“You…you terrify me, sometimes.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, hating the way her stomach churned. She couldn’t lift her eyes from her bedspread, even when the yellow fabric began to turn grey and lifeless to her. “I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve panicked when you tried to hold me. I just…I can’t…This isn’t going to work.”
This was never the way she wanted to tell Dillon about her panicked reactions to his protective nature. By the time she finished, he would surely hate her. He would never have to think about her again.
She threw her feet to the floor. “Give Evangeline the spa day that you booked. She’s going to need it if she’s going to become a dragon.”
Tears burned her eyes and seared her cheeks as they spilled down her face. She kept her back to him, so he couldn’t see the truth.
He sat up. She waited for him to say something, anything. Somehow, it hurt more to watch him get up and walk away. He didn’t fight to get the truth out of her. He didn’t even try.
He just left.
Chapter Fourteen
Not a moment went by that Isabella didn’t think of Dillon.
It’d been three days since she pushed him away. She hadn’t seen him once in those three days, and that was not for a lack of trying. She searched high and low for him. At night, she pressed her ear to the wall and tried to listen for the sounds of his snoring in the next room.
Nothing.
The whole cabin seemed hollow. Gavin came and went silently. Erik had taken to sleeping until three in the afternoon and then vanishing. Casey and Evangeline had lives of their own away from the cabin.
Isabella should have thrown herself into writing a new series, but her chest ached. She could barely make herself get out her laptop. She’d gotten a taste of the love like in her stories and then thrown it away. The idea of writing it now sickened her.
She glanced around her room. Everything had gone back into boxes. She felt adrift again, just like when she’d first left Tommy. A bit of her future had become clear while living in the cabin. In the space of one afternoon, she’d shattered that future.
Wrapping her arms around her middle, she apologized to her baby.
Isabella stood up, suddenly annoyed. She would fix this. There had to be a way. She couldn’t let the wills of others keep dictating her life. She’d bent to Gavin and what he wanted, but she knew in her heart that she’d taken it too far.
She needed Dillon back. These three days without him had left a dark spot on her soul that she would never be rid of until she fixed what she’d broken.
How she was going to do that…she didn’t quite know.
It had to start with an apology. That was the only thing she really knew for sure. So long as she could clear the air between them and make Dillon understand that he wasn’t to blame for her panic, then she would be able to rest easy.
She told herself this, though she didn’t completely believe it. She didn’t just want forgiveness. For a while, she’d imagined a future with Dillon. Even if they’d only been daydreams, she still yearned for those visions. She wanted to see him every day, to watch him hold their child for the first time and see the love in his eyes.
She would have none of that if she couldn’t take the first step, though.
***
Dillon flew above the clouds. He’d been warned to stay out of sight of the town, but he’d become restless since Isabella’s confession. With nowhere to direct his energy, he’d taken to the sky. The roaring winds in his ears and the seemingly infinite space beneath him calmed him, but only by a fraction.
His beast still wanted to roar with frustration. To the beast, Isabella would always be their mate. Yet, even their mate lived in fear of him.
He’d thought he could be himself around her, but he’d been wrong. She couldn’t see who Dillon truly was, only the monster his genetics had made him out to be. How had she kept from screaming every time he touched her? How had she felt when he brought her to climax?
Had it all been a lie?
He wanted to scream, to break something, to watch the mountain crumble under the force of his rage. Now, he understood how Gavin might have felt when Tiffany left him. Dillon knew why Gavin had taken off. He debated it for a short while, but this small clan still needed him.
Dillon would never abandon them. He would remain loyal to the end of his days, even if it meant giving them everything and getting nothing in return. That was his curse. Dillon would remain empty and lonely for the rest of his days.
He dipped his wing through a cloud and felt it drag against him. The cool moisture tried to relieve the heat growing in his chest, but it wasn’t enough. Not even a cloud could douse his fire. It hadn’t stopped burning since the day Isabella confessed her fear to him.
What could he do? Release the fire onto the mountain? Someone would notice. A wildfire would break out. Dillon didn’t want to become any more of a problem than he already was. The clan needed him. He had to behave.
He turned back toward the cabin on the side of the mountain and glimpsed something in the sky above it. At this distance, Dillon could make out the shape of a dragon, but couldn’t see the color of its scales. His first thought was of Gavin, making Dillon’s beast gear up for a fight. Then he wondered if it was Erik.
Dillon sighed and headed back.
***
Isabella marched outside. She stomped up to the small grove with the picnic table and cupped her hands around her mouth. Dillon had to be somewhere around here.
She called his name, shouting into the sky. He would hear her, and he would show his face. If she felt the way she did for Dillon, then the chances were that he felt the same for her. They had a bond, one that would pull them toward each other no matter where they went.
A part of her wanted to call it a mate bond, but she wasn’t convinced. Were she truly Dillon’s mate, she never would have been so horrible to him. This wasn’t the kind of love that Evangeline and Casey had, but it was still love.
“Dillon!” she shouted. “We need to talk. I know you can hear me. Come over here so we can talk this out!”
She spun in a circle, checking the woods, the sky, and every other direction. He would come. He had to. If he heard her…he would come.
But the moment stretched on, and she began to worry that Dillon was well and truly done with her. He’d ignored all her texts and voicemails for the past three days. She shouldn’t have expected this to go any differently.
She put one hand over her mouth and another over her stomach as she choked back a sob. She’d ruined everything. Her life had been great. She’d been so happy, and yet she’d thrown it away over a few words.
A shape appeared in the sky, growing closer and closer by the second. Her heart tripped over itself. She’d never seen any of the dragon men in their dragon forms. It hadn’t occurred to her that they would be the size of houses, or that she would feel a trickle of fear upon seeing them approach her.
She told herself that it had to be Dillon. While she’d never seen his dragon form, she couldn’t think of who else would answer to her calls for him.
The beast hit the edge of the cliff that hung over the cabin roof. His tail slapped the house as he turned a predatorial grin on her. This dragon had a sleek muzzle lined with tiny horns. When his lips parted, she saw rows of razor-sharp teeth like a shark.
It took only a heartbeat for her to realize this was not Dillon.
She took a step back. Fight or flight had misfired, and she was left with shock. It numbed her from head to toe before her body flooded with the cold of true fear.
The dragon before her shrank into a human shape. An unfamiliar human shape. Isabella blinked and prayed this was Casey’s sister, but the form that appeared was definitely male.
“Aren’t you a pretty little thing,” the man purred. “I’m sorry if my landing frightened you. My beast can be a little…overwhelming.”
The clan hadn’t mentioned inviting anyone else to their cause. They
had, however, warned that Zander would keep sending dragons after them. She’d gone outside to find Dillon and walked into a trap.
“If you take a step closer, I’ll call…” she faltered. Her first instinct was to call Dillon, but it was painfully obvious to her and her uninvited visitor that Dillon was not answering her calls.
“Ah,” the visitor said. “So, I take it that means no one else is home? That means they won’t mind if I take you out. They shouldn’t leave such a pretty lady all on her lonesome all day.”
Though his words seemed kind, there was an edge to them. She’d never had a blade held to her throat before, but she figured it must have felt something like this. The dragon man on the edge of the cliff could move faster than her. If she tried to run, he would catch up to her.
She didn’t know if this man would hurt her, but she couldn’t take the risk. Her body was not completely her own. There was another life inside her that she had to put first.
“What do you want?”
“I thought I made that clear,” he said, casually stepping closer. “You and I are going to take a little trip out on the town. I’ll make sure you have everything you could ever want, but you won’t be able to contact your friends here. I’m sure you understand. This is war, after all.”
She swallowed.
Before she could find a way to leave a note or a warning, the man lunged. His form shifted mid-leap. Air blasted her from the sudden change. She threw her hands up to shield her face, so she didn’t see the beast when it reached for her.
Claws wrapped around her middle and her feet lifted from the air. Her heart went into overdrive. As they ascended, she gasped for air, but she couldn’t pull any of it in. It was as if the very air was being ripped away from her.
Only when they stopped rising and the dragon coasted on the air could she breathe again. She gulped down mouthfuls and tried to ease her frantic heart.
Isabella regretted being unable to warn the clan. She didn’t want them coming for her. This man had taken her hostage, but it seemed like he didn’t want to hurt her. Taking her was probably a way to intimidate the clan. If only she could have found a way to warn the others that she would be fine, then this man’s plan would fail.
But she couldn’t lie to herself. If this man’s plan failed, then there was a chance he would resort to hurting her. She had to find a way to escape him on her own.
Chapter Fifteen
Dillon pulled his wings into his body, but even that couldn’t make his bulky form fast enough to catch up to the dragon ahead. He recognized the scent on the wind as a dragon from Zander’s clan. The dragon had landed near the cabin and then lifted back into the sky barely a minute later.
Dillon’s only thought was of Isabella, still in the cabin even though she’d told Gavin she would move. If the dragon had done anything to her, Dillon would make sure the dragon would never fly again.
He gave up on trying to be sleek and pumped his wings with all the power of the hot rage simmering in his chest. Dillon’s dragon was bulky. It was made for taking enemies down quickly and holding ground against attacks. The dragon ahead had been sent because its form was built for speed.
His confidence wavered until he saw a small form in the dragon’s grasp. Isabella waved her arms. Alarm surged through Dillon. He tried to fly harder, faster. He needed to get to her, but he began to realize that she was not waving for his attention.
Isabella’s gesture told him that she wanted him to back off. She pushed her hands out then pointed down at the cabin.
He realized that she would not withstand an aerial fight. Humans could heal broken bones, but if she lost the baby, she would never be able to get that little soul back. He knew just how badly she wanted the child. It was her reason for moving forward. Dillon couldn’t risk her and the child.
Against his dragon’s will, Dillon turned back toward the cabin. He slammed into the ground, his beast folding back, so he could pummel the earth with his fists. The ground folded beneath his fury, but it did nothing to make him feel better. Trapped inside Dillon now, his beast thrashed.
It told him to track her down, to do anything to get her back. She was their mate. No one else meant as much to him. Dillon reasoned with the beast, but the argument made him stagger as he got to his feet. He felt pulled in all directions.
On one side, his anger and honor told him to go after. On the other, logic kept him rooted to the ground. Dillon grasped the sides of his head and fought the beast back until he could find a moment of silence.
His first move should be to call everyone. He didn’t belong to a clan so he could babysit their asses all the time and get nothing in return. They were a family, so they could protect one another.
Dillon stumbled into the house while his beast fought against him. Its only thought was of Isabella. It chanted her name, the sound growing deeper and more desperate by the moment. Dillon ran past Isabella’s room and into his own so he could grab his phone from the nightstand. It had a dozen texts and missed calls from her.
His stomach dropped. Guilt tried to take its place, but he shoved it aside to focus on the task. He fired a message to Casey before calling Gavin. Casey would forward the message to Erik once he got it.
The phone rang. His heart refused to beat as he waited for Gavin to answer. For a minute, Dillon thought Gavin would ignore him—or that Gavin had lost control to his beast again even though it’d been a while since Dillon had to track him down.
“What do you want?” Gavin breathed into the phone once he finally answered.
Dillon snarled. “Nate is in town. He took Isabella.”
Silence made the line buzz. Then, Gavin hissed and hung up. Dillon had thought that Gavin would want more information, but that seemed to be enough.
Dillon’s dragon told him that the need to be human was now over. The beast pressed against the inside of Dillon’s skin, making him feel as though he would burst. He ran back outside and scanned the skies, wondering if more dragons would come.
Just as he was about to unleash his wings and let his beast take to the sky again, his phone screen lit up. An incoming call flashed Nate’s name. Dillon hadn’t even realized he had Nate’s number in his phone. They’d been in the same clan; it shouldn’t have been surprising.
Yet, Dillon had never interacted with Nate. The wide berth everyone had given him had made him feel alone and empty. The threads that had bound Dillon to his own clan had trapped him in a cage. He wasn’t that trapped beast anymore. Dillon was a man with a family and a clan to protect.
“Give her back,” Dillon growled the second he answered the phone.
Nate laughed. “It’s good to hear from you, too. You know, we’ve missed you back home. Everyone has been asking when you’re coming back.”
“There’s no point in lying,” Dillon said. He knew better than to think anyone in that clan had thought of him once he left. If anyone mentioned Dillon’s name, they wouldn’t have remembered who he was.
“I was trying to make you feel better,” Nate said. “If you don’t want to play nice, you don’t have to. Don’t worry, though. I’ll be a good boy. Your lady friend is unharmed. I’ve got her sitting pretty with a room service menu and all the television channels she could ever want.”
***
While the visitor wasn’t lying, Isabella held back the urge to chuck the room service menu at the man’s head. She could hear Dillon’s voice on the other side. She hoped her mate would stay smart and wait for her to escape.
She glanced around. It couldn’t be that difficult to get out of a hotel room. Right?
She only had to wait for the dragon man to leave so she could sneak out and run back. She wouldn’t run all the way back to the cabin. That would leave her vulnerable and out in the open for too long. Isabella had other options. Evangeline’s shop wasn’t far. If Evangeline wasn’t there, then Nellie would be. Nellie would be able to hide them both.
Then Isabella would be able to call Dillon and tell him that she w
as safe. He would come and pick her up from the shop and protect her.
But how could she protect them?
She ran her finger over the sharp laminated corner of the menu as she watched the stranger. The man hung up the phone and shoved it into his pocket as he shook his head. When he turned back to her, there was a soft smile on the corner of his mouth as if he found this to be all fun and games.
“Why do you care if these men get on with their lives?” she asked. “They’re not doing anything wrong out here. Just go home and leave us alone.”
He raised a brow, his expression telling her that he thought what she said was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. “You haven’t met my boss. If I don’t get Gavin to head home and face his punishment, then I have to face that punishment.”
She knew this wasn’t about a father wanting to spank a petulant child. Zander hadn’t bargained with his son to bring him home. The man hadn’t even tried to reason with Gavin. If anything, she could tell that Zander was threatened by Gavin. Zander wanted to wipe his son off the face of the earth for simply being the better version of himself.
“Why give power to a man who will treat you like that?” she asked. “Even I know when to leave an abusive relationship. If you stick around a man like that, he’ll end up being the death of you.”
“You really think escape is that easy? Another dragon tried to escape three years ago. Zander brought us the dragon’s horn and threw it at our feet to show us what happened to traitors. That man died. Now Gavin is courting death, too.”
Isabella swallowed. This guy didn’t seem awful. If anything, he was scared.
She straightened her spine. “I hope you know Gavin doesn’t care about me. Just because I was at the cabin doesn’t mean I’m important.”
The man tapped the phone in his pocket. “It’s too late to try that tactic. Dillon already gave himself away. That man is head over heels for you. I’d say congratulations, but Dillon won’t fare much better than Gavin once everyone is brought home.”
Finding The Forgotten (Rogue Dragons Book 2) Page 11