The Enforcer (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  Cami tugged on his arm. “Drake, please?”

  Suddenly his mouth hitched to the side in a half smile completely devoid of all humor. “The Alaz and the Alliance were going to find out I was rogue sooner or later.”

  Relief had Cami gasping. He wasn’t going to leave them to die.

  Except Finn was across the room, straight up in Drake’s face, snarling in such a contained way it was more frightening than if he’d gotten physical. “You know I can’t let you. If you’re rogue, then I have to kill you.”

  No. This couldn’t be happening.

  Something in Cami’s pocket buzzed, but she ignored it, only vaguely aware of it going off. “That’s my family out there.”

  Why was no one listening to her? She searched out Delaney and Lyndi. As soon as she looked at the women, both uprooted their feet and made their way to her side, Lyndi taking her hand. But they didn’t argue, either.

  Finn shifted his gaze to her and grimaced with what she supposed was regret. “I know. I’m sorry. I have to think about the—”

  A stream of sparks shot from Cami’s skin, tiny glowing embers bouncing off men and the granite floors. “If you say bigger picture, I won’t be responsible for my actions. Family is the only picture.”

  Again, that vibrating in her pocket went off, only this time it snagged a neuron in her mind and rode that train into the station.

  “Rune,” she muttered, and frantically dug through the pockets of her overlarge sweater.

  “Huh?” Rivin grunted.

  “Why’s she muttering about Rune?” Keighan asked the room in general.

  Cami ignored them both as she yanked out the pager Rune had given her and shook it at them. “Because of this.”

  With fumbling fingers, she pressed the button and a message scrolled across the old green-lit screen like ticker tape. Except the message seemed to be a code of some sort, words she couldn’t interpret. She shoved it at Drake. “What does this mean?”

  He gently detached the device from her shaking fingers, and the world paused as she watched him read the message, unable to discern anything from the stone-faced expression. She couldn’t see his eyes. What did it say?

  “Drake?” she prompted.

  …

  Drake willed the letters sliding across the screen to move faster. Rune had used a code the Huracáns had set up for themselves a good two centuries ago. Smart. In case someone was intercepting the message somehow.

  “Rune’s grizzlies got your family out.”

  “What?” Cami snatched the pager from his hands, staring at the screen like she could suddenly interpret it. “How? I just talked to Mom.”

  “The message doesn’t say.” He looked at Finn. “It does say the fire is dragon caused. They used human means to light it.”

  “Fuck.” Finn shook his head, jaw clenching and unclenching. “The Alaz team?”

  The slow burn of rage stoked inside him, building pressure. “Doesn’t say. But best guess, yes. They’re testing me after finding out about Cami. They have to be.”

  Finn clapped a hand on his shoulder. “They’re testing all of us.”

  “Maybe,” Drake allowed. “But the bears put this on me.”

  Cami jerked her head up to stare at him with eyes gone frantic. “Are my family safe from the Alaz, or is this a problem now?”

  Drake looked directly at her, not pulling any punches, even for Cami. “I don’t know.”

  A whimper escaped her, though she swallowed it down, not allowing herself to give in to her fears. Amazing woman.

  Not giving a shit what the team thought about the action, Drake pulled Cami into his arms. “We’re going to fix this,” he murmured in her hair.

  “How?” Her voice came out small as her face was still buried in his chest. “We shouldn’t have come. I shouldn’t have—”

  “Don’t,” he cut her off. “Don’t do that to yourself. This is about me.” Until the Alaz discovered what she was, at least.

  Drake glared over the top of her head at Finn. “I’m taking Cami to her family.”

  Cami went stiff as an unbending tree, and just as unyielding. “Not without you.”

  Stubborn woman. Except her insistence hit a chord inside him that strummed wrongly right. He didn’t want her to go without him, either. “No. I’ll go with you.”

  “You have to stay here,” Finn insisted.

  But Drake shook his head. “It won’t take long for them to see my hand; see I’m missing my brand. Tell them the truth.”

  “Which is?” Finn asked.

  “Tell them I’m dying, and I left the team, taking my human lover far away to face the end of my days alone with what little comfort she could give. Show them the video.”

  He caught Lyndi’s eye roll.

  Finn gave a hard shake to his head. “No way do they not connect grizzly shifters saving Cami’s family with the grizzlies who took Blake to Rune.”

  There had to be a way out of this, dammit. “Put it on Rune. Suggest he’s investigating a human that one of us is interested in, maybe as leverage or something.”

  “You know that means we have to follow those bears now?” Finn pointed out. “Pretend to side with the Alaz team in the hunt.”

  “I know. Tell them Cami and I had already left before you heard about the grizzlies. You don’t know where we are.”

  His Alpha stared at him, blue eyes glowing but the flames dousing, leaving them smoky. “You know they’re going to follow anyway. They’ll catch you.”

  “Then standing around talking about it is just wasting time.”

  His Alpha eyed him long and hard, then shook his head. “We’ll let you know when they’re coming.”

  Drake knew Finn. Knew the boss was backing down. His Alpha knew that the presence of the bear shifters would bring the Alaz down on Cami’s family, and eventually Cami. If she stayed, they’d suss her out eventually. Better to run now while they still had plausible excuses to fall back on.

  He’d come up with a full story on the way there.

  Letting go of Cami, he held out a hand to shake. “Thank you.”

  Finn grasped his hand. “We already did this once.” He hitched his chin at the door. “Get out of here.”

  “I’m not missing out on at least a hug this time.” Lyndi collided with him, her arms going around his waist in a grip that threatened to cut off air. “Be careful, big brother,” she whispered.

  Drake closed his eyes and hugged her back, letting the only blood family he cared for go with painful reluctance. This was why he hadn’t said goodbye the first time. It hurt too damn much.

  He glanced at Levi over his sister’s head, unspoken words needing no sound. The message sent and received. No matter what happened, Levi would look after her.

  As he stepped back from Lyndi, Cami threw her arms around Finn’s neck. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Finn stiffened, then softened, giving her a hug back. “Take care of yourself.”

  “Yeah.”

  Cami backed up, gave Delaney and Lyndi a nod, then walked out of the room ahead of him. Drake paused at the door, looking back at the people who had become brothers forged in fire, closer than his blood ever was. He quirked his mouth in his approximation of a smile. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He looked directly at Hall. “Especially you.”

  Hall grinned back and gave a little salute, and, just like that, like it had always been between the two of them, all was forgiven.

  With a deep breath, Drake walked away from his team for the second time. Only this time he wasn’t alone. Taking Cami’s hand, he tugged her down the hall that led to the back entrance. “Come on.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cami kept looking over her shoulder. Not to mention above her head. If she could’ve seen around Drake’s bulk as he flew, she would have been sc
ouring the air beneath them, too.

  They’d made it out of the headquarters and initially headed northeast, touching down a few times, laying false tracks according to Drake, before angling southeast before slowly bringing it around to the south.

  As Drake came up and over a mountain rise, Cami caught her breath at the sight. Yosemite. They’d had word from Rune. Another setup of lies to distance themselves from everything. That’s where her family would meet her.

  Despite the dreary gray drizzle that had taken over the sky, leaving her a shivering, pathetic, wet lump on the back of a dragon, the power and awe of this place still rattled her cages. Thanks to laying those false trails, they came at the main part of the park from southeast. The valley dropped sharply away, giving her a direct view of Half Dome off to her left with its back rounding to the sheer drop at the front. A glacier had come along eons before and basically cut the mountain in half, dragging the other half off to be ground into bits or compressed into parts of other mountains.

  The waterfalls were going a little. Nothing like that one spring she’d come here to camp and hike, though. Low clouds misted around the mountains, hiding much from view. A boon when they were trying to get in here during daylight hours without humans seeing. Even in fall, this place was a tourist haven. Open twenty-four seven to visit, except, usually by November, many of the roads leading in were closed, and the main one was only open during daylight hours. Patches of snow already iced the mountaintops and dusted the trees, weighing the branches down.

  At least they weren’t having to hike in.

  “We’re going to drop fast.”

  She wrapped her arms more tightly around her spike, exhilaration fizzing in her blood as physics did its best to squish her with g-forces thanks to the tightness of Drake’s spiral motion. Except the pit of worry threatening to eat her from the inside out still sat heavy in her stomach. And would, until she saw her family.

  Though Cami had to wonder if she and Drake might beat them there. From her home the drive was a solid four hours plus. It had taken Drake about three to fly here. It would probably take them a little bit to hike from the small clearing he’d zeroed in on to the Ahwahnee Hotel in the heart of various hotels and campgrounds available inside the park. Where Rune had arranged rooms to stay overnight—an incredible feat given how booked the place tended to be.

  Drake flung his wings wide to slow them down, which almost felt like taking a breath to Cami, the way the downward forces on her let up, and her dragon touched down in a field of grass that crunched when he landed, thanks to a thin layer of ice.

  With stiff muscles that seemed equally frozen, despite the heat under her ass keeping her from turning into a human popsicle, Cami climbed off. Except her non-working muscles caused her foot to miss a step. With a screech, she slid down his side like a water slide, only lumpier and harder with a jarring landing on the frozen ground.

  “Ow,” she groaned.

  She managed to push to her knees, rubbing at her backside with hands that were half numb themselves.

  A large male hand—human in form—appeared in front of her face. “You okay there, clumsy?”

  “I’ll live.” She grabbed Drake’s hand, letting him help her to standing, only to come face-to-face with a dark frown.

  “Your hands are freezing.” Accusation rang in his words like a gong.

  “It was misting rain all over me,” she pointed out.

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Could you have done more to fix it?”

  His glower was kind of adorable but answered the question for her.

  “Between your heat and my own, I kept from hypothermia or frostbite,” she said. Though her body still jittered with shivers she couldn’t quite control. “I’ll thaw.”

  That only pulled a low rumble from his chest as he crossed his arms to stare at her.

  Cami held back a roll of her eyes. He was bothering to care for her well-being, which was sweet. Especially coming from this anti-emotion brute of a man. “I’m only getting colder, standing here,” she pointed out.

  He dropped his arms and pulled her into his side, warmth immediately seeping into her skin, even through her shirt and his clothes. At a pace that had her huffing and puffing, he hurried them through the field, through a copse of pine trees and out onto an almost deserted parking lot. From there, they had an easy walk, though still a distance, along designated paths to the hotel.

  Cold and worry had her staying quiet. Drake also remained silent. Except that her sense of the man told her something else was going on behind that stoic facade.

  They entered the hotel, and Cami sucked in a grateful breath as the warmed air inside the building—not to mention shelter from the mist and wind—had immediate effect. Drake strode across the foyer—all rustic in browns and tans and terra-cottas with Native American influences in the designs on the floors and decor.

  Cami blinked, but did her best to hold a neutral expression as Drake beelined for the front desk. “You have a room under Chandali?”

  He slipped a wallet out of one of the pockets hidden all over his pants and pulled out identification. But how the hell had he known? No way had that tiny pager sent all that info.

  Which set a tendril of suspicion growing through her like a creeping vine.

  Cami managed to hold onto her patience as he checked in then turned them toward the elevator. As soon as the doors slid closed on them, she turned to face him. “Has Rune been communicating with you telepathically?”

  The flat expression that greeted her question told her everything she needed to know. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I couldn’t have a conversation with you. Not where your side could be overheard.”

  “Why do we need a room?”

  “Somewhere to tuck you away while we wait. Also, an idea for a cover story that might work. We don’t have long.”

  The elevator car dinged as it reached their floor, the doors sliding open, but Cami hardly noticed. The shifters coming for them had been that close? Was that what all that crazy flight path had been about? Not a false trail necessarily, but getting away?

  Drake took her hand, gently for such a big man and given the dire implications of what was happening, and led her down the hall, quickly getting her inside.

  “Let’s get these wet clothes off you,” he said.

  He reached for the bottom of her shirt, but Cami jerked back. “Where are my parents?”

  “Safe. For now. The Alaz team is trailing them to get to Rune…”

  “And?”

  “Rune’s set up an alibi we think will work. That your human family wanted us to marry before I take you away for my job. We made plans weeks ago for a small, private ceremony here in Yosemite. Because of the Alaz coming, I went and got you as soon as that call was over, and we moved things up so that you and I could complete the ceremony. Which is why we have several rooms booked here. Your family is coming to meet us here for the wedding.”

  Cami sank to the edge of the bed trying to absorb the complication of those lies and still see if she could find any issues. “What about the grizzlies?” she asked.

  No way would the Alaz overlook their presence.

  “The Alaz think Rune had the grizzlies in place to try to get to me. The dragons will assume that, when Rune’s people found us gone, they took your family and are forcing them to bring the grizzlies here to get to me. We are supposed to have left before the bear shifters showed and be ignorant of the situation. That makes you and your parents innocent human victims, as far as the Alaz are concerned. Other than wiping memories, they won’t care about your family.”

  At least there was that much. Still, the flight here had given her some time to think. Lots of different things. “This could still go tits up,” she said.

  His eyes tightened in a way she was start
ing to recognize meant he was hiding his own concerns from her on purpose.

  Well…he really wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. “I won’t be safe as long as I’m still human.”

  Drake turned away, arms crossed, his body screaming a rejection Cami felt like a body blow from a heavyweight champion.

  Cami narrowed her gaze, glaring at his back. “I said—”

  “No.”

  “Hear me out.”

  He didn’t even turn around. “They’re coming, Cami. Following those damn bears. As soon as evening hits, there’s nowhere we can hide that they won’t find. I barely made it here ahead of them as it was.”

  “Exactly. What if you have to fight them? Or even pretend to fight the grizzlies? You’ll need more strength for that and there’s not enough time for me to give you that through touch alone.”

  “No.” This one, though, was less harsh, less sure. He still refused to turn and face her.

  She continued to push. “You can’t fight them if you’re worried about me.”

  Drake didn’t move, but she got the sense he was listening.

  If ever there was a time to play her trump card, now was it. “I’m in love with you.”

  “Fuck.” The word burst from him as he spun to face her. But the total rejection that contorted his face was what shattered her heart.

  Fighting back the burn of tears, she walked across the room to stare out the window. A courtyard view she barely took in.

  “Cami.” His voice came from directly behind her.

  She closed her eyes and kept her back turned, her turn to hide her reaction from her mate, it seemed.

  “I can’t risk killing you.” For a man who buried his emotions in an unmarked grave, the way his voice broke over the last word told her he wasn’t unaffected. He was fighting his instincts hard. To protect her.

  Slowly she turned to face him, uncaring that he’d witness the wet streaks on her cheeks. “Don’t you see? I’d rather die with you than live without you.”

  Drake’s expression spasmed—hope and those ingrained protective instincts warring inside a man who didn’t know when to quit.