Free Resurrecting Her Dragon (Dragon Guard Series Book 13) by Julia Mills Page B

drugged but doing her best to throw off the effects of the herbs. It was taking everything in the youngest O’Reilly brother’s considerable power not to say the hell with waiting until the cover of darkness and heading off on his own to get back the woman he was miraculously in love with without ever even meeting.
    It was sheer torture not to be able to help Claire. Sure, he was pouring all the dragon magic he could through their mating link to help her regain consciousness, but it was nothing compared to what he knew he could do if he was by her side. The need to let her know he was thinking of her and that he would move Heaven and earth to get to her became too strong to resist.
    Closing his eyes, Rory pulled the picture of Claire he’d seen while they were linked before her kidnapping and held it front and center in his mind. His dragon added his strength to the Guardsman’s and together, they called out to their mate. “ Claire? Mo a mhuirnín, can you hear me?”
    He waited for several seconds, received no reply, then added, “I’ll be there soon. Don’t kick too much ass without me.”
    Holding a breath and praying for a response, a sign... anything that would let him know she could hear him and knew he was coming, Rory instead heard the sound of the sliding glass door opening behind him and then felt Maddox step onto the wooden deck. Just as he opened his eyes to see what the mad dragon wanted, a soft chuckle floated across his mind.
    She’d heard him! Claire had heard him! She knew he was coming and for reasons beyond anything he could understand, that one simple fact made him happier than Christmas morning, his birthday, and a good day kicking ass all combined.
    Spinning around, he hollered, “Hell yeah,” and slapped Maddox on the shoulder.
    “What the hell has gotten into you?” the mad dragon grumbled, taking a drink of his beer and moving out of the way as Calysta, Kyra, Royce, and Kellan appeared on the patio.
    Maddox shot the Grand Priestess a nasty look before turning his back on the lot of them and mumbling to himself.
    Wrapped up in how happy he was to have actually made contact with Claire, combined with the need to get to her as soon as possible, overrode Rory’s need to know what had crawled up the mad dragon’s ass this time.
    Instead, he looked at Roy and all but pleaded, “We...I mean I really need to get to Claire. This shit is killing me. She’s drugged and pissed and...well...I...it’s just that...well...” he struggled with what to say as Royce gave him a knowing grin and Rian, who’d just joined the fun, was shaking his head and chuckling.
    “Oh, to hell with this shit! Y’all were right! I was wrong. There I’ve said it. Are you happy? Having a mate is the coolest, scariest, most wonderful and extremely terrifying thing in the world. Now that I have one I want her by my side right now , all the time, and I’m sick of frikkin’ waiting. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
    By the time he finished, he was shouting and speaking so quickly he was out of breath and wondering if they’d understood a word of what he’d just said. Even more than all that, he thought about slapping the goofy grins off both his brother’s faces and maybe even punching them in the gut. And...as if matters weren’t bad enough, Kell, Lenn, and Brann appeared out of nowhere, laughing, pointing, and singing, “Rory and Claire sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
    Unable to hold back his laughter, Rory howled as they danced around in circles, singing in falsetto like little girls. He wished for his cellphone to take a video for blackmail when each of them found their mate but it was out of his reach, so he did the best he could to get them to stop by yelling over the ruckus. “Just wait, your times are coming.”
    All three Guardsmen stopped dead in their tracks. Their eyes were immediately as round as saucers. They opened and closed their mouths so many times they looked like fish out of water.