“I can’t,” she said brokenly.
He looked resigned. “Then I have no choice.” He stood, and she froze in place as he walked over to her.
“No choice?” She gaped up at him, wondering why he was no longer mad about what she wouldn’t tell him.
He stroked her hair back, lowering his head slightly. “No choice but to love you for as long as I have you.” He moved down until his lips were just above hers. “Is that okay with you?”
She nodded, closing her eyes and pressing her lips to his as an answer. As his tongue stroked hers and the whole world melted around them, she wished she really could stay with him.
Wished there really was a chance.
She pulled back from the kiss and gave him a smile to hide her pain. He didn’t seem convinced, and his hand gently came up so his thumb could stroke over her lower lip.
“If you think I’m just going to let this go easily, you’re wrong,” he said. “We’ll play this game your way. You can set the rules, call this casual. Say we’re only playing around or biding our time. But deep down, you know it’s different. And by the time you are ready to leave, I’m going to make sure I’m the last thing you would ever want to forget.”
She hated that when she looked into his purple eyes, she believed him. It would be a terrible loss.
She ran a hand through his hair and played with the little strays at the bottom of his nape, loving the way his eyes closed whenever she did that.
“All right,” she said. “Do your worst.” She kissed him, and this time, it was her who was voracious, her tongue darting in to twist against his, begging him for more.
He gave it, pleasuring the inside of her mouth expertly as his hands brought her close. His arms were so strong and warm around her.
If nothing bad had happened to her, she never would have met him.
But because something had happened to her, she could never be with him.
It was cruel.
He pulled back, sighing in exasperation. “I have some urgent things to assign in my territory, but I’d love to go on a date with you tonight if you’re free.”
She bit her lower lip. “But he’s out there. What if he—”
“We won’t be at that mall, and he doesn’t own the world,” Chadwick said. “Besides, next time, I’ll be ready for him.”
She wanted to tell him no. To argue. But she knew it was pointless.
Besides, Zareth wasn’t going to come back. He couldn’t want her, not after literally throwing her to the wolves.
She needed to keep telling herself that, even if a scared part of her didn’t believe it.
Everything was too complicated.
Except when Chadwick stroked his hand over her neck and shoulder, soothing her and making her think things could be simple after all.
And nothing was simple as a victim of the fae.
“Do you want me to stay with you?” He looked at the phone. “I just need to call in a job for my blue and black pair or else someone’s going to get kidnapped.”
She shook her head. “I’ll be fine.” She could use some time alone just to rest up and recover from everything that had happened.
Though she woke often seeing Zareth’s face in a nightmare, she’d really been hoping to never see him again.
Chad watched her as she gave him a casual wave and tried to look normal as she left the room.
But she didn’t feel normal at all.
She wished she could tell Chadwick everything. Take him up on his offer. All his offers. It would be amazing to be his mate.
But it would honestly be as good as killing him.
Chapter 17
As they walked outside the restaurant after dinner, Chadwick was surprised by how normal his date with Isabella had gone.
It was still light outside, though the sun was setting, and after hours of good food and conversation, both of them were utterly relaxed.
Now he just had to keep showing her how safe and simple life could be if she stayed with him. That being with a paranormal didn’t have to mean chaos and pain.
Once again, he fought back the killing urge to hunt down the fae who had scared her.
Dammit, a small part of him still wanted the fae to show up so Chadwick could own him with purple fire and solve the whole problem.
But he knew Isabella didn’t want that, so he simply hoped for a peaceful date.
“That was amazing,” she said, smiling up at him as they walked together, her arm cozily around his. “I forgot how nice a regular date could be.”
He frowned because showing her that the human world was more fun wasn’t exactly what he was trying to do. “Regular?”
“You know, outside the mansion. No huge drama. Just us.” She grinned up at him, and he felt that odd warmth sweep through him again, intermingled with feelings he recognized like longing and love.
Trevor was right. It really happened so fast when you figured out who your mate was.
But Chad’s situation was even more complicated than Trevor’s had been.
Damn, that dragon needed to get back from his honeymoon and help out.
“Penny for your thoughts?” She squeezed his arm.
“Oh, I was just thinking that Trevor needed to come back,” Chadwick said. “I hate assigning everything to the other dragons in the area.”
“I imagine,” she said. “It’ll be nice for you when things go back to normal as well.”
It would if it didn’t mean losing her.
“Well, thanks for an amazing meal and an amazing night,” she said, beaming with happiness in a way that made his heart melt. “It’s always nice being with you.”
He laughed because considering how they’d fought like cats and dogs at the start, it was odd to hear her say that. But so right. “It’s always nice being with you too.” He turned her in to face him, pulling her against his chest. “More than nice. Amazing.”
She sighed, and he was about to claim her lips with his own when his phone buzzed, rattling his pocket.
He pulled back with a groan. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to get this. They know not to call unless it’s an emergency.”
She immediately pulled back, flushing, and shook her head. “Of course.”
He smiled at her, appreciating her patience, but the smile left his face immediately as he picked up the phone and heard Jay’s panicked voice on the other side.
“It’s the wrong address,” Jay said urgently, sounding like he was out of breath. “They tricked us. We got the right address out of the perp who did show up here, but all they dropped off was drugs. The trafficking took place across town.”
“What’s the address?” Chadwick asked, quickly moving into action mode.
Jay gave it to him, and Chadwick took a moment to mentally calculate how far away he was.
“I got it,” he told Jay. “Hang tight, and I’ll call you when I’m done. Just in case I need more info.”
“Right,” Jay said. Then he hung up, probably to go help his partner beat down some wolves.
Chadwick cringed slightly as he turned back to Isabella. “Do you mind if we take a slight detour on our date?”
She shook her head. “Of course not.”
“Good,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him as he ran across the road, grateful for the large park on the other side.
When they were in the middle of it, he cloaked because he didn’t need anyone to see his transformation, even though it was a partial one.
He felt his wings sprout from his back and wrapped his arms around Isabella. “Tell me when no one is looking,” he said, staring at the sky.
She glanced around. “No one is looking.”
Chadwick trusted her and pushed off the ground hard, rocketing them up into the air as fast as he could.
When they reached peak height, he let his wings out, which sent them soaring in the right direction.
Isabella gasped a deep breath, then released it, relaxing in his arms. “God, I hope no
one could see a human just shooting off like that. How are you invisible?”
“Cloaking,” he said. “Dragon power.”
“It’s amazing,” she said. “Though, I wish I could see your dragon.”
“I just have wings now,” he said. “Sometimes shifting all the way just doesn’t work with logistics.”
“I can imagine,” she said, still sounding faintly out of breath. “So where are we going?”
“To stop a trafficking operation,” he said. “When we get there, I’m going to set you somewhere safe, and I don’t want you to move. Can you promise me?”
She nodded eagerly. “I promise.”
“I won’t be able to fight if I don’t know you’re safe.”
“I promise,” she said. “But should you call for backup?”
“They’re wolves,” he said, shaking his head in disgust. “I can handle it.” He winced when he realized that for her, wolves must have been quite scary at some point.
But there was no fear on her face as they flew.
“All right,” she said. “I trust you.”
And even though she still hadn’t agreed to mate him, hearing her say that was still the best feeling in the world.
Now he just had to take care of some wolves so he could go home and enjoy the night with her.
Chapter 18
As Chadwick reached an industrial area on the far side of town, Isabella still couldn’t believe she’d flown with a dragon.
It was rundown, filled with old brick buildings and smokestacks.
He flew over an alley and deposited her on top of a building that overlooked it, telling her to stay put.
Beneath, she could already hear voices.
“Be careful,” she whispered, holding his hand as long as she could before he let her go and jumped off the roof.
She heard his thud below her and then swearing. It sounded like a handful of men were down there. And then she heard crying. Like a woman’s voice.
She frowned, creeping along the roof to peek down.
She could barely make out figures in the dim light of the alley, but her eyes were beginning to adjust.
Chadwick was walking forward now, and though she couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying in a low voice, the men he was facing definitely could.
She crept along the roof, unable to resist lowering herself when she got to a half level where that was possible.
She peeked over the roof, now only at the first-story level as she overlooked the alley.
There was a large black bag on the ground on the side of the alley that was farthest from Chadwick.
It was moving.
She heard Chadwick ordering the wolf shifters to hand over their victims and leave and crept along the roof to get a closer look at the bag.
“Help!” a voice screamed from inside, muffled by the thick burlap.
Isabella glanced over to see Chadwick with three of the presumed wolf shifters closing in on him.
For some reason, she wasn’t worried about him, though he was outnumbered. Probably because of what he’d done to Zareth.
She saw a dumpster to the right of her and decided that even Chad couldn’t fault her for just sneaking down to the ground safely while he had them busy.
She waited until the fighting broke out and then lowered herself to the dumpster to the side opposite the fight, closer to the bag.
“Hey,” she hissed. “Don’t make any sound, okay? I’m going to help you.”
The bag stopped moving, and there was a small sniffle.
Isabella sent a look at Chadwick again but then crept toward the bag since it was too big to pull toward her.
It was hard to undo the knot at the opening, and she grimaced at the barbarism with which shifters often treated humans.
“Shh,” she said when she heard muffled moaning. “I’m almost there.”
When she got the knot undone, she saw hair as she pulled aside the burlap. Then a human woman was revealed as she pushed herself up through the opening, taking a deep breath that drew attention their way.
Isabella held her breath as the wolves stopped trying to punch Chadwick and their yellow eyes caught the light as they took her in.
They were still in human form currently, but they didn’t seem very human.
“Get her,” the one in front growled, but Isabella jumped to pull herself up on the dumpster and then reached down to pull the other woman up as well.
Since the other woman was thin and petite, it wasn’t hard. Isabella kicked out to hit one of the wolves in the face as she shoved the woman up to the higher part of roof to get her to safety.
She was about to climb up herself but felt something grab onto her leg.
The man (and probably wolf shifter) who’d grabbed her let out a snarl just before he was tackled by a blur and lost his grip on her.
Chadwick was on the ground now, pummeling the wolf with one hard punch to the face and then another with brutality that was hard to believe if she hadn’t seen it.
She went back to getting on the roof but saw one of the wolf shifters sneaking up on Chadwick, whereas the others were trying to find their way onto the roof to get their victim back.
Sighing, she jumped back down and grabbed a nearby piece of scrap metal she’d seen on the ground when she was letting the woman out of the bag.
The shifter approaching Chad was too busy creeping to notice her when she popped out from behind the dumpster and hit him over the head with it as hard as she could.
He dropped instantly just as Chad stood up off the wolf and looked over at her.
They blankly stared at each other for a moment, and then Chad’s eyes widened as he saw something behind her.
“Get down!” he yelled before he sprouted huge wings from his back, which made the shifters come to a screeching halt as they looked up at him.
Isabella had ducked when he called out and was currently sitting in a ball against the wall of the alley, covering her head.
She’d had enough of being a hero for one day.
Watching Chadwick actually punching someone bloody had made everything real for her.
This was what he did, she realized as she looked up at the woman on the roof, now sobbing in relief that the wolves had stopped climbing up and were facing Chadwick.
“I didn’t want to do this,” Chadwick said. “If you had let me take you in…”
“Ha! How bad could a purple dragon be?” one of the wolves said, letting out a little snicker that the others then followed. “What are you going to do, cover us with sparkles?”
Chadwick’s expression darkened, and he gave his head a small shake as if disappointed.
What happened next would have seemed surreal to Isabella if it hadn’t been so brutal.
The entire alley filled with purple fire, so bright at the center it was white, and it blasted through the shifters, leaving them disintegrating shadows in the blast.
When the fire stopped, they floated to the ground in ashes, losing any semblance of human form.
The night was oddly silent now, the industrial district abandoned, and all Isabella could hear was Chad’s panting and the sobbing of the woman on the rooftop.
With one jump, Chadwick landed on the roof, and Isabella got on the dumpster to follow him.
“You stay down there,” he hissed. “You’ve caused enough trouble already by breaking your promise.”
She pursed her lips, frustrated that he didn’t even notice she’d helped him. “They would have hit you over the head if I hadn’t come down.”
He sent her a sharp look. “I wouldn’t have gotten caught up beating only one of them if he hadn’t touched you.”
They were both breathing heavily. She hadn’t listened to him about staying off the roof, so they were now kneeling and facing each other.
“Um, not to bother you both, but can I go home?” the woman asked.
Isabella frowned, knowing the answer to this question. “You just have to go with us for a li
ttle while. We need to make sure you’re okay.” And erase her memory so she could go back to the world.
Isabella couldn’t help being jealous. This woman was rescued. But she was so happy to have helped and that the lady was fine that she let out a sigh of relief and released any jealousy she felt with it.
Chadwick’s eyes softened as he met her gaze. “I am grateful for your help, Bella.” He turned back to the victim. “What’s your name?”
“Lisa,” she said. “Please, just let me go. I won’t hurt anyone.”
“I know,” Chadwick said. “Listen, no one here wants to hurt you. We just have to make sure you’ll be safe from now on. You believe me, right?”
Isabella awkwardly put her hand on the other woman’s shoulder, wanting to offer comfort. “I was captured by wolves also. Trust me, these guys are the good guys. You’re safe.”
In response, the woman threw herself into Isabella’s arms and began to cry her heart out in relief.
Isabella stroked her hair, just glad that she wasn’t more hurt, and thought about the fact that this was what Chadwick did.
He fought for people like her. He saved people like her, whether through his visions or his own fists or fire.
He hadn’t been able to save Bella, but that didn’t matter. He was still out there, doing his best to mitigate pain.
No wonder he hated when she seemed to not take things seriously.
The truth was she’d been scared when she came to the mansion, and she’d tried to just joke around to hide it. Act like nothing was wrong, and it wouldn’t be.
But being with Chad had slowly pecked at her shell, and she was gradually starting to feel like her old self again.
No, not her old self. Better. Wiser.
Could she really give up all of that by forgetting it? Did she really have any choice?
As she watched Chadwick give other dragons his location by phone, she felt her heart pounding just looking at him.
She loved him. She was sure now. She’d hit a wolf for him. No wonder he was angry. But if he was protective of her, she was protective of him.
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