by Chloe Cole
Whatever the case, she had to get Drake, and fast.
Sucking in a breath, she pushed aside her indecision, wheeled around, making a mad dash for the door. She’d barely made it three steps before she slammed into what felt like a brick wall.
“Willa, stop! It’s me.”
The familiar whisper had her wheeling backward in utter shock.
“Grey?”
The path in front of him was long and winding, and as he walked it, it only seemed to grow longer. He could see her, just ten yards ahead, but it was as if his feet were stuck in molasses and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move faster.
“Willa,” he called, his voice rife with worry. Surely she could see the quicksand in front of her. Surely she realized she had to slow down and watch where she was going.
Instead, she tossed a terrified glance over her shoulder and only ran faster.
“Willa!” he shouted, this time panic taking over as cold dread ran through him. Two more steps and she—
Drake sat bolt upright with a roar and blinked wildly as the vision in his head faded. The adrenaline pounding through his blood mixed with relief as reality dawned.
A dream. It was just a dream.
He drew in a long breath and blew it out, willing his heartbeat to slow. Everything was all right and Willa was—
He turned to peer more closely at the pile of blankets and pillows beside him that he’d thought were obscuring his sleeping wife.
Nope. She was gone.
He leapt to his feet and charged across the room, trying to stay calm. The fear that gripped him was residual stress from his dream. That was all. She was probably just in the library, or went to the kitchen to get a drink of water.
But as he charged down the stairs, he knew he was lying to himself. Her scent still hung in the air, spicy and sweet, but her aura…the presence that both calmed him and made him wild all at the same time?
It was gone.
If something had happened to her, he would never forgive himself. And if Etienne had done something to her?
His dragon stretched and pulsed inside him, like a ball of fury wrapped in vengeance.
He pushed back the urge to shift and tried to keep his blood pressure from skyrocketing to the point that it wasn’t within his control any longer. By the time he made it through the great room, he was crazed. He kicked down the kitchen door with a snarl and stopped short as he took in the scene before him.
The door was open, and swinging on its hinges in the chilly night winds and a second scent assailed his nostrils. Not Etienne.
White hot fury formed a ball in his stomach replacing the icy dread.
Wolves.
Somehow, his clever little wife had contacted her brethren and they had come to rescue her. And her little seduction had been nothing more than another trick to get him to let his guard down.
A trick that had worked all too well.
A searing pain shot through his heart, so deep, his muscles shook at the blow.
Images of the past few days flitted through his mind in the world’s cruelest highlight reel.
Willa with her head tossed back in ecstasy as he drove into her.
Willa laughing as he told her about his first kiss.
Willa’s soft smile as she traced the line of his jaw.
Jesus. She left him. She played him for a fool. He thought she was falling in love with him and he’d let his guard down. He’d trusted her and she’d charged in with her cavalry and obliterated him.
He’d spent half the night raking himself over the coals, riddled with guilt. And this was how she did him?
The second blast of rage that came was nothing but a relief as it smothered the pain threatening to choke him.
All thoughts of letting her choose…all thoughts of offering his wife her freedom disintegrated under the violent heat of his fury as he bounded toward the great room door, already letting his muscles loosen, already letting his wings unfurl.
He was going to slay every one of those mangy mutts where they stood.
And then? He was going to drag his faithless traitor of a wife back to this keep and show her the true nature of dragons.
Read the conclusion of Coercion in book three…
Coercion Part Three
Willa Stone has been fighting for freedom her whole life. Freedom from her parents’ rule. Freedom from the tyranny of a cruel, power-hungry alpha. And now, the freedom to select a mate of her own choosing.
When she is sold into an arranged marriage with dragon-shifter Drake Blackbourne to gain political favor for her parents, every part of her rails against the injustice of it all…until now. She’s fallen in love with her captor. But when a cruel twist of fate rips her away from Drake, it will take everything she has to regain his trust and recapture the happiness they’d found in each other’s arms.
Chapter Fifteen
Kidnapped.
Jesus Christ, she’d been taken by force, and Drake was going to think she’d run from him. Even now, with the icy wind whipping at her face as her captor dragged her across the rocky terrain, she couldn’t believe it was happening.
She’d tried to talk some sense into Grey the second he walked into the keep and carried her out the door, but he’d only shushed her, doggedly refusing to listen. The time for diplomacy had long passed. They were already a hundred yards down the mountain and she needed to put a stop to this, before it was too late to undo it.
Willa kicked at him with all her might, calling on every bit of strength in an effort to break the hold he had on her.
“I’m not kidding, Grey. Let me go, god dammit!”
“Stop!” Grey’s hushed voice sounded as loud as a thunder-crack in her ear as his arms tightened around her waist. “Stop fighting me, Will. You’re only going to get hurt.” He let out a grunt as her elbow connected, jabbing him hard in the diaphragm.
“You need to let me go,” she hissed. “Christ, you have no idea what you’ve done.”
Her stomach churned as she thought about the potential fallout from this mess. If someone didn’t wind up in a pine box before this night was over, it would be a miracle.
How had things gone from being sooo damned good one minute to being utter mayhem and chaos the next? Had it truly been only an hour ago that she’d been wrapped in the cocoon of Drake’s arms, thinking how exactly right it felt…how much she was looking forward to seeing where this new closeness would lead them?
And now she was being bodily carried down the mountainside by her former alpha-slash-ex-fiancé in an ill-advised and unwelcome rescue attempt.
If Drake awoke to find her gone before she convinced Grey of the truth and got him to let her go…
Her heart stuttered in her chest and she willed herself to stay calm. Once she explained herself to Grey—told him that, while being shipped off by her parents into an arranged marriage she didn’t even know about had been hard at first, she was falling in love with Drake and wanted to stay—surely he’d let her go back to the keep.
She just had to start talking, and fast, before Drake awoke to an empty bed.
“Grey, please. I’m begging you, just let me go for one second so we can talk.” She jerked back, hard enough to surprise him into releasing her, and managed to get a few feet of space between them before wheeling around to face him.
The moon was a mere suggestion in the onyx sky but her sight was keen, and Grey looked like an avenging angel, black hair wild, silver eyes a molten mercury and full of volatile emotion.
“You’ve lost your fucking mind.” His chest heaved from the exertion of fighting her for the past hundred yards. “He’ll catch us if we stay here, Willa. We’ve got a very short window to get out of this. My car is just a little further down the mountain. There will be time for talk when we’re on the road. As your alpha, I demand--”
“You are no longer my alpha,” she reminded him as softly as she could, while still being heard over the howling winds, for fear that somehow Drake mig
ht hear, even in sleep from within the bowels of his stony abode. “You gave up that position when you dumped me for Maggie, remember?”
Oddly, the humiliation and pain that used to come with that thought never surfaced. Had she already started to forgive him for his betrayal? Had just being with Drake been the balm she’d needed to soothe the hurt and see that she’d actually dodged a bullet by not marrying Grey?
“You know what?” she continued, turning to gaze over his shoulder at the still silent keep. “Forget I even said that. None of it matters anymore. You’re right about one thing. We’re on borrowed time. You need to go. If you just listened to me before dragging me out of the kitchen like a caveman, you’d know that I’m fine. I’m exactly where I need to be right now.”
“That’s bullshit, Willa,” he snapped. “You called me. Maggie gave me your message and as soon as she did, I knew you were in trouble. And then, when I confronted your parents and they told me what they’d done?” His stark features pulled into an expression of anguish. “I don’t know whether you’re drugged or enchanted or he’s holding some horrible threat over your head, but whatever it is, we’ll handle it together. As a pack. The others are waiting back at the ranch for you, arms wide open and ready to fight to the death to defend you if need be. Don’t risk your own life to punish me. If something happened to you, I couldn’t live with myself.”
Willa wrapped her arms tightly around her waist and tried to think of how to explain it to him as succinctly as possible without sounding like exactly what he already thought she was: A pathetic, wounded sucker who was resigning herself to life with a monster because she didn’t want to return to the pack of the man who’d humiliated her.
But try as she might, with every second that ticked by, the panic increased tenfold, and she found herself in a cold sweat and tongue-tied.
“It’s none of those things. I swear. I just…” She was just about to admit out loud what she’d barely even admitted to herself—I’m falling in love with him—when Grey let out a snarl and hoisted her up bodily and tossed her over his shoulder.
“Fuck it. You always were stubborn, and we have no time for this shit,” he grunted.
Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she realized she was out of options. She didn’t want to fight her childhood friend and former alpha in earnest, but at this point, there was no other choice.
She’d just started to center herself mentally so she could shift into wolf form for battle when she heard it. A thunderous roar, so loud and terrible that it shook the ground beneath her.
Terror clutched at her heart as she struggled with all her might against Grey and his iron grip.
“Oh my god, Grey. Drop me right now. He’s coming. He’s coming!”
“Stop the squirming, Willa. I’m not leaving here without you so unless you want to get us both killed—”
His words were snapped off as light filled the sky, illuminating the craggy rocks and narrow roadway in front of them. She finally managed to drop to her feet as Drake came into view in dragon form, massive wings beating as he soared toward them.
If Grey looked like an avenging angel, Drake looked like the devil himself and the fury emanating from him made her blood run cold.
“Christ, Willa, go! Straight down the road. The car is parked at the first shoulder, half a mile down. I’ll hold him off,” Grey shouted, releasing his hold on her waist.
The command barely left his lips when he exploded into wolf form, his arms and legs lengthening, his clothes shredding around him to accommodate his new physique. Strange, how he’d seemed almost larger than life to her at times before, but now he looked like a meal for an animal of Drake’s size. Fear gripped her, tightening over her chest like a boa constrictor as the two beasts faced off.
If they fought, there could be no good outcome. The last thing she wanted to see was Drake hurt. Not after last night. Not now, when she finally found him and a chance at happiness.
And as angry as she’d been at Grey when he’d betrayed her, she couldn’t stomach the idea of him being hurt. Now more than ever, she knew the truth of it. He loved her just like she loved him. As a friend. A true, lifelong friend. That was why he had come. He was risking his life to help her.
She had to stop this.
“Please!” she shouted, rushing closer to where Grey stood on all fours, teeth bared, the fur on his neck standing up straight. “Stop it. Don’t do this!”
Drake swooped in lower and swiped at Grey with one wing, sending him rolling backward.
“Drake, don’t hurt him. I’ll come back with you. This was all a mistake!” She shouted so loudly, her throat burned with the effort, but her words were useless, carried away on the buffeting winds and overshadowed by the sounds of battle.
She turned to see that Grey had rebounded, leaping back to his feet and skulking toward Drake, eyes darting this way and that, looking for the dragon’s weakness.
What she knew that poor, doomed Greyson didn’t, was that Drake had no weaknesses. His dragon was the stuff of nightmares. Pure, unbridled strength, weapons included. This was a fight a lone wolf couldn’t hope to win. Not even a warrior as fierce as Grey.
She swallowed hard and, just as Drake swooped in again, great maw opened, vicious teeth gleaming, she jumped between them, arms extended.
“Stop it. Enough!”
The rage in Drake’s poison green gaze sent a wave of dread crashing over her. Did he even see her right now, or was he blinded with bloodlust? He continued his trajectory, and just when she thought he was going to flatten her to get to his enemy, he roared and veered hard to the right, the very tip of his wing slashing her leg.
Grey snarled and ran to her side as she clutched at the wound, and Drake took full advantage of the distraction, whipping around in a stomach-dropping barrel roll and coming straight back at them.
“Duck!” she screamed to Grey. But it was too late. Drake narrowly missed her and plowed straight into him, head first. Grey went rolling back again in a mass of fur and fury.
Drake didn’t hesitate, following right behind and leaping on his opponent the second he stopped rolling. His lethal teeth gnashed at Grey as the two of them tussled, dragon talons tearing into flesh, wolf fangs sinking into scale and muscle.
As she watched the battle helplessly, the truth settled over her like a black cloud.
They weren’t going to stop until someone was dead.
And the longer they struggled, the more clear it became that Grey was gravely outmatched. If she let this continue, he would die on this bleak chunk of rock, and it would be all her fault.
Mind made up, she straightened, ignoring the ache in her bleeding thigh as she scurried forward. She looked back just in time to see Drake snatch Greyson off the ground like he was nothing more than a field mouse and then begin to flap his mighty wings. They were five feet, then ten feet off the ground, and climbing.
“Drake!” she screamed.
Up, up they went…
“Drake!” she shouted into the air again, desperate now. Dear god, she hoped she was right about this…
She was just about to scream for him again when he jerked his dragon head toward her, his poison green eyes lighting on her face right as she stepped up to the very edge of the cliff.
“Run, Greyson, you stubborn son of a bitch,” she muttered under her breath, hoping he recognized what she was about to do and realized that retreat was the only option now. “Run, and don’t look back.”
Her gaze never left her husband’s as she sucked in a lungful of air and dove headfirst off the side of the cliff.
Chapter Sixteen
Drake stared at the spot where Willa had stood, so stunned, for a second, he was frozen in place, hovering with his enemy in his clutches, but unable to move. His whole world shrunk down to the size of a pinprick as his brain finally caught up.
Willa had just leapt off the side of the mountain and was plunging to her death.
He let out a furious roar and tossed the
wolf in his grasp onto the ground like a rag doll before flying to the edge of the cliff. He threw himself over, tucking his wings in tight in a free-fall, making himself as lean and as aerodynamic as possible.
He fought past the fear clutching at his gut as he tried to catch sight of her in the pitch-black night. She was tiny compared to him. Surely, his weight would be enough to allow him to catch up before—
He shoved the unthinkable to the side and tucked tighter, the icy night air battering his face. More than halfway down and no sign of her.
Just when he began to lose hope, he caught sight of movement fifty yards below him. The flail of useless arms that would no sooner keep her aloft than if she didn’t have them at all. Relief coursed through him and he checked his terror to focus on flight, stretching his body as he barreled toward her.
A few seconds later, he could make out her features. Eyes squeezed tight, mouth open in a silent scream of horror, cheeks pale as the moonlight.
He waited until he was almost on top of her before tipping back and reaching for her with his claws. Her eyes snapped open at that exact moment, and she held his gaze. Relief coursed through him, mingled with a pain so acute, it lanced him straight through the heart. In that instant, part of him almost wished he had it in him to let her go.
God, she was beautiful. And willful. And strong.
And a fucking liar.
And a betrayer.
He pushed aside the relief and the pain, focusing only on the hot, roiling pit of rage in his belly.
Not only had she tricked him. She convinced him to let his guard down and trust her. She had contacted this wolf to rescue her and had just risked her own life to save his.
Drake would bet every last bit of his fortune that the lucky bastard at the top of that mountain who had barely escaped with his head intact was none other than Greyson West, Willa’s former betrothed. And, despite the lies she’d spouted to the contrary, she was clearly in love with him.
