Her breath caught in her throat, and she grabbed a hold of Declan’s arm. She shook with fear and awe as the skies filled with the mystical beasts. “How in the world are they able to do that? I mean even a near-sighted person can see that’s a dragon!”
It took a minute for Declan to answer. He too stared at the sky, and she felt his longing to be up there with the rest. His broken wing wouldn’t allow it, and the knowledge tore her heart apart.
“I told you we’re magical creatures, didn’t?”
“Yes, but I can clearly see them. What’s magic about that?”
“No one else can.”
“Huh?” She blinked a few times and scrubbed her eyes.
“We can shield ourselves from humans.”
“Like a chameleon?”
“Similarly, but it’s not that our scales match the color of the sky. We bend light to appear to be invisible.”
“Ah.” She didn’t really get it, but she believed him. “I’m human, and I can see them. You’re not about to tell me I’m not human because I’ve been around you guys too long, are you?”
He smirked and gazed down at her. She could have sworn that the light in his eyes was love. Her heart beat faster at seeing that than it did watching the dragon shifters.
Declan stroked her cheek and ran a thumb across her lips. She thought he would kiss her, but she was destined to be disappointed. He turned back toward the sky to watch his fellow shifters take off.
One of the bigger dragons—a show off if you asked her—flapped his broad wings and stirred up a powerful wind. Declan stepped in front of her to shield her from most of it.
When the too-full-of-himself dragon was gone, Declan answered her question. “No, you’re not a shifter, and dragon shifting isn’t some type of contagion. You have to be born this way. We certainly don’t bite people to ‘turn them’ like werewolves.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Remember I said we appear to be invisible? We’re not actually invisible. I don’t know all the science—or magic—behind it, but I think it’s a combination of knowing what to look for and expecting to see it. Plus it’s possible that we put out something that tricks the human mind into not seeing us.”
He flushed a bit, and she wondered if he felt embarrassed that he couldn’t explain better. Perhaps if he had been around his people all the way into adulthood, they might have taught him the technical stuff about being a dragon.
She recalled the first time they met Patrick and how it had seemed that there was something in the sky before they went into the restaurant that day. She couldn’t make it out clearly, but she definitely saw it.
Declan explained after she talked to him about it. “He wanted to intimidate us both, and he knew it would rattle me more to know you were frightened at seeing something you couldn’t explain.”
“Too bad for him I might need a pair of glasses some time soon.”
Declan chuckled, and a few steps away from them Patrick turned around to glare. He’d obviously heard their conversation and wasn’t pleased at her lack of appropriate response.
After everyone that was flying had left, Patrick approached them. “This way. We’re riding in the car out of consideration for our injured friend.”
“You don’t care about him at all,” Janessa ground out, “or you wouldn’t have made him watch while everyone flew away.”
“Nessa.” Declan touched her arm. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. I’m sick to death of him rubbing your condition in your face. Maybe you don’t think about it, pal, but Declan is one of your people. You claim to care about them, but you don’t give a flip about him. Or is it that you just want to be in charge?”
Carl stepped in front of her. “Be quiet before I make you.”
He found himself thrown to the edge of the clearing, and he rolled a few times before thumping his back against a tree. Janessa gasped and spun to face Declan. She’d hardly registered what happened. Declan moved so fast and with such force, she couldn’t believe he was the one who tossed the man.
She expected all the remaining men to attack Declan, but no one moved. Patrick’s jaw worked like he was frustrated. She didn’t understand why no one tried to punish Declan until Carl came running back toward them. His dark expression said he was ready to rumble.
“Stop, you fool,” Patrick bit out. “You don’t threaten to hurt a man’s woman in front of him without considering the consequences. Go. I don’t need you on this road trip.”
“But boss—”
“Go. That’s an order.”
Carl took to the skies.
“What exactly do you mean ‘his woman’? I’m Declan’s mate!”
Everyone spun around in the direction of the shrill voice. Roxie had found them. Janessa’s heart sank at seeing her again. She’d hoped they would be far out of town before she showed up. She should have known better, especially after all she had learned about the shifters.
“I don’t have time to modify my plans,” Patrick said. “Take her.”
Two men charged Roxie. Her clothes seemed to melt away, but her naked body wasn’t exposed. She went from human to dragon in a blink. As the men grew, scales shimmered in rows along their bodies. The three took to the sky, beating the air with their wings.
With all the twists and turns, the roars of aggression, and the snaps of powerful jaws, at first Janessa lost track of which one of the dragons was Roxie. Two against one seemed unfair.
Janessa bumped Declan. “Shouldn’t someone do something? They’ll kill her.”
Declan took a step forward and then stopped, working his jaw. Janessa felt horrible. She’d forgotten he couldn’t fly. He must want to help the woman who had declared she would always be on his side, but he couldn’t.
Declan muttered something beneath his breath, which sounded like, “I have no choice.”
The skin on his face began to shimmer like he was about to shape shift. A deafening roar from the trees drew all of their attention to that direction, and another dragon appeared. He headed straight for the fighting group, scattering them.
“Who’s that?” Janessa wondered.
“The man who was at the bar that night I came to get you.” The change Declan began faded. He nodded approval. “She’ll be okay. He’ll protect her.”
With Declan’s assurance that Roxie would be fine and everyone’s eyes on the sky, Janessa started to think this might be the perfect time to try to get away. She gauged the distance between one of the cars waiting and where she stood. The man who had vacated the vehicle had left it running. If she and Declan could get into it, the most the dragons could do was pursue them in a car chase. They could drive to the nearest crowd of people, and the dragons wouldn’t try to use their abilities for fear of exposing their existence. It was a flimsy plan, since they could move so much faster than a human.
But I’m not going to be a prisoner for anybody, least of all dragons!
She squeezed Declan’s hand, and when he looked down at her, she tilted her head toward the car and widened her eyes.
“Now’s our chance.”
She hoped he could figure out what she meant.
“We’ll fight our way out if we have to—you and me.”
He grinned at her and squeezed her hand. Did that mean he understood? She poised to flee, her muscles coiling tight. Tension snaked along her shoulder blades. Her stomach cramped as a scenario where Patrick killed them for resisting his idiot plan ran through her mind.
She took one step forward, and Declan jerked her backward, crushing her against his side. He pressed his lips to her ear. “It’s okay.”
She wriggled in his hold, but there was no getting away from him. “Declan? Let go.”
He said it again. Her frustration grew. He couldn’t be as scared as Patrick accused him of being, but what else could she think? They had a perfect chance to try to get away, and he didn’t even want to try.
At her protests, he held her closer and actually
escorted her behind Patrick as he ordered them to the cars. Janessa saw the whole world closing in on her. If Declan wouldn’t fight so she could be free, she would live as a the only human prisoner to a race of mystical beasts. And who knew what they would do to her once they established their own town and lived by their own rules. The future appeared very bleak.
Chapter 17
Janessa woke up with sunshine dappling her face, the bed, and the walls around her. She rubbed sleep from her eyes and noticed Declan standing at one of the windows looking out. He wore pants but no shirt, and his feet were bare.
“Declan?” She was still mad at him, but love and desire for this man hadn’t abated one iota.
“Nessa, this cabin is small and rustic, but I promise to build you something bigger and better soon.”
“God, you’re not serious! You actually plan to stay here?”
He turned to face her. “If circumstances were right, would you want to?”
“We’re prisoners, or did you forget that? Oh wait, maybe you’re going to promise your allegiance to that narcissistic maniac. And not to mention the fact that I’m the only human!”
He folded his arms over his chest, smiling at her.
What the heck does he have to be so happy about?
“These are my people. You fell asleep early last night, but you should have seen them, sweetheart. They arrived from every direction and filled the land. I thought they died out mostly. I felt for so long that I was the only one left. No, that’s not true. I hid from them.”
She let a little of her anger go. “I know, but it’s because of your broken heart. Even if they blame you for that, I don’t. No one can know how much pain you’re in when you lose your whole family, and they certainly can’t tell you how to grieve.”
“That’s why I love you. You’ve always had my back.”
She lowered her lashes. “Lord, you sure are freely throwing around the ‘I love you’ thing. Last time I checked, you said you can’t be with me. And your ‘mate’ came to rescue you. Did she show up here too?”
“She did.”
The man had no shame. She sighed. “I don’t know what to think or do. I wanted to escape but you stopped me. Now you’re talking about us staying here. They must have slipped you something. Did you forget that we left our lives back there? I haven’t even finished dissolving the business. We have apartments with all our stuff still in them.”
“I’ll make arrangements.”
“Declan!” Tears filled her eyes. She was so confused and afraid. “You’re talking like you’re the big man on campus.”
“I needed time.”
“Time for what?”
Rather than answer, he turned his back to her. His wings sprang out and tumbled toward the floor. Before they touched, he flexed them both, and they spread, reaching both side walls of the cabin. Her breath left her lungs in a whoosh.
“Declan…your wing…the hurt one…”
“It’s because of you,” he said. “It’s because you’re my mate.”
She left the bed, trembling a little. Her head spun in confusion. Regardless, she was thrilled that his wing seemed to have healed. In fact, both seemed to be stronger and more brilliant. They shimmered like they hadn’t that night in the barn. Then again, it could be because of the sun.
No, Declan gave off an air of coming into his own. He seemed far more self-assured and just happy. He smiled a genuine smile she had rarely seen on his face. There was a light of mischief in his beautiful silver eyes that made her belly do flip-flops. If Declan was truly happy as he looked now, everything they suffered was worth seeing it.
“You’re not making much sense, Declan, but I’m so happy that you’re healed. Wow, for it to take so long—twenty years—and then mend overnight. Maybe it’s because you reconnected with your people. We should thank that fool Patrick, despite all his plotting.”
Declan moved toward her and took her into his arms. She stood on tiptoe to peek over his shoulder and stare in wonder at his wings. Running a hand over them, she thrilled at the cool smooth feeling. The silver and gray color shifted and shimmered under her fingertips, as if responding to her touch.
Something occurred to her all of a sudden and she drew back to look in his face. “You’re always cool because you’re cold-blooded!”
He chuckled. “Bingo. Cold-blooded animals can’t regulate their own body temperature. They rely on the sun to warm them and get sluggish in its absence.”
“Oh my Lord, that’s why you’re a lazy bum in the winter.”
“Hey!”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You know it’s true. Plus you whine when I don’t have the heat turned high enough at my place.”
“I do not whine.”
She laughed, liking to tease him.
He pressed a fingertip to her lips to shush her when she would have continued to rib him. “Janessa, I’ve been in denial of what you are to me since I met you. I honestly thought I could never have anyone, least of all you. I saw in you the woman who completes me.”
“Declan, don’t be sappy.” Her voice came out husky, and she blushed. Good thing he couldn’t see it.
He raised her chin, casting her a knowing look. “I mean that literally. It’s sappy when you talk about it in regard to humans, but a dragon shifter’s mate is a necessity to their full existence. You’ve always warmed me in many ways. You rescued me from sinking into despair. Because I left my people behind at a young age, I didn’t learn or remember the importance of one’s mate.”
Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away. The last thing she needed was emotion to choke her up so badly she couldn’t concentrate.
“I thought I didn’t deserve you, that I couldn’t care for you the way a man must care for his mate. That’s instinct with my people, and I resisted it because I thought I was too broken to fulfill the duty properly.”
“You were broken.”
He nodded. “But you healed me.”
“Whoa. I’m not a healer.”
“I am.”
He was serious when he said it, which blew her mind.
“I needed to regain what I lost, but what I didn’t know was that you would be the catalyst. So, to answer your questions, Roxie isn’t my mate. You are. You always have been, and you always will be. If you reject me…”
He paused like the prospect undid him.
“If you reject me, I will simply live near you and protect you from the outside. Although I can’t guarantee I won’t remove any men who come into your life.”
She burst out laughing. “Like you’ve been doing from day one?”
“I haven’t…. Not completely. Only the unworthy ones.”
“Hmm.” She narrowed her eyes at him, amused. Reject him? He must be insane. “This is the most truthful you’ve been to me since I met you. What you are still blows my mind, even though I’ve had days to take it in. I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes, and I feel confused like someone drugged me.”
“Nessa.”
She took a page from his book and touched a finger to his lips. Their firm sexy curve made her want to kiss them, but she resisted for the moment. “There’s one thing I know without a doubt—I’m never giving you up now that you’re open to being with me. Not today, not ever.”
“And about living here?”
“Again, earth to Declan, we are prisoners. I want to be wherever you are, but Patrick is bad news. We don’t have the power to do anything other than what he wants us to do. We’re stuck either way.”
“For the moment.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He didn’t get the chance to answer because someone knocked on the cabin door. A man stepped into the cabin without so much as a “come in” from them. Janessa didn’t recognize him. “Sir, it’s time for the ceremony. Patrick wants you there.”
She started to follow Declan out, but the man blocked her progress.
“I’m sorry, but you have to stay here.”
>
“I’m going with Declan.” She was about to push past him, when he raised a hand as if to shove her back into the cabin. Declan caught the hand in midair. The man struggled to free himself as Declan narrowed his eyes at him.
“Do you want to see what I do if you put your hand on her?” Declan had cast his voice low, full of so much intensity, a chill raced down Janessa’s spine. She wasn’t even the one in trouble, but she felt sorry for the idiot.
Declan was feeling himself now that he healed. She hoped she wouldn’t have to put a pin in his head later to bring it down to size. Then again, she liked his confidence and how he’d changed in such a short time. It thrilled her to know he was well and that he seemed to be enjoying himself for real.
“S-she can’t come to the ceremony,” the man stuttered. “Not this one. After Patrick makes sure she’ll never betray us, I’m sure he’ll allow her to move about freely. Please, sir, just cooperate for now.”
Declan looked at Janessa and released the man’s hand. “Wait here a moment,” he said to the man.
After Declan shuffled her backward into the cabin, he shut the door in the man’s face, and drew Janessa into his arms. She melted against his chest. Her heart swelled with love for him.
He drew back and raised her chin to kiss her until she was dizzy. She clung to him, loving this. She was almost ready to cry because she never thought they would get to this point.
Declan whispered her thoughts, confirming he was in the same boat. “I never imagined I could have you. We have the rest of our lives, baby. And I assure you, you will be free to do whatever you want. Give me a little while to secure it.”
“What are you going to do?”
He signaled for her to be quiet and pointed over his shoulder. She’d forgotten that they could hear really well.
“Stay here for me, okay? I promise I’ll be back.”
Panic rose in her gut. What if during this ceremony Patrick wanted to make an example of Declan as to what would happen if anyone crossed him?
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