Chapter
One
Talon judged the distance between the window he was going to have to fly up to and grab the omega he was here to get and where he stood now at the side of the water. He was not much for math in its purest form, but distances and calculations of wind and that sort of thing he understood really well.
Admittedly these days, he was more inclined to take a pickaxe and follow Kami down into the earth somewhere to find a rock. But in this case, their keep seer Cain had told him there was no one else to go after this little omega, and he was on his own, that this keep was remote.
What Cain hadn’t told him was this wasn’t a keep—this was a tower in the middle of fucking nowhere that doubled as a lighthouse, and that there was an omega and maybe a dozen guards. He had no idea what they were all going to do with this omega—whether they were going to sacrifice him like some sort of weird Greek princess to a kraken or something. But that didn’t matter. It was freezing cold, the wind was blowing a good twenty-five miles an hour to the north-northwest, and he had to fly up there, grab an omega from a very small window, and get the hell out.
May the gods save him from dragonkind, who built their keeps in the frozen north of wherever this was. Canada? Alaska? He wasn’t sure. He’d lost track.
Really, he was going to have to speak to Reno about this whole thing. Reno was the trainer, and the one who had mated with his best friend. Surely he was supposed to get some kind of dossier on people when he rescued them. Some manner of information.
Even when Kami and he had done it on their own, they’d had more information than go to a keep and rescue an omega. X marks the spot.
Well, regardless it was cold and he was grumpy; he wanted to get back somewhere where there could be bread and chili dogs and a hot tub. So he would go up, fetch the omega, get down, and then start the incredibly aggravating process of getting the fuck out of here. It involved boats and little planes and cars, and it would just be way easier to simply fly.
But flying in the human world could be dangerous. A dragon could get shot down, or it could be run down by a helicopter or whatever. And Talon had no intention of doing that. He didn’t have his normal team in place for extraction though, and that irritated the hell out of him.
He growled and shook his head. One way or the other, he just needed to get his ass up and out of here. Time to rescue the omega.
He pushed up, tried to keep his wings as tight to his body as he could, focusing on simply getting to that window. It would be almost impossible to see him. He was about the same color as the clouds and the ice that was flowing around. That wasn’t a terrible thing.
He hit the window hard, and it popped open, which he supposed was better than crashing or shattering open.
As soon as he landed, he heard a gasp, then a soft growl. “What the hell is going on? What do you want? You should go away. Leave me alone.”
What the hell? He glared at the slender omega who stood in the shadows. “I’m here to get you out of here. I’m not going to leave without you. So what’s going on?” Didn’t omegas who had lost their heartstone want to get out of the weird tower in the middle of the ocean?
“I don’t know you. I don’t. I’ve never been out of the tower. Nobody said you were coming. Nobody sent a note. Nobody’s come in weeks. I don’t know you. I don’t know you.”
Okay, that was sort of awful to be stuck here with just that wind for company for weeks. It sounded like hell on earth. “I’m Talon. I came to take you to the mountains—somewhere you can be free, where we can maybe find you a heartstone.”
“They took it away. They said I didn’t deserve it anymore. I didn’t.” The omega disappeared deeper into the shadows. “I’m not a very attractive omega, so no one wanted me. They took all the pretty ones, apparently, and then there was just me left here. Anyway, it’s just me. I don’t think I’m supposed to be rescued. That might get you in trouble, and I don’t know, it just seems odd to just have someone show up and break through the window in the middle of a blizzard.”
“Honey, I don’t care if you look like Quasimodo.” Talon held out a hand. “You don’t deserve to be stuck here withering away because you don’t have a heartstone. No one deserves that. I know this. This is my job. I rescue omegas. Now come on, give me your hand, and we’ll go on and get out of here.”
He could hear the little guy breathing—the sound was quick and a little too harsh and pretty upset. “I don’t know what to do. I’m not supposed to get rescued.”
“Do you want to be stuck here? It doesn’t seem like a very nice place to live.” He slowed his words down, thinking maybe this guy was just a little dense.
“I am not stupid.” Now the little guy stormed right up to him and poked him in the chest. And Talon stared down at him, blinking.
The dragon was tiny, thin, almost birdlike, with a mass of silvery hair and huge violet eyes. But his scales were fascinating. They were like a bright shiny mirror. An honest-to-God mirror. He could see himself reflected back in the scales. Cool.
It was so fucking cool.
“So what in the name of Saint Hermina, did all of the other omegas from your keep look like if you’re the ugly one?” Talon asked. “You’re fucking stunning.”
The little guy blinked back at him, lips parting. “Who is Saint Hermina?”
“She’s the human saint who nursed all dragonkind who live in the human world at her tit. Don’t you know anything?” He had to laugh internally, at least, because he had a feeling that if he even cracked a smile with this one, the little guy would punch him right in the nose. He’d read about Saint Hermina somewhere, he just couldn’t remember where way back in the day during his lessons but before they had decided to make him a warrior.
“I know my head hurts, and I know I don’t know if I want to leave. And I know this is very scary. I know that I’ve never met a dragon like you.” The little dragon stared at him. “You’re very big. Did someone hurt you?”
Those eyes traced his scars, but they didn’t seem in the least bit offended or even worried, more curious and concerned.
“I’m a warrior. I get into fights.”
