“You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll give you your script, just as I did when I sent you to him the first time.” He smiled as he patted her hand. “But yes, you may go rest. This conversation will be too much for your… delicate sensibilities.”
She ducked her head once more and slipped from the room. They all burst into laughter as she closed the door—but she saw two of them drinking from their mugs.
For half a second, Karey almost lost her nerve. She almost burst back in, telling them what she had done so they wouldn’t die. Almost.
If they didn’t die, then what they would do to her was worse. What they’d do to Adam was worse. They’d never stop their experiments. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of innocent lives would be lost. There would be a war, and her father would do everything he could to make sure he won. Even if he lost, the effects would be horrendous. How many lives lost? How many families broken up?
No. She couldn’t bring him to justice and every day he was free, more people were suffering. This was the only way.
Her chest still felt tight. Tears still burned her eyes. Doubts crowded in her mind. He was her father. He was her tormentor. He raised her. He beat her. He made her feel like nothing. He didn’t love her and never would love her. He was evil.
Tearing herself away from the door, she headed toward the cells. Toward Adam. If she had any chance at getting him out of here alive, she had to act now.
She wasn’t going to let him down. Not now. Not again. Because it didn’t matter if they were fated mates. It didn’t matter that she loved him—and she did, she loved him more than she knew was possible—but the fact was he was the first person to give her the courage she needed to break away from her father. He was the first person to treat her with unreserved kindness. He was the first person to tell her that the way she was treated was wrong.
And there was no way in hell she was going to leave him here to rot.
Chapter Twenty-Four
A streak of blood smeared the wall from where Adam had repeatedly punched it. His hand ached something terrible, the knuckles open and bleeding. It had been a mistake to injure himself like this, he knew. The betrayal and anger were just so powerful he needed to release it somehow. The rage bubbling through his blood was so strong that he didn’t even feel the chill of the tiny cell he’d been put into. The absence of his fires was a keen, hollow ache in the pit of his stomach, but at least he wasn’t cold.
He leaned his head against the wall, staring at the blank darkness in front of him. How could he have been so stupid? Why would he think that a few months with him would undo a lifetime’s teachings? Was Karey genuine in anything she said and did, or had it all been a lie, trying to get pregnant with his children so she could go back to her father and smugly announce she was carrying dragon’s offspring?
He should have listened to Stephen.
He should have learned from Liam and Eugene’s encounters with the Pack. At least when they were taken prisoner, the rest of the Blaze Ops knew about it. They were able to put together a rescue mission and get them away. Now, it was just him and Karey who knew where they were. Sure, in eight or so hours Stephen would be able to free himself from Fort Stinky Butt and tell the others what had happened.
But would they even come for his stupid ass?
Why had he been so willing to just throw everything away for Karey? At least with Utopia, Liam knew that she was being blackmailed, her young son threatened. With Clementine, Eugene had history with her and couldn’t believe she was a traitor because it didn’t fit anything he knew about her.
But with Karey? She told him she was a virgin and that she didn’t want to be part of the Pack, despite having run back to them when she could have stayed with the Academy, despite going back when she was in nursing school and he believed her. And all she wanted was to have a dragon baby that she could present to her father.
A growl burst from his throat and he punched the wall again, relishing in the throbbing pain that jolted up his arm.
The door swung open suddenly, blinding him as light poured in. He flinched back, snarling under his breath. Then the familiar scent of lavender wafted into him, and his heart jumped to his throat.
Soft hands wrapped around his arm. “Come on! We have to get out of here.”
Adam blinked again as his eyes adjusted to the light. Karey bent half in the room. Her eyes were wide, her face pale, as she tugged on him. Behind her, two guards slumped to the floor, one with coffee spilling all over and the other with a needle on the floor next to him. Karey pulled harder and he emerged from the cell, stumbling as his legs were solidly asleep from being so cramped up.
“I don’t know how much time we have,” Karey continued. “But—”
“But I’m not being suckered in again.”
Adam grabbed her shoulders. He spun her around, pinning her against the wall. Karey let out a short yelp, going rigid. He pressed her firmly into the wall, not about to let her escape. She stared up at him, her breathing shallow, her eyes wide, her skin paling even further.
“Don’t think that I’m just going to believe you after everything you did.”
Karey pushed at him. “We don’t have time for this right now, Adam. We have to get away before they find out what I’ve done or we’re both dead.”
Adam frowned at her. As much as he’d have liked to believe her, there were far too many other things for him to consider. There had been so many ups and downs. What was he supposed to believe, really? She shoved him off her, her cheeks starting to tinge with pink.
“Will you please just listen to me? I don’t care where you take me. You can hand me right over to the Academy and put me on blockers if you think I’m lying, but we have to get going, now!” She stepped down the hall, wrapping her hand around his wrist. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Or do you think staying here and getting put back in that cell or having your head blown off is a better option?”
“You have been lying to me ever since we met,” he snapped back. “How do I know this isn’t a trick to get you close enough to Maura to kill her?”
Karey glared at him another moment before throwing her hands into the air. “Fine! If you want to risk our lives so we talk about this here instead of getting somewhere safe first, fine! I said what I said when my father arrived at the cave because I thought it was the best way to have a chance to get free. I didn’t tell you about what he wanted me to do because I was embarrassed. Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to have your own father dress you up like a prostitute and point you in the direction of someone to seduce them? And we have to go now because I just poisoned him and his Betas, and they’re going to find the bodies soon.”
Her voice broke. Tears glimmered in her eyes. Adam’s own eyes widened. Could she be telling the truth? He opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. He didn’t know what to think. If it was true, then Karey had just single-handedly turned the Pack into a pot of chaos that would boil over and self-destruct.
If she was lying, then fleeing with her could very well put the Academy in danger.
He shook his head, finally allowing her to tug him down the hallway. If she was lying, the least he could do was get out of here. They didn’t have to go anywhere that would put the Academy in jeopardy. There were precautions he could take.
Even if it was a trap, the smart thing to do would be to get the hell out of here before they decided he wasn’t taking the bait and threw him back into that cramped cell.
“Come on,” Karey said, more urgently this time.
Adam shook his head, coming back to himself. He picked up his stride, quickly outpacing Karey. She directed him where to do, moving up the twisting passages. Everything was so quiet it set his nerves on end. When they passed another set of guards passed out with coffee spilled everywhere, he grabbed a gun off one of them.
“Why didn’t I think of this before?” he muttered, pressing a hand to his head. All his thoughts felt slightly muffled, making it hard to get from one thou
ght to the next. Karey peered at him anxiously.
“They must have mixed a slight sedative in with your blockers,” she murmured, reaching up to cup his face in her hands. Her touch felt so good that he leaned into her unconsciously. Once they were away from here, he’d be able to get the answers he needed. And once he had those answers, then he’d be able to know for sure whether she was for real or not. Then he’d know if he could—
A roar echoed down the passage as the doors burst open. The Alpha stumbled in, his face twisted with pain and his eyes blazing with fury. One of his arms was wrapped firmly across his stomach. He slumped against the wall and lifted his gun, firing rapidly at the two of them.
Adam seized Karey and threw her behind him, lifting his own gun at the same time. He called his fires forward—only to be met with a dull freeze. Even as he fired back at the Alpha, a bullet tore through his shoulder. He was thrown back with the force of it, hitting the floor hard as Karey screamed.
Right. The blockers.
He moaned, lifting the gun again. He squeezed the trigger rapidly, causing the Alpha to duck for cover. Karey darted out, grabbing Adam by the shoulders. He grunted in pain as agony shot from his shoulder down his arm.
“You little bitch!” the Alpha roared. “You ungrateful, stupid bitch! I’ve given you everything you have! I was more lenient with you than you deserved. And now you turn on me, you whore? You think I wouldn’t have built in immunity against arsenic?”
Karey trembled, pressing against him. Then she shrieked. “I should have killed you long ago! You and your Betas!”
“And I should have drowned you the moment you were born! I should have strangled your useless mother for giving me a fucking girl instead of someone who would be of actual use!”
Karey pressed her hands to Adam’s shoulder, tears rolling down her face. She met his eye and the pain, humiliation, and regret in them were too much to bear. The fog in his brain stopped him from thinking about how this could still be a trap. He didn’t remember about the tricks and lies she had told before. All he saw were her tears and was filled with the desire to tear apart the person hurting her.
He nearly threw himself around the corner to face the Alpha again, but Karey caught him and held him fast.
“No,” she breathed. “He’s got a gun, and you can’t shift into a dragon.”
“Oh.” Why had he forgotten that?
Adam squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He tried to push aside the fog in his brain and the pain in his shoulder and the roiling rage still rushing through him. He breathed in, breathed out, but the Alpha was still shouting insults and curses and Karey was still whimpering, and all he wanted to do was crush the Alpha between his hands. Rip him to pieces, destroy him for daring to hurt his mate this way.
He swung around even as Karey shrieked and shot several more bullets toward the Alpha, who cursed and flung himself into a doorway for protection.
Adam sought out Karey’s hand. If he or she or both of them were going to die here, there was something he had to tell her. Something she had to know, even if he didn’t know whether he could trust her or not.
“I love you,” he breathed. “And if you’re really genuine about wanting to be free and I mean really genuine, then I’ll be more than happy to die for you today.”
Karey shook her head, her tears increasing. “I don’t want you to die. I’d rather you live and we could never be together than see you die. I can’t…”
A bullet impacted the wall and Adam flinched back. He swung out again, but there was only one bullet left in the chamber; it hit the wall near the Alpha’s head and in response, he drew a second gun; his shot hit Adam’s shoulder again, making him fall back once more. Karey dragged him out of the line of fire. Darkness passed in and out of his vision as he gulped in great breaths. Blood was everywhere. Karey was covered with it as she tried to put pressure on his shoulder.
“I am so very tired of you dragons being blind fools,” the Alpha yelled, getting closer and closer. “If you want to be a dead specimen for us to study, so be it. I’ll snap your neck before I kill my ungrateful daughter. Unless you still want to fuck her and give me dragon grandchildren—then I’ll let her live long enough to see you dead—”
A howling shriek filled the corridor. Adam reached for Karey, but she was gone before his fingers could reach her wrist. She threw herself around the corner, fur sprouting along her arms. Her clothes tore open at the seams as she shifted to her wolf form. Wings snapped open from her back and she let out a long, steady stream of fire. It ate through the air. The Alpha howled in pain as she leapt forward.
Adam painfully dragged himself to his feet. He rounded the corner to see Karey's jaws clamped over the Alpha’s throat. He had taken his wolf form, too, and clawed and kicked at her. She clung on, fur and blood flying through the air.
When the Alpha dropped, Karey released him. She stood there, staring down at her father, frozen. Adam stumbled forward. She flinched when his hand touched her back.
“Don’t think,” he told her, managing to painfully pull himself onto her back. “Just get us out of here.”
Karey stumbled a little but headed for the open doorway. Adam clung to her, everything starting to fade away. The last thing he saw before he blacked out entirely was when he glanced back and saw the Alpha start to stir again.
Damn, he thought, then, at least I’ll be able to kill him myself now.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Karey’s wings ached with every beat. She kept falling toward the spears of trees beneath her, and as much as she struggled to pull herself up, she kept sinking further and further. They weren’t far enough from the compound; if they landed here, they’d be caught again quickly. And this time, she didn’t even have any hopes of being taken alive. If they were caught, they’d be dead.
But the blood soaking her fur and Adam’s increasingly shallow breathing and her own inability to keep going was too much. Despite how close they were to the compound, she had no choice but to lower herself to the ground. The landing was rough, her feet tripping out from beneath her. Adam was pitched off her back and together they rolled several times before they came to a stop.
Strips of cloth still clung to her when she shifted back to her human form. She pulled them off, keeping them wadded in her hand so as to keep them from getting dirty. Adam lay on his back, his hand pressed to his shoulder while he moaned in pain. Karey crawled over to him, peeling his hand away. His shirt was plastered to him with blood and she tore it open to get a better look at what was happening.
Blood oozed from the two bullet holes, but it didn’t look like it was spurting. It was bad, that was for sure. She didn’t think he was bleeding to death, though. At least, not once she got it bound and he stopped being jostled around.
Sweat dewed her forehead as she packed the strips of her clothes against the injury, then bound it tightly with strips she tore from Adam’s shirt. She hated leaving him so exposed, especially when his skin was so cold and clammy, but the blood loss was more worrisome right now than the shock.
“Adam, can you hear me?” she called as she pried his eyes open.
They were slightly unfocused, but he still smiled and chuckled. “I’d know that voice anywhere. Yeah, I can hear you. Are you okay?”
Tears sprang to her eyes. She blinked rapidly, trying to fight them. She couldn’t fall apart now. Adam needed her.
Something rough and dry was in her mouth, but she ignored it until she was certain Adam was going to be okay, at least long enough for her to rest. She needed to get them out of here soon, though. None of the others who’d taken the serum had developed dragon wings as far as she knew, but that didn’t mean they weren’t coming after them.
She plucked the thing from her mouth to find it was a wad of white fur. Instantly, the weak fires brewing in her belly went cold. Her wolf whimpered, leaning against her ribs. Her hands started to shake, and bile rose up her throat. She had thought poisoning her father was hard. She thought that had
left her sick to her stomach.
But fighting him, choking him out with her teeth around his throat, was even worse.
Adam stirred, putting a hand on her lower back, right over her hip. “It’s gonna be okay.”
Karey tossed the fur away, trying to regain control of herself. She wanted to say that she knew it was going to be okay. That they were going to get away and now the Pack would fall apart, and the Academy would be able to apprehend the rest of them. That the pain and suffering were over. That she had done her part, and maybe now she could start to atone for the crimes she’d committed.
But all that came out was a weak, “How? You don’t even believe that I really do want to change.”
“I don’t know what to think because a lot of fucked-up stuff has been happening,” Adam replied bluntly. “And right now, I am hella drugged up and I’m in pain from this gunshot so... I am not in a state to make actual decisions. We need to at least get away from the Pack before I start making more stupid choices.”
Karey’s laugh stuck in her throat and choked her. She wiped the tears from her eyes with her forearm to keep from smearing blood all over her face. “Okay. So where should I take you? You need a hospital.”
“And if the Pack follows us there, it could end up really messy. Civilians would get caught in the crossfire. No. How long has it been?”
It took a moment for Karey to figure out what he meant. Since they left Fort Stinky Butt. She didn’t have her watch on her but looked at the sky, trying to figure out some relative timing. Night was hiding any indications of time. Everything seemed to have happened in such a blur! She didn’t even know where to start figuring this out.
“Um… I think nine hours? I don’t know. I don’t…”
“Which direction have you been flying in?”
Karey looked around again, trying to figure out where she was going. She’d only picked a direction and flew as fast and straight as she could. A crash of disappointment started to clog up her throat. Even trying her best, she was useless at this. If she had any sort of brains, she would have decided a location before she was even fleeing the base.
Dragon's Prisoner: A Curvy Girl Military Romance (Dragon Blaze Ops Book 4) Page 15
