Conquered Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 1)

by Emilia Hartley

  Already, he could feel her in his hands. Her scent filled his nose, perhaps lingering from her visit the night before. If he saw her in person again, he had no faith in his self-restraint. He would take her, and that would be the end of peace between the Montoya and Barnes family.

  Gale had to change the subject. “I’ll pay to have the side of the house re-painted. What I can’t pay to fix is the tunnel that collapsed the other day. Did you feel the tremor?”

  “Tremor?” Cash shook his head. “I didn’t feel anything, but now that I’m thinking about it, the old lizard mentioned something about the mines yesterday.”

  The old lizard was their grandfather. Quincy Montoya hadn’t aged well. Greed and paranoia had turned a handsome man into what they called the old lizard. The grandkids all hoped that Quincy would disappear into the mines like Logan had, but they hadn’t had any luck as of yet.

  The old patriarch refused to die or hibernate, leaving their clan’s leadership in his hands. No one questioned him, because Quincy hadn’t survived this long without the strength to back up his tyrannical ways.

  Perhaps tyrannical was too strong of a word, but Gale was in a mood. His beast had returned to him, but only to lend its hatred. The creature thrashed inside him. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold it back.

  He knew he couldn’t see Baylee again, because if anyone threatened her, he would raze the world for her. The beast, unable to stand by her side to protect her, offered a promise of retribution instead.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Cash asked.

  Gale’s lip curled. “Excuse me?”

  Cash looked him up and down. Gale tried to pull his beast away from the surface so Cash couldn’t see the turmoil inside him, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded. Would Cash rat him out? Would he drag Gale before the Old Lizard and leave him to his punishment?

  Gale found himself leaning away from Cash, as if he meant to take to the skies at the slightest hint of betrayal. But Cash wasn’t the one who had turned his back on everything they knew. Gale was. Gale couldn’t keep his thoughts away from Baylee for more than a moment.

  Cash smacked Gale’s shoulder. “I knew you were just as pissed as I was about the graffiti!”

  The beast slammed against the walls Gale threw up. It would have torn into Cash had he not held it back. Gale was losing control of himself. If he let this go any further, then he would lose himself like Logan had.

  Was there any coming back from a pain like that? Gale didn’t want to find out the hard way. He sucked in a breath and steadied himself, a new lie ready on his lips.

  “You can’t tell me that you didn’t think about setting one of the old barns on fire when you were a teenager,” Gale said even though his beast thrashed his lungs the entire time. “This is just proof that the Barnes kids are dumber than we were at that age.”

  Cash grunted. Then, he paused. “Aren’t the Barnes kids all grown up? I thought the youngest was twenty-three.”

  “How do you expect me to know? I don’t keep up with the Barnes family.” Lie after lie.

  Gale couldn’t stand who he was becoming. He needed to get himself in order. Who deserved his protection? The family he’d known his entire life or one sad dragon woman? His body screamed the answer at him, but his mind wasn’t ready to accept it.

  The beast snarled in his skull. It shook him from head to toe and threatened to rip him apart if he didn’t make the right decision. Gale held his breath and stayed on his feet while the beast tore through his thoughts. All he wanted to do was crumple and press his face into the earth, but Cash was still nearby.

  Cash eyed him. “Did you get involved with that girl?”

  It took every ounce of Gale’s willpower to keep from recoiling as if he’d been slapped. The truth stung, even if it was only a question.

  “What girl?” Gale paused for dramatic effect while his dragon snarled deep inside him. “You mean the one we saw at the other bonfire?”

  Baylee. Baylee Barnes. The dragon chanted her name. Gale’s body clenched, every muscle preparing for a fight.

  He didn’t know what was wrong with him. His family had always come first. When he and the others saw how close Cash’s beast was to losing all control, Gale offered to move in with Cash so he would never have to be alone. Family bonds helped them hold onto sanity. It kept them from becoming like Logan, who gave up on life.

  Yet, Gale’s beast wanted to throw it all away. It told him to run to Baylee and steal her away from her pain. If Gale did that, he would lose his family. He would effectively turn his back on Cash, who he’d been trying to help.

  Gale couldn’t do that.

  Torn between his beast’s demands and the bonds of family, Gale was helpless as his heart cracked down the middle. His beast retreated with a growl, leaving his head painfully empty once again. Though the tension fled his body, it left him feeling weak and directionless.

  Without his beast, Gale had nothing.

  Cash’s suspicion crumbled. He rolled his eyes and gestured to the vandalized wall. “Call someone to get this cleaned up. This house has been in the family for generations, and the brat didn’t even get close to a Montoya dragon. It’s ugly.”

  Gale clenched his fist at his side, forced a smile to his lips, and nodded. He watched Cash disappear inside and exhaled, though not because of any sense of relief. The feeling of doom still hovered over his shoulders, waiting to latch on and drag Gale into hell.

  He turned back to the dragon on the side of the building and wondered who she’d tried to paint. The midnight blue beast with a splattering of white spots looked like a bit of the night sky had been cut out and pressed against the wall.

  Her, the beast whispered distantly.

  Gale almost missed his beast’s realization. His jaw dropped. His heart lurched into his throat. Did Baylee really have the gall to paint herself onto the side of his house? If any of the Montoya clan had recognized her, then she would have been in a world of trouble.

  He clenched his teeth and made a quick call to the local painters. He wasn’t going to buy her a gift ever again.

  6

  Baylee let her feet dangle over the edge of the cliff again. She didn’t know when she’d decided this would be their meeting spot, but when she was here, she waited for the sound of Gale’s footsteps. She listened to catch his beast’s growl.

  Not that it ever came.

  She’d spent two nights waiting.

  After she snuck over to Gale’s house and painted the side of his house, she’d expected him to show up with a reprimand. At this point, she yearned to hear a lecture about the misuse of simple spray paints. Instead, Baylee received loneliness.

  Unending loneliness.

  She didn’t understand what she’d done wrong. It’d only been a prank. If Gale was upset about the cost of fixing the wall, she could pay him back for it. She could make a discreet transfer. No one would have to know what she’d done.

  She buried her face in her hands and regretted everything she’d done up until now. If she hadn’t toyed with a Montoya man and fallen hard for him, then she would never have found herself in this predicament. Gale filled her thoughts day in and day out. She had no one else to blame other than herself.

  If she hadn’t reached for the unattainable, then she wouldn’t have to struggle with the torrent of emotions tearing her apart. She knew better than to give anything to a Montoya man. Yet, she couldn’t find it in herself to be angry at him. Her anger turned inward, becoming a weapon against herself.

  Charlie’s offer had been tempting, at first. She’d seen freedom in it. The lie on the surface would protect her from all prying eyes. Now, she wasn’t so sure she needed it. If she truly had nothing with Gale, no connection or spark, then she didn’t need a lie to hide what wasn’t there.

  The sound of breathing reached her. At first, Baylee’s heart leapt. She grabbed it, shoved it down.

  “You don’t have to keep spying on me, Jensen.” She pulled her knees up to
her chest and plopped her chin atop them.

  “I think we’re going to have a problem if you’re intent on mistaking me for your brother,” Gale said.

  Baylee stiffened. Anger and excitement swelled inside her, like fire and water creating a hazy steam that she couldn’t think through. Then, she realized Gale wasn’t wearing a shirt. She blinked, processing his naked form and the bit of hair gracing his chest.

  Her beast rose with a greedy growl. Baylee had to shake off her dragon’s lust in order to reclaim her own thought process.

  Gale noticed her looking. He chuckled. “You know what they say. Night is a dragon’s delight.”

  Baylee shrugged. “Must be a family saying. I’ve never heard it.”

  Her knees eased away from her chest. She leaned back, putting her weight on her hands. Though she wanted to be mad at him for ignoring her for so long, she relaxed around him. Butterflies danced in her chest.

  “Well, I went for a lap around town and this is where my dragon took me.” He met her gaze. The light of his beast shifted over his grey eyes.

  She heard what he hadn’t said, though. Gale never meant to come here. His dragon had brought him to her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. A part of him wanted her, sure. The man as a whole had avoided her for days, though.

  “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to be here.” Baylee picked herself up from the ground and turned to leave.

  Gale grabbed her arm before she could get away. They stood like that, the empty air between them charged with everything they could not say to one another. Baylee feared looking back. She didn’t want to see pity in his eyes.

  A Montoya man would not break her heart.

  She wouldn’t allow it.

  The woods rustled. It could have been a nocturnal hunter snatching its prey, but Baylee’s instincts told her otherwise. She took a step back and found herself pressed against Gale’s chest. He stepped around her and pulled her into his back as if he feared someone might take her from him.

  “We can’t be seen together,” she hissed.

  One of them should have made a break for it. They couldn’t be caught together if one stayed while the other ran. But the voice she heard on the dark trail wasn’t Jensen’s or Charlie’s.

  Gale sucked in a breath. He spun, took Baylee by the shoulders, and kissed her. Stars danced behind her eyelids as she let him in. The need she’d been ignoring for days turned into an inferno, begging for more and more. Then, Gale broke away.

  He flashed her a wink right before wrapping an arm around her middle. Baylee barely had time to ask why before Gale lunged off the cliff. His form shifted around her. Wings snapped out from his massive body and talons closed to hold her tight.

  Gale banked, and the cliff quickly disappeared behind a thicket of trees.

  Cash Montoya had been moments away from finding them. Instead of betraying Baylee, Gale had taken a leap of faith and escaped with her. She had no idea what that meant, though. It could have been a show of affection or it could have been self-preservation.

  When Gale swept close to the ground, Baylee leapt from his grasp and into a run. She stumbled at first, but her beast took over. Her spine lengthened, and her teeth sharpened. When she jumped, she opened her wings and took to the air beside Gale.

  He playfully nipped at the tip of her wing. She pulled them in and rolled out of his reach. The beast made a sound of indignation, but there was a hint of joy behind it that made Baylee trill with happiness. They could not express themselves like they would in their human forms, but there was something about body language as dragons that felt so much clearer.

  She could see how much he cared in his gentle teasing. Gale never strayed far from her. When she landed, he followed. She bounced around the ground, feeling his eyes glued to her. Looking back, she found him staring as if entranced. His eyes flicked over her form. She wondered if he was trying to count the stars gracing her scales.

  Couldn’t he just be open and tell her how he felt? Why was that so hard? Baylee was prepared to give him everything. Her heart could be his if he would only ask for it.

  She hunkered down, low to the ground. She should have been more careful. Gale had swept in and stolen her affections through such simple means. The man had listened to her and given a gift based on what she’d said.

  She’d repaid the favor by being a child and vandalizing his home. It was no wonder he didn’t want her.

  Though, as the thought slithered through her mind, Gale approached. He placed a massive taloned claw on her shoulder blades and pushed until she was flat. Her heart hammered as she waited for him to do something. A moment passed, only the sounds of the night surrounding them.

  His growl reached her as he lowered his head toward her. It sent a shiver down her spine and made the end of her tail lash. She didn’t know what to expect. Would he kill her and be done with her forever? Was he going to scar her for messing with his house?

  Neither seemed possible. She didn’t wriggle to escape his grasp. She barely even dared to breathe as she waited. Whatever Gale wanted to do, she wanted it, too.

  Hot breath washed over the back of her neck. She expected a small bite, just a nip. Instead, his jaw closed around her neck and tightened. His teeth pressed against her scales. It should have been uncomfortable, but in the next heartbeat, the sensation turned to pleasure. She let out a shaky breath as he pressed harder.

  She would have rolled onto her back and exposed her belly for him if she could have moved. Gale removed his claw from her back but kept ahold of her neck. Chills swept up and down her spine. Her tail thumped against the ground in a frantic rhythm.

  Gale laughed. His breath made her tremble. Her beast pulled back. It gave way to her human form so that Baylee found herself naked and trapped against the ground. Want tightened her core as she rolled over. Gale pulled back and studied her.

  What should have been terrifying had made her nipples taut. She stared down the maw of a beast, a man who should have been her enemy, and fought the urge to beg and plead for him to give her fulfillment. Only his hands could make her feel what she needed. Only Gale could give her release.

  But he hesitated, still in his dragon form. Baylee began to fear that she’d made the wrong decision. Her beast had acted on instinct, but the instinct had been wrong. Whatever she and Gale had felt before had dwindled down to nothing. She was left with the last of the flames and would have to find a way to keep them from burning her to ash.

  She took in the glimmer of gold and green across his scales, how the light made the color shift from one to the other as if he were some kind of forest god. Small horns like broken tree branches grew from his temples. Together, they were like the night over the woods. She wanted to paint them together as a landscape in the form of two dragons. She wanted to ink the image into her skin and wear it with her always.

  Her heart would never belong only to her ever again.

  Couldn’t he see that?

  Did he not want that?

  His form began to shrink until Gale’s knee pressed between her legs. He looked down at her, a bit of his beast still watching her through his human eyes. A breath slipped from her lips and caught his attention.

  Her heart refused to beat as if the moment were on pause. She waited, trembling, for time to tip them in one direction or the other. Would he fling himself away from her? Or would he give her what she wanted?

  The pinpricks on her neck throbbed. His bite shouldn’t have carried over to her human form. It shouldn’t have even left a mark, yet she felt it as though his jaw still held her tight.

  “This wasn’t exactly what I had planned for tonight,” Gale said, his voice low and rumbling. His gaze swept down the front of her. “But damn, I’m pleased with how the night turned out.”

  Baylee bit her lip to keep from laughing as relief filled her. The feeling swelled toward her skin and made it tingle. When Gale dragged his knuckles over her nipple, it conjured a sensation unlike any other. Baylee gasped
and arched into him.

  Was it the danger of their excursion that excited her? Or was it the man, himself?

  Despite his lineage, Baylee refused to believe that Gale would purposefully hurt her. He’d helped her escape his snooping cousin. He’d bought her a box of paint so that she might be able to express herself when her voice so often fell flat in her world.

  She gripped his shoulders to keep him near. Gale laughed. It was barely a huff of breath, but it undid her. That soft admission that he was enjoying himself, too, was everything she’d been searching for.

  “Why me?” she asked, breathless.

  Gale thrust his hips into her groin and drew a moan from her. She dug her nails into his shoulders.

  “I don’t have the answer you want, little star,” he said.

  She bit her lower lip. Little star? She couldn’t handle it. Though he was clearly trying to distance himself emotionally, his words grabbed her and dragged her back in. How could she say no to him when he said things like that?

  “You can’t convince me that you don’t want to be here,” she said as she lifted her hips to meet his again. “I can feel just how badly you want me. There’s no clothing to hide the proof.”

  He lowered himself onto his elbows and looked her in the eye. “I want to be here. I want you. I just don’t think you’ll like the reason why.”

  Did it matter?

  Baylee knew that it should, but when her skin met his, every logical thought fled out the window. He bit the tip of her chin and kissed his way along her jaw before taking her lips for himself. The way he kissed her, pressing her into the earth like he couldn’t reach deep enough inside her, stoked the flames in her core.

  She writhed in the space between Gale and the earth just so she could feel the length of him brush her folds. If only he would pull back for a moment and position himself just so, then she could take him as deep as he wanted.

  But she wasn’t on birth control, and no one had mentioned a condom yet. She knew that what she wanted was already a big enough risk. She couldn’t make matters worse with an unexpected pregnancy, especially a child from a Montoya man.