Rancher Dragon

Rancher Dragon


Texas Dragons Book 2


Terry Bolryder


Copyright © 2021 by Terry Bolryder
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.


Contents
Author’s note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
Sample of Onyx Dragon
Also by Terry Bolryder


Author’s note
Hi,
Rancher Dragon is book 2 in my brand new Texas Dragon series! Each book stars a new couple and a complete, satisfying, action-packed story with a happy ending. But you’ll get the best experience reading them in order due to overarching plot elements and characters.
Get book 1 here, and start enjoying growly dragon cowboys!
Cowboy Dragon (Texas Dragons Book 1)


1
Rain plummeted to the earth around Beck like a monsoon as he headed south, soaked to the bone from rivers of water that trailed down his shoulders and arms while he rode atop his horse.
As the water reached his chest and back, a deep red intermixed with it, turning it an opaque maroon that dripped down his legs and boots and onto the muddy ground.
Maybe this is it, Beck thought to himself.
This storm, like so many before, had come out of nowhere, heralded by only thick clouds and ominous lightning. Lightning that continued to shatter the dull roar of the heavy precipitation at uneven intervals, making the far-off mesas in the distance loom like stony guardians over the quiet Texas range Beck called home.
He wasn’t sure where he was right now. He and Clive, his trusty Clydesdale, were far beyond the borders of Dragonclaw Ranch at the moment.
And the bleeding just wasn’t stopping as quickly as it usually did.
It had all happened too fast. He’d been at the far western border of Dragonclaw, checking on some drainage ditches and making adjustments for the early summer rainfall they’d all been anticipating for next week.
Then the rain had come.
And one of those evil bastards had risen from the earth, looking for vengeance. A basilisk, all teeth and claws and spikes and gigantic fury. The kind of fight Beck was always itching for even if the damn thing had caught him by surprise.
Now that he was back in his human form, Beck wasn’t sure how long the fighting had gone for. He just knew he’d been able to get a good chunk out of the beast before it slunk back into the earth where it belonged.
Even if it had left him bleeding and nearly dying out on the middle of a rain-soaked prairie with nothing but his horse and barely enough strength to ride.
Beck wasn’t going to get caught off guard like that ever again.
Assuming he made it through the next hour.
A jolt of pain slashed his insides. The basilisk’s poison was working through his veins as Beck tried to fight it off. He’d felt their poison before, knew it stung like a bitch and kept his dragon healing from repairing all the damage easily, which normally wasn’t a problem when he was close to home.
But now? Everything seemed to blur together beneath the torrential rainfall.
So he just kept Clive moving south. South-ish, by his directions.
Beck knew there were spreads both big and small that neighbored Dragonclaw’s humongous territory. He’d just never been the neighborly type and, as such, had no clue who any of them were. But with no way to contact Harrison and the others and no strength to make the long ride back or shift and fly back to the safety of the ranch, all he could do was ride on and hope he ran into something.
A part of him hoped he didn’t find whoever—or whatever—he was currently looking for.
He looked down at the mud as his horse pressed on, even as Beck’s feet were starting to go numb. He couldn’t feel the reins in his hands either. The cold of the rain and the encroaching world around him was almost… welcoming.
The smell of wet earth and waterlogged grass filled his nostrils as Beck took in a deep breath, trying to steady himself on Clive’s back.
Out in the distance in front of him, it looked like he could see something, a dark shadow made blurry by the rain. Maybe a house. Or a person on a saddle. Or maybe just a single tree. But when he sat up too fast, overcorrecting for the uneven ground, the poison in him decided to hit his chest extra hard at the same time, and Beck felt himself fall to one side.
He didn’t even feel the fall, just squishy, cold soil on his left side where he’d landed. The elements were starting to take their toll, and bad luck had already crossed him once today.
Clive, the obedient cuss he always was, just stood at Beck’s side, nuzzling his shoulder. But Beck couldn’t really be bothered right now. Not to get up at least.
He reached into his back pocket and felt the small, tarnished silver coin he kept there. On one side, there was the faded depiction of some person he never knew. On the other, the mark of his dragon.
How ironic that after refusing to ever let another person have the coin, now it would probably be Beck’s grave marker.
A fitting end for a monster like him.
To his surprise, he heard the sound of wet footsteps in mud, distant at first but quickly getting closer.
“Hey, mister!” The voice was hard to make out through the rain and his dulling senses. It sounded worried, he thought.
A human.
Normally, Beck would try to scare it off because it wasn’t safe for them to be around him. But today, all he needed was someone to mark his grave.
And tell his friends.
Beck’s fingers wrapped around the coin he’d sworn he was never