Chapter Eight
Aldain told the couple to enjoy their night together. In the morning they were going to see the Cailleach. Malcolm tried to forget about that as he took his mate to his mansion. Since they were now mates, she was moving out of his parents’ house and into the mansion. It was the house made for the head of the clan that he lived in as acting chief. When Aldain and Tori arrived, Aldain told Malcolm he and Carrie could live there. Aldain was going to be there for some time, but he considered his castle his permanent residence.
Malcolm had moved all of Carrie’s things in their room the night before the ritual. It was a beautiful room. It had a huge king bed in the middle, with a sitting room off to the side. It had a full bathroom with double sinks and a separate shower and tub. There was an outside patio that followed the length of the room. The view was breathtaking. You could see the ocean with a beach of white sand. The lapping of the waves gave him a calming effect. Carrie hadn’t seen it yet. Malcolm hoped she liked it, as he felt it was the best room in the mansion.
When they arrived, he took Carrie in his arms and carried her upstairs to their room. He acted like she weighed nothing in his arms. Dragon shifters were exceptionally strong. He practically ran up the stairs.
Malcolm’s dragon was demanding he take his mate and mark her so no other dragon shifters would doubt who she belonged to. Dragon shifters marked their mates by making a small bite on their shoulder. It made a small but unmistakable scar. Every dragon shifter would know it meant she was someone’s mate. Nothing could bring about a quicker death than for a dragon shifter to mess around with another shifter’s mate. It was a rare occurrence for that to happen. Most shifters kept the mate of another shifter in high regard; they respected and protected them as if they were their own. That law among shifters was an absolute law that was closely held among the clans.
Malcolm had Carrie close her eyes as she felt him stop in front of a door. He opened it and walked in. He gently put her on her feet and had her open her eyes.
Carrie gasped. “Oh my God, Malcolm, this room is beautiful. It’s huge!” She checked out the bathroom and sitting room. She opened the double doors to the outdoor patio. She stood a moment and took in the beauty of the view, smelling the forest close by and the ocean. She had noticed since the mating ritual that her sense of smell was more intense, along with her hearing and eyesight. She also was aware that she could hear the thoughts of Aldain and Malcolm. She loved the fact that she could think how much she loved Malcolm and he would just wrap his arms around her and tell her he loved her too.
Malcolm stood behind Carrie on the balcony, picked her up and carried her to their bed. He sat on the bed with her in his lap, not saying anything, and proceeded to rain small kisses on her neck as he undressed her. She started to undress him also, even though the kisses he was planting on her were making her body shiver. When he got to her pants, he stood up, and as he pulled them down, he kissed and nibbled on the inside of her thighs. He could smell Carrie’s wetness, driving him crazy. He wanted her so badly but he wanted to take his time. He wanted to spend hours making love to her. He finally managed to get all her clothes off. He sat back and just drank in the beauty of her body.
Carrie slowly walked over to him, lust showing in her eyes. She pushed him back on the bed as she started taking his pants off, doing the same to him—kissing between his thighs, nipping on them. She could see his manhood as hard as steel. She removed the rest of his clothing and let loose that part of him that was straining to get out. She grabbed it tightly in her hand as she moved her face toward his sac. She flicked her tongue gently over it while moving her hand up and down. Malcolm moaned when she moved her tongue between the middle of his balls and rectum. Her tongue flicked close to that nether region. She slowly spread his cheeks and ran her tongue over his tight hole. She stuck her tongue in, and Malcolm’s body jerked. All the blood seemed to rush to his head. He couldn’t think—just feel the magic her tongue was causing. He had never felt anything like it. Carrie could feel what Malcolm’s body was feeling, and it gave her a sense of power knowing she was making this very powerful man and his dragon putty in her hands.
Malcolm was close to losing control. He didn’t want to release in her mouth, he wanted to get as deep inside her as he could. He pulled himself away from her and put her on her back. He slowly kissed her neck and her chest, down her stomach to the insides of her thighs.
“Oh God, Malcolm, that feels so good. Don’t stop!”
Malcolm lapped at her petals, the moistness from her causing him to drink from her like a man dying of thirst. He stuck a finger in her as he continued to flick her nub with his tongue, every flick causing her to moan and arch her back. His finger finding that bundle of nerves, heightening her arousal.
She couldn’t take anymore. “Malcolm, please, I need more. I need to feel you in me. Please!”
He smiled. “Oh, yes, my love, I plan on it.”
Malcolm quickly turned her on her stomach, her butt in the air and her glistening womanhood calling to him. In one thrust, he impaled her. He grabbed her hips with each thrust, her channel surrounding him, the moist warmth of her walls contracting tightly and causing him to move harder and faster. Malcolm could tell she was close to orgasming.
“Come with me, my love, let go,” he said. He then bit her lightly on her shoulder, causing Carrie to hit the peak of her orgasm.” Her walls contracted again, and her body arched as she stiffened and yelled his name. He stopped as he released himself inside her, his head swimming as he could feel his seed fill her, his body jerking with every spasm. He moaned, “God, oh God,” with every spurt.
When he finished, he grabbed her and put her body on top of his as he tried to keep his heart from beating out of his chest and catch his breath, both covered in sweat, gasping for air. When Malcolm could finally move, he turned on his side, taking Carrie with him. He looked at her lovingly.
“Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
She smiled. “In fact, I do. I can feel it. I love you as much. You make me so happy. Until I met you I had no idea love felt like this, so all consuming. I am yours forever, Malcolm. I can’t imagine you not being a part of my life.”
Malcolm kissed her and sighed. “You are my everything, Carrie. I will spend our very long lives making sure you know how much I love you.”
She snuggled into him, feeling content. They fell asleep in each other’s arms, each dreaming of the other—neither one knowing of the dangers soon to come.
They woke the next morning, each having different thoughts going through their minds. Today was the day they were going to meet the Cailleach.
Malcolm was full of trepidation. He hated that he had to see her again. Malcolm wasn’t going to leave Carrie’s side. Everyone involved in going to see the Cailleach felt Carrie would be in danger. Malcolm and Aldain were still waiting to hear from Dimitra on why the Cailleach wanted to harm Carrie. If Carrie said it was the Cailleach who was calling to her that night in the water, Aldain decided the Cailleach would have to die. There couldn’t be someone wanting to kill innocents allowed to live. It went against their very nature.
The Cailleach lived outside the village in a small cottage. She never seemed to leave. Malcolm and Carrie were going to meet Aldain and Tori at the cottage at eight in the morning. They arrived a few minutes early, and Aldain and Tori were waiting patiently for them.
Aldain knew how much Malcolm hated the thought of having to see the Cailleach again, but it couldn’t be helped. This was about his mate, so he needed to be there. Malcolm always swore he felt something evil about the Cailleach, but Aldain had felt that had come from the way Malcolm had perceived her when he saw her as a child. Now, however, he wasn’t so sure. Most clans had a Cailleach, and to his knowledge nothing bad or evil had ever come from having one. She was the closest thing they had to having a Chosen One.
Carrie was still undecided on whether she wanted the responsibility of being a Chosen One. Malcolm did make a good point when he had told her she had been right about her grandmother, but years of guilt over it always had her second guessing herself whenever she would receive knowledge. She always questioned it.
They walked to the door, and Malcolm sucked in a breath when he heard the old woman’s voice telling them to enter.
Aldain had never seen the Cailleach before. He stood before what looked like an extremely old woman. Her white hair went down to her waist, and her body was bent with age. Her eyes looked like white orbs.
“Cailleach, I have come for your council,” said Aldain. She looked right at him like she could see him with her white eyes.
“What is it you wish to know from me?” Her voice sent shivers down his spine. Her question was almost like a screech. “I believe we have found a woman who is a Chosen One. I need your council on this. What do your visions show you?”
Carrie gasped. In a wavering voice, she said, “It’s her, Malcolm. That is the woman I saw in the water.”
What happened next was a nightmare none of them would ever forget. The Cailleach screeched and reached to pull Carrie toward her. Malcolm grabbed Carrie out of her reach.
“The last Chosen One!” the Cailleach screamed. “You are an abomination. You must be destroyed!”
As the four of them watched in confusion and horror, the old woman started changing before their eyes. Her skin turned gray and scales sprouted to cover her entire body. Her front teeth elongated to huge sharp fangs, and she started to take the form of a huge snake. She hissed and struck at Carrie, her fangs barely missing her as Malcolm pulled her out of the way and put her behind him.
Malcolm lost control as he started to shift. He said in a loud voice, “You dare try and attack my mate? I will end you now!”
In dragon form, he was a remarkable sight. He was blue, and his scales glimmered wherever light touched them. He had horns that made an S shape and pointed straight up. Like every other dragon, he had a mouth full of sharp teeth and very large sharp claws. The giant snake struck at the dragon, burying her fangs deeply into his neck. Malcolm’s dragon howled in pain. Blood poured from the bite mark. Seeing one of his clansmen being attacked, Aldain shifted into his dragon, yelling at the women to run as he did so. Both women ran as far away from the fight as they could, but there was no way they were leaving their mates alone. The cottage was destroyed when Malcolm shifted into his dragon form. The women looked for a safe place as the fight continued. They ran behind a huge boulder to stay out of harm’s way, but it allowed them to watch what was happening.
The snake wrapped itself around Malcolm’s front legs and pulled them out from under him. He went crashing down, leaving him helpless against the snake as he fell. She lunged toward him, but Aldain caught her right behind her head in his huge jaws. The snake’s body thrashed as his jaws bit down. The snake wrapped the end of her body around his neck, hoping that by squeezing it she would cause him to let her go. Aldain realized what she was trying to do. He quickly bit down hard and in a second her head was severed from the rest of her body. The snake’s body uncoiled itself from his neck, but her jaws kept snapping, trying to inflict a ferocious bite. He shook his head and let go of the biting head, flinging it such a distance it couldn’t do any damage. He walked over to it, sucked in air, and breathed fire on it. Even though it was without a body, the head screamed as it went up in flames. It seemed like the head could live independent of a body.
As both men shifted back, Malcolm fell to his knees. Aldain and both women rushed to his side. Malcolm was bleeding profusely from the bite mark. Dragon shifters healed quickly, but for some reason Malcolm wasn’t healing. Malcolm’s body was drenched in sweat, and he shivered. Carrie touched his face. He was burning up with a raging fever.
Malcolm looked at Aldain with glassy eyes. “What the hell happened? What was that thing, and why do I feel like hell?”
Aldain put his hand on Malcolm’s forehead. “I have no idea what happened or what that serpent thing was, but it’s clear the bite has some kind of poison in it. Let’s get you to the hospital and get you taken care of. We’ll worry about all this when you’re better.”
Aldain noticed a large number of people had gathered around them. They must’ve heard the fight between the dragons and Cailleach. Luckily, no one had arrived during the fight. It had happened fast enough so that it was over by the time people started arriving.