by Amelia Jade
The snow-dog snapped its jaws at the attackers, teeth of razor-sharp ice clacking together loudly. The men backed away from the abomination, but it was too late. They had nowhere to go.
His hands dropped to his sides, summoning forth two more of the vicious winter animals. The pair flanked him as he advanced on the remainder of the team. Ice flowed over his fists, coating them in a studded, flexible layer designed to inflict maximum damage.
“You come to my home,” he snarled, approaching the team as they frantically reloaded, terrified by the glowing apparition coming right at them.
“You insult my honor.”
Icy jaws snapped and the dogs strained at his command, begging to be unleashed.
“And you threaten my mate!” He was yelling by the end, his voice a weapon of its own, a hurricane force of words that reached out and pushed the men toward the window, even as it peppered them with shards of ice.
His entire body was coated in scales now, the room illuminated solely from the glow of his eyes.
“How dare you,” he hissed.
The dogs and Caine attacked as one.
The attackers stood no chance. They had no idea who or what it was they were going up against, or if they did, they were woefully unprepared for the frozen wrath of an ice dragon in full battle rage. His fists shredded armor and crushed bones. The dogs bore men to the ground, stopping just short of ripping their throats out, though blood did drip from their mouths.
“We surrender!”
“Surrender?” He casually picked the man up by his uniform, holding him a foot off the ground. “Who said surrender was an option?”
Then he tossed the attacker out the window, listening with pleasure as he screamed the entire way down.
“Deal with the rest of them,” he commanded the dogs.
One by one the rest of the team went the way of their commander. Caine didn’t know who had ordered the attack, and he didn’t care. This was his home, and they had come for Annalise. He couldn’t let that stand.
He didn’t watch, however, because he was headed for the door to the bedroom.
At the last second he paused, closing his eyes and letting the power he’d summoned fade, until his eyes no longer glowed and his skin had returned to its normal pale complexion. No need to scare her.
Opening the door, he walked into the darkened bedroom. “Annalise?”
“GO AWAY!”
He staggered as something smashed into his face. “Ow, what the hell, Anna?!”
“Caine?” Something crashed to the floor.
Slowly he reached out and flicked on the light, tasting blood as it ran down his cheek. “What did you hit me with?” He glanced down even as he asked the question. “Did you rip the towel bar off the wall and use it to hit me?”
Anna didn’t respond, she just flung herself at him. “Caine!”
He barely rocked under the impact, holding her tight to him, relishing the moment. “I’m okay,” he whispered. “Everything is okay. Except for my cheek.”
She pulled back, the injury she’d caused just now registering. “Ohmigosh! Caine. I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay.” He waved off her concern. “First the rolling pin. Now a towel bar. Remind me never to let you take up any sport that involves sticks. My face can’t handle it.”
They shared a smile, the humor helping to calm the adrenaline flowing through both of them.
“What happened out there?” she asked.
He growled angrily. “The boot dropped.”
Outside the bedroom the wind howled through the shattered glass, a symbol of how the security of the apartment building had been broken. A place long thought of as a sanctuary and impregnable had now been violated. Caine wasn’t sure how that would change things, but he knew one thing.
They couldn’t stay there any longer.
Chapter Twenty
Anna
She spent the rest of the night in Caine’s arms, unwilling to let him go more than a few feet from her.
His brothers returned swiftly after he contacted them, and they were immediately moved up to the top floor, a huge two-story penthouse where she was introduced to another pair of dragons. Corde and Vanek were polite about letting them use their spare room, but though she knew they were well protected now, she still didn’t feel safe.
Whoever the senator knew in the military, they were important. Anna didn’t want to think of how he would escalate things next after learning of the failure of his strike team. So far she’d avoided learning the fate of the men who had stormed Caine’s apartment, contenting herself with knowing that “the dragons and military are handling it.”
Her sleep came in fits and spurts, never more than half an hour or forty-five minutes at a time. Eventually the sun rose over the horizon, illuminating the bedroom through the blinds. She yawned and stretched, her brain fuzzy from being overtired.
Caine was wide awake, his fingers absently stroking through her hair, a pleasing sensation that had done wonders to help her relax and grab the minimal sleep she had. Without him, Anna wouldn’t have slept at all. He truly was her hero.
Guilt at everything had been settling in for a few hours, but now it bloomed in full force.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This is all my fault.”
His arms squeezed her tight, the massive biceps reminding her of his strength. “This actually isn’t your fault in the slightest. It has you at the center, yes. If you’ll recall, however, you wanted to leave multiple times, and I constantly convinced you to stay. It was I who intervened with Lincoln and then Lee.”
“But he’s after me.”
“I know he is, Anna. That’s not your fault, however. You didn’t choose that. You didn’t ask him to be. He made that decision, just like I made mine. You cannot feel guilty for the decisions other people make. That is what makes freedom of choice so important. That it can’t be controlled by other people. I choose to help you, to protect you, because I care for you deeply. Not because you cast a spell on me.” He tilted his head sideways. “You didn’t case a spell on me, did you?”
She giggled. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“That’s my girl.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re stronger than you realize, Anna.”
“I doubt that,” she said, snorting her laughter. “I’ve never worked out a day in my life. Trust me, you don’t get these hips from the gym.”
Caine laughed. “I was referring to your spirit. Your strength of mind is admirable.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice growing up,” she admitted. “Being an orphan, you sort of have to be strong, or else you don’t make it.”
“You’re an orphan?”
“Well, I don’t know,” she admitted. “I was given up for adoption at birth by my mother. She didn’t want me, I guess. The state raised me, if you can call it that.” It hurt to talk about her past, but after everything they’d been through, after all Caine had done for her, the least she could do was give him an explanation of how it had come to pass.
“You don’t need to tell me this.” He spoke softly, comforting her with his hands.
“I know. But I want to. Besides, the more I talk about it, the more I’m told it will help me heal. It’s probably a huge mistake, but I trust you, Caine. I don’t do that often. If ever.”
He nodded, thankfully not insulted by her saying it was a mistake. She had never meant it to mean that he was untrustworthy, but simply that it always seemed to bite her in the ass when she let people into her life.
“I was adopted, eventually. When I was nine, I think. I thought it was all uphill from there,” she said bitterly, memories rising to the surface.
“It wasn’t what it seemed, was it?”
She shook her head. “No. Not at all. They did the bare minimum to ensure I survived and was healthy. I got my education from television, and when I was fourteen, they arranged for me to be married to a powerful man in the community. A man who would pay them handsomely
for a young woman.”
Caine’s face darkened. “Senator Lee.”
“Exactly. But he wasn’t Senator Lee back then. Just plain old businessman Lee. It was much easier to fly under the radar that way.”
Caine didn’t relax, nor did the anger leave his features. Anna reached up and caressed his cheek. Eventually he let go, his jaw unclenching and his forehead smoothing over. His eyes didn’t change. They continued to glow with a brilliant inner white, a sign of his heritage.
“It sounds bad, but it wasn’t. At least, not in a sexual aspect,” she said. “Not for me. There were others for that. No, besides the odd inappropriate touch, I was never harmed. He needed me for other purposes.”
“So what did you do?”
“Everything. His laundry. The dishes. I cooked. Cleaned. I was his personal property. I’ve been used as a footstool, a personal bathing nurse, you name it. If I screwed up, I was beaten or locked in a cage.” She shivered at the memories. “Five years ago I finally worked up the courage to run away. I’ve been on the run ever since.”
“I’m so sorry.” Caine pulled her in close, kissing her forehead several times in a row as she snuggled right into his heavily muscled chest, enjoying the contrast between her softness and his taut body.
“I’m just ashamed it took me that long to leave,” she confessed.
“Don’t be. At all. You were groomed from a young age to believe that is how the world worked. It takes time for you to understand that most people are not like that.”
“I guess.”
“I promise, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to prove to you that there are people in the world who truly do care for your well-being, and want to pamper, not punish you.”
“You’ve already done that,” she told him, resting her head on his chest. “Simply by being who you are, you’ve shown me things I never before imagined. For that, I can’t thank you enough.”
She tilted her head up and kissed him, enjoying the closeness of the moment. Caine was different, she knew. He wasn’t the sort of person to treat her the way Lee had for a decade and a half. Fifteen years. Had it really been that long? Unbelievable.
“Hello?”
They both sat up, Anna sliding from his lap just in case Caine needed to be agile.
“It’s Colonel Mara,” he said. “I’ll go chat with her.”
Anna nodded and sat back to wait. She could hear the pair talking in quiet tones, but not well enough to make out what they were saying. They had to be closer to the elevator. She yawned and sank further into the couch, feeling tiredness sweep over her. Before she knew it, she was fast asleep.
***
“Anna.”
She stirred, shaking her head. “Nnnnnnn.”
“Anna wake up.” Something warm draped over her shoulder, rocking her gently back and forth.
“Buh’ I wanna sleep,” she complained, reluctantly coming closer to wakefulness.
“I know, but it’s time to go.”
Go? Where were they going? She tried to remember, but nothing came to her. Forcing her eyes open, she groaned as light invaded her brain, making everything hurt. “But why?”
“I’m sorry my l—I’m sorry. But the helicopter is leaving, and so are we.”
Anna sat up, inhaling deeply, feeling the rush of wakefulness that came with it. “We didn’t talk about leaving, Caine. What’s going on?”
Caine paced back and forth in front of her. “It’s not safe for you here,” he said. “Colonel Mara and I talked about it, and we came to the decision that it would be best if we left.”
“You and Colonel Mara talked about it, did you?” She looked around. “I assume I was asleep for this discussion?”
“I…thought it best t-that you get some rest,” Caine sputtered. Could he really not understand why she was growing upset?
“Caine, I’m a grown woman. I can go without some sleep for a day, believe it or not. Especially when that involves major decisions that are being made on my behalf.”
“I’m sorry. We can talk about it on the way, okay? But we have to go, and we have to go now.”
What had gotten into him that he was suddenly being so pushy? “Caine, it’s the middle of the day. They’re not going to try anything right now. What is the rush for?”
“The helicopter is leaving, and we need to go.”
“Where is it going?”
“Fort Banner, the military base outside of town that Colonel Mara works from and is partially in charge of.”
“A military base. You want us to go to a military base? You don’t think that here, surrounded by other dragon shifters, is perhaps a tad more safe than a military base? Didn’t you say the men that attacked were military? And now you want to take us among them?”
She could see the logic of his decision, but it royally irked Anna that Caine had just gone ahead and made the decision without her. Especially right after she’d told him all about her past, about others controlling her, thinking they owned her and could tell her to do whatever they wanted.
Pushing him to the side irritably she got up, her back and neck protesting after the awkward way she’d fallen asleep, slumped into the corner of the couch. That was going to leave a kink, she was positive of it.
“Where are you going?” he asked as she headed toward the elevator.
“To the car,” she snapped. “I left some stuff in there. If we’re leaving the tower, I want it with me.”
Caine threw his arms up in the air. “What the hell, Anna? I just did what I thought was best for us.”
“You are not in charge of me!” she shouted. “You make decisions with me, not for me, do you understand?”
Caine seemed ready to argue his point some more, but she spun on her foot and marched down the stairs to the elevator, jabbing her finger angrily at the button, hitting it over and over again repeatedly.
“You’re coming back, right?”
“Probably,” she said over her shoulder as the doors opened. “I’m assuming you went ahead and made that decision too?”
Caine’s growl filled the room. “I am not Senator Lee,” he rumbled. “So stop treating me like him.”
“Then stop acting like you can go ahead and make decisions without my input! You’re the only one in all this who knows what happened to me, Caine. You’re the only one I trusted. Now you’re starting to act like you’re in charge, as if I’m just supposed to follow you. I am not your servant. Nor am I your brothers’.”
She stepped into the elevator and let the door close behind her. For a long moment she sat there without doing anything, the elevator unmoving.
It wasn’t where they were going that was the issue. She wasn’t sure it was the best idea, but she could see the merit. If Anna had been awake, she might very well have agreed, though she would have raised the points about just who their attackers had been first. No, it was the deciding factor for her, and assuming that she would just do as he said that had triggered the response in her.
It may be a bit over the top, but she needed Caine to know it wasn’t okay. Other people, other women, they might not have an issue with it. He was more experienced in situations like this than she, but it was her past that needed to be taken into account if he wished her to continue to trust him.
Finally she hit the button to head down to the underground garage. In the rush to get from Violet’s house to the tower, she’d left her jacket and a few other belongings inside. It hadn’t been a priority to remove them then, but a helicopter ride sounded like it would be chilly.
Plus she could use the time to think everything over, and how to tell Caine so that he would understand she wasn’t just freaking out over going to a military base. Maybe she could buy time for a coffee too.
She eyed the shattered back window of the SUV. Things had gone from full stop to runaway acceleration with Caine in a hurry. Until she’d met him, Anna had only ever worried about the boogeyman over her shoulder, the ghost of Lincoln coming and grabbing her in the
middle of the night. Never before had she feared permanent injury or death.
Everything had been ratcheted up a notch or three upon his arrival, however, and the night before they had taken on an unimaginable twist. Mercenaries had come for her in the middle of the night. For her. Annalise Walker. She was not that important! Maybe there was more going on, though she couldn’t imagine what.
Pulling open the car door, she grabbed her lost items.
Behind her there was a whirring sound, followed by metal clanking on pavement. She whirled, her back pressed almost into the car.
“Who are you?” she gasped as something out of the future strode out of the shadows.
It was a metal robot. Humanoid in nature, it moved with an almost human grace. Painted pitch black, she’d somehow missed it earlier.
“Is everything okay, ma’am?” The voice was decidedly human, as was the body language.
“You’re in one of those battlesuits, aren’t you?” she asked suddenly. “Vanek told me about you, but he never said that the suits were so big.”
The person—and she knew it was a person on the inside now—chuckled, and she relaxed. Vanek hadn’t told her everything, but when they’d taken refuge in his apartment she’d recognized him from when Colonel Mara had first arrived on the building roof. She’d asked him about the uniform, and he’d told her about the Steel Scales, his combination dragon-rider and battlesuit unit. They were working together on a project that he hadn’t spoken about.
“Of course. And you are, ma’am? I’m sorry, but I must verify everyone in the tower.”
She relaxed. The suited human was on her side. “I am Annalise Walker. I’m here with Caine.”
There was a pause. “Right. Of course, ma’am. Please, this way.” The suit gestured up the ramp, leading toward the surface.
“But I have to go back inside,” she said, turning to head back toward the elevator.
