“Can you pass me the salt?”

Drake had been completely lost in thought and looked up at Willa, who was staring back at him expectantly. They’d gotten through the rest of their shopping excursion without incident, but there was no question they were both on edge the entire trip. By the time they’d gotten back to the keep, she seemed to relish the thought of being locked in her room, and he couldn’t wait to get a door between them.

Stressful or not, though, he’d done what he’d vowed to do and, judging by her reaction to it, she didn’t like it much at all. She’d been shocked as hell when he’d been the one to break their embrace again in the store.

But his triumph had been short-lived. What was meant to be a punishment—a reminder of why dragons were not to be trifled with—had wound up a far worse punishment for him. He was still aching with unquenched desire from head to toe. His cock throbbed in a state of perpetual need and he felt like he was going to climb out of his skin.

His thoughts drifted to the once-willing Raina, but he dismissed the thought instantly. Even if she could be convinced that Willa wouldn’t eviscerate her, he wouldn’t take her up on her offer.

As pathetic as it was, only his faithless wife would do. In spite of the betrayal and the hurt and the dishonor she’d brought to him, he was still strung up on her. This need pulsing through him like a second heartbeat wasn’t just about sex. It was about Willa and nothing else—not the pretty blond or a willing stranger or his own hand—was going to cut it. Despite what he’d told her, she was his mate. Now and forever. His dragon had chosen, and whether human Drake managed to convince him otherwise had no bearing on the beast. He was going to have to live with that regardless of what happened next.

But that was a problem for another day. Today, he needed to focus on preparing. Just the thought of working off some of this pent up energy and fury on Greyson West was enough to cheer him, if only for a moment.

“Drake? Salt?”

He blew out an exasperated sigh and pushed the shaker in her direction before forcing himself to eat his own dinner.

It was a silent affair that he would be glad to see end. The quicker he could get some time alone, maybe take a long, exhausting swim and climb into bed and meditate, the better. As soon as the meal was over, he’d lock up Willa right and tight and then they’d both be safe from whatever foolish new plot she was hatching.

Almost as if she’d read his mind, she set down her fork with a chink. “I’m pretty tired so I’d like to get to bed early. Before you chain me, I need to shower, though, okay?”

He nodded, but the piece of roasted chicken he’d been chewing stuck in his gullet. It wasn’t her words, so much. It was more the chirpy voice and the innocent smile that had his senses ramping up to high alert. Still, he couldn’t figure a logical reason to refuse her. He was going to lock the bedroom door behind her, and the room itself was an interior room, so it had no windows. Unless she planned to claw her way out through three feet of solid granite, there was no way out.

Even armed with that knowledge, though, he couldn’t shake his apprehension. “That’s fine,” he said with a reluctant nod.

“Great,” she beamed and then pushed her chair back to stand. “You done?”

He looked down at his half empty plate and nodded. While thoughts of revenge and mayhem had his blood pumping at points, he found the discord with Willa did little for his appetite.

“Yes.”

He pushed back his chair and stood, tossing his napkin on the table.

She led the way up the steps, seemingly without a care in the world, which only vexed him more. She was the one who was supposed to be miserable, not him. Keeping her here was meant to be a punishment.

So why was he the one who felt like he was tied to a whipping post?

“Thanks for taking me into town with you, I would’ve gone crazy cooped up all day,” she said, tossing a smile over her shoulder as she made her way down the hall toward her new room.

He grunted in response and stepped around her to shove the heavy oak door open.

“I’ll be back in half an hour after you’ve showered and dressed.”

Get in and get out, Blackbourne.

He moved to yank the door shut when she rested a hand over his.

“I forgot to tell you last night, something is wrong with the shower. The water was freezing.”

Suspicion snaked through him as he peered down into her wide eyes.

“So take a fast shower,” he responded sharply.

She gave him a pleading smile and tugged his hand from the knob. “Can I just use your shower? Or can you at least take a look? Please? It will only take a second.”

His sense of self-preservation was strong enough to make him hesitate, but he finally inclined his head and stepped back into the room. “I’ll take a look but I’m not going to make any promises, and if I can’t fix it, you can take one in another guest room tomorrow morning while I stand guard.”

If this was some ruse to get into an easier part of the keep to escape, he wasn’t biting.

“Sure thing,” she said, trailing behind him as he cut across the room to the bathroom.

He yanked aside the sliding glass door and reached an arm inside, turning the water on full blast. The icy spray hit his arm and he drew back in shock. Well, shit. His lying little wolf had actually told the truth for once.

“Told you,” she murmured from over his shoulder.

He turned off the water and then cranked the faucet all the way to cold. Instantly, steam began to rise as hot water pulsed from the shower-head.

“Looks like the hot and cold arrows are reversed, so just—” he broke off with a grunt as he turned to face her and found her standing before him, buck-naked. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m getting in the shower, what does it look like?”

“Cut the shit.” He tried to keep his voice level, but it wasn’t easy. Her full, round breasts and that narrow strip of honey-colored curls between her thighs made his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth and all the blood in his body drained south. Third time in less than twenty-four hours that he was juiced, straight to full-blown, clawing lust mode and would have to hobble away unsatisfied. “You’re toying with me, Willa. And I don’t like it.”

It occurred to him, somewhere in that tiny part of his brain that hadn’t gone offline yet, that keeping her here to teach her a lesson was turning into an exercise in masochism.

Who was he really punishing here?

“I’m not toying with you yet, but I could be if you’d come a little closer,” she whispered, sending the tip of her pink tongue out to swipe at her bottom lip in a move that made his cock ache.

This was where he was supposed to turn it around on her. To purposefully take her to the edge of desire and then leave her wanting. But looking at her now, all his well thought-out plans disintegrated. He couldn’t do it. It was an exercise in futility. That last ounce of willpower he’d reserved after their tangle earlier in town was being used up right this second as he harnessed it to keep himself from diving at her and taking her against the bathroom sink. If she touched him, he was doomed.

Maybe Willa was removed enough to separate herself and play him by using her sexuality. He was man enough to admit that he was no match for her in this and if he didn’t get away now, she would defeat him handily and gain the ultimate prize.

His surrender.

“Enough,” he growled as she reached for him, his throat so tight that his words sounded choked. “I don’t have time for your games.”

“It’s not a game to me, Drake. Doesn’t this feel real to you?”

She took his hand and laid it over her heart.

It did, for love of god, it did, and that made it all the worse. That was what got him into this in the first place. Believing a deceiver. Letting himself want something so bad that he couldn’t see it for the lie it was.

Looking at her now, he was an inch from doing it all over again.

“Drake?”

Suddenly, all the fury drained out of him, leaving him exhausted and mired in despair. He blew out a long breath and forced himself to open his eyes. She was still there, naked and so beautiful, it hurt.

“Just get in the shower, Willa.”

He turned and made for the door, silently willing her not to follow him. He needed a minute. Just one fucking minute away from her to get his shit back together again, because she’d definitely shook him this time.

She called to him again, but he didn’t respond, closing the door behind him and locking it.

How was it that he’d faced off against the world’s deadliest creatures in the past hundred years—from dragons over land disputes, to werebears over broken business agreements—and had come out on top, but against this little female, he was all but powerless?

He’d made it down the stairs and had one hand on the scotch when a pounding sounded at the massive great room door.

Greyson West?

Drake’s mind started to race as the ramifications of wasting his day ruminating over a woman became all too clear. Agonizing over Willa had cost him valuable prep time. If he was forced to fight now, he had no doubt he could still take the man, and ten more of his kind, if need be. But what if he’d brought an army?

Drake tapped out an impatient beat on the slick surface of the bar before heading toward the door.

Distracted or not, he prided himself on his ability to stay one step ahead of his opponents. He had expected it would take at least a day to assemble a posse and formulate a plan, and he was going to live or die by that estimation. If the wolf alpha was dumb enough to think he could take Drake alone or without some sort of strategy, then more the better.

He stepped up to the door, adrenaline pumping as he braced himself, sucking in a breath through his nose to scent his enemy. No wolves there, but what he did smell was no less surprising.

Son of a bitch.

He flung the door open wide to find Etienne leaning against one of the stone pillars, a sardonic grin wreathing his cursedly handsome face.

“What do you want?” Drake growled, keeping his guard up, ready for action in the event that Etienne had decided to do something truly reckless.

“And hello to you, old friend,” Etienne said with a wink. “Things are going well with you, then?”

Drake resisted the urge to knock that stupid smile off his face, but it was a close call.

“Things are fine, but if this is just a neighborly chat or you need to borrow a cup of sugar, can we do it another time? I’ve got some shit going on and—”

“Exactly why I’m here. I’d like to talk to you about that,” Etienne said, holding out a hand. “I give you my word, I come in peace.”

Drake looked down at the extended hand and then met the Frenchman’s gaze again before allowing himself to relax a little. Etienne was more enemy than friend sometimes, but like most dragons, his word was his bond. Drake shook hands with the man and gestured for him to come in.

“I heard about your troubles last night and wanted to come by and see if all was well,” Etienne said as he brushed past and into the great room.

“You heard from who?” Drake asked, thoughts churning. Had it really gotten out so quickly?

“One of my girls has a contact in the wolf-shifter community. Apparently, you stirred up some serious shit by taking that little wolf, my friend.”

“I didn’t take her, god dammit. She was given to me by her parents,” he ground out before moving toward the bar at the back of the room. “It was an arranged marriage, same as their kind has done for centuries,” he said, defending his position, more to assuage his own guilt than for Etienne’s sake.

“Well, that’s not what their alpha is saying. He’s calling it a kidnapping and has them all riled up about it. He’s gunning for you, and hard. He’s gathering an extraction team even as we speak.”

“Let him come,” Drake said, pouring them each a drink before gesturing for Etienne to sit.

“I don’t know if you’re in touch with the scope of this, Drake. There are a lot of them. Not just her pack. Other packs are getting involved. This could be trickier than you think.” Etienne took his snifter with a nod of thanks before pinning Drake with a questioning stare. “So I’ve got to ask…is she worth it?”

Drake tossed back two fingers of scotch and swiped the back of his hand over his mouth, relishing the slow burn in his belly.

“It’s not about her. It’s about solidifying my position and making sure they know—”

“Bullshit,” Etienne cut in, before pausing to take a sip of his preferred cognac. “She’s beautiful, I’ll give you that. And the fire in her eyes is enough to make any man want her, Drake. But, if you don’t care about her one way or another, I’m happy to take her—and this pesky lynch mob—off your hands if you like.”

It took everything he had not to bound across the room and pop the other man’s golden head off like a dandelion, and his hands shook with the effort.

“No, thanks,” he snapped.

“What is this game you’re playing, my friend?” Etienne asked softly, swirling his glass and holding the amber liquid high in the air to examine it by the light of the fire. “I can almost taste your bloodlust at the thought of me touching her, but you say you don’t care for her anymore. Help me understand.”

Drake thought about trying to keep up the ruse, but in the end, he couldn’t fight nature. And his nature was such that the thought of Etienne even fantasizing about Willa made him want to commit a murder.

“There should be no confusion on your part, Etienne. Suffice it to say that, care or not, she is now marked, and well and truly mine. What I told you the last time we spoke still holds true. If you touch her, you will wish you were dead. I don’t need to explain my reasons why.”

Etienne’s knowing smile irritated him, but Drake stayed silent to let his words sink in.

“Let’s say you could make good on the threat—and I’m not saying you can, naturally,” Etienne’s eyes fixed on Drake’s own, and there was no mistaking the challenge there, “but that means you still want her. And I know you too well to think you would rape her, so she came to you willingly. Which means she wants you. So I don’t understand why there is all this strife. Her people are coming here to ‘save’ her, but it seems clear that she doesn’t want to be saved, no?”

“No. She wants to leave.” He nearly choked on the words, hating to admit the truth, but needing to say it out loud, if only to remind himself of that fact and stop himself from getting sucked down the rabbit hole Etienne was digging.

“How do you know? The two times I’ve seen her she didn’t come across to me like a woman who makes a habit of doing things she doesn’t want to do,” Etienne said with a low chuckle.

“She already tried to escape.”

“Ah, yes. Sad day for me, no? I was this close and then you had to come along and pluck her back up again.” He shrugged, flashing another smile that made Drake want to knock it off his pretty-boy face. “But you brought her back here and she gave herself to you.”

“And then she tried to escape again. I don’t know what you heard, but the reason the wolves are coming for me is because she contacted a former packmate to come rescue her.” The admission only served to get his blood boiling again and he started to pace the stone floor in restless circles. “I caught them running down the god damned mountain together.”

Etienne cocked his head to the side, brows caving into a frown. “Ah. So you are angry. I understand that. But, a woman like that…a woman of worth? Not the same as my harem girls who have traded their mundane lives for leisure, wealth and good sex. This little wolf deserves love. Maybe if she knew—”

“Please,” he cut in with a snort. “What do you know about love?”

“I’m French. It’s a curse that I can never completely escape.” His lips twisted into a wry smile that hinted at a sadness Drake hadn’t even thought him capable of. How strange to know someone for nearly a century and not really know them at all. Maybe charming, happy-go-lucky Etienne wasn’t so happy after all.

“My advice to you, old friend? You think you want her this way, but you don’t. Let her go and make her own choices or you’re setting yourself up for a lifetime of pain and resentment between you. Let her go and avoid this fight.”

“Not going to happen,” Drake responded flatly before draining his glass and setting it on the table beside him.

“So what’s your plan, then?”

“I’m going to wait for that son of a bitch to come and try to take her from me. Then, I’m going to kill him and every wolf who has the misfortune of being in his company.”

Etienne’s eyes lit with interest and he flexed his muscles with a crooked grin. “Well, if I can’t be Cupid, maybe I can at least still sling some arrows. You know I love a good battle.”

Drake crossed his arms over his chest as he contemplated his long time frenemy. “You offering?”

The Frenchman shrugged. “Do I get to kick some wolf ass?”

“You do,” Drake answered emphatically.

“Then I’m in.”

Drake wanted to take that at face value, and, without knowing what kind of army Greyson West would be running with, he certainly wouldn’t mind a second, but he couldn’t help but ask. “Can I trust you in this, Etienne? From beginning to end?”

He’d made no secret that he was attracted to Willa, and Drake had to make sure this wasn’t a play to stage some sort of coup later down the line.

“I give you my word, Drake. In this, I’m on your side. You are one of only two dragons in the area and wolves number in the hundreds. If we don’t let them see us standing together under attack, who knows what they might do to make sure we don’t encroach on the territory or their women. As a collector of women—especially ones who can handle our…exuberance in bed—you can see why this might not sit well with me.” His golden eyes went fierce with pride. “They need to know who runs things, here and everywhere.”

Drake dipped his head in a curt nod of thanks. “In that case, I accept. Thank you.”

“Fair warning, though,” Etienne added, rising to stand. “In this, we are brothers. Once it’s over and we’ve solidified our dominance, it’s back to business as usual. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” Drake replied, satisfied with that. Anything else would’ve been all too strange. Dragons weren’t pack creatures and the friendships they forged were always like this. The males were far too territorial and protective to ever completely set aside the rivalry that was their nature. As twisted as it was, with all the bullshit in his life right now, it was nice to have one constant.

He followed Etienne to the door and took a quick glance at his watch. “If your sources are right, they’re still planning. We can expect that the attack won’t come tonight, but stay close to the mountain just in case. I’ll send up a flare if I need you.”

“Got it. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything else. And, as for you?” Etienne gave him a tense look. “If you were a smart man, you’d be upstairs taking advantage of the little time you have left with your Willa before you murder her brethren. Those memories will have to hold you over for a lifetime because she’ll never forgive you.”

With that, the other man broke into a loping jog before exploding into his dragon form and gliding off the side of the mountain with the grace of an eagle.

Drake watched until he was out of sight, pissed off and appreciative all at once. He was glad for the extra hands on deck, but he didn’t recall asking the bastard’s opinion on Willa.

Damned if he could shake it, though. For the next half hour, he set up the tripwires he’d bought around the perimeter of the keep to alert him of intruders, but Etienne’s words were never far from his mind. The Frenchman had it right. Whatever happened in the coming days, there was no happy ending for he and his unwilling bride. Her cavalry was coming and he would either kill them all and make her hate his guts for it, or the wolves would pull off the upset of the century and find a way to take him down.

In both cases, there was no Drake and Willa at the end of this.

If Etienne’s sources were right—and his instincts told him they were—tomorrow would be the perfect night. The weather called for fog and, with the new moon and the whipping winds, it would be as stealth of a mission as they could hope to pull off in light of their enemy.

Which meant this night would be his last alone with Willa. A Willa who might not like him, and who wanted to escape him, but who very definitely desired him.

He clenched his jaw hard as he recalled every inch of her, naked and willing. Just as quickly, his cock swelled and thickened and every cell in his body lit up like the night sky.

Fuck it.

Once more, then. Just one more time before she was lost to him forever.

He plowed through the front door and took the stairs two at a time, cursing himself for an idiot even as adrenaline coursed through him. He unlocked her bedroom door and threw it open, sending it squealing on its iron hinges before clattering against the wall hard enough to crack the stone behind it.

Willa clutched the bath towel she’d been drying her hair with in front of the bathroom mirror and jerked her head toward him with a yelp as she stared at him through wide eyes.

“All right, little wolf,” he muttered, stalking over to her, stripping off his t-shirt and pants as he went. His whole body shook with need. “You win.”