by Abigail Owen
A whisper of a sound coming from inside the hangar caught his attention. Like the tread of feet. A familiar sound that had him dipping a wing to turn in the sky, despite how his dragon half wanted to stay out longer. The animal inside him had not appreciated having to be flown by another dragon anywhere. But the sound was something he couldn’t ignore.
Cami. What was she doing in there? The hangar was the most vulnerable point of the entire cave system.
He knew the silver light from above would be behind him, casting him in shadow as he flew into the mouth of the cave. He also wasn’t the only red dragon in this installation. Would she recognize him and stay? At the last second, he flared his wings wide, having to push against the air several times, to hover before he touched down.
Silence greeted him as he stood, scanning the dark corners with eyes able to discern every craggy detail. No one.
“I know you’re there, Cami.” Like he’d had to with Delaney and then Sera when they were still human, he quieted the thought he aimed at her mind so he didn’t hurt her. “Cami? Show yourself.”
The soft fall of her familiar footsteps came from his right, behind a door that led to a small room. One Rune didn’t tend to use as it was situated so close to the outside of the system of caverns. Like every other door in the place, the hinges of the door protested their use by giving a rusty squawk as she opened it. It didn’t escape him that she kept it cracked, sticking her head out. From the little he could see of her, she wore black from head to toe. Even so, she shivered as the chill in the air hit her.
The second she spied him in dragon form Cami’s irritated frown morphed to something more like awe, her gaze moving over him slowly. Almost a caress. Then she blinked, and her expression closed off. “You’re awfully pretty as a dragon, Drake.”
As a misdirection tactic, it failed miserably. Drake didn’t even bother to answer as he shifted to human, not taking his gaze from her as the feel of his body changed, tightened and focused into a smaller being.
Even before he finished, he strode across the room toward her. “What are you doing out here?”
She stepped farther out the door, cracking it behind her. “I couldn’t sleep.”
He stopped in front of her and crossed his arms. “You didn’t answer the question.”
Cami made a face somewhere between irritation and wariness. “I didn’t figure I had to. Not like it’s your business.”
Right. Enough of this. Drake stepped around her and into the room with a loud creak from the door.
“Hey!” Cami whirled to follow on the protest.
He stilled as he spied a black duffel bag on the solitary, wonky-legged table in the room, bulging with clothes, he assumed, along with several apples and a can of green beans piled beside it. On the other side was a thick jacket. For what? Trying to hike through the Andes mountains in the fucking snow? Was she crazy?
“What’s this?” The words came out on a growl.
Cami showed no give as he turned to face her. “Still none of your business.”
That wasn’t going to fly. “Going somewhere?”
She didn’t answer this time, just stood by the door, hands on her hips, glaring at him.
“Does Rune know?” he asked.
She looked away at that, lips flattening, probably around words he knew wanted to burst from her. The woman was a talker.
“Skylar knows,” she said. As if that made it all better.
Skylar again. Why did the way Cami say that trip alarms in his head? The two girls were obviously friends. Skylar seemed to want to help her.
Drake eyed the stubborn woman in front of him, frustration tightening the skin across his face as he battled with his lack of skills in this whole getting-someone-to-trust-him-with-secrets thing. Usually he wanted nothing to do with secrets. And cajoling was so far from his personality his team would probably die laughing if they saw him even contemplating it.
What could he possibly say to get her to open up, maybe put a stop to it? Nothing. Shit. “Wherever you’re going, do you have a plan?”
Cami stilled, not that she changed positions, but something about the way her gaze came to rest on him told him he had her attention. “What do you mean?”
“To stay safe. I assume you’re not going to the Alliance or the Mating Council.” Though maybe she was. Maybe she’d decided not to wait for the politics to sort themselves out. Except trusting them would be piss-poor judgment on her part.
He wasn’t going to let her make that kind of mistake.
She pursed her lips. “I’m not.”
The oddest fissure of relief opened up inside him. Again with the relief. He ignored it. “Good.”
After what he’d seen with Sera—the Alliance members’ blatant disregard for what was best for a new mate in favor of what was best for the rotting High King and their clear intention to cut her true mate, if such a thing existed, out of the process altogether—sending Cami to those assholes ranked somewhere on the same level as throwing a bag of kittens in a river of lava.
“I’m surprised you care,” she said.
“I don’t.” The words kicked out of him automatically and immediately didn’t sit right, like armor cast for another man cutting into his skin. He mentally shook his head at himself. “But you…took care of me.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Okay.” She drew out the word. “You hated that.”
“I figure I owe you.” There. That sounded like a rational explanation.
Cami walked past him and bent over the table in a way that had his cock twitching in his pants. “I was happy to help.”
“Dammit. Don’t do that.”
Her hands paused in packing the food she must’ve snuck from the kitchen into pouches in her bag. “Do what?”
“That whole any good deed bullshit.”
She stood to face him, and he got the feeling she saw more than he wanted her to. “You think good deeds are bullshit?”
“I think an ulterior motive works better every time. Both sides can trust that.”
“Uh-huh. And you don’t want to owe me. Is that it?”
No. “Something like that.”
She went back to her packing, shaking her head as though she was talking to herself and rejecting whatever she had to say about the matter. For his part, Drake wasn’t leaving this room until she told him where she was going. No way was Cami disappearing on his watch, regardless of Skylar’s knowledge.
Cami glanced his way a few times, her expression turning more sour each time, and her shoulders creeping up around her ears.
“I don’t need help,” she finally snapped. “Or a nanny.” She punctuated that sentence by zipping the last pocket of the bag and slinging it over one shoulder. She glanced behind him at the door with a nervous flick of her eyes.
“You haven’t told me what you’re doing yet.” If he had to shake it out of her, he would.
“I don’t have to.”
He shrugged, pretending that was true. He also didn’t move, standing between her and the only way out of the room.
The scowl she leveled on him could’ve tumbled steel buildings with sheer anger. “Why do you even care?”
No way was he touching that question with a ten-foot pole. Drake crossed his arms and waited.
She gave a little growl deep in her throat that was about the sexiest damn thing he’d ever heard. “I’m not a prisoner here.”
“No. But you didn’t tell Rune.”
“So?”
“You trust him.” The words threatened to bring bile up from his gut. She trusted Rune. Above most anyone else it seemed. How and why had that happened?
She flung out an arm in frustration, prompting him for more. “And?”
“If you won’t tell the one man you trust, the guy who’s trying to protect you…” He let that thought hang, the obvi
ous implied. She was up to no good and assumed Rune would try to stop her.
That earned him another of those fearsome glares. His body surged in response, an unwelcome response he clamped down hard on.
“How are you planning to leave?” he asked next. No way was she hiking her ass out of the Andes. Sure, spring was coming to the southern hemisphere, but by no means would she make it out alive. She’d freeze first, or fall off a cliff, or starve if the first two didn’t claim her life. That can of green beans wouldn’t last a day.
She tipped her chin and took a page from his book, not answering.
“Shit,” Drake muttered. He stared at her hard, then ran a hand through his hair. He had zero choice here. “I guess I’m coming with you then.”
Cami’s eyes went wide. “No.”
“I’m not giving you a choice.”
“I’ve been taking care of myself for twenty—”
“Not with dragon shifters in the mix,” he snapped. “Do you want to die?”
“Of course not.”
“Then if you leave, so do I.” Hell, bodyguard duty was better than hanging out with the criminals in this mountain anyway.
“I figured I’d catch you here, Cami. Drake?” Rune’s voice reached out of the shadows, and Cami about jumped out of her skin.
They both turned to find Rune standing in the doorway, the door—which hadn’t uttered a single squeak of rusty protest—wide open.
…
A desperation born of the need to be there for her family and the gnawing realization that these men might stop her from doing that had Cami dropping her bag to the floor with a loud smack.
“Dammit, Rune,” she snapped.
The man emerged from the shadows like a wraith, the reflection of the single torch Cami had brought catching his eyes first before the rest of him appeared. Skylar hadn’t shown up yet, and probably wouldn’t once she caught sight of who waited for her now. The woman was as bad as Rune about sneaking around, and with two dragon shifters involved, she’d stay far away.
Which meant Cami had no way out of here. Dammit.
The burn of frustration pushed at the back of her eyes, but she refused to give angry tears any place in this situation.
“What are you doing here?” Rune asked Drake, who hadn’t answered the first time.
“I’m taking Cami home.”
Cami whipped her head around so hard her neck tweaked in protest. “You are?” How had he known in the first place?
Rune stared hard at Drake. “My intelligence says you should be fine. As far as I know, they haven’t discovered your absence yet. The Alliance is on me now, not your team. Even so, I can’t protect you there. You know that?”
Drake nodded. “The team will help if I call.” Though by the sound of his voice, he wouldn’t call.
“What team?” Cami looked back and forth between the two men.
“My team of enforcers is near your family’s ranch,” Drake answered, not taking his gaze from Rune.
He’d been that close to her all this time?
“Our team,” Rune corrected.
“Not now,” Drake said. The two men stared each other down. The Tweedledee and Tweedledum of glarers.
Wait. Cami gave a mental head shake. How did Drake know where the ranch was in the first place? Had Rune told him? The logical part of her told her not to ask the question. This solution was a godsend. “Why would you risk your life and your friends’ lives to help me?”
Drake’s jaw hardened, the muscles working underneath taut skin.
“Because he can’t stand being here any more than you can,” Rune answered for him. “This at least gives him a mission. A purpose.”
Drake canted his head in a tiny motion more like a shrug. “A warrior’s death, if it comes to it.”
Cami sucked in a sharp breath. “I don’t want anyone dying for me.”
Finally, Drake turned to face her, and she blinked at the resolve in his gaze, a determination she hadn’t seen from him since he’d arrived. “I’m dying anyway. Might as well be like this.”
No. She had to choke the word back, a stark, violent denial, a riptide pulling at her, that this vital man was so close to the end of his life. She already knew. Rune had told her. But hearing it, so starkly, from Drake…
“Can you even fly?” Rune asked.
Drake shrugged. “I was fine just now.”
That got him a harder stare. “It’s a long way.”
Drake grimaced. “Yeah.”
“Right.” Rune glanced into the dark behind him. Cami peered into those shadows but could discern nothing there.
Until Skylar stepped farther into the room on silent feet.
“No.” Cami flung the word out. Her friend had made it more than clear that, other than Rune and Tyrek, she couldn’t reveal what she was to any other dragon shifters. Cami didn’t know what Skylar was—only her abilities as part of an offer to send her home—but she did know the woman was hiding. Revealing her abilities in front of Drake was a risk Cami couldn’t allow Skylar to take. Not for her.
“It’s okay,” Skylar said. “You and Drake aren’t the only ones stuck in this shithole.” Rune cleared his throat, but Skylar ignored him. “At least I can help a…friend.”
Air whooshed out of her lungs and Cami sent the other woman a somewhat wobbly but grateful smile. “I told you we’d be friends.”
“How can you help?” Drake’s doubts infiltrated his words as he cut off Skylar’s eye roll.
Skylar turned to him. “You don’t tell anyone about this. Not Flynn—”
“Finn,” he correctly.
“Whatever.” Skylar rolled her eyes. “Not him. Not his mate. None of your team. Not a single dragon shifter anywhere. Not wolf shifters or vampires or ghouls. No witches. No—”
Drake snapped up a hand. “I get it.”
“Do you? I’m sticking my neck way the fuck out, against all advice to the contrary.” She flicked a glance at Rune. “I don’t intend to get my head chopped off in the process. But Rune says I can trust you.”
Shock skittered through Cami that Skylar trusted Rune enough to take his word. Part of her wanted to tell Skylar to stop, that she wasn’t worth this risk. The other part, perhaps the more selfish part, countered that Skylar was a grown woman who knew what she was doing. Leo had a broken leg. The goats needed to find a home. They needed to rebuild their ranch. She needed to be with her family.
“Tyrek trusts Rune,” Skylar said, almost as though answering Cami’s silent question, though she was still drilling a hole in Drake’s head with her serious stare. “And Tyrek is family. If you don’t like how things are now among your kind, it’ll get way worse if I’m discovered. Got it?”
Drake considered the woman. “You have my word,” he said quietly.
Skylar blew out a harsh breath and gave a sharp nod. In contrast, Cami’s lungs started working again. Skylar must’ve sensed the same thing Cami had from the beginning. Drake Chandali was a man not to be trifled with, but also one whose word was a bond he’d never break.
This is going to happen. She could go back to her family. At least for a little while. And with help.
“Do you need to bring anything with you?” Skylar asked Drake.
“I didn’t come with anything,” he said.
“Fine.” Skylar obviously didn’t care. “I’ll have to send you one at a time.”
Drake stiffened beside Cami. “Send?”
He glanced at Rune who did nothing.
Skylar’s serious expression shifted with a smile this side of mischief. “I can teleport people anywhere I want.”
“Teleport.” Drake didn’t sound nearly as disbelieving as Cami had when Skylar told her, but then, he’d been born into this world. Hundreds of years ago, by all accounts.
“Fastest way to travel.�
�� Skylar stepped closer. She held up both hands in front of her. “I sort of have to shove you through space and time. You still game?” She wiggled her fingers.
In answer, Drake scooped Cami’s bag off the ground where she’d dropped it at his feet. “Where are you sending us?”
Skylar glanced at Cami, but Rune was the one who answered. “San Francisco.”
Cami wasn’t surprised when Drake’s expression went flat. Dragons tended to avoid heavily populated human centers as a general rule. She’d learned that much while staying here.
Skylar grimaced as well. “Hopefully I can put you where no one sees you…arrive.”
“I’ve set up a room under a dummy corporation at the Montclair Street Hotel,” Rune said.
Cami gave a squeak of surprise before she found her voice. “You knew?”
“Sorry, sweetie.” Skylar didn’t sound the least bit sorry. “I was worried.”
“Here.” Rune shoved an envelope at her.
“What’s this?”
“Cash. Fake IDs. A pager and the number of one of mine.”
She glanced up, eyebrows winging high. “Seriously? A pager—”
“It’s a technology the Alliance isn’t scanning for,” he cut her off to explain. “I’d use pigeons or the Pony Express if I thought it’d work.”
“Oh.”
“Right,” Drake muttered. “That everything?”
Rune nodded.
“Let’s go,” Drake said.
“Brace yourself,” Skylar said. In a flash, she lit with flame, the brilliance of fire creeping over her form until she was covered from head to foot, though her clothes didn’t burn.
Drake looked from her to Rune, who shrugged. A fire creature of special significance. Was this who the rogue, Brand Astarot, had been looking for when he’d come to the Huracáns? Who the new King of the Blue Clan had sent him to find?
Before Drake did more than set his feet in a wider stance, Skylar lunged at him, shoving him hard in the chest. But the second her hands made contact, he disappeared. No sound or other indicator went with him. Nothing where an instant before a large, usually pissed off, man had stood.
