Page 15 of Marked By Her Dragon

Chapter Six

Chasing Macy out of the cave, Jack couldn't believe how quickly she was taking to being a Dragon. From one step to the next, his gorgeous, courageous, and fantastic Mate had shed her scales and was dressed in clean clothes. Hell, she even had her hair up in a ponytail that swung back and forth as she charged out into the cool night air.

"Macy!" He yelled at her back. "Macy, please turn around. At least let me explain. Please. Just an explanation. Nothing else. I won't even touch you. Won't get too close. Just tell you where I've been, why I did what I did, and answer any questions you have. Then you can walk away and never lay eyes on me again."

Stopping faster than he expected and spinning around so quick she was little more than a blur, Macy slammed her fists on her beautifully rounded hips and fumed, "Is that what you think I want?" Stepping forward, his Mate's body shook with the unspent anger he could feel pouring off her in waves. She was the most perfect thing he'd ever been given in his whole life, even as she waved her fists in the air between them. "For you to go away? To never see you again? Are you stupid? Have you lost your mind? Are you blind?"

"Well, I… I mean… Well, I don't…."

“You don’t what, Jack?” She seethed. “You don’t love me? You never want to see me again? You’ve got a woman in Houston? You’re…?”

No longer able to be that close to the woman he loved with all his heart and not touch her, hold her, show her how much she meant to him, Jack closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled Macy to his chest, slammed his lips to hers, and kissed her for everything he was worth and then some.

Pouring all that he felt, all the love, adoration, respect, and devotion he’d had from the first moment he laid eyes on Macy Lindon those many years ago into that one embrace, he opened his heart, soul, and mind completely to her. Deepening their kiss, overjoyed at her moans of pleasure, Jack hoped and prayed that everything she saw and everything she learned from his thoughts, memories, and dreams would explain better than any words he managed to string together.

Pulling back long before he was ready, Macy shook her head and smiled so sweetly that the Guardsman thought he'd died and gone to Heaven. Then she cleared her throat, and everything changed. He went from blissfully happy to bracing for the bad news.

Laughing out loud, her hands left his arms. Gently laying them on his chest, Macy teased, “And you think I should forgive you for runnin’ off and not even sending a postcard for ten long years. Not to mention,keeping the fact that I can turn scaly and grow wings a secret? You’re gonna have to do better than one kiss, Bucko. Way bet…whoa!”

Jack scooped Macy up in his arms, not giving her a chance to change her mind or add anything more to her completely understandable conditions for forgiving him. Then, doing an about-face, he made it exactly three steps before seven Dragons landed in a semi-circle not fifty feet in front of them. "Son of a…."

“Put me down,” Macy demanded, swatting his shoulder as she squirmed in his arms.

“What if I don’t want to,” Jack snickered, keeping an eye on his cousins as they transformed from Dragons to men.

“Then I’ll set your ass on fire,” Macy deadpanned. “Queen Fione says I can in the blink of an eye.”

Letting his Mate's legs slide down his body, loving how the electricity of their connection popped and crackled in the air, he scoffed, "I guess I’m gonna have to let Felim talk to your Queen Fione.”

“Ha,” Macy laughed. “She said you can try, but she kicked his ass when they were young, and she can do it again. I think there’s more to this story than either one of them is sayin’.”

“Hey! What took ya’ so long?” Jack called out to his cousins as he sent pictures of what he wanted to do to Macy’s butt directly into her mind.

Hiding his laughter behind his fist, he couldn’t help but disguise his chuckle with a cough when she elbowed him in the gut and warned, “Cut it out, Thorntree. Don’t make me show you up in front of the boys.”

Thankfully, Gage answered, “It took Heath almost half an hour to tell us what the hell was goin’ on.”

“It did not,” the youngest of the MacAllen Dragons ranted as he brought up the rear. “It was y’all’s fault. Can’t anyone in this family be where they’re supposed to be? Took me ten extra minutes draggin’ Tree’s ass outta the barn. Shouldn’t the honeymoon phase be over? Hell, it's been too long for y'all to still be actin' like hormonal teenagers, isn't it? It’s just stupid. What the hell…?”

“Oh, shut up, Heath,” everybody laughed in unison.

"Y'all suck," was the only response the youngest Dragon came up with before J.D. stepped up, swatted Jack on the arm, and earnestly asked, "Y'all good? Does anybody need us to call Cheveyo or the Healer?"

"Nope, we're good," Jack assured, gently laying his arm around Macy's shoulders and pulling her close. "I just need to tell y'all that…."

“Macy’s a Dragon,” the entire group of MacAllen Dragons- minus Heath - chorused.

Then the youngest Guardsman's eyes met Thorntree's, and he jumped in with, “Now, don’t go gettin’ all pissed off, Jack. Ihadto tell them. I didn’t want them to come up on your girl all Dragoned out and think we were being invaded by a horde of Dragonesses or Amazons or whatever she looks like when she Shifts.”

Throwing back his head and laughing as Macy gasped, "Is that a thing? Could we be invaded? Hey, wait one cotton-pickin' minute…," Jack added yet another reason to the list of things he adored so very much about his Mate.

And it didn’t stop there.

Tone getting instantly suspicious, the index finger of Macy’s right hand flew up and pointed at each of his cousins as she directly inquired, “You would’ve known it was me, right? I mean, you would’ve recognized me as one of the good guys. Queen Fione saidwealways know. It’s instinctual, right?”

Finger flying towards her own head, Macy tapped her temple. “She’s downloading shit into my brain faster than all the computers in the Pentagon. So, according to her, all y’all willalwaysknow it’s me.”

Pulling his Mate even closer, Jack slipped his thumb and forefinger under her chin and lifted her head until their eyes met. Then, kissing the tip of her nose, he assured her, "I will always know it's you,Mo chroí,always and forever.”

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