by Ava Benton
“People,” the child snorted.
“Shut up,” I snarled, my head whipping around before I could think twice about the pain which would surely result. What difference did any of it make? I’d be dead soon, wouldn’t I? Pain wouldn’t matter. “They’re people, just as you believe you are. And they would never consider doing something as barbaric as what you’re doing to me, as what your friends did to the rest of us. Gunning down the innocent, and why? Greed? You’re pathetic.”
The butt of the gun smashed into my face, and I heard a cracking sound in my head as my nose broke and blood began pouring down my face, over my chin.
“You’d do well to watch what you say,” the man with the gun warned, the butt of the weapon poised over my face as though he was readying himself to strike another blow. “I would hate to destroy that pretty face any further.”
I didn’t say a word, letting my eyes do the talking as I glared at him.
He smiled, his thin lips quirking up to reveal dimples in an otherwise serious face. “Boy, you’ve got some life in you. It’s a shame we had to meet under these circumstances. The spitfires are the best.”
I spat blood at his feet in reply, cutting my eyes back up in his direction in time to catch his look of utter disgust. Good. He knew just a small bit of the disgust he caused me.
“You bitch.” He raised the gun again, ready to deliver what would surely be a stronger, more brutal blow, when a growl made the three of us turn our heads as one.
A fully-grown lion bounded out of the shadows, roaring as he did.
The child let out a scream of pure horror, fumbling for his rifle with shaking hands. I watched with mixed horror and pleasure as Klaus slashed at him with long, razor-sharp claws, tearing crimson stripes down the side of his fair face and throat.
But he wasn’t looking out for the man with the rifle, who’d been on the verge of striking me when he attacked.
“Look out!” I screamed when the rifle rose.
The older man, the more experienced man, the man who was shaken but not shocked at the sight of an attacking lion.
Klaus dodged the spray of bullets which emerged from the gun, bullets which lodged themselves in trees and sent bits of wood and bark flying in all directions.
I fought my way to my knees, ankles still shackled, and raised my arms above my head with the intention of hitting the man with the iron cuffs. He caught me out of the corner of his eye and swung the rifle around again, hitting the side of my head and knocking me on my side.
The lion let out a roar of rage. Through the hair which hung in my eyes, I saw him leaping toward the armed man to fight for me.
He was outmatched, and I knew it. I’d seen what weapons like that could do.
I opened my mouth to scream, but a sound, very much unlike my natural voice came out. “You will not harm him!” I bellowed in a deep, powerful voice which seemed to shake the leaves from the trees.
The man turned, shocked, the bullets he was about to fire into Klaus’s chest and stomach hitting one of his hind legs instead.
The roar turned to a whine of pain as Klaus fell, blood pouring from his wounds.
A familiar rushing sensation came over me, as if something buried down deep inside was coming to the surface in a burst of violent speed, and I gave into it because yes, yes, this was right.
The dragon burst free of its confines and towered over the armed man, bellowing again in an earsplitting roar which made him cower at my feet. Even so, he raised the gun as if to fire at me.
Klaus roared in caution, but I needed no warning. I needed only to lash out with my tail and make contact with the man’s fragile body, sending him flying against a tree and knocking the rifle from his hands.
I bellowed again, reveling in the pure joy of being who I was. Who I truly was.
The man twitched sporadically. I made certain he was looking up at me before I crushed his face with another blow from my tail, as he had tried to crush mine.
And immediately, I turned to Klaus.
He had shifted into his human form to better understand the wounds to his leg, which he was examining with shaking hands. But he smiled up at me when I bent to get a better look.
Our eyes locked.
“You make a beautiful dragon, you know,” he whispered. I warmed all over in pleasure, but the scent of his blood was more important, blood which hadn’t yet stopped flowing. He’d lost so much already.
There was no choice but to do what had to be done. I loved him. He was mine, and I was his, and there was nothing to be done about it but ensure he stayed alive.
So I reached out, sliding my arms beneath him and lifting him off the ground.
“What are you doing?” he sputtered, shaking his head, trying to push me away.
It was a stupid thing to do, really, and he would see that in time. I took off, exhilaration at the feeling of flying again almost overtaking the urgent need to get Klaus help. All shifters healed quickly, not just dragons, but he was still bleeding. If it didn’t stop soon…
Isla and Dallas were outside the cave, perhaps looking for us.
I landed, Klaus still clutched close to my chest.
“What happened?” Dallas cried out as I lowered Klaus to the ground. It didn’t take a doctor to see what was wrong with him. In an instant, he took off his belt and tied it around Klaus’s thigh to staunch the flow of blood, then covered him with his shirt before carrying in into the cave at a flat-out run.
I shifted, and Isla immediately noticed the crooked angle of my nose. “It’s a long story,” I whispered, not certain whether I should laugh or cry. I settled on both.
15
Ainsley
My nose would always be a bit crooked from that point on, as the break had healed before I’d had the chance to adjust it. Not that I would’ve known what to do, not really. I would’ve needed someone to help me with it, someone who could see what they were doing.
I’d wear it with pride, I decided.
I was finished getting dressed post-shower when there was a knock at my door.
“Come in,” I replied, more than a little anxious to go to Klaus now that his blood was no longer dried on my skin.
My brother strode into the room, and his expression wasn’t one I’d expect from a brother whose sister might have just been killed.
In fact, he looked as though he’d like to finish the job.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
I blinked. “Tell you what?”
“You know damn well.” He closed the door, leaning against it with his arms folded. Blocking my escape. “He told me. Told me everything.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. Guilt, perhaps, at keeping your secret. Blood loss, he’s more than a bit woozy at the moment. We were alone. He told me he was trying to help you, which was why the two of you had been spending time together.”
I turned away, my head in my hands. I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy, that I’d never get away with it even though my dragon had returned. When I spoke, it was more her voice than my own which came out. “You have no right to question me. Me, or any of my motives.”
“Ainsley…”
“No. You listen to me.” I whirled on him, pointing a finger. “I appreciate that you’ve now got a lot of responsibility to manage, but I needed a brother. I needed to believe you would understand me if I went to you with this. I didn’t believe it. I was terrified of what you’d think, what it would mean to the rest of the clan, and whose side you would be on.”
“Who’s to say there would’ve been sides? Don’t you know we would’ve understood? Supported you through this? You’re not one of us simply because of your dragon, Ainsley.”
“I am my dragon. My dragon is me.” I crossed my hands over my chest. “Don’t you see? Without her, I felt as though I was nothing. Perhaps I wasn’t thinking clearly, perhaps panic overruled good sense. It’s possible.”
“But she’s come back now.”
“Yes. She has. I don’t know how it happened, I don’t even know why she was gone.”
“It doesn’t make sense? Really?” He sighed, a melancholy smile playing on his lips.
“I’m glad you find this amusing.”
“It’s only amusing that you don’t see why the dragon returned to you when she did. Klaus told me about that, too. About how you shifted when it was clear he was about to be killed. The bullets would’ve hit him straight-on if your shifting hadn’t distracted the gunman.”
“Yes. That’s when it happened.”
“Because he was in danger. You’ve been trying for weeks to get your dragon back, haven’t you? And yet, all it took was the knowledge that he was about to be killed to bring her back to you.”
Which was why I’d heard my dragon in my head when I thought he was in danger, too.
“I see.” I sat on my bed, suddenly at a loss. Even my dragon had no thoughts on this. “It still doesn’t explain what the doctors injected me with to silence the dragon.”
“No, it doesn’t. But It doesn’t matter now, either. They were experimenting. We knew that. There’s no telling what they did to us, really, since there’s no looking back at their records.” He came to me, sitting at my side, hands folded in his lap. “I do wish you’d come to me.”
“I was afraid. Do you know what it means to be afraid? Truly?” I turned my head to look at him. “Because I never felt true fear before this happened to us. I don’t think we have it in our natures to experience fear.”
“It could be, but if you don’t think I know what it is to fear, you’re wrong. We all went through what happened here. It wasn’t only you.”
“I know.”
“And just because I didn’t show my fear, that doesn’t mean I didn’t feel it. We all did.”
I nodded. “I should’ve had more faith in you.”
“Don’t worry,” he chuckled. “I’ll only remind you of your poor judgment for the rest of our lives.”
He was in bed when I entered his room, resting with his eyes closed and his injured leg elevated. When I closed the door behind me, his eyes opened.
“I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“You didn’t disturb me, in fact, I’d wondered what was taking so long for you to get here.” His smile was a thing of beauty. I could forgive his sarcasm in the light of that smile.
“You’re not the only one who enjoys chatting with my brother.”
His smile faded. “My tongue got away from me.”
“Evidently.” I sat on the edge of the bed. “He had more than a few things to say to me.”
“I’m sorry. We were alone, at any rate. He’s the only one who knows.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter now, does it?”
“So she’s back for good, then.”
“I see no reason why not. She’s finally back in my head. I can hear her in there, and I have to wonder why I ever thought I’d like the silence.”
He laughed. “There are times when I would do anything for just a moment of real silence. But I wouldn’t trade it.”
“Nor would I.” I looked down at his leg, still wrapped in a bandage. “How is your leg?”
“It’s still attached, which is a good sign.” He leaned forward and began to unwind the bandages. I watched him rather than watching what he was doing.
It was so clear for my dragon. As I’d lifted him while in her form, I’d known exactly what I was doing and why. I’d known he was mine to protect, just as he had come after me.
Had I begun overthinking things while the dragon was silent? It appeared that way. She knew just what to do, just what was right. What truly mattered. She didn’t think and doublethink and question her instincts. Why did I insist on doing that very thing, then?
“See? Good as new.” I looked down, and sure enough, there was barely an indication of any injury. Only a few faint holes to show where the bullets had pierced him.
They brought to mind the scar running down his cheek and made me wonder what had caused it. If bullet holes had healed well enough that I wouldn’t have known they were there without having watched the blood flow from them, why hadn’t his face?
“Where did this come from?” I asked, running a forefinger over my cheek before pointing to him.
He didn’t ask why I wanted to know, or—more likely, in my opinion—tell me it was none of my business. Instead, he leaned back against the pillows. “A fight with a bear. A very large, very angry bear.”
“Why was the bear so angry? And are we speaking of an actual bear or another shifter?”
“For the record, I consider myself an actual lion.”
“You know what I mean,” I replied with a scowl.
“I do.” He smiled. “And what I just told you was a lie, anyway. It wasn’t a bear, or any animal at all. It was my mother.”
“Your mother?” I whispered, wishing most fervently that I’d never asked.
“Yes.” He shrugged as though it mattered little. “It was a very long time ago when I was young. When my lion began making himself known.”
“Weren’t your parents like you?”
“Evidently, the trait skipped a generation or two, not that we knew anything about such things at the time. There was no such thing as genetics in the late eighteenth century. Prussia. Not exactly the most advanced time and place.”
“I can imagine.”
He shook his head, chuckling dryly. “I worked so hard not to let it show. I was certain it was insanity. The devil, even. I didn’t dare tell anyone, of course.”
“Of course not.”
“It would be tantamount to giving them permission to throw me in an asylum. Only they weren’t referred to as such back then, and you never left once you were placed inside. Either that, or the priests of the village would’ve performed rites on me, something barbaric, I’m sure.”
“But they did eventually find out.”
“They did. She did. My mother. I couldn’t control it in the early days, of course, I suppose we all go through that at first.” I nodded, remembering my own early days, when I was first learning to handle myself. “It wasn’t as though I could practice at controlling it, as I refused to acknowledge it. Acknowledging it would mean it was real. I didn’t wish it to be real. And yet, it was.”
He looked at the wall opposite the bed, where a blank television screen reflected the two of us.
“It was an ordinary day. And something happened, I don’t remember what, exactly. Something to anger me or upset me in some way. And my anger got the better of me, and I shifted. I didn’t even realize I’d done it until I saw the look of horror on my mother’s face. She saw it all.”
His eyes found mine. “Imagine. Imagine what that was for her. I can’t even blame her for it now.”
“But she hurt you.”
“Badly,” he agreed. “I was lucky she didn’t hit my eye with her when she came at me with a knifeafter I made the mistake of trying to calm her. The wound became infected, which is I assume why the scars remained. I’ll never know what happened to her or my father, since I left home that day and never went back. I hope they found some peace. Perhaps they pretended I was never born and that helped.”
If I hadn’t loved him before—and there was a good chance that I had—I did by the time he finished his story. There was no question. I tried to imagine that frightened young man, how terribly difficult it must have been for him to live through being banished from his family and surviving on his own.
“It might sound strange to you, but working with Mary and her group… it’s the closest thing to a family I’ve known since then. I’ve moved from place to place my entire life, leaving before anyone could find out my secret. I’ve been everywhere—and nowhere.” He reached for me, taking a strand of hair which hung over my shoulder and running it between his fingers.
I longed to tell him there was a family here, a family which could be his if he wanted it to. I would be his family. I would be his.
<
br /> Without saying a word, I leaned down to press my lips to his cheek, over the scars which would always serve as a reminder of his painful youth. When I raised my head, he cupped my chin and drew me close until his lips brushed mine, setting off a fire with just a slight touch.
“I’ve never said this to anyone,” he whispered, his breathing already ragged as I leaned against him, his eyes searching mine. “But I love you. I love you so.”
My dragon roared her approval, had she been watching from whatever dark corner of my brain she’d been relegated to all along? Had she known before I did that he was meant to be mine?
“I love you,” I managed to reply before he crushed his mouth to mine, his hands in my hair holding my head close, his tongue darting about my lips before thrusting between them. I slid my arms beneath his shoulders and rolled with him as he positioned himself on top of me.
His hand slid over my side, down my leg before grasping it, wrapping it around his hip. I groaned, nerves sizzling at his touch as he repeated the process in reverse, stroking up and over my thigh before continuing slipping under the blouse I wore to slide over my stomach and up to my breasts.
I arched my back, giving myself to him, pressing against his massive hand as it cupped my breast, thumb, and forefinger rolling the nipple until I cried out in blissful agony. He growled in impatience and the buttons which ran down the front of the blouse popped off in all directions as he tore it open.
“Beautiful…” he growled before his mouth covered the nipple he’d so cruelly teased, his tongue swirling in slow circles over the sensitive tip. I arched against him again, the leg around his hip tightening, pulling him closer to the heat which continued to build between my thighs.
“Touch me…please…” I begged between breathless moans, and was rewarded by the sensation of his hands sweeping over every inch of skin as he undressed me, his mouth following close behind as he left a trail of hot kisses down my body. I was lost, utterly and completely, adrift in a sea of pure pleasure.