by Ava Benton
“You didn’t seem to have a problem with my bedside manner yesterday,” she muttered before turning me in place and pushing me in the direction of the bed.
“Thanks for reminding me. I would rather not think about yesterday, if you don’t mind.” I settle back in, though I didn’t want to. I wanted sunlight and fresh air. I wanted movement. I didn’t want to lie in bed—even when it was almost sinfully comfortable.
“Maybe it’s better if you give yesterday a little thought, even if you don’t want to.” She tucked me in absentmindedly, talking as she did. “You’re the one who insisted on driving around when you knew it was going to rain buckets all day long. You shouldn’t have been out, especially not in that tiny little excuse for a car.”
“Ugh. My car.” I rolled my eyes and let my head drop onto the pillow. “It’s gone for good.”
“I can’t pretend I’m upset for you.”
“No, and I wouldn’t expect you to,” I muttered.
“Papa never wanted you to drive that thing.”
“I’m sure Papa would have been glad to know it’s a snarl of twisted metal now. It’ll probably make a nice little home for a family of skunks.” I had to chuckle, even though the thought of being without my car made me miserable.
It was my only connection to something real, something beyond the world I had been raised in. The world that had always held fascination for me.
“I’ll sleep better at night knowing you’re not on some dark, unmarked road in that rusty old thing.”
“No. I’ll be here. In this cave.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “When can we leave?”
She grimaced. “I don’t know. Not until you’re better, at any rate.”
“When will that be?”
“I can’t tell the future.”
“You’re evading the question.”
“I don’t know what to say.” She whispered, too, leaning in close. “I don’t know if they’re going to let us go. Or when.”
My heart froze for a second before beating again. Just the thought of living here forever… “No. That can’t be.”
“Tell them. They make it sound like we’ll be here forever. And they’re not happy about it.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I wish I were.”
I pushed her away with surprising strength, considering what I had just been through, and stormed over to the closed door. “How do I get out of this room?”
“Jasmine, you shouldn’t—”
“How?” I looked at the screen beside the door and finally noticed the button labeled OPEN. I jabbed my finger against it, and the door slid open.
“Jasmine, you should be resting.” Alina closed a hand around my elbow which I shook off.
No way was I about to allow them or anybody to keep me prisoner.
“I’ll rest later. Where are they?” I marched barefoot down a long hall, warmly lit by electric lights the way the room and bathroom were.
Where did they get power from? The walls were the same carved rock as back in the cells, not like the bedroom. I passed several closed doors before hearing the deep, male voices which carried down the hall.
I headed straight for them and soon found myself in what looked like a game room.
Smoke and another brawny man with thick, dark stubble covering his cheeks were deep into a video game—judging from Smoke’s groans and curses, he was losing.
“Next time, we’re playing chess,” he grumbled as his player died. He punched his opponent’s arm, only somewhat playfully.
Two more men played air hockey at a large, wooden table in one corner. There were old-fashioned arcade games along one wall and a glowing, blinking juke box in another corner which played light, soothing jazz in contrast to the testosterone clogging the air.
None of them noticed me.
I cleared my throat.
“Oh.” One of the air hockey players froze in place.
His opponent took the opportunity to score on him before turning to see me there. He froze, too.
“Where’s Pierce?” I asked, suddenly very aware that I was dressed in nothing but a vastly oversized t-shirt.
“You look much better.” Smoke rose, smiling. “I’m glad.”
“Yeah, thanks. Where’s Pierce?”
Just like that, his mood shifted.
Like I cared. His brother was the one who got me into the mess I was in.
“He’s around here somewhere.”
Alina stood next to me—just like that, he went back to smiling again.
I glanced her way to check her reaction and saw that she was smiling, too.
What’s this all about? They might as well have been the only two people in the room.
“She only wants to find out what the plans are for the two of us to leave,” she explained in a soft voice. Softer than the voice she’d used when we were talking in the bedroom. What did I miss between them?
The guys exchanged a look which hardly filled me with hope. “Uh, that’s not an easy question to answer,” the scruffy one said. He was dark-haired and tall and muscular, just like the rest of them. Had Pierce or Smoke called them a family? They had to be related, unless all dragon shifters looked the same. Just another reminder that I was hopelessly out of my depth with them.
“Why not? It seems pretty easy to me.” I looked at my sister, whose cheeks went deeper red every second. “Hey, Alina. I’m feeling a lot better. This was all a lot of fun, but I think it’s time for us to go home. Do you think I’m well enough to leave?”
“It’s not a question of whether you’re well enough.” Pierce’s voice.
I turned to find him behind me, standing in the doorway. Scowling.
What a surprise.
“What’s it a question of, then?” I fought with myself to keep from paying too much attention to his eyes, his magnificent cheekbones, the way his biceps and pecs strained the seams on his t-shirt.
Seeing him in full light, while conscious, was a completely different experience from what I remembered from the cell.
“There is no question. You probably don’t remember because you were in and out at the time. I guess it’s understandable.” He took a step closer to me—slowly, like he was approaching a frightened animal.
I stood my ground, even though my insides quaked. I was challenging a dragon. A dragon I had ridden while he flew me to his cave. What the hell was my life turning into?
“Just come out with it,” I hissed. “What are you trying to say?”
One eyebrow arched, and he tipped his head ever so slightly.
I recognized that look: As you wish, madam, though you won’t like what you’re about to hear.
“So be it. You can’t leave, Jasmine. It’s not possible now.”
12
Pierce
Tell her more. Tell her she’s ours. Tell her there’s no way she’ll ever leave because she belongs to us.
I wanted to. I needed to. Every fiber of my being told me to. But I couldn’t. Not just because my family stared at me like they were waiting for me to make an ass out of myself, but because the sight of her in my t-shirt and nothing else set my pulse racing fast enough to make it almost impossible to speak.
Take her. Take her now. Take her until she forgets there’s a world outside of ours. Until she can no longer take a breath without smelling us on her skin.
Lust burned deep in my core, threatening to engulf me if I didn’t give in to it.
She didn’t give me or the dragon the chance to let the desire consume us.
She glared at me. “You must be on something. Or there’s some strange chemical pumping through whatever ventilation system you have set up here. Right? Is that it?”
I frowned, looking over her shoulder to where Smoke and Fence stood by the couch.
They both shrugged.
“No…?” I replied. “That’s the situation. You’re not leaving. I’ve already told you this. I’m sorry you didn’t remember or didn’t believe me when I said i
t, but that doesn’t make it any less true.”
“You’re insane! You honestly think I’m going to stay here just because you tell me I have to?” She looked at Alina. “Hello? A little help here?”
“I don’t know what to say. I mean, I don’t want to stay here, either…”
I noticed the way Smoke winced when she said it.
“So why are we still here? We don’t have to be. We don’t want to be.” Jasmine turned to me, hands on her hips. “What, are you going to turn into dragons and block the way?”
“Would you like us to?” I snarled.
“Hold on, hold on.” Smoke dropped his controller and came to my side. “Relax. You two can work this out.”
“No, no, let him speak for himself,” Jasmine countered. “He can hardly help but sound like a roaring, raging creep.”
“I can roar a lot louder,” I growled through clenched teeth.
“I know you can. I’ve already heard that, remember?”
“All I did was save your life!”
“And then you almost killed me! And now, you won’t let me leave! What was the point of saving me for this? If this is all there will ever be, why didn’t you just let me die?”
Her chest rose and fell in time with her fast, shallow breath. When she was angry, the color in her cheeks almost matched the color of her hair, and her skin warmed up, which only made her scent stronger.
I didn’t know if I should throw her off the nearest cliff or throw her to the floor and take her the way the dragon demanded.
Alina slid an arm around her shoulders. “You’re just upset.”
“Don’t tell me how I feel, damn it. I know how I feel, and I’m not just upset. I’m fucking pissed off, and I have no control over my life, and this is bullshit. All of this is bullshit!” Tears filled her eyes. Her chin trembled.
Even though I was sure she would throw a right hook if I so much as touched her, I wanted nothing more than to wrap my arms around her and tell her it would be all right.
She didn’t have to feel hopeless. Life could be good for us—no, it would be good. I would make it good.
“You’ll understand in time.” What a complete jackass thing to say. The worst thing I could’ve said.
Even the dragon groaned in disgust.
“In time?” Her voice was barely a whisper. A dangerous whisper, at that. “In time? How much time do you expect me to give you, Pierce?”
“The rest of your life. Nothing less than that. And the sooner you get used to it, the better.” With that, I walked off.
I left her standing there before I said or did anything I would regret later.
In the moment? Hell, yes, I wanted to put her in her place.
The dragon wanted the same thing. How dare she not want to be my mate? She had no idea the honor which came along with such a position. She knew nothing about our long history, about the royal blood which flowed through our veins.
“Pierce! Wait, please!” Alina followed me through the tunnel, catching up once we reached the kitchen. “That could’ve gone a lot better.”
“Oh, do you think so, Alina?”
She frowned, and I immediately felt sorry for snapping.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I wanted to apologize for my sister.”
“Do you ever get tired of taking care of her?”
Her mouth opened, then snapped shut. Lines appeared between her eyebrows. “Honestly?”
“Yes.”
“No. I don’t.” She shrugged. “I love her, and she’s worth it.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“What? That I love her, or that she’s worth it?” She grinned. “I mean, you took care of her. Didn’t you? You risked everything to bring her here, and you didn’t have to. Nobody was holding a gun to your head, were they?”
“Nobody’s ever done that, and nobody would ever be allowed to get away with it.”
“You know what I’m saying, Pierce. You took a chance—a massive chance. One which could’ve meant destruction for your family. You knew that at the time, but you did it anyway. What does that tell you?”
“That I’m just as insane as your sister says I am.”
“Come on. You know what I’m saying. There’s something special about my sister, and you feel it just as strongly as I do. Just for a different reason than I do.”
“Does she have this effect on everybody she meets?” I couldn’t believe it, but I half-hoped she would say yes.
No matter what my damned dragon wanted, the girl wasn’t worth half the trouble I had been through because of her. Knowing she was one of the fae gave me hope that she’d put a spell or charm on me. Something which would explain the pull I felt toward her and get me off the hook.
“No. She doesn’t. Just on the people who love her.”
“I don’t love her.”
She shrugged. “If you say so.”
“How could I love her? I don’t know her.”
“I saw the way you held her when I performed the healing. How gentle you were. You care, at the very least. You care deeply. I’m sure it has something to do with the dragon side of you—I don’t know anything about that, of course,” she added, speaking so fast her words ran together.
“Are you sure you don’t know anything about that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know what you mean.” She blushed, just the way she had when she was looking at Smoke. “And stop changing the subject, please.”
“Fine, fine. The subject is your sister. I’m not sure what you want me to do about it. She can’t leave. There’s nothing I can do about that. It’s bad enough you want to go.”
“I want to go, and I have to. There’s no way around it. My father will want me back—no way he’s going to let both of us stay forever.”
Yet another problem I didn’t have the time or energy to take on just then.
“She’s the one who’s going to have to get used to it. I can’t do it for her. Maybe she’s the one you should be talking to right now, not me.”
“You could be a little kinder,” she said, as I took a step backward and tapped the touchscreen to close the library door between us before she had the chance to tell me even more about how wrong I supposedly was.
One more tap locked the door—only somebody who knew the code could get in at that point, and it was unlikely that any of the other guys would give the code away. Not to somebody who didn’t belong here.
The library was Smoke’s domain, not mine—not that I was there to get any reading done.
I flopped down into one of the old leather chairs, so dusty that a cloud of it floated around my head.
I waved it off, cursing under my breath. Maybe Jasmine could be trained to tackle the cleaning around there, since she clearly had no desire to be with me.
Change her mind, the dragon urged. She wants us. Didn’t you smell her need? She’s ripe and ready and full of desire, and she only needs us to pluck her off the vine and sink deep inside…
“Enough,” I growled, shoving the image of Jasmine’s warm, curvy, naked body out of my mind.
I kept picturing her beneath me, writhing against me, moaning my name as I plunged into her wet heat. That would never happen. She hated everything about being there, and she certainly hated me for saving her fucking life.
I knocked the chair backward as I stood and winced when it crashed to the floor and kicked up even more dust.
Nothing was going right.
Starting with the moment, I decided to get out of my truck and find out if the person in the car needed help. Yes, she needed help—but I needed it even more, because of her.
There was another loud, crashing noise. It didn’t come from inside the library this time.
“What’s going on?” I stepped out into the tunnel, head swiveling back and forth.
“Damn it, Jasmine! I told you to take it easy!” I followed the sound of Alina’s voice and found her in the kitchen with her sister.<
br />
Jasmine was on the floor, eyes closed, broken dishes strewn around her.
“She collapsed,” Alina babbled as I crouched down beside the two of them. “She wanted something to eat, and I told her to go back to bed and let somebody bring her something—especially since she doesn’t know where anything is around here—”
“And she insisted on doing it herself because she doesn’t want any of us doing anything for her,” I finished with a groan of disappointment and disgust. “Come on. Let’s get her back to her room.”
I slid my arms under her shoulders and behind her knees before lifting and cradling her against my chest.
She was so warm, so soft. So stubborn and hell-bent on destruction. The most challenging, ridiculous person I had ever known.
Everything that would ever matter to me until the end of time.
As I carried her down the tunnel, her eyes fluttered open.
She looked up at me. “I don’t want to be here,” was all she whispered before her lids slid shut and her head sank down against my shoulder.
I could only shake my head. “Yeah. Tell me something I don’t know.”
13
Jasmine
Two days passed before I dared show my face outside my room.
I couldn’t imagine what they must think of me. Not that it mattered, or so I told myself. I wasn’t trying to make friends with anybody, even Pierce.
Especially Pierce. My jailer.
Passing out in the kitchen made me look like a fool. I shuddered every time I thought about it. I came off as a spoiled brat who stomped her feet when she didn’t get her way, when nothing could be further from the truth—at least, that wasn’t how I saw myself. Not normally.
My situation brought it out in me.
Pierce brought it out in me.
He couldn’t be bothered to see my side of things. He would rather order, demand, drop bombshells in my lap about never being able to go home again as casually as he would tell me it was sunny outside. Like it was a fact. Something I had no say in.
Alina was no help.
I couldn’t even count on her to stand up for me.
