Chapter Seventeen
Ready to shift back into his dragon form at any moment, Sigurd stepped out of the shadows behind Ash.
Margaret whirled around at the sound of Dr. Kovak’s voice. “Or what? Laurel isn’t here to protect you anymore, Istvan.”
“Nor is she here to protect you.” Dr. Kovak marched up to Margaret, he stood nose to nose with the tall woman. “You forget the secrets this place holds. You have no domain here. Leave. And leave my children at peace.”
Margaret arched a brow, her arm prickled with silver scales. “It sounds like you’re threatening me, Istvan. I wouldn’t advise it.”
Sigurd stepped up beside Ash, put his hand on her arm. She glanced at him and he tugged her back. He inhaled, not sulfur and hibiscus that he suspected now came from Margaret. No, his mate smelled of jasmine and heated earth and he rubbed his hand down her arm. Her flesh peeled away in splotches revealing her dragon skin beneath.
He covered his hand over the spot. Ashlyn frowned at her foster father and Margaret arguing.
“Careful Margie, girl, your scales are starting to show.” Dr. Kovak crossed his arms. He wore his tweed jacket with the elbow patches. “Unless you wish to display your true colors.”
“Please do. Silver, right?” Sigurd left Ash and placed himself between the sharp dragon claws and Dr. Kovak.
Margaret’s silver eyes narrowed on Sigurd. “Ah, the messenger dragon. I should have known the master of the Giresun herd would have sent someone like you. Stay out of this, ice dragon, unless you wish to deliver your own balls to your pendragon on a platter.”
Ashlyn lunged for Margaret, but Sigurd caught her. “Bitch,” he hissed at Margaret. “If I deliver anything, it’ll be you to the draconian counsel.”
Margaret grabbed Istvan, her clawed hand beneath his chin. A long sharp claw pressed against his neck. “You’d best train your dragons better, Istvan. If you’re to keep this one as family, I’d at least teach him to respect his elders.”
“Let him go.” Ashlyn tried to jerk from Sigurd’s hold. He held onto her. “Easy, baby. She’s got two other druks outside, can’t you smell them?”
Ashlyn stilled. She took a deep breath and shook her head.
“Pity.” Margaret pouted at her. “I suppose it comes from the cross breeding. I had such high hopes for you. At least there is one thing you won’t fail me in, is there? Now, take your dragon there and go fetch my egg. In the meantime, Istvan can take me for a tour of the hatchery. You have until midnight. If you don’t return, I’ll introduce my brother-in-law to my dragons outside. They do get so impatient at times.”
Sigurd balled his hands into fists. His nostrils flared, and he gritted his teeth to hold back the dragon side of him pressing to shift and rip the dragoness’s throat out. He locked his arms, Ashlyn’s chest heaving, he felt the heat of her building up against his chest. Her eyes transformed to emerald orbs, he could sense her calculating thoughts.
“No.” Ashlyn elbowed her way out of his arms.
“Ashlyn.” Dr. Kovak’s eyes grew wide.
“No?” Margaret pressed her claw closer against his throat.
“Ash, baby…” Sigurd tried to warn her.
Her face flushed red and her eyes grew bright.
“No. You heard my father. You have no control here. This is a protected preserve for dragons and other endangered species. You want an egg, go lay one of your own.”
Sigurd’s chest burned as his lungs refused to take in air. He let the cold freeze inside them, prepared to shift and protect his mate.
“I never did have any patience of my own. Noon then. Shall we scramble some eggs from inside the hatchery? The kakapo or maybe the Philippine Eagle?”
Ashlyn’s head jerked back, her spine stiffened. She worked her jaw, but no words came out. Her eyes widened, and violent tremors seized her body. Sigurd moved away as quickly as he could before Ashlyn shifted from the curvy red headed woman he’d come to love and into a poisonous copper dragon. She screeched, an ear-piercing sound that bounced through the cavern and deafened human ears.
She stretched her hooked tip wings, testing their length, more stunned than any of them with her transformation. She snorted, peeved, and showed those sharp white teeth in a snarl.
Sigurd leaped toward Margaret as the silver haired woman shifted into a gleaming silver dragon with white haired mane and ivory antlers between her gray pointed ears. Her clawed hands curled around Dr. Kovak. He cried out as Margaret’s claws sank into his side.
Sigurd landed with Dr. Kovak atop him. He pressed his hands to the blood staining the older man’s shirt inside his jacket. “Help Ashlyn, she doesn’t know. She’s never shifted.”
“I think she’s got this.” Sigurd looked up in time to see Ashlyn ram into Margaret.
Head to head the two female dragons pushed each other. Ashlyn’s spikes jutted from the back of her cheek bones, down the back of her neck and at the end of her tail. Mate or no mate, seeing her like this, spooked his own dragon side. He saw it, fear, glazed in Margaret’s eyes. He continued to put pressure on the older man’s side to hold back the bleeding. “Shake your arse, baby. Use that beautiful spiked tail.”
Margaret hissed, anticipated Ashlyn’s swing, but her tail betrayed her and swung toward Sigurd. He rolled Dr. Kovak out of reach before the spikes struck the dirt where he had laid. Ashlyn winced. Margaret laughed shoving Ashlyn back.
His red spiked dragon gripped her claws into the cavern floor, but the silver proved stronger. Longer, with more muscle power behind her, Margaret shoved his red dragon mate back. Ashlyn swung her head to the side and Margaret jumped. Swinging her head back and forth, Ashlyn forced the silver dragon through the cavern, and into the tunnel entrance in which she’d entered. “You heard Father, leave and don’t come back.”
Margaret lowered her head, her eyes locked on Ashlyn. “How dare you.” She breathed in, her sides expanding, her slick scales raising.
“Ash! No!” Sigurd jumped from Dr. Kovak’s side. He shifted, plowing into Ashlyn. Her head turned, her spiked jaw slashed into his shoulder as he shoved her out of the way. He released his breath, showered the tunnel entrance with a cold mist as Margaret spewed her blue tinged acid toward him. It froze. Sealed the tunnel entrance between them and Margaret screamed from behind the ice blockade.
“No one messes with my mate,” Sigurd roared.
On the other side of the ice, the silver dragon snarled, snapped, then backed down the tunnel entrance out of sight.
Sigurd looked over at Ashlyn. “You, all right?”
“Yes, but my father isn’t.”