by Riley Storm
“Wouldn’t they be better suited for you?” she asked, finally getting to the heart of her issue.
He laughed even harder. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. But if you had ever met any female dragons, well, you would understand. They are more hard-headed than you. Plus there aren’t many over here,” he added.
“Over here? What do you mean over here?”
“Five Peaks is the smallest of the three dragon enclaves in the world,” he explained. “The biggest is in the Alps, and then another group down in Italy. The vast majority of our kind live in those three places.”
“Oh. I guess I understand that.”
“Yeah.” Pace squeezed her tight. “Besides, I happen to like you, not any of them. Hopefully, that’s not a problem.”
“No,” she agreed. “No it’s definitely not. It might take me some getting used to, what with…everything. At first, I thought it might be, but now, now I’m definitely okay with you liking me.”
She felt him take in a deep breath just before he spoke.
“What about being okay with me loving you?” he said, speaking slowly, hesitating before the last two words tumbled out.
Carla froze. “Are you asking me if I’d be okay with that?” she said very slowly. “Or are you telling me that’s how you feel?”
The pause seemed to go on for ever and ever. Carla pushed back from their entangled bodies, only to find Pace already staring at her, taking her in. Not her body, but her face. The focus was so intense, she wasn’t sure anything would distract him.
“I’m telling you,” he said at long last, both of them exhaling a breath they had been holding. “I can’t hold it back any longer. I just…I just know it, Carla. I can feel it, both parts of me can. You are my mate, and I won’t deny it any more. I want to shout it to the world!”
Carla was at a loss for words. She cared for Pace a lot. More than a lot. That night apart from him after the fire had been terrible. Not just emotionally, but on a deeper level, as if she’d been missing a part of herself somehow.
“Pace, I…”
“You don’t have to say it back, Carla. It’s fine. I love you; you are my mate, I know that.”
“What do you mean by your mate?” she said as his words continued to sink in. “That’s twice now you’ve used that word.”
“So, dragons are like many animals,” he said slowly. “We can have many lovers, but we only mate once. For life. Once we find that person, that one who fits so perfectly with us, we will never be with another.”
Carla licked her lips. “And you think that’s me?”
“No.”
She frowned. “What?”
“Carla I know it’s you,” Pace said, with a mixture of eagerness and excitement that had her own heart stirring in sympathy.
She could see how happy he was telling her this, how it affected him down to his very core. Reaching out, she cupped his cheek, as always surprised at just how warm he was to the touch.
“I love you too, Pace.”
Both of them froze.
Had she really just said that? Did Carla actually mean it?
“That was unexpected,” Pace said, breaking the silence.
“I know,” she agreed, diving deep into her mind, trying to untangle the mess of emotions rushing through it. “And yet, Pace. I’m not so sure it’s wrong.” She laughed as she analyzed herself out loud for him to hear.
“No?”
“Don’t sound so skeptical now,” she said. “This whole thing has caught me off guard. It’s been eight days since I met you. Six since we started working together. Things have just…just flown together, you know, flown by, whatever,” she said when he smirked at her misspeak.
“I know,” he agreed.
“Why don’t you seem so surprised by that then? Why isn’t this as big of a thing to you as it is for me? We don’t fall in love this fast.”
“Maybe you do when you find the right person.”
Carla’s mouth shut so fast her teeth clicked. He had a point. A really, really good point. When the right person came along, sometimes you just knew.
“How do I know that it’s real though?” she asked, voicing her concern out loud. “This is just…it’s so fast.”
Pace propped himself up on one arm to better look her in the eyes. “Tell me you don’t love me.”
“What?”
He bobbed his head at her, urging her to do as he said. “Try it. Say the words.”
She chewed on her lip for a moment. “I don’t love you, Pace.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Bad,” she admitted, stunned at herself. She liked Pace, for sure, but love? Already? How could that be possible?
“Which one felt more like the truth to you?”
“Oh, shut up,” she said, lifting one leg over his hips and rolling herself so that he fell onto his back and she lay on top of him. “You’re just going to start gloating over the fact that you’re right, that I do love your cocky ass.”
“Hey!” he protested.
“What?”
“That’s ‘cocky but firm, taut, slightly juicy, squeezable ass’,” he said, pretending to be miffed. “One might even say round, yummy, urk—”
He was cut off as her hand covered his mouth.
“Pace?” she said in a fake gentle voice.
“Mmm?” he asked from behind his mask.
“Don’t push it.”
His eyes lit up, dancing with humor as she removed her hand.
“Got it?”
“Mm ffhm hffnn.”
Carla rolled her eyes as he continued to act like she was forcing his mouth shut.
“Kiss me already,” she growled. “Then let’s get ourselves in gear and find this jerk before he ruins my career, okay?”
Pace nodded. “Got it,” he growled.
Beside the bed, Barton barked his agreement too.
Carla was eager to explore this new part of her life, but first, she had a job to do, and a bad guy to punish.
It was going to be a long day.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Pace
Carla finished buckling up her vest while he watched and waited at the door, ready to go as soon as she was.
“So how are we going to find him?” she asked. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t kn—”
He was cut off as the hotel door blew inward, ripping the hinges straight off the door as it flew at him. The heavy metal-reinforced slab of wood crashed into him, hurling Pace backward and into the wall before spinning around, one corner of it connecting with Carla. She cried out and was flung to the floor.
Pace heard the thump as she hit the ground, but he was still dazed from the impact. Nothing was quite working properly. He groaned and fell forward out of the wall onto the ground.
“Well that was easy,” a voice growled from the doorway.
Looking up, he saw the face of the attacker. He’d recognize the thick beard and beady blue eyes anywhere. A black baseball cap covered his head, and he was wearing flannel with the sleeves ripped off. Very un-dragonlike attire.
Better to help him blend in around here, a distance part of his mind registered.
Nearby, somebody moaned.
Carla!
Pace pushed himself to his feet. Well, he tried to, but his attacker came over, grabbed him by the neck and flung him through the open door into the bathroom. Glass shattered as he hit the mirror and bounced off.
“Why are you doing this?” Pace snarled, lashing out with a bit of fire, distracting the other dragon from Carla’s prone figure.
He had to keep the enemy distracted, and away from Carla as much as possible. She was only human in the physical sense. Her body couldn’t withstand the fight that was coming. If Pace could just keep him away, then maybe she would survive.
How did he find us here?
Pace hadn’t told anyone where he was staying. Especially not what room. It was viable that perhaps they had been followed
, but clearly his opponent was more wily than he gave him credit for. Pace vowed that was the last time he did that.
“Why?” the unknown dragon said, filling the bathroom door while Pace struggled to stay on his feet. “I’ll tell you why.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that. I didn’t ask the question just to hear myself talk.”
Pace could feel blood trickling down the side of his face from where the door had hit him in the skull. A pounding headache lashed at his mind, making it hard to focus on what the other shifter was saying, but he tried anyway. Something told him it was important.
“The two of you have foiled all my plans. I had them laid out perfectly, but you meddling shits couldn’t leave well enough alone. So instead of continuing with our next plan, I’m here to eliminate you first. That way, it will go off without a hitch.”
There was something about what he’d said that Pace knew should be important to him, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“Pace?” Carla called from the next room.
The shifter turned at the sound, his mouth twisting up in a grin.
“You’re under arrest. Put your hands in the air and don’t move.”
Pace heard the sound of a pistol being cocked.
The shifter looked at Pace with disbelief. “She’s not serious, is she?”
“Deadly,” he growled. “I’d do as she says.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so. Bullets won’t hurt me. Doesn’t she know that yet?”
Carla was first to respond. “They’ll hurt just fine when I put one through your eye,” she snapped.
The shifter’s head whipped around to Pace. “You told her that? Why would you give away that information?”
Pace rolled his eyes. “Really? Good guys,” he said, motioning to himself and his estimated location of Carla in the next room. “Bad guy.”
He pointed at the dragon in the doorway with his middle finger.
“That’s not going to happen. You both die now.”
Pace wasn’t sure what hit him first. The bullet or the fireball. He was positive that the next thing to hit the intruder was his shoulder as he took him in the side.
Roaring, he followed through with the hit as hard as he could, not stopping. The two of them crashed through the wall into the adjoining suite, tripping over the bed, rolling across it and then landing in a heap on the far side.
Pace was on top, and he pulled back with his fist to slam it into his enemy’s face, but a foot in the jaw snapped his head around first and flung him back onto the bed. His enemy was on him in a flash, hands around his throat.
“You know,” Pace said through the choking. “I would normally find this kind of romantic. But there’s a problem.”
“What’s that?” the dragon shifter sneered in his face.
Pace pointed above his head, back through the hole in the wall. “I don’t like being watched.”
The shifter looked up and Carla’s bullet took him in the forehead. Skin split but the bullet just stopped, then fell, bouncing off Pace’s cheek and onto the bed.
He used the momentary distraction to knee his opponent and then throw him into the headboard.
“Get out of here,” he said to Carla. “We tried your way, but now I have to do this mine.”
Then he got hit in the side and rolled off the bed. A fire-covered fist rocketed down at his head. He yanked it to the side and spat a goblet of fire in the other shifter’s face. Grimacing at the bitter aftertaste of the method—a reason it was often unused—Pace went on the attack for the first time.
He hit the other dragon twice in the side, then came up over the top with a forearm to his nose. Pace didn’t stop, punches, a kick to the knee that elicited a howl of pain and another blast of fire right into the other dragon’s face. Pace had him now.
Fiery fists blazing, he swung away, watching the dragon’s skin char and burn. Fire dragons were immune to their own fire, and natural flames, but the fire of one dragon would burn another in time. They were resistant, but not immune to those flames.
Pace was winning, and he knew it. He lashed out harder, driving his opponent back, ready to end this for good. If he could do so without killing the other shifter, great. But he wasn’t going to risk anyone else’s safety.
Sensing an opening, Pace took it, delivering two quick left jabs before lining up his right, a haymaker he hoped to end things.
But his foe had been playing him, waiting for that. Fire blossomed out from both fists where the enemy shifter had held them in tight to protect himself, catching Pace by surprise. He threw up his own hands to block the fire, only to receive a kick in the stomach that flung him back over the bed and through the hole into Carla’s room, where he bounced once, then ended up in a heap back in the bathroom amid the pile of glass.
“I’m going to kill you now,” Pace snarled.
He jumped to his feet just in time to see the other dragon shifter throw himself through an exterior window.
“He’s running,” he remarked mostly in disbelief as he walked out of the bathroom, brushing off shards of glass.
“Maybe we should—I don’t know—go after him?”
Pace glanced to his left where Carla was standing in the open doorway to the hall. “I thought I told you to get out of here?”
“Yeah, and? Do you want to go get him or not?” she snapped.
“Right. We should do that. Come on, my truck’s downstairs!” he exclaimed, pushing past her and heading for the stairs to the ground floor a story below.
“Nope, I’m driving,” she said. “Because this is—”
“Right, right,” he said with a sigh. “Police business.”
“Exactly,” she said, racing past him, keys in hand.
“Finnnee,” Pace said with a shake of his head. Then he lifted a finger in the air and went after her. “To the wee-ooo mobile!”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Pace
Despite his attempt at humor as they went after their suspect who had gotten in his truck and fled the hotel parking lot shortly before they did, Pace was anything but casual about the situation.
He was going to pursue the shifter and bring him down. No matter what it took. All he could do was think about what would have happened if he hadn’t stayed at the hotel. Part of him wondered if their adversary had expected him to be back up in the mountains still. That could be the only reason Carla was still alive.
“He’s headed out of town,” she observed, sirens flashing as they turned onto the national highway and raced after the white pickup.
“Good,” Pace growled, leaning forward in his seat, as if that would make the car go faster. “Just get close to him.”
“Doing my best,” she said, quiet determination inlaid in her voice like steel.
They swerved in and out of traffic, crossing into the oncoming lane and back, staying right on the tail of the pickup. It wasn’t getting away, not this time. Their chase took them out of Five Peaks heading west on the highway that split the town in half.
“He’s going to take this exit,” Pace said, sensing that their quarry wasn’t going to continue running forever.
“How do you—okay,” Carla said as the white pickup did just as he predicted. “Hold on!” she shouted as the truck suddenly whipped back to the left, crossed the yellow line and went onto the on ramp, using that as his escape.
There were no other cars, but Pace was slammed into the door by the unexpected motion. He winced, hissing at the pain. Reaching up to his head, he felt at the wound, and then pulled a sliver of glass from it. It was from the bathroom mirror at the hotel, he realized belatedly. Had it been in there this entire time?
“Are you okay?” Carla yelped when she saw what he was holding.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied. “Just ready to be done with this.”
The chase went on, heading deeper into the mountains.
“What’s the plan?” Carla asked. They had been three car-lengths behind him for ages now. “Cause I don
’t think he’s going to stop. I could chase him until he runs out of gas, but that could be forever.”
Pace looked around. He knew this territory well.
“Just stay on him. When it’s time, accelerate like mad and hit his rear bumper if you have to, but get as close as you can. Got it?”
“Sure. But how will I know?” she asked, glancing over at him.
“You will,” he growled, unbuckling his seatbelt.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Carla yelped.
“Police business. They pay for damages,” he growled, forcing her side door open, and then ripping it free.
“That’s not how it works,” Carla moaned, but Pace was ignoring her.
He climbed out the open door and up onto the roof, crouching low against the wind. Then he began to change. His clothes stretched and ripped, and for a nanosecond he mourned the loss of yet another suit. Then he focused on the truck ahead of him.
“Now!” he bellowed, but there was no need.
Carla was already accelerating as the roof buckled slowly under his increasing weight. The tuned engine roared mightily and they closed distance. On the roof, Pace’s wings spread wide and he prepared to leap forward onto the pickup. His golden scales shone brilliantly in the sunlight, glittering bright in a proud display of his true heritage. He tensed, ready to leap.
The pickup exploded and a coppery-scaled dragon erupted from the cab, shooting backward into Pace who ducked low. Talons sliced down his spine, spilling scales and blood. Pace jumped into the air and flapped hard, gaining some altitude before he could spin around and go after the other dragon.
He was furious now. Inhaling deeply, he spat a cone of fire at the copper dragon who was still righting himself. Wings of light ochre snapped in front of the vulnerable snout, protecting him from the onslaught for the second or two it took for the other dragon to leap into the air.
By this point, Pace had dived past him and was beating his wings hard to come around, knowing his foe would be right on his tail. Glancing back behind him, he banked hard right, just avoiding the firebolt that shot through where he had just been.
Idiot. That was aimed upward! Someone might see it streaking through the sky.
Pace wasn’t sure what had overcome the other dragon, but he had to end it, and now, before things got too out of hand. He twisted and turned, banking hard and beating his wings for as much speed as possible, always keeping in the shadow of the mountain, preventing the two dragons from being in plain sight of Five Peaks. He was already taking a massive risk shifting in broad daylight, but this enemy had to be stopped at all costs.
