Dragon Marked

by Amelia Jade

  Only it didn’t. A massive hand grabbed it, held it open long enough for Hel to slip through, and then it closed.

  “We should go,” he said casually. “They won’t be far behind.”

  Megyn wasn’t sure what to say, but she didn’t fight as he lifted her from the ground and they ran across the grass to the parking lot where his truck sat waiting. He deposited her in the passenger seat and hopped in.

  Outside shouts followed as Ian and his gang came charging out the front and back of the chapel. She yelped as Hel wheeled the truck around and gunned it out of the parking lot, forcing her back into her seat.

  “I think kidnapping is a federal offense,” she remarked, calmly putting on her seatbelt.

  “I can stop if you want to get out,” Hel offered, his voice even, like his breathing, as if he’d not just been in the middle of a brawl at her wedding.

  Megyn eyed him, thinking. “No,” she said at last. “I’ll stay. For now. But when they catch up, they aren’t going to be happy.”

  “I wouldn’t expect that anytime soon.”

  The tone of his voice had her looking over her shoulder as if the other cars were going to explode. “What did you do?” she asked.

  Hel looked hurt at her accusing tone. “I just let the air out of their tires. What do you think I am, some sort of monster?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Oh and I put a skunk in Ian’s Jeep.”

  “HEL!”

  He shrugged. “It’s the least he deserves.”

  She frowned. “Wait a minute. When did you do all of that?”

  “Before the ceremony started.”

  “Holy shit. You planned all this out, didn’t you!”

  “I’m not stupid, Megyn. I know what speaking up at your wedding would do to him.” He paused. “And to you,” he finished heavily. “I’m so sorry. I should have done it before. I just…I didn’t…I never wanted to hurt you.”

  “You could never hurt me,” she said softly, her mind coming back around to how Hel had called her fiancé a cheater. “But how did you know I would come with you?”

  “I didn’t. I just hoped.”

  She nodded and fell silent.

  What do I do now?

  Chapter Four

  Hel

  “Where are we going?”

  She asked the question about half an hour later than he’d expected, which just went to show the depths of the trust that she still had in him, even after his actions earlier. He glanced over at her. She was still in her wedding dress.

  Pain stabbed him, a reminder of how he’d messed up the one day that he should have been working his hardest to ensure was perfect for her.

  Pulling the truck off to the side of the road, he pointed to the right. “Way over there is Cherne, the lodge, etcetera.” Then he indicated the rear of the truck. “Back that way, the capital, your house, the big city, all that.”

  Megyn pointed forward, the road they were now on. “And what about this way?”

  Instead of answering that question, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. There was a small crack in the bottom right corner of the screen, but otherwise it had emerged from the fight relatively unscathed. Almost a miracle, though he had made backups of data elsewhere just in case.

  “I do actually have proof,” he said softly, gently spinning the black case in his hand. “If you want to see it.”

  He watched her face as her eyes left his and traveled downward to the phone. They lingered there for a long time. The fingers of her left hand drummed against her thigh as she debated with herself whether or not to view them. Part of Hel wished she would, so that there would be absolutely no doubt that he was telling the truth. Except he had no wish to see her so hurt by what was on there.

  “Where did you take them? How did you get it?” she asked calmly, hand still on her thigh. She hadn’t lifted her head.

  “I never liked him, and I never trusted him. So I followed him on his bachelor party night. It wasn’t hard; he didn’t exactly try to hide.” Hel’s lip pulled back as he recalled the memories of what he’d seen, and what was now on his phone.

  Megyn’s head was bobbing as he spoke, but he could see the defeat in her shoulders as they slumped. He hated doing this to her, but it was better than them having a sham of a marriage. Wasn’t it? He’d thought so, but now seeing her like this he was beginning to doubt himself. Maybe he should have just stayed out of the way and let her handle things. Would that have been better?

  “No.”

  He jerked. Had she been reading his mind? “Pardon?”

  “No, I don’t want to see them,” she said, and reached out to curl his fingers back around the phone, and pushed it away from him. “I trust you, Hel. Not once while you were accusing him did Ian try to deny it. He was too busy trying to shut you up, which lends truth to your statement more than almost anything you could do, besides actually letting me see the pictures, which I don’t need.

  Hel sat back into the driver’s seat, breathing heavily in relief. “I am sorry,” he said. “I should have told you the next day.”

  “Probably, yes. That would have made things simpler.” She began to fidget with her left hand.

  Before he could ask if she was okay, he clued in to what she was doing. The ring slid off her finger and she placed it on the dash.

  “Megyn, I…” He fell silent as she waved a hand at him.

  “You did the right thing in telling me, Hel. Maybe it was a little late, but that’s better than never. And certainly better than waiting until we were actually married.” She laughed, a sort of half-sob half-hysterical giggle. “At least I can honestly say that I will never forget this day.”

  He winced, but didn’t say anything.

  “And I got to see you kick Ian’s groomsman Danny in the nuts. That will also be something I’ll never forget, and that I’m okay with.”

  Chuckling at the memory, Hel was forced to agree. “Admittedly that was one of my highlights too.”

  They both laughed some more, and that seemed to buoy Megyn up, at least for the meantime.

  “So what’s ahead of us then if not home?”

  She was very clearly done discussing that topic for now. Hel knew they would speak of it more, but for now he had to respect her wishes. Truthfully, he was relieved. He wasn’t so great at providing emotional support, especially when his own feelings clouded his judgment on what to say. It was all just a mess in his head.

  “Ahead of us is a very nice and very secret mountainside chalet that I purchased a number of years back, without telling a soul. It’s a place where you can just go to clear your mind, and whatever else you need to do. Nobody will bug you. It will be peaceful.”

  “That sounds dreamy, Hel, just being able to escape for a few hours.”

  Or a few days. However long you need, Megyn.

  “There’s just one problem.”

  He paused, his hand halfway to the gear shifter to put the truck back in drive. “What’s that?”

  “I didn’t bring any mountainside chalet clothing. I don’t think even with the most extreme of modifications that this dress could cut it.” She was smiling while she said it, but Hel could see the pain behind the façade.

  “In the back,” he rumbled, putting the truck into gear and pulling back onto the road. He wanted to get there before dark, and it was still a two-hour drive. It was well out there, which is precisely what he wanted.

  Peripheral vision let him see her looking his way, but he just kept driving.

  “Hel…”

  He stared straight ahead.

  “Hel.”

  Eyes forward, vision focused on the road. Completely ignoring the less-than-impressed way she was saying his name.

  “Hel, why is there a bag of my clothing in the back seat?”

  He swallowed, forcing the lump down, but kept driving.

  Megyn was fully twisted to face him now, bag in her
lap. “I asked you a question, Hel.”

  “I planned ahead.”

  She snorted. “No shit. I can see that now. My question is where did you get the clothes? The last time I saw some of these, they were in a closet. In the house I share—used to share, I guess—with Ian.”

  He looked out his side window. “That’s where they were.”

  She rifled through it some more. “Hel, there is a pile of my underwear in here.”

  “Uh, yeah, about that. I just sort of grabbed a fistful and stuffed it in the bag. I hope I grabbed some that you wear.”

  “You went into my underwear drawer?!” She stopped herself visibly and audibly, taking a breath. “You broke into my house and stole a bunch of my clothes, all in anticipation of this?”

  He shrugged. “Aren’t you glad I did? Now you’re prepared.”

  “You touched my underwear,” she said flatly.

  “I washed my hands first.”

  Megyn couldn’t stop the explosive laughter. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

  “I didn’t have any gloves on me.”

  She doubled over. “Stop!” she gasped between fits. “Hel, stop.”

  He didn’t say anything more.

  “How many other times have you broken into my house?”

  “Never,” he said, this time looking at her. “I swear on the thing I hold most valuable, that I only ever did it to get these clothes.”

  There was silence in the vehicle for a few moments. “What do you hold most valuable?” Megyn asked softly.

  He looked away again, half on the road, half out his window, so that he didn’t have to look into her searching gaze.

  You, Megyn Wekkle. The answer is you.

  Why couldn’t he just say that? Other than the fact it would be incredibly poor and rude timing to confess that he was madly in love with her and she was his mate of course. But the words never came. Anytime over the years he’d tried to confess to her, he’d found himself tongue-tied, clamming up. Cold, sweaty palms, sometimes even the shakes. He’d never heard of this happening to a dragon before, but there he was, suffering from it all the same.

  As time had gone on he’d developed a mental stigma attached to telling her, and now he couldn’t even bring himself to try to say it. Only the fact that she was about to get married had spurred him into action the other night. Nothing else had brought him even that close in probably two years. Hel was a failure as a dragon mate, and he had no idea how to fix it.

  “You know, I should be creeped out by all of this. Creeped out, distraught, sobbing my life away. That would be the normal reaction, wouldn’t it?” she asked, changing the topic back to her, much to his relief.

  “I wouldn’t blame you if you were,” he conceded gruffly.

  “So why am I not? Why do I feel like you washing your hands before stealing my underwear—and you better not have kept any for yourself!—was actually a nice gesture?”

  He stumbled over his next words. “I did not keep any,” he protested.

  Though you did make sure your “fistful” happened to be from the side that looked a little more lacey and fun, but she doesn’t need to know that. Some things are best left unsaid. She’s not stupid; she’ll notice that.

  “I was just teasing. I know you’re not that much of a creep.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Try to go and do a nice thing, and this is what happens,” he muttered, but he couldn’t keep the smile from his face. It was nice to hang out, just the two of them. She’d been awfully busy since the engagement was announced eight months earlier, and Hel hadn’t seen a lot of her. This felt good.

  It felt right.

  Now if he could just keep it together once they reached his chalet. Keep it together, and eventually grow a set of balls so he could tell her how he truly felt, instead of keeping it all bottled up inside of him.

  If only he knew how.

  Chapter Five

  Megyn

  They went to the end of one road and turned onto a single-lane gravel roadway that hadn’t been leveled in several years. Trees rose up around them at first, moving up the gentle incline of the mountainside.

  Eventually Hel turned off that “road” and onto something that could only generously be called a path.

  “I see now why you have a truck,” she muttered as they bounced over a pothole.

  “It keeps away visitors,” he said, as if that explained everything.

  “You don’t think being this far away from anything else keeps them away too? We drove through that little town forty-five minutes ago. I haven’t seen a single other house or manmade structure in half an hour. You’d have to literally stumble upon this place I think.”

  He shrugged. “I like my privacy. I don’t like people seeing what I get up to.”

  “Is this where you finally reveal that you’re secretly a serial killer and have been waiting ten years since you met me for this moment?”

  “I’m not a serial killer.”

  She caught the slight hitch in his voice, the way he emphasized those words. Denying them, but not denying the second half of her question. Once again she wished he would just speak clearly, to tell her the truth, but that didn’t seem to be something he was capable of.

  “That’s a relief,” she joked. “Not that I ever suspected you of it.”

  The trees came to a halt, revealing a beautiful lawn that spread out a few hundred feet to either side and sloped up to the chalet itself. Here and there a cultivated tree sprouted up, but it was mostly just pure grass, a change from the treed landscape she’d seen.

  “Oh wow. Hel, it’s gorgeous.”

  “Thank you. I designed most of it myself,” he said proudly.

  She noticed him sitting a little straighter in his seat and carefully concealed her amusement. He liked it when she complimented him, and this was clearly something near and dear to him that he was sharing with her, so to hear her say she liked it must mean a lot.

  The chalet was three stories high, though the first seemed to be more of a garage and storage. It was built into the slope of the mountain, and it was all wood and stone supports, with glass windows floor to ceiling across the front.

  She twisted around to look out the rear of the truck and couldn’t help but gasp a little. “That is one hell of a beautiful view you have from up there.”

  Behind them the mountain sloped down and out into the valley. Nothing but nature could be seen for miles in any direction, a carpet of greens, grays, and browns. “It faces west too, doesn’t it?”

  “It does. Spectacular sunsets. We’ll watch it tonight if you’re interested.”

  “Very,” she said as he pulled to a stop out front. “Very.”

  Hel opened his door, a blast of cool air filling the cabin.

  “Brr.” She shivered, her thin dress no ward against the cool air.

  “Wait here,” he said, closing the door and jogging to the front door.

  “Not a problem,” she said to the empty interior, more than content to stay where it was warm.

  Hel was gone for three, maybe four minutes. When he came back out he had a sweater tucked under one arm.

  “Heat’s on, but it’ll take a bit to warm up. That should keep you warm until we’re inside.”

  She smiled and pulled it over her head. It smelled like Hel. Grabbing the bag of her stuff from the back, she hopped out. The sweater was baggy on her, and the hood closed around the sides of her face, meaning no matter what she did, his scent was infused in her nostrils.

  Oddly enough, it helped her to relax.

  “This way,” he said, forgoing a guided tour to instead show her to a bedroom upstairs. “You can change in there.”

  And take off all this bloody makeup too. Boy that’ll be fun without makeup remover.

  The door closed behind her and she looked at the room. Wooden paneling throughout, with real wood columns in the corners and for support spaced throughout the w
alls. Overhead a huge fan hung from the twelve-foot ceiling.

  The bed was on the wall to the right. On the near side of the left wall was a huge closet with sliding doors, and behind that bright lights and an open doorway indicated what appeared to be a huge en suite bathroom.

  A quick peek inside confirmed her suspicion. “Wow. Now this is a bathroom.”

  Light gray tile covered the floors, with white on the walls. The vanity was huge, with double sinks and plenty of space to spare. A separate room around to the left held the toilet. A massive tub was in the back right corner, big enough for three, with plenty of jets, and even a TV at the foot of it.

  To the front on the right was the shower. She went and stood in the middle of it and spread her arms out. They didn’t touch the walls as she spun in a circle. There was at least a foot of clearance, and the entire thing was a rainfall showerhead. A normal showerhead and also body jets were in one corner as well.

  It was luxury. Sinful luxury.

  Megyn loved every bit of it. She felt like she was at some exclusive hotel that only the rich or famous stayed at. Who didn’t like to be pampered a bit?

  It was time to get her dress off, shower, and put on something more practical.

  ***

  “I think I’m good now,” she joked, coming down the stairs to where Hel lounged in a common room.

  “Did you save any hot water for me?” he teased, making fun of the fact she’d spent a solid thirty minutes in the shower.

  “No promises.” She grinned, feeling relaxed and shockingly at peace with everything that had happened in the past—she glanced at her cell phone, ignoring the unread notifications—five hours. Shit, was that all it had been? The wedding felt like an eternity ago.

  “It’s okay, I shouldn’t need it. Not yet anyway.”

  Hel had changed as well. Gone was the ripped suit. In its place he wore some dark jeans and a thick flannel button-up that he’d rolled up to his elbows. If he let his beard grow out he would become the sexy lumberjack stereotype completely. It wasn’t a bad look on him either. He actually wore the flannel extremely well.