d sweat a bit more, but we’d live through the night. I was calming down as reality sank in.

I made a more modern reference as I struggled through chewing and swallowing the wet paper in my mouth.“The discount phoenix at home when your mom says, ‘we have a majestic magical creature at home.’”

“Your literal other half,”she said in a small voice.

“Never lie to me like that again. Eternity is a long time for us to be stuck together as enemies,”I muttered. I attempted to get comfortable on the bare floor to catch some rest.

“I won’t,”she promised. Her warm presence spread down my ribs, the closest thing she could make to an apology hug. The floor may’ve been unforgiving stone, but at least I could say I wasn’t cold that night.

RUSTY

When I dreamedof meeting my mate—as shifters often do, but rarely admit out loud—I expected to lock eyes with a regal female who’d be eager to mark me from the moment we met. She’d be a dragon, or a lioness, someone with claws to drag down my back when I claimed her for the first time after a tussle for dominance. One that I always won. Few forces in this world could move an earthen dragon and the woman I made my mate would be no exception.

But the dragon who represented my second form coveted fragileNix, throwing my entire mission in jeopardy. I’d only just cleared first initiation and gotten the loyalty tattoo in its smallest setting on my upper arm. I’d fought an uphill battle to get the Fire Brotherhood recruiters to believe I wanted to join them. Earthen dragon shifters weren’t part of the alliance that’d first formed the gang. I was probably the first to appear willing to work for the Drakkon family.

My partner, Coda, had no such problem. He was a timber wolf shifter, a common species amongst the Fire Brotherhood. Heslept in the cot next to mine in the barracks they stuffed all the recruits into. That evening, once everyone else was secure in dreamland, I tapped in rhythmic code what I intended to do next with one claw on the metal frame, earning a glance of disbelief from his sleepy wolf’s eyes in the dark.

“You can’t just leave me here,”he tapped back.

“Sorry. She’s my fated mate.”

“What about the mission?”

“The department will send someone else.”They had to. Fated mates were one thing the bureau couldn’t fault an agent for; it was written into the code and contract we all signed. The animal in every shifter forgot duty when it came to our perfect matches. I’d almost blown my cover the moment I had to leave Nix behind in that bare jail cell. It’d taken all of my self-control not to post myself as her personal guard and growl my claim to any other shifter who dared come near her.

Nix. Nix naked on a pile of riches.My dragon pictured it so clearly, even though we hadn’t seen the little witch without clothes yet…nor did we own anything close to that many gold coins. But I’d get them for her to lounge on. I salivated, my palm sinking beneath my plain bedsheets to stroke my cock.

Nix, submitting.A far more likely image. I rumbled low in my throat as I imagined her baring her neck to me, pinned under my weight. My scales were impervious to fire, so her magic would do nothing in a dominance match. She would bear the mark of my claim for all to see, and then…

“Rusty,” Coda hissed aloud.

My cock throbbed in my hold. My utter lack of shame would be a sign to him and any other shifter that this was real—Nix wasmine.

“I’ll help. Tell me what to do,”Coda tapped.

I was in the midst of replying when an ill-tempered tiger shifter growled, “Quit that noise before I break your fingers.” There was a round of sleepy agreement from a few of the other men.

Glancing over at Coda with my green-brown dragon eyes on full display, I lifted my free hand in the sign for “later” and he nodded, flopping back onto his cot with a sigh.

I closed my eyes and willed my raging boner to cool. The dragon in me wanted to fantasize, but now was definitely not the time. I wiped away the mental image of Nix with my claiming bite placed prominently on her neck and pictured the reality of her.

The sweat and smoke scent clinging to her, along with the bitter tang of knockout drugs lingering over her neck. Scrapes up one side of her body, some kind of heat rash on her arm, and worst of all, that expression. Something like doubt mingling with a much stronger emotion, like hate, to turn her eyes into melted amber pools full of accusation.

My fated mate thought I was an enemy. That wilted me right up with shame. This wasn’t like a movie, where I could flash a badge and everything would be okay. I’d left her cold and alone in a jail cell like a good little fire brother. A potion for her injuries and a note with my true intentions were not enough to wave away her first awful impression of me.

I’ll have to make it up to her. On my knees. Between her legs.

I clenched my jaw, shutting out the mental image. My dragon was mostly instinct and sensation—two things it wanted to share with Nix badly.

I called upon self-restraint techniques I’d learned as a dragonling to keep from fantasizing about her again. I would save her tomorrow, once most of the gang left to assist that shit stain Benedict on some secretive mission for daddy dearest. Then Nix and I could get better acquainted. I’d get her, if not a bed of gold, a mountain of blankets and pillows to rest in to make up for tonight.

Maybe it’d be her hand wrapped around me by tomorrow evening. I certainly dreamed about it.

The next morningstarted brutally early, with a workout session. Say what you will about the Fire Brotherhood, but they had a fantastic group fitness program. Nearly as effective as the regimens in the army—except with three times the yelling. I let it fade into background noise, except when I challenged Coda to a sprint and told him in an undertone the part he needed to play for me today.

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