“Brothers. Dragons always lay seven eggs. Seven young. Females are rare. It’s why there are so few of us.”
“What do your brothers think of your plan to shack up with a werewolf and rule the world?”
She scoffed. “They don’t understand. So few are evolved enough to look beyond their lineage.” She rolled her shoulders back. “I don’t want to talk about my family.”
She scanned his naked body. He was still smudged with dirt and blood from his failed attempt to climb the mountain. “You need a bath,” she said. With a pulse of her amulet, a tub of hot water appeared behind him.
Water. Ryker had said it weakened dragon fae magic. Jason hoped he was right. He stepped into the tub and lowered himself under the surface, mind racing. He needed a plan.Think.
She sat down on the upholstered bench at the end of the bed and crossed her legs, her spiky heel bobbing. “Now, tell me, Jason, why didn’t you come to me sooner?” Her voice was loaded with cynicism.
Jason grabbed the soap and started scrubbing his chest, his arms, in an effort to buy time. A lie. He needed a lie, and it better be a good one. “Silas’s friend is a witch. She detected your curse and broke it. After that, Silas locked me up. I’ve been on house arrest until now.”
“Lies. You came for the girl. I know you did,” Nickelova said.
“I was using the girl. I came for you.”
“Liar.”
Flashing a practiced smile, he looked directly at her and moved his hands to scrub his lower body. “You don’t think I’m here for you?” One thing about Nickelova, her personality was predictably narcissistic. She would prefer to believe he was there for her, undoubtedly hold herself above a woman like Selene, and he planned to use that to his advantage.
She tipped her head back slightly, her lips parting, her nipples pearling behind the red material of her dress. Her eyes focused on the place where he touched himself beneath the water.
“We had some good times, didn’t we Nickie? Those nights at Hunt Club?”
She uncrossed and re-crossed her legs, her cheeks coloring.
“You could join me,” he drawled. “I could use some help in here.”
She rose from her seat. Her arms slipped around his neck from behind. “You’d better not be toying with me, Jason Flynn. I won’t be as forgiving next time.”
“Next time. So you forgive me?”
She laid a violent kiss on his mouth in response. Suppressing the disgust that raged through his body, he nipped her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. Under the guise of reaching for the zipper of her dress, he lifted his hands to her neck.
“Mmm,” she moaned into his mouth.
He rose and forced her chest against his. The movement wasn’t delicate. So close to the full moon, it would have injured a human woman. But just like old times, she went limp in his arms.
“Do you want this body?” she asked, bending backward, her lips grazing his.
“Not just your body, Nickie. I want your heart.” He yanked the amulet over her head in one lithe move, tearing out a clump of her hair in his haste. She screamed. But by the time she could react, he was across the room and backing toward the door, the amulet dangling from his grip. He looped it around his own neck.
“You bastard,” she shrieked, coming at him. “Don’t you know that the amulet is useless unless I give you the power and the knowledge to use it?”
“I figured as much, but I’m more interested in keeping it from you than using it myself.” He lowered his body, hands raised between them, ready to fight her if he had to. “If you’re going to take me down, you’re going to have to do it without magic.”
Nickelova broke out in peals of laughter. “You fucking idiot. Do you know where the power of the amulet comes from? Dragon scale. And while I need it in my human form, scales are something I have all on my own.”
As if she’d been hit by an ax, her skin split and her blood sprayed toward him only to be sucked back toward her shifting body. Gruesome round segments transformed into scales. She grew and changed in the most violent and grotesque transition he’d ever seen in a shifter. But as terrifying as the transition was, the end result almost knocked him on his ass.
A full-sized adult dragon hissed at him as he stumbled backward out the door, terror gripping his chest like a vice. She was bigger, deadlier in this form than he’d ever imagined. Her razor-sharp teeth gnashed in his direction. No wonder her family colors were red and black. Her scales glinted like bloodstained obsidian.
Scrambling out the door, he tore through the winding tunnel that led to the main chamber, thankful for his superhuman werewolf speed. The only advantage he had was the natural design of the passageway, which was narrow enough to slow the dragon down. It also served to partially conceal him from her slashing teeth.
A whoosh like a fireplace bellow came from behind him.Oh shit!He sprinted faster. Fire, hot and blazing, sprayed against the wall behind him, singeing his back. When he emerged into the main chamber, he dodged behind a large stalactite and desperately searched for something to use as a weapon.
“Jason!” Selene called.
