Rancher Dragon, Terry Bolryder [acx book reading TXT] 📗

you didn’t come back after your talk. I figured you’d just be out drunk flying, but when I got here, you were already finishing the fight. I woulda helped, but I didn’t want to risk your mate, bringing my dragon out.”

Beck met his eyes. “Appreciate it, Clancy.”

Clancy’s expression shuttered, as it always did with talk of his dragon, but he nodded back.

Sierra finally pulled back from Beck to face Clancy. “How did you make a shot from all the way over there… in the dark?”

Clancy just grinned, looking like some Hollywood cowboy, his usual cockiness back. “Not even close to the best shot I’ve made.”

“Well, I’m glad you were here,” she said.

Clancy just tipped his hat to Sierra, then walked over to TJ and picked him up in his arms. “I’ll put this where no one can find it. Don’t worry, Beck. I’ll treat his body with respect. He doesn’t deserve it, but I know you’d see it done.”

Beck nodded.

Clancy paused. “For what it’s worth, I know you’re not a killer, Beck. That’s why I did it. Goodness like yours, it deserves to be preserved.”

Beck felt warmth filling him. Clancy was one of his true friends.

TJ might be gone, but now Beck was free to bond with his real friends. The people who truly wanted the best for him. And most importantly, his mate.

Clancy grinned. “Now you take that sweet lady of yours back inside and show her how wrong you were to ever leave her side, you fool.”

And then Clancy was gone, cloaked, presumably with his burden in hand. Whether he left as a dragon or a human, Beck didn’t know.

Clancy never showed his dragon.

But Beck was grateful to Clancy. Grateful to Harrison for sending him.

And more than anything, grateful that he and his mate were safe.

And could now face their new future together.

He scooped up Sierra in his arms and headed for the house, feeling stronger than ever despite the fight he’d just had.

Mate. Mate. Mate, his heart said.

“Mine,” he accidentally said aloud with a growl.

Sierra just smiled up at him. “My big, impressive, growly dragon. What was Clancy talking about, you showing me something?”

Beck smiled back. “I’m guessing he meant I should go make things official with you, shifter style.”

“Shifter style?”

“Mating,” he says. “If we’re together, with nothing between us, after you’ve seen and accepted my dragon, then we’re mated.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning we will always be together. We’ll share lifespans. You’ll be bonded to me always.” He took a deep breath. “So think carefully, because once you’re my mate, it’ll kill me if you ever make me go.”

She swallowed. “Of course I want you, Beck.” She threw her arms around his neck, nuzzling in close. “I can’t wait to be one with you. Mated. I want you here forever. I want to be with you always. I don’t care that you’re a shifter, or a dragon. You’re just you. You always have been. So take me, Beck. I want to be yours.”

He growled and quickened his pace, taking the porch steps in one leap. “All right.” He took her through the front door and then turned for the kitchen, laughing at her sigh of disappointment.

“I promise you, mate, when you’re fed and safe and I’ve checked every inch of you, I’ll give you what we both want.”

“Stubborn, overprotective dragon,” she muttered playfully.

“You know it,” Beck said. Then he set his mate gently down in a chair so he could get her something to eat.

The sooner he took care of her and assured his dragon she was okay, the sooner he could take care of making sure that he and his mate were bonded together.

Forever.

25

After a quick, delicious meal prepared by her favorite man in the whole world, and a chance to shower and change, the anticipation in Sierra was starting to reach a fever pitch.

Ever since Beck had told her about mating, about joining him forever and continuing their wonderful adventures together, she’d been unable to shake her excitement at the idea.

Beck was her everything. The only person she wanted or would ever want.

And knowing he wanted her the same way filled her heart to practically overflowing.

Beck was putting the dirty dishes in the sink, looking devastating in just a white shirt and clean jeans, when she got up from her chair and wrapped her hands around his midsection from behind. He was so warm, so big she couldn’t even get her arms all away around him.

He just looked down and grinned over his shoulder at her, the kindness of his smile not hiding the dominant, almost feral gleam in his eye.

“You get enough to eat?” he asked, rubbing his hand along her arm and making her shiver.

“Yes. But I’m still hungry… if you know what I mean.”

He turned around to face Sierra, the silver of his irises getting a little brighter whenever he looked at her in that certain way that seemed to say, “You’re mine.” And when his big, burly arms tugged her closer, pressing her into his hard muscles, she almost sighed in both relief and quickly budding arousal.

“Oh, I know what you mean.” Then, in a swift motion, his hands were on her ass, squeezing and lifting her up as Sierra wrapped her legs around his midsection. “I’m hungrier than a horse at feedin’ time.” He growled, nuzzling into her ear, his beard ticklish and stimulating on her neck and cheek. “Hungry for my mate.”

She leaned a little more into his beard, loving the soft scratchiness there. “Mate. It has a nice ring to it.”

Beck took them in the direction of her bedroom, heavy feet moving slow, making the old floor creak beneath him. In her book, that was just one more of a million things she’d come to love about Beck, even in the short time he’d been here.

She looked forward to finding even more things to love about him as they shared their future together.

“You still sure about this, Sierra?” Beck asked as he reached the bedroom and nudged the door closed