Dragon's Second Chance Romance (Dragons of Mount Atrox Book 2)

by Riley Storm

  “Now, you two remember what to do? Go on back, look out for any cops, and get all the good shit. I’ll meet you there with this bitch. Got it?” Pete asked, waiting for a response from both of them before he nodded and shooed them on their way.

  Then he turned his attention back to her.

  “So here’s the deal, bitch. You make a sound when I take my hand away, and I turn you into a drug-riddled meathole for all the boys in Kennewick to have whenever they want. I won’t kill you. I’ll make you suffer.”

  Claire went cold at the harsh tone of his voice. She’d only ever heard Pete get like this once before. He’d never directed such fury her direction, and she suddenly feared for her life, regardless of his threat.

  “You understand me?” he snapped.

  She nodded briskly, wanting to ensure he understood she would be good.

  “Telling the cops about me,” he spat, reaching over her to close the door. “Fucking bitch. You’re going to pay for that, trust me.”

  “What the hell are you doing Pete?” she asked as he removed his hand and climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “Ridding myself of you for good,” he growled, the truck coming to life. He turned the dial up on the stereo, deep thudding bass filling the cab.

  It would be all but impossible for someone outside to hear her scream over that. Not that she was about to test Pete on his threat.

  But if that’s what he’s threatening me with if I don’t behave, what the hell is he planning to do?

  Practically hog-tied as she was, there was little that Claire could do except try to prevent herself from being treated like a pinball as Pete drove through town. She wasn’t secured, and every time he hit the brakes, she thought she was going to fall to the floor between the two rows of seats.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked after ten minutes had passed, surprised that he wasn’t already on the interstate headed out of town.

  Five Peaks wasn’t a large town. The two-lane state highway that ran through its middle was perhaps three or four minutes from city hall at most. They should have been on it by now.

  “Shut up, bitch,” he spat.

  With some effort, Claire managed to roll over so that she was facing forward instead of looking at the rear seat. She watched Pete, noting the tenseness of his shoulders and the set of his face.

  Fear began to set in deep. Whatever Pete was doing to her, it was going to be bad. Very, very bad.

  But where the hell is he taking me? We should have been on the interstate ages ago…

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Pietro

  He grimaced as his legs announced their unhappiness.

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re cramped,” he growled, not having to turn his head far to see knees.

  In the small confines of Claire’s car, they were practically pinned to his ears. How anyone fit in and drove the small hatchback was beyond him. Just getting in or out of the vehicle was an exercise in pain. Driving it was torture of the highest degree.

  Self-inflicted torture. The shop was working on his truck, and his clan had replacements, but for that, Pietro had to go back up the mountain to get one of the communal vehicles. Something sized to fit.

  The others are going to have hysterics if they see me get out of this clown car, he thought to himself, unsure who would laugh more, Kladd or Rann. The two were members of his team, though he’d not seen them in a few days. Pietro was looking forward to that, even if he wasn’t looking forward to the needling he’d get for his ride.

  It was all the vampires’ fault.

  The fact that they hadn’t been able to find the vampire lair was beginning to wear on Pietro. The team leader, Kladd, had everyone out scouring the area around Five Peaks, looking for signs of the creatures. Every clan had allocated one team to the mission. They were covering the area like crazy, from the air and on the ground, searching for anything.

  So far though, at the end of every night, they had come up empty. Wherever the vampires were hiding, the location was perfect, and they were leaving no trace of themselves whatsoever.

  It was a problem occupying more and more of Pietro’s mind because, until they were dealt with, Claire would be in danger. That was his responsibility. After all, he was the one who had put her in danger in the first place, his inability to get her out of his mind leading the vamps right to her.

  Pietro turned off the asphalt onto a dirt road, the winding single lane making its way up through the trees for nearly ten minutes before spilling out onto the wide flat area at the base of the sheer cliff.

  Sprawled out on either side of him were a number of small log cabins. Behind them and a hair to the left as he entered was the pathway that led up to the giant cave entrance, where all the communal Atrox clan offices and facilities were located. That was his destination.

  He pulled up in front of his log cabin and killed the car, ignoring the looks from a pair of dragons as they passed by.

  “It’s a loaner,” Pietro called after them, knowing it was useless.

  The rumor mill had word of his arrival in style, and in true fashion, he was sure it would take less than ten minutes before everyone knew.

  Sometimes life just isn’t fair.

  “Well, well, well.”

  Pietro looked over his shoulder and groaned as Rann exited his cabin across the ‘road’, if the compacted dirt pathway could be called that.

  “Look what we have here,” the other dragon shifter said, laughter bubbling in every word.

  “You know damn well that the vamps beat up my ride,” Pietro said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. “This is Claire’s. She lent it to me. Because she likes me.”

  “Ooooo, Claire likes Pietro. Pietro likes Claaaiire. You guys gonna get marriedddd,” Rann teased, drawing out his words.

  “Laugh all you want Rann,” Pietro said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. “One day, you too will find a woman, and your life will change.”

  “One day,” Rann said. “Not anytime soon though, that’s for sure. I like things the way they are.”

  “There are only so many women in Five Peaks,” Pietro pointed out. “Surely, you must be running low.”

  Rann made a wounded face as the two began walking toward the cave opening. “Ouch. That hurts. But for your information, I am not running low.”

  “Right,” Pietro drawled.

  Rann was the biggest womanizer in clan Atrox, and the others all teased him about it relentlessly. He took it in good spirits, and never seemed to have a down moment, which was one of the things Pietro liked about his teammate.

  “I’m serious,” Rann said. “Dude, there are thousands of new potentials now. All those people who have come to Five Peaks to see a dragon? There’s lots of new faces to see there.”

  Pietro just hung his head and laughed. “Just be careful,” he chuckled. “Those tent cities are a cesspool. You never know what you’re going to find among them.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Rann said. “I’m smart, don’t worry.”

  “I have my doubts about that one,” Pietro rumbled, ducking a playful swat. “Also, have you seen Kladd? I need to run something by him. I—”

  A loud clashing of cymbals came from Pietro’s pocket, followed by a rousing burst from the horn section of a symphony, and more music followed.

  “Who’s calling me now?” he grumbled. “One sec.”

  Pulling out his phone, he looked at the caller ID but didn’t recognize it. The number was local, but there was no name attached.

  “Hello?” he said, deciding to pick it up.

  “Hi. Is this Pietro Atrox?” a female voice asked, speaking his name uncomfortably, like she was reading it off a piece of paper or computer screen.

  “Speaking,” he said dully, getting the feeling he’d just picked up a spam phone call. If they started telling him he was in trouble with the IRS for unpaid taxes, he was going to hang up.

  “Hi, my name is Gayle. I work with Balance the Scales.”

/>   Pietro straightened. He knew that name. That was where Claire was doing her community service. Balance the Scales was a dragon-funded organization providing aid to all the people who were living in the tent cities outside of town, trying to keep the places clean and sanitary. That was hard with upward of four thousand people now crowding the former farmers’ fields, all hoping to catch glimpses of a dragon, or maybe even meet one.

  He’d heard stories about the intensity of many of the people that Balance the Scales was tasked with helping. Trent had done several appearances to help promote his mate Lilly’s store, a dragon-themed shop that helped to educate people on dragons and show that they were good.

  Not evil, as was claimed by some, like the Church of the Anti-Wyrm, a dragon-hating sect that had sprung up almost overnight.

  “Hi. What can I do for you, Gayle?” he asked.

  “Well, I was just wondering, is Claire with you?”

  Next to him, Rann stared, his eyes narrowing as Pietro jerked completely upright. “No,” he said. “She’s not. She was supposed to carpool with someone this morning.”

  “That was me,” Gayle said. “But, well, she never showed. I was just wondering if you knew where she was. Her parole officer showed up, and…”

  “Shit,” Pietro hissed, for multiple reasons.

  Something had happened to Claire. That was his main priority, but he also knew that once she was found, she was going to be in trouble. Skipping out on her CS was likely to land her in jail for a while.

  “How long ago was she supposed to be there?”

  “Well, I thought maybe she’d found another ride,” Gayle explained. “So I waited for a bit, then I left. I didn’t want to be late myself either.”

  “Nobody is faulting you, Gayle,” Pietro said, though he desperately wanted to berate her for not calling him sooner. But how could she know that Claire was in trouble and hadn’t simply forgotten or driven herself in. “I’ll find her.”

  He hung up without waiting for a reply.

  “Everything okay?” Rann asked as Pietro found Claire in his address book and hit dial.

  “Probably not,” Pietro growled, turning to look out and down the mountain to the valley below where Five Peaks was nestled between its namesake range of mountains.

  The phone rang. And rang. Then it went dead.

  “Sonofabitch!” he snarled, almost throwing his phone at the ground in frustration and rage.

  Someone had hung up on him. Either it was Claire, who simply did not want to talk to him. Or someone else had her phone.

  He hit redial, but the same thing happened halfway through.

  “Shit.” He turned to look at Rann. “Someone has Claire.”

  Rann didn’t hesitate. “Let’s go.”

  “Driving is too slow,” Pietro rumbled, running back to the car, rifling through the trunk until he found what he was looking for, a bag.

  “You sure about this?” Rann asked as they began stripping, a rapidly efficient process spurred by years of practice.

  “I have to,” Pietro said, stuffing his clothes into the bag and placing it on the ground away from the car. “I have to get to her.”

  “She’s that important?” Rann asked, though he didn’t slow down.

  Pietro nodded and spread his arms wide, letting the change come over him. Power flowed into his body rapidly. His dragon, perhaps recognizing the urgency, came rushing through with a rush that Pietro had never felt before. It seemed the change was over in an instant.

  He grabbed the bag in one claw, the action rather dainty for a seventy-foot dragon, and fixed Rann with a look as he spread his wings.

  “She’s my mate,” he said, and launched himself into the air.

  Chapter Thirty

  Pietro

  He crept down the stairs, silent as death.

  Voices could be heard in front of him as he reached the landing, but they were distorted, the rough carved stone of the hallway ahead causing the sounds to bounce and echo, distorting them beyond even what his dragon hearing could achieve.

  Water covered the walls as well, wet and slimy, dripping occasionally from overhead. In the background, the sound of heavy machinery provided a constant low thrum that filled his entire body. Overhead lights were placed far apart, leaving huge patches of shadows between them.

  Part of Pietro wanted to charge on ahead. He knew Claire was there. He could smell her trail. But something held him back. He also knew who was with her, and that was what made him cautious.

  There’s no way Pete could have known about this place. Which means he’s not alone.

  Pietro couldn’t smell anyone else apart from Claire and Pete, and that made him nervous. Made him cautious. Rann was waiting up top, ready to grab anyone or anything that made a run for it before Pietro got there.

  The underground complex was part of the original reservoir for Five Peaks. Even Pietro had never explored it, though he knew that tunnels existed that were not part of the concrete fabrication of the modern, updated section that sat above them. That’s where the sounds of heavy machinery in operation were coming from, the vibrations seeping down into the earth just like the water.

  Creeping from shadow to shadow, he was on a razor’s edge, ready for anything.

  It angered him that, in the midst of all the vampire hubbub, everyone, including himself, had forgotten about Pete. Perhaps they’d just figured he would be gone, on the run after Claire had given the police all the information she had on him. Who would have expected him to stick around in Five Peaks after that?

  Certainly not me, Pietro thought angrily, upset over the oversight. I should have known better. Should have expected he would try something like this, the arrogant bastard.

  Getting closer now, Pietro could make out the voices. The first one he heard was Pete’s.

  “I was gonna take you back with me at first,” he was saying. “After I grabbed you out from under their noses.”

  A victory speech? Really, Pete? Even you should know better than that…

  But he didn’t. Pete was nothing but a two-bit criminal, a nobody. In his own mind, he was at the top of the world now. A badass wanted by the police, who had grabbed the woman who snitched on him, and he was going to have his revenge.

  “But then, I had a better plan. Why turn you into a heroin-riddled prostitute when I could do so much better? I could make you into something far, far worse.”

  “I’ll take heroin prostitute,” Claire said dryly. “If you don’t mind. I don’t see how the accommodation could be any worse than this cesspool. I’m pretty sure there are rats humping in the corner over there.”

  Pietro started to grin at Claire’s defiance, but it was wiped from his face by the stinging sound of skin on skin, and a sharp cry of pain from Claire.

  “Shut up, bitch,” Pete growled. “You have no say in what happens now. Not anymore. I gave you a chance. You could have come back with me. It would have been the two of us, like it was before. Just doing whatever we wanted. That’s what I tried to give you, but you wouldn’t take it.”

  Pietro crouched down, placing one hand on the ground as he fought back the sudden onslaught of his dragon.

  Not now, he pleaded with it as the beast went berserk, wanting nothing more than to rip Pete’s head from his body and shove it down his throat before incinerating his corpse into a pile of ash.

  His feet pushed him forward, inching Pietro closer to the end of the hallway and the opening beyond.

  We can’t do that. Not yet! Claire is in danger.

  His body shuddered, revolting at his brain’s attempt to stay put. To continue listening. Pete had hit his mate, and he needed to pay. That was all that his dragon could understand, and its unbridled fury was slowly winning.

  Stop this. If we go out there, we could be killing her! With a mental snarl of effort, Pietro hauled in his dragon. It was strong, but he was the one in charge. The one who decided what they were going to do. Not it.

  Pete would get what was coming t
o him. Pietro vowed that to his dragon. But there was something else going on here. Claire’s ex-boyfriend had to be working with someone.

  Someone who had knowledge of the area. Someone smarter than that idiot Pete. If he walked out there now, Pietro would have no idea what might be waiting for him. Whatever it was might kill Claire, for all he knew. Not until he had more information would Pietro risk her life. That would not be protecting her to the best of his abilities.

  Claire was tough. She would have to be. Once Pietro found out why her ex had brought her here, instead of simply leaving town, then he could go out there and raise unholy hell on the man who had hit his mate.

  But not before.

  His dragon subsiding, Pietro returned to listening just as he heard the sound of soft footsteps approaching. There was a second person out there after all.

  “You have done well, my son. You are to be praised, for your efforts. Your energy, it is well used. Proud you should be.”

  Pietro frowned at the odd lilt to the newcomer’s voice. The man spoke smoothly, each word wrapped in the softest silk, designed to work its way under one’s skin. There was also something almost familiar, though he wasn’t sure if it was the style of speech or the voice behind it, that he thought he’d heard before.

  “What took you so long?” Pete growled. “We had a deal.”

  “Arrangements. They had to be made, you see. Agreements kept. Fear not, my child, for the time is upon us. I see you have brought her before us. Most excellent. You have done well.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Pete growled. “I don’t care about that. We had a deal. Pay up.”

  The other person sighed. “Of course. Here is the money, as promised. Though I wish you would have taken us up on our offer.”

  Pietro stiffened, recognizing the sound of a subtle threat hidden among the words. The newcomer was telling Pete he should forgo the money and accept whatever else had been offered to him instead. Claire’s ex-boyfriend wasn’t smart enough to hear it though.