by Abigail Owen
Brand ignored the scowl. “We have a narrow opportunity here. One that can fix the problem for both of us.”
“How?” One word, growled low. Ladon’s dragon was close to the surface. Again. The guy had serious control issues. Not that Brand could say anything about dragon control.
Brand had only a few more minutes, maybe even seconds, to convince him. “I kill Uther.”
Ladon’s eyes narrowed to blue glowing slits. “And, other than making my day a little happier, that helps both of us how?”
Brand raised an eyebrow and waited. He’d already told Ladon his name once. He wasn’t going to do it again.
Thick black eyebrows raised as realization dawned. “You were serious?”
As a drug lord with a habit.
“Dagrun,” Ladon finally said, doubt lacing every syllable. “As in the previous ruling family of the Gold Clan?”
Brand didn’t back down, standing on the truth. “I told you I had more reason to hate Uther than anyone.”
“You’ve been dead for centuries.”
“A little over five centuries,” Brand pointed out with a grim smile. The same amount of time since he’d come here begging the previous king, Thanatos, to take him in.
Ladon leaned back and gave a low whistle. “You want the gold throne?”
“I was born for that throne.” He might have been born to it, but after Uther he hadn’t wanted it. Not until Kasia.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Brand stared him down.
Ladon’s lips flattened, forbidding reality staring back from those eyes along with a wealth of weariness after only a few years of leading himself.
“You’re doing this for Kasia?” Ladon asked.
“It’s complicated.” Because Kasia wasn’t the only reason to try to take back the throne, but she was the only reason that mattered.
“Good.” Ladon let that one word hang, and Brand got the message.
Heavy the crown and all that bullshit. Yeah. He knew. Better than the young king before him, even.
“What’re you thinking?” Ladon asked.
“I kill Uther. We form an alliance. With your help, I take back the gold throne. With my help and my phoenix, you keep yours. At the very least, killing that bastard should get you back inside Ben Nevis. They won’t hold it without a king and may even follow me if I show up with his head and my brand marking their hands.”
Harsh words. Brand waited for Ladon to try to ram them down his throat. Instead, Ladon smoothed a palm over his jaw, the rasp of skin against the stubble of his beard loud in the heavy silence surrounding them. Ladon’s men didn’t move by even a twitch of a muscle. “You kill Uther.”
“He killed everyone I ever loved and took away my home, my clan, turning dragon shifters against me.” Brand’s voice dropped as his dragon pushed to be out, riding the wave of helpless fury that Brand had buried long, long ago. “And the new king must kill the old, or it’ll never work. You know that.”
A king became king either by killing, or by the old king deliberately stepping down and choosing his successor.
“What about High King?” Ladon asked.
Brand grunted. “No one gets that title until the clans live in peace, right? Let’s take this one step at a time.” Because he sure as hell didn’t want that dubious honor.
Ladon tipped his head back as he considered the ramifications. Suddenly, he relaxed, blowing out a long breath. “You know the first time I met you I thought you were an arrogant asshole.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“One who could get shit done, even when you were ten.”
Brand tipped his head. “And I’ve proved that.” So if he said he’d kill Uther, he’d do it. Or die trying.
“You have.” Ladon huffed a laugh. “I also thought that if anyone would take my crown, it would be you.”
Those words, from a man who’d had his loyalty even when Brand didn’t realize it himself, were like a fist rammed into his gut. “Then why make me a leader in your guard?”
Ladon’s lips tipped up. “Ever hear the phrase, keep your friends close…”
“…and your enemies closer,” Brand finished for him. “Cliché, but apt.” He shook his head. No wonder Ladon’s men had continued to test him. “I was never your enemy. I don’t intend to start now.”
“No.” Ladon stepped closer. Brand watched him warily but did not prepare to defend himself, keeping his stance loose. He’d take whatever decision the king made.
“I accept.” With a harsh laugh, one full of cynicism, he clapped Brand on the shoulder. “You’re all sorts of fucked up. Over a woman no less.”
Well, holy shit in a handbasket. He hadn’t expected that to actually work. “I’d like her to stick around. Mind if we go save her now?”
A dark light lit Ladon’s eyes. Brand had seen that look before. Bloodlust.
The other dragon gestured down the hall. “By all means.”
Brand limped off up the tunnel leading to the exit, Ladon striding beside him, his warriors behind them. He’d just have to heal on his way.
“Don’t forget,” Ladon tossed over. “Uther has a son.”
“Brock?” All that came with those words was purpose. “I’ll kill him, too, if he gets in my way.”
XVI
Kasia stood on the gray granite peak of a mountain five miles from where her vision told her she’d find the wolves. Just a small peak, but enough to give her a good vantage point to teleport.
She glanced at the hellhound at her feet. Granted, even lying down, his back still came up waist high. The sound of his panting joined the rustle of the wind through a copse of aspen trees not too far below. Teleporting this far, this fast, had taken it out of him, and he had to rest longer between each leap.
“You have to stay here, Maul.”
He lifted his head from his paws and made a small chuffing sound, red eyes glowing. Then he lumbered to his feet, exhaustion evident in every move.
Kasia leaned into him, rubbing his shoulder, her palm tingling from the bristled texture of his fur. “I can’t take you in there with me. The wolves won’t like it, and I need to go in without them feeling threatened.”
Maul shook his massive head, his jowls flapping.
“No choice, buddy, but I’ll come get you when I’m done.” She’d figure out what her next step was from there.
Instead of responding, Maul tensed under her hand, his muscles bunching. He lifted his head to the air, sniffing.
“What is it? The wolves?” She thought they’d stayed out of the zone where the wolves might smell them or sense their presence.
Maul cocked his head. Why wasn’t he growling?
“Not wolves.” Brand’s voice sounded softly from below her, rather than above, where Maul had been looking.
Kasia sucked in a sharp breath and whirled to find him leaning casually against a pine tree a little way down the slope of the mountain from her, arms crossed, feet linked at the ankles, and an expression she couldn’t identify.
Too many thoughts smacked her in the solar plexus at once. Mostly the question of what to do about his presence. She couldn’t go to Angelika with him on her tail. Underlying the practical, an ache that formed in the center of her chest—as the tug on her heart that always happened when she got anywhere near his lying, arrogant ass—hadn’t gone away like she’d hoped it might.
Kasia ignored the tug and aimed a glare at him that should’ve skinned him alive. “What are you doing here?”
His expression shifted, but she didn’t catch the emotion flashing in those golden eyes. Brand levered off the tree. “I’m protecting my mate.”
“You used me,” Kasia spat. “Another man can’t have me, but I refuse to be your mate.”
Brand froze, jaw clenched. But he didn’t seem surprised.
Another piece of her heart shattered. She was right. “Feel free to go crawl back into whatever hole you came from.”
Brand held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. She almost expected him to treat her like a spooked horse and say, “Easy.” Instead, he took two steps closer. “I can’t leave you. You’re my ma—”
“Stop calling me that.” Kasia couldn’t go anywhere. A wrong step could have her tumbling down the rocky face of the mountain that dropped sharply away behind her. She stoked the fire inside her that would allow her to teleport away.
“No.” He spoke the word softly, and her insides quivered at the refusal to leave her. Where was the bullying, brutish, easily irritated man she’d been dealing with all this time? She was prepared to deal with that guy. Not this calm, sort of knowing one.
He took another few steps forward.
Kasia tipped her chin up and snapped her fingers, letting him see the flames dancing from her fingertips.
He shook his head, gaze never leaving hers. “I’ll only follow.”
Kasia’s jaw ached from clenching her teeth together. “I won’t be used.”
She’d seen his story in those visions. She knew the motivation driving his actions, and she was merely a pawn in that bid. Hadn’t Hershel warned her of just that?
Brand frowned, and she told herself the confusion darkening the gold to amber in his eyes was all a show. “You think I used you last night?”
Kasia gathered her anger and hurt and heartbreak around her like a cloak. “I had a vision. I saw what Uther did to your family.”
That stopped him. Brand pulled his shoulders back. “And?”
Are you kidding me? “All I am to you is a tool to get you on your throne. The ultimate revenge, right? To become High King? You can stop the Neanderthal ‘you’re my mate’ bullshit.”
Now Brand scowled. “It’s not bullshit. It’s fate.”
“Fuck fate.” She flung the words at him with all the force of a cannon.
Brand went dead still and dropped his head, hands on his hips, staring at the ground. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear pain had lanced across that usually stony face of his and defeat weighed on his shoulders. She took a breath and hardened her heart.
Lies and schemes. She couldn’t trust him…or her damn heart.
After a long moment, Brand lifted his gaze. “It’s not bullshit.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Dammit, Kasia. I mean it. I love—”
He stopped mid-sentence as she slammed up a hand.
“Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare,” she choked. She gave an inward wince that her voice refused to come out stronger.
Beside her Maul shifted and gave a small whine, bumping her shoulder with his snout. Kasia put a hand on his neck, curling her fingers into the fur, trying and failing to find comfort.
Brand stared at her long and hard, jaw working. Then he rolled his shoulders and gave a jerky nod. “You’re not ready. I get that.”
“I’ll never be ready to believe anything you say again.”
Dead calm wiped every other emotion from his eyes. “I understand.”
He was going to give in? Let her go? The five feet separating them might as well have been the Grand Canyon.
“But I’m not letting you go into that wolf shifter camp alone.”
Shock followed that moment of weakness that had nearly driven her to ask if he was giving up so easily. “How did you know?”
“Video feed from my place.”
“Ah.” How did she save Angelika now?
“Let me help you.”
He couldn’t have shocked her more if he’d slapped her. “Help me? With wolves? Why would you do that?” She expected him to make sure she wasn’t damaged or try to make her come with him, yes. But help her?
His lips quirked in that familiar cockeyed smile, though a sadness now tinged it. “You won’t let me say why.”
Don’t let yourself get sucked into the charm.
Brand and charm in the same thought. She was losing it. “The wolves won’t want you there,” she pointed out.
“Too damn bad.”
Shit. He wasn’t going to back down on this. Of that, she had no doubt.
“At least let me go ahead and smooth the way,” she said.
And get Angelika out of sight, not that they looked anything alike. But her sister didn’t smell like a wolf shifter, and Brand’s sense of scent would pick that up in a nanosecond.
“I’ll give you ten minutes. Then I’m coming in.”
“You and none of the others, right?” She hadn’t missed how Maul kept glancing to the sky. Besides, she could feel them now, the dragons, sense their presence in some weird way. “Who’s up there, anyway?”
“Ladon, Duncan, Reid, Wyot, Fallon, and a few others. Asher stayed behind to watch over the clan.”
Ladon. Figured. The two had certainly put on a show, fooling everyone around them. “I’m surprised he didn’t kill you, taking away his chance to be High King and all. What’d you do? Flip a coin to decide who got me, and you won? Promise him all the Gold Clan’s wealth?”
“I claimed you, and you chose me.”
“Forget it.” She held up a hand, already regretting going down that conversational path. “Ten minutes, then only you. Right?”
“To start with, yes, just me.”
That was the best offer she was going to get, and she knew it. “Fine.”
“Fine.”
She glared for a moment longer.
Brand lifted one eyebrow. “You’d better get going…mate.”
If she threw a rock at his head, would he get the message? Rather than give in to that childish urge, she turned her back to him, facing the direction of the wolf shifter camp. Closing her eyes, Kasia allowed the fire from her fingertips to spread over her body. She pictured the town she’d seen in her vision, in particular, the grassy field over which several stone and wood buildings were dotted. Then she let go. A beat of silence and darkness as she pulled her body through the blank landscape that existed between the planes of the physical and spiritual realms.
She opened her eyes to find herself hovering over the grass. Gently she lowered, turning off the fire with a thought, the flames slithering back into her skin as she dropped gently to the ground…to face a crowd of wolf shifters in varying forms—both human and animal, all with their teeth bared, hackles raised, ready to defend their people against this threat. Not exactly her idea of a fun time. Please let someone keep them from ripping me to shreds.
“Peace. Everyone calm down.”
She would recognize that gravelly voice anywhere, even though she’d heard it in her head only that one time.
Bleidd. The leader. Alpha of this pack. In human form, the man appeared older, with dark hair graying at the temples and a gray beard. He moved like his animal, all predatorial grace.
Excellent. She wouldn’t have to waste time explaining who she was to some overzealous guard. The crowds parted to let Bleidd through, and she moved forward to greet him. Unsure of the protocols, she held out a hand to shake. “I’m sorry for appearing so suddenly.”
He encompassed her small hand with his own—his skin warm and rough. “I assume you have a good reason.”
Straight to business. She liked him more already. “We need to get Angelika out of here. Now.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“Dragons from the Gold Clan are on their way. I saw them in a vision.”
“Do you want to see her?”
More than anything in the world, but Kasia forced herself to shake her head. “There’s no time. My…bodyguard”—because to hell with calling Brand her mate—“is right behind me, along with members of the Blue Clan. They’ve come to help.”
Bleidd didn’t even blink. He turned and looked
to a stocky man, all muscle and grit, with red hair that sported a white streak by his temple. The rust-colored wolf from the woods?
“Tell Jedd,” Bleidd ordered.
The red-haired man pivoted and stalked through the crowd, who skittered out of his way.
Bleidd turned back to her. “Anything else?”
“Brand is a gold dragon, but he’s with me, and he will have a hellhound with him.”
He gave his head a shake and huffed a laugh. “A dragon and a hellhound are coming to help a pack of wolf shifters? There’s got to be a punchline in there somewhere, but damned if I can see it.”
She didn’t have time for humor. “Don’t kill the dog.”
Bleidd raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment further. They waited in silence, Kasia looking to the sky. She wouldn’t call Brand, needing to give Angelika every second to get clear. As they stood and waited, more men arrived, gathering to stand behind their leader. She thought she recognized the one with brown hair, his nose slightly askew.
The red-haired man strode back into view and murmured in Bleidd’s ear. Bleidd looked to her.
“She’s safe?” Kasia asked.
Bleidd nodded.
“Good. Don’t tell me how or where.” She couldn’t know, not with dragons surrounding her.
Bleidd’s eyes softened, almost like he understood what she was getting at. Kasia’s job was to protect her sisters. She’d been found, and that had set her life on a path that could no longer intersect with theirs. If they were safe, then she’d done her duty. That’s what love did. Love was about sacrifice.
Not like Brand. Not taking. But giving.
“You look nothing alike, if you don’t mind my saying.”
Kasia smiled and tried to keep it from being a watery one. “I know.”
“Hope you’re ready.” Brand’s voice interrupted the moment and allowed her to suck those unshed tears back in.
“He’s here,” she said to Bleidd.
“Clear the green.” He put out his arms and backed up. All the shifters around them did the same.
Only the sudden violent bending of the trees warned them of the dragon coming in low and fast, and then Brand appeared. Several people around her dropped to the ground, instinct of avoiding a large predator kicking in. Brand swooped overhead, then pulled up sharply, seemed to float for a moment, golden wings stretched wide and shimmering in the late afternoon sunlight, before he landed nearly silently. Immediately, he started to shift, his body compacting back down to his human form.
