Chapter 15
Daniel held her, not bothering to sleep. No way could he afford a repeat of last night. Even if he managed to forgive himself for trying to choke his mate to fucking death, the other dragons were too close. He’d be dead before he could pull himself back to reality.
She’d devastated him in the bathroom earlier. The way she’d opened herself up, giving her soul to him. Thanks to the mark that linked them, he could feel her falling in love with him. The woman was perfect, and he couldn’t compete with that. She wanted to believe in the good parts in him, so she did. It didn’t matter the bad in him outweighed the good. Not only had she forgiven him for everything he’d done, she was trying so damn hard to heal the wounds it had left in him.
Ryuu. How the hell was he not supposed to love a woman who could not only accept the darkest places inside of him, but fight so fucking hard to help him forgive himself?
As if aware of his troubled thoughts, Shelby shifted closer to him, stretching her perfect body out against his side. Her hair fell across his chest in soft waves, but it was the way her arm wrapped around him in sheer possession that scared him. What would he do if she fought him on breaking the bond?
Battling the contentment that begged him to sink into sleep with her, he closed his eyes, allowing himself to take in the feel of her, warm and trusting against him. He couldn’t let it last.
He knew it. He just had to get the strength up to set the wheels in motion to change it.
Finally, with a low growl, he sat up. The effort it took to get himself to his feet so he could leave her disgusted him. She was turning him soft, and in his world, soft meant weak. He needed distance from her, badly.
The other dragons had made themselves at home in the cave. Luca had replaced Bain on watch, so the young one was sprawled out on the couch. Dallas had made himself a pallet on the floor next to the cave entrance, while Broderick had settled his large frame in an easy chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him as the computer worked to analyze the data he still thought was out there.
It left nothing for Daniel to do, which annoyed the hell out of him.
“Aren’t you just a giant ray of sunshine this evening?” Dallas drawled from the floor.
“Blondie come to her senses and kick your ass out of bed?”
“Go to hell.”
Dallas snorted. “We both know I’ve been there for years, buddy.” The light-haired dragon scrubbed a hand over his face before he pushed himself into a sitting position, bracing his back against the cave wall as he studied Daniel. “Seriously, Ashborne. You look like shit. What the hell’s going on?”
“Nothing. I don’t know. Drop it.”
Dallas’ brow winged up. “So which one is it?”
“Fuck off.” Daniel stalked over to the cave entrance. “I’m going to go take over watch.”
Dallas studied him. “What do we tell Blondie if she wakes up?”
“Nothing.” He murmured the spell allowing him to walk through the boulder, only to stop short. His jaw was ticking violently as his brain formed the words he knew he should say, but they stuck in his throat and made him sick. He said them anyway. “Tell her what a bastard I am. Tell her how much better she can do without me. Scare the hell out of her if you have to--just convince her this is not the life she wants.”
“Whoa, Ashborne, what the hell?” Dallas shot to his feet, his hand clamping around Daniel’s arm. “What the fuck is going on? She’s your mate. We both know you’d never survive her walking away from you.”
Daniel’s pupils lengthened to slits. The roar that came out of him was all dragon. “It’s not about me, you asshole. It’s about what’s best for her. I am not it. So do what you have to fucking do, just get her out of here.”
Dallas went still as his eyes searched Daniel’s, before he let out a low whistle. He dropped his hand. “Dude, you have lost your fucking mind. You cannot give away a mate.”
“Look.” Daniel spun on his heel, backing Dallas into the wall as the temper and rage inside of him threatened to boil to the surface. “She’s my mate. I will do what I goddamn need to do to see she’s safe, even if it means cutting out my own goddamn heart in the process, you got it? So back. The. Fuck. Off.”
Dallas didn’t move at first, except for the tell-tale signs of his temper spiking his dragon’s. His pupils lengthened, fire flashing beyond the irises. After a moment, he finally blew out a breath. He raised his hands. “I’m on your side here, my Lord. Remember?”
Daniel’s lip lifted in a sneer as he took a step backward. “I don’t need anyone on my
side.”
“You do if you want to keep her safe.”
Daniel ignored him as he prowled, feeling like a hurt, caged animal. “How the hell is it, with all the technology we have access to here, we can’t find a fucking thing about who shot her?”
Dallas leaned against the cave wall, crossed his feet at the ankles and his arms over his chest. “Maybe we’re thinking too hard.” He pulled a knife from his shoulder holster, and idly flipped it between his fingers. “Maybe the answer is so simple we’re overlooking it.”
“I’m listening.”
Dallas bounced his shoulders in a frustrated shrug. “Forget the computer. Forget the miles of video. What do you know about her? Who would gain the most from her being shot?”
Daniel stopped pacing. He sighed as he scrubbed both hands over his face. “Damn it, I don’t know.” He let out a harsh laugh. “I know almost next to nothing about her, other than she’s an actress and there’s something about her I can’t seem to get out of my goddamn head.”
Dallas’ hand stilled. “Alright. I know her father abandoned her when she was young.” As , Dallas was smart enough to wince and hold both his hands up, palms out, the blade pointed downward. “She came to me earlier because she was sure she’d done something to mess you up, and she let slip something about the paparazzi finding her long-lost dad. I wasn’t comfortable having the conversation with her, so I cut it off.”
Daniel’s head started to hurt, a dull pounding he was sure would never go away as long as he was connected to Shelby. “Luca’s been digging into her past, but he hasn’t given me anything on it yet.” He started a slow prowl in front of the other dragon. “You saw the same thing on that footage as I did. Her whack-job sister had something to do with her shooting.”
Dallas was apparently smart enough not to ask how Daniel could have gotten himself mated to a woman he knew absolutely nothing about.
Daniel’s eye started to tick. “Ryuu. How didn’t I put this together before?” When Dallas only watched him, Daniel’s brow furrowed as he tried to think. “What if it’s connected with the
Hunter who tried to kill me last year?”
Dallas cocked his head, his voice even. “It could be, but you took care of him that night didn’t you?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t mean whoever sent him isn’t still out there somewhere.”
“What the hell?”
“It was just the feeling I got, like someone had sent him after me that night.” None of this was making sense. Hunters weren’t usually careless. “From what I’ve been able to drag out of Cage, they had a major rogue problem in the upper echelon of the Hunters last year. They took too many risks, drawing too much attention to themselves, and their research of who was guilty and deserved death was sloppy. If a dragon breathed, it died, even if humans were caught in the crossfire. It was why he battled for control after meeting Seren.”
Daniel could see Dallas filing the information away for later. He would have to keep an eye on him. Dallas went back to playing with his knife. “Were you followed that night?”
Daniel let out a frustrated scoff. “Hell no. Do you think I’d ever lead a Hunter or any other threat to Shelby?”
Dallas didn’t answer. He was already moving over to Broderick. “Dude. Wake up.” The second Broderick’s eye peeled open, Dallas turned back at Daniel. “What if the Hunter wasn’t after you, but her?”
“Why the hell would he be after her? She wasn’t my mate yet.”
Broderick’s gaze shot from one dragon to the other
,
before he shot up into a sitting position, his fingers already flying over the computer’s keyboard. “I’m on it.”
“Alright. What the fuck am I missing here?” Daniel snapped.
“Think about it,” Dallas snapped back. “There have been rumors for the last couple of years that the Hunters were nothing more than glorified, immortal hit men. It’s just as likely they were after her, as after you. Her sister was expecting that shot yesterday. , and the only other common denominator is Shelby. It wouldn’t be the first time someone hired a hit man to gain someone else’s fame.”
Dallas was right. This could be about her as easily as it was about him. Though his every instinct wanted to rebel at the thought, Dallas’ suggestion made more sense than anything else they’d come up with. He nodded once, carefully banking the fury building inside him until he had a better outlet. “All right, I’ll talk to her when she wakes up, see what I come up with.” He dragged a hand down his face, forcing off the fatigue before he gave into the urge to go back to bed, curl into her, and find oblivion. “I’m going to take over watch from Luca.” He glanced at the other dragons, a low, violent growl rumbling through him. “Anything happens to her while
I’m out, I will gut you all.”
* * * *
It didn’t surprise Shelby when she woke freezing and alone in bed. After experiencing the heat of Daniel’s body, she pretty much figured he was nowhere near if she was cold. What did surprise her, though, was how much she hated the feeling of not having him next to her.
She shoved her hair out of her eyes as she stared up at the cave ceiling. Other than the morning before, when she’d woken to find him trying to choke her to death, they’d never actually spent an entire night together. Why it hurt so much to find him gone again, she had no idea.
It was just going to have to change. She was so over the man running hot and cold on her. Maybe she’d messed up somehow in the bathroom yesterday, but she couldn’t fix it if he didn’t tell her what she’d done. Uncommunicative or not, the man was going to have to start talking to her if he wanted this lifetime mate-thing to work.
She sat up with a sigh, only to let out a terrified squeak when she saw four giant men forming a solid mountain of muscle and determination at the foot of the bed.
She offered them a hesitant smile. Deciding it was only natural to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of them, she scooted up on the bed. When her back hit the wall, she pulled her knees up to her chest. They were huge, intimidating, and since not one of them was smiling, she didn’t feel the least bit silly for being wary of them. “Um…hi?”
“What the hell is going on with Ashborne?” Bain demanded. As far as Shelby could tell, he was the youngest. His face still had a pretty-boy look. “He’s taking moody and pain-in-the-ass to a whole new level, even for him.”
“You’re his mate,” Broderick put in helpfully. “He chose you. So why isn’t he happier?”
Shelby blinked at them for a long moment as she tried to get her still-foggy brain to wake up and process what they were saying. They were worried about him. Not friends, her butt.
She scrambled off the bed. Starting with Luca on the end, she went up on her toes, giving each of them a hug. None of them squeezed her back, but she didn’t care. Daniel’s happiness and sanity mattered to them. That mattered to her.
After she hugged the last one, Dallas, she stepped back, and stood on the bed. Her arms crossed over her chest as she took in a bracing breath. “Alright. What’s going on?”
When none of them answered at first, Shelby worried they were going to close up on her.
Then Dallas cleared his throat. “He’s talking madness,” he said bluntly. “He wants us to
convince you you’re better off without him so you leave here for good.” Shelby’s legs wobbled.
“Nice, asshole,” Bain shot out, snarling at Dallas. “Way to ease her into it.”
Dallas rounded on him, his hands clenching into fists the approximate size of war hammers. “We don’t have time to coddle her. He’s our fucking king. Who the fucking hell knows what’s going on in his head. We can’t afford him going off the deep end now.”
“Hey.” Shelby cleared her throat when it came out in a choked rasp, and tried again. “It’s okay, Bain. Dallas is right. Sugar
coating this isn’t going to help Daniel.” She reached out, laying her hand on Bain’s shoulder, then turned her attention back to Dallas. “Why does he want me gone?”
“I don’t know. He seems to think you’re better off without him.”
“But that’s madness,” Broderick put in. “He doesn’t have a chance without you.”
Shelby shook her head, trying to get the confusion muddling her brain to settle into some kind of familiar pattern so she could understand what they were saying. “That doesn’t make sense. He’s been without me for almost a year.”
Luca cleared his throat, his voice quiet. “He was closer than you realized. Close enough to keep the full effects of breaking a bond at bay, but not close enough he wasn’t starting to fade out.”
Shelby’s chest hurt. “What do you mean, fade out?”
“As long as he knew where you were and could see you on a regular basis to assure himself you were alive, his body was tricked to believe it was still mated. By not reaffirming the bond, though, his body was giving up the will to live. He was angrier than even what’s normal for him, while taking stupid chances that could have gotten him killed.”
“But…” She lifted her fist to rub at the tightening ache in her chest. This was wrong. “He said he’d find a way to break the bond because he mated us without my permission.”
All three dragons turned toward Broderick, who cursed quietly. “If there’s a way to do it without killing you both, I’ve never heard of it.”
“I don’t think he cares if it kills him,” Dallas said, his gruff voice unusually quiet. “I think he’s hoping for it.”
“No.” Shelby pressed both palms to her eyes. “No, he is not allowed to do this.” She dropped her hands, pointing at all four dragons. “Do you understand? You will help me find a way to snap him out of this.”
She dragged in a steadying breath, because panicking or worrying wasn’t going to solve anything. “Alright, look. I’ve known him for all of three whole days. For Pete’s sake, I only found out yesterday he’s a dragon. That’s pretty much the definition of working blind, so I need help here. What do I do? How do I convince him he’s not to blame for any of this, and that he’s not allowed to hurt himself or break our mating?” When they just stared at her blankly, the blood drained out of her face. “Seriously? None of you have anything?” They shook their heads.
Overwhelmed, but refusing to let terror cloud her judgment, Shelby sank down onto the bed. This was so not good. It wasn’t acceptable. The man was about to learn just how goddamn stubborn she could be.