Children of the Moon 04 - Dragon's Moon

successfully defying him…once again, when that had not been her intention at all. She never would have left the keep if she’d thought there was even a remote chance she would be caught outside the walls.
    It was just that her dreams drove her beyond endurance.
    Regardless, Ciara could not ignore Mairi’s plight. The other woman was in far too fragile a state to risk waiting for morning to sneak back inside the keep.
    “How are you going to help us?” Even as Ciara asked the question, she realized the answer and was shaking her head in absolute denial. “No. No. No. We are not two small children to ride the back of your dragon.”
    Had wolves been meant to fly, God would have given them wings. Yes, he would.
    She remembered her reaction when the dragon had snatched her right out of the air and from certain death. She’d fainted.
    “Do you have a better idea?”
    She was trying to think of one when Mairi crumpled to the ground. Ciara dropped to her knees beside the injured woman, grateful when she felt the rise and fall of Mairi’s chest against her hand. But the other woman’s breathing was shallow and the mottling of bruises around her neck and face hinted she could be injured far worse where her plaid covered her.
    What kind of man did this to his daughter?
    Ciara brushed Mairi’s pale hair back from her face. “We have to get her back to the keep. Now.”
    “Yes.”
    There was no help for it, but that didn’t mean Ciara had to like it. Wolves ran. They jumped, even great distances. But they did not fly.
    She, however, was about to. Again. She could only hope this time that she kept her wits about her.
    Ciara turned her head toward Eirik. “Shift into your dragon. I’ll lift her onto your back and then climb on behind her to keep her from falling.”
    Was she really going to ride the dragon that had cast fire and killed her brother?
    Looking down at the unconscious woman beside her, Ciara could only find one answer inside her heart.
    Yes.
    Eirik shifted right there, with a flash of crimson light and a low dragon’s growl. At least as fast as any wolf shifterCiara had ever seen, and quicker than most, the transformation from man to dragon was over in seconds.
    Eirik’s beast was magnificent and huge . Much bigger close-up than he had seemed in the sky (and he’d been plenty imposing then), the red dragon stood half again as tall as a laird’s warhorse and easily twice as long. His wings spread out with a whoosh of air that sent Ciara’s hair flying around her face as he stood on his back legs.
    And, if it were possible, he looked even more massive like this.
    Familiar amber eyes surveyed Ciara and the unconscious Mairi. Were dragons as cognizant of their human counterparts as wolves?
    There was no reason to believe otherwise, but the sense of feral strength coming from Eirik the dragon was immense. And still, Ciara felt no fear. Far from it.
    She should be terrified; she knew what destruction this beast could do, but all she felt was awe and this ridiculous inescapable enchantment to be in his presence.
    ’Twas not right. Mythical creature of magic or not, this beast had killed her brother, even if it had not been murder.
    However, her wolf refused to see Eirik as enemy. She wanted to roll on her back and show belly, but not out of mere recognition of the more powerful predator. Oh, no. That would be too simple and easy to ignore. Her wolf craved the dragon’s touch, it wanted to be nuzzled, scented and accepted .
    That was never going to happen.
    Ciara fought her wolf’s urges even as she considered the problem at hand. “How am I going to get Mairi onto your back?”
    He moved, his body shockingly agile for so great a beast, and simply picked Mairi up in his forearms.
    As much as Ciara knew the other woman needed his help, the sight of Mairi in Eirik’s arms made Ciara’s wolf howl inside her. The wolf insisted this was not right. Another woman should not be held so carefully against Eirik’s massive crimson-scaled chest.
    Ciara ignored her Faol instincts and took a step back. “I’ll shift into my wolf and run back to the keep then.”
    Eirik shook his great head and gave a growl that couldn’t be taken as anything but a very adamant negative. If she was still in doubt, the way his tail whipped out, wrapped around her waist and tugged her toward him was enough to make his thoughts on the subject known.
    She pushed at the living rope surrounding her to no avail. “We don’t have