“Put your coat on, love,” he said and grabbed a bag as he walked out.
She lifted the massive blanket he’d gotten her which he called her coat and threw it on. The thing was so long, it landed at her ankles, but fit roomy like a dress.
Once they were outside, he put the bag down and shifted into his dragon. She never tired of the iridescent blue scales and his gorgeous wings. She’d never seen a sapphire dragon and knowing she was mated to one was almost too much to believe.
The dragon lowered to the ground and motioned with his head. “Get on, sweetheart.”
She frowned, still getting used to the idea they could communicate telepathically. She picked up his bag, slipped it across her body and climbed on his neck. “Is this safe?”
“Would you rather I carry you in my claws?”
She thought about it. “If you promise to go slow, I will ride your back.”
“Sweetheart, I’d never allow you to get hurt. Slide your hands between my scales to get a grip to hold on.”
On his back, she slipped her hands under a set of scales and felt Thane’s skin pulsing hot. She wrapped her hands around other scales and then they were off. Flying over the mountains, she got a chance to see the rivers and sunset as he soared farther from their home to land she didn’t recognize. After an hour, which felt like an eternity when she had a baby pressing on her bladder, they landed in an open forest patch.
She wasn’t sure where they were, but it wasn’t as cold as their mountain. She got down and watched him shift into his too sexy human body. He took the bag from her and threw on the jeans and T-shirt in it, not bothering with shoes.
Arm in arm, he guided her through the trees. In the distance, she saw a big Victorian house. It was massive. Almost mansion-like.
“Whose house?”
“You’ll see,” he said and helped her inside. They went in the back door. There was a note on the kitchen island from someone who said they left food in the fridge and the pantry stocked.
“I’m getting the feeling you know this place,” she said and followed him into what looked like a huge parlor.
He continued holding her hand. They stopped in front of a massive fireplace that could fit ten people standing inside. He pointed up and she gasped.
“This was my family home for a while. My parents, sister, brother, and I lived here when we came to America.” He squeezed her hand. She glanced away from the huge family portrait to his stony face. “Father had it made to resemble our homes in Norway and England.”
She blinked. Shit, how many homes did he have?
“Who’s that?” she asked, seeing the smiling family.
“My father and mother, sister and brother, Saxon.”
“Wow, you all look so much alike.”
When he didn’t respond, she glanced at his face and saw him staring at the image of his sister. “I’m sorry about your sister. What was her name?”
“Anna. She was the nicest girl. But she fell in love with a human and he mistreated her. She died of a broken heart.”
She hugged herself to his side and wished she could take the pain she felt drifting from him. “That’s horrible. For a man to do that to someone who loves him.”
He turned to face her, not really looking at her, more looking through her. “I would never do that to you. I treasure your love. I’d give my life for you.”
Lifting a hand to his heart, she smiled at him. “I know. I trust you.”
“Come with me.”
They walked through the first level of the house. She realized the place was a lot bigger than she anticipated. When he said left wing and right wing, she knew she would get lost without him.
He took her through a solarium filled with plants and a marble fountain with baby angels in the center. It was kind of creepy.
They reached a set of double doors that opened to a spiral staircase, and for a second, she hesitated going down. She wasn’t afraid or anything. Okay, she’d seen enough movies to know there wasn’t anything good in a basement.
“Thane…I don’t know about this.”
25
Lily’s stomach flipped. He turned to face her and grinned. “Trust me, love.”
Great. She was a sucker for love. He helped her down the stairs. At the bottom, they were inside what appeared to be a deep cave. He guided her down a long hallway until they reached another set of doors. Older metal doors. They cranked open with an eerie hiss. It took a second to realize the doors were a foot thick. Holy shit! What the hell did he keep in there?
He flipped on a set of lights and she gasped. “Oh my god!”
Cases of jewels sat scattered over the giant room. Gold. Diamonds. So many precious stones of all colors, shapes, and sizes. She took a step forward and stopped, glancing around the cavernous room. “It’s like every missing treasure from every pirate ship in history found its way in here.”
He barked a laugh and moved to the other end of the room. “You have a very creative mind, sweetheart.”
The whole place was surreal. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was like being inside Tiffany’s. “What is this place?”
“This is my lair. Every dragon has one. I moved my treasures down here when I inherited the house.”
“But how did you get so many jewels? I mean,” she did a full circle, “there must be like billions of dollars in this room alone.”
“There is,” he said in a serious tone. “I’m close to a thousand years old, Lily. I’ve had many jobs and got paid for a lot of them with jewels.” He opened a giant safe in the far wall. “Plus, I’ve found a lot of things in my travels across the sea.”
She opened her eyes wide. “Oh my god! Were you a pirate?”
He shook his head, grabbed something from the safe, and closed the heavy metal door. “No. Nothing like that. I’ve just defended a lot of castles in my time and been repaid with jewelry and gold.”
She walked to one of the clear glass cases. There were earrings and necklaces made with every colored stone known to man. Lots of diamonds and gold. So much gold. “Tell me this stuff is insured.”
“Yes, but it was a lot more expensive to get insurance when I refused to take it all to a bank vault.” He stopped in front of her and grabbed her hand. “Why would I shove my treasure in a bank vault? The point is for me to enjoy looking at it.” They heard a click behind them.
“And now it will be mine to enjoy spending.” Lily and Thane turned toward the entrance. A naked Ramoth blocked the entry, a gun in his hand.
Thane stepped in front of her, keeping her out of sight. She tried to look around him, but his hands kept her in place at his back. He was protecting her and their unborn child. She got it. She’d do her best to do the same. In fact, she’d start now by squeezing behind the case they stood next to. It leaned against the wall, the bottom pushed out several feet.
She crawled to the other side to see where that put her in relation to Ramoth. Both men stood within sight.
“A gun?” Thane said. “Really, little brother? You come to fight a dragon with a human gadget? I thought you were smarter than that.”
Ramoth grunted. “Stop with your taunting already. I’m so sick of hearing you brag about how much better you are than everyone else—how much smarter, richer, good-looking you are. You’re nothing but a piss-ant.”
Thane shrugged. “I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks.”
“You know,” Ramoth’s eyes narrowed, “Father loved me more than he did you or Saxon. You didn’t love Father. He wanted me to be his heir. You don’t deserve anything. He wanted me to hunt you down and take everything you have.” Ramoth paused, a slow smile growing on his face. “Including your mate and child.”
Thane bristled and stepped toward his brother. “You touch anything that belongs to me and I will kill you slowly. You cannot threaten my family and live.”
“Your family,” he slurred, “how sweet. You were so close to letting yourself die. Why couldn’t you have gone as easily as A
nna did?”
Anna? That was Thane’s sister who died from a broken heart, or did she?
Thane took another step. “What do you mean by that, Ramoth?”
“Nothing,” he said nonchalantly, “only that humans are easily controlled. Especially when given riches beyond their dreams. They’ll do about anything, even leave a loved one behind.”
Holy shit! Did she hear correctly? Ramoth paid off Anna’s husband to leave her. In essence, he killed her by doing that.
Thane’s hands started to shift into claws. Ramoth raised the gun and shot twice into her love’s chest. Thane staggered back a step, but that was it.
“You know well enough that bullets don’t stop us,” Thane said, but he didn’t advance on his sibling.
Ramoth laughed. “I do. That’s why I shot you with poisonous slugs. Ones loaded with enough toxins to take out a dragon. A big dragon.”
“What?” Lily couldn’t stay in her hiding place any longer. Her mate had deadly chemicals flowing through his body that would kill him. She climbed to her feet. “You son of a bitch. I will kill you myself.”
“There you are, “ the dick said. “Nice to see you again…my mate.”
Thane roared, then fell to his knees. The toxin was already working on him. She rushed to him, but Ramoth grabbed her arm.
“You’re coming with me, love. We need to rid you of that child and put mine in you.”
Lily’s tigress went crazy, but she couldn’t shift or the baby would be killed in the process. Ramoth dragged her through the entrance, then stopped and poked his head through the doorway.
“By the way, brother, thanks for leading me straight to your lair. I would’ve never found the entrance without you.” He slammed the vault door closed.
“No!” Lily fought his hold. Her hand shifted to claws and she tried to rake them across his face, but he was too fast.
His fist came up and smashed into her head. “You’re not being a good girl,” he said. Her vision spun and legs gave. The bastard’s grip on her arm kept her from hitting the ground.
At the clearing in the woods, Ramoth pulled her around to face him. “Since I’m feeling magnanimous, I’ll give you a choice. Either climb onto my back after I shift or I’ll crunch your bones between my teeth in one bite.” To emphasize his point, he leaned into her face and snapped his jaw inches from her nose. She jerked back from the dick.
He laughed and shifted. She had little choice. She couldn’t run, couldn’t attack, couldn’t shift. Ramoth was going to kill her child and impregnate her with his own. She’d kill herself and her child before she let him lay a hand on her. She’d end it on her terms, and she knew how.
26
Thane lay on the floor of his lair, poison racing through his bloodstream. After all these years, finding his mate, and giving life to a baby, he would die at the hands of his bastard brother.
No, he couldn’t die yet. Ramoth had his mate. He would remain alive until he saved her and killed the little shit. He would stay alive. Climbing to his feet, Thane felt his head spin, but shook it off and made his way out the door and up the stairs. He stumbled onto the front porch and saw Ramoth launch into the air, Lily on his back.
Thane fell to the ground and forced his body to shift. He told his dragon to stop being a pussy and get his ass in the air. Their mate and child needed them. A shot of adrenaline whipped through him, momentarily overcoming the effects of the toxins. He spread his wings and took off after Ramoth.
Being bigger with stronger wings, he easily gained on his brother. He spoke telepathically to his love. “Hold on tight, Lily.” Her head snapped around and she saw him. So many emotions raced through her gaze, mostly love.
“Thane! You’re alive,” she thought to him.
“Yes, my love. We need to get you to safety so I can finish him.”
She faced forward and looked to hunker down. Thane dove closer to Ramoth and chomped down mid-way up his tale. The smaller dragon roared and pulled back. If Lily hadn’t a solid hold, she would’ve rolled off Ramoth.
Ramoth sent a plume of fire at him. He wasn’t as nimble as he usually was and unable to dodge the flame. His scales blackened, but he wasn’t too injured. He opened his mouth to return the fire then realized the true situation. Any attack he initiated on Ramoth could hurt Lily. He literally could do nothing to Ramoth.
The look on Lily’s face told him she realized the predicament, too.
His brother’s laughter rang in his head. “At a loss for what to do, dear brother? Don’t want to kill your mate, do you?” The taunt sent fury through him.
“Put her down, Ramoth, and we will settle this like dragons,” Thane said. He was becoming winded by the effort needed to stay aloft. He wouldn’t last much longer.
“I’m not stupid, Thane. I’m not a dragonling like you’ve always treated me. You’ve never seen me as an equal,” Ramoth complained. “Now I’ll show you who the stronger dragon is.”
Thane snorted. “You’re pathetic, Ramoth. No wonder Father kept your birth quiet. He could see what type of dragon you were from the moment you were born.”
Fury rolled through his brother’s eyes. Then the bastard grinned. With a twist of his wings, he flipped in the air. Fear shot through Thane’s body. Lily screamed as her feet dangled in the air. Thank god her clutch was tight. Ramoth rolled back over.
“Need I remind you what the consequences of pissing me off are?” Ramoth sneered. Thane felt himself slipping away from consciousness.
“Thane,” Lily said on their private channel, “I know how to end this.” Fear and excitement battled in her expression.
“How?” he asked.
“Do you trust me, my love?” she replied.
“Always.”
She grinned. “I love you, Thane. You will forever be my love.”
Thane did not like the sound of that. It seemed too much like a goodbye. But he trusted her. He thought of his love for the two lives in peril and a burst of energy powered him. He was ready for whatever Lily had in mind. He gave her a nod.
Next thing Thane knew, blood shot out of Ramoth’s neck in large red spurts. Lily’s tigress’s claws ripped through the delicate skin under his brother’s scales. Another fountain spewed from the other side of the dragon. A tremendous roar shook the air. Dark liquid rained on the earth below.
Ramoth twisted, slinging blood everywhere. Lily slipped off his back, no longer having a hold. Her scream cut through the haziness slowly overtaking Thane. He dove for her falling body, his heart in his throat. As carefully as he could, he wrapped her in a claw. She was safe with him. But how safe was he?
Their speeding descent was too much for Thane to pull out of. He was too weak. In the end, he had failed his mate anyway. The trees of forest below became clearer the closer they got.
His turn to say goodbye. “You are my only, Lily. Over a thousand years and only you ever touched my heart.” Thane banked his body to the side, making sure his claw with the precious cargo remained secure. Trees scraped his body as his forward glide brushed the tops. He tucked his wings in and his body tore through the woods, leaving a trail of destruction behind.
“Thane!” Lily cried. “No!”
He closed his eyes and his world turned dark.
27
Lily paced the bedroom floor between the nursery and Thane’s bed.
“How long before the cure works,” she asked Saxon.
“If it works,” he replied, “I don’t know. I don’t even know if it is a cure. Ramoth had so much shit at his lair, it was hard to know what anything was.”
“Really?” Lily stopped and stared at Thane’s loving sibling. “What else did you find there?”
“He had the entire setup to make the poisoned bullets. I found thousands of rounds ready to be loaded. I think Ramoth was planning a war,” he said.
“Against who?”
“I’m not sure, but I found several emails on his computer to a Louis Danitelli talking about Thane’s collection of j
ewels,” Saxon informed her.
Things clicked into place for Lily. Her ex and Ramoth had been working together to find Thane’s lair and all the priceless treasure in it. The two men had planned to use her for ransom, but Louis’s grandfather, head of the crime syndication, put an end to that the night they destroyed Vinnie’s home. After that, Ramoth must have been waiting, anticipating that Thane would take her to his lair now that they were officially mated.
A groan came from the large bed. “Thane!” Lily stumbled over herself to get to him. Sweat covered his face and had soaked into his pillow. The cool cloth on his forehead did little. “Thane, baby. Wake up.”
Her love rolled his head and his eyes fluttered open. “Lily, you’re alive.” She squeezed his hand.
“And so are you,” she said, tears filling her eyes. Saxon came up behind her and looked down on her mate.
“You can thank me by getting your dragon to purge Ramoth’s crap from your blood so I can go out and find my mate, now that you finally have.” He rolled his eyes. “You have always taken forever to do things, Thane. Dad said you were methodical. I call it slow.”
Lily laughed, but she saw the love in Saxon’s eyes for his brother. Thane gazed at his brother like he’d never seen him before.
“Why are you here? What happened?” Thane drawled.
Saxon smiled at Lily. “Such appreciation. Older brothers.” He shook his head.
Lily refolded the cloth on her mate’s forehead. “Saxon brought us back to your cabin. He came here looking for you after he raided Ramoth’s lair and found some interesting stuff, including an arsenal of toxic ammunition.”
His brother picked up the story from there. “When I saw your clothes piled up on the living room floor—brother, you really should lock your front door when you take off on jaunts—I figured you two were out flying. After waiting forever, I decided to follow your scent to see where you were.”
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