“Fffuck you! Ssstupid man.” Her words lisped since her split tongue had to pronounce the English words differently. He thought it cute, if a tad vulgar.

“Now, now, angel, there’s no need to be rude.”

“You got here too late.”

“How do you figure since we never set a time to meet?”

“I needed you.”

“I’ve been here awhile. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“I could have usssed a hand.”

“Doesn’t look like it to me.” He made a point of looking at the gore on the floor. “And I wasn’t about to be accused of sexism. Anything I can do, you can do, too.”

“The expression isss I can do better.” Said with an angry lisp.

“Now you’re just being silly.”

“Don’t you dare patronize me. Forget what I said. I didn’t need you. I had the situation perfectly under control.” The more she spoke, the more her words emerged as they should.

“You think you had this covered? Does this mean I should have left the ones outside alone?”

Her nostrils flared. “There are more?”

He smiled, that of a predator who’d made the kill. “Not anymore.”

“Well, they can’t have been that bad since you took care of them without getting dirty.” She cast a disdainful gaze on his clothing.

Princessss.

He could have sworn he heard the lisped snicker in his mind—but it wasn’t his voice.

She waved a hand at him. “Take off your ssshirt and turn around.”

“Why?”

“Give me your ssshirt.” She held out her hand.

“But you’re filthy.”

She glared.

The heat of it only served to warm his recently sluggish blood. He wondered how hot her stare could get. “And smelly.”

“Don’t make me kill you,” she growled. “It’sss been a rough day.”

“Hey, don’t blame me,” he said, pulling off his shirt. “I told you not to go exploring.” He tossed it to her before turning around. Antagonizing her more at this point could be dangerous for his health.

“You.” Pause. “Are.” The pitch of the voice changed. “The most annoying man.” The dulcet tones of his angel returned.

“I am not annoying. You just don’t have the right respect for someone of my stature.”

“Respect? I’d have a higher opinion of you if you weren’t a coward napping in your cave.”

Coward? He drew himself tall. “I am not afraid of anything.”

“Yes, you are. Otherwise, why would you hide down here? And before you answer, yes, you are hiding.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Then tell me.”

“I will not be ordered.”

“Why won’t you tell me?”

“Why did you stay?” He turned the tables on her. “You weren’t held in a cage. You had the run of the upper world. Why didn’t you flee? Hide?” Because had she left, then perhaps he could have, too.

“I stayed for you.” She bit her lip. “At least, at first I did. I wanted to save you.” Her shoulders drooped. “And yet, I couldn’t.”

Vicious circle. Because she didn’t leave, Parker had used Sue-Ellen against Remiel. But that wasn’t her fault. Who could have known how much she’d mean to him?

“So you stayed to rescue me, and then you were too busy making googly eyes at my brother, I’ll wager, to even think of running.”

“Don’t make it sound like that.”

“Like what? Like you wanted to be with him?”

“Because I thought he was you. And do you know what sucks about that? Do you?” She’d gotten close as she yelled at him, close enough she could poke him in the chest. “What sucks is, right off the hop, I knew there was something off about Samael. Something that didn’t feel right. But at that point, I felt I had to try with him because I had given up my life for you.”

What a coincidence since he’d given up his. She just didn’t know it.

He reached out for her, snaring her around the waist and drawing her close, close enough that his own shirt brushed his skin, and the rancid smell of dead spider made the moment a miasmic challenge.

“I would kiss you right now, but…”

“But what?” she said, her eyes half-shuttered, her lips parted.

“You really smell.”

“Argh!” She punched him. Not hard enough to hurt. She also began ranting again. “I hate you. You obviously never needed me, and I don’t need you. So why don’t you go back to your little cave, and I’ll go find a way out even if I have to dig!”

Despite her ranting to the contrary, Remiel could tell she didn’t mean it. She was happy he’d come to find her. He couldn’t blame her. On a scale of one to ten for awesome, Remiel ranked pretty high.

As a matter of fact, he was so awesome that, despite her vehement exclamation that she could walk—and ignoring her silly threat to chop off his manparts—he threw her over his shoulder, sacrificing his clean skin to the spider guts still hanging off her, and led her back to the hot springs.

She kept ranting. He let her. Hearing it meant she’d emerged safely from her adventure, but it was close.

It had been some time since he’d cleaned out this section of tunnels for sport. Time enough that the arachnid colony had grown quite large. Obviously pooling their strength and numbers until they could attack en masse.

He appreciated that she’d triggered the trap by offering herself as bait. While she kept the king and queen of the spiders busy, he’d taken care of the swarm of youngsters waiting in the halls for dinner.

What he’d not expected when he’d finally come to check on her was to see her walking on two legs while in a hybrid shape.

“So what’s up with your shifter side? I thought you were a gator?” he asked because, perhaps he was just a poor dumb lab dragon, but weren’t gators long and narrow creatures, with short limbs, long snouts, and oh yeah, no wings!

Sue-Ellen had wings. Pretty big ones, too. She looked more wyvern than gator. But she smells like… Surely, he imagined any familiarity.

“I am a freaking gator. Or at least I used to be. I don’t know what the fuck I was back in that cave.”

“I take it this is the first time you’ve sprouted wings.”

“Yes, and walked on two legs. Legs! I even had boobs.”

While the boob comment really deserved exploration, he kept the topic on the more serious matter at hand. “Did your uncle experiment on you?”

“A little. According to him, he didn’t really want much done to me because he wanted to keep my blood and other genes pure. Apparently, the Mercer line has excellent genetics for experiments. So he kept mine clean other than the drugs he used to keep my other side suppressed.”

“He did more than suppress it. He changed you.”

She no longer seemed as surprised and mused aloud, “Just like he changed my brother, Brandon.”

“What did he do to your brother?” It took her a few moments of him carrying her back through the tunnels to the main ones he lived in for her to recount what had happened to Brandon.

In a nutshell, Parker had injected him with certain genetic traits, and they’d stuck. Brandon became what they called a flying lizard man. But it turned out Brandon was more than that. He was dragon, what they called an unascended dragon. Kind of like a wyvern, but cooler. The amazing part of the story, though, wasn’t Parker’s ability to so thoroughly change the genetic makeup of a shifter, but the fact that he’d managed to actually change a gator into a dragon.

Which, of course, led to Sue-Ellen asking him as he put her down on her feet, her arms crossed over her chest, “Does the fact that I’ve got wings mean I’m also a dragon?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? Can’t you smell these things or something? It’s not like I can smell myself.”

“I can’t smell you either under that stink.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I get it. I need a bath,” she snapped, walking into the water. She kept the shirt on at first, the water soaking it translucent. It clung to her frame for a moment before she pulled it off and tossed it to the side, letting it float along the surface.

The temptation to join her proved fierce. Common sense said she wasn’t quite ready for him. Common sense really needed a kick in the ass.

“Don’t forget to use soap.”

She presented him a middle finger salute, and he laughed. He also stripped so he could wade in after her.

She went out far enough that the water came to her mid-chest. Under she went, completely submerging herself.

He couldn’t help himself from moving closer to her and sinking below the surface, and not just because of the gore coating him.

She drew him.

Angel was a bright and shining treasure that screamed, I have a future.

Now if only she felt it, too.

What was with her obsession about escape? They were in an underground cave network with hot springs.

Alone.

He’d graced her with his epic nakedness.

She blessed him with her even more awesome nudity.

They were both clean. So deliciously clean.

Why would they escape? Did she not see what a perfect world they could have together down here? Just him and his angel. They could build a serene life, one without outsiders trying to mess it up.

Perhaps she needed to see the benefits. He could get her some luxuries. As for how he would pay…

Anastasia would cream her panties when she found out Remiel was ready to negotiate some of his extra-special essence to get treats like a proper mattress. Some dresses. A maid’s uniform with a garter. A mixer so Sue-Ellen could make him cakes.

He’d make this into a perfect home for her. He just had to make her believe it started with squashing her plans. “We can’t escape.”

“Can’t?” She arched a brow. “That seems pretty absolute.”

“Because it is.”

“Have you even tried? I mean, I was able to travel miles today”—in reality about the length of a football field—“and there were still tons of tunnels left to explore.”

“The place is honeycombed with them. Maybe eventually you’d get out, but why would you go through the trouble?”

“Because normal people don’t live in caves.”

In retrospect, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” was probably not the reply she was looking for.

In his defense, all the blood in his head rushed south when she turned in the water. She’d risen from the depths, a wet nymph with skin softer than anything, the arm over her breasts only just hiding them, the curves still peeking.

She was so beautiful, and he worshipped her with his gaze. Bathed her with his ardent admiration.

She snapped her fingers. “Are you hearing a word of what I’m saying?” She sounded a touch terse.

He had a cure for that. It would help them both. “Did anything you say involve your mouth on my body?”

“No.”

“My mouth on yours?”

“No.”

“Then, I have no idea what you said, and I don’t really care.” He truly didn’t. She addled all his wits.

“You are such a man!”

“Yes.” About time she noticed.

“That wasn’t a compliment.” Said with a grumble, but she couldn’t hide the flush in her cheeks. “We need to make a plan to get out of here. I can’t stay, Remiel.” She cast a glance around and shivered before hugging herself. “I just can’t.”

Looking at her pale features, the fear in them quite stark, it hit him.

She’s right. We have to go. She belongs in the sunshine, with all the fresh scents that entailed.

Sue-Ellen deserved only the best, and it was his job, nay, his duty to give it to her.

There are so many things she deserves, and I should be the one to deliver.

And he meant that in the dirtiest way possible.

“I’ll get you out.”

“Do you mean it?” The hope in her eyes was worth any effort.

“Yes. I am a man of my word.”

“Thank you.”

“How thankful are you?” He snaked an arm around her waist and drew her close.

She gasped. “What are you doing?”

Doing what he should have done the first moment he’d seen her. “Sealing the deal.” He dipped his head and kissed her, a real kiss this time. A meeting of lips, hers soft and pliant to his hard ones.

She didn’t pull away. She parted her lips, and he felt the warm huff of her breath. Her essence entered him. He felt it touch him, invade him.

He welcomed it. He let the tip of his tongue taste the inside of her mouth. She made a noise, a small grunt of pleasure.

He squeezed her, perhaps a touch too tightly.

“Easy there,” she said with a soft laugh.

“I’ll have to remember to be careful with you.”

“You say that like we’re going to be together for a while, but we’re getting out of here, aren’t we?”

“That is part of the deal, yes.”

“Once we escape, you’ll be able to date whoever you like. I highly doubt you’ll want to stick with a swamp girl.”

“You are more than a gator now, angel. I’ve seen your new shape.”

“Thanks for the reminder I’m a freak while you’re a dragon.”

“What part of I don’t care do you not grasp?”

“The part that says no matter what you want, they will never allow it.”

“You think they can tell me what to do? I’m a prisoner, held by my own kind. If I escape, do you really think I’ll give a damn about their rules?” He leaned toward her, and he could feel the fire in him burning bright. He wondered if it appeared in his eyes. “I will do as I damned well please.”

“You can do better.”

“I want you. I’ve wanted you since the first time I set eyes on you. So, get used to it. Sticking together is part of the deal.”

“What deal? I didn’t agree to anything.”

That was what she thought. She’d soon learn. “The deal is I get you out of this prison, and you’ll stay with me forever and ever.”

A furrow crossed her brow. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

Ask? Snort. “More like telling. We shall marry. Or mate. Call it whatever you like. We’ll do some kind of legal bonding ceremony to ensure there is no question as to whom you belong to.”

“You want to marry me.” She seemed to be having a hard time with the concept.

“Yes, although it’s just a formality given your status already.”

“What status?”

“As my hoard.”

“What hoard? I thought you said they took yours.”

“They did. But now I have it back.”

She blinked. Shook her head. “I’m lost. Or I must be misunderstanding because I think you just implied I am part of your hoard.”

“Not part of. You are my hoard. The only thing of worth that I ever had. The only thing I ever want.”

It was an admission that he expected would floor her. Surely she understood the great honor he paid her.

Instead, she slapped him and walked away.