by Sammie Joyce
He and Dane both stiffened at the same time. Footsteps were coming their way.
“Go,” he hissed, taking the paper out of the box and shoving the box under a couch cushion.
Dane didn’t need telling twice. He dashed up the stairs and closed the door behind him. Asher sighed in relief. The footsteps weren’t quite at the door yet. Dane had gotten back into position in time.
“Dane. Anything from him?”
Asher resisted the urge to smash something. It was Maria. Before all this, he had thought Maria was a wonderful person. Now, he couldn’t see how he’d ever trusted her.
“He’s awake. I heard him moving around, and he came close to the door, but got thrown back by the spells. Nothing from him since then.”
“Good. Stay here. I want to talk to him.”
Asher stood, watching Maria come down the stairs. What he wouldn’t give to be able to rip her head from her shoulders… but that wasn’t an option. In his human form, he was no match for a witch in full command of her powers.
“Asher. I see you’re awake.”
“I see you’re still alive,” he said coolly.
“No thanks to you. Have you reconsidered your actions?”
“If you mean protecting my mate from your attempts to kill our child, then no, I haven’t reconsidered at all.”
Maria sat down opposite him. “I don’t like this either, Asher. You think I want this? I’m trying to do it for the good of everyone.”
Asher could see that she genuinely believed what she was saying, but that hardly excused her actions. “Just let me go. You’ve made it clear that I’m no longer welcome in this clan. I have no desire to battle you, just to see my mate and child safe. Let me go, and you’ll never see or hear from me again.”
“And let the abomination Rose carries destroy the world? I don’t think so, Asher.”
Asher bit back an angry retort. He needed to be smart about this. “Then what, exactly, do you plan to do with me? Keep me trapped here for the rest of my life?”
“I’m sure we’ll find a use for you. For now, I suggest you put all of your efforts into convincing me that I should allow you freedom of movement within the mansion.”
If she expected him to grovel, then she had another thing coming. What could he say that she would believe?
“I attacked to give my mate and brothers time to escape. I know that I have no chance against the entire coven. As long as Gavin, Jagger, and Mace keep Rose safe, you don’t need to worry about trouble from me.”
“You expect me to believe that? I know you want to get back to her. What, exactly, stops you from making a break for freedom the moment I loosen the restrictions on you?”
“Exactly what you just said—I want to get back to them. I can’t do that if I’m dead. I don’t imagine you’d treat an escape attempt indulgently. I’m actually surprised I woke up at all. I suppose enough dragons spoke up against killing me when I was unconscious that you decided it would be too divisive to the clan to do it?”
“Maybe you’re not as stupid as I thought. I will consider your arguments.”
With that, Maria swept away. Asher didn’t understand it. The Maria he remembered was kind and compassionate. It was like she was a completely different person.
He supposed that fear did strange things to people, no matter how irrational that fear was.
No matter what he said to her, Asher intended to get back to Rose, but Dane was right. He needed to bide his time and look for his opening.
Chapter Five
“No.”
Rose had never heard Mace sounding so firm, but this situation seemed to have pulled him out of his usual quiet, compliant self. “Mace… I need him.”
She knew she sounded whiny, but she couldn’t help it. Rose’s heart was breaking. Asher was a prisoner, and her child was growing in her belly without him.
“I know, which is exactly why we need to get this right. It’s only been three days. The coven will still be on high alert. A rescue attempt now is doomed.”
Rose thought she might cry. Mace was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear.
Gavin put a protective arm around her, glaring at Mace. “We rescued Asher before on short notice. We could do it again.”
“That’s right. Remember when the coven wanted to execute him? We did it then, we can do it now.”
Any time that Jagger and Gavin agreed on something, Rose knew that there was something wrong.
“No,” Mace repeated. “We made a wild rescue attempt because we had to, or he would have died. Annabelle has told us that he’s safe for now. We’re not risking everything. How would we even do it? All four of us go? I’m not letting Rose anywhere near that coven; if they catch her, they’ll force the abortion on her. Leave her here alone, with the chance of the coven finding her without her necklace and none of us to protect her? Have one of us stay here? There’s no chance two of us can rescue Asher by ourselves.”
Rose had never seen this side of Mace before. She hadn’t realized how tactical he was. Usually he just went along with what his brothers wanted, but with their child on the line, he’d gotten over his compliance and was making his opinions known.
Jagger and Gavin seemed won over by this argument. Gavin growled under his breath in frustration, but didn’t try to argue. Rose couldn’t think of anything to say to counter Mace. She had her child to think of now, and she wouldn’t risk them.
“I need to talk to him, at least. I… I feel like I’m going mad, not having him in my head.”
“You’re not the only one,” Gavin muttered. “If you’d asked me before, I’d have jumped at the chance to boot Asher out of my mind, but I find I’m eating my words.”
“I’m sure Asher will be touched to hear it.”
“Don’t you dare, Jagger!”
“Enough,” Mace said quickly. “Annabelle is working on getting a phone down to Asher. We’ll have to wait until she does to talk to him, but hopefully it won’t be long. Just because we can’t rescue him yet doesn’t mean we can’t plan his rescue.”
Rose perked up a bit. Planning Asher’s rescue would at least make her feel like she was doing something. “What are you thinking?”
Before Mace could answer, the phone rang. Rose dove for it. There was only one person who had this number. She put it on loud speaker when she answered, knowing her dragons would want to be part of this conversation.
“Annabelle,” she breathed. “How is he?”
“He’s good, Rose. Don’t worry so much. Asher knows how to take care of himself. He finally convinced Maria to let him have the run of the mansion. He’s still in the collar, but at least he has freedom of movement.”
“That’s great, Annabelle!” Rose knew Annabelle well, and she could tell something was wrong. With such good news, Annabelle should be delighted, but she sounded beyond troubled. She sounded scared. “What… has something else happened?”
“Not exactly. It’s—I don’t really know.”
Rose exchanged a perplexed look with Mace. “What do you mean?”
“I think this whole place is going crazy.”
Rose snorted. “I think they passed ‘crazy’ when they decided to strap me down and perform a non-consenting abortion.”
“I know, but things just seem to be getting worse. I don’t understand it.”
“What do you mean? How could things possibly get worse?”
“Remember what things were like when you first came to the coven?”
“I try not to.” The coven when Rose first arrived had been a nightmare. Witches subjugated and tortured dragons. The mutual hatred between the species ruled every interaction. Ceaseless anti-dragon propaganda was drilled into new witch recruits.
“We’re reverting.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense!”
“I know. I can’t understand how it happened. Suddenly, witches and dragons are at each other’s throats. They’re spreading lies about each other, and there have eve
n been a few physical fights breaking out. Right now it’s only a question of who tries to lock up who first.”
Rose didn’t know what to say. She exchanged an aghast look with Mace, Jagger, and Gavin.
Her voice was faint when she spoke to Annabelle again. “When… when did this start happening?”
“Right after you left. I suppose some tension between witches and dragons was expected, but nothing like this. It’s like they’re under some kind of spell.”
“But none of us would cast that spell. We’re all committed to unity. Or at least, we were.”
“I know,” Annabelle sighed. “I don’t understand it.”
“Annabelle, why are you unaffected?” Mace asked.
It was a good point, one Rose hadn’t thought of. She shouldn’t let her distress get the better of her. They needed to be smart here, and they didn’t have the luxury of letting their emotions rule them.
“I don’t know. Dane and I seem to be the only ones who aren’t changing. Even Wendy and Jade have gone back to the typical coven line of hating dragons.”
“Is there anyone else in a relationship with a dragon like you?” It was the only connection Rose could think of.
“Nothing serious like Dane and me. There are a few who went out on dates, but those quickly fizzled when all this started. I think Dane and I are the only ones who are in love.”
“Maybe that’s what’s protecting you.”
“Maybe. Look, I’ve got to go. If I’m late for lunch, people will get suspicious. Witches and dragons are eating at different times now, and I need to make sure I’m there for the witch slot.”
“I’m sorry, Annabelle. That sounds awful. Are you managing to see Dane?”
“We sneak around at night. As far as everyone else is concerned, we’re over. If I want to keep my cover, I need to keep it that way.”
“Any progress on getting Asher a phone?”
“He’s still being carefully trailed and watched, but I’m hoping in a few days I’ll be able to slip him one.”
A few days felt like an eternity, but Rose didn’t say so. She knew Annabelle was trying her best. “Stay safe.”
“I’ll try.”
After they hung up, Rose let the phone drop, staring off into space. How could things go so wrong so fast? It wasn’t natural. Annabelle was right, it did sound like some kind of spell. But no one would have cast that spell. How could it be a spell, then?
“I guess we underestimated the power fear has,” Gavin murmured. “The trauma of the recent battles with Hellith, and the fear that there might be a Hellith replacement on the way… well, I’ve heard stories about people acting in bizarre ways in extremely stressful situations, but I hoped I’d never have to experience it firsthand.”
Maybe Gavin was right. After all, what else could it be?
“What do we do?” Rose felt completely overwhelmed. She remembered how awful the coven was at first. The thought of going back to the beginning was horrifying.
“The same thing we’ve been doing.” Mace’s voice was steady, but Rose could tell that he was also deeply disturbed by what they’d heard. “We need to rescue Asher. That’s our priority at the moment. We should probably plan to get Annabelle and Dane out of there at the same time. We can worry about saving the coven from themselves once we’re all safe.”
Rose nodded, leaning back into Gavin’s embrace.
They talked about little things for a while, like the food at the hotel or which OB Rose was going to see in this area while she was here. Rose tried her best not to think about Asher for a while. She knew stress wasn’t good for the baby.
Later that night, Jagger and Gavin fell asleep easily, but she tossed and turned. She wasn’t the only one. Mace was restless too. Rose was sure he was going through potential rescue strategies. By the way his leg twitched, none of them were promising.
She eventually got quietly out of bed and padded over to the balcony. They had the honeymoon suite, which was even more spacious than their four-bedroom basement, and had a bed easily big enough for six people.
A minute later, Mace followed her outside. The moon was clear and bright, but it did nothing to raise Rose’s spirits.
“Hey.” Mace stood close to her, their shoulders just touching as they looked out over the city. “Can’t sleep?”
“Nope. I guess I’m not alone.”
They were silent for a few more minutes. “I was thinking about possible rescue strategies for Asher.”
If anything could distract Rose from her troubled thoughts, it was this. “Tell me.”
“Well, they’ll be expecting us to break in, snatch Asher, and escape. That’s what they’ve typically seen dragons do in the past on rescue missions. So if we’re going to have our best chance, we need to do what they’re not expecting.”
“You mean have Asher escape himself? If he could do that, he probably would have done it by now.”
“Not exactly. Say Asher just vanished. What would the witches do?”
“They’d start searching for him at once. Without his collar, he can’t shift, so he can’t get far on foot. They’d know we haven’t attacked and carried him away, so they would chase him down on foot.”
“Exactly. What if we don’t focus on ways for Asher to escape? What if we focus on ways for him to hide? He’d wait a couple of hours, and then as soon as the entire coven is looking for him, he could walk right out the back door. We’d be waiting for him.”
“Mace, that’s brilliant! Invisibility spells are super hard, but I bet Annabelle could do a glamor spell to make Asher look like a potted plant or something.”
“Jagger would love that.”
Rose chuckled at the thought. Jagger would never stop teasing Asher about it. “She and Dane could volunteer to stay at the coven in case we turn up. We can fly in low, grab Asher, Dane, and Annabelle, and be away before the witches notice anything amiss.”
“Even better, we could have Dane fly Annabelle and Asher away. Jagger and Gavin can patrol the area and make sure no witches decide to come back. You and I can stay here.”
Rose didn’t like the idea of staying here in safety while everyone else risked their life, but she had to think of her child. If the witches captured Jagger or Gavin, they would be imprisoned. If she was captured, her child would die.
She realized it must be just as hard for Mace to think of staying behind, but he was offering, rather than fighting with Jagger and Gavin about who got to go.
Rose turned to face Mace. “It’s brilliant. You’re brilliant.”
Even in the moonlight, she could see him blushing. Rose kissed him, long and deep, relishing his warmth in comparison to the cool night air. Mace pulled her so that she was flush against him. With their bodies pressed together, they kissed until they were both breathless.
“Let’s go inside.”
Rose pouted. She didn’t want the kiss to be over so soon.
“I want to take your clothes off, and it’s too cold to do it out here.”
The pout turned at once to her most dazzling smile. Rose let Mace lead her inside to the couch, since Jagger and Gavin were currently occupying the bed. Rose gave a brief thought to waking them, but decided that she wanted this time alone with Mace.
They were all in a hotel room with little to do, and they hardly lacked for group sex sessions. The two of them moved quietly; Mace must have also not wanted to wake his brothers. Rose struggled to control her escalating breathing as he undressed her. She did the same for him, letting his clothes fall to the floor.
Their lips met again and Mace tilted her back, so that she was basically hanging in his arms. Rose had no fear that he would drop her. She let her neck relax as Mace plundered her mouth.
They broke apart again as Mace lifted her onto the couch, setting her down so carefully, as if she were made of glass. The couch was wide enough for him to straddle her, his cock standing up between them.
They kissed again, and one endless moment blended perfectly into t
he next. Mace started stroking Rose’s breasts, igniting her further. He swallowed her gasps, grinding down onto her. His cock was trapped between them, making a slick spot on Rose’s belly.
She tried to get a hand between them, but Mace was pressed too firmly against her. She settled for grabbing his ass, squeezing with her fingers, causing Mace to falter for a moment before continuing with renewed vigor.
Rose spread her legs as best she could with him on top of her. “Take me, Mace.”
Mace nodded, lifting himself up a little so that he had access. Her other dragons liked to tease her and make her wait sometimes, but Rose could always count on Mace to give her what she wanted.
He pushed into her, pressing a hand over her mouth. He knew her well. Rose’s cry was muffled, letting Jagger and Gavin remain asleep.
The couch squeaked slightly as Mace started thrusting into her. Rose tried to get her hands between them, desperate for some pressure on her clit.
“You should have let me lick you first,” Mace whispered. “I’d have had you wet and leaking for me.”
She was already wet and leaking for him, but Rose didn’t have the breath to point that out. Mace held himself up slightly on his arms, giving her space to finger her clit.
Rose thrust her hips to meet his, her head lying back on the couch arm. Mace licked her breasts, humming softly in pleasure. When his licks got to her nipples, Rose couldn’t take it anymore. She used one hand to grab his hair and push his mouth further down in silent command.
Mace chuckled slightly, sending divine vibrations through her. He started sucking her nipples, letting his tongue swipe over the hardened tips every few seconds.
One of the couch legs was protesting the continuous battering, but neither of them cared nearly enough to stop. Mace finally came up to kiss her again, letting his tongue quest deep into her mouth.
Rose arched up into him as she came, her scream muffled. Mace swallowed her sounds, finally stilling as his release overtook him.
They barely had a chance to catch their breath before the sound of breaking wood shrieked through the room.
The couch collapsed underneath them.