The Rookie

by Abigail Owen

  For his mate.

  “I’m open to suggestions,” he countered.

  He and Drake tossed ideas back and forth for the next thirty minutes, trying to come up with any plan that didn’t end in one or all of them dead, and Sera still being flown to her ultimate death when the rotting king tried to mate her.

  They still had nothing.

  “Hold.” The order came from Tineen, the Alaz leader.

  As one, the dragons all halted their forward momentum, tipping their wings and bodies to catch the air, then beating down to hover there.

  What the hell?

  A breath later, Aidan smelled it, too.

  Fire.

  He inhaled, long and deep. “Dragon fire.”

  “Yeah,” Drake agreed.

  A golden glow appeared on the horizon in a long line, turning the sky above from black to a dark navy.

  Fuck. No way was this coincidence. Whoever was out there had to be after Sera. They were smart enough to know that the enforcers escorting her could never ignore a dragon fire. Even in the few moments they watched, the expanse of the blaze became more and more evident, lighting up the skies above. This was a huge fire, and, given the summer season and dryness in the air, likely to spread faster than even this many dragons could handle.

  Another scent wafted on the breeze, under the smoke. “Whoa. Did you catch that?”

  “Unmistakable,” Drake answered, voice grim.

  Rune.

  Tineen wrapped out commands. “Mace, Tarakona, stay with the mate and her ride. Everyone else with me.”

  “I’m not leaving Sera,” Aidan said. “This has to be Rune Abaddon. I can smell him in the fire.”

  “I’m leaving my best men with one of yours.” Tineen shot him down. “I need every man I can get.”

  “Go, Aidan!” Sera yelled.

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  She turned on Titus’s back to scowl at him. “I’ll be safe. Trust me. Go.”

  Red flags went off like a nuclear meltdown. There was no way she knew what was coming. Right?

  “That’s an order, enforcer,” Tineen barked.

  Fuck. Aidan refused to move. He was done putting her after his job.

  “Am I your mate?” Sera yelled.

  Aidan bobbled in the air as the words exploded into him. “Yes. But Rune is coming for you.”

  “I know. I need you to trust me to protect myself. Go.”

  She knew? Trust her. To protect herself? That was an odd choice of words. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

  “Go.” She mouthed the word this time.

  He’d asked her to trust him. Now it was his turn, even if it went against every instinct he had.

  “Let’s go,” he snapped at Drake.

  Flying away from her was like carving out a part of his soul with a dull, rusty scalpel, leaving him bleeding. He and Drake followed the other men to the fire, abandoning Sera to Titus, Tineen’s two men, and the two Alliance members.

  He kept a sharp eye around them for any dragons either flying away or coming at them. No way could a blaze that large be created by one or two shifters. They had to have a full horde with them.

  But not a wing or a tail flashed in the light growing larger as they approached the flames.

  Tineen started shooting out instructions. “Drake with Rong on that northern edge. Go down the line from either end, meeting in the middle.”

  Drake carved through the air, following a white dragon the color of parchment.

  Tineen scattered the rest of his men to similar destinations.

  “Aidan, you’re with me. We’ll drop into the center and work from there outward.”

  “Got it.”

  The crackle of flames turned into a full thunder of sound as he followed the Alaz leader into the inferno consuming the side of the mountain like a river of orange and red and yellow. The black shadow of trees spiked into the sky and dense smoke filled the air.

  Heat, like being dipped into a blacksmith’s forge, surrounded him. The fire in his belly stoked to meet the intensity of the flames around him, allowing him to acclimate to the fire, a regulating mechanism all dragons boasted, allowing them to survive the fire both from within and without. As long as his scales held.

  Flames scattered away from them in a whirl of the vortex created by their wings as he and Tineen both landed.

  The mountainside was fucking steep. The roar of the flames covered the screech of his claws as he dug into the granite to find purchase. Before the conflagration could rush back in, both began to pull the flames into themselves.

  The flames appeared to fight him, running away, even as he hauled them into himself, stretching the fire across the space between them like a rubber band until it snapped, and the fire crashed into him, bled into him.

  Working steadily, Aidan moved north, having to claw and crawl his way over the rock in a sideways fashion, like a bat hanging to the side of a cave. A loud crack was the only warning he had. Without looking, Aidan pushed off the side of the mountain to hover in the air, just in time to avoid a mass of several towering pine trees crashing down the mountain right where he’d been.

  With a boom that rocked him in the air, the trees hit an outcropping of rock and exploded like a human-made bomb. A wall of flame reached for him like a living fist. Rather than avoid it, Aidan flew directly into it, consuming and absorbing the flame as he dropped until he hit the bottom. He flipped at the last second to circle back around and land gripping the rock and resuming his work.

  “Nice move, son.” Tineen’s comment came through over that mental channel but directed solely at Aidan.

  “I’m not your son, old man. My Alpha trained me well.”

  “I have a message from Sera.”

  Wait. That wasn’t Tineen. That was… “Rune?” He focused the thought so only Rune heard him.

  “Yes. She asked for my help.”

  Aidan stopped drawing on the fire, gathering himself to launch into the air. “No fucking way. She doesn’t know who you are.”

  “I made sure we met before the Alliance got their hands on her.”

  “Bullshit.” No way was he believing anything this traitor to his team said.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Tineen broke into his head.

  Rune’s words mingled with those of the Alaz Alpha. “Sera said to tell you that Blake’s middle name is Caleb but was almost Jacob.”

  Fuck. No way could Rune have guessed that. This was real. Sera had asked that mate-stealing traitor for help.

  “Sorry,” he relayed to Tineen even as he settled back into the fire. “I thought I saw something.”

  “Dragon?”

  “Yeah, but I was wrong.”

  Aidan forced himself to relax his muscles and pick back up where he’d left off drawing the wildfire into his body.

  He didn’t like it, but this had to be why Sera had gone with Titus. She had been rejecting Aidan’s options, going with one of her own.

  “I assume you have a plan?” he asked Rune.

  “Yes, but to give you plausible deniability, I’m only going to tell you part. Listen, because I’m going to say this once, and then it’s going to happen fast.”

  …

  Forcing Aidan to leave her had hurt like a son of a bitch.

  Watching that blue dragon fly away from her, after refusing to leave her, actually ached in spaces inside her she didn’t know she could feel. Her heart protested by throbbing in a way Sera had only experienced once.

  The day her husband had died.

  Beneath her Titus tensed, his muscles rippling in a way that shifted the scales around her like liquid darkness. He thrashed his tail back and forth, which moved his entire body side to side. Sera, already feeling precarious despite sitting between two massive spikes, gripped him tighter.

  “You agreed to go with Rune?” His voice, in this form at least, was a shiver-inducing growl. Was he angry?

  The man she’d put all her confidence in must’ve s
tarted communicating the plan to Titus and the others.

  “Yes.” She wanted to explain, tell him it was to keep the team safe, but she was all too aware of the other dragons hovering close by, watching the line of fire from a safe distance. They’d hear her side of any conversation, so she was limited.

  He didn’t reply or ask any more questions. Had Rune explained it to him? This whole telepathy between dragons thing was both handy and a pain in the ass when she couldn’t speak to them that way, too.

  Rune’s voice slid through her mind. “We’re almost ready.” Unlike Titus’s angry growl, Rune’s deep tones came across almost soothing.

  Was that on purpose? Because what he’d asked her to do as part of this crazy escape fell in the nothing-short-of-terrifying territory. She still wasn’t sure she could do it.

  She couldn’t tell him that, though, because she couldn’t damn well respond.

  “Titus knows what to do. He will pretend to lose you. Make sure you stay quiet when you fall so they can’t track you.”

  Fall? Seriously?

  “I’ll count backward from three. Don’t pay attention to the distraction.”

  Distraction? The wildfire wasn’t enough?

  “Three.”

  Her heart thudded, taking a frantic shot at a jail break by heaving up her throat. Sera discreetly inched herself up so that she had her legs under her.

  “Two.”

  A massive boom came at the same time as a flash of white light and a ball of fire exploded straight up from the mountainside off to her right, so close the blast of heat and air blew her hair back. In the flickering light, a massive gold dragon burst from the flames with a roar.

  “One.”

  As Titus turned on his side to defend himself, Sera launched her body off the safe haven of his spiked back to fall into an abyss of darkness below. As she slipped past, Titus writhed around, swiping at her with his giant talon, his expression so horrible, she believed for a second that he didn’t intend to miss.

  Sera managed to claw back her scream at the murderous light she imagined in those black eyes and picturing herself sliced to ribbons by those talons.

  But he did miss, which was Rune’s plan.

  Flailing and picking up speed, the wind rushing in her ears and stealing her sight as her eyes watered, Sera bit her lip until she tasted blood. If she screamed, the dragons would find her.

  Only she kept going. I’m still falling.

  She had to be getting close to the mountain by now. Through her fuzzy vision, she could barely make out the bright line of fire in the dark, but the mountains closer to her remained a black blob, blending with the sky.

  Where is he?

  She was supposed to keep quiet. A whimper escaped her, and she clamped a hand over her mouth to hold in her terror. But if the other dragons couldn’t find her, how could Rune?

  “Got you.”

  Hard, leathery fingers wrapped around her, the talons clacking against each other like metal scraping against metal. She didn’t slam into Rune. Instead it felt as though he fell with her for a moment before slowing them down. She could barely make him out in the darkness, let alone what he was doing with his wings.

  Fear, along with the whooshing wind, sent shivers racing through her body. Titus had kept her warm by stoking the fire inside him, heating the scales beneath her. That probably wouldn’t work in the claw. Instead, she wrapped herself around one of the digits, tucking her head where wind couldn’t tear at her hair and blur her eyes. It also made her feel less like she was about to plummet again.

  Damn, she never wanted to try that ever again.

  Several roars split the night, reaching her over the rush of air around her. Sera stiffened, but clamped her lips shut. Total silence. Rune, relaying directions in her head earlier, had been scarily clear about that part of the plan being critical.

  Still, no one came for them.

  Were they too busy fighting Rune’s men? Or could they not find them?

  Every second felt like a full trip around the sun as she waited and watched, searching the dense darkness for any sign of being followed. No one came, and they kept going until the line of fire turned first into a golden glow on the horizon before disappearing altogether.

  Rune kept flying.

  What about his men? Please don’t let anyone be hurt because of me. Even the Alliance men. She couldn’t bring herself to contemplate anyone dying. No one should sacrifice their life for hers.

  Except she had to be here for Blake.

  She was a mother and her child needed her. Those Alliance men would have mated her to the wrong person, guaranteeing her death. Hall and Rune were right—politics drove the process. No way could the Huracán Enforcers deny that now.

  At least Hall had Blake. Hopefully he and her son were already on the way to meeting them. Although Sera had no idea where she was being taken.

  Please let me have picked the right people to trust.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dungeons and dragonsteel bars. Aidan sat on the edge of the decrepit camping cot—canvas over aluminum bars holding up his bulk—the only piece of furniture inside his cell if you didn’t count the toilet. Overhead a fluorescent light was slowly dying, flickering inconsistently with a slight buzz that grated on Aidan’s nerves with each passing second. Mildew and stale air filled his nostrils, the combination eerily close to the scent a deer would give off in the last throes of death with a predator at its throat.

  Desperation and hopelessness.

  They were definitely deep in the Alaz team’s mountain. Even if they’d been able to escape their cells, which they hadn’t bothered to even try since the same technology was in their own holding area at home, they wouldn’t get far.

  Titus had been taken off for interrogation alone. Hall was still MIA. Drake lay on his back on a similar cot one cell over, his arm thrown over his eyes, ostensibly sleeping. Aidan couldn’t sleep, though. They’d been here hours. The sun had to be high over the mountains by now, and his brain still wouldn’t quiet.

  Could he have changed anything?

  A fool’s errand, thinking through all the things he could have done differently and what the outcomes might have been. Like if he’d figured out sooner that she was his mate. Not that that would have changed much. They still would have tried to go through the official mating process. The Alliance still would’ve proved themselves to be what Rune had been ranting about all along.

  He couldn’t turn back time, though.

  Instead, Sera was gone. With Rune of all people. And I’m trapped in this fucking cell.

  When the Alaz Enforcers had realized Sera was gone last night, Tineen had turned on Aidan. “I dare you to move,” he’d snarled, mouth wide, ready to attack.

  Aidan had done his damndest to pretend shock and not knowing what was going on. In minutes, Tineen had gathered his crew, putting Titus, Drake, and Aidan in the center of a circle of clearly pissed dragons if the bared teeth, flashing scales, and whipping tails were any indication.

  “Don’t fucking move.”

  They’d stayed that way until the rest of Tineen’s team had arrived on the scene. After that, three dragons stayed to put out the fires. Another two had been sent for Hall and Blake. Tineen and the rest escorted the three of them to the Alaz headquarters in Hagues Peak. At least they hadn’t been taken to the Alliance headquarters in Long’s Peak. That place was a solid fortress, even more so than the enforcer headquarters.

  Sera was safe, though. Knowing Rune, he’d have her tucked somewhere no one could find her until she was ready.

  Including me.

  Trusting Rune was a big fucking leap, even with this new proof the man had been right.

  Although perhaps only the Alliance was the problem here. The Mating Council might be unaware. If I can get Sera to France, maybe we can still make this right.

  His gut cut the head off that thought with a whack. Too much against him and too many coincidences. He’d wait to trust the Mating Counci
l after more came to light. He’d unknowingly risked Sera’s life once. He wouldn’t do it again.

  They could go to King Ladon. The new king of the Blue Clan was already pitted against the others. He’d taken Fallon in, allowed Finn to put Aidan on the team permanently. Maybe they’d find a safe haven there.

  Aidan jumped to his feet and paced his cell. The problem was he had no fucking clue who to trust anymore. Rune. The Alliance. The Alaz Enforcers. The Mating Council. Ladon. Pytheios.

  He was sure only of his teammates and the men under Lyndi’s care.

  “You should get some shut-eye, brother,” Drake mumbled from under his arm. The red dragon shifter didn’t so much as twitch.

  Aidan dropped to the cot, propping his elbows on his knees. “I know.”

  “Your mate is fine.”

  Aidan was aware the Alaz team had to be recording them or at least watching, which meant they had to put on a bit of a show. “In exile? With a man who we’ve sworn to kill if we catch him because of the laws he’s broken?”

  Drake’s lips flattened in a grim smile, though he didn’t remove his arm. “I don’t think he hurts the mates he takes. That’s not what he was after when he left.”

  Aidan had heard most of the stories. Rune’s fights with the guys about a broken system. According to Kanta, Rune and Finn had gone at it pretty hard right before Rune left for good.

  He stared at his teammate with speculative curiosity. A question he hadn’t had time to ask during all this percolating inside his head. “Did you ever believe him?”

  Because if Drake had, or any of the other guys, they’d knowingly sent Sera into danger.

  “No.”

  Just one word. Typical Drake. “Why not?” Aidan prodded.

  Drake sighed and didn’t bother raising his arm off his eyes. “If the process was so broken, then my brothers would’ve been screwed, too, any time a new mate showed up with our brand on her neck. And Pytheios would have a mate by now, instead of rotting away in his mountain. But he’s still rotting and several of my brothers have found their mates. Proof enough for me.”