Kidnapped.

Jesus Christ, she’d been taken by force, and Drake was going to think she’d run from him. Even now, with the icy wind whipping at her face as her captor dragged her across the rocky terrain, she couldn’t believe it was happening.

She’d tried to talk some sense into Grey the second he walked into the keep and carried her out the door, but he’d only shushed her, doggedly refusing to listen. The time for diplomacy had long passed. They were already a hundred yards down the mountain and she needed to put a stop to this, before it was too late to undo it.

Willa kicked at him with all her might, calling on every bit of strength in an effort to break the hold he had on her.

“I’m not kidding, Grey. Let me go, god dammit!”

“Stop!” Grey’s hushed voice sounded as loud as a thunder-crack in her ear as his arms tightened around her waist. “Stop fighting me, Will. You’re only going to get hurt.” He let out a grunt as her elbow connected, jabbing him hard in the diaphragm.

“You need to let me go,” she hissed. “Christ, you have no idea what you’ve done.”

Her stomach churned as she thought about the potential fallout from this mess. If someone didn’t wind up in a pine box before this night was over, it would be a miracle.

How had things gone from being sooo damned good one minute to being utter mayhem and chaos the next? Had it truly been only an hour ago that she’d been wrapped in the cocoon of Drake’s arms, thinking how exactly right it felt…how much she was looking forward to seeing where this new closeness would lead them?

And now she was being bodily carried down the mountainside by her former alpha-slash-ex-fiancé in an ill-advised and unwelcome rescue attempt.

If Drake awoke to find her gone before she convinced Grey of the truth and got him to let her go…

Her heart stuttered in her chest and she willed herself to stay calm. Once she explained herself to Grey—told him that, while being shipped off by her parents into an arranged marriage she didn’t even know about had been hard at first, she was falling in love with Drake and wanted to stay—surely he’d let her go back to the keep.

She just had to start talking, and fast, before Drake awoke to an empty bed.

“Grey, please. I’m begging you, just let me go for one second so we can talk.” She jerked back, hard enough to surprise him into releasing her, and managed to get a few feet of space between them before wheeling around to face him.

The moon was a mere suggestion in the onyx sky but her sight was keen, and Grey looked like an avenging angel, black hair wild, silver eyes a molten mercury and full of volatile emotion.

“You’ve lost your fucking mind.” His chest heaved from the exertion of fighting her for the past hundred yards. “He’ll catch us if we stay here, Willa. We’ve got a very short window to get out of this. My car is just a little further down the mountain. There will be time for talk when we’re on the road. As your alpha, I demand--”

“You are no longer my alpha,” she reminded him as softly as she could, while still being heard over the howling winds, for fear that somehow Drake might hear, even in sleep from within the bowels of his stony abode. “You gave up that position when you dumped me for Maggie, remember?”

Oddly, the humiliation and pain that used to come with that thought never surfaced. Had she already started to forgive him for his betrayal? Had just being with Drake been the balm she’d needed to soothe the hurt and see that she’d actually dodged a bullet by not marrying Grey?

“You know what?” she continued, turning to gaze over his shoulder at the still silent keep. “Forget I even said that. None of it matters anymore. You’re right about one thing. We’re on borrowed time. You need to go. If you just listened to me before dragging me out of the kitchen like a caveman, you’d know that I’m fine. I’m exactly where I need to be right now.”

“That’s bullshit, Willa,” he snapped. “You called me. Maggie gave me your message and as soon as she did, I knew you were in trouble. And then, when I confronted your parents and they told me what they’d done?” His stark features pulled into an expression of anguish. “I don’t know whether you’re drugged or enchanted or he’s holding some horrible threat over your head, but whatever it is, we’ll handle it together. As a pack. The others are waiting back at the ranch for you, arms wide open and ready to fight to the death to defend you if need be. Don’t risk your own life to punish me. If something happened to you, I couldn’t live with myself.”

Willa wrapped her arms tightly around her waist and tried to think of how to explain it to him as succinctly as possible without sounding like exactly what he already thought she was: A pathetic, wounded sucker who was resigning herself to life with a monster because she didn’t want to return to the pack of the man who’d humiliated her.

But try as she might, with every second that ticked by, the panic increased tenfold, and she found herself in a cold sweat and tongue-tied.

“It’s none of those things. I swear. I just…” She was just about to admit out loud what she’d barely even admitted to herself—I’m falling in love with him—when Grey let out a snarl and hoisted her up bodily and tossed her over his shoulder.

“Fuck it. You always were stubborn, and we have no time for this shit,” he grunted.

Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she realized she was out of options. She didn’t want to fight her childhood friend and former alpha in earnest, but at this point, there was no other choice.

She’d just started to center herself mentally so she could shift into wolf form for battle when she heard it. A thunderous roar, so loud and terrible that it shook the ground beneath her.

Terror clutched at her heart as she struggled with all her might against Grey and his iron grip.

“Oh my god, Grey. Drop me right now. He’s coming. He’s coming!”

“Stop the squirming, Willa. I’m not leaving here without you so unless you want to get us both killed—”

His words were snapped off as light filled the sky, illuminating the craggy rocks and narrow roadway in front of them. She finally managed to drop to her feet as Drake came into view in dragon form, massive wings beating as he soared toward them.

If Grey looked like an avenging angel, Drake looked like the devil himself and the fury emanating from him made her blood run cold.

“Christ, Willa, go! Straight down the road. The car is parked at the first shoulder, half a mile down. I’ll hold him off,” Grey shouted, releasing his hold on her waist.

The command barely left his lips when he exploded into wolf form, his arms and legs lengthening, his clothes shredding around him to accommodate his new physique. Strange, how he’d seemed almost larger than life to her at times before, but now he looked like a meal for an animal of Drake’s size. Fear gripped her, tightening over her chest like a boa constrictor as the two beasts faced off.

If they fought, there could be no good outcome. The last thing she wanted to see was Drake hurt. Not after last night. Not now, when she finally found him and a chance at happiness.

And as angry as she’d been at Grey when he’d betrayed her, she couldn’t stomach the idea of him being hurt. Now more than ever, she knew the truth of it. He loved her just like she loved him. As a friend. A true, lifelong friend. That was why he had come. He was risking his life to help her.

She had to stop this.

“Please!” she shouted, rushing closer to where Grey stood on all fours, teeth bared, the fur on his neck standing up straight. “Stop it. Don’t do this!”

Drake swooped in lower and swiped at Grey with one wing, sending him rolling backward.

“Drake, don’t hurt him. I’ll come back with you. This was all a mistake!” She shouted so loudly, her throat burned with the effort, but her words were useless, carried away on the buffeting winds and overshadowed by the sounds of battle.

She turned to see that Grey had rebounded, leaping back to his feet and skulking toward Drake, eyes darting this way and that, looking for the dragon’s weakness.

What she knew that poor, doomed Greyson didn’t, was that Drake had no weaknesses. His dragon was the stuff of nightmares. Pure, unbridled strength, weapons included. This was a fight a lone wolf couldn’t hope to win. Not even a warrior as fierce as Grey.

She swallowed hard and, just as Drake swooped in again, great maw opened, vicious teeth gleaming, she jumped between them, arms extended.

“Stop it. Enough!”

The rage in Drake’s poison green gaze sent a wave of dread crashing over her. Did he even see her right now, or was he blinded with bloodlust? He continued his trajectory, and just when she thought he was going to flatten her to get to his enemy, he roared and veered hard to the right, the very tip of his wing slashing her leg.

Grey snarled and ran to her side as she clutched at the wound, and Drake took full advantage of the distraction, whipping around in a stomach-dropping barrel roll and coming straight back at them.

“Duck!” she screamed to Grey. But it was too late. Drake narrowly missed her and plowed straight into him, head first. Grey went rolling back again in a mass of fur and fury.

Drake didn’t hesitate, following right behind and leaping on his opponent the second he stopped rolling. His lethal teeth gnashed at Grey as the two of them tussled, dragon talons tearing into flesh, wolf fangs sinking into scale and muscle.

As she watched the battle helplessly, the truth settled over her like a black cloud.

They weren’t going to stop until someone was dead.

And the longer they struggled, the more clear it became that Grey was gravely outmatched. If she let this continue, he would die on this bleak chunk of rock, and it would be all her fault.

Mind made up, she straightened, ignoring the ache in her bleeding thigh as she scurried forward. She looked back just in time to see Drake snatch Greyson off the ground like he was nothing more than a field mouse and then begin to flap his mighty wings. They were five feet, then ten feet off the ground, and climbing.

“Drake!” she screamed.

Up, up they went…

“Drake!” she shouted into the air again, desperate now. Dear god, she hoped she was right about this…

She was just about to scream for him again when he jerked his dragon head toward her, his poison green eyes lighting on her face right as she stepped up to the very edge of the cliff.

“Run, Greyson, you stubborn son of a bitch,” she muttered under her breath, hoping he recognized what she was about to do and realized that retreat was the only option now. “Run, and don’t look back.”

Her gaze never left her husband’s as she sucked in a lungful of air and dove headfirst off the side of the cliff.