by Donna Grant
He shrugged. “And I sent it away. Take the car, Elena. Just let us know where to pick it up. You willna leave here in a cab.”
A few tears escaped when Banan enfolded her in a hug. She returned his hug and whispered, “I wish you and Jane all the best.”
Elena pulled out of his arms and got into the car blinking back her tears all the while. She started Guy’s car and backed out. As she put the car in drive, Elena took a second to gaze at the manor and lands she had come to think of as home.
Then she drove away.
* * *
Banan curled his hands into fists as he watched Elena. Once she was out of sight, he strode away from the manor and Jane’s questions he wouldn’t be able to answer.
He knew exactly where Guy was. Banan didn’t stop until he stepped into the mountain to find Hal and Rhys already there. Their gloomy looks said it all.
Banan walked into the narrow opening to find the cavern dark except for a single candle set off to the right. There he spotted Guy with his head in his hands.
“I’ve never known a bigger piece of shite than what I’m looking at now,” Banan said.
Guy didn’t even twitch at his words. “I’m trying to make her happy.”
“Happy?” Banan snorted his derision. “If you had seen her before she drove off, you’d know she was anything but happy.”
The silence was almost eerie as Guy slowly lifted his head, his pale brown eyes haunted and hollow. “She’s … gone?”
Banan frowned, seeing for the first time just how hard Guy was taking it. His friend was barely holding it together. And with Elena gone? What would happen to Guy now?
“Aye,” Banan finally answered.
Guy threw back his head and bellowed, the sound forlorn and enraged. In the next instant Guy shifted into dragon form. Guy let out a loud roar as Rhys and Hal came running into the cavern.
But it was too late. The Dragon King they knew was gone. Banan held the others back when they attempted to stop Guy from crashing through the back entrance and taking flight.
“Con is going to be pissed,” Hal said.
Banan ground his teeth together. “Con can go sod himself. He didna just see what I did.”
“I agree with Banan,” Rhys said. “And you all wonder why I have a different woman every night. I doona want to feel that kind of pain.”
Hal narrowed his gaze on Rhys. “And the happiness of finding your mate? You doona want that?”
“Happiness?” Rhys pointed to where Guy had left. “Does that look like happiness to you, because it sure didna to me.”
Banan raked a hand through his short hair. “We need to do something. We’ll lose Guy if Elena doesna return.”
“And how do you suppose to get her back?” Con asked.
Banan stilled, hating when Con snuck up on them as he loved to do. Banan turned to face his King. “How much did you see?”
“Enough,” Constantine said, his voice holding a note of sadness Banan hadn’t expected.
Rhys crossed his arms over his chest. “One of these days we’re going to sneak up on you. I thought you were out of the country.”
“I was. I sensed something wrong, so I returned.” Con looked at each of them before he said, “Guy did what he had to do for Elena. It’s now up to her.”
Hal spread his arms wide. “Really? You want to leave it up to Elena? She’s gone, Con. Gone.”
“How could Elena think Guy wanted her to stay anyway?” Rhys asked. “He’s made her think he was gone while he’s been hiding here.”
Banan knew he couldn’t just sit back and watch Elena and Guy be destroyed by their love for each other. “Those two are meant for each other. We all knew it the instant they met. I’ll go talk to Elena.”
“Nay.” Con’s voice was hard, the edge giving the word a finality to it. “No one will speak to Elena. She must come back on her own.”
“Then Guy is fucked,” Rhys said and walked away.
Hal sighed loudly. “I agree with Rhys. Neither Guy nor Elena will be happy now.”
When Hal departed, it left only Banan and Con. Banan wanted to argue the point with Con, and he opened his mouth to do just that when Con held up a hand.
“I know you think I’m cold, and in this I am being a cold bastard. But think about it. If Elena doesna return on her own, Guy will forever doubt if she returned because she truly loves him. Then we will be back to repeating this same scenario.”
“You really doona want us to find our mates, do you?” Banan gave a sad shake of his head. “I stood up for you, but I think the others are right. You would rather us be alone.”
Con raised a blond brow. “Would I rather none of you experience pain or betrayal if it meant you never found your brides? You’re bloody damn right,” Con said, his voice rising an octave. “I’ve seen too much. Need I remind you about Ulrik?”
“That was one fekking woman millions and millions of years ago! Let it go, Con.”
“I’ll gladly be the bad guy in this. None of you were there when I talked to Ulrik. You didna see what I saw, didna hear what I heard. And I never want to see or hear that again. If it means we spend eternity alone, then so be it.”
Banan could only stare at Con. It was the first time he had ever hinted that he had gone to Ulrik after they had killed his woman. Why tell him now? What point was Con trying to make? But it didn’t matter.
“You’re one cold bastard,” Banan said and stormed past him before he let his temper loose.
Con casually put his hands in his slacks and stared at the rocks now crumbled at the back entrance to Guy’s cave. There was more than enough room for Guy to leave in his dragon form. The fact he had nearly taken out half his cave in his bid to get free said more than any words.
Con turned on his heel and walked away. There was business he needed to see to.
CHAPTER
THREE
It was the roar that had Elena jerking the car to the side of the road. She threw it in park and opened the door to step out just in time to see the deep red scales of the dragon disappear into the clouds.
“Guy,” she whispered.
He had been at Dreagan the entire time. There had been no mission. He had simply wanted to be away from her. Anger sizzled through her.
Elena got back in the car, her hands on the wheel as her sadness turned to rage. She threw the car in drive and smoked the tires on the road before she sped off. Her destination was Edinburgh where she could get a flight back to the States.
Except the hours it took to reach Edinburgh were plagued with the memories of her time with Guy. His smile, the desire in his eyes, the way his hands knew how to touch her to bring about the most exquisite pleasure. Elena forced herself to stop thinking of all the wonderful ways Guy had enriched her life. Despite how angry she was, she couldn’t turn it on him.
Her ire was aimed more at the world. She had done everything right, had given all of herself to Guy.
Or had she?
At the back of her mind, something twinged, a memory she didn’t recognize that suddenly sprang up reminding her of how she had struggled and worked to climb the corporate ladder at PureGems.
That part of her life was over. Or at least it had been. Elena didn’t want to think of the future yet. Her pain was still too raw, too visceral to manage.
Instead of breaking down into a pile of sobs, she focused on the road. She turned on the stereo, glad to hear an AC/DC CD. While the strings of “Back in Black” roared through the speakers, she sang at the top of her lungs.
With AC/DC she didn’t have to worry about hearing a sad love song. They would maintain her resolve to hold things together. For how long she couldn’t be sure, but at least long enough to reach Edinburgh.
And two hours later, the CD had done the trick. She turned off the stereo as the road took her through the city to the airport.
Elena circled the airport twice before deciding to spend the night at a hotel. Yet, as she drove to the hotel, she didn’t thi
nk she could stay another minute in Scotland. Guy was too close, and her willpower too low.
Sitting in his car, it was all she could do not to call him and try to talk. Then she remembered seeing him fly away after she had left.
Elena turned the car around and headed back to the airport. She parked the car and pulled out her luggage before she tossed the keys into the trunk. She sent a quick text to Banan telling him where the car was just as she’d promised.
With her shoulders back and her head held high, Elena walked into Edinburgh Airport to the United terminal and redeemed her ticket to Atlanta. It wasn’t until Elena was sitting at her gate that she wondered why she was going home.
Elena leaned back in the chair and stared out the window at the planes. Her flight didn’t leave for another six hours. How she was going to make it through until then she didn’t know.
To keep her mind off Guy she played games on her phone, watched a movie on her iPad, wandered the airport visiting the gift shops and eating, and then she tried reading.
It worked. Until she fell asleep. Then she dreamed of bloodred scales and white eyes, of Guy’s tattoo and the first time she saw it move. She dreamed of his tantalizing kisses and his deep voice.
Her eyes flew open as her body trembled with need. Is this what her future held? Would her body, her heart even allow her to forget Guy and the love they had shared? Would time dim her feelings?
“Oh, God,” she moaned as the truth slammed into her.
There would never be another for her. What she and Guy shared was special, too special to ever attempt to repeat. There was no man on earth who could compare. She would spend the rest of her life alone with only her memories of Guy and Dreagan to see her through the long, lonely years of her life.
As thunder boomed around her, the rain fell in thick sheets. Elena rose and walked to the large windows. Up in the clouds she knew Guy and the other Dragon Kings were flying. He never passed up an opportunity to take to the skies.
Guy would often tell her stories of his time before there were humans and how the dragons had ruled the earth. His pale brown eyes would grow distant as he talked of how it felt to feel the wind beneath his wings, of how he soared through the air, his Reds behind him.
She knew how terribly he missed his Reds, and how fiercely he fought for both the dragons and humans in that awful war that had divided the two races.
* * *
Guy tucked his wings and dove from the clouds while the lightning forked around him. The air crackled with electrical currents, but he didn’t care. He flew higher, farther than he had in ages, but no matter how fast he went—or how far—he couldn’t outrun the pain that was threatening to swallow him.
The air whooshed around him a second before lightning struck him through his left wing. Guy rolled and then spread his wings again, daring the lightning to take him down.
His heart was heavy with anguish, leaden with grief. The sadness, the regret bombarded him as steadily as the rain, and all the while he wished he could have been the man Elena needed to fill the void her job had left.
He thought of her hands gliding over his back as he made love to her, he recalled how her sighs turned to soft cries as her passion grew. And he remembered how she clung to him as their bodies peaked and they shared their souls.
Guy let out a roar and turned back to Dreagan. He would seek out his cave and sleep. In his dreams he would relive every second he’d had with Elena, and hopefully, thousands of years from now when he woke, he would be able to walk into Dreagan Manor without thinking of the woman who had stolen his heart.
By the time Guy reached Dreagan land the sky was full of Dragon Kings. He made sure to fly higher than any of them. He wanted no words of comfort, no talk of finding his true mate later, because he knew Elena was his bride.
Guy spotted an amber dragon below him who casually turned another away who had been on his way to Guy. It didn’t take long for Guy to spot Rhys and Hal doing the same as Tristan.
When Hal tried to open their mental link, Guy hastily shut him off. He then used the time to dive to earth, spreading his wings to slow just before he reached the back entrance to his cave.
Guy landed and tucked his wings. He turned his great head to the manor wishing Elena was waiting for him. With one last look at the window of their rooms, Guy walked into the mountain.
Darkness met him, but with his dragon eyes the night didn’t bother him. He curled up in a back corner hidden by boulders and rested his head upon his arm.
After a long sigh, he closed his eyes even as he picked up the sounds of approaching footsteps. Guy didn’t need to open his eyes to know it was Con coming to pay him a visit. It had only been a matter of time before Con came to him. Before every King took to their sleep, Con would spend time with them. Guy would be no different.
Con’s steps slowed before he entered the cave. Guy shifted into human form and waited for Con to speak. For several minutes Con’s eyes searched the darkness for Guy before he leaned back against the rock and crossed one ankle over the other.
“How long will you sleep?” Con asked.
Guy was surprised Con hadn’t wanted to know what went wrong with Elena, but no matter. Guy was grateful not to be talking about her. “I doona know. A couple of millennia at least.”
“Will that be enough?”
Guy understood Con was asking if it would be enough time to ease his shattered heart. “Nay.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Keep the others away. I know they mean well, but I doona want to talk of her.”
Con rubbed his jaw as he looked at the ground. “Sleeping will no’ erase her from your memories.”
“I know, but if I doona sleep, I’ll go to her.”
“Would that be so bad?”
Guy fisted his hands, hands that had held Elena just a few nights earlier. “She has a career, Con. I need to let her go and no’ tie her here.”
“Have you thought you might be making a mistake?”
Guy frowned. Mistake? He knew what he had seen, and it hadn’t been easy to come to his decision. It had nigh killed him to leave her the way he had. “Nay.”
Con shrugged and straightened from the wall. “I’m sure it’s all for the best. We’re better off without the pain the humans bring us.”
Guy waited until Con’s footsteps faded before he shifted back into a dragon and resumed his position. Only then did he force his eyes closed.
And an image of Elena filled his mind.
CHAPTER
FOUR
“Last call for boarding flight 1683 to Newark,” came the nasally female voice over the intercom of the airport.
Yet Elena remained in her seat. If she got on the plane and returned to the States, she would never come back to Scotland. Ever. It would be too hard.
But to stay … that was just as difficult.
If she remained, there was a chance she would run into Guy. What if he was with another woman? How could she survive that? Then again, how could she leave Scotland and never see him again?
Elena bent over at the waist and squeezed her head with her hands. She didn’t know what to do or where to go. Her mind was full of Guy and decisions were impossible to make.
She grabbed her purse and found the customer-service desk for United. There she cancelled her ticket and gave the address to her hotel for her luggage to be returned to her.
Elena walked out of the airport and waited for a taxi. She didn’t know how long she stood there before she noticed someone was beside her.
She slowly turned her head to find Constantine. Elena hastily looked away. He was a reminder of the life she had left, of the man who had loved her—if only for a brief time.
“I’ve been watching you,” Con said.
Elena shrugged, still refusing to look at him. “That’s nice.”
“You look like shite, Elena.”
“Bugger off, Con.”
He sighed loudly. “You didna use your ticket.
”
“How very observant of you.” She was tired of being polite, tired of holding the rage and pain back. Con was the perfect person for her to take everything out on. And she intended to do just that.
“Why did you stay?”
“None of your business. You may rule the Kings, but you don’t command me anymore.”
He made a sound at the back of his throat. “You’re a fool if you thought I ever commanded you or any of the women, Elena.”
“What do you want, Con?”
“I want to know why you didna get on the plane.”
Elena swallowed and looked out over all the parked cars, not seeing the people milling about. “I knew if I left Scotland that I’d never return.”
“Nothing would prevent you from returning.”
“Memories. If I put that kind of distance between what once was and a new life, I’d never be strong enough to return.”
Con turned so that he leaned against a column to face her. “So you stay?”
“I couldn’t get on the plane today, but I’m tired of sitting at the airport. I want a bath and a bed.” So she could cry the tears she had been holding back all day. “I’ll face tomorrow and any decisions when it arrives.”
“So you doona have a job waiting for you?”
Elena’s head jerked to Con to find his black eyes watching her with amusement. “Job? No.”
“You doona have offers?”
“I’ve had a couple. What difference does that make?” She hated when Con didn’t come right to the point. He loved to take the long way around things as if he had all the time in the world—which he did. And it infuriated her.
Con shrugged one shoulder. “Have you accepted an offer?”
“No,” she said angrily, and she didn’t try to hide it from him. “Why? Why would you care if I had a job or not?”
“No job and you are no’ returning to Atlanta. What are you going to do?”
Elena turned and walked away. She had taken only three steps when she whirled back around and stalked to Con. “Ask what you really want to know.”
“Why did you leave Guy?” Gone was the delight she had seen in his black eyes earlier. Now they stared at her with a singular intensity that left her shaken.
