CHAPTER 15
MATHIS
Exhaustion seeped into Mathis’ bones, but he ignored it. Chloe had given the all-clear; it was time to put his plan into action.
He opened the window. It was configured to only open six inches before locking into place, but Mathis reached inside himself for his lion’s strength and snapped the window out of its frame. He grabbed it before it could fall to the ground outside, and placed it carefully against the wall.
Mathis and Chloe exchanged a glance. They’d discussed this earlier. No talking while they were outside. Shifter senses were too powerful to risk it.
He crouched on the windowsill for a moment, scanned the outside, and dropped, landing on soft grass with barely a sound. He inhaled slowly, filtering out the scents of the resort and, beyond, the hints of wilderness. So far as he could tell the grounds around the building were empty.
Mathis motioned at Chloe to come down. She sat on the sill for a moment, and then dropped to the ground.
She should be dropping into your arms, his lion complained.
No. He gritted his teeth. You can’t think like that. Not now. After tonight—No. Think about it later. Concentrate.
He led the way along the path, following the route Chloe had described to him. They had to make their way down along the side of the fighters’ quarters, and then turn off perilously close to the main tower. After that, there were thirty yards of open terrain, before they would reach the protection of a decorative stand of palms between them and the buildings.
And from there to the beach.
Simple. Except that Mathis was almost shaking from the effort of moving, and every sound in the darkness made his lion jerk inside him.
He was intensely aware of Chloe’s presence, just feet behind him. Her breathing. Her almost silent footsteps.
Mathis turned his face to the sky and caught a glimpse of the stars. Something twisted inside him. It was too easy to remember how Chloe had fallen into his arms the night before, the press of her lips against his, the thunder of her heartbeat matching his…
It was happening. He knew it would. The longer they spent together, the stronger the mate bond would become. Even if they barely touched, and half the words they exchanged were angry or resentful.
He waited for his heart to sink, but it didn’t.
Traitor, he muttered silently to his lion. It ignored him. He had a suspicion it knew his heart better than he did.
Chloe’s breath hissed sharply, and he paused. They were about to turn in front of the tower; he felt the air move as Chloe almost touched his arm, and pulled back at the last second. She pointed up.
There was no light coming from the tower, but there was movement behind one window. Mathis stepped back, grateful for the design of the grounds which meant the staff pathways were all but hidden from the guest areas. A moment later he realized his mistake.
Light poured out the window, spilling out across the path. Mathis’ stomach clenched. Hidden pathways or not, if he had been three feet further down the path, the light would have flooded across his head and shoulders.
Chloe touched his sleeve. Mathis stood like a statue as she crept past him, her feet silent on the sealed path. She kept close to the tower-side of the path, ducking down so she couldn’t be seen through the windswept topiaries.
She kept the lead as they crept past the tower and across the empty lawn. Mathis’ lion was almost crazy by the time they made it to the cover of the trees, but he couldn’t let it out. His lion’s scent was far stronger than his human smell. Someone out for a late night might smell two human-shaped shifters and think nothing of it, but if anyone sensed a lion in the grounds, the gig would be up.
They made it past the trees. They even got to the beach before everything went wrong.
The crunch of their footsteps on the pebbly sand was deafening compared to walking on the sealed paths and grass closer to the buildings. Mathis could just see the boat tied up to the jetty, looming like a white ghost in the darkness.
He motioned to Chloe, but she had already seen it. Her eyes caught the starlight as she glanced back at him. He could almost hear her question: Are you sure this is going to work?
Smiling, Mathis urged her forward, but he let the smile drop as soon as she looked away. He hoped it was going to work. And if he didn’t, he’d come up with another plan. He had no other choice.
The jetty creaked as he stepped onto it. A few steps took him out to the boat, sea spray dampening his legs. He helped Chloe onto deck and then slipped into the cockpit, heart hammering in his chest.
What he found there made his shoulders sag in relief. He’d remembered correctly. The boat might not have the key conveniently left in the dash—but it had the same basic construction as the boats he and his friends had taken joy-rides in as kids on summer holidays. And those boats hadn’t had keys, either.
He opened the control box and looked back over his shoulder, waiting for Chloe to cast off. She gave him the thumbs up and sat in the back of the cockpit.
Mathis took a deep breath. This is it. He glanced back at the beach one last time. It was abandoned. No one had followed them. Which was ideal, because once the roar of the boat’s engine cut through the air, they’d be lucky if the whole island didn’t wake up.
He turned back to the control box, ready to twist together the wires that would jump start the engine. The air behind him moved, and when he glanced back over his shoulder Chloe was gone.
He was on his feet before he realized he was moving. His chest clenched. *Chloe!*
There hadn’t been a splash. She couldn’t have fallen overboard. Mathis’ jaw tensed so hard his teeth hurt.
Did he dare call out?
He took a deep breath, sifting through the smell of the coast for Chloe’s scent. There was nothing. Nothing. It was as though she had never been there.
Wrongness jangled against his senses, and Mathis hissed out a sharp breath between his gritted teeth. Disappearing without a trace—no scent, no sound? There was one man on the island who fit that description.
“Rouse,” he growled, and the ocean rose up around the boat.
Mathis blinked. For a moment, it had looked like the waves were billowing over the edges of the boat, blotting out the horizon—but that couldn’t be right. Except now he couldn’t see the horizon, or anything else either, just darkness and the sense of wrongness pressing against his mind again, and somewhere in the shadows the sound of scales sliding against one another.
The hairs on the back of his neck rose.
Wind swirled around Mathis, as though the air was rushing in to fill a sudden vacuum, and then Chloe and Julian Rouse were standing on the jetty.
Chloe was red-faced and panting and Mathis leapt onto the jetty before he realized what he was doing. He clenched his fists and advanced on Julian.
“Let her go!”
Julian had one hand firmly around Chloe’s wrist. She twisted and stared at Mathis, eyes wide.
“He’s a fucking dragon!” she hissed.
Mathis shifted his weight, moving into a fighting stance. His side ached, but he ignored it, just as he ignored the shock rocketing through his mind. A dragon?
He shook his head. “I don’t care what you are, Rouse. Get your hands off my mate.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mr. Delacourt.” Julian’s always uptight voice was razor-sharp. “And I would recommend you take my other hand.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
A muscle twitched by Julian’s left eye. “I can keep anyone else on the island from noticing you’re out here, but only if you’re touching me.”
Mathis snorted. “You expect me to believe that? You might be a dragon, but everyone on this damned rock knows you’re Harper’s lap-dog.”
Julian’s nostrils flared. “If you don’t believe me, try to start the engine.”
Beside him, Chloe paled. “Shit.”
“Your mate has figured it out, Mr. Delacourt. Have you?”
Eyeing the dragon shifter warily, Mathis jumped down into the boat and twisted together the wires that should have jump-started the boat. Nothing happened.
“It’s a trap.” His heart sank.
“And remarkably effective, it seems.” He closed his eyes briefly. “Harper only sleeps for a few hours each night. If you go back to your quarters now, he’ll already be awake. He will know you tried to escape and believe me, you do not want to find out the punishment for trying to leave the island.”
“So help us.” Chloe turned toward him. “If you don’t want us to get caught, why not help us get away? You could fly us out, couldn’t you?”
Julian held out his hand to Mathis, appearing to ignore Chloe’s question. Mathis narrowed his eyes at him.
“You expect us to believe you’re honestly here to help us?” he growled. “How do we know you’re not going to march us in front of Harper and tell him you found us trying to escape?”
“Because I’ve seen what happens to people who try to escape,” Julian barked, his smooth façade finally breaking. “And—” His face twisted.
“Something Harper said,” Chloe whispered. “When he told us he was keeping me as a hostage for Mathis’ good behavior. He said you were a proof of concept…”
“And so I am.” Julian had his face back under control. “Now, please. Come with me so that Harper may continue to believe we are all on our best behavior.”
“But—”
Horror dawned on Chloe’s face the same moment Mathis’ gut twisted. Julian’s eyes flicked from one to the other.
“What is it?”
“We broke the window out of its frame.”
Julian’s face cleared. “Smash it in the morning, and make it look like it broke then. Harper is more forgiving of violent outbursts than premeditated disobedience.”
“I guess I don’t want to ask how you know that.” Mathis’ voice was harsh.
Julian raised one eyebrow. “No. You don’t.”
Mathis’ whole body hurt as he trudged back to the fighters’ block. He’d thought they were so close to freedom—but it had been a lie.
No wonder Harper’s security was so lax. He had a goddamn dragon guarding his prisoners. And if Julian was Harper’s ‘proof of concept’ for the bind he had Mathis and Chloe in—that must mean he had a hold of some sort on him. What the hell kind of leverage could anyone have over a dragon?
And how many people has Harper done this to before?
Bitterness rose in his throat. He’d been so certain this would work. Well, pride comes before a fall, and that’s where he was now. Fallen. Failed.
He’d failed his mate. And now they would both pay the price.
Mathis pulled away from Julian the moment they were back in the bedroom. He didn’t look at the dragon shifter as he left, the door clicking shut quietly behind him. And he couldn’t look at Chloe. She—
His lion tensed. He couldn’t sense Chloe. All the walk back, he’d been unable to ignore her angry, frightened presence only feet away from him, but now… nothing.
He spun around.
“God dammit!”
He blinked. Chloe was suddenly there, in the corner of his eye. He turned to face her like a man in the desert crawling towards an oasis.
She was hopping on one foot, wrestling her sneakers off and throwing them one by one at the opposite wall. Her face was white, with red spots of rage on her cheeks, and her eyes were shiny with tears.
Mathis’ lion yearned to be close to her, to comfort her, and Mathis was halfway across the room before he got control of himself.
She turned to face him, and he saw her lean forwards, almost giving in to the same pull he felt. He saw her pull herself back, and his heart wrenched.
“Shit,” she muttered, wiping the back of her hand over her nose. “I guess we still have to—ugh.”
She turned away, fists clenched, and kicked the closed door. A second later and she’d spun around again. Mathis could almost feel the rage boiling off her.
“So,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “Are you going to smash that window, or can I have a go at it first?”
Mathis sat down on the edge of the bed, facing her. His lion was snarling, telling him to take her in his arms—but he couldn’t. Not now.
Chloe’s next words knocked him out of his thoughts.
“I wasn’t going to tell anyone, you know,” she muttered. “Not about shifters. I only came here because I thought there was an illegal dog-fighting ring. That was the story I wanted to break. I wanted to stop animals from being hurt, not—not this.”
Mathis let out a hard breath. Inside him, his lion stalked back and forth, whipping its tail. I should have known she wouldn’t betray me. I should have trusted her.
What does it say about me that I believed Harper before even talking to her?
He stared at her, lion and man united in the desire to protect and comfort. But if the pain and fear on Chloe’s face was enough to make him want to hold her, it also made him stay back.
She didn’t ask for any of this.
Mathis’ throat was dry, and his head was spinning from exhaustion and defeat. He shook himself, forcing his thoughts into line.
Chloe was his mate. If he had any purpose in life, it was to protect her. And that meant more than just getting her out of here.
She’d said it herself. She had thought the shifter world would be magical—but instead, for her, it was a nightmare. His world made her afraid.
So he had to do more than get her off the island. He could never force his mate to live in a world that frightened her; he had to let her go entirely.
“I believe you,” he said, his voice gravely. “Harper’s a monster, and I won’t let him get away with this. But if we’re going to make it out of here, we need some ground rules.”
Chloe looked up at him, her dark eyes wary. Cold blossomed inside Mathis at the thought of what he was about to say, but he steeled himself.
“Like I said earlier. No touching. I can look after my own injuries, and I’ll sleep in the chair. If I need help getting back here, one of the others can give me their shoulder to lean on. And after we’re free…” He took a deep breath, and Chloe’s gaze became sharper. “We’ll go our separate ways. I promise.”
Chloe’s face went tight, and something flashed behind her eyes, too fast for Mathis to identify it. Pain? Sorrow?
He shook his head. You’re imagining things. Making it up because that’s what you want to see.
Chloe let out her breath in a ragged sigh. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Mathis lied, and closed his eyes.
It was the right thing to do, he knew. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
By the time the sun rose the window was in pieces on the ground outside, only feet from where they’d jumped out hours before. Chloe was sitting in the armchair, glaring into space. She’d barely spoken while they broke the window, and now silence surrounded her like a wall.
Mathis had tried to tell her that they would find another way out of here, but his words sounded hollow even to himself. And the brighter the world outside got, the darker his thoughts became. Dread filled his stomach at the thought of what the next day would bring.
If Harper could control a dragon, what else could he do?
Mathis remembered the blank terror of the ibex shifter’s mind. Harper must have had some hold over her once, and forced her to fight. Her obedience hadn’t saved her sanity.
How many more fights could Mathis survive before he lost hold of who he was, too?