by Donna Grant
She turned to look over her shoulder, and her foot slipped on the moist rock, sliding between two others. Elena cried out as she felt something snap in her ankle.
With her jaw clenched and tears flooding her eyes from the pain, she slowly pulled her leg free. The agony was unbearable, made more so because she couldn’t put any weight on her leg.
Somehow she managed to hobble to the closest spot she could find to sit down. Her harsh breaths were the only thing she heard in the cave, and they resonated around her ominously, menacingly.
“I knew this damn place was a bad idea,” she said as she wiped away her tears. “I’m not going to die in this place. I’m going to get out. I am.”
CHAPTER
TWO
Dreagan Land
In the mountain …
“I tell you, I know what I heard,” Banan said.
Guy ran a hand down his face. The world he’d known, the world that hadn’t changed in millennia had been rocked to its foundation not too long ago when his friend and fellow Dragon King had fallen in love with a mortal. And he still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He glanced at Banan. “The only woman who would venture in here is Cassie, and she and Hal are gone for the next week to Paris.”
“I know,” Banan ground out, not bothering to hold back his irritation.
Rhys, who had stood listening with his arms crossed, released a long breath and met Guy’s gaze. “I was in here with Banan. I heard something, but I wasn’t sure what it was at the time. Banan was closer to the back of the caves than I was.”
“You know as well as we do that the caves go all through the mountain,” Banan said.
Guy grunted. He knew all too well about the caves. Every Dragon King would spend centuries sleeping in the caves within the mountain before awakening for a few decades. It was just one way they kept their existence hidden. “Aye, but most end into nothing.”
“There are two that go all the way through,” Rhys said. “I’ve walked both. They’re extremely treacherous to humans.”
“Which means no human will venture there.” Guy wasn’t sure why his friends were so adamant that it could be a human. Nothing had happened in the five months since Hal and Cassie’s marriage. The spell that kept them from feeling anything deep for humans was still in place.
At least he thought it was. Rather, he prayed it was. Guy wasn’t sure he wanted to feel anything as intensely as Hal loved Cassie. Their life as dragon shifters was difficult enough without adding in a female.
But Guy couldn’t deny the loneliness that a quick fuck from a woman in a nearby village only made worse. He might ease his body, but the ache of detachment never went away. Thanks to Hal and his happiness, Guy realized all too clearly what was missing from his life.
He was King, a leader. It’s what he did best. It was why he had ruled the Reds. But what was a ruler to do when he had nothing to rule?
The years blurred drearily as Guy did his job at Dreagan, whatever that happened to be at any given moment. He, like the others, would take to the skies at night. Only then did he feel remotely like the Dragon King he remembered himself to be.
Would he spend the rest of eternity as discontent as he was now? It was no wonder other Kings like Kellan went into the caves and hadn’t come out in … eons.
Banan exhaled harshly. “I’ll wager a month of pay that a human is in there.”
“A female,” Rhys said.
Guy looked at his friends and shook his head. There was no way he was getting out of going to look. As much as he’d rather be roaming the glens, he was going to be stuck for hours searching the many—and various—caves throughout their mountain.
A mountain that was in the middle of several thousand acres of land belonging solely to Dreagan Industries.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He turned and looked at the narrow opening that led deeper into the mountain. They didn’t use it, because they had all the space they needed in the caverns at the front of the mountain, where the Dreagan mansion was built into it.
But others who desired to disappear to sleep for several thousands of years were known to venture farther in the mountain.
It wouldn’t be long now before it was Guy who had to make that journey and sleep. It was part of their existence, part of who they had become so many eons ago. It also helped to pass the ever slow amount of time he endured. Ever since they had sent the dragons out of the world and into another realm to be kept safe, he’d felt the loss of who he really was.
A dragon. Deadly. Huge.
Unbeatable.
Where once they roamed freely, ruled freely, now they hid who they were because the world couldn’t know that dragons truly did exist.
“Constantine needs to be told,” Guy said, thinking of their leader.
Rhys held up his iPhone and smiled. “Just texted him.”
“Let’s get going then,” Guy said and led the way into the cave. He wanted this over with quickly.
There might be things that irked him about having to stay in human form, but there were perks to being a Dragon King. Like being immortal. He and the others didn’t need to don special gear to go into the cave. There was nothing there that could kill them.
When they came to a junction where the path veered off in three different directions, Banan pointed to the farthest to the left. “That’s our best bet. It’s the longest, but also one where a human could easily think they could go caving.”
Guy seriously hoped Banan and Rhys were wrong. The thought that humans had ventured onto private property and then into their mountain left him cold.
What if they saw something? What if they saw Tristan, who was still learning he was a Dragon King?
Tristan had appeared in January with the dragon tattoo upon his chest, signaling him as one of theirs, with no memories of who he was. It had been ages since one of them was created.
Tristan was mastering shifting between human and dragon, but the fierce, insistent call of his dragon to take to the skies complicated things. Some days were good, and others volatile. He was kept away from humans, but if anyone had trespassed, they could very well see something they shouldn’t.
“We need to put up security cameras,” Guy said.
Rhys’s mouth twisted in agitation. “I’d hoped it wouldna come to that, but it looks as if we doona have an option.”
“If there is someone in the caves,” Guy stated.
Banan pushed past them and growled. “I know what I heard.”
Guy shrugged at Rhys, and they continued onward. It was only because of their skill, athleticism, and strength that they were able to climb up the steep cliff.
He was the last to make it to the top. When Guy straightened, it was to see Banan and Rhys staring off to the right.
“What is it?”
Banan looked at him and frowned. “You doona smell it?”
Guy then closed his eyes and inhaled deep. There, just the barest whiff, but it was a scent that had no business in their mountain.
“A woman,” he said as he slowly opened his eyes.
Rhys nodded. “There’s no mistaking the smell of scented lotion.”
The three forged ahead, their focus now on discovering where the woman was. They searched for almost two hours before Guy saw a flash of light in the darkness.
“There,” he whispered, and pointed.
Banan and Rhys were on his heels as they made their way to the light. Guy wasn’t sure what he expected to find, but it wasn’t the sight of a woman slumped over either unconscious or dead.
She’d taken off her helmet so that her wealth of dark blond hair could be seen. It was held back in a ponytail, but the wavy locks that had come loose to frame her face made him want to see the rest of it down as well.
The woman sighed and turned her face toward him, and the beam from her hard hat crossed her face. Guy was arrested by the fragile beauty.
Her heart-shaped face was smudged with dirt on her forehead and
chin. Her nose was small and her forehead wide, but she had incredibly high cheekbones and a mouth made for sin.
Guy looked at those tempting lips and felt his balls tighten. He took a hasty step back, and touched his chest as something peculiar seemed to move within him.
“What is it?” Banan whispered.
He ignored the question because he couldn’t explain it. It had begun five months earlier with Hal. The dragon magic they had used to bind their feelings so as never to be betrayed by a human again somehow stopped working with Hal.
Hal not only felt emotions for humans but fell in love with one. Cassie had proved herself to Hal, and to Con and the rest of them. Which had been a good thing, because no amount of dragon magic could reinstate the spell on Hal.
Guy thought something special had occurred with Hal and Cassie, something that might not happen again for hundreds of years.
Yet, there was no mistaking the feeling within him was stronger than the lust he usually felt. It was lust, but … there was more.
As if he just now realized what was missing from his life, as if a part of him was missing.
He lifted his gaze to find Rhys and Banan staring at him curiously. Guy gave a nod and squatted behind the woman while the other two knelt before her.
Her eyes suddenly opened, and Guy clamped a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. “No screaming,” he said, his voice deep and gruff.
The smell of her hair and the lotion on her skin made him almost forget she was human, almost made him forget why they had spelled themselves from feeling for humans.
“What’s your name?” Banan demanded.
Guy slid his hand from her mouth over her chin and down her throat. He should have released her, but her skin was wonderfully smooth and entirely too tempting. He wanted to touch more of her.
And when she pressed back against him, he kept still, amazed at her warmth and how small and soft she was. Her pulse beat rapidly beneath his hand as she tried to swallow.
“Sloan. She fell. I tried to get help, but I got lost. I think … I think…”
Rhys lifted his hands palm out and said in a calm voice, “Easy, there. Calm down so we can help. Do you know where you’re at?”
She nodded, her gaze darting to her pack. “Dreagan land.”
“Private property,” Banan said.
She licked her lips and leaned farther away from Banan and against Guy. “I told her it wasn’t a good idea.”
Guy noticed how she was careful not to put any weight on her left side, and the way she held her hand on her left leg signaled she was injured. He caught Rhys’s gaze and motioned to it with his head.
Rhys went to touch the leg, when she reached out a hand and said, “No. Please. I think I sprained my ankle in the rocks over there. Just don’t … don’t touch it.”
“We have to in order to get you out of here,” he said.
Her head shook, causing her hair to tickle Guy’s face. He angled his head away from her so that he could watch her expressions.
She was terrified, but she was holding it together.
“Your name,” Banan repeated.
“Elena. Elena Griffin.”
Guy liked the sound of her American accent. It was almost Southern, but more cultured. “Well, Elena, what are we to do with you?”
She turned her head and looked at him, her eyes widening a fraction. Her lips parted and she simply stared. He was trapped in her sage green eyes.
He was drowning, sinking. Falling.
And there was no way to stop it. Guy didn’t like the emotions swirling around in his chest. He worried over whether she was cold, and if she was hungry.
“Please find Sloan,” she said into the silence.
He gave a nod, thankful to have something to focus on. “Where did she fall?”
Elena’s green eyes shifted as she pointed to where she had been. “I came from that way. There is a large hole in the ground that Sloan wanted to explore. She didn’t anchor the bolt right, and it came out before I could help her.”
“It’s all right,” he said, and wondered if it really was.
It seemed the right thing to say, especially since she stopped talking a mile a minute.
Banan straightened and turned on his heel. “I’ll go look.”
“I didn’t want to come,” Elena said. “I told her I had a bad feeling. I heard her scream, and then nothing.”
Guy fisted his hands to keep from touching her. The need hammered within him and became so overwhelming that he stood and moved away from her. “Have you been caving before?”
“No.”
“Then it is no’ your fault,” Rhys said.
Guy stood off to the side, staring at Elena while Rhys managed to move her leg a bit to see if it was broken. His small shake of his head told Guy the bones were intact.
That was the only good news.
It took only one look at Banan when he returned to know Sloan hadn’t survived the fall.
Elena covered her mouth with her hand and squeezed her eyes closed. “No,” she whispered with such anguish that it tore at Guy.
Being so near her caused a riot within him that he couldn’t stand there, but he couldn’t move farther away either. It baffled him, and set him on edge.
“I want out of this mountain,” Elena suddenly said, her voice shaking with her emotion.
Banan caught Guy’s gaze. “She willna get back through injured as she is.”
“And taking her back with us is no’ wise either,” Guy said.
Rhys shrugged. “We doona have a choice.”
There was movement as Elena used the cave wall to pull herself to her feet. “I’m not going anywhere with any of you. I don’t know you.”
“We’re here to help,” Rhys said.
“Really?” she asked, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Then who are you? How did you get here without any kind of equipment?”
One thing at a time, Guy thought. He pointed to Rhys first. “He’s Rhys, that’s Banan, and I’m Guy. We work and live at Dreagan. We’re no’ here to harm you, simply to get you safely off our land.”
“And the gear?” she asked pointedly.
Guy smiled and lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “We’re good at what we do. We’ve lived near this mountain for—”
“Seems like eternity,” Banan interrupted sarcastically.
Guy cut him a look before he turned back to Elena. “In other words, we know these caves. You can no’ return the way you came. You need to come with us. We willna force you.”
“What?” Rhys asked in disbelief.
Guy held up a hand to stop Rhys. If he had to, he’d knock Elena out and carry her out of the cave himself, but he wasn’t leaving her.
“Good or not at caving, only an idiot would go without equipment,” she said, eyeing him with distrust. “But I want this nightmare to end.”
“Then come with me,” Guy said, and offered his hand.
She hesitated a moment, staring at him before she reached for his hand. As soon as she took it, he knew his world was about to turn upside down.
CHAPTER
THREE
Elena couldn’t stop looking at the three men, but most especially Guy. They were tall, and all incredibly handsome. Even the surly one, Banan.
But Guy was different. Whereas Rhys was quick to talk and was at ease, Guy watched her beneath hooded eyes, his gaze intense and … hungry.
It’s the only word she could come up with. And it hit her like a freight train. It left her breathless and wanting.
Yet, she knew each time those amazing pale brown eyes of his turned to her—because her stomach would quiver and goose bumps rose all along her skin.
It was as if she was attuned to Guy on a level she hadn’t known was possible. She briefly thought about asking him why he watched her so, which was odd behavior for her. She wasn’t aggressive with guys. It must be the shock and pain of Sloan’s death that was making her see—and feel—things most likely not there.
Elena snapped on her helmet. She was determined to walk on her own as best she could, but before she put her weight on her left leg, she looked at Guy.
His honey brown hair was left long, just grazing his shoulders, and it framed his face so that he looked rugged and lethal at the same time.
He had the square jaw and chin that would make any woman swoon. Combined with his wide, slightly full lips, he was a head turner for sure.
But for Elena, it was his eyes—soft brown and ringed in black—that got her attention.
The same pale brown brows slashed over those powerful wide eyes of his. She was gazing deep into those eyes, captured by their uniqueness, and forgot about her injury. She put all her weight on her injured leg.
Elena cut off a gasp of pain and reached for the wall to support her. Instead, it was an incredibly rock-hard body that slid against her. Guy’s arm tightened about her as she leaned against him, and for a moment she pretended it was just the two of them.
“That sprain may be worse than I thought,” Rhys said, breaking into Elena’s thoughts.
She took in a steadying breath that did nothing to stop the feel of Guy’s hot, hard body against hers. His warmth, his strength could be felt from her shoulder down to her thigh.
And that was through several layers of clothes.
What would he feel like skin against skin? Not that she would ever know, but she could fantasize. And she was very good at that.
“I’ll be fine,” she told them.
Guy’s fingers wrapped around her waist as he gave a small tug with his arm to settle her more firmly against him. “Lean on me,” he whispered.
His voice sent tremors of awareness through her. She couldn’t regulate her breathing, not with him so near. When she wrapped her arm around him for balance, she felt the corded sinew through his thin shirt.
“Let’s get moving,” Banan said brusquely.
Elena glanced at Guy to find him watching her. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded her head instead of attempting to use her voice.
Guy took the brunt of her weight, lifting her with his arm to keep her off her left leg. But the slightest touch of her foot against anything had pain slicing through her.