Mated to the Earth Dragon (Elemental Mates 2)

Even as Damon hovered above, he saw a serpent’s tail strike out from the shadow. No—it was a scorpion’s tail, Damon realized, a second before the scorpion’s poisonous stinger sank right into the neck of a fire dragon.

The dragon howled in shocked pain. His body shimmered for a moment, and then shifted back into his human form.

Without his wings, he dropped like a stone. A moment before hitting the ground, he managed to shift back into his dragon, breaking his fall just in time. But already the scorpion’s poison seemed to be doing its work. A dark tint had begun to make its way up the dragon’s neck, the red scales that covered his body turning dull and dark.

When the dragon opened his jaw, only a puff of smoke escaped instead of a stream of flame.

Then, with an agonized roar, the dragon began to convulse, coughing desperately as the black continued to leech color from his scales. In an uncertain motion, his wings fluttering weakly, this dragon as well began to crawl towards the cave’s exit.

Two dragons left.

Only two dragons before his mate would be safe...

But just when Damon spread his wings, inhaling deeply for a final attack, a rush of terror came flooding his senses through the mate bond.

A trap! It’s a trap! They’ve come for us—help!

Together with Autumn’s desperate cry for help, a vision of a wall shaking and a crack forming in the stone appeared in his mind. For a moment, he couldn’t think, the instinctive need to protect his mate so strong that it overwhelmed everything else.

Power was building inside him along with his fear and his rage. Without thinking, he released it, flinging it straight at the two remaining dragons.

With a loud rumble, large rocks began to fall from the roof of the cave. One of them hit the wing of a fire dragon, who groaned in agony as he began to tumble towards the ground. The second came to his rescue, stabilizing him at the last moment with a wing he thrust beneath the other dragon’s wounded wing.

No, Damon realized even through his shock. He wasn’t stabilizing him—he was helping him to escape.

Both dragons had begun to make their way to the exit of the cave, retreating along with the other wounded dragons. At any other time, Damon would have rushed after them—but there was no time left. His mate was in mortal danger.

With one final outburst of his power, Damon called upon his element—and the stone answered.

With a loud groan, stone burst forth from the walls of the cave. A heartbeat later, the fire dragons were gone from their sight, a heavy wall of rock sealing off the cave’s exit, with the fire dragons free to make their escape—and the chimera safe from further attack.

Damon didn’t even stop to see whether the chimera had been wounded.

Terrified for Autumn, he hurled himself straight back into the system of caves he’d come from. Even as he beat his wings to shoot down the large corridor that led into the heart of the mountain, he sent out his dragon’s senses.

And there, right where the mate bond vibrated with his mate’s love and fear, a new shadow had appeared.

Smoke. Fire. Shadow.

The same shadow that had blocked his sight of the council chamber earlier was now blocking him from reaching out to the stone of the prisoner’s caves.

Roaring with helpless fury, Damon rushed along the path on his feet when it grew too small for flight, his claws striking sparks on the rock.

He ran as he’d never run before, his heart pounding in his chest—and then he came to a sudden, shocking stop.

Instead of the opening leading to the stairs that lead down to the cells, a heap of fallen rocks was in his way.

The stone was hot, smoke rising from it here and there.

Fire.

The stairs had collapsed. His way was blocked. And in the cells beyond, his mate was trapped with the fire dragons...

Chapter Nineteen: Autumn

“Do you live here?” Autumn asked, smiling faintly at Ginny in an attempt to hide her fear.

Showing that she was afraid wouldn’t do anything to help right now—and even though Braeden seemed nice enough for a fire dragon, Autumn still didn’t want him to see how terrified she was.