by KD Jones
“Spider, why did you stop here? Playas is a dry lake. We can’t possibly find what we need here.”
“This is just the halfway point. I need to take a piss and she may need to do the same. I don’t want her doing her business mid-flight,” Spider answered.
She took the information in. Lake Playas was in New Mexico. It sounded like their destination was close, so they would probably stay in New Mexico. She could work with that.
“Piss if you need to, Callie,” the man ordered her.
He knew her name. Was this the asshole that broke into her apartment? But that wasn’t the question she asked as she stood on wobbly legs. “Where am I supposed to go?” There was very little water and around them looked muddy. It was dark too, so she wasn’t sure she could maneuver safely through this.
“You have a dress on. Just pull it up, squat, and go. We leave in two minutes.”
“Can you turn your backs?”
“No!” both men yelled at her.
She didn’t know what to do, so she acted like she was squatting. Luckily she didn’t need to go, but a new thought came to her. If someone was looking for her, maybe she could leave something of hers to help. A message on the ground. She took the brooch she wore that belonged to her mother and used the needle part to scratch something. She wrote her name and Spider’s then halfway point. She drew an arrow in the direction that she thought they were headed.
“Ouch!” she muttered under her breath when the needle pricked her finger.
“What are you doing over there?”
“I was looking for something I could use to wipe myself, but I pricked my finger on a rock or something.”
“Did you go? I smell nothing.”
“I couldn’t go with you watching me.”
“Well, time’s up.” Spider jerked her to a standing position, and then he backed up a few steps and shifted into his dragon form.
She could have run, but what was the point? He was too large and there was nowhere to run. Not yet, anyway. Bracing herself, she didn’t scream when his talons scooped her up and then the wings lifted them into the air. Looking down, she prayed that her message wouldn’t get covered up.
The likelihood that someone would track her to New Mexico was slim. If only she had held on to her purse with her cell phone in it. She said a silent prayer that God would keep her safe and that he would send someone to rescue her. Valorie’s words came to her. She needed a knight in shining armor who could fight a dragon.
Chapter 14
Viper had been flying for about an hour and a half. Callie’s scent was fading a little, and he felt desperate to find her. He descended a bit and caught her stronger scent. They must’ve landed. He touched down on a dry lakebed. The scents grew stronger here. Callie and… two Drakonian males, not just one. So the attacker had help.
He shifted back to his human form and searched the area. On the ground, he noted a place where the dirt was disturbed, not smooth like the other places.
Squatting, he used a hand to clear dirt from the scratching. He could make out two names, Callie and Spider. Then the words said halfway point with an arrow he assumed was the direction this Spider was taking her.
“Spider,” he said the name out loud. He didn’t know this male, but he would make him and the other male pay.
There was something else. Leaning closer to the ground, he inhaled and scented human blood—Callie’s blood. His dragon growled deep inside.
“I know. Whoever drew Callie’s blood would die first.”
He shifted back into his dragon form. Before he lifted into the air, he used his fire to create a circle around the message that Callie had left. Hopefully, if the other enforcers were following his tracks, they would see his mark.
Viper was a well trained Drakonian warrior. He could take two males, but his worry was for Callie. She could get killed if caught in the middle of the fight. His priority was to get her to safety. He would have to wait to deal out justice.
Moving his large wings back and forth, he jumped into the air and worked his way higher and higher into the night sky. The dragons would seek shelter soon, not wanting to travel during the day in dragon form. They would be spotted easily. Where were they taking her?
*****
Callie was so uncomfortable. She tried to put her hand between her and the talons, but it was no use. She was glad she had nothing to eat because she would have thrown that up. Flying by dragon was not her thing.
The good thing was she kind of had an idea where they were taking her. When she was little and visiting her aunt and uncle through the summers, her uncle would have to make up games to keep her active imagination entertained. One of their favorites was the Name That Place game.
He would pick a state and she would have to research everything about that location, including which routes she would take to get there, what sites she would visit in each location, what foods originated from each place. Callie went through the United States quickly, and then her uncle had to pick places around the world.
Since she knew she was in New Mexico, she had to think of the direction they were taking. There were lakes around, but if these dragon shifters were anything like what she read in fairy tales and fiction stories, they would want to go toward the mountains. If they kept this path, it would lead directly to Baylor Peak.
It was good to figure out their destination. She didn’t feel helpless and useless. If there was an opening for escape, she would take it. It would be better to die trying to get free rather than to remain alone with these two scary males.
Was anyone looking for her? She was to meet Valorie and her husband after church. She planned to make that lasagna for the King R Ranch and send it back with them. Viper would also stop by to check up on the security system. It would piss him off to find out she was taken.
Viper had been determined to keep her safe and would probably blame himself. But there was nothing he or anyone else would have been able to do to prevent it. These guys shifted into damn dragons. No one could save her, so she would have to save herself. How was she going to do that? She had no clue.
Her uncomfortable and unwanted flight looked to be about over. The dragons headed for the mountain peaks. The first one landed and shifted to human form. He ducked inside a cave opening. Oh no, she couldn’t let them trap her inside that cave with the two of them.
The dragon carrying her, Spider, dropped her a few feet down onto the ledge. She landed on her hands and knees, hard. It took her a few minutes to catch her breath. The dragon shifter landed behind her and shifted. He walked toward her and she had to evade looking at his swinging dick. It was hard to do since he squatted right in front of her. She finally found her voice.
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?”
“It’s time I took a mate. My dragon is demanding, and you’re it.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I admit, usually I like more curvy females, you’re not my usual type. I would go to one of the big cities, but I stopped in that small town of yours and saw you walking down the street. Something about you appealed to me, and my dragon seemed interested. I followed you to the library. I kept to myself and just watched you for hours. That has never happened to me before. So I knew you had to be my mate.”
“That’s it? You just watched me for hours and kidnapped me?”
“Obey me and we’ll get along just fine.” He reached to touch her face, but she jerked away. He growled, “You’ll get used to me in time.” Then he grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. He dragged her toward the cave. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t break free of his hold.
Inside the cave, the other male lay on his side, still naked. He had built a fire. The cave was small, they wouldn’t be able to shift in dragon form, but there were no other exits from what she could see.
“We need to hunt for food.”
“You go, I’ll stay with the female.”
“I don’t trust you to stay alone w
ith her.”
“We’re sharing her, right?”
“Not right now. I need to see if my dragon will allow me to claim her. Once I can claim her properly, I’ll help you find your own female.”
“She could escape.”
“Then we’ll tie her up. She’s one small human, and she’s on the top of a mountain. Where the hell will she go?”
“You swear that if your dragon denies the claim, I get a chance at her?”
“Yeah, man. And if neither of our dragons claim her, we’ll use her then get rid of her.”
Callie gulped at hearing all that. Things were looking worse and worse. She would rather jump off the mountain than to let these two guys touch her.
Spider took a piece of rope from his partner and tied her wrists behind her back. “We’ll bring food and water back. You behave, mate.” She kept her lips shut as he tried to kiss her.
He growled and slapped her face. “We’ll work on your responses to me when I get back.”
Callie was stunned. No one, not even her parents or aunt and uncle, had ever laid a hand on her. It stung, but it pissed her off. Once they were out of the cave, she looked around for something she could use to get the rope off.
She slumped her shoulders to sit on her tied up hands, then scooted to slide her wrists under her legs until they were in front of her. Crawling around the cold cave only showed piles of dirty clothes, many, many wallets which she assumed they stole from others, more wrappers from junk food, and empty beer cans. She shivered and moved closer to the fire. The fire! That was her only chance.
Carefully, she placed her wrists closer to the fire. Callie gritted her teeth as the flames caught on the rope. Damn it! She burned herself, but she didn’t stop. Never give up, never surrender. Was that from a book she read, or was it from the movie Galaxy Quest? Didn’t matter.
“Yes!” Finally the fire burned through the rope enough that she could pull her wrists apart. “Now, all I have to do is get off this mountain.”
Chapter 15
Viper’s dragon was pushing hard to find Callie. He felt that he was maybe thirty minutes behind the rogues and if they stopped to rest, he would be on them soon. A mountain range was coming into view. He approached, trying to get a scent or to spot something that would tell him if he was in the right place or not.
The closer he came to the group of mountains, the stronger Callie’s scent grew. He knew she was here somewhere. He just needed a break. And there it was.
A small moving figure on the side of a rocky ledge caught his attention. At first, he thought someone lost a piece of clothing and it clung there, blowing in the wind. Then the piece of clothing drifted down the mountain at a slow but directed pathway. What the fuck?
He flew down circling the area and realized it was a person, not just any person, but it was Callie. What was she doing? She could lose her grip and plunge to her death. His dragon let out a growl of displeasure.
“Save mate now!”
That female would be the death of him. Swooping lower, he looked for a way to snatch her safely. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any place close he could land. That left only one thing for him to do.
*****
Callie was already sweating, and she had barely cleared ten feet from the top of the ledge. “Please, God. If you help me get down this mountain without breaking something, I promise to exercise two or three times a week.”
She had to stop to wipe the sweat from her palms. This was taking too long. It would take hours or even days to reach the bottom. Panic rose inside. She was out of shape and nowhere near strong enough to climb for hours.
“I will not die today. Nope, not happening.”
A loud sound almost like a roar came from somewhere above. Oh, God! Were the two dragon shifters back? She risked looking up over her shoulder, and her heart nearly dropped out of her chest.
A huge dark colored dragon was heading her way. It looked different from the other two dragons in color. Three fucking dragon shifters! How could this happen? She was a no body, a lonely librarian. What was it about her that drew these creatures to her? That’s it! She was definitely changing her bath wash when she got home.
She was stuck on the side of a mountain. So what choices did she have? Try to climb back up and make it to the cave? Keep going down the side. Or maybe if she stayed still long enough that she would blend in with her surroundings and the new dragon would fly by her?
Unfortunately, while she was trying to decide, the dragon decided for her. He came toward her at an angle, turning so that his underbelly faced her. A scream bubbled up within her as she watched in horror as a claw reached out for her. Callie tried to cling to the rocks jutting out, but it was no use. The claws scooped her up like swatting air.
Great! Kidnapped by another damn dragon. This time she would not pass out or be passive about it. She was furious.
“Let me go, you big pigeon!”
Callie screamed at the dragon and hit the claws holding her. She didn’t care if it dropped her. She wondered if it planned to do what the other two dragon men had planned. Not happening.
“Put me down! I mean it!” She tried to wriggle free.
The dragon glanced down at her and made some kind of huffing sound as if he was irritated with her. Oh no, he didn’t.
“If I’m causing you problems, just let me go.”
The dragon rolled his eyes at her and turned away. That was... he was acting like a human. Well, he was a shifter, so he would have a man’s characteristics. She would show him just how annoying she could be. When he turned back to his human form, she would have a surprise waiting for him.
*****
Viper fought his growl that wanted to break free. Callie was struggling to free herself from his hold, and it worried him. She could injure her hands or break her arm. Worse, she could cause his grip to loosen and she could fall to her death. He was determined not to let that happen.
It never occurred to him how a human might view him. He always kept his distance in the past. He tried to imagine what Callie was feeling. She was human and facing what she must’ve considered a monster. No, make that two monsters. She would never view him the same after today and would most likely have nothing to do with him when she was returned home. That thought hurt him deeply.
It was probably for the best. Callie was a gentle and kind female. She was soft-spoken and he couldn’t remember a time she had ever raised her voice.
“Let me go, you big pigeon!”
She surprised him when she screamed and hit his claws. He barely felt her, but it was so unlike her. This was a different side to the timid librarian. He liked the fire she was showing, so did his dragon, who let out a soft purr to calm her. She didn’t know what it was and kept calling him names. Some of them were creative.
“You’re just an overgrown lizard with a small penis!”
He growled at that. That was going too far. Her insults died down and he knew she was growing tired. They couldn’t stop yet. The ones that took her would look for her and would catch his scent. They would follow. He changed directions, moving away from Arizona, which was where they would assume he would take her. Next, he needed to cover their scents.
Chapter 16
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Callie yelled at the dragon that had just dumped her in an enormous pile of mud. At least she prayed it was mud and not some dragon dung.
She tried to stand, but the slippery stuff made her lose her balance and she fell back on her ass. Oof!
“I am not liking you much at this moment,” she muttered as she crawled onto her hands and knees.
“That’s too bad, because I like you a great deal,” a deep masculine voice said.
Callie stopped her struggles to look up. She was utterly stunned to find Viper standing there, knee-deep in mud, and completely utterly naked. Like naked. Not a stitch on him. He was big everywhere.
She turned her head to the side to study him and watched as his long, thick cock ros
e from half-mast to full-on flaming mast. A throat clearing had her refocus her attention, and she raised her head to stare into his handsome face.
“You... you’re... like the others. A dragon shifter?”
“I am a dragon shifter, but I’m not like the ones who took you,” he answered her.
“What’s the difference?”
“The one that took you is rogue. They do not abide by any laws, human or Drakonian. Rogues will hunt, rape, and kill with no conscience at all.”
“But you’re not a rogue?”
“No.”
“What are you then?”
“We’ll discuss this later,” he said as he scooped a hand full of mud and put it on top of her head.
“Hey! I’m trying to get this shit off me.”
“We need to get as much mud on our bodies to hide our scent and leave before the rogues find us. I haven’t taken us far enough from them to deem it safe.”
Callie had so many more questions to ask him, but nothing came out. She gulped as she watched him scoop mud and rub it all over his chest. Was that an eight pack or a ten? Her nipples hardened into tiny points and she licked her dry lips. Her fingers itched to touch and rub him.
“Callie?”
She shook her naughty thoughts away. “What?”
“Put more mud on your arms.”
Sighing, she scooped up mud and rubbed it on her arms. “There! Satisfied?”
He moved closer until his face was just inches from hers. “Not yet, but I’m hoping to get both of us there soon.” Then he kissed her lips.
All rational thought fled her. She concentrated on the taste of his lips. He tasted a little like cinnamon and she loved cinnamon. Needing more, she scooted closer and wrapped her arms around his neck, opening her mouth for him. He didn’t hesitate to take what she offered.
Viper pulled her against his body and plunged his tongue into her mouth. The cinnamon taste took on a spicier flavor, and she sucked his tongue, wanting more, much more. But that was not to be.