by Kim Fox
He looked over her shoulder at the sleeping women. He couldn’t carry all three of them. Especially if he was being chased by his brothers. It was too dangerous, and he wasn’t willing to risk her life like that. His yes, but not hers.
“I’ll come back for them,” he promised. “Please believe me.”
She looked like she wanted to, but she shook her head instead. Terrowin probably crushed the last of her ability to trust a strange man.
“I won’t leave them,” she said sadly. “It would kill my mother.”
Draven wasn’t going to leave without her. He knew deeply that she was the one for him, even if his dragon didn’t realize it yet. For once, he was glad that he had spent the last few centuries alone. She was well worth the wait.
“I’ll come back tomorrow night,” he promised. He could try to convince Aleida to return with him tomorrow. With her help, he could take all three of them and escape. It killed him to leave without her, but he didn’t have much of a choice. “And I can help you escape. You, your mother, and Anna. Okay?”
She stared at him curiously as she held herself tight. “Why are you helping me?” she asked softly. “Why do you care?”
He couldn’t exactly tell her that he loved her, could he? No…
That was coming off a tad too strong.
“I’m trying to right the wrongs of my brothers,” he said, cringing when he realized what he had said.
She stepped back, dropping her arms as she stared at him with wide unblinking eyes. “Those psychopaths are your brothers? You’re one of them?”
“I’m not one of them,” he said softly, willing her to see. “I’m not anything like them. I want to help you.”
She was still looking at him funny, but the outrage was gone. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Draven,” he answered. “What’s yours?”
“Cali,” she whispered. “But my real name is Caliburnus.”
Draven’s stomach dropped and he almost lost his grip on the ledge as his hands started trembling. He grabbed back on and held tight as he stared at her with unbelieving eyes.
Caliburnus…
The prophecy was true. His mother was right. Place Caliburnus in the hands of the one true Dragon King and he will be unstoppable.
But the prophecy had been twisted and changed in the literature like so many of the other details. It wasn’t a magical sword, it was his mate.
“Caliburnus,” he whispered as his heart raced and a rush of adrenaline tingled through his body. “You were here the whol—”
The words vanished from his throat when she suddenly stepped back with a look of terror on her face. Her soft skin paled as white as her pajamas and her body tightened as she looked past him, over his head.
Draven whipped his head around and gulped when he saw his brother Berinon behind him. He was growing fast, shooting into the air in his human form like a giant.
His youngest half-brother, Berinon, was a size shifter and Draven had a front row seat as he grew as tall as the tower he was hanging from.
Draven jerked his head back to the beautiful girl before he let go. “I’ll be back for you,” he promised.
His heart felt like it was breaking as he let go of the ledge and pushed off with his feet, flying into the air as Berinon finally stopped growing. He was even taller than the tower and his body was as wide as the Southern Wall was long.
It would take every ounce of skill and luck that Draven had to get out of there safely. He pulled his dragon to the surface as he plummeted to the ground, urging him to hurry.
But he was too late.
Berinon’s massive hand shot forward and plucked him out of the air. His huge fingers wrapped around his body, squeezing him in place. He was a giant, and Draven was too small, too weak, too slow, and too screwed.
He tried to squirm out of the giant’s grasp, but Berinon was too strong.
My Caliburnus… I finally found her.
As long as his future mate was nearby, he’d have a chance. Once he was a mated dragon, he would have powers as well and would be able to fight back on his brothers’ level.
But until that happened… he was fucked.
Chapter 5
Cali
Cali grabbed onto the wall as all of the strength in her legs gave out. What the hell?!?
Anna’s mate Berinon was growing taller than King Kong. She sucked in a breath and hurried to the wall with her heart pounding as she looked up at the giant in disbelief.
His clothes had ripped away and his naked body was taller than the castle. Her stomach dropped when she saw Draven in his hand. His face was red and twisted in pain as he struggled to get out of the giant’s grasp, but he couldn’t budge. Berinon was too big and too strong.
“Cali?” her mother’s small voice said from behind her.
Cali was too absorbed in the shocking scene to look back.
“Oh, my gosh,” her mother gasped when she saw what Cali was looking at. She rushed out of bed and joined her side, squeezing her arm with a tight grip as she looked out the window. “Is that… Berinon?”
Cali didn’t answer. She was holding her breath as she willed Draven to break free.
Get out of there. Come on…
It wasn’t doing any good. He wasn’t able to move.
Cali gasped and her mother let out a scream, waking Anna up when the giant shifter slammed Draven into the ground with a thunderous punch.
No…
Cold chills raked through her as Berinon lifted his giant hand and she saw Draven’s crushed body lying on the ground below. He wasn’t moving.
No, no, no, no, no.
Why wasn’t he moving? Why wasn’t he getting up to fight back?
She had trouble breathing as she watched with an ache in the back of her throat. He looked dead.
Why didn’t I leave with him when I had the chance?
The renegade thought just popped into her head out of nowhere. Of course, I couldn’t have gone.
She couldn’t have left her mother and Anna. No matter how much she was tempted to leave with him.
Berinon’s huge body began to shrink as she looked out the window. Terrowin came running out of the castle down below and her eyes narrowed on him as her body tensed. She hated him more than anything for what he did to her and her mother, and now she hated him for what he was doing to Draven.
She watched with her pulse racing as he grabbed Draven’s limp arms and yanked them behind him. Berinon shrank fast, returning to his normal size as Terrowin pulled Draven up to his feet.
He came back for me. He’s here because of me.
Her chest tightened as she watched them drag the mysterious stranger into the castle. Guilt sank into her bones as she stared at the crater where Draven’s broken body had landed.
“Who was that?” her mother asked as she leaned out the window, looking around in shock.
“What happened?” Anna asked, rubbing her eyes as she sat up in bed.
Cali stayed by the window as her mother ran over to the bed and told Anna what they had just seen.
“You don’t know who it was?” Anna asked after hearing the story.
Cali’s mother shook her head. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“His name was Draven,” Cali whispered, feeling sick to her stomach as she turned away from the window. She knew how cruel Terrowin and Berinon could be and she wanted to puke from just thinking about the pain and torture that Draven was about to go through at their hands. All because of her.
Anna and her mother whipped their heads around, staring at her in confusion.
“How do you know his name?” her mother asked her.
“He was here,” she whispered as she walked to her bed. She sat down on it and pulled her legs into her chest, holding them tightly. “At the window.”
The two women just stared in shock as they waited for her to elaborate.
“He wanted to take me out of here,” she said, “but I said no.”
“You said no?!?” her mother yelled, exploding off the bed. Her face turned from anger to anguish in the blink of an eye. “Why would you say no?”
Cali swallowed hard as she looked up at her mother through teary eyes. “I didn’t want to leave you and Anna alone.”
“Oh, Caliburnus,” she said, sinking to the bed beside her. Cali melted into her embrace as she wrapped her arms around her. “All I want is for you to get out of here. I want you to live your life and be free.”
The tears started coming as Cali tried to squeeze her eyes shut against her mother’s comforting chest. The reality of what just happened hit her like a knockout punch. Her chance at leaving was over. Draven was caught. She would grow old and wrinkly in this tower, spending the rest of her life in here like Mary and Clara had.
She would never kiss a boy, she would never feel warm sand between her toes, she would never experience a man’s love, or go to college, or get a job.
Her life would only consist of the inside of this tower, and worst of all, now she had to live with the fact that she once had a chance to leave and didn’t take it.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” her mother said in a quivering voice. “I hate that I got into that limousine. This is all my fault.”
Cali squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her mother’s warm tears land on the top of her head.
“It’s not your fault, mama,” she whispered, squeezing her mother tight.
“It is,” she whispered back. “And I’m so sorry. The next time some handsome stranger comes to the window offering to rescue you, you take it. Okay?”
Cali nodded, not saying what her and her mother both knew.
There would be no next time.
Cali woke up a few hours later in her mother’s arms. Her eyes were heavy and she had a terrible headache as the afternoon sun shone down on the bed.
The sound of voices outside caused her to jerk up in bed beside her sleeping mother.
“What’s going on?” she asked Anna as she jumped out of bed. There was a commotion outside.
Anna was sitting on the couch knitting. “American tourists,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
That was nothing new. They were in a spectacular medieval castle and from time to time, tourists would show up trying to get a tour. Security would always escort them off the premises, explaining that it was a private castle and not open to tourists.
Cali still hurried over to the window and looked out. There were three muscular men arguing with a guard who looked like he was getting beyond frustrated with them.
“I told you,” the guard snapped. “It’s not open. Now leave!”
“Just one peek,” the man with the mohawk said. “We won’t touch a thing.”
They didn’t look like regular tourists who usually came with cameras hanging around their necks and maps stuffed into their back pockets. They looked like they had just come from a bodybuilding competition. They were huge.
“Look,” the one with the short cropped beard and brown hair said. “We just want to take a look around. That’s all.”
The guard turned to him with an angry huff of breath. “What part of private residence do you not understand?”
“Oh, we understand,” the third one with the wavy blonde hair said, nodding with a knowing look on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash. “We understand very well,” he said as he stuffed a bill into the guard’s hand.
The guard opened his hand and looked at the bill with a frown. “This is only five quid.”
“Plenty more where that came from,” the one with the mohawk said as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a coin and added it to the man’s hand. “Now you have six.”
“Enough,” the guard said, tossing the money on the ground. His hand settled on the gun that was hanging on his hip.
What are they doing?
Cali had seen some obnoxious tourists before, but these three took the top prize. If they weren’t careful, Terrowin or Berinon would come out and she was sure that none of them wanted that.
She fought back the urge to warn them and tell them to leave. Terrowin had made it crystal clear that they were forbidden to scream, talk, or make themselves known in any way to the outside world.
“We’ll throw you in the dungeon under the castle,” he had warned, “and we’ll make you watch as we cut the throats of the innocent people you talked to.”
“Go,” the guard shouted, losing his patience. “I’ve had enough of you three.”
The flag hanging on top of the wall flapped as the wind changed direction. She noticed the three tourists raising their heads as they sniffed the air. Their eyes sparked in recognition as they turned to look at each other.
“Actually, we’re looking for a friend,” the bearded one said. “Red hair, red beard, tiny nipples.”
Cali’s back straightened as her stomach dropped. Were they friends with…
“You’d know him if you saw him,” the one with the mohawk said. “Answers to Draven, Daniel Boone, Chief, or Drav-anus.”
The guard stepped back and pulled the walkie-talkie off his belt. The blonde one grabbed his wrist before he could put it to his mouth.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warned in a fierce voice.
The guard opened his mouth to yell, but the bearded one threw a quick punch that landed on his chin, knocking him out cold. The guard collapsed to the ground unconscious as the guy with the mohawk threw his hands in the air with an ‘ugh.’
“I wanted to punch him!” he complained like a spoiled kid.
“You can punch the next guard,” the bearded one promised as he pulled the unconscious guard behind a bush. “You guys smelled that, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” the blonde one said, cracking his knuckles as his arms flexed. “He’s in there all right.”
“That’s what I thought,” the bearded one said. “Let’s go get him.”
Cali watched in shock as the three men rushed into the castle.
Chapter 6
Draven
If you would have bonded to her we wouldn’t have had to go through this shit. Draven was cursing his inner dragon as his two half-brothers beat the shit out of him.
They had dragged him down the hallway into the dungeon and chained him up so he was hanging by his wrists in the middle of the dank room. Berinon went first, slamming his hard fists into his ribs and stomach over and over as Terrowin leaned on the stone walls and watched with a smirk on his face.
“That’s enough, Berinon,” Terrowin said as he walked over.
Berinon wiped his sweaty forehead with his forearm, gave Draven one last hard punch in the stomach, and turned away with a grunt.
Draven could barely breathe. His insides were on fire and it felt like every bone in his body was broken. He had been slammed unconscious when Berinon’s giant punched him into the ground, and only woke up when they were chaining his wrists up.
The giant’s slam had broken enough bones and caused enough pain that this beating wasn’t even necessary, but his brothers always liked to give a lot more pain than necessary.
“What are you doing back home?” Terrowin asked, grinning as he stood in front of him. His brother looked invincible—was invincible—as he stood there waiting for an answer. It was like standing in front of Superman if you were Lex Luther. And unfortunately, Draven was all out of kryptonite.
“When was the last time we saw our dear old brother?” Terrowin asked, glancing back at Berinon. “Two hundred years?”
“Three hundred at least,” Berinon corrected.
Terrowin turned back to him with a wicked grin. “Three hundred years,” he said, narrowing his eyes on him. “It seems awfully coincidental that you return as we’re about to fulfill our destiny.”
Draven just hung there, urging his broken body to heal.
Terrowin’s hand shot forward, grabbing Draven’s chin in a crushing grip. Draven grimaced as his brother forced his head up until their eyes met. “Where
’s Jarin and Valerius?”
Valerius? Draven’s eyes widened. They didn’t know where the ice dragon was?
Draven grunted as Terrowin squeezed his jaw harder. It felt like it was going to snap under his hard grasp.
“Jarin goes to find you and he doesn’t come back,” Terrowin said. “What do you know about that?”
“And Valerius?” Berinon added as he watched, leaning against the wall. “He went to find Jarin and didn’t come back either.”
Draven tried to answer but it just came out as a mumble with Terrowin’s strong hand holding his mouth closed. With a grunt, he reluctantly let go.
Draven had to stay alive as long as he could. If he could only see Caliburnus again, maybe his dragon would bond and his core would ignite, releasing the special power that laid dormant inside his body.
“I know…” he struggled to say. Every word caused searing pain to shoot through his battered body. “I know where they are. I’ll take you there.”
Berinon pushed off the wall and narrowed his eyes on him as he stormed forward. “You don’t know shit,” he said, slamming his fist into Draven’s stomach with a grunt. Draven swung on the chain that was holding him up as pain rocked through his body.
He closed his eyes and focused on her face, dreaming of being able to stroke her cheek and kiss her lips. Caliburnus…
The beautiful thought vanished as he swung back and Berinon pounded him with another devastating punch in the gut.
Terrowin pushed Berinon back and stepped up close to Draven. “You don’t take us anywhere,” he said through gritted teeth. “If it wasn’t clear by now, you’re not getting out of this room. Not alive anyway.”
Draven’s head dropped forward as a heaviness settled into his body. He was in bad shape. Beaten and worn down with two mated dragon shifters guarding him. There was no way out unless they let him out.
Terrowin’s rancid breath washed over his face as he spoke. “I suggest you start telling us the truth. Where are our brothers?”
