Now, the big guard was looking with increased unease at the door. He refused to look at Carmen after they brought her and Ariel into the small office. Ariel had helped her into a seat. Almost immediately, two of the guards attached restraints to secure them in their chairs. Since they couldn’t restrain her arms, they secured them to her slender ankles. Carmen bit her lip to keep from whimpering while silent tears of pain coursed down her cheeks.
A short time later, the loud roar of a dragon echoed through the hanger. The three guards standing in the room with them blanched at the sound. A moment later, Creon burst into the room. He had not fully transformed back into his two-legged form. His face was still slightly elongated, his eyes were two dark, golden flames of fury, and black scales still covered his arms, neck and cheeks.
His eyes zoomed in on Carmen. The low, dangerous growl rumbling from him had the men in the room backing up until they were pressed rigidly against the wall. His eyes moved from one to the other before they settled back on Carmen’s battered body.
“Who hurt her?” He asked in a quiet, deadly voice. When no one answered immediately, he looked at the guards again and roared out. “WHO HURT HER?!” He asked
,
taking a menacing step toward them.
“Creon,” Carmen called out quietly. Creon’s eyes jerked back to hers. “I…,” Carmen began before stopping to lick her suddenly dry lips. “I… need your help,” she requested quietly. “Please… will you help me? I don’t want to hurt anymore,” she added softly as fresh tears filled her eyes and flowed down her pale cheeks. “Please,” she whispered brokenly.
Creon stared into her huge, glittering brown eyes. He heard her unspoken words. She was finally ready to give them a chance. He wasn’t sure what had changed but he could hear the silent plea. She was afraid but she was ready to take the first step toward healing, the first step toward accepting him and what was to be her new life. She was finally ready to rise from the ashes.
Carmen looked at him silently begging him to understand what she couldn’t say. She saw the moment he recognized her unspoken plea. Creon drew in a deep, shaky breath as he walked over to her. He heard Mandra enter the room and walk over to Ariel who was sitting quietly next to her sister.
“Her wrist is broken,” Ariel murmured softly to Creon. “She also took a hard blow to her face. Please take care of her. She was trying to protect me.”
Creon looked at the battered face of his brother’s mate. His eyes moved to the men standing to the side. He would be meeting with each one to show them what would happen if they ever
lay
another hand on his mate or any of his brothers’ mates. All three men bowed their
heads
in acknowledgement, realizing they had used unnecessary force against the two small females.
“Creon,” Carmen whispered looking down at him as he snapped the restraints around her ankles. “Don’t blame them or Ariel. It was my fault.”
His head jerked up and his jaw tightened in anger. “We will discuss this after I get you healed. Never again, Carmen. You will be by my side from now on until I know you will not try to leave me. I claim you. Once you are healed. I will finish my claim and if the Gods and Goddesses bless us, you will be mine forever more,” he said tightly
,
standing up.
Carmen gave a small nod to show that she understood there would be no more escaping. “I had to try one last time,” she said in a voice so faint he almost missed it.
Creon bent down and gently lifted her into his arms
,
careful not to bump her injured arm. He turned and snarled out to Harvey to return to their living quarters and wait for them. The huge golden creature shook with anger, turning its massive head to stare intently at the three warriors who stood silently inside the door. It emitted a low snarl before it transformed into a huge bird and took off for the palace.
He paused at the door, turning to look at each man. “If you ever touch my mate again I will personally gut each and every one of you. I will take my time and I will enjoy every moment of it,” he said coldly. “This is not finished.”
The largest warrior stepped forward and bowed. “Please accept my apology for harming your mate, my lord. She is a fierce fighter and very protective. She is a strong mate for you. I will be ready to answer for the harm I have done.”
Carmen felt horrible for the big guy. He had only been doing his duty. It wasn’t his fault that she was just a little more breakable than what he was used to. She turned her face into Creon’s neck and nipped him lightly to get his attention.
The soft rumble of a purr startled both of them. “Don’t be mad at him. He was doing his job,” she whispered
,
looking wide-eyed at Creon.
Creon’s eyes narrowed on his mate’s pale, bruised cheek. He nodded to the warrior. He needed to get his mate back to the palace. He had left in such a hurry he hadn’t thought about transportation back once he found her. He saw Mandra helping Ariel into his symbiot which was in the shape of a small skimmer. He had sent his back to the palace already.
“Hang on,” he said gruffly before he called forth his dragon.
Come, my friend. We need to get our mate home,
he whispered.
Carmen gasped as the arms holding her transformed around her. They thickened and grew. Midnight black scales rippled and formed. Long, leathery wings unfolded and expanded even as she felt the world around her shifting so she was much higher than she had been moments before. In a matter of seconds, she was staring with wide eyes at the sleek head of a dragon. She was cradled in its front claws. Unable to stop herself, she reached out with her good hand and tentatively touched the midnight black scales on the dragon’s chest. The scales were hard and smooth to her touch. She felt a shiver run through the huge body as she let her fingers explore as far as she could reach. The elongated black head turned to her and puffed out a breath of hot air. Carmen reached out and gently touched the tip, running her fingers along one rounded snout.
“You are so beautiful,” she breathed out
,
forgetting her pain and fear in a moment of pure wonder. “You are magical.”
Creon wanted to roar out as she touched him but was afraid of scaring her. Instead, he moved on his back legs, pumping his wings and took off up into the skies. He let out a series of coughs at his mate’s startled squeal and pulled her closer to his warm body. He felt her relax back against him. A new sense of triumph flowed through him at her trust in him in his dragon form. Tonight a new dragon would be born. He had no doubt in his mind that his mate would survive the transformation. She had survived more than most warriors. She was his phoenix.
Creon touched down lightly on the balcony to his living quarters, gently balancing as he transformed. He hopped down
,
trying not to jostle Carmen any more than he had to. She was paler than she had been earlier and he was worried that she had internal injuries.
He called out for Harvey. The gold symbiot was bouncing from one foot to the other. He was back in the shape of the strange creature that Carmen seemed to find so comforting. His long, golden ears bounced up and down and were so long it looked like he might trip over them in his excitement to get to Carmen.
Creon walked swiftly down the hallway to his bedroom. He carefully laid Carmen down on the soft covers. She was holding her arm and biting her lip. Tight lines of pain pinched the corners of her mouth and a haze of pain clouded her beautiful brown eyes. She was drawing short little breaths through her mouth.
“Heal her,” Creon said urgently to his symbiot.
He sat on the edge of the bed and ran his hand tenderly over her forehead. Harvey dissolved and flowed over Carmen, golden tentacles moving over her broken wrist first then continuing until it had touched every inch of her bruised body. Creon watched as a mist of gold ran up his mate’s neck and over her bruised cheek. Carmen jerked, then lay perfectly still as the symbiot moved over her skin.
“It feels so soft and warm,” Carmen murmured
,
looking up at Creon with wide eyes filled with awe. “It tingles.”
Creon smiled down at the breathless whisper of wonder. Since a Valdier warrior was united with his symbiot while he was still an infant he never thought of how it felt when it healed him. It was as
natural
as breathing. Just as his dragon was. He could not imagine what it would feel like if he did not have either one.
“I have never thought about it before but you are right, it does tingle when it heals,” he replied still running his hand over her forehead before letting his fingers flow through the silky strands of her hair.
“Why did you run again? Surely you knew you would never have made it off planet? Even if you had, you would have been captured before you got far. It would have been suicide to think you could return to your world in a transport shuttle. You would have died before you got a fraction of the distance to your planet,” he asked huskily.
Carmen turned her head into his palm. “I didn’t want you to bite me. I thought if I could get away from you, that you would find someone else. I mean, if you didn’t claim me th
e
n when I left nothing would happen to you if you hadn’t claimed me all the way,” Carmen tried to explain.
She was having a hard time thinking straight. She wasn’t hurting anymore, at least not from her wounds that were now healed. Her body was calling out
to his
. She could feel the pull. It was stronger than it had ever been before. It was as if there was something deep inside her that called to him.
She watched as his eyes darkened to an even darker gold. Twin flames burned with an intensity that sent a shiver of awareness through her until she felt like her blood was boiling. She turned her head when Harvey reformed next to her. The huge, gold Basset Hound ran a long, golden tongue up the side of her face.
“Oh,” she giggled, startled. “Thank you,” she said quietly, leaning up on one elbow so she could brush a kiss across Harvey’s golden nose.
A gasp escaped her as she was suddenly lifted into a pair of very strong, very possessive arms. “There can never be another for me. You are my mate, forever,” Creon muttered before his lips crushed down on hers.
Carmen’s whimper turned into a soft moan as she timidly wrapped her arms around his neck. Creon pressed down until he felt the soft full lips of his mate open hesitantly. He took advantage of her startled gasp to deepen the kiss, tangling his fingers in her hair and tilting her head to one side.
When he pulled back, her eyes had turned to such a dark, rich brown it was almost impossible to see her pupils. She was drawing in short, deep breaths. He moaned as he felt her chest expand, rubbing her taut nipples against his chest as she tried to steady her breathing. He buried his face in her neck and drew in a deep breath of his own. The moment his lips touched her heated skin, he felt his teeth elongate.
I claim my mate now,
his dragon growled out.
Creon was startled as his dragon gained control suddenly, striking out with a single minded determination… to claim his mate. He groaned loudly as Carmen’s sweet blood poured into his mouth. His dragon roared inside him as it felt his mate’s responsiveness to him and the taste of her blood. The dragon’s fire burned in his throat as it built and poured from him into Carmen. A sharp cry echoed in the room as Carmen’s body arched into his at the intensity of the heat pouring through her. She felt like she was catching fire from the inside out. Heat gathered and pooled between her legs. She moved restlessly
,
trying to get away from the scorching fire.
A low growl warned her not to fight. Creon continued breathing the fire his dragon started, determined to not let his mate escape him again. A primitive need to mate, to claim, to possess held him tightly in its claws. He pressed the slender body under him further down into the soft covers of his bed, crawling over her until he had her caged. His legs ran along the outside of hers and he ground his heavy cock into her to let her know the effect she had on him. He kept his upper body raised just enough so he didn’t crush her. His fingers were still locked tightly in her silky locks holding her head still as he continued to breath
e
the life-changing fire into her.
He could hear her harsh gasps in his ear as she fought for breath as the dragon’s fire burst through her. Her hands clawed at his back and shoulders, alternating between trying to push him away and gripping him tightly to her.
“Creon,” she whimpered. “The fire…,” she gasped.
All he could do was groan as the fire poured in never-ending waves, crashing against the walls of her resistance, breaking down the fear and replacing it with need. His dragon fought fiercely to overcome the last of her resistance. It was as if he understood that like the mystical phoenix, only when Carmen’s resistance
was
finally burned to the finest ash could she rise to be reborn, free from the pain and grief of her old life.
Creon’s groan increased as the fire inside him grew to a point where he wondered if he would burn with her. Carmen’s scream pierced the room as the wave of fire flared, engulfing her. Unable to stand the cry of anguish coming from his mate, Creon ripped his mouth away from her delicate skin and swiped the mark with his tongue to ease the pain and seal his mark. The symbol of a pure black dragon, wings spread wide with one of its front legs raised in challenge showed clearly on the curve between her neck and shoulder. Never had he seen a clearer mark on a mate or a more beautiful one.