“What the fucking hell did you think you were playing at?”

The furious voice from inside the palace caught Adra’s attention and she paused in her rounds to listen. She was a black, charged with protecting the palace and all inside, so such things were totally within her remit, especially after the attack on the crowded ballroom earlier. They were all on high alert. Extra patrols. Extra security measures. Hell, Sawyer had even gone so far as to spirit the queen away to scale knew where.

So if she should happen to pass by the east wing, where their foreign guests were staying, that was just a coincidence. Seventeen coincidences.

Sliding down the wall, she kept her serpentine body close to the brickwork and her wings folded neatly against her back. The light breeze brought the faint sounds of the city below up to her as she crept closer to the open window.

Luckily she was downwind of the window, so her scent wouldn’t wash into the room, but still, she was careful as she edged closer and peeked into the window with just one eye.

Prince Henrick stood in the middle of the room, his fancy jacket with all its bling and braid hanging open, glowering at the man in front of him.

“I’m so s-s-sorry, Your Highness,” the smaller man stammered. “It won’t happen again. I promise.”

Adra’s eyes narrowed. What wouldn’t happen again? What was the man… she took a deep breath in but scented nothing but human and dragon in the room… sorry about?

“Oh, it won’t… I can promise you that,” Henrick growled, smoke billowing from his nostrils.

The human servant closed his eyes, obviously petrified, and Adra’s estimation of the prince dropped further. After seeing him shove some of the women aside to make his own escape earlier, it was already pretty low, and now it hit rock bottom.

What kind of asshole threatened a human? They had no defense, not against dragonkind… hell, not against most of the paranormal races. They relied on their armies and weaponry to maintain the balance with other species, neither of which this human had right now.

She edged closer as Henrick muttered, hoping to catch something she could relay back to the rest of the twelve. But just as she did, her back claw scraped against the brickwork. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, cutting through the air, and Henrick’s head snapped up.

“What was that?” he demanded, storming toward the window. Before he could reach it and see her, Adra let go of her perch and dropped backward into the darkness, letting the shadows swallow her up. With the darkness of her scales and the night, there was no way anyone from the guest quarters would be able to see her from the windows.

The wind rushed around her as she plummeted toward the ground. It was something she hadn’t done for years, not since she was an irresponsible teen out to impress… well, anyone. But it felt good, fun, and she grinned a wide, toothy grin, closing her eyes to savor the rush as the ground raced to meet her. A few seconds before impact, she snapped her wings open, stopping her fall instantly.

The move left her hovering mere feet above the ground. Tucking her wings, she dropped to the ground, folding her dragon form within her human body with the ease of long practice. Readjusting her clothing after the shift, a neat perk of being a dragon shifter rather than any other type, she strode through the doors in front of her and headed toward the council’s chambers to report her findings.

* * *

“What the hell was that?” Cadie demanded the instant Sawyer touched down and folded his dragon form within his human one, still with her in his arms.

She had no clue where they were, other than a patio at the top of a building in the middle of the city. She twisted but she didn’t get time to check out the skyline and figure it out before he strode inside through a pair of bi-folding glass doors. They slid shut soundlessly behind him and finally he looked at her.

“Necessary,” he bit out, his eyes still dark with his dragon.

“Screw necessary! We were attacked! I should be back there, dealing with this! Not… gods know where. Actually, where the hell are we?” she hissed, struggling and slapping at his shoulders to make him let her go.

He’d carried her here in his claws, somehow holding her shift within, and that pissed her off more than anything. To not be able to shift when she wanted to… nothing scared her more. Of course, she could have blasted him with her magic, but she would have injured him, possibly even killed him if he’d fallen out of the sky.

“You don’t need to be back there. In fact, you’ll put more people in danger if you are. Whoever sent those golems wasn’t bothered about collateral damage.” His voice was clipped as he let go of her knees and dropped her to her feet. “And this is my home.”

She looked at his back in utter surprise as he walked to the doors again, passing his hand over a panel at the side. Heavy duty shutters dropped on the other side of the glass with a rattle and a clank, sealing them in. The slight green-grey shimmer across the metal told her they were heavily spelled. No one was getting in, or out by the looks of it.

Anger hit her hard and fast.

“General, you forget yourself!” she snapped, stopping just short of stamping her foot. “Let me out right now!”

He whipped around, moving faster than she’d ever seen him move. Before she could step back out the way, his hand was fisted in the hair at the nape of her neck. He glared down at her, anger and something else written in the backs of his eyes.

“I forget myself, do I?”

His voice was low. Ominous. Had he been anyone else, she’d have been seriously worried. But this was Sawyer. Instead of inspiring fear, the dangerous tones sent fire through her blood. Her body tightened, pussy clenching as liquid heat slipped from her to dampen her panties.

Her eyes widened as the scent of her arousal filled the air. There was no way he hadn’t smelled it. They were dragons… who tracked their prey through scent. His nostrils flared, his eyes darkening another notch and she realized she’d just become his.

“Perhaps I should forget myself a little more…” he growled, hand tightening in her hair. Tilting her head back, his lips crashed down over hers.

Heat and need exploded between them with the force of an inferno. She gasped and clung to him as her lips parted automatically under his. He didn’t pass up the invitation, his tongue sweeping along the parted seam and driving within. A moan rose in the back of her throat as he stroked her tongue with his, sliding against it and demanding her response. His free hand snaked around her waist, spreading out across the small of her back to yank her up hard against him.

Held firmly in his embrace, she couldn’t move. Didn’t want to. Pressing against him, she spread her hands over his chest and tried to get closer as she kissed him back. He growled again, the hand on her back sliding down to cup her ass, pressing her groin flush to his.

She gasped at the feel of his erection against her soft belly. He was huge, long and thick. Heat washed through her again, wave after unstoppable wave. She should have pushed him away, should have stopped this right here and now, but she couldn’t.

Pressing her thighs together, she whimpered as need and anticipation rolled through her. She wanted this. More than she needed air to breathe or her dragon needed the wind beneath her wings. She wanted him. Not some fancy, jumped up prince who thought he could wow her because he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

She wanted a real man. A real dragon.

No, she wanted Sawyer… because he was Sawyer.

He felt her surrender and paused, lifting his head to look down into her face.

“Cadeyra?” His voice was soft, his grip gentling a little in her hair, but not enough to let her go. “You need to tell me to stop.”

She hid her smile at the order. That was so like him. He’d boss the world around if he could.

“What happens if I don’t?”

She didn’t want to tell him to stop. Not now. She wanted more of his mouth on hers, more of his body against hers… and she definitely wanted what was going to happen next.

He looked at her for a long moment and she felt like she could see right down to his soul. Heat. Need. Possessiveness. His cock pulsed against her belly and she bit her lip, trying to stay still and not influence him in any way.

He growled again, gaze riveted to where her teeth mangled the soft flesh of her lower lip.

“If you don’t, I’ll pick you up and carry you through to my bedroom. I’ll strip you naked, kiss every inch of you, pleasure you… I don’t care that you’re the queen. Tonight you’ll be on your knees in front of me, screaming my name as I make you come.” He leaned down to whisper against her ear. “Again and again.”

She swallowed, closing her eyes as her brain conjured up that image and played it out behind her eyes in full on pornographic detail. Her fingers curled into his shirt as she whispered.

“Please…” Opening her eyes, she looked up at him. “Tonight I don’t want to be a queen. I just want to be a woman. Your woman.”