“Just a little while,” he murmured, his eyes already drifting shut. “I still want to take you flying.”
“You will,” she said, stroking his side gently, and against his will, Morgan drifted off to sleep.
***
He awoke some timeless period later to the sound of a distant roar, something that made him snap his head up and stare around the cavern. Almost immediately, he looked down by his side where Harper was already staggering naked up to her feet.
“What was that?” she asked, and before he could answer, it came up again.
“Challenge call,” he said, getting carefully to his own feet. Harper suddenly struck him as impossibly small and delicate, and he made sure he knew where all of his feet were before he set them down.
“Challenge call?”
“Roughly translates to come fight me,” Morgan said, his voice tense, and then when the call came a third time, he shook his head.
“No. No. That's not a call from one of the clans. That's not…that's a rogue.”
His heart beat faster, and he looked down at Harper.
“I have to get you back down to the grounds. My family will protect you. They won't let any harm come to you. If that's a rogue, he won't be playing by the rules...”
Instead of arguing, Harper gave him a shaky smile. She grabbed his discarded T-shirt, throwing it over her head before slipping on her shoes. He was tall enough that she was relatively well-covered, and she nodded again.
“I can make my way back down –“
Morgan shook his head even as he reached down to scoop her up, holding her close to his chest.
“Looks like you're getting that flight sooner than we thought,” he murmured, and then he was making his way through the cave, down one of the halls that led up the side of the mountain and then out. It was slightly awkward hobbling along with Harper held so carefully against his chest, but then he was leaping clear of the rock, wings fully extended to catch the wind and to force himself up into the pale dawn sky
Harper shrieked as they rose, and he knew immediately that his woman, his true mate, wasn't afraid. She started to laugh, and despite the circumstances, something fierce and joyful welled up in Morgan as well. So what if he couldn't keep his wings? He had Harper, and there would be joy in the future, no matter what else he had or did not have.
The roar came louder now, and Morgan tore his eyes away from Harper, winging down to bring her to the camp ground where people were beginning to dash around in fright. He put on her on the ground, looking around frantically for anyone he knew, anyone he trusted, but she was already waving him up.
“Go! Do what you need to do, I'll be fine.”
Morgan hesitated for a moment, but then Harper sprinted for a crying child, and he knew that she was right. She would do what needed to be done, and that meant that he should as well.
With a bellow, he threw himself into the air again and rose to meet the threat.
By the full light of day and with the clarity of his time with Harper behind him, Morgan was able to truly see the red dragon who had been attacking him, attacking them, for the first time. There was something labored about the way his foe's wings moved, something heavy about them as if it was the only way he knew to fly. The Castells were known for their graceful maneuvers, but this dragon's flight was heavy, almost exhausting to watch.
All right, if he wants to fight me, he has to reach me.
Even as the red dragon started to lunge for him, Morgan powered past him in a single arrowing moment, seeking the higher cleaner air and getting himself and his foe as far away from the encampment as possible. He passed so close to the other dragon that he could feel a rush of heat and smell something oddly metallic and strange as well.
As he went past, he curled his tail and flicked It hard, catching the other dragon across the ribs as he went. The blow should have stung like a whip, but the other dragon didn't roar or even groan. Instead, he turned, painfully slow, and chased after Morgan.
Morgan pulled the move twice, diving past his opponent to make him turn, tiring him out before he struck. Each time, the red dragon lunged at him, and each time, he missed. There was something strange and deeply wrong about how the other dragon was moving, and Morgan wondered if he was wounded somehow. Had he been moving like this the entire time and Morgan had never noticed?
No. No time to think about that. Have to protect my family, have to protect my true mate.
Morgan feinted, one more pass that would have taken him past his challenger, but then instead of going by, he struck instead. He clawed at the other dragon's belly, raking at the interlocked scales there. It might have been a fatal blow if the red dragon hadn't fallen back, but by the roar that erupted from the dragon's throat, Morgan knew that it must have hurt him.
Think of that the next time you come after me or mine, Morgan thought, and he roared his fury at the one who would hurt the people he cared about.
He started to pull back again, hoping to lead the red dragon off, but quicker than he had been before, the red dragon closed the distance between them, his heavy body almost bristling with menace. Morgan couldn't pull back before he was struck a hard blow along his ribs. The blow ached, but there suddenly there was something freeing about it, as if a curse had been broken.
He could take a hit. He could take as many as he
