Page 90 of Destined By Dragonblood
I stared into the darkening sky that promised more inches of snow than New York ever saw. Smart thinking would have taken us back the way we’d come, spending the night trying to sleep at the damn motel, and returning in the morning. My heart, the tug of Dolyn’s presence before us, wiped being a responsible man from my head.
“We’ll walk. Maybe Dolyn will feel us—come to us.”
Ashley tugged on her woolen hat, zipped up her puffer coat, tugged on thick gloves, and hopped out of the SUV.
Doing the same as she had, I told myself we would find Dolyn. We needed him, the yearning a severe, driving force neither of us could ignore or deny.
Our beta, our full-blooded dragonblood was somewhere in the foothills of Grand Teton, and nothing was going to stop us from locating him. The darkness inside me whispered an agreement, and I threw open my door, determined to seek out our fate.
Chapter 25
Dolyn
I woke from an erotic dream, sweating and dick leaking. Energy licked at my damp skin, heightening my pulse even though my heart thrummed with need.
Close.
I sat upright abruptly as I recognized the sensations swirling inside me. Darkness, pitch black as a tomb to a human, didn’t keep my dragon’s sight from making out every detail of my bedroom. The massive four-poster bed where I’d imagined fucking Vanni and Ashley, the washroom off to the side—and the lone pane of glass overlooking the valley far below.
I found myself striding across the warm rock floor and grasping the wooden frame of the window that was cloaked from the outside. Snow flew through the air, blinding my vision to within a mere twenty yards or so.
The beginnings of a mate bond shimmered through me, tugging me down—outside in weather no human would survive for very long.
My mates had come to find me.
I raced barefoot through the cavern to the old door leading to the veranda. The slap of my palm slid it inward, and I stepped back from its path until it opened enough I could slip through.
Wind slammed me in the face, sleet biting at my naked body, but heat exploded in my core as their waning energy reached through the swirling whiteness.
My fragile human mates, lost in the wilderness below, were on the verge of freezing to death.
A roar ripped from my throat, and giving over to my beast nature, I leaped off the veranda, shifting in a blink. Our wings flapped and shot us forward like a bullet, our senses heightened. We couldn’t see worth a shit in the storm, but the bond guided us downward—east and south toward our alpha and female.
My human half balked at the truth of the first but pushed thoughts of refusing to submit aside as the energy thickened between us, letting us know we drew nearer. Pain and numbness swirled from them, and our chest tightened, leaving us breathless.
Had hypothermia already set in? Were they beyond saving?
Another roar ripped from us, and we tucked our wings, diving as we pinpointed their location. The ground shook beneath us as we landed, and we stalked to an overhang and the two lumps huddled together somewhat out of the storm.
We blew a breath of warm air over them, immediately melting snow off their clothing, and Vanni slowly opened his eyes. The sense of loss and heartache emanating from him faded as his mouth worked.
“D-Dolyn?” he stuttered from the cold, his eyes widening.
Yes.
We hoped his inner dragon could hear us.
“Ashley…” Vanni turned, motioning stiffly toward her.
We focused our attention on our female. She lay unmoving beside him, her face and lips pale. Another puffed exhale ruffled the snow-crusted hair around her face. Reaching forward with our front foot and extended, curved claws drew a gasp from Vanni, but he didn’t move as we cradled Ashley and pulled her against our heated body. She stirred, and the relief, the rush of peacefulness through her eased our mind.
Vanni looked into our eyes and stumbled to stand. “You’re fucking huge.”
A beast-like chuckle rumbled in our chest, and we settled back onto our haunches, holding out our other front foot.
Vanni moved into our grasp and wrapped his arms around our ankle. The trust he showed, the sense of rightness we felt having them grasped against our chest caused overwhelming emotion to swell through every inch of our scaled body.
We leapt into the sky, clutching our mates close, trying to shelter them the best we could from the elements as we flew toward home. Pressed against our scales, they would feel the heat of the fire inside, the burning embers untouched by the cold. And, with our claws wrapped mostly around their core, all vital inner organs would also be protected from the winter wind.
