Page 7 of Flame it Up

Pyrus gave her a sexy grin, knowing she didn’t mean it. Teasing with Gerri was fun, but that’s all it was. Besides, he had Peace Corps personnel to save.

“If you’d only be so lucky,” Pyrus said and winked.

He climbed out of the car into the blinding sunlight, then closed his eyes to settle the mix of sensations stirring inside him.

The shifting process was a lot like sitting down to meditate. Once you’d done it a few times, it was easy to tap into. Pyrus had done it well over a few thousand times, maybe more at his ancient dragon age, so for him, it was more like flicking a switch.

He grew taller in the middle of the road, his tail sprouting from his back, his nose elongating into a snout, jaw cracking to make up for the space required for his ravenous fangs. His skin was covered by a thick layer of dark-magenta-shaded scales that felt like leather to the touch. And the fire that swirled in his belly gave him a deep sense of tranquility and purpose that no other human feeling had replicated.

Pyrus opened his eyes, then immediately blasted forward.

His wings made it easy to get to the venue in record time. He saw the empty party bus and the few drunken idiots who were mulling around outside, some of them standing outside the animal side of the sanctuary, attempting to break in.

Pyrus landed directly next to the two men, indenting the earth with his huge feet. The ground shook as he hissed at the men who looked up at him like they were looking into the eyes of the devil.

They toppled onto one another as he curled his head down at them, letting small billows of smoke twirl out of his nostrils.

“Fucking hell!” the men screamed.

Great satisfaction rolled through him from seeing the look of terror in their eyes. He stalked the two men as they scurried back to the party bus, stomping slowly to make the ground shake. Pyrus flew over the bus and landed just outside the door they attempted to slither through, his massive feet leaving more imprints in the road.

Fucking morons!

Pyrus let out a louder, much more intimidating roar at the men, who once again stumbled away, petrified. Pyrus then turned to the bus, made sure no one else was on it, then smacked it with his boulder-sized head.

The bus fell to its side, glass shattering instantly with a thud. He turned to face the venue where the men he had easily terrified had retreated to. He could hear women yelling and screaming, which only acted to further enhance his rage.

The tents the corps had set up weren’t tall enough to allow him entrance, so he shrunk his wings into his back and lowered his long neck. He instantly saw what the woman on the phone had been talking about, making his already hot blood boil.

Tables had been flipped over while bottles of alcohol were being stolen from the bar section. Women and men alike were trying to fight off the assholes, but there wasn’t any support in sight.

So Pyrus did what he always did best. He breathed in deeply, tilted his head back, and let out a deafening shriek. It stopped everyone in their tracks, turning to face the massive dragon who had abruptly entered the venue.

Get out!Pyrus screamed in his mind.

Though they couldn't hear him, his words were easily interpreted. The men stumbled around him, exiting the area with eagerness and an intoxicated alarm. Pyrus made sure to snarl at each man as they tumbled by, trying to hold back on the impulse he had to rip their heads from their torsos.

“Letgoof me!”

Pyrus snapped his head toward the kitchen area, where he heard a woman’s voice yelling at someone. He didn’t hesitate for a moment and charged in the door that led into the back room.

His dragon shoulders scraped along the side walls, knocking some of the structure to the ground. The kitchen ceiling lifted high to allow him space to move, and what he came upon within that room was something he would never forget for more than one astounding reason.

Pyrus came upon a man holding a woman by her throat against a giant metal fridge. It seemed that she had managed to get a few blows in, as the man’s nose poured red and his cheeks sported fresh scratch marks.

He is going to be pouring out more than blood once I’m done with him!

All at once, the universe seemed to stop for Pyrus. He took in what was happening to the woman, the danger and the rage surging inside him, and at the same time, something soared like a meteorite swimming through the sky.

Her eyes were bright emerald, shining at him, unafraid and ferocious. Despite the fact that she was being held against her will, Pyrus knew she wasn’t weak. She was a strong-willed woman with a captivating mind, body, and soul.

His dragon heart knew the woman was his mate. Which not only caused a cascade of joy to move through him but also a blinding, incomprehensible fury.

Pyrus saw a flourish of violent images in his mind like a carousel of homicide. He imagined snapping the man’s neck in half like a pencil, pulling his guts from his body and displaying them like party streamers.

Nothing would make him happier than to make his ancestors weep.

But Pyrus saw a look in the woman’s eyes that told him to hold back. So he took a step forward, stomping his feet. It caused a mini earthquake within the kitchen, shaking the plates of food and causing a few to plunge to the ground.

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