by Abigail Owen
Mathai crooked a finger, and out of the darkness, a young white dragon, one of Lyndi’s boys if Cami wasn’t mistaken, appeared.
With a flourish, Mathai removed the jacket of his impeccable Armani suit. As he started to unbutton and roll up the sleeves, the younger shifter moved to Cami’s cell, punching in the code to unlock it.
“What are you doing?” Drake demanded, his grip on her tightening painfully.
“If you try to hold onto her, I’ll order him to snap her bones,” Mathai said.
Rage and terror flowed through the patch link between her mate and herself, enough to fuel her own. Drake slammed his free hand against the bars. “If you do anything to her—”
Shaking like her own personal earthquake had taken hold, Cami found the courage to lay a hand on Drake’s arm, silencing him. “I’ll go,” she said quietly. “He’ll believe you.”
Please let her be right.
A myriad of emotions passed between them, ones Cami had to consciously try to shut out or she would lose her threadbare control and start screaming. With an outward calm she was far from feeling, she left the cell and went to stand before Mathai. “Now what?”
In a move so fast she didn’t see it coming, he spun her around to face Drake and pulled her against his torso. Mathai manacled her to him with one hand. The other hand he held in front of her face so she could see how his forefinger shifted and morphed to a wicked-looking talon, which he then held to her throat, the tip poking painfully into the soft tissue right at a vein.
Drake let loose a snarl that made even her skin crawl, and jumped at the bars, shaking them hard.
“Ah, ah, ah. Behave.” Mathai tightened his grip, the tip of his talon digging in so that Cami gasped.
Drake stilled, his gaze that of a predator.
“Now,” Mathai said. “Talk. And if I don’t like what you have to say…” He let the threat dangle like waving a red flag at a bull trapped behind a pen. Almost bored. As though whether they lived or died didn’t matter. Asshole.
Drake kept his eyes on Cami, and, voice like a meat grinder, launched into an account of the events that had led them here. He started with how he had rescued her and her family from the first fire set by Rune. Leaving out Titus’s role of course. How he’d wiped their memories but had been drawn to Cami. How he was dying, and, rather than drag his team down, he chose to leave them, going to die on his own.
“They showed me the video,” Mathai confirmed. “Compelling stuff. Quite a sacrifice.”
She couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or toying with them.
Drake’s grip on the bars went white-knuckled, which probably meant the worse thing. He continued. “I was drawn to the woman who’d fought me so hard and decided to spend my last days getting what pleasure I could from life. I saw no harm in choosing a human, since I wouldn’t be around long enough for her to witness my lack of aging. But it turned out Cami is fiercely loyal to her family and wouldn’t go away with me, so we stayed at her ranch, helping rebuild.”
Did this match up with what he’d been told, or was Drake digging their graves with each word?
“You were with the team when I called that meeting,” Mathai pointed out.
Drake nodded. Outwardly, he looked confident, almost unconcerned. The only reason she knew he was anything but was the connection between them. Inside he was rage and panic. “I smelled Nidhogg and had gone to the team to let them know he was in the area, in case he got the…wrong idea.”
“I see. Why not say something about your health at that time?”
Drake lifted a single eyebrow. “I’d already lost my king’s brand and didn’t want to put my team in the position of having to execute me. I decided to take my human and go.”
“You thought she was still human?” Mathai’s tone changed, dripping with doubt.
Drake didn’t so much as flinch. “She showed no dragon sign at the time.”
She wasn’t dead yet. That had to be a good thing, right? The next part would be the trickiest. How the hell was Drake going to explain them running?
“To trick Cami into leaving with me, I played into a situation already going on with her family. They are very…traditional,” Drake said. “They wanted to see us married since they knew we were sleeping together.”
So they were sticking with that lie?
Drake kept going. “Made no difference to me. I had months at most.” Her mate shrugged. “Which is why I took her to Yosemite, with her family to follow a few days later. We were going to hold a small human ceremony there.”
He ducked his head and a red flickering glowing over the floor of the dark cell told Cami his eyes had flamed. “That’s when we heard from Finn. Rune had sent grizzly shifters to pose as a construction team on the ranch, I assume to get to me or maybe Cami if Rune had figured out she was a mate. Though gods know how he would when I hadn’t.”
Drake’s jaw hardened and he lifted his head, his eyes glowing with an anger she could tell he wasn’t faking. “The Alaz team attacked. The grizzlies kidnapped her family. I guess they got our location from her family, and that’s why they were in Yosemite as planned.”
The man was a damn good liar. His spin on everything that went down was…masterful. Woven with a deft touch that answered all questions and left no holes, that Cami could discern at least. She even started believing it herself.
The question was, did Mathai buy it? His talon remained embedded in her skin. The warm trickle inching down her neck could be sweat but was more likely blood.
“As soon as I put Rune’s grizzlies together with the original fire, I knew.” He suddenly sounded grim.
Cami tried not to react even as she was asking herself. Knew what?
“I blew fire over Cami’s neck and discovered she was a dragon mate.”
Mathai shifted behind her slightly, the first time he’d moved since holding her hostage. “You had no idea before that?”
Drake gave a jerk of his head, gaze concentrated on Cami. “None. But the mark on her was mine, and the connection I felt to her suddenly made sense.”
“Of course,” Mathai said.
Was he mocking them?
“The next communication said the grizzlies were bringing her family to us, and I had to assume that they were going to use them against Cami to lure her out. Rune caused that first fire to find a mate and was after her still. He’d done it before. I had to assume this was all him.”
No reaction from Mathai, who listened without so much as a twitch, a fact Cami was starting to hate. She couldn’t help the pure fear that churned in her stomach, turning the bile more sour. It was impossible to get a read on what was essentially a statue.
“I made a snap decision. To keep another mate from falling into Rune’s hands, I mated Cami.” Drake, gaze still on Cami, suddenly softened, his expression one of such adoration that, even with Mathai’s talon drawing blood, she couldn’t stop the shiver of need that simple look dragged from her body.
“She healed me, made me whole, and my king’s brand returned.” Drake finally pulled his gaze from her to hold up his hand.
“I joined the fight to protect her, and to finally capture that traitor mate stealer if we could.”
“Rune got away,” Mathai pointed out in an expressionless voice.
“Because the Alaz team went after Cami.”
“Why did you choose that moment to announce your mating?”
“Rune’s grizzlies kept going after her and the Alaz team seemed to be an equal danger to her. I felt announcing she was mated would put a stop to that. Thankfully, you showed up and they ran like the cowards bears always are.”
“You were protecting your mate.” A statement this time, not a question.
Drake didn’t so much as blink. Nor did he say anything.
Mathai stood in unmoving silence for such a long time, Cami wa
s hard-pressed not to squirm. She took her cue from Drake, who returned the leader of the Alliance Council’s stare with an unblinking one of his own.
With a flourish, Mathai spun her out of his grasp. Miraculously unharmed. “I will choose to believe you, Drake Chandali.”
Her first instinct was to bend over and put her hands on her knees and try to breathe again. Except Drake said nothing, so Cami held her breath, not allowing her relief to flow yet.
“Only because of the symbol still on your hand. Had your mating this woman wronged the High King, stealing her from him when she could have saved his life, that symbol would no longer be there.”
Mathai crooked his finger again, and the skinny white dragon, a teenager not much out of boyhood, returned. This time, he pressed his palm to the pad attached to Drake’s cell, then entered a series of numbers. The door sprang open.
Oh my God. This is happening. They were letting them go?
Cami went to throw her arms around Drake, but paused when she saw his expression, still hard, flames still smoldering in his eyes. He didn’t think this was over.
Instead, she slipped her hand into his. In silence they followed Mathai out of the dungeons and up several levels to a meeting room on the same level as the war room, a place she hadn’t seen yet.
There they paused at the threshold to find both the Huracán and Alaz teams gathered, along with several members of the Alliance Council.
“I have listened to all accounts, and witnessed the evidence presented. I have concluded that Drake Chandali is still a loyal enforcer, and, as such, should retain his position with the Huracán team.”
Tineen leaped to his feet. “The hell you say. I lost a man—”
“Thanks to Rune Abaddon, not this man.”
“He mated without permission,” Ogun accused with a sneer. “A mate who should’ve gone to the High King.”
“If she had been meant for Pytheios, Drake’s clan brand would’ve disappeared. Instead, it returned when they mated.”
“But—”
Mathai held up a hand and silence fell over the room. “I have orders.”
Was it Cami, or had all the sound and air just been sucked out of the room like a vacuum?
“What orders, my lord?” Macon, the Alliance representative for the Blue Clan, spoke.
“Drake Chandali shall take over as the Alpha of the Huracán team.”
Forget a vacuum. The room went chilly, like they’d been frozen in ice. “May I ask why?” Finn asked.
Mathai gave a small, insincere smile. Somehow that tiny gesture told her that the leader of the Alliance had relaxed. Why? Because Finn wasn’t throwing a fit?
“The politics,” Mathai said. “Pytheios does not know who from the Blue and Gold Clans can be trusted. Drake not only comes from Pytheios’s own clan, but he’s direct family and had once been among Pytheios’s personal guard.”
A numb sort of shock, like she hadn’t quite heard right, took a second to swim through. Drake had been a personal guard to the High King? When? How?
“He feels Drake can be trusted,” Mathai continued.
Cami understood now what was happening. The orders had come from the High King himself.
“I understand,” Finn finally said, though the blue flames heating his eyes said he didn’t like it.
“Good.” Mathai nodded like that settled things. “Because I have more orders. The Huracán team will no longer be involved in investigations or actions involving Rune Abaddon.”
Not good.
“And,” Mathai continued, “the Alaz team is instructed to hunt him and his people down and kill them all. Bring me any mates he has who are still alive and…” His lips curled. “Unmated. Kill the others.”
“What about our territory?” Tineen demanded, though a satisfied smirk graced his mouth. Cami wanted to claw it from his face.
“The Huracán team from the west and the Imoogi team from the east will split the three territories between them while you deal with this threat.”
If anything, Tineen’s smile grew. “Of course.”
Mathai looked to Drake, who nodded. Because her mate was now the leader of the Huracán team. In all the ways she might have predicted the outcome of the events leading to this moment, this was not one of them.
“Excellent. Now I wish to return to our home.” Which apparently the dragons in the room took as an order, because immediately the council members and the Alaz team rose and followed the man out of the room.
Drake turned to her. “Take the others upstairs.”
Not go with the others…take the others. Cami nodded, and Drake dropped a quick, hard kiss on her lips before escorting their “guests” out of the mountain.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Finn stood beside Drake and watched the dragons shift and disappear over the horizon. As soon as the last one disappeared from view, he turned to Drake with an outstretched hand. “Fuck man, that pack of lies you fed to Mathai was quick thinking.”
“You knocked me out, asshole.” But no anger lined Drake’s voice, because with the way things had turned out, he couldn’t be mad.
Finn studied him closely for a second. “I had to do something to de-escalate the situation… boss.”
Damn. Would’ve been nice to forget all about that development. “I’m not answering to that. As far as I’m concerned, you are still the boss.”
Finn looked away, out over the horizon, the coming darkness looming with only a sliver of fading light still visible over the westward trees. “How long do you think we can keep this up? Spying for Rune while blaming everything on him?”
“As long as it takes.” Drake shrugged. “Might be time to find out what’s going on with the Blue and Gold Clans.”
“I think you’re right.” He clapped a hand on Drake’s shoulder. “We’ll get in touch with Fallon to start. But not today. Today we didn’t lose another team member. Today we gained a new mate. And if we’re going to stick to your story, today we need to plan a human wedding.”
“Shit. Cami’s dad will come after me with a shotgun if we don’t. Why do humans feel the need to add a lot of useless pomp and circumstance to something that should be so simple?”
Finn laughed at Drake’s expression. “Tradition is important to all cultures, even dragon shifters.”
True, but tradition was what also led dragon shifters, and more specifically his team, to where they were now. A broken system that hurt more than it helped. Time for a new set of traditions. Time to change regimes.
“Maybe the new kings have the answers.”
Together they returned to their mountain stronghold, heading to where everyone else was gathered and waiting for next steps. Drake let Finn go on ahead as he went to his room to get something. As soon as he walked into the large family room area, the people waiting went quiet.
“All hail the new man in charge.” Riven executed a complicated bow with many hand flourishes.
“Who would’ve thought he’d be the next boss,” Keighan tacked on. Then he sent Finn an apologetic grin. “Sorry, boss.”
But Drake wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was busy watching the dark-haired woman crossing the room to stand before him. He searched her face for any hint of what she was feeling. Through the connection binding them, all he got was a strange sort of contentment. But how could she be content? They were far from safe, and she still had her family to worry about.
Cami suddenly smiled, her dark eyes sparkling at him. “It worked.”
Drake raised his eyebrows, not quite sure what she was referring to.
Apparently, his mate didn’t need him to voice his questions aloud. She gave a low chuckle that skated over his nerves, leaving a trail of heat. “I am your mate. Whether or not the fates played a part in it. I survived your fire. You are no longer dying. And, somehow, we are not hiding or runn
ing.”
“It doesn’t mean we won’t have to.”
Just behind her, Hall rolled his eyes. “You sure know how to bring down a mood.”
Drake slipped an arm around Cami’s shoulders, pulling her into his side, needing the anchor that she provided. Damn he hated speaking in public, even if it was only to the team. “Yes, we should celebrate. The people we love are safe, for tonight. But this fight is far from over. Aidan and Sera are still out there. Rune is still out there. Kings are toppling. No way in hell do we have the trust of the people we are trying to infiltrate and fight against from the inside. Are you ready?”
Silent stares greeted the longest speech he’d probably ever given to this group.
“I said, are you ready?” This time he barked the words like a drill sergeant.
Cami buried her face in his chest, but the way she heaved, he could tell she was smothering laughter. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
Finn stepped up beside him. “We’ll do what we have to.”
“No matter the cost,” Delaney said as she stepped beside Finn.
Everyone in the room raised their voices, speaking the same words.
Cami sobered and slipped her hand in his. “I guess you better show me how to turn into a dragon.”
Drake brought her hand up to press a kiss to her knuckles. “And how to fight as a dragon. I have a feeling we’re gonna need every warrior we can find.”
Cami nodded.
“We should get back to your family soon,” he said. “They’re going to be wondering where we are.”
Cami frowned at him. “But it’s not safe. You were the one who told me I needed to make the bigger sacrifice and walk away.”
Drake shook his head. “If you believed everything I said, we never would’ve mated.”
“True.” Cami grinned at him, dark eyes sparkling with a faint red glow.
“Family is important.” He looked around the room at the faces of his men. His friends. Brothers and sisters forged not by blood but by something stronger than dragon steel. “I see that now. We are not going to change anything alone.”
