“Look,” Rhys said, grasping for what little leverage he had left. “I will go on that dinner date with you if you go back down to Lobby B. That’s what you wanted, right? Do that and I’m yours for an entire night.”
The tiny woman narrowed her eyes at him while a demure smile blossomed. It was exactly what she wanted, Rhys realized. It was not him, naked on a silver platter, but it was the next best thing. He could make this sacrifice, right? He could deal with her for an hour, a table and several courses between them.
The woman slipped a card from a pocket that Rhys didn’t see in her dress. He wondered what else she had hidden in there. When there was only a hair’s breadth between them, she slipped the card into the front pocket of his jeans. He fought the urge to dance away from her when she titled her head up to look at him.
“My name and number are on that card. If you don’t call me, I’ll have to resort to other means.”
Once she finally spun on her heel and strode out of the room, Rhys pulled the card from his pocket. Daisy McShane. There was no business information beneath the name. Only a local number. Rhys glanced up, at where Daisy had been only moments ago.
“Who are you really, Daisy?” He had a feeling that she was the threat he never saw coming.
Rhys was left with two choices. He could track down Raphael and put a stop to whatever he was doing, or he could find Farida and figure out what was happening.
Looking back at the camera feed on the screen, Farida stood alone in a narrow hall while a holding cell appeared to be empty. Rhys was afraid he was about to make the wrong choice.
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Chapter Five
Farida needed to reach the garage. Slipping through the air vent had allowed her to move unnoticed, but now that she was in the hall she had to tread lightly. From there, she could slip into her rental car, not that it was built for speed. The midsized sedan would allow her to put distance between her and the dragons searching for her. She felt shame rise up and grip her. The Embassy might fail before it had even begun to work and that was her fault.
Having an entire family of Egyptian dragons arrive and hold the building hostage because of her would not look good. In fact, it showed Bangor and all of Wales that there was little they could do to protect anyone from the dragons.
Any dragons.
She cursed. Maybe she should just go home and endure the life she’d been given. It was not the one she would have liked, but it would put an end to the chaos she unwittingly unleashed upon Bangor and the new Embassy. It would make things look a little better for the Welsh dragons.
For Rhys.
Her mate. Her chance at living a life of happiness. It was like a treasure dangled in the air before her, just out of reach. She would never know what it meant to love him, no matter what she did. Her options were run or turn herself in. Rhys did not factor into either one of those.
Farida thought of the young, Welsh woman that had invited herself into Farida’s space the other day, claiming Rhys as her mate. It’d been a lie. The whole time, Farida believed Rhys to be taken. Now, Farida would be forced to leave. In her absence, Welsh woman might get what she’d laid claim to after all and Rhys might never know his true mate.
It broke her heart. It cracked with a sickening feeling that made bile rise in the back of her throat. She didn’t have time to nurse it. Her freedom was at risk.
She ran for the garage, but before she could reach the tunnel between the structures, a hand reached out and grabbed her. It yanked her into a shadow and she felt her body light with adrenaline. It was fight or flight, her beast reminded her as it swam near the surface.
She had to make a decision. Give in and save the Embassy or keep running for her freedom. Which choice was the wrong one?
Her arm stretched out, ready to bring her elbow back into her captor’s kidney, but a male hand reached out and grabbed it. The skin was pale against hers and, suddenly, a familiar scent reached her nose.
Her shoulders relaxed. This was not where she asked Rhys to meet her. He spun her in his arms, their faces so close.
“You failed to inform me that you were a princess on the run from your own people,” Rhys whispered so that his warm breath fell over her lips. She couldn’t help the shiver that ran up and down her spine, making her tremble in his arms. “That would have been good information when I asked if you planned on sabotaging the Embassy.”
She wished she could explain. She wished she could take it all back and reject this job when it crossed her desk. She never would have hurt this new peace effort. She never would have met her mate. Never would have been forced to leave him.
His hands tightened around her, arm pulling her body into his so that she could feel the bulge in his pants start to stir against her rear. Rhys’s lips brushed her ear as he spoke again.
“You also didn’t tell me that you were engaged.”
Farida shoved herself away from him. She emerged into the light of the fluorescently lit hallway. There was nothing she could say, nothing she wanted to say. Their lives were so different. He wouldn’t understand what she was running from.
Instead of arguing, she pulled her glare from Rhys and turned toward the garage. It was all she had left. She couldn’t linger with her mate, couldn’t be tempted to stay here with him and ruin everything he had here. Because that was what she would do. It was what she was already doing with her piss poor decision making.
If she never ran, if she’d stayed and endured her life, then this wouldn’t be a problem. Then again, she wouldn’t have had the past thirty years of freedom to become the person she really wanted to be. There was nothing wrong with wanting that…
Was there?
Footsteps followed her and she turned to see Rhys stalking behind her.
“It would have been nice to know I was talking to a princess.”
Farida threw her hands in the air. What could she do with this man? This was what fate had given her as a mate? He was quickly becoming insufferable. Where was the gentle patience she’d envisioned? Where was the steadfast trust?
As long as he didn’t know, she wouldn’t have to stand here and take this. If he didn’t realize what they were yet, he would still let her leave without trouble.
But, when they reached the door to the garage, Farida could see the uniformed men through the narrow pane of glass. Her heart clenched, threatening to stop beating altogether. There was her last chance at freedom, and it was crawling with gold dragon men.
“Exactly how big is your family anyway?” Rhys asked as he peered through the window.
“Too damn big, apparently.” There was a feeling of hopelessness that was taking up home inside of her. What could she do now?
Turn herself in. That was the only option she had left. It would be the end of her freedom, but it would also salvage what little the Embassy had left if Rhys did it. It would look like a show of participation. She met Rhys’s eyes and he seemed to realize what she was thinking. His hands snatched hers and he pulled her close.
“Excuse me for disagreeing, but I’ve met your fiancé and he’s a bit of a stick in the mud. There has to be another option.”
Farida glanced back at the door to the garage before shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter. If I can do something to rectify this awful situation, I will.”
His body seemed to shrink beneath her, his shoulders dropping and whatever breath he’d drawn to argue escaping him. Instead of fighting whatever she wanted to do, he kissed her.
His mouth was on hers, not gently, but demanding. His tongue pressed between her lips and she opened to let him in, opened to take as much of him as she could. Each flick of his tongue sent a thrill through her and landed in her core to spread with heat.
Was that what it was like to kiss your mate, she wondered?
If only she’d had more time. If only he’d been a little more agreeable, she thought as a small laugh escaped her lips and tickled his. She laid her hands
against his chest. They could not linger in the shadows of the tunnel for long.
She knew who she had to find to put an end to this.
The thought of him made her hands fist in Rhys’s shirt. She pressed her forehead to his.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Touching,” a voice interrupted.
Both Rhys and Farida tensed as they turned toward the source of the voice. Rhys’s grip on Farida tightened and his body twisted to shield her from the man.
Karim didn’t smile. His face was set into a grim flatness.
Slowly, reluctantly, Farida unfolded herself from Rhys’s tight grasp. She could feel Karim’s eyes moving across her bare skin, taking in her tight-fitting clothing and the ghost of ink lines beneath her pale blouse. Those eyes flicked to Rhys, Karim’s face becoming drawn as he took in the Welsh dragon and his grip on Farida.
“You should be better covered,” Karim said as he turned away from them, as if she would follow without direction. “It does not do for a princess to allow the world to see so much of her. They are not deserving.”
“And you think you are,” she mumbled, wishing she had the courage to fight this. To tell her parents that she would come home, but she would not marry this man. Perhaps it was not a lack of courage, but a conviction that they would not listen. So, she reluctantly pulled herself from Rhys’s arms and followed Karim into the open garage, giving in to what she could control.
Karim stopped. He must have heard her mumble. But, he didn’t address it. “Are you coming?” he snapped, instead. Like she wasn’t already following. It was just another way he tried to assert control over the world around him.
“You were not always like this,” Farida began. “There was a time when you might have grown into a good man. Try to be that person, for me. For your friend.”
Karim spun on his heel. His eyes burned gold now. “I am a good man. Everything I do, I do for my family.”
Farida shook her head. She knew better. “You do it for the power you stand to inherit, not for anything you feel for me or your family.”
Karim stalked toward her, violence promised in the snarl on his face. That was when Rhys moved. One moment he was behind her, the next, he stood between her and Karim. She wanted to say she could take care of herself. Say that she’d fought with Karim before, but Rhys became an immovable wall.
Her mate stared her fiancé down. Rhys’s hands clenched by his sides. She could feel his beast, feel it’s presence in the air around them as the thin plaster of the walls began to crack.
“Do not tell me you’ve spoiled yourself with our baser cousins, Farida,” Karim sneered. “If the crown did not come with your hand, I would be tempted to leave you here to suffer the barbarians.”
Rhys’s beast growled. His body twitched. That was all he had time for, because Karim danced back and drew a weapon from beneath his uniform. The gun was level in his hands, like he’d been trained to use it.
Since when had the gold dragons had use of guns, she wondered. Since when had their beasts not been enough?
“Don’t do it, Karim,” Farida warned him. Her voice held a dangerous edge. Instead of fear, a resolve rose in her. Either one of them could survive a gunshot as long as it didn’t hit them in anything vital, like the head or spine.
“Do you think I came unarmed when the locals are murdering each other over land?” Karim smiled. “What do you think I loaded this gun with? Iron?”
Her stomach dropped, but she tried not to let it show on her face. Karim’s gun was loaded with silver. It wouldn’t kill a dragon alone. But, it would dampen their connection to the magic that made them what they were.
“You would not hurt your princess’s mate,” Farida said, confident as her chin rose. It was a last ditch effort, she knew that, but she had to erect some kind of shield between Karim and Rhys. She had to try to protect her mate.
Karim’s eyes widened with surprise only for a second. Rhys began to say something. Then, Karim’s eyes narrowed and a bang echoed through the concrete enclosure. Farida’s scream was drowned out by the sound. Rhys seemed to blink.
Once.
Twice.
Then he glanced down and his brow crinkled, like he couldn’t believe what had just happened. Blood trickled down his chest from the hole in his shoulder. It wasn’t a kill shot.
Not yet.
Farida’s beast surged. It roared in anger. She turned her gold glare on Karim. There had been a time when they’d been friends. The two of them grew up together, two young dragons against a world that distrusted them. It had made Karim grow up hard. The attitude he’d taken on had pushed her away. When her parents told her who she was to marry, who was to take her father’s title because she could not carry it, she had recoiled.
Now, she rebounded. Her body lunged forward. The man would not shoot her. Not even as she tackled Karim to the ground and wrestled him for the gun in his hands. The beast inside of her laid against her skin and pressed forward. It did not make her body give way to the beast in its entirety, but it made her nails become talons, her teeth become sharp. It gave weight to her body that held Karim down.
One clean swipe made the gun go skittering across the floor. It disappeared into the shadows beneath a parked car. A pair of sturdy hands pulled her from the fight. The shadowy garage became a blur. Around her, gunshots echoed. Bullets slammed into cars, into the concrete walls.
The man that held her grunted with the effort from carrying her. Twisting, she could see the sweat on Rhys’s forehead. The gunfire had been warning shots. Bullet holes circled him, cutting through fiberglass and cracking concrete.
Karim sat up, fresh blood making trails down his temple from where she’d scratched him in the tussle. It sent a bit of satisfaction through her. Another gold dragon appeared at her side and wrestled her for control of her other arm. She wished she’d done worse. She wished she’d hurt Karim the way he hurt her mate.
“Take her to the van so that we can get out of this cursed country. Leave the red dragon.”
Farida’s stocking covered heels dragged along the concrete floor. She twisted and pulled, but their grips were strong. She couldn’t take on two of the Egyptian dragons at once.
Rhys staggered for a moment, the knuckles of the hand slapped over his wound going white. His body was struggling to heal around the silver bullet. If Rhys didn’t get the bullet out soon, if a medical professional didn’t see to him, his power would be locked away by the silver. Rhys would, effectively, become human while it was still locked inside of him.
Her stomach sank like a bag full of rocks. This was her fault.
Her doing.
If only she’d stayed at home. If only she’d been a good daughter.
But, Farida had never been complacent. She’d never been one to lay down and take the life handed to her. Just like she was not going to let these dragons drag her away from her mate.
It was a good thing that there was already a Secur IT system installed in the garage. They were places that had a penchant for being dangerous, so they’d made sure to install it there, first.
“RDE System. Code 47608!” Farida shouted to the system built into the garage. “Initiate Code 4 alarm!”
All around her, the gold dragons seemed to pause. There was a slight wave of confusion that caught them off guard. Karim cast her a wary look. The soft glow of the lights changed. They turned a glaring orange and began to spin. Their light flashed around the garage. Farida smiled. Their confusion was the distraction she needed to pull herself from the gold dragons’ grip.
Her body fell slack and her weight brought her to the ground, but their hands fell away with it. Not sparing a moment, she rolled away from them. This would be much easier if she hadn’t chosen a skirt to impress the red dragon, she thought as the concrete world spun around her.
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Chapter Six
Orange lights spun through the garage. They cast dark shadows
that danced around him, pressed in on him. Perhaps that was the pain speaking.
Rhys’s chest was on fire. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. He could reach his fingers in through the bullet wound and yank the tiny bullet from his skin, but there would be tiny bits of silver shrapnel that he wouldn’t be able to get by fingers alone. The worst part was, his body still had enough magic left to heal. The wound was closing before he could decide what to do, the skin knitting together beneath his fingers.
A shape darted toward him in the chaos. He should have turned away, but his feet were already unsteady. Whoever was coming was going to hit him and he wasn’t prepared to stop it. He cursed himself. But, the shape didn’t hit him.
Instead, the shape ducked beneath his shoulder and looped his arm over her shoulders.
“We need to be quick,” she hissed, breathless.
Farida.
Why was a runaway Egyptian dragon princess hiding in their Embassy? What kind of damned luck had brought her to their doorstep, right on the heels of the nightmare that had been the white dragon uprising?
Still, as they hobbled their way toward the door they’d come through only moments ago, he wouldn’t have changed it for anything. Not as her hip bumped his. Not as she gripped the hand slung over her shoulder like he might fade away from her altogether.
Together, they burst through the door to the tunnel. No sooner had they passed it, Rhys heard a mechanical grumbling. The door drifted closed, but as soon as it clicked, a series of metal bars dropped over it, making the way impassable.
His head shot up. He looked to the other end of the hall and held his breath. If the same thing happened with that door, there would be no way out of this tunnel. They’d trapped themselves.
“I can override it,” Farida breathed, seemingly reading his mind.
He pulled his arm from her, not wanting to put more pressure on her than needed. She was burning through energy fast. A tenderness rose up inside of him, an urge to take care of her that he’d only ever felt before with his sister.
Fated Dragons Complete Series: Books 1 - 5 Page 34