by Cecilia Lane
He listened closely. The steps ahead of them were rushed. He picked up his pace and jogged ahead, the guards behind him doing the same.
He needed to find the attackers and end their threat. Levi and Brody had possession of the royal family; it was his duty to eliminate the threat. That they also took Lola gave him a clue to their identity. He couldn’t help but be surprised at the slayers’ boldness to attack the dragons while they gathered in such numbers.
His surprise didn’t put a damper on his need to rip them apart. They had his mate. They’d threatened his charge he was sworn to protect.
The steps and scent led him deeper into the mountainside. They were quickly approaching the end of the tunnel. The right vehicle could drive the tiny path from the main roads to the entrance of the tunnel.
The tree cover would be difficult to track the vehicle from the sky, but Rafe knew where to wait on the main road. The slayers would have a short-lived victory before dragon claws tore their vehicle apart.
Lola’s scent grew stronger in his nose. The sound of a vehicle roaring to life covered the steps of the slayers. Rafe picked up his pace. His dragon drove him on. He needed to protect his mate from danger.
Something caught at his feet and he stumbled forward, catching his weight on his hands.
The snap and spit of a fuse were his only warning. He rolled away from the explosive triggered by the wire that ran the width of the tunnel right before it detonated.
The tunnel shook. Rocks and dust filled the passage and separated him from the other guards. He heard them coughing on the other side of the crumbled tunnel.
Fuck.
He eyed the pile of rock that separated him from the guards. Too much valuable time would be wasted if he waited for the men to clear the tunnel. He didn’t want anyone to be there if it collapsed any further. Better to clear the space. Better to continue tracking down his mate.
“Go! See to the royal family!” His voice was thick with the power of his dragon. The beast wanted out.
He pushed himself to his feet and leaped into a dead run toward the entrance of the tunnel. Toward Lola.
The heavy scent of the exhaust and fuel of the vehicle trickled into the tunnel air. He rounded the last curve of the tunnel. His dragon prepared to launch into the air and fly toward the main road to wait for Lola’s abductors.
Rafe skidded to a stop.
The man at her side looked all too familiar. The curve of his nose matched Lola’s. So close, he could barely make out their scents over the vehicle smells. What he could smell was slightly similar, though the man carried much more insanity on his scent.
His hand dug into Lola’s hair and held her at arm’s length. Her eyes watered with the start of tears.
The scent of panic filled his nose. Fear laced over it. And over those was the hideous scent that bordered on madness that radiated from the man. The stench made his blood run hot with fury.
The man clicked the safety off and pressed the muzzle to the back of Lola’s head.
“Take one more step, abomination, and she pays the price.”
Two had carried her away. Was the other inside the truck that idled at the mouth of the tunnel?
“Let her go and I’ll kill you quickly. Don’t, and I’ll make your last seconds last for hours.”
The man’s eyes twitched to the side but he made no move to release Lola. The threat didn’t contain a hint of truth. He meant to make the slayers pay for their disruption and abduction. His dragon wouldn’t be satisfied until their claws were dipped in slayer blood.
He hoped Lola would eventually forgive him for murdering her kin.
“R...Rafe, just go!” Lola pleaded.
The man jerked her harshly and her hands rose to try and unwind his fingers from her hair. He forced her to her knees. “Not happening, sis. We came for you but we won’t miss out on taking one of these monsters with us. Stupid fucks never even considered we knew exactly where to look.”
He dug fingers into Lola’s arm and held it high. “Her tracker led us right where you’d be most vulnerable. Didn’t take much to watch your kind making trips out to the mountains. Mighty fine place you built here. Hope they enjoyed that explosion as a parting gift. I only regret not seeing how many of you fuckers got blown to pieces.”
Rafe tried to focus on the man’s ramble but the guilt on Lola’s face distracted him. Her tracker. In her arm. The slayers had monitored her location from the beginning. He knew she’d kept secrets but he never knew they’d be so damaging.
He wanted to roar at the betrayal. He’d been played. They’d all been played.
He felt someone step behind him and then the world went black.
Chapter Ten
“No!” Lola shouted. If she hadn’t already been on her knees, she would have fallen.
Rafe thudded to the ground.
John Jr’s. hand in her hair was the only thing that kept her from crawling toward Rafe. Hot tears stung her eyes and she looked desperately for any sign of life in her dragon. Relief flooded through her when she saw his sides expand in a breath.
“Good. I thought this one might come after her.” Peyton nudged Rafe’s still form with the tip of his boot. “He seemed awful watchful of her in their tower.”
“Open up the truck, Kyle!” John Jr. called to her last brother.
They’d planned and carried out a full operation. Kyle jumped out of the driver’s seat and folded down the door of the truck bed. The interior window was already open.
After securing her hands with zip ties, Peyton and John Jr. made quick work of securing Rafe. They wrapped silver chains around Rafe’s wrists and ankles, then tied those together in a painful hogtie.
Peyton gestured toward the truck bed with his gun. “Get in.”
She followed the order. Her skull still felt sore from the grip on her hair. She could almost feel the muzzle of the gun digging into her. She bit her tongue to hold back her tears but nothing stopped the tremble of her body.
Lola winced when they tossed Rafe in after her like a dead animal. She wanted to reach for Rafe but knew any movement would be deemed dangerous.
Her brothers had come to take her back, but she didn't think they expected for Rafe to come after her. That they hadn't immediately put a bullet in her head gave her a small chance of survival. She needed to be extremely careful and play her cards right. She just hoped she could outthink the trio.
Kyle resumed his position as the driver and John Jr. climbed into the passenger seat. Peyton took the back seat and trained a gun on her and Rafe. Making any move to comfort Rafe would only prove her loyalties had shifted.
Rafe bounced with every bump and jolt of the truck. It made her stomach turn to see him flop around without any life in his limbs. How severe did a head injury need to be to permanently hurt a dragon?
She didn’t need to watch out the windows to know where they were going. Her brothers were taking their prizes back to the compound. Rafe would be killed. She didn’t know what they had planned for her, but she prepared herself for meeting the same fate if she couldn’t talk her way back into their good graces.
She stared straight ahead and tried to ignore Rafe as much as possible. It was a difficult task but she put herself to formulating a plan. She grasped at any ideas that came to her and cast them aside just as quickly. Bound and outnumbered, her situation seemed impossible.
Hours later, the rumble of the cattle grate under truck tires and squeak of the gate closing behind them jerked her attention out of her thoughts. The truck drove past the houses and lab of the main compound. Of course. They were going to the pit first.
The pit was designed to hold shifters. The interior cage was lined with silver bars in case the shifter in question somehow slipped the silver chains that secured it to the wall. She’d never heard of a shifter escaping from the pit without some sort of mistake made by a slayer.
It. She gulped. It was too easy to slip into old thoughts when helpless and surrounded by her family. Hi
m. Rafe was a person and didn’t deserve to be dehumanized.
They pulled to a stop and all three of her brothers slid out of the cab. She could hear them talking with another man of the compound, but she couldn’t make out their words. After a brief exchange, the bed of the truck opened.
John Jr. hooked a hand around Rafe’s leg and tugged him toward the edge of the bed. The four men each grabbed a limb and hoisted Rafe out of the truck.
“Stay, or we try out the new scale piercers right now instead of waiting for target practice in the morning,” John Jr. ordered and slammed the truck bed shut.
Lola briefly thought of running. She could take off into the desert and poorly grown fields around the compound, make her way back to the highway, try and hitch a ride.
She didn’t think she’d make it very far without getting shot in the back. They had patrols around the property at the best of times and they’d only be increased with a dragon in their possession. And if she died so soon, Rafe stood no chance. She’d rather a slim chance of saving them both than a sure chance of their deaths.
The threat of scale piercers also kept her locked into place. She hadn’t succeeded in making rounds that would pierce dragon scales when she left. Had her brothers triumphed where she failed?
Her brothers returned soon after she made her decision to stay. They loaded back into the truck and drove back to the main cluster of buildings without another word.
Once again, the truck bed opened and another package was lifted from inside. Her brothers took her straight into the house they shared.
Her eyes widened when John Jr. pulled a knife from his belt and flicked it open. But instead of slicing into her skin, he popped the zip tie around her wrists. She rubbed at her aching flesh and looked up when her eldest brother started his interrogation.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself, little sister?”
She cringed at the pollution of Rafe’s nickname for her, though they wouldn’t have known it.
She pushed the thought to the back of her mind. It was time to be smart and play her brothers as much as possible. She needed to get her freedom. If she could resume her life, then she could find a way to sneak to Rafe. She had to be smart.
She pasted on a fearful expression. It wasn’t so hard to manage when she imagined losing Rafe or sentencing herself to the threatened arranged marriage that sent her running in the first place.
“I was gathering as much information as I could. I know where they gather to eat, what floors they sleep on. I even know the top levels aren’t marked on the elevators.”
She knew she was babbling. All three of their faces were blank as they considered her. She hoped her brothers assumed panic had set in and worked her mouth for her.
She tried to pick her information carefully. She needed to give them bits and pieces, enough to think her information had been valuable and gleaned intentionally. But she didn’t want to give them enough to be a serious threat to the dragons.
“The mountain side, where you picked me up, that’s to be used for any special ceremonies. Well, I guess not anymore if it’s destroyed. They aren’t stupid creatures, you know. They live and work together, much like we do.”
“Enough.” John Jr.’s voice cracked like a whip and startled her into silence.
He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed her silently. It was a look their father gave them when they were in trouble. She didn’t think she’d get away with just a scolding and no dinner.
“We came looking for that truck you stole. It was too valuable to let go and your tracker pinged you in the city.”
The damn tracker she’d been so unwilling to reveal. She should have cut it out herself and flushed it down the drain. It’d cost her everything.
Peyton continued with the explanation. “I saw so many people coming and going from that tower. It wasn’t difficult to pick up a dragon after she’d left the building and started out toward the mountains. So I went back to see what other weaknesses I could find. Imagine my surprise when I spotted my darling baby sister.”
“You’re lucky that we don’t kill you as a traitor to your kind. Peyton spotted you with the one we took. We all saw how he looked at you. You were spreading those legs for him, weren’t you? Ruining yourself for your future husband.” John Jr. wrinkled his nose in disgust.
Peyton nodded his agreement. “We should kill you for giving up without a fight. You were happy to turn your back on your people.”
Her hope withered into nothing. They’d known too much all along for her to fool them. “I didn’t give up,” she whispered.
“Oh yeah? You looked awful cozy in the front row of that mockery of a ceremony.”
“Enough of this.” John Jr. hauled her toward her old bedroom and tossed her inside. “You’ll serve your purpose. You’ll fall in line and marry the man we have picked out for you. Or you’ll die with the abomination.”
Lola threw herself at the door and tried to grab the handle to prevent them from locking her in. She wasn’t quick enough. She was never quick enough compared to them. They had years of training and loads more muscle to use against her.
The lock clicked into place.
She wanted to scream. She kicked the door and beat her fists against it until Peyton yelled for her to settle down before he stuffed rags in her mouth. She didn’t doubt his threat.
She flung herself on her bed. It was lumpier than she remembered. Even accounting for the dust of no occupancy, the room smelled gritty. It clung to her tongue and dried out her sinuses. There was no place truly clean in the dusty desert. No place like the tower or her spot with Rafe.
There was no rescue coming. Dragon slayers tracked their own with the implants in their arms. Dragons didn’t feel such a need. Her and Rafe’s scents would be erased by the truck and there would be no direct path to them.
A calm came over Lola. She sat up and strained to listen to the sounds of the house. With no rescue in sight, she knew it was up to her to save herself and Rafe. She had until the morning when her brothers planned to use him to test out the scale piercers.
She had three pissed off brothers who didn’t believe a word of her story and a compound full of dragon slayers between her and the man she thought she could love. She had no combat training and no weapons. But she had to try.
He’d been played. They’d all been played.
Rafe’s mind repeated the sentences over and over. He could hardly think of anything else and it wasn’t because of the pain in his head that was most certainly a concussion. He didn’t know how humans dealt with being so… human. With the room spinning and making his stomach heave, all he wanted was to shift into dragon form and allow his body to heal.
Instead, he was stuck in his human skin. The silver chains wrapped around his body and securing him to the stone wall hindered the accelerated healing shifters possessed even in their human forms. His senses felt dull, though he couldn’t discount the concussion for that.
He’d been played. They’d all been played.
He was weak for imagining anything existed with Lola. Stupid for thinking there was any changing a cold-blooded killer. Idiotic for trusting his dragon’s instincts and thinking she was his fated mate. All that instinct had gotten him was a blow to the head and silver chains around his body.
He’d gone down that tunnel thinking he needed to rescue his mate. Now, he knew he should have gone down it looking to shed the blood of slayers.
He needed to protect the royal family. That meant razing the entire compound to the ground, hopefully with Lola at the center of the firestorm. He’d dance in the ashes of her destroyed world.
It’s what she planned to do, after all.
He’d been played. They’d all been played.
She’d lied by omission. They all knew she was hiding the location of the nest of slayers. As much as Luca stressed needing that information, as much as Penelope had pressed for treating their prisoner with kindness and respect, no one had seen her duplicity.
Rafe had been willing to overlook her resistance even while the information was demanded by his king. He hadn’t pressed her when he should.
What else had she lied about? The tracker, of course. It'd shown her family her location at all times, though it wasn't much of a secret to see the dragons moving into Azra Valley. She'd still lied about it, still opened them up to attack anytime someone decided to check on her whereabouts. He was neatly picked off; who could say she wouldn't put herself in someone else's bed, someone else's arms, only to lead them into a trap?
She sentenced herself to death with the rest of her dragon slayer kin.
His dragon roared and clawed at him but it only made him sick to his stomach. There would be no shifting while bound in a cell. There would be no justice for his people. There would be no finding Lola and making her pay for her crimes. There would be no action while he was locked away and subdued.
He needed to find a way out. He needed to raze the compound to the ground. He needed to execute his mate and her brothers for their attack on the coronation ceremony.
Chapter Eleven
Between the late hour of the coronation ceremony and the hours to drive from Azra Valley to the compound, it was nearing morning by the time the triple sounds of snores reached Lola’s ears. She waited a bit longer just to make sure her brothers were deeply asleep before springing into action.
She hadn’t been trained to fight, but her father gave her good instruction for picking locks. The men of the camp could be surly about requests to open the boxes they kept their weapons inside or the locks some used on their packs. And it wasn’t the first time she’d been locked behind her door as punishment. The door lock was nothing compared to some of the locks she’d tackled under her father’s watchful eye.
She slid open her closet and stretched up on the tips of her toes. Her fingers grazed over the interior ridge of the closet jamb. She held her breath so the dust filtering down didn’t trigger a sneeze; she needed to keep as quiet as possible.
Finally, she found the tool she’d hidden there years before. She held it up in the faint light. It looked like a naked flathead screwdriver: the tool side was short and blunt but there was no handle on the other end.