by Dahlia Rose
“You didn’t almost hit me. It was him that was going to get hit. I have great reflexes, and it seems you do too,” Hawke replied. “Raven, I presume.”
She nodded. “I am, and I assume you are Hawke and she is Daisye, but I don’t know the other two.”
“That’s Aki,” Hawke said.
Raven held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“I’m honored.”
The very tall man with black straight hair pulled into a long braid down his back stepped forward and shook her hand. At the end of the braid she noticed something glinting in the light. Aki noticed her staring and flipped his long braid over his shoulder to show her the end. There was a series of very thin, sharp blades braided into it.
“My hair is not just to be aesthetically pleasing but to be used as a weapon as well,” Aki explained.
She touched the tip of one small blade carefully and smiled. “Our worlds are intermingled. I’ve studied Asian cultures incorporating this into martial arts.”
Aki nodded and gave her a small smile. “Dragons have been around for a long time.”
Raven couldn’t help but laugh. Dragon myth has been around for hundreds of years; she was seeing now that her studies could have been more fact than lore all along. Dragons probably helped to shape world cultures more than she realized.
“This redheaded brute is Lleau,” Hawke said, introducing the man with the vibrant blue eyes.
He bowed low and behind him his companions all rolled their eyes, including Daisye. “Raven, none so fair should have a name that describes the darkest of nights.”
“Maybe I have a black heart,” Raven commented casually.
He gasped and then winked. “I’ll be the first to share it if you allow me to.”
“Cool your jets, hound dog.” Daisye stepped forward and slapped him away. “Shoo. She belongs to Raul.”
“And I’ll fight for what’s mine,” Raul said.
Everyone turned at the sound of his voice. He walked further into the room, draped in his black robe edged with golden dragons. Her heart jumped at his words and at the sight of him. His hair was misted with rain and his face had a sexy wind-whipped glow.
“Ah, you lay claim to her?” Lleau asked.
“In a way, we lay claim to each other,” Raul replied and changed the subject abruptly. “I think I found the Shen cell stronghold.”
“Where, exactly?” Hawke asked.
“An old lead mine south of our position, and, before you ask, no, I was not seen, but I saw their movement from the sky,” Raul replied. “I landed to take a look from the ground and there should be nothing in that area since its overrun by vegetation. It looks like they cleared a lot of it away recently. We need to go in while they are unaware.”
“Not yet. We need more reconnaissance on the area,” Hawke said.
Raul gave a frustrated growl. “I just told you I did all of that. My father could be in there, Hawke.”
“And maybe this is a trap to get one of us, claim a warrior, and use him as a pawn in the war that’s brewing,” Hawke snapped. “Use your head, Raul. All is not as it seems.”
“Maybe so, but as I hear it, you’ve been holding a lot back from me, Hawke.” Raul gave him a cold stare.
“And who would have you been talking to that could give such information?” Hawke’s voice was deadly soft.
Raven felt her breath still in her chest as she watched them face off. Anyone could see they had a strong bond, yet they both stared each other down, neither willing to give an inch. Finally, it was Daisye who broke the tense silence.
“Oh, for the love of God, you two are the most pigheaded souls I have ever met,” Daisye said and threw her arms up in exasperation. “Always butting heads even though I know full well that you would lay down your lives for each other. Now, Raul, whatever are you talking about?”
“We went to Paladin.” Raven stood and took Raul’s hand. She watched as Hawke’s gaze fell on their linked fingers and an eyebrow rose. Lleau grinned and nudged Aki. She focused on the tense conversation. “Orin told us that Raul needed to talk to Hawke for the truth. It’s been too long, don’t you think? Don’t let hard feelings simmer between the two of you.”
“And what would you know of it? You’ve been around for less than a week. He has been my ward for ninety-five years,” Hawke replied.
Oh, no, he didn’t just call me out to try to get me to back down! Raven felt her temper simmer. No one spoke to her like that and got away with it.
“So for ninety-five years you have been holding on to a secret and treating him like a child,” Raven snapped. “Let me tell you something, Hawke, the big bad dragon, he is everything but a child. You may have that in your head, but, trust me, I know he’s a man in every possible way. You get me? Instead of trying to protect him from the truth, how about you give it to him so he’s fully armed, and don’t ever talk to me like that again. I may have only been in his life for a week or so, but it seems to me that I’ve had his back and slept in his bed. I know him better than you think.”
She was too angry to care that Lleau’s and Aki’s lips were twitching with laughter and Raul was openly grinning. Daisye nodded at her with approval in her eyes and Hawke… Well, Raven thought maybe he wanted to roast her with his dragon breath. In the end he just sighed and sat down.
“Sit, Raul, your woman is right. This has been a long time coming,” Hawke said. “She’s also right that sometimes I still see the small boy who I took from a broken man. But you are a boy no longer. Your mother was my sister and she married your father against our parents’ wishes. Instead of being kind to your mother, he was cruel and we slowly saw her beauty fade into nothingness. She was a broken woman. That is, until she met Colmar and he brought her back to life. They tried to keep their love a secret, but everyone could see the change in her including the man who abused her. She became pregnant with you and planned to leave with Colmar and petition the king to have her marriage declared null.”
“What happened?” Raul asked. He was holding Raven’s hand so tightly she felt she would lose all feeling in her fingers, but didn’t ask him to let go.
“Colmar was your father, by blood, and he died protecting your mother from being carried off by a Shen hunting party. She came home to our mother, steeped in years of abuse and then grief from losing Colmar that made her inconsolable. In the end, she had you and we saw her life come back once more as she held you in her arms. The man you know as your father, Jonas, came to her on his knees and begged for forgiveness.” Hawke ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes for a moment before meeting Raul’s eyes again. “Selmiere accepted and she went home to him. My father and I had a talk with him that reinforced that no harm would come to you or her. We saw her smile and laugh as you grew, but her heart was never the same. She longed for Colmar even as Jonas wooed her. They made a home for you, but her will to live faded and she gave in to the call of our ancestors. For months after, we thought Jonas was keeping his word by taking care of you, but he wasn’t. In the end, he could not live with his guilt on how he treated her and thought he was to blame for her death. He thought the solution was to walk into the barrens and let fate deal him whatever hand it chose.”
“So my father was not actually my father…” Raul broke off. “And you are my uncle. I always saw that sadness in her eyes when she smiled at me. But this doesn’t change the fact that the Shen are holding him and I have to save him. Ultimately, he changed and tried to do right. I could try to hate him for something that happened before my birth, but how do I when I saw the man dote on her all those years she was alive? He tousled my hair and took me for walks through the star fruit grove on his shoulders, talking about life and teaching me how to pick the ripest fruit. I saw him grieve. Oh, God…” Raul put his head in his hands and leaned forward. “What do you want me to do, leave him there?”
“You don’t know he is alive, Raul, and if he is, he would not want you risking your life for his,” Hawke said harshly
. “We can’t take the risk of you being lost or worse for something that may or may not be true.”
“Damn it, Hawke, he is the only father I know!” Raul roared. “You cannot tell me to leave him to die.”
Hawke stood and roared right back. The walls and glass in the windows seemed to reverberate with the sound and Raven flinched. He pointed to Raul. “I will not lose you as well!”
Raul stood. “You’ve got to trust me, Hawke. By the gods, I do not want to die, but I have to do this.”
“I am your elder in the court and I order you to stay here until further notice,” Hawke replied. “We will find the stronghold and see for ourselves what is going on. You are to stay here until we return.”
“Hawke, you can’t protect me all my life because of some misguided promise to my mother!” Raul roared.
“Maybe not, but I can sure as hell try,” Hawke growled. “Aki, Lleau with me; Raul, you are to stay put.”
“That is so not fair, Hawke, and you know it,” Daisye said.
“I know I’ll pay for it later, but I have to do this. He’s not thinking straight…and…I have to keep him alive,” Hawke said, casting his gaze to Raul. “No matter what the cost. I can take your hate, but I cannot take lighting the flame on your funeral pyre. I won’t.”
“Lleau, Aki, help me out here. Talk some sense into him,” Raul pleaded.
Aki shook his head. “Lleau and I have to defer to Hawke. His word goes.”
“Damn all of you,” Raul snarled and strode towards the bedroom angrily. The door slamming made Raven flinch.
“Go to him,” Daisye said gently.
Raven glared at all three men. “You are so wrong to do this.”
With that, she went to the bedroom door and slipped quietly inside. Raul was pacing back and forth like a caged tiger. He was furious and hurt and each emotion was written all over his face.
“They did this to me. I can’t believe they put me on—how do you say it?—the sidelines!” He turned and faced her. “I’ll not stand for it. I am a warrior of the court, the same as them. I will not be treated like this. I’m going, and that’s final.”
She rushed in front of him and placed her hands on his chest. “No, Raul, no, not like this, not angry, and you’re not thinking straight.”
There was a knock on the door and she cracked it open to Daisye. “Hey, the guys can’t go right now. The visibility is completely gone due to the storm.”
“Thanks, Daisye,” Raven said and closed the door again.
She turned to Raul and his face was set in a stubborn line. “See, they’re not going. We all just need to breathe and we can approach this again in the morning.”
He shook his head. “I’ll head out as soon as it lets up and beat them to it.”
“No, Raul, please, no,” Raven begged and kissed him once, then twice. “Stay with me, love me, be with me right now.”
“Raven, I—”
She cut his words off with her lips before looking into his emerald eyes. “No, just you and me, nothing else from the outside world for a little while.” She wanted him to lose his anger, burn it off, and if it was with her then it was perfect. At least he wasn’t out there putting himself in danger. Raven worked at the sash of his robe and kissed him hungrily. She was terrified she would lose him to his anger and the things that waged a war against them all.
When he took over the kiss and pulled her hard against his naked body, nothing else mattered. Raven wanted him to sink into her and forget it all just for a little while. She barely heard the sound as he ripped her shirt down the middle and a moan escaped her lips as he cupped her breasts with hot hands. Raul’s entire body seemed to be super heated as if the fire of his anger and passion was erupting out of him. His hands skimmed down her body to her skirt, and she felt the flimsy material and the buttons give way under his grasp. He ran his hands up her hips and between her legs cupping her sex and Raven moaned in pleasure.
“The bed, baby. My legs feel like jelly,” Raven whispered urgently.
“You wanted me hot and bothered. You wanted to tempt the dragon and now you have it.” Raul fisted his hands in her hair and kissed her hard. “You’ll take it all and scream my name before I’m done.”
She bit her lip as a moan was wrung from her when he slipped his fingers inside her and pushed her up against the wall.
“Come for me, Shaloh. Give me your essence,” Raul growled.
He was relentless as he took her over the edge not once but twice until she could feel herself sliding to the floor. Raul lifted her up and brought her legs around his waist. He brought her down onto his cock and filled her up. Raven was pressed against the wall as he thrust deep, again and again. He kissed her as she wrapped her arms around his neck. It was like sharing a breath and she became a part of him. It built inside her, the feeling of primal lust that made her body shake and her flesh quiver around his thick rod. Raul pushed her past the point of reason until she screamed his name as she came. “Again,” he said harshly. He drove into her with wild abandon and she accepted every inch of him into her soaking wet pussy. She arched into him, writhing even though she was pressed against the wall. This time, when Raven came, Raul followed her with a guttural yell that declared his possession. He walked her over to the bed and placed her on it and she was so completely sated that she didn’t even open her eyes when she felt him cleaning her with a warm washcloth.
“Lay with me, Raul,” she murmured sleepily as he tucked her under the blankets.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently. “I’m here, sweet one.”
It could’ve been the tension that fueled the hot sexual relief, but she was so tired she could hardly keep her eyes open.
“They all love you, Raul, and I love you too,” Raven said sleepily. “Don’t go there alone, please. I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”
“You won’t lose me. Hawke was right. You never know when love will find you, and when it does you are unable to resist,” Raul murmured. “I love you, my Shaloh. Now sleep. Tomorrow is another day.”
Raven let sleep claim her and even then, as she struggled through her dreams where she and Raul battled the Shen, instinctively, she knew he was gone. He’d tucked the blankets around her tight, so she wouldn’t know, but she felt the cool breeze as he opened the window and snuck out. She sat up with a small cry and scrambled out of bed to find clothes. Her dragon was gone and there was no way in hell she was going let him fight this battle alone.
Chapter Nine
The rain meant nothing to Raul or the lightning that cut a jagged swatch across the tumultuous sky. He had only one thing on his mind and that was to infiltrate the Shen stronghold and find his father or the man he thought was his father. His life had taken one big flip and turned everything he knew upside down. The only constant in his life was Raven—her fiery spirit and intelligent mind. When he told her he loved her he meant it, but first he would take care of the Shen who held his father. Then he would follow his heart directly to Raven and ask for the king’s consent to be her mate.
Disobeying Hawke would, of course, come with consequences, maybe even cause him to lose his position as one of the twelve warriors. He knew all of this, but his resolve was set. Tonight this needed to end once and for all. His life had been a revolving door of relationships that meant nothing to him because he hid his heart where no one could find it, locked it up, and threw away the key. But Raven came along and she found where he had hidden his heart, then broke down walls to get to it without the key. Raul found that he didn’t want to run anymore or fight off the feelings he felt. Raven was his mate.
The area where he’d noticed the activity was right below him. Raul flew high enough that he would not be detected and used his dragon sight to access the comings and goings of this new cell. The king wasn’t there; it had too small of an entrance and not enough space in those old mines for the big motherfucker. That beast would have no room to turn in there and would crumble the hallow mine around hi
s ears. They were up to something. That was for sure. Probably holding women for breeding along with his father. Raul swooped past the area to land on the other side of the clearing. There, he changed into his civilian clothes he carried in a small pack. Raul moved stealthily toward the mine, using the rain and cover of darkness to move in closer. There was no way he could use the main entrance. Raul began to hunt for the secondary shaft that all mines had in case of emergency or collapse. He found it behind thick shrubs and thorn bushes. He had no problem being scratched by the spines and thorns of the branches. He figured when Raven caught up to him she was going to unleash a hell one hundred times worse than some measly thorns. But he also looked forward to her wrath with excitement and a kick of desire. Her anger was going to be foreplay when he got back home to her. Somewhere in the back of his head a little voice asked him, What if you don’t get back home? That was not an option that he would even consider thinking about. As he climbed through the shaft of the mine and slipped into the darkness, whatever happened would happen. It was time for the truth.
The stench of the Shen enveloped him. The musty smell of their skin and sweat made him want to cover his nose, but he needed both hands free. They lived in nests and lacked for hygiene. You could smell one a mile away. He moved slowly, trying to mask himself against the darkened rocks and hoped they wouldn’t notice his own scent over their filth. He could hear them skittering about the front as he moved deeper into the mine. The old mine shouldn’t be this hot and he knew they probably had made fires to warm themselves, plus used their liquid secretion from their own bodies to make it habitable. They mixed it with leaves and paper, whatever they could find, to make a nest. He’d take a long shower, maybe two when he got out of this hole. The thought of touching the rock walls made his skin crawl. Finally, he saw an old access tunnel and a Shen sitting out front, standing guard. That had to be where they were holding his father. He crept closer and at the right moment he lunged and caught the Shen over the mouth before he could yell. With a quick twist, he snapped his neck and dragged him into the shadows. After dropping him on the floor, he moved into the tunnel and came into a room, where a cot sat in the corner. He saw an outline of a figure lying there and his heart leapt as he moved toward it. When he dragged the covers off, he saw lumpy old sacks of rocks and his father’s emblem pinned to one. It was then that he knew he was caught in a trap—one made by his own stubbornness. He heard laughter at the entrance and turned to see the Shen looking at him cheerfully.
