Page 10 of Marked By Her Dragon

"He said the words," she sighed. "Saidhe loved me. Yeah, I said it, too, but he said it first. We spent the night together. Woke up together. Had breakfast together. I watched him drive out of town and then… nothing.”

Still scanning the darkness for any signs of the Wolf who'd filled the skies with a spine-tingling howl, she whispered, "Not one damned word." Then, clenching her teeth with such force the grinding of her teeth drowned out the sound of the wind whipping across the sand, she added, "And life went on. I survived. I even dated a guy or two – complete idiots – but honest-to-God dates, nonetheless. And now he's back and…OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT?!"

Shoving off the steering wheel, Macy jumped straight into the air. Feet landing with a thud on the seat, she shoved her butt over the headrest just as what looked like the Lon Chaney Jr.’s version of the Wolfman burst through the windshield.

It was the weirdest, creepiest, and freakiest thing she'd ever seen. It seriously looked just like the creature from the really old movies she and Roxy used to watch when they were supposed to be asleep.

Long, sharp talons swiped and grabbed, shredding her windshield like it was papier maché. Nails on a chalkboard didn't begin to describe the bone-chilling screech, but it was the glint in his glowing red eyes that sent a shiver down her spine.

Kicking out with both feet as she spun onto her stomach and grabbed for the gunrack where she kept the tranquilizer rifles, Macy wailed, “Get the fuck off me! Go away! I’m not your momma or your woman!”

"No," the deep, raspy snicker grated at her every nerve. "But you arehis,and that makes you very important tomyplan.”

The Wolfman’s words freaked her out even more than his eleven-foot-and-then-some height. It made her heart skip a beat even faster than his seventy-nine-inch chest and fangs longer than her shin bone.

“Him?” The word flew from her lips as she grabbed ahold of the iron hooks and pulled.

"Yes, him," the Wolfman seethed, the pads of his paw scratching the flesh of her ankle as the rapier-sharp tips of his massive claws cut through the muscle and tendon of her right ankle. “The bastard who killed my father. The one who destroyed everything we worked for. Took everything from me. Then left me for dead.”

Snapping her head to the left, Macy kicked out the same foot with all her might. Connecting with the Wolfman’s jaw, the jolt of the heel of her boot hitting bone rattled her eye teeth.

Black gelatinous globules of blood filled the air as the musty medicinal scent of camphor mixed with rotten eggs, and the sweet, burnt, smoky stench of xylenol had Macy coughing and gagging. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and her nose ran like the kids in Roxy's first-grade class, but she couldn't stop. She refused to give up. The bastard would not win.

Over and over, she kicked. Finally, tightening her grip on the gun rack to the point that her palms bled, she screamed, “Let me go, you stupid son of a bitch! It's Jack you want. Go get him! I've done nothing to you. I don’t even know who the hell you are. Don’t wanna know. Don’t give a shit.”

“Oh, but you will,” the Wolfman chortled, the sound forcing a cold sweat to break out all over her body.

Jerking her back with such force that her fingers were ripped from the hooks of the gun rack and her chin bounced off the headrest of the seat she’d been trying to get over, Macy’s eyes flew open wide just in time to get a glimpse of the one man she honestly never expected to see. "Jack! HELP! Help me! This fucker won't let go!"

But it was too late.

One more yank from the Wolfman, and Macy was flying backward. The coppery scent of her own blood replaced the horrendous stench of the Beast’s. The sound of the tearing of her tendons and joints made her stomach roll, and bile filled her throat.

Hurdled through the air like a ball on a string, she inhaled deeply to yell at Jack one final time. Then her torso was rammed right into the hard, incredibly unforgiving shoulder of the Wolfman, and the breath was knocked from her lungs.

Gasping, trying not to succumb to the darkness, Macy instead screamed as loud and as long as she could when the Beast jumped off the hood of her truck – perfectly mimicking the way she and Roxy used to skip rope before hitting the ground running. Slamming her fists into the small of the Wolfman’s back, she threw her head backward.

Locking eyes with the man she loved, she screamed at the very top of her lungs, “Damn you, Jack Thorntree, if you let this asshole kill me, I promise to haunt your ass for the rest of your days!”

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