by Rosette Lex
“This is him, Angel Rochester,” Tristan unfolded the paper and laid it out on the table. I studied the photograph. He had blond hair and chilling blue eyes. He had an angular jaw and chin with an intense brow. There was nothing particularly distinctive about him. Though his eyes…they seemed devoid of something. Humanity perhaps.
“So what would you have me do?” I asked Tristan and he sat back with a sigh.
“Since Safir does not know anything about this, he has assigned me a mission I cannot discuss even with you. While I’m gone, I need you to capture this man and hold him hostage in the old woodshed not too far from here. You’ll interrogate him for any information you can get and then when I return, I will wipe his memory and we’ll let him go,” Tristan explained his plan and I nodded. It sounded well enough.
After the entire debacle with Arianna, everyone had learned a lesson on humanity. If Tristan could use his second ability, we wouldn’t have to waste any human’s life. Along with our ability to shape shift, our race has a secondary ability that is unique to us individually. It was a defect in our genetic design. But our separate abilities have come in handy on many missions. I can virtually teleport using heightened speed while Tristan can erase memories.
“So, I will first follow him and see what I can get from his daily routine, and then I will capture him a few days before you come back from your mission.” Tristan nodded and we planned for exactly when I would capture the human.
“Very well then, it’s been settled.” Tristan said as he stood to leave. I bid him farewell as I saw him out and then readied myself for my patrol around the perimeter of our lands in the forests of Keene.
Present…
I had been flying just over the tree line when I caught his scent in the wind. I had been following Angel and was familiar with his scent. What was he doing so deep in the woods? So close to our perimeters?
I dipped down into the trees and landed lightly on my feet before I morphed back into my natural form. My pace quickened to a jog as I tracked him through the forest and gained on his position. That’s when I heard her whimpers. A woman, he was chasing a woman through the woods.
My eyes locked on her retreating form and then she screamed in pure terror just before Angel tackled her to the ground. That would have been the perfect time to capture him, but my vision was gaining a red tint to it and rage was sluicing through my system.
I ran over to them and plucked Angel off of the helpless woman and threw him back against a tree where he crumpled like a leaf to the ground.
I looked down at the woman. She was inarguably beautiful, but terrified. My blood felt hot for a reason other than my rage.
“You should move out of the way,” I said gruffly and helped her up from the ground as gently as I could manage. I did not want to frighten her any more than she was already. The woman backed away from me with wide eyes. Her entire body was shaking.
My inner dragon was already wild with rage and with something else. A feeling of ownership and the need to…the need to mate. My head whipped around and I saw the bastard still fallen at the base of the tree. Angel had not only abused and terrified an innocent woman, but he had attempted to assault my mate.
I morphed into the dragon without realizing that I was doing it. Belatedly, I realized that must have been what Safir went through. Of course, it was next to impossible to control shifting when it came over you like that.
The wind picked up and carried the woman’s scent over to me. The dragon reacted instantly by breathing fire at Angel who only sought to harm her. I was too far away to do any damage to him though and as I began to stalk forward, he shone a bright light directly into my eyes, almost blinding me.
I fumbled around, trying to find him and I breathed another flare of fire in his direction, but it was no use, soon I sensed that he had gone. I turned my attention towards the woman and walked over to her. She had fallen onto her side and did not appear to be conscious.
I used my wing to slip her onto my back and then made sure she was tucked safely in between my shoulder blades. Then I took off into the sky towards a small cottage I had built in a nearby mountain town. It was quiet and secluded there. I could regroup and possibly help this woman heal from the ordeal Angel put her through and keep her safe from him as well.
When I arrived at the cottage, I felt that the woman was still motionless. I landed in the lawn just in front of the cottage and slid her down onto the ground so that I could morph back. I lifted her and carried her into the house where I walked up to the loft style master bedroom on the second level of the house. All it was the bedroom and bathroom, down on the main level was the kitchen, living room, and a small area attached to the kitchen as an eat in dining area.
I laid her down on the bed and tucked her into the blankets. Even while unconscious, she was shivering. I walked over to the fireplace to start a fire for her and snapped my finger over a log, the flame jumped from my finger and soon the fire lit. After taking care of the fire, I walked over to her and stood next to the bed.
She was breathtakingly beautiful. Her hair was a red mahogany color. She had flawless creamy skin and long eyelashes that fanned over her high cheekbones. She had a graceful slope of a nose and full red lips. Standing next to her, inhaling her lilac scent I wanted nothing more than to mark her as my own. The dragon heated my skin and I had to keep myself rigid so that I would not shift. The urge to mark her was outrageous.
I took several breaths and tried to regulate the heat that was building up inside of me. I could not be so near her any longer. I hurried out into the chilling air, hoping that it would have a calming effect on me, but that wasn’t the case. I roared in frustration and shifted within the blink of an eye before I took off into the lightening sky.
Chapter 3
Sabrina
The first thing I registered when I woke up from whatever dark embrace I was floating in, was the smell of fresh mountain air. Sure, Keene smelled the same, but the air was decidedly thinner than what I was used to. Maybe there was a storm overnight…overnight. Suddenly, all the memories of last night came thundering back to the forefront of my mind. Angel and I driving out to the bluff, Angel hitting me, kicking me…chasing me into the woods and then—my eyes flew open and I sat up way too quickly.
I was in a bright room on a large bed and directly to my left was a huge man standing at the side of the bed staring at me. I pointed at him with a shaky finger as my vision pitched and swam in a pained unfocused frenzy.
“Y—you…you turned into a dragon,” I said hoarsely. My throat felt like it was constricted and with every breath I took, my side screamed out in pain.
“You should calm down; your body is not yet healed. You must be in pain,” his voice was warm and soothing, he held his hands out as if he was ready to catch me. My head was pounding and my vision was blurring, which made it impossible to focus on anything.
“I—I’m fine, who are you? Where am I?” I asked as I deflected his concern, my voice was a bit shrill, but who could blame me. As far as I knew the man—dragon thing—person was a danger. If I remembered correctly, he could breathe fire.
“As I said before, please calm down. I will explain all of this to you.” He remained calm, but I was growing a bit more anxious and hysteric by the moment as memories of the night before replayed through my mind on a loop. “My name is Doran and I am indeed a dragon shifter, my race is small and we are not native to Earth…”
My eyes widened in horror. “You’re an…an alien?” I said incredulously and Doran nodded, almost as if he was guilty for it.
“Yes, there are only seven of my kind on this planet and we live in Keene, deep in the woods we have our own lands and live relatively close to one another. Our race has recently been found out by a group of scientists who seek to destroy us,” Doran came into focus as my panic was somehow eased from the calm and soothing tone of his voice. Since I wasn’t making any sudden movements, my head stopped pounding so hard and I was able to concentr
ate on him. He was extremely handsome.
I hadn’t noticed this detail last night, as I was too busy being terrified for my life, but this man was gorgeous. Big, as in he must have been over seven feet tall with all the muscle to match his height. His arms were thickly corded with tanned defined muscle. He wore a crew neck black t-shirt of all things and khaki cargo pants.
The t-shirt was form fitting as his chest stood out due to impressive pecks. His face though, it was kind of perfect, from the winged brows to the hawkish nose and square jaw. He had a cleft chin and full pink lips. His hair was jet black and pulled into a bun at the back of his head.
“Are you alright?” he asked me, his expression full of concern as he studied me. “Perhaps, I should examine you for serious injury,” he said and started to move towards me. No matter how gorgeous he was, I wasn’t about to let him handle me. His bright blue eyes seemed to glow as he registered my fear and self-preservation. “I will not hurt you, I swear it,” he said sincerely and I shook my head. Doran sighed and he shoved his hands into his front pockets.
“Well, I suppose I will finish telling my story and hopefully by then, you will feel comfortable enough with me and know that I mean you no harm,” I nodded slowly and Doran took a deep breath before he continued explaining.
“Like I said, a group of scientists were attempting to hunt us down and my mission was to follow and eventually capture one of the known scientists. I had been on perimeter duty last night, around our small community when I caught Angel’s scent. I had recognized it from having followed his movements recently. Then I heard your screams and my obligation to capture him alive fled when I saw what his intent was. I would have killed him if he hadn’t gotten away,” Doran admitted, though he didn’t seem too remorseful about it.
“You were supposed to kidnap Angel because he was one of the scientist guys hunting down your…alien shifter race?” I asked to clarify and sum up. Doran nodded once and my eyes widened.
What a small world. My expression fell as I realized that I was probably losing it. I should be trying to get away from Doran, not sitting in bed and having a conversation with him. I glanced around the room and saw that it was like a loft style bedroom. There were stairs to the right of the bed that led down to a lower level.
“You wanted to kidnap Angel, you don’t seem remorseful about the fact that you would have killed him, regardless if he deserved it or not…why should I trust you? Endangered species are either very good at hiding or very good at fighting. Why should I trust that you haven’t brought me here to kill me?” I asked him brazenly and I swore that I saw Doran’s mouth twitch into an almost smile.
“My kind has the utmost respect for the human race. Yes, we are endangered and we protect ourselves. But we don’t kill innocents. Our original mission and our mission still is only to extract as much information from Angel as possible and simply wipe his memory clean of us,” Doran paused and he glanced down at the bed for a moment.
“But when I heard him trying to rape you, I snapped. My other nature, the dragon, it took over. I swear to you that I am under control and I will not harm you,” Doran took a hand out of his left pocket and rubbed the back of his neck a bit anxiously.
“But I cannot let you return to your life yet. Tristan, another shifter like me, is the one who can wipe memories. While I vow never to harm you, it would be too dangerous for my kind if I let you out into the world with knowledge of us,” Doran’s eyes were clear and almost beseeching. He didn’t want me freaking out. In the back of my mind, reason spoke up and I saw where he was coming from.
“So this…Tristan will come and wipe my memory of you and then I can go?” I asked shakily and Doran nodded.
“Only, he is away on a special assignment. He won’t be back for a couple weeks…well a week and a half now,” Doran said and I chewed on my lip nervously.
“Can he erase the memories of last night too? And…and Angel?”
“Of course, he can if that is what you wish. Tristan can target your memories and wipe them clean of both your conscious and subconscious. You won’t even have any suspicions or buried recollections. It will simply be as if last night and the days to come that we spend here never happened,” Doran assured me. He took a step towards me and I tried not to cringe.
“B—but what if I swear not to tell anyone…what if I—” Doran shook his head and I fell silent.
“It is too risky, but I assure you that I will protect you here. You can take the time to heal from your wounds and all will be well soon,” Doran took his other hand out of his pocket and crossed his arms over his chest tightly. I watched as the muscles in his arms and forearms flexed.
My eyes traveled up to his, I wondered if it was natural for his kind that his eyes glowed. He seemed to be held tight, almost as if he were restraining himself. But his eyes were sincere and I just knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Even though he was able to turn into a giant dragon and burn me to a crisp if he got hungry or something.
“Okay I guess…” I said and Doran nodded once. He slowly unfolded his arms and then reached for the blanket that was bunched around my stomach.
“I need to make sure your injuries aren’t life threatening, will you allow me?” I swallowed, but didn’t move away from him and he took that as consent. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I doubted there was a doctor wherever we were.
I glanced to the left through the picturesque windows and saw mountains speckled with snow-topped trees. Doran touched me then and I winced as he pressed lightly on my ribs. I hadn’t even realized he lifted my sweater to see the skin. It felt like he was hammering a nail into my ribs.
“I’m sorry, these are bruised…two ribs here.” Doran continued his examination, he lightly lifted my chin to look at my neck, it was tender when he touched my throat, but nothing compared to the pain in my side.
“How is your head, you have a bruise on your temple,” Doran gestured to my head and I touched it and tried not to wince as it was too much movement for my ribs to handle at the moment. It wasn’t as bad as my side, but it hurt and I was definitely woozy when I woke up.
“Uh, not too terrible, I mean my vision isn’t swimming anymore.” I said. Doran’s eyebrows furrowed over his eyes and for the first time, I registered the anger there.
“You could quite possibly have a concussion. You must rest for at least a few days. I don’t want you doing too much,” Doran said sternly. I wouldn’t argue with him, exhaustion was already pulling at me and I had hardly been awake for two hours.
“What is there around here to do anyways? Where are we again?” I asked him and he frowned as concern deepened on his face.
“We’re in St. Huberts. It’s a small town in the center of a few mountains. People do come here to visit. There is even a golf club here,” Doran said in an effort to reassure me that he wasn’t holding me hostage out in the middle of completely nowhere.
“So you have this cottage as your…what, your vacation home?” Doran’s lips twitched in that almost smile again.
“Yes I built it as a get away of sorts,” I started to sigh and then instantly regretted it as I inhaled too much air than my lungs could handle.
“That is good, take as many deep breaths as you can. It actually helps.” Doran said. He was sitting on the edge of the bed by that point and I realized that he was hot. The fireplace wasn’t even on and it was toasty in the room.
“Are you normally so warm?” I asked and Doran’s eyes searched my face.
“Not all the time…you make me feel out of sorts. Certain instincts are heightened around you, it affects my temperature,” Doran admitted, “among other things.” He murmured, though I still heard.
“Why is that, what do you mean?” I asked, surprise evident on my voice.
“You…uh, you should get some rest,” Doran pulled the blankets up and I gingerly lay back against the pillows. He seemed uneasy all of a sudden, almost as if he were going to break out of his own skin.
“You’re not going to
leave, are you? I mean if those guys were getting ready to hunt you down, shouldn’t they know about this place? Wouldn’t Angel know about here?” Doran’s expression hardened into one of determination.
I assure you this place is safe, and I would not leave you unprotected. You are safe with me and you are safe here. I give you my word.” Doran was sincere; it was evident in his voice and his gaze. I nodded and then let the exhaustion pull me into unconsciousness. “What is your name?” Doran asked in a soft voice.
Before I could drift off completely, I whispered, “Sabrina.”
* * *
When I woke up, I smelled something sweet cooking like pancakes or French toast. My stomach practically roared, as I hadn’t eaten in what felt like days. I sat up gingerly and started to ease out of bed. Before I could register any sort of movement, Doran was in front of me.