Stryker: Dragon Protectors

by Benton, Ava

  It bothered me to think how much everything kept changing. I’d found out how much I had to fear from the people I thought would help me. I’d found myself fin the arms—and bed—of a dragon, and I didn’t’ know how much longer I could hold on in the face of all this adversity.

  I’d traded one hot mess of a life for a different dumpster fire of an existence.

  What the hell would happen next to totally turn my world on its head? Because I was tired of the surprises.

  14

  Stryker

  I gently shook her awake and her eyes locked on me.

  “It’s time.” I hated everything about this. This was one thing I couldn’t protect her against; my own kind.

  She sat up and threw the blankets off herself. With trembling hands, she tied up her hair into a messy bun that left wild strands trailing down her back. Somehow, she managed to look beautiful, sexy, and innocent all in one.

  Her wide, troubled eyes met mine and I lifted the blindfold. We’d talked about this beforehand and I wound it around her head now, tying it tightly but not so much so it would hurt her.

  “Can you see?”

  She shook her head and I laced my fingers with hers and led her out into the living room as the air pressure increased. The static tingle on my skin told me they were close. I’d sat up all night to keep an eye out. I knew they’d come. So I’d waited for them.

  And now they were here.

  I led her outside carefully and waited for them to come.

  The second they landed, they shifted. Every single large male, the finest of the finest males of our generation stood before us, shifting until there was an entire semi-circle around us. I hadn’t even met everyone yet, since I was still fairly new myself.

  Draco had taken me under his wing, but ours were such a private group many chose not to meet new members within the first few years. Partially because a lot of new recruits washed out and some got killed. Nobody wanted to deal with that shit, so they kept their distance until the newbies proved themselves.

  The front man stepped forward and I gently moved Kat behind me but didn’t let go of her hand.

  He spoke, his rough voice echoing off the trees and mountains around us. “We’re not a charity.” With his black hair shaved on the sides and the rest pulled up into a knot, he looked fierce. His thick black beard wasn’t long, but it looked well cared for and his bright blue eyes reminded me of Draco. An actual blood brother? I wasn’t sure; Draco seemed a lot more refined than this brute.

  I didn’t say a damn word; I wanted to know how this would play out.

  His right-hand guy stepped forward, a slightly smaller man with green eyes and blond, shoulder length hair he had half pulled back. “Was she made to sign the wavers?” There wasn’t an ounce of warmth in his eyes.

  “No.” My voice rang out and she winced.

  The leader spoke up, spreading both hands and holding them out to his sides. “Then she’s a risk to our way of life, our safety, everything and she must be destroyed.”

  Her hand went clammy in mine and I could feel her trembling. I wanted nothing more than to shift, scoop her up and fly to the ends of the Earth with her. I wanted to find a place to hide her, to keep her safe until the world ended. But they’d never stop hunting us. I knew this.

  “She doesn’t know you. She doesn’t see your faces.” I stepped aside to show I’d protected their identities with the blindfold.

  “It’s not enough.” The leader spoke

  “She’s not a threat.” I stepped forward, keeping her fingers laced with mine. As I moved, the leader leaned toward me, adopting a threatening fighting stance and I stopped in place. I didn’t want to provoke him. “When I saved her, she said something that resonated with me.”

  I studied every face. They were listening, but I doubted I could move them. Still, I’d give it my all. “She asked me why she would betray the man that saved her life. She’s not a threat to us. She’s not going to say anything. She’s grateful for her life. Plus,” I said, turning to face her without removing her blindfold. “Would you, Kat Hudson, sign a waiver that swears you won’t speak of us, that you’ll keep anything you learn about any member out of the hands of anyone you know, including your close family members, loved ones, etc?” If that’s all it came down to, it was an easy fix.

  “I will,” she said solemnly.

  The leader spoke up. “It’s not that simple.”

  Of course it wasn’t. I didn’t know the ins and outs of everything well enough to not make mistakes. Not that that was any excuse. I’d knowingly broken the rules and I was fine accepting any punishment for myself. But I wanted to spare her.

  “So take my life. Make an example out of me. Relocate her somewhere no one will know her and let her be.”

  Still, the leader shook his head.

  Kat’s fingers tightened around mine. “No,” she said in a low voice that broke my heart. She didn’t get it.

  “So what now?” We’d obviously reached an impasse.

  The leader stepped forward and I bared my teeth at him. “Now we take her into our custody. You’ll be dealt with later.”

  I scanned the crowd. Draco was nowhere to be found. Had he been hurt? Was he locked up somewhere for being my mentor? Were they punishing him for my mistakes? My heart squeezed, but even now, I couldn’t think of a single thing I’d do differently.

  “I joined because I thought we were good men. Now I see I was wrong.”

  Her fingers tightened between mine as if she was silently offering me strength. The leader adopted a look like I’d struck him. His brows shot up, his eyes narrowed, and he gritted his teeth, making his jaw flex.

  “I thought an innocent life was the most important one to save. Now I see we’re all just worried about our own hides and selling our skills.” I glared around the group and saw the hardest members begin to move uncomfortably.

  “You’re all scared. She’s a tiny woman. You all know that if she spoke out, the media would label her as crazy. She’d be locked up and pumped full of drugs. So what’s the real reason?” All night, this had bothered me. There was literally nothing she could do that was really all that threatening. Unless she recorded us—hard to do without a cell phone or some kind of camera—there was nothing. Nothing.

  Anger tightened features of nearly every man around us.

  All except the leader. He laughed. “I like you.” He gestured toward me. “You’ve got balls.”

  “Not balls. Brains.” Didn’t they realize they were blind? They weren’t thinking.

  “I take it your mentor didn’t mention all the rules?” He seemed less entertained.

  “I’m a learn as I go kind of guy.”

  “Ah.” He tilted his head back and stared up into the trees as the sun began to peek over the edge of the horizon, igniting the sky in hues of orange and hot pink. “Well, I hate to break it to you, Stryker.” He arched an eyebrow.

  I nodded.

  “We’ve got rules. And if we break the rules, our punishments are all in the guidebook. We follow it to the letter because if we didn’t things would be in chaos.” He studied me, pity in his eyes as he tapped his temple. “See, if people watch someone get away with something, they know they might also be able to get away with things. Pretty soon the whole system breaks down and things go to shit. I’ve helped keep this organization running for years. I’m not about to watch it fall because some new blood doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.” He turned to his right-hand man. “And the good book says…”

  “That she must be destroyed.”

  Anger filled me. The fact that they were so calmly talking about putting her down like she was some dangerous animal threat fucking pissed me off. But I also knew that acting in anger never yielded good results.

  Still, I could feel her trembling behind me. I could smell her fear, acrid and sooty on my tongue and I hated how terrified she was. They weren’t just talking about putting her down; they were doing it in front of her. S
he could hear them. They were torturing her. And they did it like she wasn’t even there. Like she couldn’t hear every fucking word out of their mouths.

  I wanted to destroy every single one of them.

  “So that’s what we must do.” The leader glanced at me, his narrowed eyes hard and bitter. “Now, will you step aside and let us take her?”

  Something in me whispered to do it.

  Fuck that. “You want her, come get her.” I tightened my grip on her hand even as she tried to pull away.

  The leader’s expression tightened. “So you’re not going to cooperate?”

  Clearly the guy was a genius.

  “Like I said, you want her, come get her.” I scanned the crowed, seeing how off-balance they all were. Nobody seemed to know what to do. It would have been comical if things weren’t so serious. Kat continued to try to pull free of me and I refused. I knew what she’d do; she’d offer herself and try to spare me.

  If I lost her, if I lost another person I could have protected, though, it would destroy me. I’d rather die fighting for her. I’d rather my death mean something. So I’d go down fighting for her.

  “You all seem confused; so let me make this clear.” I spoke slowly and carefully so even the dumbest ones could get it. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe. From the thugs that tried to kill her or from you.” I snorted, fury filling my being. My dragon would not be swayed from protecting his mate. “Seems like you’re all the fucking same after all. Bunch of low-life criminal scum scared of your own shadows. At least the Doubletap bastards have the honor to list someone’s crimes before offing them.”

  Of course I knew that insulting them wouldn’t help my case, but fuck, I had to do something. I wouldn’t let them just kill us quietly.

  With an angry growl, the leader jumped toward me, shifting in air.

  15

  Kat

  “Stop!” I ripped off the blindfold and screamed the words at the battling dragons.

  The dragons tangled and someone grabbed me. I pulled toward Stryker as the other dragon got a claw in him and dragged it, tearing flesh open and leaving a gaping wound. But in taking that shot, the other dragon didn’t realize he opened the perfect shot at his throat. Stryker’s teeth clamped on the black and blue dragon’s throat.

  The guy that grabbed me covered my ears and suddenly a piercing noise sliced through the air. I dropped to my knees, my vision flashing white as both dragons crashed to the ground.

  When the hands left my ears, the sound was gone, but a faint ringing still echoed through my brain. Freed, I crawled on my knees toward Stryker’s dragon form. He was still, too still.

  “Stryker!” I shrieked his name, my heart shattering in my chest as my mad scramble to him ended with me throwing myself against him. His ribs inflated and the loud sound of his breathing filled my grateful ears.

  I ran my hands over him and clung to him, my tears flowing freely.

  “Come, girl.” One of the men gestured me in a kindly voice. The guy could be extra for any Norse god movie with his powerful, strong-boned face. His lips were full and his arms were beefy. He looked like he could rip me into two halves if he wanted to.

  “Help him!” I refused to let go of Stryker and the man seemed to hesitate, his brilliant golden eyes on me. A slight breeze ruffled his shoulder-length brown hair and he glanced at another man out of the corner of his eyes.

  “He’ll be fine. We knocked them out to protect both of them.” He offered his hand and the rest of the dragons watched. “It’s time.”

  “Do it right here. I want to be near him. Please.” The last word shredded my throat and pain exploded through me. After all of this, I’d assumed we’d win. I’d been so sure that we’d prevail. That Stryker would be able to appeal to them, that they’d see reason, that maybe we could run.

  But as the group half-circled around me, I knew if I ran, I’d be caught and die out in the woods somewhere far from anyone that loved me or cared. So I made my stand. If this was the end, I wanted it to be near someone that gave a damn about me.

  I glared defiantly at the man.

  He sighed, shoving a hand through his hair. “This isn’t personal. It’s just business.”

  I nodded, my throat aching like I’d just swallowed a billion angry bees. “I know.” I couldn’t do more than whisper. Without another word, I curled into Stryker’s side, listened to his steady breathing and relaxed even though my head was screaming at me to fight, to run, to try.

  I wrapped an arm around him. His steady heart was beating against mine and I drew strength from it as the man approached me like I might snap at him at any moment. I touched near the injury running down his side and pulled my hand away red with his blood. “You have to get through this,” I whispered, praying he could hear me.

  I placed my bloody hand over my heart, leaving the mark on my skin. And I waited. I waited for the hunter approaching me to destroy me. I waited for the swift darkness to consume me. I waited for everything to end and as I did, I thought about my parents. I thought about Stryker’s smile, his touch. I remembered him sitting in a stay ray of sunlight. I didn’t remember his exact words, but I remembered how he made me feel.

  Safe. Protected. Validated. Important. Loved.

  “Kat!”

  I knew that voice and I turned to find the blue-eyed dragon that had confronted us the day before walking toward me. “Draco.”

  “When Stryker found you that day, did you happen to see this woman?” He held up an image of a beautiful woman and I instantly remembered the model-pretty, blue-eyed woman that had said Hi to me as I passed her on the sidewalk on my way home.

  “I did.” I met his gaze, recalling the way she’d lifted her head and smiled at me, a sparkle in her eyes.

  “Describe her. What was she wearing?” His eyes narrowed and he stepped closer to me, but he didn’t need to be threatening. Stryker had expressed fear the woman was in trouble, so I’d offer information to help them help her.

  I knew they wouldn’t hurt her. I was in jeopardy because I slipped between the cracks. The proper channels were not taken to save me. And while I was grateful I’d been saved at all, I understood that this was how things had to happen.

  “Jeans. A black shirt. Her hair was loose and almost curly.” I thought about that day as hard as I could. “She had a stamp on her hand.” I motioned like I was writing with my hands. “I’ll draw it if you have paper and a pen.”

  He pulled a little notebook out of his pocket and offered me a pen. I quickly sketched the ink pattern from memory and offered it back to him. “That’s all I know, I’m sorry.”

  He inclined his head. “Thank you.” He turned to the guy behind him that was eyeing us both with an unreadable expression.

  “Please protect my family. They’re innocent. They know nothing at all about any of you or what you are.” I didn’t care that I was begging him. I needed to know my family would be safe.

  He nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Can you persuade them to go easy on Stryker? He was just doing what he thought was best.” I did my best to let the truth and honesty shine through so he could feel it. I prayed I was right about his skill. I begged the powers that be to protect those I loved.

  He hesitated, his opalescent eyes darting back and forth between mine. His head tilted a little bit to the side and he gave a little hint of a nod. “I’ll try.”

  “Thank you. You can do this now.” I clung to Stryker.

  “You aren’t going to beg for your life to be spared?” Draco sounded confused.

  I glanced at him over my shoulder. “No. Why would I? I understand why this is happening.”

  He walked toward me so quickly I swallowed hard and gripped Stryker as tightly as I could. His hand grabbed my arm and he turned me around, so I leaned back against unconscious dragon. “You spoke to me like you knew. You know what I can do, my personal skill, I can feel it.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t think that was it.”


  He scanned the curious faces around us then leaned in close to me. “You know if you begged, you could influence me. Just like you influenced me by pointing out my flaws.”

  I didn’t understand. Was he telling me to beg? They already had their minds made up. Why bother? “I’m not going to beg.”

  He let out a growl of frustration and turned to his brothers. “She’s given me invaluable information. I formally request a stay of execution until I’ve had enough time to make sure she’s not holding onto information she doesn’t realize is important.”

  The men glanced at one another, then at me. I shifted uncomfortably.

  “Temporary stay of execution granted, but pending elder approval.” The Norse-god type guy popped out of existence and suddenly, all of them were gone. Only Stryker, Draco, and the dragon that Stryker battled still remained.

  “Why did you do that?” I asked. “I told you everything. You knew that. You lied to them.”

  Draco lifted both shoulders. “So far Stryker has saved my ass no fewer than four times. I’ve come to trust his judgment. If he sees something in you, then I’m backing him.”

  “I thought you were his mentor. Shouldn’t you be saving him?”

  Draco’s lips curved into a grin. “I can see why he likes you. Let’s get inside. These guys will wake up soon enough.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going anywhere.” I belonged at his side until he woke up. I needed to be here when he woke up, because I knew he’d panic. He’d search for me. And likely figure out where I was pretty quickly, but something in me whispered that I belonged at his side. And I listened.

  Draco bowed his head. “I see.

  “Thank you, for everything.” I curled into Stryker’s side. “Will you take care of him when I’m gone? Please?”

  “I’ll do my best.” Draco nodded, then his gaze ticked to the sleeping dragon behind me. “Thank you for not outing me.”

  “Not outing you?” I stared at him, confused.