Dragon's Bane (Dragon Guild Chronicles Book 5)

by Carina Wilder

  “What do you mean, you know who I am?” she asked. Oh God. Maybe he could read her mind. He knew what she’d seen.

  He was going to kill her.

  Then he’d find Silver and kill him, too.

  “I can smell it on you.” He dipped his face down, bending his massive torso to bury his nose in her neck, inhaling deep. Luna relaxed for a moment, relieved to realize that he’d probably only meant that he knew she was a shifter. Perhaps he didn’t know she was part of the Warkshire Pack, after all.

  As she relaxed, a strange sensation overcame her, a sort of euphoria at the feel of his hands on her body. As the tip of his nose caressed her skin, she felt her cruel core respond with desire. Stop it, she commanded in vain. Stupid, foolish body. How the hell could she possibly want this murderous creature? She was supposed to be running away from him. Fleeing for her very life. Protecting herself and her brother.

  Weak Wolf. Bad Wolf. Stupid, stupid Wolf.

  “I…” she wanted to protest, to tell him that she wasn’t in fact a Wolf shifter. But it would be stupid to lie to a Dragon. He knew; of course he knew.

  So she didn’t bother to finish the thought. Didn’t push him away. There would be no point in trying, anyhow; he outweighed her by at least a hundred and fifty pounds.

  The BHD slipped his lips to her ear. “Sexy little she-Wolf,” he whispered before giving her earlobe a gentle nip that nearly made Luna lose her footing on the solid floor. The man pulled back to look into her eyes once again. “Pretty thing. I could eat you up. I could probably even take you for my own, couldn’t I? Yes, from the smell of how aroused you are, I could.”

  Yes. You could. If you asked me to go into a dark alley and take my clothes off, I would, God help me.

  She shook her head, her eyes wide, but the quiet thrill of fear whipped its way through her body. He was so dangerous. So alluring. So devilishly awful, which made her a horrible person for wanting him.

  Luna had always hated that women seemed to fawn over convicts, and now here she was, excited by a man who’d killed those closest to him. Her hormones were exploding inside her, guiding her brain, making her stupid. This was her sexual frustration at work, and nothing more.

  “Take me…for your own,” she parroted, losing her own mind as she echoed his words. “No, I couldn’t…”

  “Oh, I don’t know, little Wolf. I thought I wanted to be alone this evening, but you’re very pretty. Perhaps I could use a little companionship after all. Tell me, what’s your name?”

  “My name,” she mumbled. “It’s…Luna.” Fucking hell, why had she told him? What was he doing to her?

  Idiotic Wolf.

  “Luna.” He took her hand in his, playing briefly with her fingers, and flipped it over. But when he saw the small triangular tattoo on her palm, he dropped it and released her from his grip, stepping back, the look of disgust returning to his eyes. “Well, love,” he added. His hand gripped the back of the chair he’d been sitting in, as though he were steadying himself. “It turns out you’re the fucking devil.”

  Luna stepped away, her body tensing. The Dragon man’s expression had altered from intensely flirtatious to menacing in a heartbeat. Hatred coloured his glare, glowing bright and dark at once like a fuse burning through the air between them.

  “The devil? What do you mean?” she asked. If anyone in this room was the devil, it was him.

  He gestured towards her hand. “What do I mean? I mean that your whole damned Pack is the bane of my existence. You can go tell your fucking Alpha that you don’t belong in London, and I’ll see to it that you don’t remain. Not a single one of you.”

  Luna swallowed hard. So, he knew their mark, even if he didn’t recognize her. But of course he did. He’d lived in Warkshire Forest since she could remember. No doubt he knew a thing or two about their Pack.

  It was time to play innocent. “But I thought…they told us the Dragons were welcoming the Wolves back…”

  He shook his head slowly. “Not you,” he growled low. “Not your Pack. Never.”

  Luna swallowed again. She should have turned and run. Should have crawled away. Anything but say the next words. “Why not?” she asked, her mind out of her own control. What kind of stupid question was that?

  “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. In that moment he seemed to grow larger, a shadow passing over his face. “What matters is that your Alpha is my mortal fucking enemy. That makes you my enemy as well.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said, possessed by a desire to know this man’s thoughts. But why did she care? Of course he was her enemy. He was insane. A man who would kill his own wife and children wouldn’t hesitate to kill her in a heartbeat.

  But for some mad reason, she wanted him to think well of her. She didn’t want him to hate her as he seemed to do with every fibre of his being. She wanted Kirith to be the good man he’d been when she’d been young and innocent, in the days before the world had gone dark.

  “You don’t understand?” he replied, laughing bitterly. “Then ask your sodding Alpha to explain it to you. Ask him why someone like me might wish someone like him dead. Then perhaps you’ll grasp it. But I should warn you, if I get to him first, there’ll be no more Alpha to ask. Now get out of my way before I kill you.”

  When Luna leapt to the side, the BHD stepped by her and headed out of the pub, his stride long, his movements determined.

  She watched him with tears in her eyes, wondering how she could possibly feel sad for such a monster.

  Chapter 7

  Kirith strode rapidly towards Hyde Park, his body a tense rod unable to release. It was nearly ten by now, and he was due to meet Lumen. In a way it was a good thing that the She-Wolf had approached him and drawn him out of his thoughts. He’d lost track of time, but she’d pulled him back to grim, ugly reality.

  He wanted to get his meeting with Lumen out of the way. Once he’d gained access to the flat, then hopefully the Guild’s Alpha and his family would get on their way, and Kirith could be alone again. Solitude was his natural state by now. He’d been alone for so long that he’d all but forgotten how to exist around others. English had become a foreign language to his tongue, just as all language had. The mere thought of talking to another being filled him with dread.

  The young woman who’d come to speak to him—the young Wolf—had been no exception. Beautiful though she was, soft, young, innocent, with her perfect pink lips and sexy round tits, she was a pestilence on his soul.

  If for no other reason than that she’d decided to approach such a broken man.

  He’d been hard on her. Maybe a little too hard. Despite the fact that she was a member of the Warkshire Pack, she hadn’t wronged him, and it was only a twist of cruel fate that meant she’d been born in his woods. But even if he hadn’t reacted quite so violently to her presence, the fact was that he didn’t know how to be warm and kind to anyone. Not anymore.

  He was more monster than man by now.

  It was easier that way. Easier to retreat into the dark beast who shielded him from the cruelty of raw emotion than to allow himself the luxury of feelings. Every pang, every hint of heartache was a sensation he fought back. He calmed his trauma with rage, thrust away his humanity with a Dragon’s rock-hard scale.

  Thirteen years had passed since the awful night when he’d lost everything, but the pain of it was still as fresh as if the wound lay open and bleeding. Thirteen years of solitude, of self-punishment in the form of isolation.

  Perhaps it had been a mistake to shut himself away like Grendel in his cave, cursing humanity from a distance. But there had been no one to turn to. Even now, he wasn’t sure that the Guild could ever fully accept the likes of him. He’d seen the hostility in Minach’s eyes. He’d seen the pity from the strange Wolf shifter who’d infiltrated their ranks. Finding his way to acceptance would be an uphill battle, given what he’d endured.

  The young shifter from the Warkshire Pack—Luna, her name was—she really was innocent, perhaps. A
naive, foolish Wolf who no doubt followed her Alpha mindlessly, as her kind so often did. She was lovely, sexy, even—and her hands were clean of blood. Kirith knew the look of a killer, and she didn’t yet have it. But she would, eventually. No Wolf fully escaped his or her own fate. No Wolf who obeyed a cruel Alpha could remain unblemished for long.

  When he’d spoken to her, he’d sensed a deep fear, but he’d picked up on something else as well. The smell of terror had been mixed with a sort of reluctant desire, her body telling his that it wanted to be close, to touch, to taste. Poor, beautiful creature must have hated herself for it. Desire for a monster was no badge of honour, and she was a fool to want him.

  But then, he was a fool to want her back. They were enemies in every way imaginable.

  But no matter. If all went as planned, he wouldn’t see her again. Wouldn’t speak to her. If she was half as intelligent as her keen eyes dictated, she would catch a train out of this city, Pack or no Pack. She would leave London and never look back.

  No. Of course she wouldn’t. The obedient She-Wolf would no doubt find her Alpha and tell him what she’d seen.

  She’d tell Ripper that she’d looked into the eyes of a Dragon who wanted to unleash hellfire on their kind. Because that’s what Wolves did.

  Chapter 8

  When Luna stepped into the flat, she shut the door behind her and pressed her back to its cold wooden surface, breathing hard.

  She hadn’t stopped shaking since she’d first lain eyes on Kirith in the pub. Even a second shot of whiskey hadn’t been enough to still her trembling hands.

  Silver was already gone, thank God. She had no idea what she would have told him if he’d been there, or if she would have revealed anything of her surreal experience in the pub. The last time they’d spoken of the BHD had been in Warkshire Forest thirteen years ago, and given Silver’s reaction back then, it might be even worse now. He would probably tell her to report her findings to Ripper; to let him know that such an imminent threat had found his way to London.

  Maybe he’d be right to do so. Maybe it would be the one and only way to protect their Pack. Just because their Alpha was a nasty piece of work didn’t mean the rest of them—Martin and Denn and the others—should suffer at the hands of a killer Dragon.

  The question that still lingered on Luna’s mind was whether Kirith was a killer at all. He’d scared the living hell out of her. On the other hand, he’d also excited her. Filled her with a strange, terrifying desire.

  No one should ever desire their enemy. No one should desire a man capable of murder.

  But something inside her—maybe it was her Wolf, maybe some deep primal instinct—had always told her that Kirith couldn’t be a murderer, despite what she’d seen that night long ago. The strange voice that misted through the air into her mind told her he was still that handsome, kind man that she used to watch in the woods. The one with the gentle eyes, who doted on his family. The loving father with the big heart whose goodness she could sense from a mile away.

  The thing was, he didn’t behave like a person capable of the heinous crime he’d been accused of. Oh, he was strange and volatile, to be sure. He behaved like a man who’d been hurt badly. Crushed, even, to the point where he put up barriers between himself and the whole world in order to protect what was left of his damaged heart.

  The only thing that was certain was that his eyes weren’t full of cruelty.

  It was sadness.

  She wandered into her room, staring at the worn-looking bed pressed against the far wall, and considered whether she should pop down to the club to check on Silver.

  Even if she couldn’t tell him what had happened, some part of her wanted to be near her brother just now. She needed the reassurance that his existence provided her.

  Slipping over to the window, she could see that drops of rain had begun plunking against the glass, slipping down in a zigzag of wistful droplets. Evenings like this always made her miss her parents. Brought back memories of sitting on her father’s lap as he regaled her and Silver with tales from his youth, of bounding through the woods and hunting small game.

  Of course, those had been the days before worry had found a permanent home inside her mind, before some ghost had taken up residence inside her brother.

  When she thought back to what had set all the madness in motion, she always came back to the day her parents had died. She’d been fifteen at the time, Silver was sixteen, and their father had taken their mother to run an errand for Ripper. They’d taken their old, beat-up Renault hatchback to a nearby town for supplies, just as they had a hundred times.

  But they’d never returned.

  The moment when she’d lost respect for Ripper was the moment when he’d sent another Pack member to come tell Silver and her about the accident. Their fucking Alpha hadn’t even bothered to break the news to them himself. Hadn’t had the balls to face two teenagers, because they might get upset and God forbid that he should have to deal with such nonsense.

  Ripper had spent his entire life trying to convince the world that he was fearless, but the truth was that he was a right pussy, afraid of the emotions of two orphaned kids.

  They’d buried their parents a few days later. Silver had stood with his arm around Luna’s shoulder through the entire ceremony as tears streamed down her cheeks, his warmth a reminder that some part of her family still lived.

  “We’ll be all right, you and I,” he’d whispered in her ear. She’d never forgotten those words. We’ll be all right.

  But they’d never be all right, not as long as they lived under Ripper’s thumb. For the first time in Luna’s life, as she stared out the window at the darkening skies above London, she doubted if either of them would ever be all right again.

  She needed to see her brother. He was the only one who could make her feel better right now. Even if he was a shadow of his former self, he was still a comfort.

  Quickly, she grabbed her raincoat, pulled on her wellington boots, and strode out the door.

  When she arrived at the Underground Club, she couldn’t see Silver at first. The damned place was so big that it was a wonder that anyone could find their way around it, let alone a solitary figure hidden in its depths.

  Ripper, on the other hand, had made himself highly visible as always. He was moving about like a man on a hyperactive mission, ordering last-minute painters and plasterers to do their jobs faster. “I want this place to shine tomorrow,” he insisted. Looking around her, Luna couldn’t imagine how a windowless pit under London’s streets could ever look anything other than grim and forlorn. The club was nothing more than a haven for those who loved darkness.

  “Luna!” the Alpha shouted when he saw her. “Come over here.”

  “What is it?” she asked as she strode towards him, pulling off her rain jacket to reveal a loose grey t-shirt and jeans.

  “For one thing,” said Ripper, looking her up and down, “you’ll need to wear other clothes when you come back tomorrow. Something far sexier than that. I want you on the floor among our customers, taking orders and the like. They should want to fuck you, not pity you.”

  “My dream job, in other words,” she replied, rolling her eyes in her mind. Yes, of course Ripper wanted her looking like a cheap whore. “Anything else?”

  “Yes,” he replied, ignoring her sarcasm. He lay a hand on her shoulder and steered her away from the men who were working on the renovations. “I have a rather special assignment for you,” he said softly. “You’ve always been good at reading people.”

  “Okay,” she said, surprised at the compliment. “What assignment would that be?”

  “You’ll be wandering among our patrons, taking drink orders, charming them, that sort of thing. But I want you to be the primary gatherer of information.”

  Luna bit her cheek. “Information about what, specifically?” she asked, knowing full well how much Ripper would love to know that she’d seen Kirith earlier. Had he been anything but a terrible Alpha, she might have t
old him. But for some reason she felt more loyal to the Dragon shifter with the tortured soul than to her twat of a leader.

  Ripper smiled. “Get me anything you can gather about the Pack leaders around here. Those with influence. I want names and locations. But more than that, I want to know about the Dragons.”

  “The Dragons?” Luna asked, a series of shudders overtaking her.

  “Are you cold?” asked Ripper, reaching out to put an arm around her.

  Luna pulled away. “Not cold. Just got a brief chill. What is it you want to know about the Dragons?”

  “I need information about where the Guild members live. Where they meet. Their families. That sort of thing.”

  A wave of seasickness came over Luna as she registered his words. “Their families? Why would you need that kind of information?” It was one thing to go after shifters, but to target their families sounded awfully thuggish.

  “Oh, it’s nothing nefarious, if that’s what you’re worried about. I only want some leverage,” Ripper said. “It’s always easier to do business with people when you have something in common with them. If I know that one has a new baby, for instance, I can tell them how much I love children.”

  Luna wanted to throw up. “You hate children, Rip.”

  “Yes, well, they don’t need to know that.”

  “I see. At any rate, I’m rather confused. You’re looking to negotiate with the Dragons now? Earlier you were out for their blood.”

  A look of quiet rage passed quickly over Ripper’s face before disappearing into the ether. He smiled, which always looked so sodding unnatural on him. “I’ve had a change of heart,” he said. “Remember, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar and all that. I’ve been thinking that perhaps diplomacy would be our best tactic with such…powerful…beasts.”

  Luna narrowed her eyes. “Right. Well, I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” she said. With that, she began to walk away. But Ripper grabbed her by the arm, slipping his hand down to hold onto her fingers. He drew himself close to her ear, and Luna had to fight back the desire to spin around and slap him on the face.