by K. N. Knight
I was worried about the guys, aware they would be worrying about me. But there was nothing I could do about that now. I only hoped they wouldn’t be looking for me in the dark. No, that would be impossible. Even with their enhanced eyesight, they’d appreciate how dangerous it would be to walk along the narrow mountain tracks. Hopefully they’d seen there was something particular about the way he took me and interpret it as a good sign.
“Do you want to eat now?” Draven asked, finally breaking through the silence.
“Yes. We were actually just about to prepare dinner when I was so rudely interrupted,” I said.
If he understood my sarcasm, he didn’t respond to it. Instead, he disappeared into the depths of the cave again and returned with some metal skewers and skinned animals. One I recognized as a rabbit, but I wasn’t sure what the others were. As I watched, stomach rumbling, he pushed the skewers through the meat, and laid them horizontally across the fire on brackets attached to the rock face. Very soon the scent of roasting meat filled the air.
“You can eat cooked meat whenever you want,” I murmured, dazedly.
“You poor thing,” he said. “Haven’t you been eating meat when you shifted?”
“Yeah. But I didn’t shift very often because I was scared. I’ve mostly lived on a cold vegetarian diet for the past five years.”
He was quiet again, and I thought I’d lost him, but then he continued. “I’ve lived up here since the fires,” he said in a way that suggested he’d been rehearsing the sentence before he spoke it. “I have to shift when I need to hunt because I can’t get food from human communities, but taking my dragon form is bad for me.”
“I understand.” I laid my hand on his arm, and the same sensation of his pain flaring then receding ran through my fingers again.
He stared at his feet. “It hasn’t always been like that. I used to live as a human with a very human life. Because I fell in love with a human female. I even had a human job, and I was happy because our life made her happy. And we had two beautiful children. But then I lost everything. And I lost my mind in the process. Sometimes, I think it’ll never come back.”
“You need an anchor,” I said softly. “You need to be balanced by others so you can find stability and peace in your soul.”
He was quiet, and I knew he was absorbing my thoughts.
“What was your life like before the fires?” he said.
I sighed. “I lost all my family, too. I’m the only one left. When I think about them, I feel like my soul is splitting in two, and going on without them seems pointless. But here we are.” I raised my hands and dropped them again.
He nodded in sympathy and acknowledgment. “Let’s eat.” The meat was ready, and he took it off the fire and laid it on two metal plates.
I ate hungrily, blissed out by the taste of the flame-grilled meat.
“Are you friends with other dragons up here?” I asked, once we’d finished eating.
“Some.” He took my plate and his own and went to the back of the cave. There was a sound of water splashing. “Not many. Most of them are crazy and would as soon kill you as look at you,” he called, his voice powerful enough for him not to need to shout despite the distance.
“I guess it’s a good job I got kidnapped by you then,” I said.
He returned, his face lit with a sheepish grin that made him look almost boyish. “I can’t explain what happened back there. I’ve never done anything like that before. I haven’t even looked at any other girl since Melissa—” He swallowed hard, and the amber in his eyes glowed in the darkness. Then he tossed his head, his nostrils flaring. The madness was rising in him again.
I stretched out my hand. “Come and sit down again.”
When he took my hand, the glow immediately receded. He sat down behind me, his thighs enclosing my hips, his arms wrapping around me loosely.
“So what happened with me then?” I said softly.
“I don’t know.” He took my left hand in his and started to play with my fingers. He had nice hands; long-fingered and capable. “I saw you arrive with your friends—”
I gasped. “You saw us? The only reason we came to the mountain was to find a dragon. We were starting to think it wasn’t going to happen, and all the time you’d seen us from the moment we arrived!”
He gave a cracked laugh, as if he was unused to laughing. “We dragons can be subtle when we need to. It’s not all fire-breathing and skydiving.”
I squeezed his hand. “So I see. Anyway, you were saying you’ve been stalking me for the past few days?”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I returned to where you were camped many times over those days, just watching you. And something told me you were mine.”
I let off a snort of laughter to cover my embarrassment. He’d seen me naked all those times? With all the guys? Having sex? “So you thought you’d rush right in and grab me?” I demanded.
“I couldn’t control myself. But it was the only way.”
I fell silent, chewing on that. He wasn’t really apologizing for what he’d done. And I guessed I should be mad about it, but in a way, I liked it. Liked it so much that I’d had sex with him within a few minutes of meeting him. Didn’t I feel like he was mine, too?
“Do you need anything?” he said.
“Um, I’m actually really thirsty.”
He leapt to his feet and returned with a plastic beaker of water. I raised a questioning eyebrow.
“I’ve got a tank back there. I fill it up from the river every couple of days. It’s clean.”
I drained the beaker, and when he got me another one, I drained that, too.
“Do you want to go to sleep? he asked.
“I do. Could I sleep by the fire?”
“Of course. I’ll make sure it stays lit all night.”
Six feet from the fire, he made a bed out of a huge pile of animal skins. It was the first time I’d lain on a bed of fur, but it was amazingly comfortable.
“Will you sleep in my arms?” he asked.
I nodded, and he laid down behind me, spooning me. It felt nice, and protective. I watched the firelight playing on our exposed skin, basking in its glow. It was the second time I’d been kidnapped, and the second time I’d started to get way too friendly with my kidnappers, I thought as my eyes got heavier and heavier.
I awoke briefly a couple of times in the night as Draven got up to add more wood to the fire and coax the flame with a puff of his breath. At first light, I woke up for the day, wide-awake and refreshed.
Draven was still asleep. I sat up, noticing how different he looked when he was at rest, the anguish gone from his face. He was a very handsome man with those slanting cheekbones and strong straight nose. His eyebrows were thick and straight, and he had really long eyelashes. I hadn’t noticed that yesterday when the amber of his irises had been so overwhelming. After a while, he opened his eyes, but I kept watching as he moved gradually from sleep to wakefulness. There was a flash of panic and incomprehension as his gaze fell on me, but it was quickly replaced by calm.
“Hi,” he said, his voice gravelly and sleepy. “Have you been awake for long?”
I shrugged. “Not really.”
I got up and went to the mouth of the cave. Dawn had broken in a blaze of orange light, illuminating some of the peaks far in the distance. Most of the sky was still pale violet, and it was a stunning contrast.
Draven appeared behind me. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“It is. And I’m sure my mates are looking at it, too, wondering where the hell I am.” I looked at him over my shoulder. “Will you take me back now?”
He made a sound deep in his throat and wrapped his arms around me. “No,” he growled, close to my ear. “You’re mine now, Ranger. I’m not letting you go.”
I tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but it was no use. And as I dug my hands into his forearms, scales began to grow there. I stopped moving, knowing I had to prevent his dragon from coming out.
He spun me around to face him. His face was taut with pain again. “But we mated, too. And I told you I need to be with you. You wouldn’t have mated with me if you didn’t want to be mine.”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. It was so complicated to articulate to myself, let alone him. “I like you all. I’ve really liked being here with you, but I miss them a lot and need to go back to them. They’re probably looking for me already, worrying something terrible has happened to me.”
His forehead furrowed and he fell silent. But then a pale yellow light came into his eyes. “I’ll go and tell them. You stay here, and I’ll be back soon,” he said in a tone of satisfaction as if he’d discovered the solution to a tricky dilemma.
“No, Draven!” I said loudly, finally fighting myself free of his grasp. “You can’t keep me like I’m a bag of gold or something.” I chewed on my lip, thinking. “But…you can come with me and the others.” Yes, this was a good idea. Ensnaring a dragon had been our mission this whole time after all.
He huffed, and a small jet of smoke escaped his nostrils. I jumped back in alarm, bringing myself dangerously close to the sheer drop-off at the edge of the cave. I darted past him so that he was now between me and the cave mouth.
“Share you with the others?” he roared. “That’s preposterous. Dragons don’t share!”
I folded my arms. “That’s the best offer in town. It’s all I can offer you, in fact. The other guys are happy with it, and they’re all big, growly possessive animals, too.”
When he huffed again, I couldn’t see him clearly until the smoke had cleared.
“And you expect me to live in the human world again?”
I lifted my shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “It’s not so bad down there. In fact, to be honest with you, I’ve got to say it’s a little bit better than this cave here. You get to stretch your legs. See some of the country.”
“I don’t like this idea.” He shook his head vigorously.
“If you want to be with me, it’s the only way,” I said, doing my best to ignore the little voice in my head that had pointed out the other alternative would be for him to keep me prisoner in his cave for the rest of my life.
His eyes blazed so bright I could hardly meet his gaze. “I don’t want to lose you. I can’t.”
“So you’ll come?”
He let off a sound, part snarl, part roar, and he turned a few tight circles. He came to a stop, gnashing his teeth. “I’ll try,” he muttered.
I let out a long breath. He was going to join us. Rael’s plan had, unbelievably, worked. Relief flooded through me. But I was worried that the guys were looking for me already, freaking out about me. I clapped my hands together. “Let’s leave now,” I said, “before it gets hot.”
“Okay. But we’ll have to walk. I can’t shift into my dragon again. I’m afraid I’ll lose myself in the madness if I do.”
“There’s a path all the way back to the pool?”
“There’s some kind of track. It won’t be easy, but we’ll be able to make it.”
I peered into the darkness of the cave. “You need to bring any stuff with you?”
“Yeah. I’ll get a bag together.”
I waited at the entrance while he gathered up his stuff, watching as the sun rose and the sky changed from peach to pale blue. Where was the path? When I looked out over the edge, all I could see was a long, sheer drop.
Draven returned with an old canvas backpack, his mouth set in a hard line.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Which way?”
“This way. He walked to the right-hand side of the opening and disappeared. Catching my breath, I hurried after him. There was a rock just to the side of the entrance, and beyond it was a narrow path cutting through jagged rocks. Draven had stepped onto it like it was nothing, but it looked terrifying. A few inches in the wrong direction, and I’d plunge off the mountain. He looked back and saw I was hesitating.
“Come on.” He returned to the rock and reached for me. I took his hand and broached the distance, legs trembling.
But as soon as we started walking, he was the one who struggled. He was edging along slowly, as if it was physically painful for him to leave the cave behind.
I took his hand again. “It’s going to be okay,” I said. “I have a feeling you’re going to like being with the guys.”
He grimaced, but I could tell he moved more easily when I was holding onto him. And I felt it. The pain in his body decreased when there was physical contact between us.
I only hoped the bond we were forging was a genuine one, rather than him clinging to me because it eased his emotional pain.
Chapter 15
The going was slow since there wasn’t really a track. I had the impression that Draven was making it up as he went along, taking us scrambling over cracks and sliding down steep slopes on our asses. I was scared the whole time, but I kept going, pushing myself, desperate to get back to the guys and show them that nothing terrible had happened to me.
It was impossible to tell how much progress we were making since we kept creeping around steep, sharply pointed peaks. I had a vague sense we were descending, but that was all.
Finally, when the sun was at its highest point in the sky, we rounded yet another crag, and I caught sight of a flash of orange and black stripes in the distance. I gasped. Then I yelled Rael’s name as loudly as I could, so loudly that my voice echoed around the mountains.
There was a pause of a few seconds, then I heard, “Ranger!” bellowed in three very familiar voices, each echoing several times so that the air seemed to be filled with my name. I let out a laugh of joy and relief, and I set off scrambling toward them.
They were all naked. They must have come looking for me in their animal forms. I threw myself into their arms, and they surrounded me, hugging me tight.
“Thank goodness. We were so worried. None of us slept last night, and we set off looking for you before first light,” Rael murmured.
“I knew you’d find me,” I whispered and, to my surprise, tears prickled my eyes. I’d missed them so much. The realization crashed over me. As much as Draven’s unnerving presence had consumed my mental energy for the past few hours, it had been agonizing being separated from them. Endorphins were rushing through my body. I was safe again. With all my men protecting me.
“Are you okay?” Zain asked me urgently, holding me by the shoulders.
I nodded. “I’m fine,” I said, and my mouth hungered for the touch of his lips.
Rael laid his hand on my waist. “And the dragon-man?”
“It’s all good. I’ve got him to agree to come with us. I haven’t explained the whole plan yet, but I think he’ll be willing.”
“Then how did you persuade him to come—” Oran began. Then he broke off as understanding lit his blue eyes. “Did you mate with him?” he demanded in a tone that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Just then, Draven caught up to us. Standing between him and the guys, I introduced them. But instead of saying anything in greeting, he snarled, and I felt him pushing at my back, as if eager to get his hands on them.
“Calm down,” I said, turning to face him. “They are not any threat to you. We’re going to help each other.” I turned back to the guys. “Let’s just go,” I muttered. “Maybe he’ll chill out when we start walking.”
Rael flashed his easy-going grin. “Oh-kay,” he said and started heading back to the camp.
Draven insisted on holding my hand the entire way. I didn’t mind since it slowed my walk, enabling the guys to go on ahead, which kept Draven at a safe distance from them.
Back at the campsite, I was starving since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, and it turned out the guys hadn’t either since they’d left at first light to look for me, so I made oats and fruit for everybody, including Draven, who seemed pleased to
be eating something other than roasted meat.
While we ate, Draven sat on a rock a little distance from everybody else, scowling at the guys suspiciously.
“So, what do we do now that I’ve lassoed dragon-man for you?” I whispered to Rael, Zain, and Oran.
“Well…” Rael clasped his hands, assuming his familiar intense expression. “Dragon-man doesn’t look like he’s in very good shape.”
I cast Draven a glance over my shoulder. He was muttering to himself angrily and hunching his shoulders. “No, he’s very broken. He hasn’t begun to process the loss of his wife and children in the fires.”
“He was supposed to bring balance to our group. But I don’t think he’s capable of doing that,” Oran said.
“I think he’s our best option, though. He said all the other dragons are way worse than him. At least he’s agreed to come with us. That says a lot. And he really calms down when I touch him.” All three of them raised eyebrows but said nothing. I could see jealousy flickering there below the surface, but I didn’t think they would let it get the better of them. It was a new situation, that was all.
“One of the main issues is that we’re almost out of food. And now we have a dragon, there’s no point staying here any longer,” Rael said.
“I agree,” I said.
“Let’s go back to the temperate zone,” Oran said.
“But we should probably leave tomorrow since it’s already mid-afternoon, and we know it takes at least six hours to get there,” Zain said. We all exchanged glances. I sensed the guys were all desperate to leave, and so was I. But Zain was right. If we left now, we’d likely spend the night camping directly on the road, which would be stressful and uncomfortable.
The rest of the afternoon was difficult. Draven stayed close to my side, and he growled at the others if they tried to get near to me. I announced I was going for a swim, but I suddenly got shy about being naked in front of all four of them, and I stayed in my underwear. Draven sat at the edge of the pool, just dipping his toes and glowering, while the other guys leapt in.
