Dragon Claimed

by Cecilia Lane

  “I’m not like most men.” He shrugged.

  “Right, because you’re powyrful. There’s a bigger fight going on and you could do some real good. Fight for something real, something that truly matters.” Each word fueled her resolve. She needed to make him see he was worth more than some connected criminal. She drew in a shuddering breath and struck. “I’m going back. If you don’t go with me, then you’re no better than the man that left your sister at the altar because he was too scared to grow up.”

  He was on his feet in seconds. His hand wrapped around her throat and he walked her backwards until she pressed against a wall. “Don’t you fucking talk about my sister. Don’t you compare me to that bastard.”

  She raised her hands up. She wasn’t a threat to him. “Eoghan… you know who I am. You know what you are and who you might be. You know I have to go back. It’s my home. I want it to be yours, too.”

  He stared at her. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “I am. I have to.” She tried to nod but his hand kept her locked in place.

  The grip on her throat changed and he pressed his nose into the crook of her neck. “You’re not leaving me. Because you don’t want to lose this.”

  His mouth closed on hers, possessive and hungry. Annika’s eyes fluttered closed and she sagged into Eoghan. Her lips parted at the first swipe of his tongue and she welcomed the flavor of him on her taste buds.

  His hands wandered, skimming over her arms and stroking her back. His fingers dug into her hips and hauled her away from the wall at her back and into the wall of his body. Annika stifled a groan. He strained against his jeans.

  He growled into her mouth and refused to let her go. She returned every stroke of his tongue with a caress and tangle of her own. There was no fighting him, no choice but to let him dominate the embrace. She didn’t want to do anything but let him touch her. She only wanted more.

  She dragged her nails down his arms. Her head swam. She was used to losing focus because of rising panic. Eoghan made her head hot and hazy. Her pussy grew heavy and wet with her need for him.

  Passion. Need. Desire. All of it sang along her nerves. All of it because of her mate.

  Her groan when he broke the kiss turned into shock when he knelt and hooked her stomach into his shoulder and lifted her. She struggled and a firm hand came down on her ass. “Stop.”

  He carried her up the stairs and into the bedroom, throwing her on the bed and covering her with his body. His mouth crashed down on hers again and his hands lazily explored from her waist up her body. There was no denying him even if she wanted to.

  The reasons why she fell in love with him then were the same now. Talking with Jaya only made it clearer. He made it clearer.

  She liked the danger he kept locked away. Hints of it poked through and only underscored the devotion and protection that ran in him. He could snap from lounging around to ripping someone apart in seconds if he needed to protect someone.

  She couldn’t love him when she didn’t know who she was. Now that she did, she saw it all slipping through her fingers. Eoghan and their future were fading away and it ripped her apart.

  She needed to go home to Patomas and piece her life back together. Her loyalty was torn between the Dragon Court and Eoghan. If he wouldn’t leave with her, she could at least have one last night with him.

  The heat and desperation in his kiss were matched only by her own. She needed to feel him, even if it was for the last time. The tiniest bit of space between their bodies needed to be banished. She rolled her hips and mewled when the hard line of his cock connected with her needy heat.

  Cold metal closed around one wrist and her eyes snapped open. Eoghan tightened the second cuff on her wrist as she bucked underneath him.

  “What are you doing?” She shook her bound wrists and the tethers behind the bed. “Let me go.”

  “I told ya, I have somewhere tae be. Stay and behave.”

  “Behave?” She sputtered. “Let me out right now!”

  “Ya need tae think and reconsider this leaving nonsense. I need tae put down Mariko.” He pat her leg and stood. “It will do us both some good tae clear our heads, I think.”

  He kissed her forehead and laughed as she struggled against the cuffs holding her in place. “I can see why ya got in this line of work. Deceit can be so rewarding when yer on the other side of it.”

  14

  Eoghan itched for the fight. He paced in front of the waiting cars. Each step through the high beams cut his silhouette against the shipping containers in the background. His shadow looming over the open space fit his mood.

  Mariko didn’t get a jump on them like the last time. But the waiting let his mind wander away from the conflict at hand and back to the woman chained up in his bed.

  The last year was one long frustration and it didn’t end when Annika walked back into his life.

  He hadn’t had a chance to use the cuffs before she disappeared. He wanted to see her spread out for him. He wanted to feel her hips bucking against him as he held her down and forced pleasure out of her with his mouth and hands. Then, and only after she begged so sweetly, would he give them both what they wanted.

  Fooking hell. He shook his head and tried to clear away the image of Annika tied up in his bed. He needed to focus. And not on the things he wanted to do to her.

  She wasn’t the woman he thought she was. She wasn’t the woman he fell for. She had a body made for loving and a mind made for deceit.

  The desire that roared to life faded fast.

  She thought she could leave him? Not a fooking chance. He was the one who would decide when it was done. She was in his city and under his rule.

  Fuck.

  It felt good to lock her up. The betrayal was minor compared to the lies she told him. She needed to hurt for what she did.

  Even if he wanted to cast her aside, he didn’t think he could do it. Her head was just coming back together. She was still sick. She needed help until she was whole again.

  And he wanted to punch something at the thought of anyone getting near enough to care for her.

  He clenched and unclenched his fists. Soon. He’d have an excuse to fight soon enough.

  On the one hand, she lied to him. Pure and simple. She was on a mission for her precious Dragon Court and she had plans to kill him if his intentions didn’t match the ones of her masters. She made no attempts to come clean until she was caught.

  But on the other side of it all, she was his mate. A fact unexpectedly sprung on them both. It’d certainly been a shock to go into Heat and feel a connection to the Wyrd for the first time. He imagined she must have felt the same.

  He couldn’t read her mind. Maybe she planned to square shite away with the Dragon Court. That entire time between their mating and her disappearance was a blur of discarded clothes and tangled limbs.

  Eoghan growled and banished away the montage that popped into his head. A long, loud conversation was in their future. Ann could sit and stew while he put his territory to rights and figured out what to do with her after.

  Simple, no?

  The crew he brought with him perked up, one by one. He cocked his head and listened. Footsteps approached from the backside of the complex.

  His fists clenched at his side as soon as Mariko appeared. Fury washed over him at the sight of her.

  She knew the meeting would end in violence. The handle of her katana pushed over her shoulder. Her hair was tied in a knot on the top of her head. Even her clothes were prepared for the coming fight: soft and loose, ready for a quick shift should she need it.

  Their fight wasn’t just over territory. He deluded himself into thinking so. The pictures of his sisters and the danger they represented, that was only a part of it.

  Mariko had entered his home. She had attacked his mate, tried to steal her away from him. The side of him that enjoyed locking the cuffs around Annika’s wrists and laughing at her struggle to get free looked forward to snuffing Mariko from the worl
d.

  “Don Gilchrist,” Mariko greeted. She bowed her head in respect. It echoed their previous meeting.

  He wouldn’t have that defeat repeated.

  “Ya just don’t know when tae stop, do ya?” He stepped forward, meeting her halfway between their fighting forces. He ticked off his fingers. “Ya killed my capo. Ya stole my wytch. Ya entered my lair and tried tae steal my mate. Ya turned guns on me. Ya threatened my sisters. Tell me, Mariko, have ya seen someone about yer death wish? I couldn’t live with killing ya if yer just crazed.”

  A few of his men sniggered. Mariko’s forces tensed at the insults. Mariko herself paid him no mind.

  “We live in a dangerous world. We are dangerous people,” she said. “You put these people in danger by attempting to straddle our world and theirs. Do we blame the shark for hunting? You’ve chummed the waters; don’t be surprised when someone gets eaten.”

  He’d gone to the Shadow Mob to protect his family. They needed money and not the kind that came with strings attached. He learned quickly that the best way to protect them was to be the one in charge. He rose through the ranks, scraped and saved to provide for them. He wouldn’t let Mariko play with his mind and push the burden on him. They were close to him but she was the one who threatened them.

  “I supposed we can arrange a water burial. There won’t be much more than bits left of ya, anyway.”

  “I’ll extend you the same terms as before. Leave. Flee the territory with your sisters, their children, and your mate.” She raised her voice for to be heard clearly by those behind him. “Any who wish to stay will have roles under the new regime, should they prove willing to transfer their loyalties.”

  Snarls and growls were the only response. They were loyal to him. They knew any who were found wanting by the Yakuza would take a permanent soak in the river and they would all be found flawed.

  “There’s yer answer. Doesn’t look like this will go well for ya.” Eoghan shrugged and picked a bit of dirt out from under his nails. His connection to the Wyrd was a short reach away.

  “I’ll make yer men a deal. They leave, now. Keep DC. I already know the size of my cock, I don’t need a new city tae prove it’s the biggest around.” The men at his back laughed and quieted when he pointed to Mariko. “Ya stay and get tae enjoy our hospitality for as long as ya live.”

  “I’m afraid you forced us to seek allies elsewhere.” Mariko brought her fingers to her lips and pierced the night with a whistle.

  He was the first to look to the sky at the familiar whooshing of wings. Two dragons landed on the stacks of containers on either side of Mariko. She looked like a pleased cat licking cream off her paws.

  He glanced over his shoulder. The men he brought with him were more than ready for the fight. And past them, in the distance, the lights of his city glowed against the night sky.

  He wouldn’t be having that conversation with Annika after all.

  There was only one thing to do when backed into a corner and facing sure death. He bared his teeth and laughed.

  Annika decided she would kill Eoghan. No, killing was too good for King Bastart. He needed to be flayed. Doused with salt. Left to bake in the sun.

  She bent painfully and tugged a bobby pin from her hair. Eoghan might think there was magic in a woman’s fingers, but she knew it was the power of experience and hair accessories.

  She cursed when the first pin dropped to the bed. She dug another out from her locks, ignoring the strands she ripped out in the process. It kept her anger simmering.

  His head would look so good poking out of stocks. She’d make the contraption with her own hands and set him on a pedestal in her room. Maybe make the stocks her pedestal. She’d kick her feet up on his head until she grew bored and then flay him.

  She poked the pin into the keyhole on the first cuff. They were meant for sexy play, not keeping someone in restraints for long. The right amount of poking would pop them open…

  “Yes,” she cheered when the metal ratcheted apart.

  The second cuff was easy to press and release. Annika rolled out of bed and nearly stumbled when her feet hit the ground.

  There was a spark of something at the edge of her vision. She turned toward it and it continued to glow brighter. She reached for it, embraced it, welcomed it inside her.

  The Wyrd filled her from her head to her toes. With it came all the memories she’d lost. Her childhood snapped into place and she put faces to the brothers she couldn’t picture. Her reasons for fighting for the Dragon Court. She knew she needed to continue the war to keep the balance between the powyrful races intact. Her training with Jaya and talent for finding secrets. Eoghan.

  Every second with Eoghan rushed by like a freight train and she nearly collapsed. He’d been so good to her and so deliciously bad. He made dark desires enter her head right beside the need to be near him for the rest of her life. She loved his fierce protection and craved the utter devotion that he sometimes let enter his eyes.

  He had to come back with her. He was needed in some way she still couldn’t see but his importance went beyond just as her mate. He was a Lost Prince and he needed to return home.

  And he was a damn idiot if he thought he could fight Mariko without her. She wanted her pound of flesh just as much as he did.

  She rushed down the stairs and onto the terrace, plunging herself further into the welling powyr inside her. Her body knew what to do. She didn’t think about it and just let it happen. Her shape shimmered and expanded with the change of her limbs. Her clothes tore away from her body. Her wings pumped and lifted her off the terrace and high into the sky.

  It felt like ages since she hovered in the same spot and watched Eoghan take his first flight. They flew a path similar to the one they’d taken in the seaplane and dove into the cold bay before returning to the warmth of his bed.

  All that happiness ended with Lenore. Annika growled with the memory. The woman tossed her hair and touched Eoghan too much. She was the sweetest sugar around any of the men in Eoghan’s family and completely sour to all the women. She slipped into the bar one night while Annika closed up. She refused to leave until Annika had a drink with her.

  White-hot rage rolled through her and Annika roared into the night. Lenore stole a year of her life that she’d never have back. Annika was forced to beg for food and sleep on the streets before she found her way to the shelter in DC. A year with Eoghan, lost. She hoped Lenore would show her face again, only so she could grind the smirk off her lips.

  The air flowed over her wings. She would have whooped for joy if her throat could make the noise. Instead, something between a growl and a roar vibrated out of her.

  She flew straight across the river and toward the lights of the port. She couldn’t pick out which warehouse belonged to Eoghan but the loud music and clumps of people gathered outside were all the hints she needed.

  Her claws scraped on the roof of the warehouse as she sank and skid in her landing. She could hear music pumping through the speakers and the roar of the crowd over the repetitive beats. There wasn’t any sign of a struggle inside but she already suspected it. Eoghan wouldn’t bring the fight with Mariko to his paying crowds.

  “What the—?” The watcher on the roof cursed and flung himself through the door, no doubt to find and warn someone up the food chain.

  Annika tentatively reached forward and scanned the minds below. She found one she could use and boomed into his head. The underboss was already hissing into a walkie-talkie and pushing his way through the crowds.

  Gio. Where is he?

  The shock in his mind clamped down and tried to push her out.

  “Fucking dragons,” Gio hissed when he barged through the door to the roof. He charged forward without a care for his own skin.

  Annika pushed her snout forward and into his stomach. He stumbled back but didn’t stop glaring.

  “He’s not here, which I’m sure you already know.”

  Where is he?

  “You got
left behind for a reason. We don’t question his reasons.”

  She growled and tiny trails of smoke exited her nostrils.

  “Go on, light me up. I can’t shake my ass at him and have him forget my crimes.” Gio raised his hands and shook his head.

  A screech sounded in her ears right before something huge slammed into her. They rolled off the edge of the roof, a tangle of wings and claws and fangs. Annika tumbled end over end before she landed roughly on the ground below.

  She glanced around and spotted her attacker. The dragon was larger than herself and diving straight for her again.

  Andon.

  Annika acted fast. She snapped her wings back open and lifted high into the sky. Andon missed sinking his claws into her scales and dragging her back to the ground but succeeded in raking deep furrows down her spine.

  I’ll be paid well for your death, Andon snarled in her head. So lovely for you to come to me instead of making me seek you out.

  Music thumped in the warehouse but people streamed outside, lured by the fighting dragons.

  She roared into the night and blew flame in his direction. He shifted out of the way with a quick flick of his wings and her blast missed him by inches.

  Eoghan would destroy you.

  He’ll be my prisoner by the end of the night.

  They danced in the sky, looking to tear at wings or burn with breaths of fire. She knew she needed to finish the fight. Andon had other dragons in his entourage. If they weren’t backing him up, then they were elsewhere and she suspected it wasn’t aiding Eoghan in any way.

  Andon dove straight into her and they crashed into the side of another warehouse. Glass shattered around them and dust covered them both. Annika was the first to push off from the ground and she rounded on Andon.

  The larger dragon was slow to prepare for the attack. Her claws slashed into the underside of his neck and shoulders, tearing scales away from his body. The copper scent of blood filled her nose.

  Andon jerked himself out of her grasp before she could turn flames or fangs on him. He shook his wings and tried to lift into the air but they were useless. One hung limply at his side. There was no place to go.