Page 3 of Dark Dragon’s Mate

Pain lanced through him from the wound in his side—the one that was stealing his magic, the one that would never heal. The one that would one day eat him hollow, devouring his scales, his muscles, his organs, and finally his inner fire.

A slow, agonizing death sentence.

The only thing in his life still worth doing was helping his sister. Once Mayah was healed, she could leave this cursed place. Go to Earth, maybe. Find a mate among the Wild Dragons there. Or even maybe another kind of shifter, like his sister Kira had. Or Ashley Silver, the princess of the Akkabi clan, who’d mated a wolf.

Emon couldn’t be saved. But maybe she could.

As he wheeled through the sky, something below caught his eye. Something—someone—moving in the courtyard of his castle.

Shining like a beacon in his magical sight—a bright star with a dark, mysterious core.

He stopped, hovering at the top of an updraft.

The earthbound star called to him.

She.

She called to him.

He beat his wings, banked sharply, and rode the currents down. As he reached her, his dragon suddenly took over control, extending his front leg with its sharp, deadly claws.

NO!

Emon exerted all his will, pulling up at the last second. He saw her upturned face, gazing at him in fear and awe, before she ran for what she thought was safety. Straight into his lair.

Little did she know, she would never be safe again.

He landed on the roof of the castle and stood in the torrential rain, resting his hands on the stone balustrade and staring down at the stranger standing at the great doors of his castle, pounding to be let inside.

said his dragon.

No, he thought slowly, not a stranger, though he’d never seen her before. Lithe, with long blond hair, tangled by in the wind.

And a nightmare inside.

His dragon had recognized her right away. It was why he’d done that crazy-ass dive into the courtyard, forcing Emon to nearly take out the top floor of the north wing on their way back up.

Emon gave a twisted grin. That would have severely inconvenienced the research team from the Silverlake wolf pack working up there. Especially because it probably would have killed most of them.

He wished he felt more upset about that thought, but he was numb. Numb with blocking everything out, with trying not to feel any of it: The loss of his clan; the years of captivity; the never-ending pain of his wound; the worry for his sister.

The fear of not managing to die before he was left totally alone.

his dragon said loftily.

He wished.

The words of the prophecy came back to him.

The Nightmare Wolf

Brings the end

Of all that came before.

Destruction.