Val was worried when Markus sent her inside for his friend. When she told Sonar that Markus needed him, the male went from motionless and expressionless to a terrifying mask of furiousness. She followed him to the door and stayed inside at first. She couldn’t see everything that was happening because it was dark and she was at an odd angle. It looked like Sonar and Markus were about to take on a bunch of guys as big as they were. She took out her cellphone ready to call the sheriff, but decided that maybe she could defuse the situation.

“Hey! You guys causing trouble, you need to leave before I call the sheriff.” She moved to stand next to Markus, who glanced down at her with frustration on his face.

“Go inside, Valorie.”

“No way. I’ve got my phone right here and I’ll have the sheriff out in a matter of minutes.” She gasped when the man who seemed the most threatening stepped forward.

“A human? You haven’t been on this planet long enough to taste these little morsels, but let me advise you that they’re good for a little fun but that’s all.”

She ignored the weird part about just coming to the planet. “Hey, that’s rude!”

Markus picked her up and placed her behind him. “Go into the saloon now, Valorie!”

His buddy Sonar gave her a shove, which she didn’t appreciate at all. She stumbled but when she turned around to complain, whatever she was about to say was forgotten. She froze in horror as the men started to fight with what looked like knives in their hands. Then one of them started getting bigger and bigger—he used the knives to rip off his clothes. His body changed—morphed—with scales popping out everywhere, his face elongated, and he grew a tail. He was like an enormous lizard…no, not a lizard, a dragon.

“Holy shit! A dragon?” She couldn’t keep her wonderment and then fear contained when the dragon turned on her and growled. He opened his mouth and fire shot out.

Oh God, I’m going to die. She closed her eyes, expecting to burn as the flames washed over her but didn’t feel anything. She opened her eyes to find that another dragon had enclosed her in his wings, protecting her. The dragon roared and then opened his wings. She stared into a pair of familiar gold eyes.

“Markus?” she whispered, feeling stunned, utterly stunned.

The large dragon’s head nudged her toward the saloon. Yep, Markus was a dragon and he was still trying to tell her to go to safety. This time, she would follow his orders. Getting to her feet, she started to run for the saloon. Glancing back, she saw the dragons attacking each other. She needed to get help and no one inside the saloon would be able to do anything. Wait a minute, she had her cellphone!

Stopping, she searched her pocket but the phone wasn’t there. Turning around she scanned the ground and found it but it was too close to the fight. There was no way to get to her phone without getting caught up in it. She would have to go inside the saloon to call for help. What the hell was she going to tell Sheriff Jenkins? There’s a bunch of dragons fighting outside the saloon, send in a SWAT team. Yeah, that wasn’t going to go over well at all.

“My king, look out!”

That was Markus. She looked up to find all the men were in human form, naked, and still fighting each other. Markus moved to aid another man and wasn’t paying attention. She spotted the man that had said nasty things about humans. He had those knives in his hands raised, about to strike Markus in the back. She couldn’t let that happen.

Without a second thought, Valorie rushed out and jumped on the man’s back. “Leave him alone!”

She was no match for this dragon guy. He reached for her and threw her down, then he sliced her stomach with those knives, which turned out to be claws.

“No!” Markus roared as he pulled the man off of her.

He was at her side, pulling her into his arms. If she died now, she would never know what it felt like to be with him. “I wish…” The words wouldn’t come, there was so much pain.

“Don’t leave me!” Markus pleaded with her. He turned to look at the men behind him. “Is there a healer?”

“She’s lost too much blood. Humans can’t live long with that kind of blood loss. I’m sorry, Warrior Markus.”

“What about sharing my dragon fire with her?”

She wasn’t sure what that meant but if it had to do with fire, it couldn’t be good. “It’s okay, it’s my time.”

“No, it’s not your time!”

“Markus, I don’t know if that will work. It’s been hundreds of years since any of our kind here on Earth have done that. If she’s not your true mate, dragon fire will kill her.”

“If I don’t do something, she will die anyway.”

She was fading out quickly, losing her ability to see, and now her hearing was starting to go as well. Her body felt so heavy, pressing down onto the ground. It wouldn’t be long now.

“Stay with me, Valorie, I’m not going to let you go now that I’ve found you.”

Wasn’t that sweet? He was probably the one person who didn’t want to let her go. JJ didn’t count. She wanted to tell Markus that he was special and that she didn’t care if he was a dragon or not.

“You’ll have to get her permission,” a man’s voice said from above.

“Valorie, do you accept my dragon fire?”

What was he talking about? She was dying but Markus was asking her weird questions.

“I can save you, bond you to me with my dragon fire. I just need you to say yes.”

He wanted to bond with her. She wished for that, too. It was a shame that she was going to die.

“Say yes, Valorie,” he pleaded with her, placing his forehead against hers.

Whatever he needed to hear she would give. “Yes.”

As soon as she whispered the words, she felt his lips cover hers and warmth poured out of him into her. It was fire, and it burned her inside, flowing outward. What was weird though, was that the excruciating pain she felt before from the stab wound in her stomach was disappearing. She felt no pain at all, only heat enveloping her. Then she felt something else growing inside of her where the flames had gone, a need for Markus to be inside of her.

She groaned in frustration when he pulled his heat from her. “Easy little one, rest now. I have you.”

Those were the last words she heard before a deep sleep fell over her. She couldn’t rouse herself and she didn’t want to. She snuggled in Markus’s arms and knew she would be safe.