Alpha Dragon's Second Chance

by Abigail Raines

  Finally, I inched my way over to the wall just to have something to lean on so I could get my bearings. I was hoping I would also find a light switch if I was very lucky. I could only hear the sound of my own breath and the beating of my heart as I got to my feet and pressed my hands to the wall. It was so disorienting in the darkness. It felt as if the room could tip upside down at any moment.

  “Okay,” I whispered. “Okay…”

  Miraculously, I found a lightswitch. When I turned it on, the light seemed so bright I had to shut my eyes again. It took me a few minutes to adjust and then I stood there, leaning against the wall, getting my bearings.

  Edward’s vault. I’d seen it before. There were some display cases showing off big diamonds and huge gold items like goblets and chains and the walls were lined with drawers and there were big stacks of gold bars along the back wall. It was eerily neat for a hoard really. Hoards were pretty ridiculous as a concept but there was meant to be joy in them. This hoard was cold and kind of sterile. There was no feeling in it. It just wasn’t very dragon-like.

  I stood there for a while, just staring into the room and trying to get my head around this terrible reality. I didn’t know what time it was, and that was bothering me. I had absolutely no idea whether I’d been unconscious for an hour or a day or even a week. It would be easy to fall into a panic. What if whatever he’d drugged me with messed with my memory? What if I’d already come to and he’d drugged me again? I was wearing the same jeans and t-shirt and I didn’t feel much different so probably not. But I hated the not knowing.

  I wasted a long time on tactics to get out that were never going to work. I shifted and hammered at the door. I breathed fire but everything in the vault seemed to be fireproof. All I managed to do was get the room really hot for when I shifted back. I screamed and pounded at the door and bruised my fists and at the end of it, all I had to show for it was exhaustion. I was a sobbing wreck as I curled up on the floor.

  All I could think about was Jude. I wondered if he had any inkling I was missing. I’d left my purse with my phone in it in the sitting room and I remembered now that Edward had said he was going to use it. He’d tell Jude I was fine. But Jude would know somehow. Anyway, it was all I had to count on. That and my somewhat overprotective parents.

  I wallowed for a long time. I lay there, hungry and sweating, and closed my eyes, thinking back to all my best times with Jude. I thought of us flying over Manhattan when we were young and feeling invincible. I remembered early Draceryn Gathers which had always seemed so silly to us even if sometimes the big full grown dragons would fly in loops and do fancy moves and breathe their fire in shapes or bursts of color by means of magic. It had always enchanted us as we watched from the grass, arm in arm, our mouths stained with punch.

  I remembered the bad times too, how I’d had to be the one to break the news to Jude that his mother had died. But he’d told me he was glad it was me. He’d cried so much, I thought he was having an attack. I’d almost called a nurse. But he’s just hung onto me and I’d held him. We’d never really stopped holding each other somehow, even when I went to London.

  “We can get through this,” I said to myself. I remembered what my mother had said about the strength of a mate’s fire. That’s what I had to rely on. Our love was strong enough to take Edward.

  I didn’t know yet, but I had to believe it.

  When I was feeling a little calmer, I sat up and surveyed the vault again. It’s not as if I had anything better to do but try to figure a way out. Even if it was impossible, I did need to keep myself busy.

  I was staring up at the ceiling when I saw the vent. In the corner of the ceiling above a tall shelf there was one vent. The ceiling was really high. I’d have to climb the shelf to reach it but it would definitely tip. Or...I could make a proper hoard out of this junk and pile everything up and then climb that up to the vent. I had already tested the walls and shoved at the ceiling while shifted.

  But maybe my dragon strength could still get me out of here.

  I shifted again and standing on my hind legs, I could easily reach the vent on one of my hind legs. I wouldn’t have been able to fly as the space was far too narrow for me to spread my wings. I managed to hook the edges of my claws into the vent and with one jerk, I tore it right off.

  Nothing exploded and no sirens went off.

  The only problem now was reaching the vent as a human. It was obviously a ridiculously small space for a full grown dragon. So now came the fun part.

  I trashed the place. I figured I’d pile everything into that corner and climb the pile up to the vent. I went to work, staying shifted as a dragon because I was so much stronger that way. It was just a little bit of fun to completely ruin Edward’s vault and break the glass of his displays and rip cabinets out of the walls and throw everything together. It felt a little cathartic.

  It did take me a few tries to get the makeshift hill made of gold and crap just right. I kept shifting into human form and trying to climb the heap, only slide right back down. Then I’d shift again and change it up a little. It was hours before I accomplished it. Or at least, I thought it was hours. But finally I had it. I was sweaty and tired but I was standing on a giant pile of gold treasure and trashed furniture and I was hunched over, high enough that it wasn’t too much trouble to pull myself up into the vent.

  Once I was inside though, I nearly had a panic attack. The passage was so narrow. I had very little room on either side of me or above my head. I had never known myself to be the least bit claustrophobic until now. But as I crawled my way through the tunnel and really with no idea where I was going, I kept finding my heart racing in my chest. I could hardly breathe. I kept having to stop and calm myself down again. What if the vent didn’t let out anywhere? What if it let me out right into Edward’s clutches? What if I ran out of air? It was hard not to be scared, but I kept crawling, taking it a few inches at a time and trying to concentrate only on that.

  But I prayed that Jude was coming for me. We’d always saved each other before.

  Now I needed him more than ever.

  Chapter Fifteen: Jude

  “You have a problem with me?” I said, sighing. “And what would that be?”

  I leaned on the bookcase behind me and slipped my hands in my pockets, raising an eyebrow at Edward who looked about as tense as he had before our fight. But I wanted him to know I wasn’t scared of him or anything. I could take him and he already knew it. I felt it beared reminding and the best way to remind him of it was to treat him like he was no more important to me than a house fly.

  “You’re arrogant,” Edward spat. “Which is curious since you’re nothing but a brainless playboy who’s been coasting on your daddy’s money his entire life.”

  I hated to admit it even to myself, but that did sting a little. He seemed to know exactly what to say to get to me. I was way too sensitive when it came to both my father’s money and relationship with my father at all. If I’d been thinking more clearly, I might have remembered that Edward came from money too. He’d doubtless used his connections to get into the right schools and find the right positions. Maybe he carried himself like he was Mr. Proper but he wasn’t any better than me. Still, it was hard to remember that when he was throwing my biggest insecurities in my face.

  But I tried not to give myself away. I tried to keep my face blank and only said, “Alright. Well, if that’s all you’ve got to say, I guess I should be going. I’m looking for Sierra. I didn’t come here to make you feel better about me kicking your ass in front of every dragon in New York.”

  “Hold on,” Edwad said slowly. “Gosh, Jude. You do bring out the worst in me.” Edward smiled slowly, and he slinked forward. I’d never seen a blonde man in a white suit who looked so much like a snake, that was for sure. “You know, now that I think of it, I did get a text from Sierra last night. Perhaps there’s a clue to her whereabouts after all.”

  “Did you?” I said, rubbing my eyes. “Or are you just giving m
e the runaround. This is serious shit, Eddie. I know you wouldn’t hurt Sierra. But if something’s wrong, I need to know about it.”

  “Let me just find my phone,” Eddie muttered.

  Eddie made a big production out of looking for his phone then and I was starting to get impatient, but now he had me on the book. There was potentially a real clue of his exchanged texts with Sierra. I tapped my foot and hissed in my impatience as Eddie went all the way back to the living room and finally came back with a phone.

  “Are you planning to have children someday?” Edward said when he’d returned with the phone.

  I closed my eyes, seeking patience from somewhere. “Edward-”

  “Just humor me a minute,” he said. He chuckled as if we were old pals. “I’m curious. Do you think about it? I mean you must. What dragon doesn’t want an heir to inherit his hoard and build on it, continue his legacy?”

  “I do...someday.” I shrugged. “I don’t think about it that much. I’m only twenty-four.”

  “It’s so much better to start young though,” Edward said, “It’s so much better to have a son when you’re still young and virile, don’t you think?”

  “I guess,” I said through clenched teeth. “Listen, I know we’ve had our differences but I’m sure you care about Sierra as much as I do and the clock is ticking here, Eddie-”

  “Yes, yes, of course.” Eddie rolled his eyes and I wanted to punch him in the face. He’d healed up from that shoulder injury all too quickly. I should have cut much deeper. Edward fiddled with the phone and then nodded. “Ah, yes. Here it is.”

  Eddie held out the phone and took me a second too long to realize he was holding out Sierra’s phone but now I saw the familiar blue case and the wallpaper of London Bridge. Yet I just kept staring dumbly at the all too familiar texts I’d sent to Sierra and the supposed replies she’d sent back. It was obvious, but I hadn’t expected anything this nefarious from Eddie Didion. I thought his worst crime would be being phony and as stuffy as the stuffiest old shifter at the Draceryn Gathering but now here the evidence was right in front of me.

  “What did you do to her?” I said slowly. It was hard to comprehend after all. I was a dragon shifter, sure. In the old days, maybe I would have thrown down with some dark wizard or battled another dragon for glory (in a way I guess I had) but I had not been prepared for Edward to actually be evil. “What did you do to her!” I moved to shift, telegraphing my intent and that was my mistake. I wasn’t thinking clearly.

  Edward moved so fast I couldn’t even track his movements before I was frozen, unable to move a muscle. I had shifted, expecting Edward to shift to. But he didn’t. Instead he threw a kind of enchanted net he’d been hiding behind his back over me. Some stupid part of my brain imagined I would still be able to breathe fire, and I tried but I found that muscle as frozen as every other muscles.

  The net had me completely still, half hunched, a full grown dragon as silent as a statue. I was completely helpless. But even worse, Edward had Sierra. Now there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t even speak.

  All at once Edward didn’t look like Edward anymore. Or anyway, he didn’t look like the Edward he’d been pretending to be. He had been putting on a careful facade of aristocratic propriety, ingratiating himself in our social circle here in New York, and now I could see how fake it all was. I’d been jealous of him as a romantic rival and I couldn’t say for sure if I’d really seen something off about him or just wanted to because I didn’t want Sierra to be with anyone else, but it wasn’t as if I were happy to be proven right. I was horrified and I was angry, and most of all I was scared.

  What had he done to Sierra?

  “I picked that net up in Paris last summer,” Edward said lightly. He spoke as if we were having a casual conversation. “I was just stopping by from London. Just last year, in fact.”

  That caught my attention and if I hadn’t already been frozen, I might have frozen again. Edward had been in London while Sierra was in London. That couldn’t have been a coincidence. Sierra had been emailing with Edward during that time, but she’d never mentioned meeting Edward before coming back to New York and she would have.

  “That caught you by surprise,” Edward said, laughing. He crouched down right in front of me. Were I not frozen, I would have had him for dinner. I could have taken a bite right out of him or huffed a breath fire that would have burnt him to a crisp. But now I could only stare and I had never felt more entirely impotent in my life. Edward was oily, I realized now, with him sitting so close. He was handsome in an objective way, but up close the true ugliness of his personality shone through. His hair was too slick, his eyes empty of humanity. His once seemingly charming smile now seemed almost painted on. “It would catch Sierra by surprise too. I went to see her in London. But she didn’t see me. I watched her through her window. She had a cute little flat. She kept the curtains mostly drawn but with a good lens I could see her showering, getting dressed…”

  I’ll kill him, I thought simply. I didn’t know how yet. But I would.

  “I had to see her,” Edward said, as if I were arguing with him. “I had a short list of possible dragon women to breed with but she was at the top of my list. Once I saw her, I became obsessed. It had to be her that would breed my heir. I wanted her eyes, her genes… Then I would kill her, of course.”

  No…

  “It would have been so perfect, Jude,” Edward said. He stood again and, as if he had all the time in the world, he went to his little wet bar cart and made himself a drink. He took a sip of bourbon and held up the glass. “Drink? Oh, sorry.” He thought that was very funny, throwing his head back to laugh. He drained his drink and sighed, sitting on his desk. “She was perfect. Is perfect…” His face changed then, from the impassive and empty expression betraying darker depths to a twisted grimace of rage as he sneered down at Jude. “Until you came along.”

  Had Jude been able to speak, he might have pointed out that he had been there first, as far as being a man involved in Sierra’s life, but he was unable to make the case now.

  “The moment I saw you two talking at that charity banquet, I knew you two were in love,” Edward said, his expression darkening yet further. “I knew before you two idiots knew. I should’ve moved faster at that Draceryn Gathering. I should’ve killed you and said it was an accident. I got swept up. That slut just makes me so mad…”

  I prayed for some loophole, some hole in the magic of this enchanted net so that I could move and strike. I’d tear his head off or rip his throat or just burn him up. However it was done, I just wanted him dead.

  “But she’ll get hers,” Edward said, shrugging, suddenly casual again. “I’ve got her locked up in my vault. And she’s never getting out of there.”

  Chapter Sixteen: Sierra

  It was hard not to panic in the maze-like system of ducts and vents in Edward’s house. I had no idea where I was going and on instinct alone, I kept doubling back and turning and then changing my mind again. I was trying to get near the front door and I was able to see glimpses of rooms through vents in the ducts. But beyond that it was guess work. I was trying to get the foyer by the front door or the sitting room that was right next to it. I had been crawling for what felt like hours. Out of fear of being heard, I was being as silent as possible too, which meant I was crawling more slowly than I could have. That was not to mention the intense claustrophobia I kept feeling especially when I thought I had lost my way, certain that I would die in the ducts, finally having run out of air.

  I was crying nearly the whole time. I found it impossible not to think of Jude as I scrambled and struggled to get myself to safety. If I survived this, I was going to marry that man as soon as possible, I resolved. Then we’d honeymoon, and we’d go somewhere good and far away. We certainly had the money for it. I’d take Jude to one of those island resorts with the bungalows standing right in the ocean where the water is crystal clear and you can walk down the stairs right into it. We’d make love like
bunnies and float in the water and shift and fly over the ocean to our heart’s content.

  I wanted it all so badly that I had to stop crawling at one point just to choke back my tears. If I let myself sob, Edward might hear me. I would shift and fight him if I had to but as much as I hated to admit it, I was terrified of him. When I saw a vent up ahead, my heart lifted as it had each time I’d spotted a vent before. I felt a little stupid about it but I was basically living vent to vent and now I found myself praying under my breath to all the gods of men and shifters as I crawled forward once again, carefully and quietly. I squinted down between the slats. I thought I had made it toward the front of the house but the place was big and I know I’d been turned around a few times so really, who knew? I could see a glimpse of a blue chaise in the room below.

  It was the same chaise I’d sat in when Edward had talked to me and drugged me with the tea. That meant it was the sitting room! I was right by the front door!

  I waited at first. I had to be patient and careful. If Edward was anywhere near this room, I was in terrible danger. I held my ear to the vent and closed my eyes, making double sure that nobody was there or nearby. I assumed Edward was still home that I hadn’t been able to sniff him out within the ducts. I think that was down to the way the air was flowing. Even if he wasn’t home, I should’ve been able to smell that he had just been there before; a faint whiff in the air. But there was nothing in the ducts.

  When I was satisfied that the sitting room was safe, I took a deep breath, gripped the sides of the vent and ripped it out if its duct. It wasn’t screwed in which was pure luck. I carefully placed the vent aside and peaked down into the sitting room, my ears perking up, my heart racing wildly. I shifted around and stuck my legs through the opening until I was hanging down and I dropped as silently as I could. It wasn’t as if I’d ever been taken hostage before but it was a strange and terrible feeling to have the sensation of breaking into a place when I was the one who had been taken prisoner there. The sitting room adjoined the foyer where the front door waited. I was not ten steps from freedom when I heard a slight vibration and jumped, spinning around.