The Hailey Holloway Complete Series

by K. C. Stewart

  "HOW COULD YOU?" Dacea roared. "Your men almost killed her."

  Silas scissored his legs and tumbled to the side with Dacea. Each of them pushed away and got to their feet.

  "I just found out myself. Do you think I would have come here if I had ordered this?" Silas wiped a spot of blood from his lip. "I need to see her."

  "Fuck no." His eyes had begun to change, his dragon fighting to come out.

  "Dacea be reasonable. I've only come to check on her safety."

  "She's safe here."

  "Let me see for myself."

  Dacea pushed forward knocking Silas off his feet. Part of him knew that Silas was letting him land the punches, but the dragon didn't care, he wanted Silas's blood. Dacea moved in getting nice and close to the Green dragon who had caused so much trouble for him and his sept. He met Silas's eyes with fury. This was the man who killed Lennox, the man who cursed him, the man who caused Hailey to want nothing to do with him. This man was the reason his newfound life was falling apart.

  "Dacea, don't," his Mate's soft voice drifted down the stairs. Had she called him Dak, his hands would have been off Silas, but she hadn't, wouldn't. Her voice was cold, void of the warmth and love it normally held. It was a blessing and a curse to his ears. She was alive and she hated him. "Please don't kill him."

  "Why?" He turned his anger on her. "Why should I not kill the man who took you from me, and then fed you lies? Why should I let this man who killed my best friend, live?" He heard Darby's sharp intake of breath. "How can I leave this thing to live after what he has done?"

  Hailey stood on the landing of the staircase with Alex, whose smile seemed out of place considering what was happening. She used the banister for support as she looked down at him with tears collecting in her eyes. "This wasn't his fault. He didn't do this to me. His psychotic guard did."

  "I can't let him live."

  "I can't let you kill him." She held her ground.

  "Why? Give me a reason why." He searched her eyes. The deep brown doe eyes of hers showed little of the anger from earlier, and in them he found a small flicker of hope.

  "Because she's my sister," Silas interrupted.

  Hailey's eyes went wide and she turned them on Silas.

  "What?" Dacea asked pushing him back against the wall.

  "I have proof. Hailey, you were adopted and…"

  Hailey had already turned and was half way up the stairs. She didn't look back as Silas called to her and Dacea didn't try to stop her. He didn't want to acknowledge it, but it made sense. She was adopted and the same age his sister would have been. Dacea had seen the paperwork and would be lying if he didn't admit the thought had crossed his mind. Silas's face only showed honesty. For once, Silas wasn't hiding behind his arrogance.

  "Lia, can you show Silas to his accommodations in the basement." When she didn't respond he turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. She stood pale and in shock. He followed her eyes to where they rested on Alex, who was beaming.

  "Lia!" he yelled.

  "I've got him," Darby said stepping around Lia.

  "No."

  "Dacea let me. She needs you. Go." She laid a hand on his shoulder.

  "I'll go with her willingly as long as I can speak with Hailey," Silas stated.

  "You can see Hailey if she wants to see you and if you hurt her," he said motioning to Darby with a tip of his head, "you lose an arm." Dacea made his point by pushing Silas back against the wall.

  He turned his back on the killer, kidnapper and enemy behind him and ran up the stairs two at a time to find Hailey.

  Chapter Fifteen

  She searched for him.

  Mourned him.

  Buried him.

  And yet, here she was looking into the face of a dead man. Alex's smile was light and amused, while Lia looked more like the ghost he was supposed to be. He strolled down the steps, a laugh on his lips and bounce in his step.

  This was her mind finally catching up to her. For so long she made herself believe that he was still alive. Deep down Lia knew that wasn't the case. Crossing paths with Silas was a death sentence, everyone knew that. But here he was, standing in front of her.

  Had his spirit finally searched her out? She had waited for it, longed for it. Dragon magic was fickle and unpredictable. Many Mates experience a final meeting with the spirit of their dead dragon. Alex's had never come to her. It was part of the reason she held onto hope he was still alive.

  He hit the bottom step and took his time walking the few yards that separated them. His hair was shorter than she remembered. He used to keep it long enough to be gelled up in every which way. Now it was cut short, buzzed close to his head. Those eyes were the same mischievous blue; they were always up to something. His jeans fit him well enough, not the sculpted cut he used to wear but the t-shirt was clearly too large. For a figment of her imagination, he was very realistic. Then again, she was a muse and inspired such creations.

  He stopped inches from her and shook his head with a smirk. "This is not how I imagined you'd react when we finally found each other." The voice she dreamed of so long covered her like a blanket, warm and comforting with its scratchy tone. She closed her eyes for a moment to enjoy the sound of it. "I always pictured you so overcome with happiness and unable to contain yourself that you jumped into my arms. Then there would be a lot of kissing and 'I love you's' thrown around. Instead you just stand here like you've seen a ghost." Alex lifted her chin. "Thalia? You in there?"

  "You never came back," her dry throat croaked out.

  "Wasn't my choice."

  "I waited," she said. Her words and thoughts stumbled over each other, she wasn't sure if she was speaking aloud or just in her head.

  Alex gathered her into his chest. He whispered into her hair the story of how he was on his way home when he ran into trouble and how Silas didn't kill him but kept him prisoner for years. If it wasn't for Hailey, he would still be there.

  His heart was a steady beat against her ear, it settled her staggering mind. This wasn't a ghost or his soul seeking her out…this was Alex. Her fisted hands that had been holding on to his shirt, relaxed. She felt the hard contours of his chest. Her fingertips knew the ridges and valleys of his body, he was committed to memory.

  "You didn't die?" she asked.

  "No Baby, I didn't."

  Lia pushed out of his arms, she frowned at him then smacked him across the face. "You didn't fucking die!" He had been alive all this time and hadn't even reached out to her. Had he given up on them? Did he think she would have just moved on after he disappeared?

  Alex laughed and rubbed his jaw. "Had you wanted me to?"

  She lifted her hand to smack him again, this time it would be to wipe that smirk off his face but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward. He caused her to lose her balance and she fell into him. Alex wound his hands around her waist, his body meeting all of hers. The kiss came fast. It was hard, and starved, but real. Oh so real. Lia grabbed his shoulders and pulled him closer. Her Mate was alive.

  He moved them backward until her back hit the wall. Too often had she dreamed of him, of his body but having it in the flesh was so much better. Lia crawled up his chest like she had a million times before and wrapped her legs around his waist. Alex cupped her ass and kissed a line down her neck.

  "You're alive," Lia said the words again, as if finally understanding their meaning.

  "Mmmm hmmm," he hummed into her skin.

  She pulled his head back away from the assault on her ear. This time when he grinned, she returned it. The bond she had been missing for three years was now intact. She felt its strength and power linking them together like a braided rope.

  "It's back," she sighed. "The bond is back."

  "It was never gone, not completely." Alex lowered her till her feet hit the ground. "The magic in the room I was in had bound my dragon, suppressed him. In return, that bound our bond." He closed his eyes and rolled his neck. Lia could only watch and appreciate the line
s on his face, the muscles of his neck and shoulder tighten and release as his head rolled and the euphoric smile that appeared when his eyes opened again. "I feel him. Caged for so long, he wants to fly."

  Lia gave him a nod and pulled him in for one more kiss. "Well, let's go let your dragon out. I could go for a ride."

  "Flying first, when we get back I'll give you that ride."

  She punched his shoulder and snorted. "It's nice to know your pickup lines haven't gotten any better."

  "Why fix what isn't broken?" He pulled her into his side and walked her out the front door into the night.

  *****

  Katherine watched the dragon walk with his Mate out the front door. They were sickeningly happy, always touching each other in some way, smiling brightly at the other. It made her want to gag.

  The man's form began to change. Katherine raised the binoculars again. "Silas's pet is out of his cage," she murmured into the darkness. "Pity, I always wanted to take him for a test drive." She remembered his name was Alex after his dragon appeared. The woman with him ran her hands over his scales only stopping to place a kiss on him from time to time.

  This was boring. She had followed Silas here and no one had even died yet. What good were enemies if they didn't try to kill each other once in a while? Alex took off flying with the woman on his back. There went her last hope at entertainment.

  Katherine sat back on the branch. Dacea had excellent security but no one ever checked the trees for harpies, a big mistake on his part. They still hadn't figured out how she had gotten past the gates, twice. It had actually been half a dozen times, but who's counting? The point was, they were running around with their tails between their legs because Dacea was burning hot these days.

  She didn't want to admit it, but this plan of hers had taken a nose dive. Hailey was a fiercer competitor than she had anticipated. How many other humans had she underestimated over the years? She actually had to think about it. Most humans she ran across were dense. Give it up to the humans, finally evolving after all this time.

  Years ago when she met Dacea, harpies actually had a purpose. They were the known as the hounds of Zeus, sent by him to snatch people or things, whatever he ordered. It was good fun. By that time in history, Zeus wasn't using his hounds much. So Katherine would often pick random creatures or items and see if she could take them. She had caves full of things she had taken. There was a mermaid, an ogre eye, the crowns from a dozen different Kings and Queens and various nymphs. If it could be taken, Katherine wanted to have a try at it. A dragon had been next on her list.

  When Dacea ran into her that night, he had been mentally unstable. It was such a disappointment. There she was ready to make the snatch of a lifetime and the guy was ready to end it all. Where was the chase, the fight? All her entertainment was taken away because Dacea was a whiney, adolescent dragon heir.

  So she changed the game. Katherine added a layer of difficulty; if she could make him fall in love with her then he would also find the will to live, giving her the opportunity to check dragon off her list of things to take. But after a while she grew bored with the game, it was still all too easy.

  One night she left, she had only meant it to be for a week or two but it was easy to work on the rest of her list. A week turned into a month, then a year, and so on. She had all but forgotten about Dacea until she heard whispers of the great Red King being alive, then others surfaced of him being dead. It peaked her interest. Katherine looked into this mysterious King and discovered it was her long lost Mate. Things instantly got interesting again. Her desire for a dragon in her collection increased tenfold with each new rumor she heard.

  Dacea finding his Mate only added to the challenge, she found it thrilling to be chasing after her elusive dragon again. However, things had not gone well, which was why she was sitting outside his house in a tree.

  She needed a new path; the one she was on was getting her nowhere. It hadn't surprised her that he had their Mating hidden, but dragons were meticulous with their rules and documents. If she looked hard enough, she could probably still find record of their Mating. Silas was obviously not going to be of use to her again, he was wrapped around the little human's finger with the rest of them. So she'd just have to do this on her own.

  Katherine stood and stretched. Dacea was unmoving on his stance of Mate, so she would go over his head to the Council and see what they had to say about it. A light on the third floor came on, but she didn't care anymore. A new plan had taken shape and needed tending.

  Her wings unfolded from her back. She gave them a ruffle. Stretching them wide, Katherine leapt from the branch and took off into the night winds.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Hailey sat on the side of the bed. Her shoulders once more slumped forward, the weight of Silas's confession weighing her down along with everything else she had dealt with in the past day. She needed to call her parents but she didn't have a phone anymore. Silas had taken it, just like he had taken her freedom, her Mate and now her family.

  They weren't much as far as family went. They resented her, and rarely cared about anything she did, but they were her parents and she loved them. If she was adopted, it would explain why they treated her relationship with Josh like it was lie, like she had no right to love him, to mourn for him.

  The door opened, a wedge of light from the hall illuminated the room for a brief second before darkness enveloped her again. She felt him more than saw him. Dak settled on the bed next to her, his body giving off a wall of heat. The mattress dipped with his weight and she had to adjust so she didn't fall into him.

  She wanted him to hold her, to tell her it didn't matter who her family was. She wanted him to love her regardless of where she came from. Hailey wanted Dak all to herself and not have to share him with Katherine. She'd have none of that though.

  "I guess you're relieved that I'm not your Mate with Silas being my brother and all."

  His silence said more than she needed to hear. Hailey picked at a loose thread of the shirt she wore. It was Dak's. She had no clothing here, and that gave her limited options in her choice of garments. She wanted to leave but had nowhere to go. She lived through learning the truth about the supernatural creatures of the world, had even been one for awhile, but learning that she was adopted turned her world upside down.

  The thread came loose and begun to unravel from the fabric. He grabbed her hand and picked the end of the shirt from her fingers. Dak replaced the shirt with his own hand, his fingers weaving between hers.

  "Nothing you do, have done, will do, or have relation to could change how I feel about you." His voice seemed loud in the somber room. "I don't know what was in the pictures you saw, but I did go to lunch with Katherine. She had begged me to after showing up unannounced for the second time at the house. I drove her back to her hotel and we shared a meal. Do you know what we talked about?"

  Hailey shook her head. She didn't want to do this now.

  "You. I told her that I had found my Mate and that she needed to go."

  Her chest was tight with too many emotions. "Then why did you kiss her?"

  "I didn't, or not intentionally. We hugged goodbye and she kissed me. There was no enjoyment of it on my end. The only reason I was happy when I left was because I knew that part of my life was now closed." Dak's grip tightened. "Do you believe me? I need to know you believe me." His voiced pleaded with her, begging her to understand.

  In the soft light coming in from the windows, Hailey looked down at their joined hands. They held on to each other so fiercely. The photos had been ingrained into her brain; it didn't take much for her to see them again. His story could fit. At the time she had been blinded by the actions portrayed in the photographs but after she had time to think, Hailey had wondered how Silas had known they would be there. A tiny part of her agreed with Alex, it could be a setup.

  "What does she look like?" Hailey asked, surprising herself as well as Dak.

  "Katherine? Blonde, tall, curvy. Why?"<
br />
  "I think…" Why hadn't she thought of it before? Katherine happened to show up after she was kidnapped, no way that wasn't planned. "I think she is the one who kidnapped me."

  He stiffened next to her. "Are you sure?"

  "No," she admitted. "I'd need to see a picture of her, but it fits doesn't it? She kidnaps me for Silas. He gets to try to reconnect with his sister while Katherine reconnects with you."

  "So you believe me?"

  "I think I do." Hailey lifted her eyes from their hands and looked at him. He had been watching her like he did so often. His mouth set in a hard line, which only accentuated the lines and deep shadows of his face. He cupped her cheek with is free hand. Relief had lightened his features. She noticed for the first time the dark circles that lie underneath his eyes. Then she took note of the scruff on his chin. Mr. Meticulous hadn't shaved in days.

  His forehead rested against Hailey's. The ache she felt in her body was forgotten, the vacant sensation in her chest was easing, and even Silas's announcement was pushed aside. All that mattered at that moment was him. Small puffs of hot breath met her own. She always had loved the smell of him; it reminded her of a slow burning fire. Even his breath smelled of smoke.

  "I mated Katherine, but you, Hailey, you are my Céile. My Mate, my partner, the one thing that makes me real." He kissed her, soft and assuring. He told her with his body what he had trouble expressing with his words.

  "I love you, Céile."

  *****

  Her lips were greedy against his as Dacea kissed her again. She was missing her usual scent of oranges, instead she carried his scent. Dacea had been incredibly satisfied when he had seen her in his clothing earlier, it dwarfed her, but that only made her more adorable. She pulled him closer, wanting more. Any other time he would have happily followed suit, but she had been injured and almost died only hours before. Their coupling would only harm her further.

  "Don't you have a call to make?" he asked as he pulled back.

  She pouted. Her bottom lip jutted out. "Why did you have to remind me? I was having fun." He brought his thumb to her mouth and brushed over the cut that had begun to heal.