by Chloe Cole
He would do well to keep that in mind when he looked at her next. Not many fooled a dragon and lived to tell that tale. Tonight, earlier in their bed, Willa had done exactly that. She’d convinced him she cared. That, if he offered her freedom, she just might turn it down and want to stay with him of her own free will. She’d used his weakness for her against him.
And she would pay.
He might not be ruthless enough to kill her, but he was certainly ruthless enough to make her regret toying with him.
He tightened his grip around her and flapped his wings, catching a stiff wind that carried them upward. To his disappointment, he saw no evidence of the wolf as he scanned the rocky terrain below. No doubt that Willa’s would-be rescuer was long gone now. Her plan to save her true love had worked and, unless the man was an idiot, he would realize he was grossly outmatched and come back with reinforcements before he tried another rescue attempt.
Drake would be ready for him when he did.
He swooped low as the keep came into sight and glided into the wide, open door of the massive great room. Then, he set Willa unceremoniously onto the stone floor before shifting back to human form.
For a long moment he faced the ever-present hearth fire, loath to look at her. Knowing that, when he did, the pain would start all over again, a fresh and raw wound.
He strode to the basket of robes he kept in the corner and donned one before turning to face her. She had risen from the floor and was standing there in her torn and bloody robe, a match to his own.
The one she’d stolen from him to wear to her rendezvous with Greyson West.
A snarl rose up in his chest and he swallowed it back.
“Your leg?” he asked briskly.
“It-it’s fine,” she murmured, before pausing to gnaw on her trembling bottom lip.
“Good. I have no time to play nursemaid to a foolish girl.” He eyed her coldly, bile burning his throat. “Come between me and my enemy again, and it will go worse for you. And, make no mistake, little wolf. You try that other stunt again and the next time you’ll be nothing more than a splatter at the bottom of the mountain. I plucked you from the sky only so I could make you rue this day.”
Her already white cheeks went chalky.
“Drake, please listen to me. I didn’t know he was coming, and—”
He crossed his arms over his chest and wished, more than anything, that this hellish night would end. “How else would he have found you, Willa, if you didn’t tell him you were here? Do you take me for a fool?”
“No.” She wet her lips nervously and took a step toward him. “That part was my fault. And I’m sorry. I admit, last week…the day we went to the diner, I contacted him, but—”
“So you did tell him you were here and to come save you, then.” It was a statement, not a question.
“No. I mean, sort of—” She broke off, looking so miserable, he almost felt a twinge of pity.
Almost.
“Either you told him where he could find you or you didn’t.”
“I did. I spoke to his mate and told her where I was. But I didn’t know he would come here. I didn’t want him to. I had already changed my mind.”
The lies were coming fast and furious now, and every one she spoke made him want to break something.
“If that’s true, then why didn’t you tell me that? Why didn’t you come to me and tell me that you had contacted him so I could at least prepare? What if he had come into my home and slit my fucking throat while I slept, Willa?”
She blanched and let out a low gasp. “He wouldn’t. He’s not like that. And you’re far stronger than he is. I backtracked, didn’t even give an address. I just thought that he would let it go, and I didn’t want you to be angry with me…” she trailed off lamely, pale cheeks burning hot pink as if she realized exactly how thin it sounded as she spoke, and was thinking better of it.
“Right. Or, this was another attempt at escape that failed. I’ve found that the simplest explanation is usually the right one. You got busted and now you’re trying to play on my sympathy.” He took a step toward her and shook his head slowly. “Well, save it. I have none left for you. Fool me once, shame on me. But I promise you now, never again. ”
She seemed to be about to speak again, but he cut her off, heartsick and knowing that, if he had to listen to one more lie from her pretty mouth, he was going to explode.
“The freedom you’ve enjoyed of late is at an end. Starting tonight, you’ll sleep in a separate room, chained at night, free to roam that space in daylight, but behind lock and key except when I’m at your side. If you try to escape again, your current situation will seem like child’s play. I do have a dungeon and I’m not afraid to use it.” Her face went slack with shock and she opened her mouth again, but he held up a hand. “Don’t speak. Nod if you understand.”
She nodded, her brown eyes filling with tears that he refused to let move him. He’d tried to be civilized. Had offered her the world. And she’d tossed it back in his face. Now it was time to remind her…remind all of these prideful wolf-shifters, that dragons didn’t have to ask permission, or forgiveness.
He’d fooled himself into thinking he needed a mate. A partner, when all he really needed was someone to fuck. Now it was time to rectify that.
He prowled over to where she stood and took her by the trembling arm, tugging her toward the staircase.
“You hate me, then,” she whispered, letting him lead her without a fight.
He choked back the self-loathing and let out a short laugh. “No. Hating you would take far more energy than you’re worth. I don’t care about you one way or another.”
She slowed to a stop and yanked her arm away. “Then why are you keeping me if you don’t care?”
He turned to face her, and steeled himself against the crocodile tears that streaked down her cheeks. “I’ve already told you, little wolf. Dragons keep what is ours. But that doesn’t mean we have to cherish it. Make no mistake, woman. You will share my home. You will slake my need. But you will never be my mate.”
She drew back as if he’d slapped her.
“God, you can be a bastard.”
He didn’t respond as he wheeled around to lead her up the rest of the stairs and down the long hallway to the nearest empty room.
“As you can see, you’ll be comfortable enough. I’ll deliver your food and drink several times a day as well, and you can come down for dinner, depending on your behavior. There’s a bathroom to the right. Go and clean up that cut unless it’s already healed, and I will be back shortly with your chains.”
She stepped into the room without prompting and sucked in a shaky breath as she faced him.
“I’ll do it, Drake.” She lifted her chin defiantly, her milk-chocolate eyes burning with intensity. “I’ll stay in this room like a hostage. But for your sake, I hope you realize how wrong you are before I start to hate you.”
Her words reverberated through him but before he could react, she stepped back and closed the door in his face with an ominous click.
He stared at the oak slab between them and barely resisted the urge to tear it off its hinges.
This was not how he expected this night to end. So much happiness…so much hope, destroyed. Because he’d been too quick to trust. Too blind to see.
He flexed his fists as he strode down the hallway and then took the stairs two at a time.
Greyson West had better hope he brought his A-team when he came back for Willa next time. Because somebody was going to pay for all this pain.
And they were going to pay in blood.
Chapter Seventeen
“Shit, shit, shit,” Willa muttered, sending another pillow sailing across the room at the door.
How had it come to this? And what was it with the stubborn men in her life that couldn’t listen worth a damn? If even one of them used the ears god gave them, she wouldn’t be in this situation. They all just ran over her like a fleet of tanks, from her father, to her ex, and
now Drake.
A blast of guilt cooled her anger for a brief second as she recalled the expression on his face.
She had hurt him.
Bad. And she hated that she had.
But if he would give her a chance to explain…
Although, why would he believe her now?
“You’ve done nothing but lie to him,” she reminded herself flatly.
And it was true. The entire time they’d known each other, she’d been pulling out all the stops trying to trick him and get away. Luck would have it that, when she finally stopped…when she’d finally seen the light and accepted Drake as her mate, Grey showed up to “rescue” her.
She ran a hand through her tangled hair.
She should’ve contacted Grey. Or tried to call back Maggie to tell her everything was all right. Grey’s bride was far too bright not to read between the lines of the cryptic phone called she’d made for help. It had been wishful thinking to hope that she would just let it go when she’d realized her folly.
And now everything had fallen apart. She’d gone from captive, to lover, and back again. It was a bitter pill to swallow when she’d had all she’d ever wanted in her grasp.
Blinking back another hot rush of tears, she padded over to the tiny bathroom. She stripped off her robe with a sigh, peering down at the already half-healed gash on her leg.
Drake had felt bad about it. Which meant he still cared. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have dropped Grey and leapt after her, and he certainly wouldn’t have been worried about her injury. He could pretend otherwise, but he still felt something for her. He had to.
Now she just had to figure a way to get him to admit that. If not to her, at least to himself.
Baby steps.
She climbed into the shower stall and put the water on full blast, desperate to wash away the grime of the night, wishing she could wash away the regret and bitter sadness as easily.
She took her time and, half an hour later, she came out and quickly dressed in a clean robe. The last of the adrenaline had drained from her blood, leaving her wrung out. Raw, exhausted and feeling like she’d been put through a meat grinder.
When the bedroom door swung open a few minutes later, she jumped at the sound, her frayed nerves getting the better of her.
“Don’t look so surprised. I’m not going to knock in my own keep,” Drake said in a clipped tone as he stepped into the room, the chains he held in his hands jangling as he walked. “I’ll be coming and going as I please.”
His words barely registered and her mouth went bone dry as she stared down at the gleaming steel links with manacles hanging from the ends.
He was seriously going to chain her up. And those chains were no joke. Thick, strong links that would be hard—if not impossible—to break, even with her superhuman strength.
Trapped.
The wolf in her sparked to panicked life at the thought of it.
A predator’s only true fear. She had a brief mental freak out, imagining herself gnawing off her own paw to escape after months of captivity, before she took a steadying breath.
This was short term. She had to believe that.
She’d only be chained for as long as it took Drake to realize that she hadn’t betrayed him. She’d just made a mistake. A dire mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. And once he got the anger out of his system and was willing to listen…really listen, she was sure she’d be able to convince him of the truth.
But trying to tell him again now, when he was so convinced she was attempting to manipulate him again? It would only make it worse for her. Maybe it was better to let this play out for a few days until he cooled off, even if it meant being chained. The knowledge that he would never truly hurt her would keep her sane.
“Sit,” he demanded, jerking his chin to the corner of the room where a double bed blanketed in white linens sat.
She crossed the room and perched on the edge of the bed silently and he followed, chains a-jangling.
“Hold out your right wrist,” he said, his icy gaze locked on a point somewhere over her shoulder.
She did as she was told, tamping down a wave of panic as the cold steel manacle closed over her wrist. Short term. She’d made this choice…she’d fought Greyson tooth and nail for the chance to stay with Drake, and now she was going to see it through. Because what they had before everything went horribly wrong?
Was worth fighting for.
She lifted her chin and held out her other hand before he asked for it.
“No,” he muttered. “Lie back.”
She did as he asked, heart pounding. Was he getting in the bed with her? As much as she wanted him to, just so she could feel him beside her…breathe in his scent, she wasn’t sure how rage-filled Drake would be as a lover.
How far was he willing to take this whole punishment thing?
She watched, breath suspended, as he locked the other side of the manacle to the bedpost before rounding the bed. His intention became clear as she noted that he had four separate shackles.
One for each limb.
She shuddered as the second cuff closed around her other wrist. It took everything she had not to move. To stay still and not fight him. She needed to earn his trust again. And she would, no matter what it took.
She let her eyes drift shut as he made his way to the bottom of the bed, taking each ankle in a firm hold and subjecting them to the same treatment as her hands.
A minute later, it was done. She was well and truly chained, with only a few inches of give in any direction. She tested the steel instinctively and he snicked his tongue at her.
“These manacles are made to be strong enough to hold a dragon, little wolf. Don’t bother trying to break them. There’s an intercom button under the table near your right hand. I had it installed for when I got around to hiring a live-in staff, but it will work well enough for our purposes. If you need the bathroom at night, press it. I don’t want to hear from you otherwise.”
She let her eyes drift open and met his gaze, a blast of heat rushing through her as he flicked a grudging glance to her exposed cleavage. The robe had gaped open, both at the top, and between her thighs, and she realized with a start that she was near bare to him in all the wrong—or right—places.
She kept her gaze pinned on him as she bent her knee, letting the robe slip off her thigh, revealing her from hip to ankle. A rush of satisfaction washed over her as his nostrils flared and his focus drifted down the length of her body.
He was looking slightly less enraged, and she took a risk, taking advantage of his distraction to try to talk some sense into him.
“If I wanted out of here, I could’ve left with Greyson, Drake. We could’ve shifted and ran like the frigging wind. Been gone before you even awoke. Ask yourself why we didn’t,” she whispered into the silent room.
His jaw clenched as he met her gaze again, the green of his eyes going from hot to frigid on a dime.
“Do not speak his name again in my presence,” he growled before stalking back toward the door.
Her stomach dropped and she wished she could rewind and eat her words. She’d just told herself it was too soon for rational discussion, and now she was back to square one again. She should stick to the thing that neither one of them could deny. The pull between them that, even now, was like taffy on a hot summer’s day.
“I understand that you’re mad, but please don’t go. I don’t want to be alone right now, Drake,” she murmured softly.
He faced her again, jaw flexing with barely restrained fury. “And I’m not your teddy bear, Willa. Your loneliness is no concern of mine.”
He came close again, the gleam in his eyes returning as his gaze skimmed over her body again, taking her in from head to toe.
“Or maybe you don’t need a teddy bear after all. Maybe having two men fighting over you has you hot. Is that it, little wolf? You like seeing the two of us trying to kill one another?”
She shook her head fiercely, sickened by the memory. “
No, god, no. I hated—”
“It’s pretty twisted, even for you,” he cut in with a hard laugh, “but I’ve never been one to say no to a hard fuck when it’s offered.” He unbelted his robe and let it fall to the floor. “Is a good rutting what you want?”
Strange how quickly the energy in the room changed. The anger was still there in full force, vibrating in the air. The pain just as thick, almost palpable between them. But in spite of it all, even with his crass, cruel words still ringing in her ears, the blood rushed to her core at the sight of his naked body.
He was like stone, all over. Planes of thick muscle and golden skin. Proud cock, already thickening, jutting between his thighs.
“You want it, Willa?”
His voice was nothing more than a rumble in his chest.
Not like this, she wanted to say, but the words were trapped in her throat. Like her body recognized the thought for the lie it was.
Because she did want it like this. She wanted him any way he would have her.
“I think you do,” he continued, pressing one knee to the bed right by her side, and lifted a hand to one suddenly heavy, tight breast. He pinched her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, plucking at it before letting out a low hiss as she arched helplessly into his touch.
“Or could you actually be that good of an actress? Thinking I’ll let my guard down again? Is this fake too?”
She shook her head wordlessly, not trusting herself to speak as the conflicting emotions battled for supremacy. Already, just from his nearness, just from one touch, her body was ready and willing. But there was so much unresolved between them…so much she wanted to say.
“Ah, god,” she gasped as he slid his hand from her breast to her belly and lower, roughly cupping the apex of her thighs. His expression was fierce as he ground the heel of his palm against the ache that was building.
“Funny, it seems real.” He tucked two fingers inside her, sending a bolt of need through her so strong, her legs shook with it. “So hot. So wet,” he rasped.
