by Alexis Davie
Instead, Adonis felt something else. Lust. His cock began to stir inside of his jeans. His heartbeat began to move just a little bit faster and he felt his pupils dilate, the irises of his eyes becoming reptilian in shape. He had never had this feeling before, but he recognized it instantly from talking to his friends. It was the feeling of scenting his mate for the first time. But that was ridiculous. Even in the old days, it was almost unheard of for a dragon to fall for a mortal and end up turning him or her into a dragon. And now, it wasn’t even an option. This feeling had to be something else, or he was picking up a secondary scent that his human nose wasn’t equipped to separate out.
He felt the skin on the back of his neck prickle, the feeling of eyes on him, and he spun around quickly. He heard the sound of a small branch breaking beneath a soft foot. He strode toward the spot the sound had come from, pinpointing it from among the normal noises of the woods easily. He pushed through the trees until he came to a small clearing where the underbrush was flattened slightly.
The scent of the human was strong there, and Adonis’ stomach fluttered at the scent. The fluttering stopped and Adonis froze. Beneath the scent of the human was another scent. One he recognized above all others. It was the scent of Antirrhinum, the pollen of the Snap Dragon plant. It was the one substance on earth that could kill a dragon.
2
Brooke turned to her Uncle Steve, a man who had become like a second father to her over the last thirteen years. She smiled sadly and hugged him.
“I’ll see you soon,” she said.
“Let me come with you, Brooke,” Uncle Steve urged.
Brooke shook her head. They had been over this so many times before.
“This is something I have to do alone. You know that,” she said.
Uncle Steve nodded sadly.
“I do. But I had to try one more time. And Brooke, when you get there, if you need me for anything, anything at all, I’m only ever a phone call away. You know that, right?”
Brooke nodded and hugged him again.
“I do. Thank you. Thank you for everything.”
Uncle Steve nodded.
“This is the last call for flight TS79831 to Denver International Airport. I repeat, this is the last call for flight TS79831 to Denver,” a cheery female voice said over the intercom.
“Well, that’s me,” Brooke said.
She gave Uncle Steve one last hug and turned away before she could change her mind. Her stomach was swirling with nerves as she handed the gate agent her boarding pass and was directed onto the plane. She felt as though her whole life had been building up to this moment, and it was finally time to face her destiny.
She walked onto the plane and found her seat. She buckled herself in and sat back to wait for take-off, thinking again of this being her destiny. It was ironic, really. Until she was fourteen years old, Brooke had believed that her destiny was to become a protector of the dragons, to fight for them against the Order. But she had been wrong. She had seen that clearly the day her parents were killed by Queen Alexandria, and she saw it equally clearly now. Her destiny had always been this: to join the Order and fight against the dragons.
She could still remember the day she had sat down with her Uncle Steve and they had an honest conversation about the dragons. She had been living with him for around three weeks, when he had announced they were moving to Canada, to a tiny village on the outskirts of a remote city, somewhere Brooke had never even heard of. She had demanded to know why and Steve had sat her down and explained it all to her.
He had told her that her parents had it all wrong all of those years. That they believed it was a noble cause to fight on the side of the dragons, that they believed the dragons to be sensitive, gentle creatures who were mostly misunderstood. He told Brooke they were wrong—that dragons were monsters, and that they would use humans only while it suited them, discarding them like trash when their usefulness was spent. There had been a time when Brooke wouldn’t have believed him. She would have said he was wrong. But now she knew differently. She had seen first-hand exactly what the dragons were capable of. She knew her Uncle Steve was right. They were monsters.
It had been almost a month later when Brooke had dared to approach Uncle Steve and tell him her plan—that she planned on somehow tracking down the Order and joining the fight against the dragons. Uncle Steve had looked at her, really looked at her, like he was seeing her for the first time. He had nodded his head and sat down with her and told her he was part of the Order. Or that he had been.
This news had shocked Brooke. She found it hard to believe that someone who had grown up in Pengle, someone whose parents were dedicated to protecting the dragons, could become an Order member. But then again, wasn’t she doing exactly the same?
Uncle Steve had told her that dragons were volatile, and over the years in Pengle, he had seen enough to convince him they weren’t the good guys. He had hoped that by joining the Order, he could protect his sister and maybe even one day free her from her servitude to the dragons.
He explained that Alexandria had waged war on the Order, and that’s why they had to run to Canada to hide out. He told her there were only two Order members left: himself and the leader, who had also gone underground. He told her he was lucky—a civilian, nothing to do with the Order, had gotten caught up in one of the battles and been killed. Alexandria’s soldiers believed the man to be an Order member and consequently, they were only looking for the leader.
After much back and forth, Uncle Steve had agreed to start training Brooke. She knew why—he had seen her determination to do this, and he had realized she was better off being trained by him than attempting to take down Alexandria without the right training.
It had taken thirteen years for Brooke to feel ready to face Alexandria, and now she was on her way back to Pengle. She would fulfil her destiny and avenge her parents’ deaths, and while Alexandria was her main target, she would take down any dragons that got in her way, and make the world a safer place for everyone.
Brooke moved stealthily through the woods surrounding Alexandria’s castle. It reminded her of when she was a child and she and her friend, Lucas, would creep out at night and come to the woods to see the castle. They had believed themselves to be masters at creeping around, and while they were good enough at it that their parents never found out, Brooke knew that dragons had heightened senses. She could see now what she didn’t know then—she and Lucas had never fooled the dragons. They were merely not seen as a threat, not seen as important enough to flush out, and any dragons that encountered them simply ignored their presence.
She knew if she was scented tonight, she wouldn’t be ignored. She was careful to stay upwind of the castle. Although it was the middle of the night, if one of the pack happened to be awake and scented her, her mission could be over before it began. She was confident she could take down any of the pack who came to look for her, but she would lose her advantage. Her element of surprise kept her one step ahead of the pack, but if they found out there was a new hunter on the scene, she would lose the upper hand.
Tonight’s mission was a simple one. She wanted to scope out the castle walls. She had known of several places when she was a child where the walls had crumbled slightly, enough to let a person creep through undetected, but she doubted those places hadn’t been fixed. She wanted to find a new place where she could come and go from the castle without approaching the gates which were now heavily guarded, even at night.
She had her trusty bow and several arrows that had been painted with Antirrhinum, something Uncle Steve had told her could kill a dragon in seconds once it was introduced to their bloodstream.
She didn’t want to risk wasting any of her arrows. The dragons made damned sure the Snap Dragon plant didn’t grow on the mountainside where they resided, and she only had a limited supply of Antirrhinum. She wasn’t particularly worried about that, though. She was a sure shooter, a damned good shot, and she wouldn’t waste any arrow that she let fly.
Brooke crept closer to the castle. She made her way into a small clearing, peering out through the thick bushes and tree trunks. She was surprised to see that she had stumbled across an area that didn’t seem to have a wall at all. The castle grounds opened directly into the woods. In some ways, it made sense. The dragons had dropped their guards now that they believed they were no longer being hunted. Only one member of the Order remained to their knowledge, and they must have known he wasn’t likely to turn up here.
Her thoughts fell silent as she heard someone approaching. She ducked lower down, camouflaging herself in the shrubbery. A man stepped into her line of sight, illuminated by the moon. He was no ordinary man. Although she had spent her childhood being kept separate from the dragons, her Uncle Steve had done plenty of recon missions over the last few years, and he had been able to describe the key players in the pack to her.
This man had thick, black hair and he was tall and muscular. His skin was lightly tanned and on his arm was a tattoo of a flame. There was no mistaking who she was seeing. Prince Adonis, the son of Queen Alexandria.
Brooke felt her heart racing and her mouth going dry as she reached over her shoulder and pulled out an arrow. She loaded it into her bow and watched, waiting for Adonis to get closer. As he moved closer to her, she could make out his face. He had a strong jawline, sparkling eyes that were so dark brown they looked almost black. Brooke was surprised when she felt a tingling in her center as she looked at those eyes. She shook her head, telling herself it was nothing to do with Adonis. It was just the thrill of the hunt. She had never felt it before, but she had never before hunted a real dragon.
She lined her arrow up, aiming for the spot on Adonis’ chest where she knew his heart was. She pulled the string back, ready to let her arrow fly, but something stopped her. She was frozen, her eyes locked on Adonis’ face. He was sniffing the air, looking around him. She knew there was a good chance he had scented her, and she knew she had only minutes before she lost her chance at taking him down from a safe distance, yet still, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill him.
She didn’t know why, but she knew she felt something strange inside of herself. Something that made her heart beat faster and her breath catch in her throat. It was like nothing she had ever felt before.
She took a single step forwards, wanting to see Adonis more closely, but as she stepped, she lost her concentration and she stumbled slightly. Her foot came down on a small twig and she heard the snapping sound as it broke.
She wasn’t the only one who heard it. Adonis turned quickly in her direction and began to march toward her hiding place. Cursing inwardly, Brooke turned and fled the scene.
3
Adonis walked back toward the castle. He was annoyed with himself. Whoever had been in those woods watching him was a threat to the pack and he had let her get away. And still, he was debating whether or not he should tell his mother what he had seen, or more accurately, what he had smelled. On a rational level, he knew he should tell her. Any human could be a threat to the pack, and there was no way a human carrying Antirrhinum into Pengle could be a coincidence.
Something was holding him back, though. There was a little voice in his head that told him if he spoke to his mother about this, he was signing the human’s death warrant. He knew exactly what his mother would do. She would order her soldiers to spread out through all of the neighboring towns until they scented the Antirrhinum and then take down the girl. It was the sensible plan, but Adonis didn’t think he could bring himself to be the cause of the girl’s death.
Every time he thought of her, he thought of the scent of her. The way she had tantalized his nostrils and sent his dragon into a lust-filled frenzy. He thought of the single strand of long, blonde hair he had spotted snarled in a branch. He couldn’t help but picture the girl, imagining her to be the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.
How could he condemn her to her death when his dragon was telling him she was destined to be his mate? But how could he not do it when he knew she was there to kill him and his pack? She had to be a hunter. It was the only explanation for her being there at such an hour and armed with the one thing that could kill him.
By the time he got back to the castle, Adonis’ mind was no clearer and he still had no idea what to do. The two sides of him continued to war and neither of them would concede. In the end, he decided to sleep on it. Whoever the girl was, she had fled when he strode toward her hiding place, and she wouldn’t be stupid enough to come back here without the cover of darkness. The earliest she would strike would be tomorrow night. If he slept on it, that would still give the pack a full day to put a plan into action if he decided to tell his mother about her.
Adonis usually awoke to the sun streaming into his bedroom, but this morning, the sun was barely up when he jumped awake. He frowned, trying to work out what had awoken him when the sound came again. A gentle tapping on his bedroom door. This time, the door opened a crack and a head poked around it.
Adonis sighed when he saw the auburn curls. His early morning visitor was Esmerelda.
“What do you want, Esmerelda?” he said in a slightly irritated tone of voice.
“Ooh, someone isn’t a morning person,” Esmerelda laughed. “Your mother asked me to come and wake you. She’s having a pack meeting in the great hall in twenty minutes.”
The irritation inside of Adonis didn’t go anywhere, but it did change its target from Esmerelda to his mother. She obviously wanted to continue the celebration, but couldn’t she do it at a less ungodly hour?
“Thanks for letting me know,” Adonis said to Esmerelda.
She smiled and nodded and then she was gone. Adonis sat up and ran his hands over his face. He knew if he ignored the message, his mother would just send for him again until he arrived in the hall, and she would be mad. He could do without her anger. He got out of bed and went to get showered and dressed.
His head was still spinning with thoughts of last night. He still hadn’t managed to decide one way or the other what he should do about the girl. Perhaps the meeting would be a good thing. It would buy him a little bit more time to think, because whatever he decided to do, he knew he wasn’t going to announce his discovery in a pack meeting and risk causing a mass panic.
He made his way to the great hall. He wasn’t quite the last pack member to arrive, but he was far from one of the first. His mother caught his eye from the platform at the head of the room and beckoned to him.
“Sit,” she hissed, nodding to the seat beside hers. “When I make the announcement just pretend you’re not surprised.”
She stood up before Adonis had a chance to process that. She clapped her hands loudly twice and the whole room fell silent, all eyes on Alexandria.
“It has been brought to my attention that somewhere along the line, we made a mistake. There is still one member of the Order left alive,” she said.
Adonis was shocked. So much for this theory about this being a continuation of last night’s celebration. He forced himself to keep a calm, stoic expression on his face, remembering his mother’s orders not to look surprised.
“We believe that in the melee in Chicago twelve years ago, one of the casualties was not, as we had presumed at the time, one of the hunters. This morning, one of the gate guards scented a human in the air. The hunter is here in Pengle or one of the neighboring towns. The scent wasn’t strong enough to identify as a single person, and we believe the hunter was in the woods late last night,” Alexandria went on.
Adonis struggled to keep his face neutral. Alexandria had really put this all together quickly. It made his own inner turmoil go away, though. Alexandria knew about the intruder, and it would now be prudent for Adonis to keep his mouth shut. If he told her he, too, had scented the human, she would be furious that he had kept it from her. And he didn’t need to risk her wrath. She already knew everything he did.
“I’ll be upping the gate guards, and I will have soldiers patrolling the castle grou
nds at all times, particularly at night. I wanted to make you all aware of the situation, but I urge you all not to panic. Be vigilant as always, and if you notice anything strange, bring it to my attention or to the attention of Adonis. Don’t worry, my people, we will find this hunter, and we will end him.”
For the first time, Adonis’ composure slipped slightly. It seemed his mother didn’t know quite as much as he did. She believed the hunter to be male, and Adonis knew for a fact that the hunter was female. The pack would be on guard, but they would be looking for the wrong target.
4
Brooke sat in her hotel room waiting for the time to pass. The hands of the clock dragged slowly by, teasing her, seeming to move slower with each passing minute. She knew it was just because she was psyched up for tonight.
She had known that after being spotted by Adonis, security around the castle would tighten up, and she hadn’t been wrong about that. She had spent a few days scoping out the castle. She had had several more opportunities to take down dragon soldiers, but she had resisted the urge to kill them. She didn’t want Alexandria upping the guards further or sending out a search party, and if she killed one of the dragons where there were witnesses, she knew that’s what would happen.
She now knew the pattern the guards followed, the times they swept certain areas, and she had found it easy enough to stay one step ahead of them and avoid their search. Tonight was the night she was going to sneak into the castle and take down Alexandria once and for all. She knew she could do it. She wasn’t so sure she would be able to get back out of the castle alive, but as long as she fulfilled her mission, she would die happy.
