We burst out onto a roof. A maze of buildings rose up around us, some higher, some lower. The Desolate Quarter of Kylma was no joke. Andwaiting for us …
“Someone’s here!” I hissed as the other shifter came jogging over.
Caz stopped and put me down, though his arms stayed tightly around me, pressing me against his chest and threatening to drown me in the heady aroma of masculine musk that poured off him. It was so strong, so addictive in its nature that I nearly swooned, despite the danger of it all.
“That’s Ri. He’s with me,” Caz grunted after looking at the approaching shifter. “We’re going now. Are you ready?”
Before I could ask what I needed to be ready for, massive wings sprouted from his back, the motion shredding parts of his shirt to reveal a formidable array of abs underneath two chiseled pecs that flexed in time with his brilliant silver-white wings as they tensed.
“Uh.”
“Time to go,” Caz urged, taking me by the waist and pulling me close once more. I stepped on his feet when instructed, and tried not to plaster my cheek to his chest. If I did, I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to peel myself away.
“I’ve never done this before,” I said, hating how quivery my voice came out. I wouldnotturn into a scared mess in front of him. I wouldn’t.
“Just hold on tight to me, Anna. That’s all you have to do,” he rumbled, gently stroking my hair,pulling it back out of my face and tucking it behind my ear. “You’ll do great. I’ll protect you. I promise. You’ll always be safe with me.”
He bent down slightly and pressed his lips to my forehead. I inhaled sharply through half-lidded eyes at the touch. They were so warm and soft. I couldn’t stop myself from wondering what it would feel like with him kissing other parts of me. Kissingall partsof me.
Then he leapt into the sky without warning, and I buried my face in his chest anyway, unable to look down.
Nine
Anna
“You’re safenow. You can relax,” Caz said as we finally landed back on the solid footing of a balcony somewhere, the hood of his cloak somehow still in place.
I peeled away from him as fast as I could, grateful to be out of his arms and able to see once more.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t enjoyed flying. That part had been amazing. The rush of wind on my face and through my hair, the absolutefreedomof simply soaring through the air, unencumbered by the need to travel in a line. Yes, that was it, the freedom of it all. That was exhilarating. I missed it already, longed for it back, angry at yet another thing my status as a clippy had robbed me of.
But the reason I stepped back,farback was to be able to breathe air that wasn’t thick with his musk. If I didn’t get off him now, I would be getting offonhim. My pussy was positively dripping.
I was certain Caz could smell my arousal, and I needed to create a firebreak between us so my body didn’t betray just how right he was. Howsafe I felt in his arms. Like nothing mattered but him. But us.
The instant I had walked into his arms back at the market, his biceps and that damn scent of his had invaded every pore of my skin, sucked in through every orifice like my body was a desiccated mummy, and the only thing that could revive me was him.
Even his alpha power, when some of it leaked through, didn’t push me down to the ground like the oppressive fist it usually was. Instead, it wrapped me up and comforted me. His strength soothed me like the aloe to a sunburn I hadn’t known was there. His touch, his simple presence, it all served to calm me, to make every worry, every fear, far less potent.
Because hewouldkeep me safe. I clenched against a near feral desire to throw myself at him, to be taken to the ground and finally see just what the bulge beneath his pants looked like in my hands. I wanted to know what he tasted like, what he felt like, driving home inside of me as I rode him until the very end.
Fucking hell. You’re losing your damn mind, Anna. Get a grip. You’re stronger than this. Remember, Milly and Ella are missing because of him! Not to mentionhe left you in a cage.
I hissed their names, saying them out loud while latching on to that inescapable fact. My friends weregone.
“Ella, Milly,” I moaned, pushing my hair back out of my face with both hands. “Fuck.”
“Your friends,” Caz grunted. “Those are their names.”
I nodded. “I have to find them, Caz. I have to. Please, we need to do something.”
Going back was out of the question. Even as Caz had taken me into the sky, I had looked down. The last thing I’d seen before burying my face in his chest was a mob of hunters pouring out onto the rooftops, watching us as we fled into the early morning light, the orb far above in the rocky ceiling of Hollow Earth only just beginning to pulse with faint yellows and oranges. I even noticed a tinge of pink as it fell over the city.
“We’ll find them,” Caz told me. “I promise you.”
“How?”
A dragon shifter stepped into my field of vision as I stared out at Kylma, capital city of the Ice Kingdom. I backed toward Caz at the sudden appearance of the man I’d only seen once before.
