Page 55 of Bearly Yours
Roarke wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into his side. “The light show starts at the same time, round about, and the view from the Ferris wheel is the best.”
“Makes sense.”
He ran his warm hands over my arms, giving me goosebumps. “You still nervous?”
“How can I be nervous of a little Ferris wheel with a dragon shifter at my side?”
The ride manager at the front called out, “Last call for the Ferris wheel! Only those who have tickets already may ride! Last Call for the Ferris wheel!”
There was an almightypushas those in the line with tickets tried to maneuver around people to get to the front of the line. It looked like those without tickets, who more than likely wouldn’tget to ride, didn’t want to leave the line in case there was an extra seat or two left. My Clan alone took up three cars, including Roarke and I. They got on first, and the wheel raised up a little. Then the cars stopped so Roarke and I could get on. But before I could step out of the line, there was more pushing and shoving from behind me, making me stagger into Roarke. I almost went down, but Roarke caught me before I fell. It felt like someone hadpunchedmy side. Roarke growled menacingly at the crowd until they all scrambled away from us in terror, then he helped me carefully to the open car that was next, and we got on.
My side ached, pain blossoming and radiating down the entire length of my torso. I tried to smile as our car rose to the top, but I felt a little short of breath.
Roarke looked at me tenderly, cuddling me close as the light show started with its flashes of light, sparkles, and pops. Our car, once it’d reached the top, stopped. “Are you okay? Did one of those idiots hurt you?”
“I think I’m okay,” I assured him. But I wasn’t so sure. The pain felt like ice now, trickling into my veins. “It’s just, someone hit my side. It really hurts.”
He went still and growled, “Let me see.”
I twisted my body around so he could see my side, and felt his hands tenderly touch the area where I’d been punched. He hissed suddenly and started cursing in Gaelic. I looked down at what he was cursing at and was completely shocked to see that his hands came away from my clothing painted dark red.
Roarke stripped his shirt off, and carefully pulled me onto his lap. “Tell Riggs, Emrie,” he growled, his tone urgent.
I nodded, my head feeling like it weighed approximately eight tons.Alpha, I’ve been stabbed, I think. In the crowed before we boarded our car.
I could feel his alarm and panic through the Clan bond as he shouted down to the ride manager to let us off, that there was anemergency. But it became very clear that the ride manager was nowhere to be found, and that even the rest of those hoping to get on the Ferris wheel for last ride had left as well.
The ride manager is gone, Emrie.
We were on our own here, and stuck on a ride with no way to reach the bottom, or to get to the hospital.
I whispered this to Roarke, who growled and cursed in frustration. My vision started wobbling, and with the motion from our rocking cars, I felt like I was going to throw up.
Mateo and Alpha Riggs climbed out of their car, and clinging to the Ferris wheel, they made their way over to our car where my mate was holding me and trying to stem the blood streaming from my side with his pink tee shirt. How on earth had I thought someone had punched me? Obviously, I’d been stabbed. My thoughts were fuzzy and muddled, and I couldn’t work out how someone could stab me and yet it had felt like a punch.
“Lift her up to us, Roarke. We’ll help her get to the top where you can go dragon and fly her to the hospital.” Roarke nodded and handed me up to Mateo and Alpha Riggs, who steadied me between them.
My vision was still wobbly, but the ground looked really far away from us at the moment, and the distance wasn’t doing great things for my stomach.
My hearing started going in and out, my thoughts going even more fuzzy until I started losing snatches of time. I blinked and I was up at the top, being handed off to Roarke, who—holy honey badgers—had gone full dragon. He wasmassiveas an elder dragon, with swirling ocean blue scales, and a fifty-foot wingspan. I was sure the only reason we didn’t tip the Ferris wheel over was because it had a stability spell put there by wizards.
I could hear the people in the other Ferris wheel cars shouting. Some were crying, and I felt bad for them. We wereall paranormals, but it wasn’t often that any of us saw a dragon. Especially in their dragon forms. There were just too few of them.
Roarke held me in his forearms while balancing on his hind legs, his back claws, huge as they were, clenched around the Ferris wheel for balance.
“We’ll meet you at MCH!” Alpha Riggs shouted above the noise of the screams of the people on the Ferris wheel, and the shouts and screams from down below where the fairgoers were now noticing the huge dragon in their midst.
I didn’t think King Draven or the rest of the Council were going to be especially happy about this.
Roarke used the massive muscles in his thighs to spring high enough into the air that his wings wouldn’t hit the Ferris wheel, and then he banked and turned toward the direction of the hospital.
The light show, meanwhile, was still going on, and Roarke flew through a trail of pink and red hearts in the sky that exploded into dazzling birds that flew away. People below us ooohed and ahhed, but some screamed when they realized that Roarke wasn’t actually part of the show.
It made me chuckle.
Roarke turned his massive head toward where he held me like I was precious cargo.
“What, in any of this, is funny?” His dragon voice was a deep rumble that sounded like stones grinding against each other.
