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  It felt wonderful. At the same time, it seemed to chase the itch deeper and she couldn’t focus on anything for many moments beyond her anxiousness to envelop his flesh completely.

  That delightful circumstance seemed as if it might elude them for a time. He propped her hips on the counter for a few moments to get the leverage he needed and then lifted her again, jogging her up and down along his length until her flesh finally yielded and he sank deeply. Slipping one hand up her back to tangle his fingers in her hair, he tugged her head back and burrowed his face against her neck and then followed it upward to her mouth. The muscles along her channel began to flutter madly the moment he covered her mouth with his own and thrust his tongue inside.

  Uttering a sound of pleasure, she sucked at his tongue a little frantically. His cock jerked.

  He groaned into her mouth and then broke away, sucking in a harsh breath. “Tell me you’re close, baby,” he gasped hoarsely, withdrawing slowly and then plunging deeply again.

  “I’m coming!” Marlee said on a low groan, feeling the inner walls of her sex tensing toward release.

  Goosebumps rose on the flesh beneath her palms. John shuddered, sucked in a harsh breath, and leaned her against the counter, thrusting in and out of her like a piston. Her climax exploded through her almost the moment he shifted positions, dragging a cry of ecstasy from her.

  His powerful strokes only seemed to drive her higher and higher until she’d begun to think she might black out. She thought she might have for a handful of seconds. When awareness filled her again, John had ceased driving into her and was holding her tightly, shuddering in the aftermath of his own release.

  Catching her breath, she tightened her weak arms around him and nuzzled her face against the side of his neck. He cupped a hand on the back of her head and then stroked her hair.

  “I’m not sure this was well thought out,” he murmured ruefully.

  Marlee chuckled. “There was thought involved?” she asked teasingly, lifting her head to smile at him lazily.

  “Not a hell of a lot,” he admitted, grinning back at her and then glancing around at the kitchen as if he’d just become aware of their surroundings. “I don’t remember much after that first kiss.”

  Marlee shrugged. “Well the kitchen needed cleaning anyway.”

  He grimaced. “I’m going to have to abandon you to clean the mess—or you can leave it and I’ll take care of it when I get back.” He hesitated. “There’s something I need to do.”

  Marlee lifted her brows at him, but she didn’t question him. Reality was setting in with a vengeance and her main focus at the moment was dismounting and getting her clothes on before any of the others got back. Kissing her lingeringly, he helped her down and adjusted his jeans.

  She watched him tuck his tool away with interest, wondering why even that seemed sexy.

  He was studying her a little quizzically when she lifted her gaze and she felt her face heat. His lips curled. He turned away without another word, however, and headed out the back of the house by the sliding glass doors as the others had.

  Frowning, Marlee stared at the doors for a few moments, realizing abruptly that all of them had headed out back. The temptation to move to the doors to see if she could see what they were up to hit her, but she dismissed it. Gathering her clothing, she hugged it to her and turned to survey the kitchen. Shower and then clean? Clean and then shower?

  Her thighs were sticky with John’s semen and she decided on a compromise, heading into the downstairs bath to clean up before she dressed. Despite the fact that it took her nearly an hour to clean up the kitchen, none of the men had reappeared.

  Uneasiness flickered through her, but she firmly tamped the urge to check on them and went up stairs to bathe.

  ———

  “It took you long enough,” Gabriel growled when John finally arrived at the entrance to their lair where everyone else had gathered.

  “I’ll give you two guesses why and the last doesn’t count,” Eli growled.

  John flicked a cool look at him, noting the signs of battle. “Tired of kicking Joshua’s ass already?”

  “We were just warming up while we waited for you to finish fucking Marlee and get your ass up here,” Joshua said tightly.

  John had thought his rage had cooled, but it needed only that to set it off again. He launched himself at Joshua in a flurry of flying fists. Fortunately, Joshua’s rage and frustration hadn’t been tempered even a little. He was running on instincts, as well, and in no better frame of mind to combine logic with fighting skills. After trading a dozen quick punches, they seized one another and began a grim wrestling match for dominance. It wasn’t until he managed to break Joshua’s hold and punch him hard enough in the jaw to send him reeling backward several steps that he realized Gabriel, Eli, Luke, and Aaron had also engaged in a grim battle for dominance.

  Even as Joshua managed to regain his balance, Eli, reeling backward from a punch Luke had thrown, slammed into him and knocked him off his feet. He uttered a bellow of rage as he hit the dirt beneath Eli that sounded less than human. John felt his skin begin to crawl at the sound. Every hair on his body, it seemed, stood up at attention, and then the adrenaline pumping through him seemed to amp upward in direct proportion to his rage. Power surged into every muscle with burning, painful intensity.

  Joshua shoved Eli off and surged to his feet but even before he turned to face John once more, John saw that he looked oddly distorted. His face when he whipped his head around had ceased to look like Joshua’s at all.

  Surprise flickered through John briefly but vanished the moment Joshua uttered a challenging bellow. Fury took its place. He felt almost as if he’d stepped outside of his own body, watching as the beast that had taken his place leapt forward to accept the challenge Joshua/beast had issued.

  Not beast—dragon. A sense of exhilaration expanded inside of him as he grappled with Joshua once more, trading blows that echoed inside of him like dull thuds he was barely aware of beyond the impact itself. Abruptly, the balance of power shifted and Joshua, uttering a growl of rage, seized him, lifted him above his head and threw him. He contorted his body as he became airborne, twisting, trying to find his center of gravity. He managed to right himself, but instead of landing on the ground, he slammed into the rocky slope. That time pain managed to filter through and he roared at Joshua in fury for causing it even as gravity took over and slammed him into the ground.

  He surged upward instantly on all fours, braced to counter Joshua’s attack. Twin points of fiery pain erupted at his shoulder blades. The pressure built until it abruptly broke through the skin. He arched his back as he felt a shift of weight there and spared a glance over his shoulder at his back. Spiny wings had sprouted. He focused on flexing them and they spread outward at his mental command. He flapped them a couple of times, testing the air for lift.

  “John!”

  The voice wasn’t familiar, didn’t sound human, and it certainly didn’t sound like Gabriel and yet he knew it was even as he flicked a gaze over the golden dragon that called out to him.

  “You’ve shifted into dragon form!”

  Surprise flickered through him. How could he have shifted? He’d never been able to shift—none of them had! They’d been trapped in human form as long as he could remember, and yet, when he surveyed the clearing outside their lair he saw dragons, five dragons.

  Confusion held him, tamped the urge to retaliate against Joshua. “We’ve all shifted,” he said in a growly voice that didn’t sound like his own as he stood up and looked down at himself.

  The exhilaration that had seized him before filled him. He’d been cut off from his true self most of his life, unable to assume the form he knew was his, to be what he knew he truly was. He felt stronger than he ever had before. Shrugging his shoulders at the unaccustomed weight he felt of wings, he folded them against his back and then flexed them again, stretching them as far as he could and then flapping them again. A strange sort of joy fi
lled him, almost seeming to expand his chest like a hot air balloon. He could fly!

  The moment the thought filled his mind the urge to try it seized him. He looked around for a place to launch himself and finally merely raced toward the edge of the cliff.

  “John!” Gabriel shouted in alarm when he saw what John intended. “You’re never flown before you fucking moron!”

  A momentary doubt speared John in the chest, but he knew he could fly and he merely ran faster, spreading his wings wide. When he soared off of the ledge it was the most terrifying, thrilling thing he’d ever felt in his life. His heart thundered in his ears as if it would explode in almost equal parts joy and fear. He felt himself spiraling downward and then a painful jolt along his wings as the air slammed into them, slowing his descent, and then stopping it, and finally reversing it, lifting him upward again. He angled his wings to turn in a wide circle and when he had made half a circuit, he saw a sky filled with dragons.

  Pride filled him as he watched them—his brothers—his people. Maybe once upon a time, many more had filled the skies, but it was comforting that there were still dragons!

  If they’d had the ability to shift before, had had the ability to fly, they might have found those mates that they’d yearned for for so many years, he thought abruptly, wondering now if there truly weren’t any others. Or was it only that they’d been confined to the earth, unable to assume their true forms that they hadn’t found others?

  Their mother hadn’t. She’d been forced to take a human form and seek out mates among the humans.

  Was that why they hadn’t been able to change before, he wondered abruptly? Had their mother confined them to the form of humans to give them the chance to find mates, making it impossible to shift until they had?

  If that was the case, though, why and how had their mother managed to take the seed of men and produce him and his brothers when they hadn’t been able to produce their own offspring until they’d found Marlee?

  The thought of Marlee sent an abrupt chill through him and a fear he’d never felt before.

  Was he confined to dragon form now that he’d made the change, he wondered? Could he take his human form again?

  Because, if he couldn’t, he had lost his mate. He could never go back to her, hold her in his arms, lose himself in the pleasure and comfort of her body.

  The abrupt shift in his focus from the delight of feeling the wind beneath his wings to a near desperation to return to his human form nearly cost him dearly. The body that had seemed so much a part of himself that instinct guided him, that he didn’t even consciously have to think about to know exactly what he needed to do to stay aloft, suddenly became a cumbersome, awkward burden. He didn’t dive toward the ground. He dropped like a stone, head first, spiraling more and more out of control. Gritting his teeth, he forced Marlee from his mind, forced all thoughts of his human form far to the back and struggled to reach for the beast side of his mind.

  His instincts took over once more, but even at that it was a near thing. He barely managed to pull himself out of the fall and catch enough wind to lift him upward again. He thought for many moments that he was going to have to land and climb the mountain again. The strain of flapping his wings to catch enough air to climb exhausted him. By the time he landed in the clearing, he was shaking all over and weak from the energy he’d expended.

  Dropping to his hands and knees, he fought to catch his breath and shake off the weakness. When his heart finally assumed a less painful, more normal rhythm and it was no longer agony trying to suck in enough air to fill his lungs, he opened his eyes. It was his own hands that came into focus—his human hands—not the gnarled claws of his dragon form.

  As confused as he had been when he’d transformed into his dragon self, he stared at them uncomprehendingly for several moments and finally sat back and lifted them, turning them.

  The near deafening sound of wings drew him from his absorption and he lifted his head to watch as Gabriel settled to the ground and then Eli. “Where are the others?”

  Gabriel nudged his chin in their direction. “Still out there.” He tilted his head curiously.

  “How did you change back?”

  “Why did you?” Eli asked.

  John swallowed with an effort. “Marlee.”

  Almost as if her name itself was a magical talisman, Gabriel and Eli began to shift from beast to man. They were naked. Pushing himself to his feet, John looked down at himself, saw he was just as naked, and then looked around for his clothing. They were shredded, he discovered to his disgust. He pulled his jeans on anyway and tore a strip from the t-shirt he’d been wearing to tie them around his waist. “Note! Undress, then shift!” he muttered ruefully.

  Gabriel and Eli glanced up from a similar task.

  “Do you know how?” Eli asked.

  John shook his head and then frowned, trying to think how it had happened. “I saw Joshua shift and then I felt a strange sensation wash over me. The next I knew I was in dragon form.”

  Gabriel settled on a rock. “You were enraged. It set the beast free.”

  John looked around and found a rock that looked relatively comfortable and settled on it.

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve felt rage, Gabriel,” he said wryly. “And I’m the most even tempered.”

  Eli looked like he wanted to dispute that but in the end he kept his opinion to himself. “If it wasn’t anger, what was it?”

  Joshua, Luke, and Aaron settled in the clearing.

  “Fighting over Marlee,” Joshua responded in a voice somewhere between the beast and man as he slowly resumed his human form.

  Gabriel frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe. Have we ever fought over a woman before? I don’t recall that we have.”

  The others stared at him blankly for several moments and sat down to ponder the question. “There was the chief’s daughter,” Joshua said finally.

  Eli glared at him. “She’d taken me as her lover first,” he said, but with little heat.

  “Well there’s no point in getting pissed off about it now!” Joshua said testily. “I didn’t know!”

  Eli’s eyes narrowed. “You still trying to convince me you didn’t smell my scent?”

  “I smelled bear grease!”

  Eli shrugged. “I can think of at least three—early on. That was many, many years ago, though, when there weren’t nearly as many humans in the area.”

  “I’m thinking it was more like a dozen,” Luke said dryly. “You just don’t remember all of them because there were only a couple that we actually fought over—We’ve argued about at least a dozen, though—over the years.”

  “I guess that rules that theory out, then,” Gabriel said irritably. “It’s got to be something about Marlee. It’s too much of a coincidence, don’t you think, that we’ve never known how to take our true forms and now, suddenly, have? What’s so different about Marlee?”

  “Everything,” Joshua said dryly.

  “You think it’s because she’s a white woman?”

  John snorted. “Fuck no! How many white women have you been with?”

  Eli narrowed his eyes at him. “Not as many as you have. They don’t know you’re a native. All they have to do is look at me and they look like a doe caught in the crosshairs of a rifle scope.”

  John and Gabriel exchanged a speaking look.

  “Maybe it’s got nothing at all to do with Marlee,” Gabriel said slowly, “at least not directly. Maybe it’s something Mother did? Some sort of protective spell she wove?”

  “I’d agree with that if it had worn off or been broken once we were adults, but why even consider ‘protecting’ us beyond that?” Aaron said irritably.

  “She couldn’t have had time to do much once she realized she was dying. If she was too wounded to heal herself, she couldn’t have been thinking clearly. She was acting on instinct to protect us,” John said quietly. “Who knows what was going through her mind?”

  Gabriel shook his head. “Maybe we’ll
figure it out. That isn’t the issue that brought us out here, however, and we haven’t settled that.”

  Joshua instantly felt his rage flow back into him. He wanted Marlee. That was the bottom line—and it was clear that Gabe, Eli, and John weren’t about to share. “I don’t see that we’re going to settle it either,” he said tightly, struggling with his anger. “Not when you three have decided to keep her to yourselves. If she’s our woman, then she’s ours, by gods! I could see it if we hadn’t shared women before, but we have—even if none of us were particularly thrilled about it! Maybe not all of us at one time, but we’ve certainly shared. It isn’t like it’s ever been easy to find women who didn’t immediately sense our dragon side and take off like a shot!”

  John sent him a cold look. “You challenging my right to enjoy my mate?”

  “She’s human, John. She isn’t a true mate, which means you’ve no more right to her than the rest of us. I don’t give a fuck what Eli says.”

  John glanced at Eli questioningly. Eli shook his head. “I tried to tell them they’d find themselves bound to her. They seem convinced that I’ve made it up just to keep them away from her.”

  John felt a wave of dizziness wash over him as he stared uncomprehendingly at Eli and it finally settled in the pit of his stomach exactly what Eli meant. Denial instantly sprang to his mind, but his search for an argument came up against an undeniable truth. He’d thought of Marlee as his mate because she was the first woman he’d managed to impregnate—but he knew she was human and he hadn’t considered it a true mating—not consciously.

  He might have gone on telling himself that he hadn’t blood bonded with her if Eli hadn’t made it impossible to ignore any more. He glanced from Eli to Gabriel. “You, too?”

  “Yes,” Gabriel said grimly.

  “Even if that’s true,” Luke said tightly, “she’s a mate and I’ve been searching for one just as gods damned long as you three have!”

  “Gods, Luke!” Gabriel snapped. “You don’t think we’ve got enough of a fucking mess now? You’re that determined to take a chance on forming a bond with her, too?”