by Amelia Jade
Bone cracked and blood sprayed from the wolf shifter’s broken nose while Zander staggered backward from the blow.
Nobody wins in a headbutt, you know this. Get it together.
There was no time, as the leader came charging in this time, and it was clear that he knew what he was doing. The others hung back as the wolf and dragon traded blows. At one point Zander was sent tumbling back through a table, but the wolf alpha charged recklessly and received a boot to the solar plexus, once again driving the wind from him.
Zander got to his feet and drove a fist into the same spot. As the alpha bent over again he grabbed his shoulders and held him down while he slammed his knee into the wolf’s face. The alpha dropped like a stone.
Two more shifters, ones he’d knocked down already, charged at him, screaming their anger. Zander was in the zone now though, and he easily dodged their blows. One went stumbling past, while he grabbed the other and flexed his mighty arms. The unlucky shifter went flying through the air, smashing a window and rolling into the street.
“Enough!”
The two wolf shifters remaining on their feet glanced at the voice which had spoken and reached for their fallen comrades, hauling them from the bar. They left the one on the street to fend for himself and hurried out the back door.
Zander looked at the Guardians that had entered, two colossal grizzlies, and gave them a nod.
“Thanks for the assist, boys,” he said with a smile.
Riss appeared from behind the bar and came to Zander’s side. “Are you okay?” she asked, dabbing at some blood on his cheek with a napkin from the bar.
“Are you with him, miss?” the first Guardian asked as they approached.
“I suppose, in a way, yes,” she replied. “Why?”
“You two are under arrest for public disturbance. You’ll have to come with us.”
“Excuse me?” Zander said, stepping in front of Riss. “Under arrest? These men were trying to kill me!”
“You came in here and threw the first one across the bar!” someone in the crowd shouted. “Abusing your privilege as a Guardian I suppose.”
Zander couldn’t see the speaker to identify them.
“Sorry sir, but word is that you started this fight. Came in here, grabbed the man, and threw him across the bar without provocation. The person who called it in said the same thing, and now I have at least one eyewitness who can corroborate that. You have to come with me.”
Zander stared in shock. That wasn’t how it had happened!
“Did you tell them this?” he asked, turning his fury on the bartender.
“No, I swear! We didn’t call anyone!”
“That’s strange. Who called you?” he asked the Guardian.
“Anonymous source, sir. But they clearly weren’t lying. You know the drill, you’ll get your chance to speak, but for now, you need to come with us.”
The Guardian’s voice was polite, but there was no give in it whatsoever.
“Fine,” he slumped, letting them lead him and Riss from the bar.
Chapter Thirteen
Riss
She was in jail.
Riss couldn’t believe it, but the Guardians had escorted them politely to their headquarters several streets over. The pair had promptly been thrown into the same cell, a ten by ten square, with two benches on opposite sides, a toilet sitting in the center of a third, and the door on the far one. It was a holding cell, not a permanent one, which part of her brain realized was a good thing.
But she was still in jail.
The bars holding them in were extra thick—at least three inches in diameter of solid steel that ran from floor to ceiling, disappearing into concrete on both sides. The room was painted stark white with no splotches of color besides the outfits she and Zander wore.
Zander.
The brass dragon who had come into her life, stirring up all sorts of trouble and passion. The few days they’d spent together had been some of the happiest of her life. Even with the danger and troubles at work, having him near her had more than made up for that. She had been ready to accept that things were getting serious with him, despite the condensed timeframe.
Then had come the fight, and then his subsequent abandonment of her. Leaving her alone, without a job, and likely still hunted. He had never given her a reason for it. Not even now, as they were thrown in jail together. He’d simply stared dejectedly at the ground, ignoring her.
What was she going to do? He had come back for her in the end. His timely arrival had saved her from the grabby hands of the wolf shifter. Riss was no idiot; she knew that Zander hadn’t randomly appeared at the bar. He must have been out searching for her, trying to track her down, which meant he’d gone to her house, and then had done something, perhaps followed her scent? To find her at the bar. Either way, it had required substantial effort on his part.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why what?” Zander asked dully.
“Why did you come back?”
The dragon shifter fell quiet.
“Zander?” she prodded after some time had gone by.
“It’s difficult to explain,” he said, still not looking up at her.
“The important things always are.”
He did look up at that, eyes focused on her with an intensity that made her sit back onto her uncomfortable bench.
“You are remarkable in so many ways,” he said, speaking with an almost reverent awe. “I hope you are aware of that.”
She blinked in astonishment at his kind words. “I…what did I do?” she asked, confused.
“You never cease to amaze me,” he replied cryptically.
“Does that mean you’re going to explain what the hell is going on?” she asked hopefully.
“I’m sorry I left you earlier,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that. I should have stayed, and talked things over.” He hesitated a moment before continuing, and pain began to etch its way into his features.
“What is it, Zander? What happened?” she asked tenderly, reaching out her arm against her better judgment and resting her hand on his.
“Earlier today,” he said haltingly, “my mother passed away.”
Riss felt her jaw drop open and she suddenly understood. She went to get to her feet, to go hold him out of instinct, but he raised a hand up to stay her.
“No, please. I don’t want to grieve about that now.”
“Zander, you need to grieve.”
“I have, and I will,” he said firmly. “I have known for some time that it was coming, and have prepared myself as best I can. It was no surprise to either of us. She was as ready for it as she could be. But right now, I need to address things with you.”
She sat back, feeling terrible, wishing there was something she could do.
There is. Respect his wishes, and listen to him.
“Okay,” she said, unsure of things. “So why did you leave then?”
“Grief. Stupidity. Panic. I’m not completely sure,” he told her, raising his eyes so she could see them. “What I do know, thanks to a good friend who showed me, is that I made the biggest mistake of my life by trying to push you away from me earlier. And I’m sorry for the pain it must have caused you.”
“Pain? Oh yes, there was pain. And also anger.”
“Anger?”
Riss shook her head in disbelief. “Seriously? You came into my life, which by the way, while not great, was going smoothly. So in you walk, Mr. Gorgeous, and you upend everything. You sweep me off my feet in the span of a few days, have me falling head over heels for you.”
Zander looked uncomfortable, but she didn’t care. He needed to hear it from her side.
“Then the trouble starts. Mugging attempt. Some big brawl, where you go crazy. Then I quit my job, because my boss now hates me, because of you. Then, after all that happens, you show back up, and you leave me. So there I am, no friends, no you, no job, and still with people hunting me down, as we saw at the bar just now. So yeah, Zander
Pierce, there was anger to go along with the pain I felt when you left me.”
He reached out to touch her, but she shook him off.
“Thank you for saving my life, or whatever at the bar. I appreciate that, I truly do. And I’m sorry for what you’re going through personally, I am. But I can’t let that sway my thoughts.”
Zander stared at her for a long moment, his metallic eyes unreadable.
“You’re right,” he said at last. “All this time I’ve been thinking about myself, and not about you.” He stopped. “I’m not sure what else I can say besides I’m sorry.”
“Acknowledging the fact was the first step,” she said, some of her anger dying away as he owned up to his actions, realizing why she was so upset.
“What can I do next? I would do anything for you, Riss.”
She fell silent, chewing on her bottom lip while she looked at him, trying to evaluate his words and sincerity.
The station around them buzzed. There weren’t many people about, but here and there she could hear someone walking around. Electricity crackled softly through the lights above, protected as they were by steel cages, though she had to wonder just how much protection they would be against an enraged shifter.
Somewhere a door slammed. They had a single window above the toilet, and through that a soft breeze blew, helping to circulate the overly warm air in the cell.
“How about you tell her the whole truth, Z? She might want to hear that, don’t you think?”
***
Zander
He stiffened as the taunting voice echoed down the hallway.
Oh no.
Footsteps sounded on the tiled floor as the owner decided they no longer cared about being stealthy.
From down the hallway a figure appeared, long slow strides carrying him to the front of the cage, where he leaned back against the concrete block wall. He had something in his hands, candy perhaps, that he tossed into his mouth piece by piece, chewing on it as he regarded the two.
“Come on, Z, don’t just sit there. Speak to her!” Kieran crowed, pointing with his food-filled hand to Riss.
“Go away, Kieran,” he rumbled. “I’m warning you.”
“Warning me?” his cousin laughed. “You’re locked behind bars designed to hold even you inside. What could you possibly be warning me against?”
“I won’t be behind here forever, cousin,” he said, spitting the last word out like an oath.
“Spare me. You’ve yet to beat me in five fights, Z. Six isn’t going to be your lucky number either.” Kieran leaned up straighter against the wall and his eyes hardened. “So do as I say, and tell the pretty girl the truth.”
Something clicked in Zander’s mind.
“You,” he breathed.
“What?” Kieran and Riss both looked confused as they spoke together.
“All along,” Zander said, his voice dropping an octave, an earthen baritone that echoed down the hallway as it built up steam. “I thought that this was all her boss starting something and escalating it as he failed. But I was wrong. So very wrong. It’s been you this whole time, pulling the strings from behind the scenes. The mugging, the panthers. You probably paid her boss off too, didn’t you?” He snarled, lunging at the bars.
Kieran, who had come a step closer, moved just out of Zander’s reach, laughing crazily.
“Well I’m glad you finally figured it out, little cousin. It certainly took you long enough.”
“Zander, what the hell is going on?” Riss asked, standing up and looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Z here has been keeping secrets from you,” Kieran said in a conspiratorial whisper, using a hand to pretend to block his voice from Zander. “Big ones.”
“What does he mean Zander?”
“He means,” Kieran said, talking about himself in the third person, “that Zander here was using you. When his dear old mom, rest in peace, realized her time was almost up, she told your loverboy here that he wasn’t going to be declared heir to the House Pierce name unless he had a mate before she passed away.”
Riss looked at him, but Zander could only hang his head in shame to admit it. “It started out that way,” he admitted. “But it isn’t anymore. I fell for you,” he whispered.
“You used me,” she snarled. “You were just trying to seduce me so you could what, pretend like I was your mate until your mother died, then drop me?”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “That’s why you left me earlier. Your mother passed away, and since she didn’t know about me, you no longer needed me.”
Tears sprung to her eyes and Zander reached out to try and comfort her, to hold her close, but she backed away into the far corner of the cell.
“Stay away from me,” she hissed through the tears.
“Ouch, Z. That has to hurt,” Kieran cackled. “She’s a smart one too, figured that all out right away. I thought I’d have to explain it more, but nope. You really fucked up, buddy. Quite a catch, that little lady.
Zander snarled and lunged through the bars again, but Kieran stayed out of reach.
“I guess all that’s left now is for me to collect my inheritance,” his cousin jeered, turning to leave.
He spun in the cell and went over to where Riss was crouched in the corner, disbelief still plainly written on her face.
He dropped down onto his haunches in front of her.
“What he said is true, and I owe you more of an apology than I fear I can ever provide. I will answer whatever questions you have.” He glanced behind him. “But first I have to go beat his ass for creating this situation in the first place.”
Riss didn’t respond, so after a moment he got to his feet.
“Kieran!” he roared at his cousin.
The other man paused in his journey down the hallway.
Zander moved to the door, and counted the bars strategically on the sliding door. He grabbed the selected ones, planted his feet on two others, and pulled.
The door clicked as he exerted his full strength, and suddenly slid open.
Kieran looked at him in shock.
“How the hell did you do that?”
“I helped renovate these,” he said in a deadly quiet voice. “They always build in a safety like that.”
Kieran grinned. “Well come on then, little Z, let’s do this, shall we?”
“With pleasure,” the dragon shifter said, striding down the hallway to meet his cousin. Fists flexed and knuckles cracked as they closed on each other, faces set in stone.
Kieran was right; he’d won the past five bouts between them. He was more experienced. But this time, Zander was fighting for something.
Two paces out he suddenly threw himself forward, catching Kieran off-guard. The pair went down in a flurry of fists, knees, and whatever they could bring into the fight. Kieran got a leg up and kicked out, sending Zander into the ceiling above, where he fell back down right into the oncoming fist of his cousin.
Bone cracked and he flew to the side, a concrete cinderblock cracking under the blow.
“You can’t beat me,” Kieran taunted moments before Zander’s low kick took out his legs.
He rolled to his feet and grabbed his cousin’s leg, hurling him down the hallway. Skin scraped on the tile and blood streaked along after Kieran as he shed skin from his face and arm on the tile.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” the other dragon shifter roared as he climbed to his feet, shaking the pain off in a spray of blood.
“Not by a long shot,” Zander responded, eyes aflame.
He opened his mind as his cousin came back down the hallway, finding his connection with his dragon. Zander had learned a few new tricks since he’d last fought Kieran. The wind in his mind began to shriek and whistle as it increased to a fever pitch. He summoned that air, feeling it spin up from his feet.
Zander focused it in his mind, condensing it into the tiniest spot in front of him that he could, using much of his mental strength to overwhelm the urge from
his dragon to be set free.
Kieran slowed as he realized what Zander was doing and belatedly tried to summon a shield of his own.
But it was too late, and with a roar that split the quiet of the Guardian Headquarters building, he hurled the contained tornado down the confines of the hallway. The blast slammed into Kieran, tossing him from his feet like a ragdoll as it spun him around, until it hit the outer wall and threw him through it into the street beyond.
Zander was right behind it though, lip curled back in a snarl as he launched himself from the second-floor hole-in-the-wall to the ground below.
Kieran was already getting to his feet. But Zander’s punch sent him bouncing across the perfectly manicured lawn until he came to rest in the changing circle.
Kieran spat blood and a tooth from his mouth as he rose, taking stock of where he was.
A grin spread across his face and he went to one knee, his eyes still focused on Zander. Lightning sparked and dark clouds shot through with bolts of super-charged electricity rose up around him, obscuring his form.
Zander didn’t need to know what was happening though.
Ignoring the grass below him, he brought his arms up together in front of his face and summoned his own dragon, touching that whirling core of wind deep inside him, this time letting it free.
Debris pelted him as the force of the wind tore the grass up, ripping leaves from the branches of a nearby bush and other debris. But as his scales pushed to the surface, he stopped feeling them. His dragon manifested itself quickly, already near the surface of his mind.
It wasn’t enough. A lightning bolt slammed into his side even before he’d finished shifting, and Zander roared in pain, the wind increasing to a feverish pitch as if to mimic his outburst.
He heard more than saw Kieran charge at him, but the moment was past, and Zander was ready. Spinning in place, he whipsawed his long sinuous tail around and slammed it into the side of Kieran’s head, momentarily stunning the larger dragon. He hit him again, and then launched into the air, where his agility and speed could come into play, taunting Kieran to come after him.
