Beck nodded.
Clancy paused. “For what it’s worth, I know you’re not a killer, Beck. That’s why I did it. Goodness like yours, it deserves to be preserved.”
Beck felt warmth filling him. Clancy was one of his true friends.
TJ might be gone, but now Beck was free to bond with his real friends. The people who truly wanted the best for him. And most importantly, his mate.
Clancy grinned. “Now you take that sweet lady of yours back inside and show her how wrong you were to ever leave her side, you fool.”
And then Clancy was gone, cloaked, presumably with his burden in hand. Whether he left as a dragon or a human, Beck didn’t know.
Clancy never showed his dragon.
But Beck was grateful to Clancy. Grateful to Harrison for sending him.
And more than anything, grateful that he and his mate were safe.
And could now face their new future together.
He scooped up Sierra in his arms and headed for the house, feeling stronger than ever despite the fight he’d just had.
Mate. Mate. Mate, his heart said.
“Mine,” he accidentally said aloud with a growl.
Sierra just smiled up at him. “My big, impressive, growly dragon. What was Clancy talking about, you showing me something?”
Beck smiled back. “I’m guessing he meant I should go make things official with you, shifter style.”
“Shifter style?”
“Mating,” he says. “If we’re together, with nothing between us, after you’ve seen and accepted my dragon, then we’re mated.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning we will always be together. We’ll share lifespans. You’ll be bonded to me always.” He took a deep breath. “So think carefully, because once you’re my mate, it’ll kill me if you ever make me go.”
She swallowed. “Of course I want you, Beck.” She threw her arms around his neck, nuzzling in close. “I can’t wait to be one with you. Mated. I want you here forever. I want to be with you always. I don’t care that you’re a shifter, or a dragon. You’re just you. You always have been. So take me, Beck. I want to be yours.”
He growled and quickened his pace, taking the porch steps in one leap. “All right.” He took her through the front door and then turned for the kitchen, laughing at her sigh of disappointment.
“I promise you, mate, when you’re fed and safe and I’ve checked every inch of you, I’ll give you what we both want.”
“Stubborn, overprotective dragon,” she muttered playfully.
“You know it,” Beck said. Then he set his mate gently down in a chair so he could get her something to eat.
The sooner he took care of her and assured his dragon she was okay, the sooner he could take care of making sure that he and his mate were bonded together.
Forever.
25
After a quick, delicious meal prepared by her favorite man in the whole world, and a chance to shower and change, the anticipation in Sierra was starting to reach a fever pitch.
Ever since Beck had told her about mating, about joining him forever and continuing their wonderful adventures together, she’d been unable to shake her excitement at the idea.
Beck was her everything. The only person she wanted or would ever want.
And knowing he wanted her the same way filled her heart to practically overflowing.
Beck was putting the dirty dishes in the sink, looking devastating in just a white shirt and clean jeans, when she got up from her chair and wrapped her hands around his midsection from behind. He was so warm, so big she couldn’t even get her arms all away around him.
He just looked down and grinned over his shoulder at her, the kindness of his smile not hiding the dominant, almost feral gleam in his eye.
“You get enough to eat?” he asked, rubbing his hand along her arm and making her shiver.
“Yes. But I’m still hungry… if you know what I mean.”
He turned around to face Sierra, the silver of his irises getting a little brighter whenever he looked at her in that certain way that seemed to say, “You’re mine.” And when his big, burly arms tugged her closer, pressing her into his hard muscles, she almost sighed in both relief and quickly budding arousal.
“Oh, I know what you mean.” Then, in a swift motion, his hands were on her ass, squeezing and lifting her up as Sierra wrapped her legs around his midsection. “I’m hungrier than a horse at feedin’ time.” He growled, nuzzling into her ear, his beard ticklish and stimulating on her neck and cheek. “Hungry for my mate.”
She leaned a little more into his beard, loving the soft scratchiness there. “Mate. It has a nice ring to it.”
Beck took them in the direction of her bedroom, heavy feet moving slow, making the old floor creak beneath him. In her book, that was just one more of a million things she’d come to love about Beck, even in the short time he’d been here.
She looked forward to finding even more things to love about him as they shared their future together.
“You still sure about this, Sierra?” Beck asked as he reached the bedroom and nudged the door closed behind him, carrying her with such ease she could just relax in his strength as he held her.
She pulled back, looking at him eye to eye. “Of course I am. I’ve never been surer about anything in my entire life. I feel like there was a reason—call it destiny or whatever you want—that I found you out there on the range. Just like there was a reason my family’s spread just happened to border a certain ranch where a certain stubborn dragon just needed a little help to finally trust himself again. We were meant to find each other, I think.” She had felt it in her heart from the first time they’d kissed. From the first time she’d even laid eyes on him.
“I feel it too, with every breath in my lungs and every beat of my heart. I couldn’t possibly love anything else more than I love you, darlin’.”
He knelt onto the bed and laid her back onto it. Just the way their bodies melded together, with her thighs around his trim waist, his big chest pressed against hers, his arms surrounding her with love and devotion and safety, it was more than she could have ever dreamed she’d have.
And as much as she knew Beck lived to make her happy, Sierra was going to do the same for him as well.
He deserved to be treated like the wonderful, thoughtful man he’d always been.
Of course there would be bumps along the road, though. Every relationship had them. But what really mattered was how people responded to troubles in their lives. How they handled hard times as a team.
And after what they’d just been through, Sierra couldn’t imagine a problem in the world they couldn’t handle together.
Beck just looked into her eyes a moment, as if studying the planes of her face. And when he reached up his hand to cup her cheek, stroking his thumb over it lovingly, she found herself nuzzling against the warmth there, just the proximity of their bodies enough to already have her thoughts wandering with thoughts of them naked, joined, and breathless.
She really was the luckiest girl alive, she supposed.
“I’ve seen gemstones the size of oranges, deserts the colors of the rainbow, and snowcapped mountains at sunset so pretty an artist could never possibly put it to canvas.” He let out a long breath, watching her tenderly. “You put all of it to shame.”