The next day, Lindy woke to an empty bed.

She sat up, looking around, feeling an odd soreness in her body, and then it all came back to her.

The hottest sexual moment of her life. The true rightness of Magnus being inside her.

Then the way he’d acted when he’d woken up from a nightmare.

She put a hand over her face and groaned, wishing she’d handled it all differently.

But she’d been so open with him about what bothered her that it was hard to see him clearly panicked over something and just locking it away, insisting the answer to all his problems was mating her.

She was going at her own pace with this, trying to keep up with him. But he was still claiming to be a dragon from another time and place, and she was still a mechanic who was grieving her father and had been alone far too long.

They were from different worlds, and it took time to bring worlds together.

She got up, pulling on a night shirt and robe, and walked out of her room and down the hallway, creeping toward the kitchen.

She could see his large figure perched on a stool, wearing a tee shirt and new pair of jeans.

“Do you want to talk about last night?” she asked.

He shook his head, a forced smile on his handsome face. His dark-red hair was neatly groomed, implying he’d been up long enough to already take a shower and get ready for the day.

His green eyes were focused on his mug, and he didn’t look up at her until she walked all the way around the counter to stand in front of him.

“Look, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m trying, Magnus. But if you want me to trust you, you’ve got to trust me.”

“Why should I?” he asked. “I’ve had to fight you every step of the way to get close to you. And you still won’t give me what I want.”

“You’re acting like a little kid right now,” she said, and he lowered his eyes again, frowning.

“I think you’re the little kid,” he said. “You have a good thing waiting right in front of you, but you’re so busy being afraid that you won’t prevent a huge wave from crushing it.”

“What?” she asked, genuinely confused. “A wave? Crushing? What are you talking about?”

“My crew,” he said dully. “I sank them.”

“What do you mean you sank them?”

“I guess there’s no harm in telling you now, no matter what you think of me. I built the ship we sank in. It was supposed to take us to find our mates. Instead, we ended up at the bottom of the sea.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” she said patiently. “How can you think it was?”

He slammed his palms down on the counter. “Of course it was! I built it! It should have been unsinkable! I’m a fucking dragon. Hell, how do my friends even look at me, knowing my failure?”

“Is that what you dream about?” she asked, sliding a hand over his, an uncomfortable feeling moving through her. It was warm and familiar and painful, and she was very much afraid it might be love.

He nodded. “I see the wave over and over. I feel the choking saltwater, the crushing darkness, my friends sinking in shadows away from me. Knowing it’s all my fault.”

She just listened, heart aching for him. He’d always been so happy-go-lucky, so willing to hide things while trying to help her move on, that she hadn’t realized how big of a weight he was dragging.

“That’s why I was driving that night when I found you. I wake up at night; it’s all I can think about. When I found you, something changed. You saved me. When I look into your eyes, it’s peaceful. I finally feel deserving, like I have a purpose. Like if I work hard enough, I can earn your love for me.”

She blinked. “Magnus, you can’t earn love.”

Slight panic lit his eyes. “I know. But I want to.”

She opened her mouth to tell him she already loved him. She wanted to. She appreciated what he’d said. But the thought of him sinking in those waters, almost dying, set off something inside her.

She stepped back from the counter as she felt a rapid increase in her breathing that made her feel she was falling quickly. Her father’s face, eyes closed, lightly breathing.

Then not breathing.

Being totally alone.

If she loved Magnus and something happened to him…

“What is it?” he asked, standing up and coming around the bar. “Wait, Lindy…”

She just put up a hand. “I can’t. Not right now.”

He took a deep breath and let it out. “I understand.” He looked oddly resigned, and she wanted to comfort him, but she couldn’t. Not when she was coming to grips with the fact that she loved him and the crushing consequences that extended from love.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s not you,” she said.

But it was him. It was how wonderful he was. How he stood up for her, rescued her, encouraged her to live. How beautiful he was, inside and out. His gentle patience with her that had brought her to the moon and back.

How funny that the thing that truly brought out her love for him, made her realize how deeply she cared for him, was hearing what frightened him most. It was the last piece of a puzzle that made her see there was no escape.

This man was in front of her, and she loved him.

And because of it, she could get destroyed all over again.

She took another step back, away from him. He looked about to follow, but then her phone beeped, signaling a text.

She pulled it out of her pocket.

Mike: There’s a huge parts delivery here. You need to sign for it.

“There’s a delivery,” she said. “I’ve gotta go.”

“Not without me,” he said, following her to the bedroom as she quickly got changed and swept her hair into a ponytail.

“Magnus, please. I just need a break right now. I’m going to sign for the package and be right back.”

“You won’t let me come.”

She shook her head. It felt as if her heart would explode if she didn’t get away from him. Just for a moment. “I’ll be back.”

“You hurry, or I’ll come after you.”

She nodded. He was back in protective mode, focused and intent. But she couldn’t forget the Magnus from a moment before and how she felt about him.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, holding her keys and looking into his eyes. “I promise.”

Then she turned and ran for her driveway.

* * *

Magnus couldn’t help pacing as he waited for Lindy to return from receiving the delivery. He’d give her two more minutes. Then he was going after her, no matter how much she seemed to want to run away from him.

He could still remember her face, terrified, backing away from him.

Disgusted? Maybe. That was how he felt about himself.

He stamped a foot as he waited behind her counter. Why was it taking so long?

He looked over at Perky, who was resting in her bed and watching him nervously.

“Should I go get her?” he asked, knowing the dog wouldn’t answer. But he’d come to love the little animal, and he definitely loved her owner, and he couldn’t imagine life without them.

He decided he couldn’t wait any longer and got in his car and drove to the garage, cursing himself for not insisting on going with her the whole way.

When he got out at the garage, he saw her car parked out in front, but no Lindy in or around it.

Hadn’t she said she was just going to sign something and come home? He hopped out of his car and jogged to the front door, relieved by the hope that maybe she’d just gotten caught up in something at work and stayed with Mike.

She should have called him, but…

As he entered the garage, he saw her phone on a nearby counter and no Mike. He took a few more steps in, scenting something odd and unfamiliar, and his eyes narrowed to slits.

There was a pair of legs sticking out from behind one of the cars he and Mike had been working on, and Magnus’s heart hardened to iron as he rushed forward and knelt beside his fallen co-worker.

He lifted Mike’s head and checked for a pulse, then sighed in relief when he found one.

Mike groggily opened his eyes and ran a hand over a bump on his head. “I’m fine. We gotta find Lindy.”

“What happened?” Magnus asked.

“They ambushed us. One second they were waiting for us to sign for the order, and then when Lindy came in…” He squinted. “Dammit, I should have seen it coming.”

“It’s not your fault,” Magnus said. It was his, for letting her come here, even for a moment, without him. When he knew as mates they should always be together.

He was never going to leave her side again, no matter what she said about it. No matter how she felt about his failure the night the storm had sunk his boat.

He ran to Lindy’s phone, looking for clues. It dinged and lit up as he got there, and he grabbed it, glad it wasn’t locked.

Come to the junkyard at Riverstone and Dyson. That is if you want to see Lindy again.

An icy chill shot through Magnus like a blizzard. He hadn’t felt this cold, this panicked, since the night he’d almost died.

But he wasn’t helpless this time. No wave, no matter how big or crushing, was going to take his mate from him.

A second set of dings went off, and he looked at the phone again.

Come alone, or your mate is done for.

The word mate struck him instantly. Whoever this was, they knew he was a shifter. They knew about mating. Shit. That meant it couldn’t be Roscoe. Shit. Who was it?

Still, Magnus didn’t care what he was headed into. When it came to his mate, he’d face hell itself for a chance with her. He ran to his car, jumping in and making the engine roar to life as he floored the gas and sped off toward the location he’d mapped on his own phone while running.

It wasn’t that far, and he could get there in half the time if he was reckless. Which, right now, he was.

As he palmed the wheel, taking a turn at breakneck speed, he called out to Titus in his mind, apprising him of the situation.

Titus, it’s Lindy. They have her.

Who has her? he responded.

I don’t know. I’m headed there now. Can you get Citrine? I asked him for some info on some guys at Roscoe’s shop, but whoever took Lindy knows I’m a shifter. They know she’s my mate.

Shit, Titus responded. One second. I’ll get Citrine.

A stop sign was up ahead. Magnus looked both ways and ran it completely, not even slowing. His mate was in danger. Human road laws were less important right now.

Citrine says he did some digging. It seems the head of the operation, Roscoe, is a smalltime drug dealer that operated out of this suburb’s largest auto dealership and scrapyard.

The one on Riverstone?

Exactly.

Is he a shifter? Does he know about them?

Let me ask, Titus said, going quiet.

There was silence for a few tense seconds, and the pervasiveness of it was frustrating as Magnus ran through a yellow light with abandon.

I spoke with Citrine. He doesn’t think it’s likely that Roscoe would have any knowledge about us.

He said he has my mate, dammit. What’s going on? Magnus demanded.

Citrine just says be careful if you’re going there now, which I can only assume you are because I’d be doing the same. We’ll be right behind you.

Keep your distance for now. He says I need to come alone.

There was a prolonged pause. Then Titus spoke. All right, brother. Be safe. Go get your mate. We will stay where they can’t hear us until you call us in.

Then there was silence in his mind, just as his phone chimed that he was nearing the destination.

Magnus screeched to a halt as he stopped in front of the place, kicking up dust and smoke as he did. In front of him was a large, almost warehouse-sized building, with rows of auto repair bays off to one side and a sprawling, fenced-off junkyard on the other that appeared to stretch out far behind the property. Behind the fence, piles of cars and scrap metal were heaped in rows, adding to the forlorn, dilapidated look of the place.

The gray sky overhead didn’t help.

Magnus hopped out and ran for the front door, made of reinforced glass and hanging slightly open, as if inviting him in. To the right, he noted what appeared like a normal delivery truck with several letters on its side.

As he stepped inside, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. The lights were off, leaving the hallway he’d entered full of shadows. It was only then that he realized he was standing in stark silence. No sounds of car repair or pneumatic tools. No men talking. No keyboards clicking.

Everything was oddly, alarmingly still.

Regardless, Magnus could vaguely scent that Lindy had been through here not too long ago. Wherever she was, she was nearby, and rage bubbled beneath his skin, the dragon inside him roaring for vengeance and to find its mate posthaste.

Following the scent, he ran down the hallway, glancing through glass doors that led into offices and workplaces but ignoring them as he went to the very end of the corridor. At the end, there was a door with the name “Roscoe” on it, hanging slightly ajar. Just seeing the name now made him livid, and without caring what was behind it, he pulled the door entirely off its hinges, throwing it into the hall as he stepped into the room.

Inside was a large desk with a leather office chair behind it. The room itself was in poor repair, with cracks in the tiles on the floor and chipped paint that revealed broken drywall around and above him.

There was a man in the chair, fingers crossed in front of him. He had pale skin with ruddy cheeks, short brown hair, and a well-trimmed beard, which didn’t obscure the smuggest smile Magnus had ever seen.

Magnus was going to fucking kill him.

“Where is she?” he roared, only one thing on his mind.

“She’s safe. For now at least,” the man, who Magnus could only assume was Roscoe, said, unfazed by the enraged dragon.

Magnus wanted to rush forward and pluck the smug bastard out of his chair, but he needed to know where Lindy was first.

“What do you want? Tell me where she is, and I won’t disembowel you,” Magnus growled.

Roscoe just sat there. Magnus thought he could hear a quiet laugh, and the almost-noiseless sound in eerie silence was pissing him off. And giving him the creeps.

He couldn’t take it anymore and ran at Roscoe, plucking the bastard out of his chair and shaking him furiously.

“Fine, I’ll just squeeze it out of you, then,” Magnus snarled.

But as soon as he’d said it, Roscoe melted out of his hands like water, changing from solid human flesh in a liquid, silver-colored metal. Magnus stepped back in shock as the substance disappeared into the ground completely, leaving him alone.

A second later, he heard a laugh and whirled around to see Roscoe again, leaning on the wall, arms crossed, seemingly amused by what was going on.

In frustration, Magnus rushed at Roscoe again, picking him up and slamming him into the wall. But just as soon as he’d grabbed the man by his collar, he dissolved into the silvery substance and disappeared even more swiftly into nothingness.

What the hell kind of sorcery was this?

“Where’s my fucking mate? I know she’s here. Stop playing games with me, whoever… whatever you are!” Magnus yelled, furious and annoyed and desperate to find his mate.

This time, Magnus saw the silver liquid seeping through the wall in front of him, shaping into a large man before his very eyes. Only this time, it wasn’t Roscoe. He was tall, almost as tall as Magnus and his brothers, as well as muscled. His skin was pale, almost translucent, and he had long, grayish-silver hair that was swept to one side, almost covering his right eye.

His eyes glittered in dark silver, just the substance he’d reformed from, and his perfect white teeth were bared in a sinister grin. His robe was shimmering silver, lightly draped and tied with a belt, only adding to his unearthly appearance.

What. The. Hell?

“It’s so hilarious watching you get so worked up over something as inane as a fragile human,” the man before him spoke, his voice amused and menacing. “You’re all so gullible. So easily manipulated that way.”

“Who are you?” Magnus asked, wanting to pummel whoever this was into the ground.

“Don’t you know me? I’m one of your kind.”

“One of my kind? I don’t think so. My crew doesn’t kidnap innocents for fun.”

“Innocent,” Mercury said. “What a joke, thinking any of you is innocent. But I am indeed one of you. A dragon. Mercury is what I think humans would call it.”

“Poison,” Magnus snapped, scowling.

“Ah, still prejudiced,” Mercury said. “Regardless, I’d be careful. I’m the one with power now.”

“What do you want?” Magnus grated out.

Mercury clicked his tongue, watching with almond-shaped eyes beneath dark, furrowed eyebrows. “Such a dimwitted dragon to think I would reveal that. For now, let’s just say you and your so-called ‘brothers’ represent everything I hate about dragons and their kind. And you’re going to be the first to go.”

Like hell.

“I’m only going to ask one more time. Where. Is. Lindy?” Magnus said, fury growing stronger with each passing second.

“Well, since you asked…” Mercury said with a shrug, reaching his hand to the side and pulling the blinds of the darkened office open.

Light poured in, blinding Magnus for a second. But when his vision cleared, he saw outside into the center of the junkyard out back. A large crane was parked in the center of it, and lifted high above the ground was an old, beat-up car, perched precariously at least thirty feet above the ground.

Inside it was Lindy, pressed against the window, hands tied, mouth gagged.

Oh, this fucker was so dead.