by Isa Hunt
The fact that I had to share her with the other alphas stung even more because of how intense the connection between us felt, but I knew that this was how it had to be, so I grudgingly accepted it. I really wished that I could have her all to myself, but I had to put my own desires behind the needs of my tribe, and indeed the needs of all shifters.
But in my mind, it would be just Kelly and me. Me and Kelly. I knew that she was bound by the laws and traditions of her dragon lineage to take all the alphas of the various tribes and packs as her mates, and I accepted this . . . but I could still pretend, in the rare moments that she and I would have alone together, that she could be all mine.
As these thoughts were running through my mind, I glimpsed in my rearview mirror and saw a sight that immediately kicked my fight instincts into overdrive: a pack of blood red motorcycles, speeding up from the rear. I knew right away that this time, Jake was going to do everything in their power to make sure that he didn't fail again.
I pressed a button on the dash to call Paul in his car. Rex had already sped on ahead, and it would be pointless trying to call him. He wouldn't hear it over the noise of the wind and the motorcycle.
Paul, thankfully, answered right away.
“Are you seeing what I'm seeing, coming up behind us?” I asked as soon as I heard him pick up.
“I am,” he rumbled in his deep voice. “And it doesn't look good.”
“Hit the gas hard, Paul,” I said. “I'm gonna hit a u-turn and plow right into these guys, try and knock as many of them off their bikes as I can.”
Then I heard Kelly's voice, her tone almost frantic.
“Benoit, you can't do that! You'll get yourself killed!”
“If that's what it takes to save you from them, then it'll be worth it.”
Emotion surged through me as I said this, for I meant every word of it. As painful as it would be to leave this world now, and never have the chance to be with her again, if it meant her survival, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.
“No! No, you can't do this,” she protested. “No, I won't let you do this!”
“I'm sorry, Kelly, but you don't have any authority over me – you might be our future queen . . . but you're not our queen yet.”
Paul then spoke.
“Listen, man, I can turn around and help you, we can both take them on together, we might have a chance—”
“No,” I said firmly, interrupting him. “You have Kelly in the car. Plus, think about it rationally – there's a much higher probability of you two getting away if they have to focus all of their attention on me . . . especially if I'm willing to go full-on kamikaze on them.”
“No!” screamed Kelly. “No, you can't do this Benoit, you can't!”
“He has to,” said Paul – he understood now.
“Goodbye, Paul. And goodbye, Kelly,” I said. “This is for you.”
“No—”
I pressed the button and cut the call off, and gritted my teeth with determination. The bikes were closing the distance fast. It was now or never. I slammed on the brakes, jerked up the handbrake and spun the car in a skidding 180 degrees U-turn that got the tires smoking and screeching. Now, I was facing the horde of bikes that were bearing down on us.
“Time for a little game of chicken, boys,” I growled.
Then I stomped on the gas pedal, launching my powerful car forward at speed, heading straight for the bikers, who sped on toward me. I cycled through the gears like a race car driver, until I was hurtling toward the bikers at breakneck speed.
They weren't budging from their course, and neither was I – and I didn't intend to, not until I'd mowed down as many of them as I could, even if it meant that I would die in the process.
The collision was imminent . . . I was nearing top speed, as was the pack of motorcycles. Impact in three, two, and . . .
As we were about to collide, I yanked hard on the steering wheel and grabbed the handbrake. The car jerked violently to the side and was launched into a flying tumble, plowing with violence through the mass of bikes. The world was spinning around me as the car rolled and bounced at violent speed, and out of the corner of my eyes I saw smashed bikes and riders flying through the air – and then everything went black.
CHAPTER 18 – KELLY
I turned around in the seat as Paul floored the gas pedal, and watched through the rear window with horror as Benoit sped off in a suicidal charge toward the horde of motorcycles that were pursuing us.
“He can't do this,” I murmured, not wanting to believe what I was seeing. “He can't!”
“He has to,” said Paul grimly. “It's the only way you have any chance of surviving.”
“But it's not right . . . he shouldn't be sacrificing his life for me, he shouldn't,” I said, emotion squeezing my throat tight as tears burned at the corners of my eyes.
“You're going to be the dragon queen,” said Paul. “And I know it's hard to accept, but you're too important to lose. Men are going to lay down their lives for you, and that's a fact you'll have to come to terms with. If you had been in Benoit's car, and I'd been driving alone, I would have done the exact same thing he's doing. It would have been me speeding toward the bikers right now.”
I watched as the moment of impact drew closer. I didn't want to watch, but I couldn't look away. A grim fascination kept my eyes glued to the scene. As Benoit's car was about to crash into the bikes, it turned violently, and then flipped and started bouncing and rolling over and over, smashing through the bikes like a cannonball, spitting riders and bikes off the road.
“He got 'em!” roared Paul triumphantly. “He got 'em!”
I, meanwhile, was finally able to look away, and now tears started to stream down my cheeks.
“He can't have survived that,” I murmured, a sob rising up in my throat. “There's no way he could have survived that.”
Paul reached across and squeezed my hand tightly.
“He did the noblest thing any man could have done,” he said, his deep voice soothing and gentle. “He's a true hero . . . and I know that's how we're going to remember him if he didn't make it. He sacrificed his life for you . . . So let's honor that sacrifice and get you out of this situation safely. We don't want him to have made that sacrifice in vain.”
I felt overwhelmed by sadness and grief. I had only known Benoit for a short time, but in that time he had repeatedly shown that he was willing to lay down his life for me – and now he had actually done it. Nobody had ever done anything like that for me before.
I squeezed Paul's hand.
“Promise me you'll stay alive,” I said to him, my voice quavering with sobs. “I don't want anyone else to have to die for me.”
“I'll do my best to do that,” he said, “but there's no way I can guarantee it. If it comes down to it, I'll always put your life first. I have to, for the future of my people, and for all shifters who still follow the old ways.”
Suddenly, up ahead of us a fresh pack of bikes pulled out of a side road, blocking the way. My heart sank, and Paul roared out with both rage and frustration.
“Hold on tight,” he said. “I'm gonna just plow right through 'em.”
“No!” I yelled. “We might both get killed! This isn't a tank we're in!”
He pounded the steering wheel with his fist, growling with fury.
“Dammit! Dammit! You're right, you're right,” he snarled, spitting with frustration. “Driving into them will risk your life. This machine isn't built for collisions. They've . . . they've got us. They've got us.”
He slowed down and came to a stop in front of the riders. Fear started to pump its icy discomfort through my veins, and I felt panic rising up within me. The lead rider got off, and from the way he walked and his huge size I recognized him right away: Jake.
Another rider, just behind Jake, kicked out his kickstand and got off his bike, following Jake. He took his helmet off, and I got a look at him. He was a stocky, powerfully-built guy with an ugly, scarred face and a j
utting underbite. He was probably in his thirties, but his premature baldness made him look older. His small green eyes looked almost reptilian.
“Who is that?” I asked Paul, fear pulsing through me.
“Wesley McCoy,” he growled. “The alpha of a pack of alligator shifters who are allied to Artemis. He's a real nasty character . . . But don't worry, I won't let him hurt you.”
Jake pulled a pistol out and pointed it at us, sneering with a mocking smile as he approached the car. Wesley, meanwhile, got an assault rifle that was strapped to his bike and walked over, aiming it at Paul.
“Well, well, well. You assholes aren't as smart as you think you are,” said Jake. “Y'all walked right into my trap.”
“We took out a bunch of you scumbags on the way, at least,” growled Paul. “And I'll tear the rest of you limb from limb if I have to.”
“You try anything and I'll empty this clip into you, jerk-off,” snarled Wesley, raising the assault rifle to his shoulder. “I don't care how big you are, bear-boy, these bullets will take you out real quick.”
“Don't do anything stupid, please,” I whispered to Paul. “I can't lose you too.”
“Get out of the car, both of you,” instructed Jake.
“If you touch her,” growled Paul. “If you touch her . . . ”
“I would have killed you both already if I wanted you dead,” said Jake flatly. “Luckily for you, bitch, we just got word from Artemis that he wants you alive. And as for you, big boy, well, we’re gonna have some fun with you.”
“Just do what they say, for now,” muttered Paul to me. “I'll work on a plan to get out of this. And I'm sure Rex will have figured out now that something has happened. Don't worry, we'll get out of this . . . somehow.”
On shaky legs, I climbed out of the car. If only I could transform into my dragon form . . . I closed my eyes, willing it to happen, wishing with all my might that I could somehow change into a dragon . . . but nothing happened. When would it happen? Would it happen at all? Had my powers been activated?
Jake stared at me all the while, a mocking look glowing in his eyes.
“Finally . . . I have the dragon queen,” he said. “Well, I suppose I shouldn't say that. You can't even shift yet, so for the moment you're just a worthless little whore.”
“You son of a bitch,” snarled Paul, stepping aggressively toward Jake.
Wesley was quick to react though, he whipped his rifle around and slammed the butt of it into Paul's stomach. Paul gasped and dropped to his knees, and then Wesley smashed the butt of the rifle into Paul's jaw, whipping his head to the side with the force of the blow.
“No!” I screamed. “Leave him alone!”
Wesley, however, paid no heed to my cries. He slammed the butt of the rifle one last time into the side of Paul's head, and finally, the huge man slumped to the ground, knocked out.
“Shove this big dumb-ass back into his car,” Wesley said to two of his goons. “Then drive it behind us to the house.”
“And you,” said Jake to me as he stepped up to me, smiling mockingly, “should probably also be unconscious. It'll just make the transport thing a whole lot easier.”
With that, he smashed a vicious punch across my jaw, and I sunk into the black oblivion of unconsciousness immediately.
CHAPTER 19 – REX
It was as I was leaning my motorcycle through a long, sweeping bend in the road that I saw them: Jake and his gang. They had somehow blocked the road and forced Paul and Kelly to stop. I immediately slammed on the brakes and pulled over, riding the bike up behind a bush so that they wouldn't see me. I watched as they dragged Paul and Kelly – who both seemed to be unconscious – into Paul's Ferrari. They were going to take them somewhere, I was sure of that, but thankfully they had left them alive.
I knew that if I followed them on the bike they would catch wind of me, and if they did, they would either kill Paul and Kelly or kill me, neither of which was a desirable outcome. The area around here was heavily wooded, and sparsely inhabited, so I at least had one other viable option.
I only had to think about it for a second or two before realizing that it would be the only way to do this.
I parked my bike behind the bush and then stripped down, and when I was nude I transformed into my puma form. As a puma, I could run at fifty miles an hour, which would hopefully be enough to keep up with these guys while remaining hidden from them in the trees. As fit and strong as I was, though, I couldn't maintain that speed for too long, so I hoped that these guys weren't gonna go too far.
The bikers started revving their motors. The Ferrari drove off ahead of them and turned down a side road. They all rode in formation behind the car. I waited until the last one had turned down the road, and when he was out of sight I dashed across the road and started sprinting through the trees.
They weren't going too fast, but they weren't exactly going slowly either – they were cruising along at about sixty miles an hour, which was faster than I could run, and even with me sprinting at full tilt, they were breaking away from me.
My muscles started to burn with exertion, and even though I was sucking in huge lungful’s of air as I ran, I was getting tired. Still, they had Kelly, and there was no way I was going to give up and let them get away. I would keep pursuing them until my legs stopped working or my heart stopped beating, whichever happened first.
The fire in my muscles was burning furiously now, and the pain was shooting through my body with every stride. I was racing through the woods, snaking around trees and leaping over fallen trunks, moving with the grace and agility and speed my puma form was endowed with, but it just wasn't fast enough. Soon the car and the motorcycles were out of sight, and all I was going on was the sound of their motors in the distance.
Even with my puma hearing, which was way more sensitive than any human ears, I slowly started to lose track of that too. I was running out of breath as well and was panting hard from the exertion of the sprint.
But there was no way I was gonna give up. Not while those bastards had Kelly. I pricked my ears as I ran, straining to catch just the faintest hint of the sound of the motorcycles – and then, just as I felt that I couldn't go on any longer, I heard it – the bikes were slowing down, blipping their throttles as they geared down to turn a corner. It had to be a sharp corner because it sounded like they were slowing down drastically.
Then, sure enough, I heard them accelerating again as one by one they rode through the corner.
The sounds started to vanish again because they were pretty far away, but at least I now had a lead. There weren't many roads at all here, so if I came to a street splitting off the main road, I'd know that that was the one.
I didn't feel like I could go on running any longer, but I pushed through the pain, pushed through the exhaustion, and forced myself to go on. And then, finally, I came to a side street. I ran out onto it, panting severely, and pricked my ears – and sure enough, I heard the faint sound of the motorcycles slowing down – and turning their motors off. They had arrived at their destination – and I would find it soon enough.
I paused for a few moments to catch my breath and rest, now that I knew that they wouldn't be going any further. When I felt that I had enough energy to carry on, I started running again.
“I'm coming for you, Kelly,” I thought to myself, wishing I could somehow beam this message into her mind. “Just hang in there, I'm coming for you!”
CHAPTER 20 – PAUL
I woke up with a throbbing ache pulsing its pain through my brain, feeling groggy and disoriented. Music was pounding somewhere very loudly. I tried to move but found that I was chained to a sturdy chair. Then I remembered everything that had happened.
“Kelly,” I gasped, looking up and peering through the gloom frantically.
Thankfully, I quickly caught sight of her. She too was chained to a chair, a couple of feet away from me. She started coming to. It seemed that these bastards had knocked her out too.
“I'm
gonna kill you, Jake,” I rumbled under my breath, “and I'm gonna kill you too, Wesley – and I'll turn your damn alligator hide into a belt and boots.”
“Wh—where am I?” groaned Kelly as she lifted her head. “What happened?”
“Don't worry,” I said, “I'm here.”
“Paul?”
“Yes, I'm here.”
She peered through the gloom and struggled against the chains that held her fast. For all her struggles, though, she could not break free. The chains held her tightly. I didn't even try to struggle against mine. I could feel how tightly they were locked around my limbs, and as strong as I was I wouldn't be able to break them, not even in my bear form. No, we would have to figure out another way to get out of here.
Just then, I heard a key turning in the door.
“Heads up,” I whispered to Kelly. “Someone's coming in.”
The door opened, flooding the gloomy room with harsh light from outside. The sound of the pounding music got louder. I was at least able to see the details of the inside of the room now. It was a large room, with a few items of furniture, a bed and a large fireplace. The room didn't look like it had been used much in recent times. There was a visible layer of dust on all of the furniture.
Wesley and Jake stepped into the room.
“I hope you're feeling comfy in my house,” sneered Wesley. “I've done my best to make y'all feel as welcome as possible.”
“Yeah,” I said sarcastically. “These chains add a real homely touch.”
“You'd better get used to 'em,” he said coldly, “because they ain't comin' off anytime soon.”
“So what are you gonna with us, huh?” I asked.
“You get to live a little longer,” said Jake. “Well, at least you do,” he continued, turning and pointing at Kelly. “Artemis is going to come here himself, and he will kill you with his own hands and take the blood of the red dragon to strengthen his powers.”
