“Something isn’t right.” He caught her hand and moved her behind him as he made his way toward the door. They were not getting caught inside a building again. “Stay behind me and step where I step.”
He was relieved when she didn’t argue with him. If this kept up, the thought of her opening another shop was going to have him breaking out in hives.
Something moved out of the corner of his eye as if triggered by the thought. Cursing under his breath, he watched as ice started to creep over the floor and up over the walls and debris until it reached the ceiling and started to spider web outward.
Ryuu. This was bad. Ice could be lethal to dragons. Their bodies couldn’t handle the extreme cold. Shivers were already wracking his body and his teeth were chattering, his extremities freezing and icing over.
Before he could tighten his hold on her, her magic shoved out, sending him flying through the picture window and out into the street.
An inhuman roar tore through him as Lily was ripped from his grasp. A red haze blinded him as pure, undiluted rage pulled him toward the building and Lily. Dallas had torn Hunters apart by the limbs, he’d survived hundreds of battles by sheer force of will and endurance. He was always the last warrior on the battlefield. But that strength was failing him now. He pulled on the metal door until his muscles bulged and trembled, and the skin was torn from his fingers, but he refused to give in to the agony. He roared again and slammed his shoulder into the metal. His mate was inside. His mate.
He gave in to the dragon that was clawing at his skin from the inside, and with an anguished-filled roar, set the building aflame. His only hope was that the fire would cancel out the ice, and he could get to his mate.
The ice wouldn’t give up the fight that easily, however, and by the time his fire won, the outside of the building was torched and surrounded by firemen. Not that he gave a shit. He shimmered back into his human form as he ran for the entrance.
Two firemen stepped into his path. The biggest of the two had an axe in his hand as he slapped the other one against Dallas’s chest. “Sir, you cannot go in there.”
It didn’t occur to Dallas that the male was only doing his job. He was an obstacle standing between him and Lily. Without a word and without breaking stride, he reached out and grabbed both firemen by the throats, lifting them off their feet. He sent them flying back into the fire truck with a flick of his wrists, then launched himself at the door. He bounced off with barely a crack in the ice, but he braced himself and did it again. And again. Each time cracked it a little more. Then there was a familiar presence, and Dallas barely registered Luca as they both threw themselves at the door.
He carefully and slowly called the fire back to him, the flames wrapping around his arm and disintegrating. He wanted to yank it back, but he didn’t know where the ice was coming from, and he didn’t want to give it a chance to start freezing everything again before he could get to her.
His mate. His Lily.
He found her immediately. She stood in the middle of the room with her hands outstretched. Around her was a clear circle where neither the ice nor fire had penetrated. She’d protected herself.
Just as he feared, the second the fire started to smolder, the ice crept back from the corner, spider-veining quicker and instantly freezing everything in its path, steadily making its way toward Lily.
“Lily.” He said it quietly, his voice broken, but when she didn’t move, he gave in to the dragon’s need to roar. “Lily, goddamn it, look at me!”
Her head snapped up suddenly and without warning, she shot across the room, shoving at him as an anguish like he’d never known before licked at his skin. He gritted his teeth against it and lifted her, sending the flame out again the second they were clear of the building.
“Damn you, Dallas!” she yelled, pushing against his chest.
Vaguely aware that his body felt like it was on fire, which wasn’t possible for a dragon, he collapsed hard onto the curb and focused on her. “Are you all right?” His hands moved over every inch of her, searching for burns. “Where are you hurt?”
The fear in her eyes was killing him.
“I’m fine.” Her voice trembled, and his insides iced over. “Dallas!”
He blinked suddenly. Once, and then twice, and by the third time, his vision had cleared. “Lily?”
“I’m here.” Tears leaked down her face as she curled into him, her body shaking violently. “Why would you do that? Why would you come back in?”
His whole body twitched, and a savage roar tore out of him. “What the hell were you thinking, woman?”
Her chin snapped up to defiant angle, but the effect was ruined by her trembling jaw. “That the ice could have killed you. I am not going to let you die, damn it!”
He nodded and stood up. He threw her over his shoulder and rounded on Luca, who was slowly getting to his feet. Dallas would apologize for knocking him out later. Maybe. “Whoever did this has to be close. Search the area and see what you can find.”
He didn’t give Luca time to respond as he carried Lily toward his vehicle. Dallas knew what he was going to say. He had fucked up big time. He’d risked exposing what they were, along with the entire neighborhood, to save Lily.
He opened the truck door and dropped her into the passenger seat. He gritted his teeth in an effort to stop the tremors that wracked his body. He had done the one thing he’d sworn he would never do. He’d put his mate’s welfare above everyone else’s.
He slid behind the wheel but hesitated to start the vehicle. He had nowhere to go. Nowhere to take her that wasn’t filled with dragons and Hunters who would happily gut him as soon as word got out of what he’d done.
Shaking his head, he turned the key in the ignition and headed back for his apartment. He’d hand her over to the others and let them deal with her. He needed to put space between them now before he did something else he couldn’t be forgiven for.
Chapter 21
HE WASN’T TALKING to her. He wasn’t looking at her. His phone was ringing relentlessly, but the one time she’d asked if he wanted her to answer it, he hadn’t even bothered to respond, shooting her a dark warning look instead.
“You’re going to Seren’s, right?” she finally asked, her gaze locked on the side of his face.
“Why?” He jerked the SUV to the side of the road before his head swung around, his graveled voice full of fury. “Are you hurt?”
She slapped his hands away as they ran over her arms and then tried to slip in her shirt. “I’m fine,” she snapped, “but you’re not. You need a healer to look at you.”
He ignored her as his hands covered her breasts in the least erotic move ever, and then slipped around to check her back. Once he was satisfied she wasn’t injured, he pulled away and jerked the vehicle back into traffic.
He was the most infuriating man on the planet, and she wanted to throttle him. And kiss him. But mostly throttle at the moment. “Dallas.”
He ignored the sharp tone of her voice and reached out to snap on the radio.
Lily leaned forward to turn it back off. “We are going to talk about this, Dallas, and you are going to let Seren look at you.” When his face went stony, she poked him in the ribs. “What the hell were you thinking?
His knuckles went white on the steering wheel, his voice too savage to be the human in him speaking. “I was thinking that you were fucking dead. I was thinking that I lost my goddamn mate hours after making her mine.” His hands tightened, making her wince and go pale as the wheel started to creak. “I was thinking that she sacrificed her life to save mine, which is just. Fucking. Bullshit.”
“I’m not going to apologize,” she murmured, shocking herself and infuriating him more, but once the words were out, she didn’t try to backtrack. She lifted her chin and refused to look away from his furious profile. “You’re my mate and that ice could have killed you.”
He yanked his SUV into park behind his building. The sound that tore out of his chest wasn’t close
to human. “Then you let it fucking kill me,” he roared. “You don’t ever risk yourself to save me!”
Furious tears welled in her eyes as she jerked her door open. She grabbed her purse and jumped out without a word and started toward the back door of his building, but at the last moment, she switched directions.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he snapped as he limped after her.
“Away from you,” she yelled back. She wasn’t planning on going far or staying gone for long, but she was about to have a meltdown and the last thing her or Dallas needed at the moment were Adrian, Gabriel, and the Shaw brothers seeing it. Or worse, have Dallas tell them what she’d done.
She meant it. She wasn’t going to apologize because she wasn’t sorry, and she wasn’t going to promise to never do it again because she would. It wasn’t fair to expect her to let him kill himself for her when she could save him.
“Ryuu,” she snapped to herself, borrowing his word, knowing she only had seconds—if that—before he caught up to her. How couldn’t he see that his life mattered to her more than anything else in the world?
Her hand trembled as she swiped at her tears before she dug into her purse, searching for her cell phone. She started to dial Seren, but then remembered everything she was keeping from her, which only made the ache in her chest worse.
The single heartbeat she hesitated gave him the advantage he needed. It only took him two strides to catch up with her six. Without a word, he shifted his massive form, crouching long enough to toss her over his shoulder before he started back for his building.
She thumped her fist against his lower back. “Why did you bring me back here? You know they’ll be angry for what happened at the building.”
“I don’t hide. And you’re not ready to face Seren.” He flipped her over onto her feet the second they were in the building’s foyer and got in her face, crowding her in, owning her space. “This,” he snapped, waving a hand between them, “is not going to work if you don’t understand one basic concept, babe. You are never to put yourself in danger for me, ever.”
* * *
HE EXPECTED THE hurt, and he expected the tears. What he did not expect was the raw temper that flashed over her face and deep in her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest and met him furious glare for furious glare. “Then this is not going to work, babe,” she snapped back, “because I am not going to lose you when I have the ability to save you.”
He gritted his teeth against the urge to bellow at her, knowing with as much anger as he held, there was the possibility he’d bellow the building down around them. He didn’t have to guess what Augustus would have done in this situation because Dallas knew. He would have thrown out an ultimatum, and if she didn’t agree, he’d lock her up somewhere for her own protection until she did.
But Dallas could take it one step better. And because he knew he had to do it now before he changed his mind, he grabbed her upper arm on his way past, dragging her with him to the elevator, gritting his teeth against the ice burns on his legs and torso.
He had broken every one of his rules because of her. He had gone down the one path his father had warned him about, and because of her, he’d put not only her at risk, but everyone in the area and the entire dragon population.
He knew it was wrong. With every fiber of his being, Dallas knew it was wrong. The shitkicker of it, though, and the reason he was about to figuratively cut his own throat, was that he knew—he fucking knew—he’d do it again to save her.
He didn’t know if she had weakened him, or if he had allowed himself to be weakened by emotion, but it didn’t matter. This had to end.
He lifted his fist to hammer it against the door, but Lily wiggled out of his grip and stood between him and the entrance to his apartment.
Even as he snarled at her, her face crumpled and she walked into his chest, her tiny, trembling body wrapping around his so tight he had no choice but to hug her back.
Or so he told himself, but in truth, as he folded himself around her, hauling her up against him, he wasn’t sure he had any choice in it anymore. And that scared him more than anything.
If he didn’t have a choice in even this, it meant that what happened out there in the street could happen again.
“I know you’re mad at me,” she finally murmured, tightening her arms around his waist. There were tears swimming in her eyes when she looked up at him. “But you can’t go in there this angry. They will rip you to shreds.”
His body reacted to her naturally, and he cupped the side of her face, brushing his thumb gently down her cheek, wiping away the tears. Her sadness ripped at him, and he’d do anything to take that pain from her. Like a switch had been flipped, the temper melted out of him, leaving him with no insulation against the heart-wrenching terror that was squeezing at his chest.
“Lil.” He tangled his hands in her hair and used them to tilt her head back, then bent almost double to rest his brow against hers. His body shuddered once. “I did the unforgivable, and you need to brace yourself for Daniel’s reaction. He has every right to want me dead for putting his people in danger.”
“He won’t.” She gave him a look to stop him from arguing. “I won’t let him.”
His brain switched gears suddenly, and all he could see was his mate. Alive. Beautiful. And touching him like she never, ever wanted to let go.
He slid his hands to her hips, hitched her up, and backed her into the wall next to the door, pinning her in place. His mouth found hers and devoured. He expected her to fight him, but his perfect little mate never failed to surprise and amaze him. Sliding her hands up his arms and into his hair, she wrapped her legs around his waist as her mouth went hot and hungry under his.
It wasn’t enough. Damn it, it wasn’t close enough. His hips ground against her in a maddeningly slow pace as he dragged his mouth over her jaw, down her throat, and sucked gently at the pulse point in the hollow that drove her wild. He took his time, wanting—needing—to drive them both to insanity as the hunger between them grew. Her fingers tightened in his hair, her head falling back for him on a soft, surprised moan that made him smile.
This he could give her. He loved and hated the way that no matter how much pleasure he gave her, she was always surprised. But this, this he could do for her, and do well, and even if it took until the end of forever, he would use all the bedroom skills he possessed to erase the bad from her head.
Her fingers dug into his scalp as he nipped the tender flesh of her throat gently before he dragged his tongue over it, his hands coming up to rest against the sides of her breasts. He used the pads of his thumbs to brush over her nipples, grinning when a low moan escaped her throat. So he did it again, brushing at the tips of her breasts with his thumbs through the fabric of her shirt as his mouth trailed over the soft, generous swells of her perfect breasts. His cock was hard and aching as he rubbed it against her, pure male satisfaction bringing his blood to a boil when her body moved with his, desperate to be closer. Good gods, she was going to be the death of him.
The dragon was roaring in his blood, desperate for him to reaffirm the bond with her, to reassure them both that she was alright. Unbroken. Unhurt.
On a harsh moan, Lily pulled back, breaking the kiss as she cupped his face. Distracted by the sheer lust in her eyes and her ragged breathing, it took everything he had to concentrate on her words and not give in to the urge to devour her some more.
“We’re not exactly quiet, Dallas.”
He couldn’t get her words to form the correct connection in his head. “English, woman,” he snapped at her as he stepped back and gently sat her on her feet, the pain in his legs forcing its way through the haze of lust he’d been distracted by.
“I said”—she grinned up at him, her voice shaky—“that if you make me scream out here, they’re going to assume I’m in pain, and someone’s going to end up bleeding. I will be pissed if it’s you.”
He dragged a hand through his hair and wondered i
f he would ever get used to her protecting him.
But it was the look on her face that scared him. Half hope, half love, it was plain as day that her emotions were getting the best of her. She was falling in love with him. Part of Dallas had known it would happen. She had, after all, told him that she wanted a mating based on love. And he realized, with everything he’d done in the last hour, this was the worst. He could give her security and safety and stability. He could make her life happy, but he would never be able to give her the one thing she yearned for most in the world.
But she was his. And he would keep her safe.
No matter what he had to do.
Chapter 22
LILY FROWNED. HE wanted her. He was always touching her, and every time he kissed her, it was like the poor man was starving. But it didn’t take a genius to realize he used touching her and sex as a way out of making decisions.
He didn’t want a mate, but he wanted her, so they had sex. So now he had no choice but to make it work with her. And whenever his emotions got too high or too wild, he kissed her, as if he couldn’t help it. If he could just get inside of her, he wouldn’t have to think and the choice would be out of his hands, and he could deal with the consequences.
None of it sounded like the Dallas she’d heard about for years—the strong, cold-hearted, determined dragon they’d named The Destroyer. The Dallas that had spent centuries making the Hunter world pay for the death of his chosen mate and his family.
He opened the door, and when she stepped through, Adrian was face first on the couch, unmoving. Her heart stopped beating. “What happened?”
Gabriel dragged a hand down his face. “I don’t know. He grabbed his head a few minutes ago and started growling, then face-planted on the floor.”
She blew out a relieved breath that was short-lived when Daniel bellowed.
“What the hell is going on?”
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