The video footage of Vyr discovering the death of his dragon broke Riyah’s heart. She couldn’t even help her tears as she watched him stare at his reflection in The Dungeon. He screamed the most raw, heart wrenching sound she’d ever heard, and then he blasted his fist against the glass. He looked disgusted, then ripped his gaze away from the broken glass and slid his back down the wall. For the rest of her life she would never forget the agonized look on his face. She didn’t want to see it, but Emmitt was showing all the lower level teams how the cameras shorted out suddenly.

There was a three-man technical team involved, but so far, no one could figure out what was happening with the glitches in the lighting and cameras. Unfortunately, Emmitt kept playing the footage of Vyr breaking over and over and over again until it glitched, but by this point, Riyah couldn’t watch it anymore. The lights flickered, and the television blacked out, and this time it wasn’t Vyr’s power that was the problem. It was hers.

Shit. She had to settle down.

“Seriously?” Emmitt yelled. “We can’t even have a technical meeting without technical difficulties? I want this figured out! Now!”

Over a dozen people went scurrying for the door. Riyah was standing against the back wall, her arms crossed over her chest as people rushed past her. All were leaving but Emmitt and Hank Butte, who was sitting at a table near her, leaned back in the chair, staring at her with a feral, empty smile.

“Glitch, glitch, witch, witch,” he murmured softly. Emmitt didn’t seem to hear it from where he was trying to get the television working again.

“There was something going on with the ceiling right before it cuts,” Emmitt muttered.

But Riyah couldn’t take her eyes off Butte’s blazing ice-blue gaze. He wasn’t even trying to hide the shifter in him.

He had her card punched, so she felt zero percent rude asking, “What are you?”

“I knew of a witch once. A kid. She took everything from me. I suppose I should thank her, though. She made me what I am.” Butte stood and strode with inhuman grace to the door. And just as he passed her, he locked her in a hate-filled gaze. “Polar bear. Not many of us left thanks to you, bitch. Bitch, bitch…witch, witch.” He curled his lips back for a moment, exposing sharp canine teeth, and then he left Riyah there, feeling like she was right back in the woods with her mom all those years ago.

She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs burned for air, but she couldn’t drag any in. She stood there frozen. The lights buzzed and dimmed to nothing, recovered and dimmed again. One of the fluorescent bulbs popped, and glass rained down on the tables below. Before Emmitt could turn around, she bolted from the room.

Butte was gone, and she was alone in the hallway. She needed to kickstart the plans. There were a lot of moving parts, and Butte was going to be a problem. Fuck another six months for Vyr. For Torren and Nox, too. She needed the crew extracted as soon as possible, but they couldn’t just do a jailbreak. Things had to happen so Vyr could really be free, not spend his life on the run. Butte threw a huge wrench in things though, and now Riyah’s time in this prison was limited. Butte could out her at any time.

She bustled to her office, but when she got there, her door was open a crack. Furious, she threw it open to find Butte with his arms locked on the desk, staring at her tablet.

“You sure have your security settings up high on this,” he murmured remorselessly.

“Yeah, so dickholes like you can’t log in and see my online shopping bills,” she said coolly. “Now get the fuck out of my office before you end up like your crew.”

Fury flashed in his glowing blue eyes as he pushed off the table. He picked up the tablet and chucked it against the wall so fast, he blurred. The tablet shattered into a hundred pieces. He rushed her, but before he got to her, she lifted her hand, palm facing him, and froze him in his tracks. And as he stood there, helpless and with a rage written onto every facet of his face, she told him how it really was. “Your crew killed my dad when he came to ask them to leave us alone. They just…mauled him. The police found him in pieces. And then your crew came after me and my mom, and I lost her, too. We’re fuckin’ even, you self-righteous asshole. And if you ever come at me again like you just did? You will be ash and dust.” She twitched her fingers, and he flew out her door and slammed into the wall on the other side of the hallway so hard the wall caved inward around his body. With the flick of her fingers, she slammed her door, locked it, and closed the blinds. She didn’t give a single fuck what his reaction was to her. He could throw his tantrum elsewhere. Right now, she had a call to make.

Hands shaking, heart fluttering, chest heaving, she pulled the new burner phone out of her purse and dialed Clara’s number. It was Damon who picked up, though. “What’s happened?”

“Our timeline just changed. Beck Anderson of the Boarlanders. Can we trust her to get things rolling?”

“She’s the best at shifter relations. She’s got teams across the country waiting for the word from us, and Cora Keller of the Breck Crew is a well-known news anchor who can have any video footage you collect edited within hours. She can get us in front of a big audience. We will go to war publicly with the New IESA and what has been done to Vyr the second you say ‘go.’ We’re all here. The Ashe Crew, the Gray Backs, the Boarlanders, the Lowlanders, the Breck Crew, the Bloodrunners, the Blackwings, Red Havoc, all of them, watching you. Waiting on you.”

“I will testify to everything. I’ll expose exactly what they are doing here, and I’ll get footage today, but everything needs to happen now.”

“Right now?”

“Right fuckin’ now, Damon. Your son lost the dragon. He lost it, and he’s trying to stay strong for me, but I saw the footage of his face when he found out the dragon was dead. He won’t be okay in here much longer, and I can’t watch this anymore. I…”

“Say it.”

“I love your son. I’ve been watching them break him, but it stops now.”

“Okay. Okay,” he repeated. “Riyah, you have to stay safe while we’re handling things on the outside. It’s about to get real tense in there, and you are a new hire. They’re going to be looking for a mole, and they’re going to look right at you first. If we lose you, we have no platform to call the shifters to arms. Do you understand?”

“Yes. You need me to testify. You need me to get good footage of what’s happening in here. Need me to expose everything from a firsthand account. Get Vyr, Nox, and Torren out of this place free and clear. And to do that, I have to be okay.”

“Yes. And also…”

“Also what?”

“My son…you love him. You’re trying to help him…and because of that, you’re very important to me. You have the fealty of the Blue Dragon. I know what happened to your family. I’ve known about it for a long time, and I can guess how you must feel. You aren’t alone in there, though. You have Vyr, you have the Sons of Beasts, but you also have all of us. Riyah, you have the biggest crews in the world at your back. We’re ready. You are commander on this. Even if your man is down right now, you have dragon’s fire at your disposal. Me, Dark Kane, Roe, Harper, Diem…we’ll blow that place out of the water if harm comes to any of you. Use us the second you need us. I’ll call Beck and Cora right now. Turn on the news tonight and see what you set into motion. We’re going to get you all out of there. We just need time, and until we can, you have to keep the Sons of Beasts safe.” His voice dipped to a whisper. “Keep my boy safe.” And then the line went dead.

The lights buzzed and dimmed to nothing, and Riyah had to close her eyes and focus to stop the power from streaming out of her. Something was happening. She was getting stronger. Maybe it was being threatened by a polar bear shifter again, but she suspected it had more to do with Vyr. Was she leaching power from him like she’d done to her mom? Or was he giving it to her?

Eyes still closed, she concentrated and let the wall down, let Vyr into her mind. “I’m not even using spells to give me more power, and I’m getting stronger,” she whispered.

“Good,” Vyr said. “You’re strong enough to control it, you know? I can see you are. They’re bringing me up from The Dungeon. Can I see you?”

And just like that, all the stress of the meeting, Butte, the phone call, and the pressure of everything lifted. Vyr had that uncanny ability to make things seem doable, even when they felt impossible.

“Last night when we talked, when we were…together…you seemed okay.”

“You saw video?”

“Yes. You broke the window when you saw your reflection.”

“I want to protect you from that stuff.”

“I think…” She looked down at the broken heart doodle she’d drawn the other day. At the bubble letters that spelled I love you. “I think it’s time to stop protecting each other from the real stuff and lean on each other instead. Let me shoulder it with you. I’m tough.”

“And getting tougher. I can feel it. Beautiful Badass Princess.”

Pain blasted through her head and landed behind her eyes.

“Butte?” Vyr growled. “Butte tried to hurt you?”

“Heeey, don’t steal memories. That’s against the rules.”

“How would you like me to kill him?”

“If it comes down to that…with fire.”

“Riyah,” Vyr warned. “I don’t have that anymore, and I don’t want to keep talking about it. That won’t help me. It’ll keep me on my knees.”

“Here is a memory for you,” she murmured, recalling the phone call with Damon. “Your dad didn’t put you in here without a plan.” She winced as stinging pain rippled through her head. Vyr was quiet. Too quiet. “Are you okay?”

“I feel betrayed. I’m quiet about it, but my dad…my own father…helped put me here. I’ve been down here for six months thinking he didn’t care. Been down here for six months going through hell, hurting every day, thinking I’m expendable to the man I want to be proud of me the most. And he tells you right away about his plans, but gives me no explanation. You want real? No. I’m not okay.”

“I’ll be here when they bring you up from The Dungeon. I’ll be here always, okay?”

But the headache was gone, and so was Vyr.

Crap. She dug around her purse for the tiny plastic baggie Nevada and Candace had given her this morning and pulled out a tiny video camera. It was disguised as a gold star sticker, so she stuck it on the back of her clipboard and pressed it once. There was a soft beep that told her it was on, and then nothing. It just looked like she’d decorated her clipboard, and now she had twenty-four hours of memory on this little camera to gather footage against this prison and against the New IESA. Riyah rushed to put the burner phone in her purse, locked it in the bottom drawer of her desk, locked her office, then speed-walked toward the elevators that would take her down to the lower levels. In a daze, she swiped her security card at each reader and moved deeper and deeper toward the lair.

She was still walking in that daze when someone knocked insanely loud on one of the windows of the cells. Riyah was shocked to see Nox Fuller and Torren Taylor in one of the all-white rooms. Nox was plastered against the window with the biggest grin on his face, and Torren was lying in the middle of the floor, all spread out, looking like a giant starfish. The dark-haired man was massive. And so was Nox, who was knocking again. He made a series of hand gestures, but Riyah couldn’t understand sign language. “I don’t know sign language,” she said loud enough for him to hear through the glass.

“He doesn’t know sign language either,” Torren said from the floor. “He just likes to annoy everyone and pretend he does.”

She studied the picture of the smeared red penis someone had drawn on the back wall. “Is that…is that drawn in blood?”

“It’s not weird,” Nox said through the glass. “Torren and I got in a fight, and I had extra blood. This room is fuckin’ boring. All white? Whoever the decorator of this place is, I want their name and number. I have formal complaints.”

Riyah huffed a laugh—the first one today.

“You’re Riyah, right?” Nox asked.

The behemoth on the floor rolled his head toward her and narrowed his eyes, then stood smoothly and came to stand beside Nox.

“I am. I can schedule a counseling session with you if you feel like you need to talk,” she said smoothly, in case the camera up in the corner could pick up audio.

“Oh, I feel super feely,” Nox assured her. “I probably need, like, thirty years of counseling. Can you pencil me in? Torren, too? He’s super-violent right now and needs to talk about his feelings also.”

“Yep,” Torren said blandly. “I have lots of feelings.”

With a sympathetic nod, she said, “I completely understand. It’s a big adjustment coming into shifter prison. How did you two end up in the lower levels?”

Nox grinned. “Fighting.”

“Each other?” she asked.

“Fighting everyone. This is like time-out for the super baddies, huh. They gave us lunch, and I was excited because I thought it was mashed potatoes, but nope. It was gruel. I mean it tasted fuckin’ delicious, but it was definitely not mashed potatoes. Can you put in a request for steak? I like mine rare. Like…just walk the cow by the fire. And we need some veggies so we don’t get scurvy.”

“Scurvy. Like what pirates used to get when they didn’t have enough vegetables on long trips…stealing…”

“Say booty,” Nox said through a grin.

Riyah sighed and repeated, “Booty.”

“Yep! Have you talked to the girls?”

“Shhh.” She shushed him low through clenched teeth as she gave a quick glance up at the camera.

“Oh, that camera has no audio. We got put in this cell on purpose.”

“On…purpose.” What the heck? “You know how to work the system in here?”

“Hell, yeah. When you request the steak, can you ask Euless about it in the cafeteria? He’s one of ours. He won’t spit in it.”

“Oh.” She blinked slowly. “Sure.”

“Thanks, Ri-Ri,” Nox said.

Torren rolled his eyes and muttered an apology for Nox.

“I’m going to see your alpha.”

Torren perked up and pressed his hands on the glass. “How is he?”

“Dude, I already told you he’s fine,” Nox said. To Riyah though, Nox shook his head slightly and gave her a warning look with his eyes.

“He’s doing okay, considering,” she said. It wasn’t a lie. She knew better than to try those with shifters.

“Considering what?” Torren asked, straightening his spine.

Nox was standing there with his eyes gone round, lips pursed, and shaking his head jerkily. So she shouldn’t tell Torren that Vyr lost the dragon?

“I’ll ask about the steak. See you soon,” she blurted out and walked away without looking back.

On one of their late-night talks, Vyr had spoken of Torren like he was a flesh-and-blood brother, and if Nox didn’t want Torren to know how bad it was for Vyr, she needed to listen. She’d done her research on Vyr’s crew before she accepted this job, just to see what she was in for. And to get a better feel for Vyr. The people an alpha gathered under him said a lot about the kind of person they were. Vyr had gathered some very loyal friends. And Torren had pledged himself to protecting the Red Dragon from age seven. If he was having a violence problem in here, she didn’t need to set him off with gory details. That would only get him and Nox hurt in that little cell. She made a mental note to bring Nox in for counseling first to better understand how to handle Torren’s session afterward.

She swiped her card at Emmitt’s observation station, careful to keep her clipboard hugged to her chest so the camera could catch everything.

“What are you doing here?” he muttered from his rolling chair as he watched footage of two guards escorting Vyr up an elevator. Vyr stared directly into the camera, and it hurt to witness the emptiness there. Two dragon eyes, frozen into his face. Vyr swayed with the movement of the elevator, unblinking. The scar on his head was stark and red, and he had a black eye that wasn’t healing.

“What happened to his face?”

Emmitt shrugged. “Dragon extraction was successful. Now he doesn’t heal like he used to.”

“The dragon is…dead?”

“Dead as a doornail. Look at those eyes. He’ll look like a freak for the rest of his life, but the world is safe.”

Stay calm. Stay steady.

“I guess I’m still confused about this place,” she murmured, sitting in the other chair. She rested the clipboard on her thighs and swung back and forth slowly in the chair. “Do we have to take the animals out of all the lower level shifters?”

“Nah, just the ones we want to duplicate. And when we get monsters like Vyr, it’s better for everyone if they just disappear. He’s helpless now. Look at him. You saw those videos of him burning Covington to the ground? And him blowing up police cruisers the day Butte brought him in? Well…now he’s just a man.”

“Who was sentenced to a year in prison. Not a cleansing.”

“Who’s gonna miss the Red Dragon?” he gritted out, ripping his gaze from the screen and glaring at her. “You?”

“I’m paid to be empathetic, Emmitt. These aren’t animals. They’re people.”

“Chhhh. Too sympathetic for your own good. We saved your life by killing that demon. You should be thanking us. That’s six months of work—”

“You mean six months of torture.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Mercer?” Emmitt yelled. “You knew the drill coming down here. Fuck! Today we’re celebrating. Literally, we’re throwing a ding-dong-the-dragon-is-dead party, and if you shit on our parade, I’m taking it to the higher-ups. You don’t belong down here. This is where the real work happens. Shut your fuckin’ trap, bitch, and be happy there’s no need to worry about Vyr’s fire anymore. All of our lives just got a ton easier.”

“And his life?”

“Is over. He’s one person, though. One. He’s an easy sacrifice.”

Riyah swallowed bile and tried to compose her face as Emmitt pushed the intercom and said, “The lair is clear. Bring him on in.”

“Since the dragon is dead, I think he should have more privileges now.”

“Good God, woman, what are you talking about? This is prison, not the Ritz.”

“Exactly, and all the inmates upstairs are getting meals together and yard time together. They aren’t alone all the time. He can’t even shift anymore, right? Look at his face, Emmitt. Really look at it. Someone hit him, and he’s not healing.”

“What about ‘his life is over’ is confusing to you?” Emmitt was staring at her like she’d lost her mind. “There will be an accident in here. Vyr isn’t getting out. Keep pushing, and you won’t get out of here either. You’re feeling mighty risky to the New IESA program right now.”

“Don’t you threaten me. I took the same oath of silence you did. I’m allowed to ask questions, though. That’s my job to get the inmates in a safer mindset to make your job easier. That’s what I’m paid for. Vyr is helpless, like you said, yet the program still wants him eradicated.”

“Because we’re exposed the second he tells anyone what it’s like in here!” Emmitt barked. “And it’s not just my ass on the line, or Butte’s, or any of these guards, or the New IESA. It’s your ass on the line, too. You get that, right? You understand you were a part of this? Maybe the biggest part. Think about it, Mercer. You came in, settled the dragon immediately, we all saw it. You were a fucking monster-whisperer, stuck that needle in him, gave him that monster dose of dragon killer, and then the Red Dragon died. You’re just as guilty as the rest of us, if not more. His eyes being frozen like that?” Emmitt jammed his finger at the screen where Vyr was still staring directly at the camera. “Your fault. That black eye not healing? Your fault. The accident that will happen? Also your fault.” Every accusation felt like the lash of a whip against her heart. “Careful where you step around here, Princess. There’s landmines everywhere, and I’m the biggest one. No more questions. Vyr doesn’t get special privileges. He’s done. Give me two days, and we’ll be tossing the corpse. And daddy dragon can’t do shit about it because he was the one who helped put Vyr in here in the first place. We. Win.”

We win? The New IESA wins? Winning by murder. Disgusting. She dared Emmitt to try for an “accident.” She would turn him to ash in a second. Riyah smiled coolly. “Whatever you say, boss.”

“Fuckin’ attitude,” Emmitt muttered, giving his attention back to the computer. “This is why I told them not to hire girls down here. Sentimental idiots, all of you.”

She could literally pop his head like a grape right now and never lose an ounce of sleep.

“As much as I would love to see that, I don’t want you skipping over to the dark side, Badass Princess.”

Riyah let off a relieved sigh and embraced the headache. That pain meant she wasn’t alone. She would take a headache for the rest of her life if it meant Vyr was okay. Which…from the looks of him as the guards brought him in, clad in handcuffs and chains around his ankles, limping badly and sporting a completely dead look on his face, he wasn’t okay, just like he’d said.

She wanted vengeance. She wanted justice. She wanted to punish every guard who had ever laid a hand on Vyr or shot him with drugs or operated on him. Soon.

Right now, she just needed to be here for Vyr and bring him back from the brink. At some point between last night and now, he had quit fighting completely. She didn’t know what had happened, but she would find out if she had to scour every inch of video footage.

The camera streamed directly to Damon’s technical team, so she took the clipboard with her as she left the observation room. At the door, Emmitt asked, “Where are you going?”

“To welcome Vyr back to his lair.” She gave him a ghost’s smile. “I’m gonna make his last days bearable.”

“Why?” he gritted out.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” Riyah let the door swing closed behind her and barely resisted the urge to collapse that observation room on top of Emmitt.

She made her way through the two card scanners and pulled open the door to Vyr’s lair.

The guards were just leaving. They gave each other a high five. She didn’t even what to know what that was about because she was really close to snapping already. Even she could smell the magic coming off herself right now.

Vyr’s eyes went wide as he watched her approach with her clipboard clutched to her chest. “Riyah, you look hot as fuck, but your hair is floating, and there’s no wind in here.”

She closed her eyes for a three count and focused on containing her anger. As she passed the metal chair she’d done her interview in, she dragged it with her, scraping it loudly along the floor.

“Let me see,” she murmured. She angled the clipboard on the leg of the chair and sat down, reached for Vyr.

He winced away. “I hate you seeing me like this.”

“Is there audio?” she asked.

Vyr blinked those silver dragon eyes and murmured, “Not anymore.”

“What happened?”

“Doesn’t matter.” His voice echoed with hollowness.

“Don’t push me away.”

“Riyah, it’s best this way. I know what’s coming. I can hear their thoughts so loud. And I’m tired. I’ve existed for thirty years with everyone thinking I’m evil. Doesn’t matter the effort I put into keeping good people safe. I lost the dragon. Lost the biggest part of me, and now there’s this hole. It’s growing bigger and bigger, and now all I feel is…”

“Is what?”

“Emptiness.”

Her lip quivered, so she sat back in the chair, blinking hard because it wouldn’t help Vyr if she cried right now.

“If everyone wants me gone so bad…okay. I don’t really want to live a life where I feel like this anyway.”

“What about me?” she asked. “I’ll be alone if you leave. Really alone. I want more.”

“More what?”

“Time. I want you to kiss me, hold my hand, take me out for coffee, and stay up all night talking while you’re actually lying beside me. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. It was instant for me. I should’ve been scared of you, right? Well, I wasn’t. You always make me feel safe, even locked in here. I want to see Mr. Diddles and see your mountains. I want to be part of your crew. I want you to stick around because, to me, it doesn’t matter if you have the dragon or not. To me, it only matters if you’re here. With me. The princess and the dragon. A fairytale…except that’s not us, is it? Not really. We were built in similar ways that made our edges too rough for anyone else to handle or they would get cut. But we don’t cut each other. We fit. Now you go. What do you want?”

Vyr ran his hand over his cropped hair and then leaned forward, grabbed her chair, and scooched her closer until her knees were between his thighs.

“No touching!” Emmitt said over the intercom.

Riyah flipped off his observation room, her gaze never leaving the exhausted lines of Vyr’s face. “What do you want, Vyr?” she asked again.

“I want my dragon back. I want to be whole because I want to keep you.”

God, what those words did to her insides. As she filled with warmth, she raised her hands, palms facing Vyr. He searched her eyes and then slid his much bigger hands against hers and then intertwined their fingers.

“I have a surprise for you,” she whispered.

His ruddy eyebrows drew down. “What is it?”

“Come lay on the floor with me.”

“Wait, are you wanting to fool around in here? We can.”

“Dear lord, do all of your thoughts revolve around sex?”

“No. Yes. Look at your shirt! Your tits are all squished together, and I can see the edge of your bra. I wish I could push you against the wall and fuck you from behind until you’re screaming my name.”

Well, she needed to add that to her list of wants. Riyah offered a slow, drunken blink. “Hooooly wow.” She cleared her throat once, twice. Opened her mouth but nothing intelligent came out. Just a soft gasp. Smooth. She cleared her throat once more and tried again. “Back to the surprise. Come on. I put a lot of work into this. Mostly because Emmitt is a stubborn anus and fought everything.”

“What did you do?”

She laid down on the cold concrete right in the middle of the room and patted the space beside her. He limped over to her and laid down too, crossing his hands over his stomach.

Riyah smiled over at him and asked, “Are you ready?”

Vyr looked confused, but so handsome, staring unabashedly back at her, allowing her to look right into his frozen dragon eyes. He had a week of red facial scruff, and the freckles across his nose were stark. She’d never wanted to kiss a man so badly.

“I’m ready,” he murmured in that deep voice of his.

Riyah closed her eyes and cut the lights. But she could still see him in the glow of the hundreds of plastic stars she’d taped to the ceiling. It had taken her hours to get it just right.

“Riyaaah,” Vyr drawled out softly.

“Remember when you told me what you missed the most?”

“The sky. The stars.”

“Yeah, and you said you liked to imagine them smiling down on you, even if you couldn’t see them. And that they were smiling because they could see better things coming for you.”

Vyr lay there unblinking up at the ceiling. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Vyr. I’ll be your star. I believe in you. I’ll wait with you while better things are coming.”

He stared up at the words she’d written with some of the stars. “I’m yours,” he read aloud.

She smiled. “You just said you wanted the dragon back so you could keep me. Well…dragon or no, you have me.”

Vyr slid his hand from his stomach and pulled her fingertips to his chest, right over his drumming heartbeat. He pressed her palm there and kept his hand on her like he didn’t want her to pull away.

On a breath, she whispered, “You have me, so trust me.”

Any second, the guards would storm the room and ruin this, but this is what they had. Stolen moments. Stolen touches. And she didn’t care what anyone thought. Only what Vyr thought. She didn’t care about consequences or judgement. She cared about one thing—the man beside her, who was smiling…smiling despite everything that had been done to him.

He lifted two fingers up at the ceiling and whispered, “Look, Riyah.”

The stars came off the ceiling and floated there above them, like real stars in the night sky. They rotated slowly, moving this way and that in different patterns until words formed. It was an I, a heart with a jagged crack down the middle, and a U. And as she watched in awe, the crack in the heart disappeared.

A tear slid from the corner of her eye down her cheek and made a tiny splat on the concrete.

Vyr rolled his head to the side and gave her a crooked smile. God, he was stunning, his dragon eyes glowing under the lights of the floating plastic stars, his smile for her certain, even though he must’ve been falling apart on the inside. “I feel steady around you.”

“What do you mean?” she asked. “And where the hell are the guards?” She propped up on her elbows and stared at the observation room mirrors across the room. They should’ve been in here tearing her and Vyr apart about now, but no one had even knocked on the window and told them to cut it out.

“Oh, I put them all to sleep,” Vyr said.

“W-what?”

“Oh, I can put people out. All the guards are on the floor right now. I made sure Emmitt hit his head on the way down because I can’t fuckin’ stand the way he talks to you.” Vyr’s smile turned wicked.

“Wait…you can put people out?”

“Yep. I can do a helluva lot people don’t realize.”

“Then what are you still doing in here?”

“I’m voluntary, Riyah.”

“You lost your dragon on purpose?”

“No,” he said without hesitation. “I didn’t think they could actually take him. I believe in consequences, though. I burned a town. I’ve burned several towns, but I got busted in Covington. I saw Torren go headfirst into that fight with the gorillas and the Dunn lions. He was protecting his sister and his sister’s crew, but I always have his back. So, I let the dragon have me. And I didn’t even try to stop his rampage. I just…let him do what he wanted, consequences be damned. Then I ran to my mountains, and I started thinking. And I thought and thought and thought. And my dad was telling me I needed to listen to that one-year sentence. He wanted to smooth things over with the humans and keep peace between them and shifters. He’s worked very hard to protect shifters. I understood why he wanted to give me up to the system. I hated it. Hated him for it. I wanted him to pick me over everyone else. Pick me over his precious crews, but the more I sat in my mountains, thinking, the more it made sense. The biggest change in me happened when Torren, Nox, and Nevada decided we were a crew, not just a dysfunctional group of friends thrown together. They made me alpha, and I’m shitty at it, but I don’t want to be bad at this forever. I got this deep instinct to protect them. I loved…” Vyr swallowed hard, his muscular throat moving with it. “I love them. If I didn’t come here and ride out my time, it would affect their whole lives. Our crew would always be on the run, always looking over our shoulders, and eventually they would get hurt protecting me. And that’s not how it should be. I should be the one protecting them. This time in here makes me feel like I’m a better alpha because I put them first, before myself. Before my dragon. And now I understand why my dad wanted me in here. I can see how his protective instincts over all those people in his mountains, over all shifters, could drive him to give up his son. And especially if he thought he was teaching me a lesson like the one I’m learning.”

“What lesson?”

“How to be a good alpha. And I know what I am. I am total destruction. I know what I’m capable of. I accepted it a long time ago. I had to. It was time for me to come here and pay the consequences for my actions. I will always miss the dragon.” He cleared his throat and gave his attention back to the floating stars. “I’ll never feel whole. There will always be a huge part of me missing, and I will live a half-life. I’ll always hate the people here for what they did. I’ll fight bitterness for the rest of my life. I’ll fight the emptiness. I won’t have a single easy day because every time I look in the mirror, I’m going to hurt. There’s no accepting the loss of my dragon, but I had to do this. For my crew.”

“Vyr,” she whispered, her voice breaking. She wished more than anything that she could fix his life. She had this vision of him staring in the mirror and slamming his fist against the glass, over and over, and in each frame he aged until he was gray and tired, and still, he hated his frozen dragon eyes. She was going to watch the man she loved break every day because of what happened here.

“I like what you’re wearing today,” Vyr murmured.

She looked down at her dark wash jeans, sneakers, and plain, black, fitted, cotton T-shirt. She’d dressed it up with cute turquoise jewelry, but it was the most casual thing she’d worn since she started working for the prison. “Emmitt called my high heels victim shoes, and lately it feels like I need to be ready.”

“For what?”

“For total destruction,” she said with a smile.

“I should tell you I’m not a good man. I stole a lot of things from you without you knowing. Sometimes I spend time with you in your head when you don’t realize it. Quietly. Picking through memories. Learning about you.”

“Why do you do that?”

“Because I can’t get enough of you. I want to know everything. You’re so light. So optimistic, so beautiful inside and outside. I like everything about you. Even the things you’re ashamed of. I like that your favorite color is rainbow.” He chuckled. “Whose favorite color is all of them?”

She snorted. “Mine.”

“And I like that you eat a carton of chocolate chip cookie dough when you’re upset and that you’re fine with boxes all over your house, which is insane because I’m extremely tidy. But I imagine you leaving your shit all over my house and how it’ll make me feel.”

“How will it make you feel?”

“Like you’re everywhere. Like you’re filling up all the space that used to be boring. I think a week with you, and I’ll have trouble remembering my old life.”

Her stomach fluttered. She slid over to him, pressed right against his ribs, and rested her cheek on the inside of his shoulder. He was looking at her with that same crooked smile she couldn’t get enough of.

“What else did you learn while you were being a memory thief?”

“That you want kids, but you’re afraid they would have your powers.”

“Yeah, well now I’m double concerned because you have, like, eight guards in comas, and with very little effort.”

“And I’ve turned off all the cameras for the entire lower level. One hundred percent, any babies I put in you would be little hellions. But…they would also be good. You know how I know?”

“How?” she asked softly.

“Because you would be their mother. And I can see you so clearly, Riyah. You told me once that you’re the monster, but you were wrong. You’re good.”

“A good witch,” she teased.

And he agreed. “A very good witch.”

Vyr lifted up and rolled her onto her back, cupped her cheek as he searched her eyes. Riyah gripped his wrist to keep him touching her like this. Above him the glowing stars were still rotating slowly. It was amazing the things he could control all at once when he didn’t even look like he was focusing on them.

His lips curved into a smile just as he leaned down and pressed them to hers. It was so different from their first kiss, which was rushed and violent, and his hand had been so rough on her leg. This one was love, not lust. It was tender. It was soft sipping and steady breathing and lips moving together. When he brushed his tongue against her bottom lip, she opened for him. He didn’t taste like smoke anymore, and there was a moment when that made her sad, but she squeezed her eyes closed and focused on enjoying their time together because they might not get this again. Vyr dragged his fingertips down her ribs to her hip, gripped her, and pulled her against him with a deep, sexy sound in his throat. His touch was fire, blazing against her skin as he slid his hand up her shirt. He pushed under her bra and gripped her breast so hard she gasped and her back arched on reflex.

“Mmmm, good girl,” he rumbled.

Okay, now her body was igniting. Vyr shoved her shirt up over her head and ripped her bra off. Ripped it, not unfastened. His hands were firm and steady as he sat up and pulled her with him. He sat back and yanked his shirt over his head. “Skin. I want to feel your skin,” he demanded.

Oh God, she’d never liked being told what to do, but hell yes to Vyr taking control. She kicked out of her shoes and shimmied out of her pants as he watched. She planned on straddling him but he caught her by the hips, settled her upright on locked legs, and eased onto his knees before she could move. His fingers dug into her waist as he held her still and licked her right between the thighs…slowly. With a gasp, she locked her arms against his shoulders, because she wasn’t going to stay upright for this, she could already tell. Her legs were going numb.

He sucked gently on her clit, brushing his tongue against it rhythmically until she was panting and digging her nails into his shoulders. And then right when she was on the verge of orgasm, he thrust his tongue deep inside her until she was throbbing hard. She panted his name, legs buckling, but he had her, held her upright. And then he trailed biting kisses up her stomach to her breasts as he lowered her slowly to his lap. When he sucked hard on her nipple, she cupped his head and tossed her head back, closed her eyes, and melted into his touch. When she finally settled onto his lap, his erection was hard against her sex. Vyr slid his arms around her and pulled her against his chest, as if he was just testing his strength, testing how much pressure she could take. Her back cracked and her breath left her lungs with a needy sound. He gripped her ass as he thrust his hips against her.

Riyah lifted up enough to shove his pants down his hips, unsheathing his thick, hard dick. That was hers. When she rocked against him, Vyr closed his eyes and huffed a breath. He reached between them and grabbed his dick, poised it right at her entrance. Riyah slid over him, slowly, focused on relaxing so she could take all of him, and when she had, she rocked faster. It felt so good, having him move inside of her, being connected like this. Vyr spread his knees farther apart and slammed into her, meeting her, moving with her, fingers rough on her hips as he kept her on him. He pushed into her harder and faster until she was chanting his name, and just as her second orgasm blasted through her, Vyr clamped his teeth on her neck and groaned, thrust deep, and throbbed warmth into her. He didn’t break the skin, but his bite felt so good as her release pulsed on and on. They moved together, drawing every aftershock from each other’s bodies. And when they were spent and still at last, she cupped his cheeks and smiled. “That was…” What word could she possibly use to describe something so important?

“For me, too,” he murmured. Vyr pulled her in close and hugged her tight. “It’s not exactly the way I wanted it for us, though.”

She giggled. “You mean you didn’t have prison sex in mind when you started wooing me?”

Vyr snorted and tickled her ribs until she squirmed, then laid them down on the concrete and pulled her against his side. With a sigh, he looked up at the floating stars and murmured, “Thank you for tonight, Riyah. For giving me the sky for a little while.”

With a content sigh, she kissed his chest, right over his heart, and nuzzled her cheek against him. “Someday, I’m going to give you the real thing.” It was a promise she was making to him and to herself. She was going to figure this out because she couldn’t watch him hate his reflection forever. There had to be something better than a half-life for Vyr.

In this moment, she didn’t care what would happen to her if she found a way to save the Red Dragon.

In this moment, she didn’t care about the fire that Beaston had promised.

In this moment, Riyah realized, as long as Vyr existed on this Earth, she would never be in the dark again. And as long as she existed, neither would he.