“Well,” she said after a few moments. When she looked at Dani she saw the other woman staring at her suspiciously. “I’m just trying to experience life. It’s clear that I’m not going to be able to leave Gilcurry, but I’d still like to hear stories about it.”
Seemingly at ease, Dani started to talk to her about things that happened in the human realm leading up to when she got captured.
“I was shoved in the Taxi, and that’s the last thing I knew.”
“What’s a Taxi?” Arielle didn’t recognize the word, but that wasn’t unusual. There were a lot of things in the human world that confused her. After all, she’d grown up in the Dragon Realm. Most of her knowledge came from movies that she binge watched and shows that she got her hands on.
“A Taxi is a vehicle you can call to take you where you want to go,” Dani explained. “Although most people just download the Uber app and order a car that way. It’s easier to pay for too.”
Arielle smiled, trying not to show exactly how excited she was that Dani had given her exactly what she needed to get away from Gilcurry. Even if she was only able to go for a little while. She’d have a taste of freedom along the way.
“Thanks for always being there to answer my questions,” she told Dani. “I know sometimes they seem stupid.”
Dani smiled at her, without a hint of suspicion. “Girl, it is absolutely no problem at all. Plus, I mean, you keep me company when I need it.”
“Woman,” Damon barked from the doorway. “Let’s go. Stop staring at the half-naked men and come home where you have your own men that will do anything for you.”
Arielle smiled at the man who was utterly devoted to Dani. He went so far as to help her from the couch and wrap a protective arm around her. To anyone else it would seem sweet, but Arielle fought back the urge to cry out for her friend. Dani wasn’t free. She was always at their beck and call, and she hated that for her.
“I’ll see you later,” Arielle called out to her retreating back. “You’re welcome any time.” She shot that last bit out to let Dani know that she could always escape if she wanted to. All she had to do was show up.
Mary left too, telling Arielle that she’d had enough of guys that she couldn’t touch. On her way out the door, she hugged Arielle and gave her a half-hearted smile.
“I know something’s wrong, but I don’t know what it is. When you’re ready, you’ll tell me. Right?”
Arielle nodded, giving Mary what she needed. The truth was, she felt bad using her friends. They didn’t understand and were all happy to live life in the cages that were given to them. Arielle wanted more than that for herself. She wanted to be free.
She had a plan, and after downloading the app and making sure that her information was all linked and ready to go, Arielle made her move. Thankfully, Gilcurry still worked on regular money like the human realm. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have a clue what to do. Now, she knew she just had to get out of town, and she’d have an Uber pick her up. It went by her phone’s GPS, which was absolutely crazy and she didn’t really understand it.
Arielle didn’t bother getting dressed in anything fancy, she wasn’t going for anything other than comfort. There was one thing about Arielle that her brothers didn’t know. Something that she’d kept to herself even from the other women, Dani and Mary. The number one rule that she’d learned as a child, was to keep your most powerful secrets to yourself. It was why, when she was ready to get away, she stepped in front of a mirror and did the one thing she knew how to do better than anyone else. She locked her door, and then she became invisible.
Arielle was a female dragon, that’s true. But she was also an Omega, just like Dani. An Omega dragon, she’d learned a long time ago, was more than just a pretty face meant to breed. They were rare, with special gifts that no other dragons had. Danica, well she was iridescent, and most likely hadn’t discovered all of her powers yet. Arielle’s father had pushed her to her limits, forcing her to discover her own.
One night, when he’d had a soldier beat her into submission so that he could test her ability to breathe fire, she’d gone to bed trying to become invisible. It had worked, and the next morning, her father’s men searched the castle for hours trying to find her. She worked hard, keeping that secret. The beating she’d received for ‘running away’ had been motivation enough not to try it again, until now.
While the men were busy in the backyard, she slipped out the front door and left with a smile on her face. They wouldn’t know, and she could get out of Gilcurry. Most likely, she’d be back before they ever even realized that she’d gone.
Stefan wiped the sweat from his brow and stood back from the tree. They finally finished installing everything they’d need to monitor the property. They each had an app with sign in information to monitor what was happening around the house when they weren’t there. Arielle didn’t complain about it, so they took it as a win.
“She’s so frustrating,” he said to himself.
“Yeah, she is.” Matthew chuckled. “I don’t know why, either. Her brothers just want to keep her safe, and she’s running in the opposite direction every chance she gets.”
Adam agreed. “I don’t get it. They care about her. She’s not only a female, but a princess too. She’s got a charmed life in our world.”
“I think,” Stefan told them. “Arielle needs someone to talk to. Adam, you’re better at that. Maybe you should be the one to try.”
Adam groaned. “Why do I have to do it? Matthew over here is the therapist.” He pointed accusingly at Matthew, and Stefan laughed.
“Because he’s a therapist, she won’t want to talk to him. She’s got her own problems, and you know how it seems when he talks to you. You spend the whole time thinking that he’s trying to figure you out, instead of just being there for you.”
Stefan and Adam cleaned up the yard, making sure to pick up all the trash and tools they’d taken out to put all the security measures in place.
“So,” Adam said once Matthew was out of earshot. “You can tell me. Did you feel that connection, too?”
Stefan stared at him, contemplating how much he should say. Finally, he decided to go for it and tell him everything.
“Yeah,” he said. “Felt like she reached down into my soul and told me everything I ever wanted to hear.” Seeing her beneath her robe had definitely helped too, but Stefan wasn’t going to tell anyone about that—ever. “But then she opened her mouth, spit venom at me, and made me feel like I was an ant just for being here and doing my job.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a defense mechanism,” Adam said. “I mean, think about it. We don’t know what happened in the Dragon Realm, or what she’s been raised thinking about the male dragons that she encounters. The only experience that she has are with her brother and Danica’s mates. I can’t even find a single dragon that knows who she is, personally. Drake’s kept her under wraps and protected from the moment he learned of her existence.”
Stefan didn’t know how to answer that. Adam was right, and he didn’t want to admit it. The Mad King could have taught her any number of things about how men would treat her and how she should treat them. The only way he knew how to handle it was to talk to her, though, and find out exactly what they could do to make it better.
“I think she’s going to find a way to kill us all,” Stefan said honestly. “She’s got the power to do it, and she hasn’t even done anything except talk shit to me.”
Adam chuckled, and they turned back to the house.
“So do you think that having more than one mate is actually a possibility? I mean, I know that Danica and her group are working well. But I don’t know how that would work with us.”
Stefan knew what he was thinking, what he was worrying about. All he could offer was a shrug.
“I don’t think it matters. There’s no way that Drake would allow any of us, let alone all of us, to mate Arielle.”
Adam laughed this time. A full-on laugh that had him clutching his stoma
ch. Stefan watched as a grown man fell apart like a child, and he was stuck standing on the back steps while Adam got his fill in.
“You’re funny,” he finally said. “Drake has absolutely no control over his sister. If she decided that she wanted to mate with one of us, all three of us, or fifty dragons; there’s not a damn thing he could do to stop her.”
Matthew opened the door for them, a grim look on his face. “She’s locked herself in her room and she won’t come out or answer. I told her dinner was ready and nothing.”
Stefan sighed and left Adam downstairs, going to retrieve their wayward princess. When he reached her door, he knocked loudly.
“Princess,” he said in his most condescending tone. “You need to come out now. Stop acting like a child.”
When there wasn’t an answer at all, Stefan’s eyebrows rose. He rattled the door, hoping that it would open, but it didn’t.
“Shit,” he said.
Using his shoulder, he jumped into the door to get it to open. Like the cheap piece of particle board that it was, it folded in on itself and splintered open.
“Arielle,” he grunted. “You have to stop playing games.” He faltered, though, when he saw that she wasn’t there. Panicking, he checked under the bed and on the window sill, just to be sure. Arielle was gone, though.
“Adam! Matthew!” Stefan turned to leave her room, but they were both standing right there, panicked expressions on their faces.
“We’ve got to find her,” he told them. “Before whoever was after her decides to come back.”
“Let’s split up,” Matthew said. “Logistically, she couldn’t have gone far.”
Stefan rushed passed him. “You don’t know her very well at all, I know that. None of us do, but that woman is more determined than anyone else I’ve ever met in my entire life. We can’t underestimate her.”
He just hoped that she was still safe, wherever she was.
7
Gilcurry was beautiful and full of magic, there was no doubt about that. Still the second Arielle stepped over the border separating the human realm from the magical one, she saw an entire world she’d never imagined in her entire life. She immediately felt at home, and if she had it her way, she’d never go back to Gilcurry.
Tall buildings, larger than anything she’d ever imagined, lined streets a lot larger than the ones in Gilcurry. Arielle was fascinated by how incredibly bright and shining everything was. The Uber she’d gotten had required a destination, so she’d picked the next town over, and she wasn’t disappointed. It was so wonderful. He’d even offered her a bottle of water for the drive, but she’d been too enraptured by everything she was seeing to take him up on the offer.
When she stepped out of the car and saw how many people were walking around, completely oblivious to their surroundings, Arielle didn’t know what to say. She thought about stopping one or more of them to ask what they were missing, but she didn’t want to bring attention to herself. When someone stepped into her path, she turned the other way, and saw the sun hit a window just right. It reflected back at her, lighting up her world in a way that had never happened before.
The Dragon Realm was full of smoke, death, and destruction. Even Gilcurry was muted in comparison to the city in front of her. This, this was real. Dirt and grime and everything that made life worth living.
“Beautiful.” Arielle breathed the air, feeling like she was taking a deep breath for the first time in her life.
The experience and sights were overwhelming, to say the least. Arielle walked up and down the busy streets for hours. She saw mothers and fathers with their children. She saw old men helping their wives to cross the street. She saw how loving and caring people acted toward one another. Kindness and love wasn’t everything Arielle saw. She also saw a thief, grabbing wallets from men not paying attention. She saw people scream, cursing at one another over imagined slights. She saw dirty, starving people walking unseen on the streets.
Arielle knew the dark secrets that were kept in the world. She’d lived through so many of them, terrible things that no one should endure. Seeing all of the dark, mixed with the light right in front of her, made her think that there was a light at the end of her dark tunnel too.
The sun slipped from the sky, slowly, while Arielle explored. Then, when the last bits of light faded behind the tall buildings all around her, that’s when the world came to life. Twinkling lights surrounded her. Music filtered from some of the bars around her, all coming together in a cacophony of delight. It was like Gilcurry, but a hundred times better.
“I know you.”
Arielle jumped at the sound of the voice, strangely familiar. She turned around and saw someone from Gilcurry standing right behind her, one of the warlocks. He was the de facto mayor of the town, too.
“Maddox,” Arielle said, relieved. “What are you doing here?”
Maddox smiled at her in a knowing way. Her face flamed and Arielle shifted from foot to foot in her uncomfortable state.
“I’m out on a mission. Trying to find the perfect birthday present, even if the woman it’s for won’t return my calls.” He frowned in an exaggerated way. “But I think I’m hungry. Join me for dinner?”
Arielle stuttered, trying to figure out exactly what to say. She didn’t want to be alone with him, but it had nothing to do with who he was.
As though he were reading her mind, Maddox took a step back and gave her space. “You’re fine, Arielle. I would never lay a hand on you, other than in a friendly way. And you’re not exactly my type.”
Arielle laughed. Everyone in Gilcurry knew that he was in love with the leader of the Wolves. Their story was like a cautionary tale against stepping away from the expectations of family.
“Come along,” Maddox summoned her. “We’ll get dinner and commiserate over our shared miseries.”
Before Arielle could politely decline, he’d steered her into a hibachi grill in downtown. Arielle was fascinated by the fire she saw from the hostess stand, and extremely thankful that he’d picked that particular place to eat. Dragons didn’t eat the way that humans normally did. Yeah, food tasted great, but fire was the only thing that fed their inner beast.
“Thank you,” she said. “It was very thoughtful of you to do this.”
When they were seated, Arielle did her best not to fidget. Sitting still was extremely hard, though. She watched as their chef started playing with food and the flames, and it was amazing even though it wasn’t real magic.
They ate in relative silence, and Maddox even distracted the chef so that Arielle could touch the flames and feed her dragon.
“I love being free like this,” she said quietly as they finished their meals.
Maddox chuckled. “You’ve been free like this longer than you think. You just haven’t embraced everything that comes with being out of your father’s castle.”
Arielle shrugged, offering a small nod. She was sure that if she said anything that she’d start crying.
“Sometimes,” Maddox told her as they were leaving the restaurant. “I run away just to avoid the chaos of being in Gilcurry.”
The sky was dark, but when she looked up there were no stars visible. Instead, streetlights and buildings illuminated their path.
“I don’t want to go back,” Arielle admitted.
“Then don’t.” Maddox shrugged. “You’re not a prisoner. And if anyone makes you feel that way, you could probably kill them and I’m sure Danica would help you bury their body.”
Arielle snorted. It was true, though. She knew how to fight, she’d spent the last year trying to learn everything she could from Danica and her men. Still Arielle didn’t shift into dragon form, not around other people. It was too dangerous.
“I can’t just not go back,” she said quietly while looking down at her feet. “My brothers are trying to keep me safe. I know that. It’s just hard when I want to stab them in the eye for trying to force me into staying in my house.”
Maddox touched her arm gen
tly, hesitantly. Arielle turned to face him, and the shadows of the night obscured part of his face.
“You’re free, Arielle. I know it seems like you’re not, with everything that’s happening and how Drake is tightening the reins to keep you safe. But you are free.”
With that, he walked away and left Arielle on her own. The problem was, she didn’t feel as free as she had before running into him. It wasn’t him, though. She knew that she was being a child, leaving the way she did. She knew that the three men she left behind were only doing their jobs. It stung more than she cared to admit.
It was late, and Arielle decided that maybe after camping out on the edge of town, she’d go home in the morning. Just because she logically knew she’d been stupid by leaving, that didn’t mean she was ready to admit it yet. Besides, she hadn’t gotten the chance to sleep outside since she’d been freed from the Dragon Realm.
It wasn’t until later, when it was close to freezing outside, that Arielle knew she’d made a mistake. Her phone was dead, and she couldn’t call for help. Instead, she decided the best thing to do was start a fire. Admittedly, the really smart thing would be to shift and fly back to Gilcurry. Still Arielle wasn’t ready to do that. Not yet.
The lighter in her hand flickered to life as she held it against some brush. Thankfully, she wasn’t helpless, otherwise she wouldn’t stand a chance of making a real campfire. After the flames began to dance across the dried leaves and grew in size, Arielle created a campfire. Feeding it was easy, and soon she was warm and feeding from it to sustain her dragon.
Branches snapping were her only warning before a dark shape stumbled into her campsite.
“Oh, thank goodness I found you.” A woman dressed in fatigues said breathlessly. “You need to put that out before someone sends out the Fire Department.”
“Um.” Arielle didn’t know what else to say. The whole day had gone absolutely bonkers and she had no clue what to do, or why people kept popping up out of the blue.
Using Her Dragons: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Omega Book 3) Page 5