It takes her a second before she guesses where my mind is at. “Bait?”
I swallow, nodding and unable to voice the words that make me want to cut out my own tongue.
She nods, looking around and assessing the layout. “Let’s get back closer to the main chamber. It’ll make it more obvious since there are so many tunnels.”
We pass by a few men, keeping our heads down and steps sure. With everything going on, no one gives more than a brief glance in our direction, letting us escape scrutiny, but that’s about to come to an end.
When we near the end of the tunnel, we stay just inside of it so as not to be abundantly obvious. The fire is out in this section, but the smoke still creates a haze that makes me cough on occasion.
“You’re sure about this?”
She doesn’t waste time debating, just captures my mouth with hers. I have trouble relaxing into her, fear and anxiety wrapped around me like an oppressing blanket.
She senses my reluctance and whispers, “Trust them to protect us like I do. Focus on me, not the rest of it.”
It takes a minute, but I start relaxing into her touch. I deepen the kiss, and when she nips at my bottom lip, it’s that final nudge I need to let go. I press her back against the wall, grinding against her. She works her hand between us, rubbing me from the outside of my pants until I’m straining, needing to be inside of her, to claim her as mine.
I start to work the button loose on hers, but she stops me. “Not to ruin the moment or anything,” she mumbles against my lips, “but sort of having my ladies’ days here. Might want to hold off until we can find a shower.”
I redirect my attention towards her breasts, sliding my hand beneath the fabric to pinch and roll her nipples. It wouldn’t bother me in the slightest, but I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. Not only that, but I just need to get her worked up, not necessarily have sex with her. I don’t want our first time to be like this, to be here. I want to savor her without the threat of getting shot in the face looming over me.
Shoving all those thoughts away, I bite the inside of my cheek, fighting the urge to come from her constant rubbing; no one wants to fight to the death with wet cum chafing against their junk.
I arch against her, removing my lips from hers before tugging her shirt up and jerking down her bra to wrap my mouth around her breast. I swirl my tongue around one stiff peak while toying with the other. She mumbles inarticulate thoughts and I feel her pheromones brushing against my senses like a gentle caress.
I hear a few shots ring out, jarring me to my senses. I pry myself away from her reluctantly, her pupils as blown with lust as mine no doubt are. One more harsh kiss and I pivot, gun drawn as she tugs her clothing back in place and gets prepared to fight alongside us.
“Think it worked?”
Cai snorts. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it worked.”
Soren peers out of the tunnel first. He fires off a few rapid shots, giving away our position, so we prepare ourselves for the flood gates to open and them to start attacking us. Cai guards the direction we came from in case someone sneaks up from that way, trusting us with his back against the more obvious threat.
“We have armor, they don’t, so come on,” Ezra commands, seconds before spinning out of the tunnel to the left side, hugging the wall.
I catch the fist aimed at my face, shooting him directly in the stomach without a second thought and letting him drop. All my fear, all my worries, I shove in the box I usually keep thoughts of my family in. I suppress all of it, emotionally shutting down until I can think with cold precision, my movements a savage dance aimed to kill as quickly as possible.
I don’t worry about making them hurt; these bastards deserve worse than I could ever come up with. Instead, I just put them down like feral animals, each body that drops one less threat in the world. One shot, another. When I’m out of bullets, I tuck the gun in my pocket to reload later, withdrawing my dagger and picking up where I left off without missing a beat.
Blood, screams, and smoke; there’s nothing else. I take several blows, but I block out the pain. The armor holds up and no knives or shots pierce my skin. Cracked ribs, I can fight through. Bruises, marks of honor. I lost so much of it before coming to this country, before finding her. But now, I will earn it back and then some. If I die, it will be only after I take out as many of these men as possible. I will spend my last breaths making the world safer not only for my mate, but for the other dragons in hiding.
If they’ve been experimenting, there have to be other female dragons here as well; otherwise they wouldn’t have the blood to test out on the humans. Why haven’t we found them yet? Where are they? How many levels does this place go and what other horrors does it contain?
A hand wraps around my wrist on my next downward glide. I slam my head back on instinct, bashing it into a hard chest instead of a face like I hoped.
“Enough. Yri, that’s enough.” Soren’s voice is deep, quiet.
“Can’t stop,” I mutter, feeling possessed.
He twists my wrist until the blade clatters to the floor, his other hand on my shoulder and literally shaking sense into me. “You can and you will,” he commands, louder, voice laced with authority.
I blink a few times, fighting through the haze of my thoughts. There’s a gun a few inches from my face, and behind it, a shock of familiar red hair.
“You’re alive.”
Kahl looks back at me stoically, face a blank mask. “And despite my sister’s fondness of you, I’ll be staying that way. Take a step back.”
I shake out of my possessed stupor, looking around at the bodies piled up around us. Soren keeps a hand on my shoulder, tugging me back in a firm grasp. All four Veles brothers are nearby, eyeing me distrustfully. Ezra cautiously approaches, her hat lost and short hair brushing her shoulders. She’s splattered in blood and I frantically eye her head to toe, looking for a wound.
