Chapter Twelve
Jacques looked at his watch for the second time. Where could she be? He glanced around the resort lobby. His dragon could sense his mate’s closeness. He spotted the resort manager and grinned. “Piero, what’s up?”
Piero frowned. “Did you enjoy your time in the spa, Master Moldvan?”
“I did, but now I’m looking for someone. Perhaps you can help me?”
Piero moved over closer to the resort’s desk. “I’m not at the liberty to discuss our guests.”
“I don’t care if my mother is here or not.” Jacques leaned against the desk as Piero moved around to a computer. “I’m looking for Olivia Haralamb. She and her friend, Marissa are staying here.”
He should have remembered to ask Marissa’s last name.
“I do not have a Haralamb.”
Of course, they wouldn’t have used her last name. “What about Zoltan?”
“Zoltan?” Piero peered at him from around the computer screen.
“Zoltan.” Jacques confirmed, and by the furrow in Piero’s forehead, he’d found something.
“I am sorry.” Piero glanced around them.
“Because you don’t have a Zoltan, or you can’t say where?” Jacques leaned in closer. “Need I remind you who saved your ass two summers ago with the Donovan incident?”
Piero scowled. “I’ve seen you in here with her, and I have seen the way you look at her, so I will tell you. She checked out about an hour ago. I’m told her air transport is on its way. If you head to the resort landing you may be able to see her before she departs.”
Jacques dragon went into panic mode. Checked out? Air transport? No. She couldn’t. Jacques started to rush out of the lobby when he heard, “The elevator is quicker.”
Quicker his ass. He bounced on the balls of his feet listening to classical music while his dragon side cursed every floor of the resort he had to pass to get to the top. Every second counted. He could hear the whirl of a chopper with his sensitive hearing.
When the elevator came to the top, the door opened, he saw her. “Olivia!”
She walked toward the chopper, handed her bag to a man who fell into step behind her. Her long blond hair pulled back in a pony tail.
“Olivia!” She couldn’t hear him with the should of the chopper.
He started to run toward her, but he couldn’t get up close to the swirling blades. Two men, from his mother’s employ at the resort, stepped in block his path.
Jacques cursed under his breath. He watched her get in, his dragon calling out for her to look his way. Dread seeped inside him, curling around his dragon and as the chopper lifted he shifted determined to chase after her.
She’d been wearing the champagne skirt and halter top from the boutique. His heart slammed back into his chest when his dragon roared.
Hot laced pain erupted all over his body as he realized his mistake. Above him, the chopper lifted and flew further away in direction of the sun. His dragon recoiled, the sun scorching his sensitive scales. Fallen to his hands and knees, his clothes singed with burn holes from trying to shift, he allowed his dragon to roar its frustration.
His greatest strength was his greatest weakness. As a fury, his dragon couldn’t survive the scold of the sun’s rays. In the night, his jet-black body camouflaged him from his enemies. Smaller than most dragons, his camouflage and size gave him great speed and agility.
Enraged at losing his mate, Jacques headed to find the one person he felt most responsible.
Margaret.
She’d warned him to stay away from the senator’s daughter months ago. She’d had him beaten to teach him a lesson on defying her.
Overhead, his eyes shifted as his dragon spotted the druk squad soaring in across the ocean.
Twenty minutes later, he barged into his mother’s secret apartment below the villa near the harbor.
“Where is she?”
“Who?” Margaret swung her legs around off the lounge and stood up. She winced holding her hand against her chest. “If you’re looking for the healer, you just missed her.”
“Olivia Haralamb.”
Margaret smiled, sadly. “You always were a difficult child to contend with. You never learn.”
Jacques took a moment to take a good look at the woman who had used him like a pawn in her greedy schemes more than she had loved him. Her usual polished appearance replaced with one of a woman tired and worn. Those pale silver eyes of hers, chilled with her disdain, didn’t blink once when she ordered him beaten for not helping Emily escape with the Lord of Giresun Manor’s egg.
He shifted his stance, tilted up this chin. Inside his dragon stepped back a little. “Where is she?”
“How should I know?” Margaret cradled her injured hand. “If you’ve come to apologize, I suggest you try again.”
He hated when she used that tone with him. “I sent you the healer, didn’t I?”
Margret flexed her battered and bruised hand. He smirked, unable to control it.
“It took you long enough.” She walked around the lounge closer to him.
“Your plan didn’t work.” His mother’s last attempt to control the human descendants of the Dragon Keepers had failed.
Margaret reached up with her good hand and touched his cheek. “Perhaps. Or perhaps it was all a part of the plan. After all, Emily is now the mother of the last pure blood golden dragon. Cassandra still guards over the last of the other species of our kind, and while I admit Ashlyn has become a bit of a disappointment to me. I know you will not let me down on this one last task you have ahead of you.”
“Is that why you took Olivia? To ensure I would help you?” Jacques could sense her, as if she never left the island. But she couldn’t be. He’d seen her get in the helicopter. He’d do anything to find her.
“You bonded with her, didn’t you?” Margaret shook her head. “I tried to warn you. She was not for you.” Margaret pulled her hand away and sighed. “I should have known you would disobey me again.”
“She is my mate.” Jacques growled his dragon irate. “Tell me where she is.”
“I can’t.”
“Fine.” Jacques crossed his arms. “Have it your way. We will wait until Blake Beuwolf and the government druk squad are here to continue this conversation.”
Margaret laughed. “You seriously think you can threaten me?”
“I want my mate back.”
Margaret’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a brave little fury for coming back here. Did you think I would reward you for helping me or did you plan for me to be indebted to you, so I could avoid being challenged by the Giresun leader?”
“Your time has run out.”
“Yes,” it came as more of a hiss than words. “You are indeed my son. You know I can’t leave the island now. It’s this or hibernate.”
“You always said one must make sacrifices for the greater good, mother.”
“I can see only one option left to resolve both of our predicaments.” Margaret cradled her injured hand once more. “You remember what you are to do?”
“Tell me where Olivia is, and it shall be done.” He would do anything to protect her, to hold her, and given the chance love her again.
Margaret swept back her silver hair. “You betrayed me and now I don’t know I can trust you.”
“Says the mistress of both the dragon herds and the Dragon Keepers.”
Margaret sat back down on the lounge. “The draconian council will never accept you in my place.”
“All I want is Olivia.”
“Well then, you won’t be able to play both sides, will you.” Margaret flexed her injured hand and sharp claws extended from her hand.
“I’m not like you mother.”
“No. You aren’t, are you?” Grimacing, she inspected her shifted dragon limb, “Freya will be the judge of all this. Now my son, for once in your life you’ll do exactly what I tell you.”