He’d been hiding here among the humans all along. Biding his time until his strength returned so he could reclaim this land he’d mistakenly thought belonged to him in the first place.

  And how dare he even pretend to think that Morgan was his mate? Morgan was Diesel’s mate and his alone.

  Rage boiled inside him, and his basilisk exploded out of him in response, growing to be tall enough to see Clark eye to eye.

  “Well, you’re just as ugly as ever,” Clark said with a scowl that showed even on his dragon’s face.

  In his dragon form, Clark reminded Diesel most of Beck, the mountain dragon from Dragonclaw Ranch.

  Only if Beck were older, stronger, and even more misguided in his stubborn ways of thinking.

  “Strong words coming from someone I beat so bad it took them a thousand years to get back up,” Diesel growled back. The more he got a good look at Clark, the better he remembered the fight they’d had so long ago.

  He was just as dogmatic, controlling, and shitty now as he was then, Diesel supposed. Only, back then, Clark had just been a dragon a little too obsessed with treasure and power, not this manipulative bastard who thought he could take Morgan against her wishes.

  Just the idea of it made him angry, his thoughts turning to Morgan, worrying if she was safe.

  When he tuned in to her heartbeat, though, he could feel it still, a light thumping in the very corner of his ears.

  That steadied him a bit.

  “How did you do it, hiding like that for all those years?” Diesel asked, hoping to buy the humans in town a little more time to run for it before the fighting started.

  Clark shrugged, the motion odd when done by a huge dragon. “For a long time, I just waited. And while I waited, I learned how to hide my true appearance, knowing there would be shifters like you basilisks, or worse, who’d do me in while I got my strength back. And then humans moved right into the Crater, those greedy little bastards. All I had to do was show them a little of my treasure, and they started bowing at my feet just at the chance of getting more.” He laughed caustically, showing a long row of jagged teeth that looked ready to cut steel. “Funny how it all comes back around. You and me, all this time later.”

  “There won’t be anything funny about how I’m going to crush you, Clark.”

  “I think you’re missing the point here, Diesel—Was that your name? It’s a really stupid one if it is.”

  Diesel just advanced a step, nearly done with his talking.

  But Clark just continued. “Me, you, the other basilisks. You aren’t the only monsters the old world is spitting back out. There’s something even bigger coming, something not even you and all your friends can stop. But in the meantime…” His wings spread in an aggressive stance, lips pulled back in a snarl. “I made some new friends that are just ravenous to meet you.”

  He stomped one clawed hand into the ground three times, and Diesel felt rumbling beneath the earth all around him.

  Circling like he’d seen sharks do on TV.

  Then coming toward him, all at once, in unison.

  “After all, you’re not the only monsters that can talk through rock. Or maybe you three really are dense as rocks like I’ve heard,” Clark said darkly.

  In unison, three explosions of earth cascaded upward at Clark’s sides and in front of him. And with it, terrible screeches rent the air.

  And as the dust slowly settled, three rock wyverns were facing off against Diesel, hissing angrily.

  But unlike the one he’d fought off the other day, these three were large and ready to battle.

  Shit. The Crater dragon wasn’t an easy opponent even on a good day.

  Things had just gotten a whole lot messier.

  “Let’s see if they get a hankering for basilisk once they’ve had a bite,” Clark said. And when he roared, the wyverns all charged in unison.

  At even a fourth of the size of his basilisk, what the huge wyverns lacked in size, they certainly made up for in sheer hunger and killing intent.

  With a growl, Diesel charged forward to meet the nearest wyvern head on, throwing his head forward and catching it in the shoulder with his horns. A ripping sound filled the air as he slashed through its arm and wing, sending it reeling to the side just as the other two attacked from Diesel’s sides, surprisingly coordinated for mindless killers.

  One leaped onto Diesel’s left side, claws digging into his thick scales fruitlessly, and Diesel tried to shrug it off. Meanwhile, the other went for Diesel’s leg, and he felt daggers of pain as its jaws clamped down on him.

  Diesel swiped his obsidian claws at the creature, but it leaped back, dodging. The other one still clung to his back, holding on but not doing much damage to Diesel’s nearly impenetrable rocky hide.

  He felt a whoosh of something and took a step back just as Clark’s spiked tail came within a few feet of Diesel’s head, barely missing.

  That was close, Diesel thought as he ducked another swing of the Crater dragon’s ferocious tail.

  He had to win. For Morgan’s sake. Even if she never wanted to see him again and didn’t want to risk her safety or the safety of her daughter for a monster that attracted trouble like he did, Diesel was going to make sure nothing happened to them.

  Even if he just had to hold these fuckers off long enough for Ajax and Gunnar to show up.

  Diesel reared back on his hind legs, throwing the wyvern on his back to the ground, where it struggled to get back on its feet.

  With a flick of his tail, Diesel sent it rolling backward with a thwack, though his immediate attention was called forward again as granite-colored talons flew toward him, slicing into Diesel’s neck as Clark grinned in satisfaction.

  Not a bad injury, not yet at least. But it still hurt like shit.

  Diesel snapped at Clark, who backed off just as the two wyverns attacked him from the rear, likely hoping to flank him.

  But these assholes clearly hadn’t fought a basilisk before.

  He looked back at the wyverns and flicked his tail. With a whoosh, several blue and black spikes on his tail went flying toward the wyverns.

  One ducked, narrowly avoiding. The other, too focused on Diesel to see the spikes coming, got one through the side of its skull, which pierced through completely.

  Instantly, its green eyes rolled back, and it went limp, crashing to the earth.

  When Diesel looked over at Clark, though, Clark was still grinning.

  And Diesel felt more movement beneath his feet.

  “Did I say there were only three?” Clark laughed. “No, I found a whole pack of them. This is going to get fun.”

  Diesel grimaced. Back in the day, rock wyverns used to run in packs of anywhere from a few to a dozen or more.

  Not good.

  Immediately, explosion after explosion of earth erupted around him as more wyverns crawled up from the ground, attacking Diesel all at once.

  Diesel moved back from Clark, knowing it was foolish to try and take on a dragon and a hungry pack of wyverns at the same time, as the air around him became a flurry of flashing fangs and reptilian bodies.

  He lunged to the side, goring a wyvern with his horns right in the chest even as bursts of pain went all over his body as the creatures tried to tear into him from every direction at once.

  And when Clark’s tail came flying forward, Diesel angled himself slightly so it connected with one of the wyverns on his back instead, impaling it and sending it flying.

  “Oops.” Clark’s voice boomed through the cloud of dust and dirt, sounding utterly unbothered.

  Fuck, he wanted to rip the smug grin off that dragon’s face. He just had to deal with all these smaller guys first.

  Suddenly, a familiar sound pierced the air, not the roar of a dragon or the screech of a wyvern.

  And in the very next moment, red, rocky spikes flew toward Diesel in a hail, pummeling the wyverns surrounding him in their arms, wings, and bodies while not a single one even grazed Diesel.

  When Diesel looked over through the haze of dust, he spotted a sight he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

  Ajax, in his basilisk form, stomping toward them.

  Diesel had forgotten he had red spikes, not blue ones like Gunnar and he had.

  I’ll take care of these shit faces. You go deal with that guy. Ajax’s voice came to Diesel as he glanced toward the direction of Clark.

  Thanks, Ajax, Diesel said gratefully. But Ajax seemed to just ignore his response, instead raising a front paw and slashing an approaching wyvern across the face with savage precision.

  With a bellow, Ajax drew the attention of the remaining wyverns while Diesel faced Clark and charged.

  Clark, probably hoping to buy time, let his wings out and began to beat the air, lifting off the ground.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” Diesel growled, and he sent spikes flying toward Clark from his back and tail.

  Like arrows the size of trailers, several of them sliced through Clark’s left wing, damaging it and making him lose upward momentum.

  But to Diesel’s surprise, instead of fleeing, Clark came plummeting straight for Diesel, teeth glinting in the gloomy late morning sunlight.

  Reckless bastard.

  Unable to stop his own collision course with Clark, Diesel braced himself as they crashed into each other, a flurry of sharp talons and whipping tails as they tore into each other in unison. The ground shook as they tangled, and huge segments of earth broke apart and flew to the sides as they clashed.

  Then, as Clark pushed Diesel back, they faced off again, snarling and growling.

  Long trails of red blood coursed like rivers down the spaces between Clark’s brown and gray scales, damaged in several places.

  Diesel took a step forward and felt his right leg almost go limp. Shit. The wyverns must have done more damage than he’d initially thought.

  In the background, Ajax’s fighting with the wyverns raged on, though it was getting less intense by the second as Ajax thinned out their numbers.

  “You don’t deserve her, you thick-skulled monster,” Clark said. “She could be a dragon heart. She deserves to be with a dragon. She deserves to be with me.”

  “She deserves to be safe and happy, you greedy fuck,” Diesel called back, his voice making the mountains surrounding the Crater tremble.

  “And you’re going to give that to her? A basilisk? You barely know how to be a human. A monster made for fighting, nothing more. Soulless and useless.”

  Rage boiled inside Diesel. But doubt crept in at the same moment, shaking his resolve.

  He was a basilisk. That wouldn’t change.

  What did he really know about living a normal human life?

  He knew he wanted Morgan. Loved her more than he needed his next breath.

  But was she safe with him, really?

  After all, he was the one that had brought danger to their doorstep in the first place just by dint of what he was.

  Clark grinned, perhaps aware his barbs had hit their mark, and he advanced slowly.

  “Such an amazing woman. Beautiful. Loving. A hardworking mother. Did you think someone that special would be the mate of a basilisk of all things?” he said meanly.

  For a moment, Diesel didn’t know which way was up or down.

  His inner monster had said Morgan was his mate. That they were destined for each other.

  But what if he was wrong? What if it got Morgan hurt?

  Suddenly, a small voice, barely audible at this distance, came to his ears as if carried on the breeze.

  “Don’t listen to his bullshit. The only person I want is you, Diesel!” It sounded like Morgan, but that was impossible…

  Diesel looked over in the direction of the sound and saw Morgan’s red car parked on a small rocky overlook, halfway down the side of the mountains on the outside of the Crater. As he looked, he spotted a tiny dirt road that snaked its way up and over the mountains, perhaps a back road only a few people knew about.

  And then when he looked again at the car, beside it, he saw two small shapes waving their hands and looking up at him.

  Morgan. And next to her, leaping frantically, Grace.

  “Yeah. And kick Clark’s ass too!” Grace squealed, watching with rapt attention.

  Morgan sent Grace a stern look, which Grace ignored, then just stared back at Diesel, a mixture of emotions showing on her radiant face.

  Clark’s voice filled the air, trying to distract him. “Don’t listen to them. You’re a killing machine. You’re not good for them. You’ll just bring more danger,” he insisted, but his words were fading into the background as all Diesel could see, hear, or even think about was how much he loved his woman in that moment.

  He’d told them to run, and they’d still come back.

  And for all Clark’s words, Diesel knew the Crater dragon didn’t love Morgan or her daughter. He just wanted to possess them without regard for their wants.

  “I’m not running anymore, Diesel,” Morgan said bravely, clutching Grace protectively to her side. “Not from the past. Not from what my heart wants. Not from our future happiness as a family.” Then she cupped her hands around her mouth, shouting louder than before so as to not be drowned out by the wind. “Be my mate?”

  He wasn’t quite sure if she had been asking or agreeing with his earlier insistence that she was his mate. Either way, Diesel’s heart melted at her words, his skin burning with protectiveness as all the pain and worry he’d felt disappeared in an instant.

  Diesel nodded toward Morgan in agreement. Meanwhile, a raw, powerful energy inside him continued to grow, healing his injuries as he felt his skin get harder and the spikes along his back and tail get longer.

  Clark’s eyes went wide, and with a vicious leap, he swung his tail at Diesel, hoping to catch him off guard.

  But even the Crater dragon’s spiked tail just bounced off, not permeating Diesel’s impenetrable exterior now.

  Clark swung again, as if not believing even his huge dragon couldn’t have an effect. But in spite of the terrifying whap sound, Diesel felt nothing.

  Nothing but love toward his mate.

  And rage toward this cocky shithead of a dragon.

  When Diesel took a step forward, Clark stepped backward, looking to the left and right as if for escape.

  “Now wait a moment, Diesel. No need to be hasty. I’m sure we can talk this out like civilized people.” Clark’s tune changed instantly from the cocksure confidence of only a few minutes ago.

  “Too late.” Diesel leaped forward, black claws slicing downward and catching Clark across the face, leaving a long trail of red down the left side.

  Panicked, Clark dodged back and took a deep breath, blowing a hail of fire and molten rock on Diesel in a ferocious blast that should have incinerated literally anything in its path.

  Anything except for a basilisk, that was.

  Diesel just advanced through the blinding heat that did nothing to his rocky scales.

  And when he flicked his tail forward, Clark didn’t even see it coming through the thick billows of smoke and flame his dragon was still intent on spewing.

  Clark growled as the spikes on Diesel’s tail slammed into his shoulder, throwing him off balance and silencing his dragon fire.

  Someone cheered from a far distance, likely Grace, and Diesel bore down on the Crater dragon before he could get away and cause even more problems.

  Clark, cornered and enraged, fought with all the ferocity of a caged animal, slashing and attacking at Diesel with a flurry of blows.

  But none of them met their mark. And each time the Crater dragon tried to fight Diesel off, Diesel just attacked harder, smashing into the huge, giga-sized dragon with hit after hit until Clark was panting, bleeding everywhere, backing up to the mountains that formed the Crater he’d so fiercely protected so long ago.

  Diesel didn’t even fault Clark for protecting what he thought was his.

  But this land belonged to no one. Especially not a power-hungry dragon.

  And Morgan? She’d already made her decision known, and Diesel was going to make sure nothing came between him and his mate.

  With one crashing, heavy blow, Clark’s Dragon rocked from side to side before disappearing completely in a shimmer of brown sparkles.

  Diesel looked down at the shape of Clark’s human form, trying to stand, still glaring angrily up at him.

  In the background, Ajax’s basilisk appeared, watching intently, the wyverns all extinguished.

  “A thousand years of waiting. Watching from the shadows. Searching for a mate, and for what? Just to be beaten by the likes of you?” Clark spat something red onto the ground as his gray eyes refused to admit defeat.

  With the effort of a horse swatting a fly, Diesel knocked Clark onto his back, then pressed his paw over him, able to crush him with the barest of effort.

  His basilisk raged with anger.

  After all, he deserved to die. He’d threatened Morgan. He’d threatened this whole town, dammit.

  “Just do it. I’ll never find a mate anyway. I was wrong about everything. Now I’ll never have what I see you truly have with Morgan,” Clark said defiantly. Only a dragon could be so stupidly bold as to not fear the crushing size of a basilisk’s claws.

  “You nearly ruined everything.”

  “Then finish me off. Do the job you couldn’t a thousand years ago.”

  Diesel paused, knowing he could finish him off but now facing the same problem he’d had so long ago when fighting Clark the first time.

  Clark was wrong, maybe even bad in more than a few ways. But he wasn’t evil. Not completely.

  Suddenly, there was the sound of tires over rough dirt, then a car stopping.

  “Wait, don’t kill him!” Morgan shouted, breaking the eerie silence and tension for a moment.

  “Yeah, get him!” Grace said, perhaps still a bit excited and not aware of the gravity of the situation.

  The monster inside him calmed instantly, and Diesel shifted down to his human form, smaller and smaller until he was standing on top of Clark, his hand around Clark’s neck, his other fist raised.