Tension wrapped around us both, and when he started to rumble, I found a sense of self-preservation and released my hold. In the same second, I scooted away, spinning on the bed, more present in my own body than I had been in days.
The dragon sat on a chair beside the bed, his onyx eyes locked on me as if there was nothing else in the room. We were in a bedroom, dimly lit, and there was a chill in the air now that I’d moved from his natural heat. Even as I backed away, my gaze remained drawn to him in a way I couldn’t fight.
Goddess, he looked so much like Slade—a harder, darker version.
“You need to let me go,” I whispered.
His cold expression didn’t ease. If anything, those granite-like features grew hard enough to give diamonds a run forstrength in molecular structure. His focus flicked down for a beat, to the bite he’d left on my shoulder, right beside Hunter’s mark.
“Mine,” he rasped, sending tingles down my spine and leaving goosebumps all over my skin.
He didn’t say that in the same way Hunter did.
My entitled alpha wasn’t shy about his claim over me either, but he made it clear that while I was his, he was also mine. A mutual bond.
This dragon believed me to be his possession, and I wondered if that was the only sort of claiming andlovehe’d witnessed in his life. It reminded me again of Slade telling meI’m a dragon, Snow. I ferociously guard what is mine, and right now, you are my possession. I own you. I watch over you. There’s no part of you that is kept from any part of me.
The main difference though, was that Slade’s actions didn’t fully back his words. While he wasn’t the most outwardly caring and demonstrative of shifters, he protected me and respected my wishes not to bond. He’d promised to teach me to defend myself, helped with my reading, and taken part in a fucking prank war. He’d shown that I was more than a possession to him, even if he wasn’t ready to admit it.
This dragon had done nothing of the sort.
There was not one playful bone in his body, and if Slade thought himself a monster, the shifter before me could quite possibly be one.
My gaze fell on the brush in his hand, and I ignored that memory, refusing to soften toward him because of one gentle touch. I couldn’t forget what he’d done and why I was in this position.
The dragon’s gaze was unwavering. The only flaws on him were a jagged scar that spanned from his left ear to the corner of his lip, and the bite I’d been forced to leave on his throat.With omega magic controlling my actions, I hadn’t been able to choose where I bit him. Myclaimhad landed on the left side of his throat, just under his scar and ear.
If anything, these “flaws” only added to his dangerously attractive appeal. It was unfortunate that he was a literal weapon of destruction for an evil alpha, and the reason I would never have a future with my pack. Not as a completed quintet anyway.
CHAPTER 3
EMME
When the dragon stood, his movements were far too graceful for a male so large.
I scooted off the bed and pressed myself to the wall.
There was no indication that he was going to immediately kill me, and as we were newly bonded, our beasts would suffer greatly if one of us was to die. But now that I was upright, functioning and focused, I was determined to be more careful in his presence.
My breathing eased when he opened the bathroom door and entered. This place was nothing like the house Chelsea, the omega who kidnapped me, had brought me to. This bedroom was much nicer, with its worn beige carpet, dusty white walls, and antique queen bed in the center of the room.
Through the open door of the bathroom, it appeared plain and generic, with small white tiles and basic amenities. Whilethe dragonwas occupied, I headed straight for the other closed door, unsurprised to find it locked. Leaning back, I kicked as hard as I could, pain ricocheting up my bare foot and into my calf. I’d been dragged out of the house in sweatpants and barefeet, which still bore the evidence of my forced walk through the mud outside my pack’s property.
Far too silently, the dragon appeared at my side like magic, and thrust a glass of water at me. “Drink.”
Holy goddess, he was huge, and his darkly captivating presence elevated him beyond his almost seven feet height. The heat and power radiating off him was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before, and the scent was stronger.Annoyingly, ittook my breath away.Stupid mate bond.
“Trying to drug me?” I drawled, letting my irritation spill out. He hadn’t drugged me before of course, unless it was super slow-acting, but I’d also been all but comatose. Now, I was up and ready to fight. “There’s really no need. I’m apparently trapped here. A fucking prisoner once again.”
When he frowned, it pulled at the scar near his full lips, and I resisted the urge to reach out and trace my fingers along the rough surface. I hadn’t met many shifters with scars like mine. Most of them healed minor injuries with ease. It took a certain weapon, and a certain level of injury inflicted at a young age, to leave a mark like ours.
Not that having anything in common meant I would be forgiving him. Like I’d told Finley, we all had our traumas, but that didn’t give us an excuse to act like an asshole.
“Drink,” he commanded again, thrusting the glass hard enough to spill liquid over the sides.
Ignoring him, I stepped around his towering form and beelined into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Thirst hit hard when the sink came into view, the white basin pockmarked from age and lack of care. Dipping my head under the faucet, I let the water run for a second before I drank from the stream. It took a long time to quench my thirst, and when I was satisfied, feeling full and sloshy, my bladder took over complaining to remind me I hadn’t peed in days.
If I wasn’t a shifter, I’d probably have a nice kidney or bladder infection, but thankfully, even with my wolf diminished, I retained enough healing abilities to keep that at bay.
