Chapter Four

Flora

IT TAKES ME a few minutes to understand what’s happened. Plain, stone, white walls surround me in a round room with one large floor-to-ceiling open doorway that leads to a balcony, which I can see because there’s no covering to keep the light out. The bed I’m on is a canopy with gauzy pink material over the top. It flows gently with the breeze coming through the window. When I move, dust rises from the white comforter and I sneeze. It may be pretty but it isn’t clean. I’m in a tower and the damn dragon kidnapped me.

I leap from the bed and rush to the door. It’s locked. I head out the door aka window and stop on the balcony, which appears to be a landing perch for a very large dragon. Rolling mountains eat up the landscape for as far as I can see. I remove my glasses, which thankfully made it through the kidnapping. There’s a touch of blue to the east, or at least I think it’s east, and I see what must be a large pool of water about a mile away. Nothing in the distance looks like home.

Someone needs to teach this dragon manners and that person might as well be me.

My stomach growls and I rub my palm over it. I’m hungry. Whatever the dragon did to me so I slept has left me with an empty belly. It only takes a moment to remove my clothes, toss them aside, and dive from the tower window. The wind hits my face and I smile before saying my power words and shifting. I pull my golden-brown wings in close to my body as I make a sharp downward swoop before heading upward to look at the castle from high above. With my sharp eyesight, I spot a rabbit hiding in scrub grass, and I silently plunge down, grabbing it in my talons.

I rest on the ground and tear into the meal. After I’ve eaten and primped my feathers a bit, I fly back toward the tower I came from. Movement on the balcony opposite of the tower I’m heading to draws my attention. I glide upward so I can peer down at the no-good, rotten dragon who brought me here. He’s standing at the edge of the balcony looking out over his kingdom. He looks to the tower where he placed me and shakes his head slightly.

I truly can’t help myself and do what any red-blooded eagle shifter would do. I lift my tail feathers slightly and drop a large smelly message. The white and black glob lands on the shoulder of the dragon’s stupid white coat. He turns his head, glances at his shoulder, and then up to where I’m flying. I watch as he scratches his head and then walks back inside. Too bad my body waste isn’t toxic. Wouldn’t that be a great superpower? I bypass the original tower I flew out of and head in through a lower window. I need a weapon and must shift in order to look.

The large room I land in has one piece of furniture with four bare walls. I hit gold when I discover the only cabinet holds weapons. I choose a well-balanced long sword with a jeweled handle. Getting it up to the tower room takes a bit of diligence, but I manage by holding it tight in my talons. As an eagle shifter, I have certain abilities greater than an ordinary eagle but not grossly so, and the sword pushes the limits of what I can carry. Once I’ve lugged it inside, I rest it on the bed and shift.

Lifting the sword in my hands, I lunge and parry to get the proper feel. It’s not a fencing sword and is much heavier than I’m accustomed to, but it serves the purpose. My arms are strong enough to wield it thanks to hours of daily practice.

With my sensitive ears, I pick up movement outside the door. Someone is coming up the tower steps and it doesn’t take much of an imagination to know who it is. I grab my clothes and hurriedly put them on. I barely have time to slide the sword under the bed, shove it as far back as I can before jumping in the bed and fluttering my eyes just as the door opens.

The dragon enters and rests a small bowl on the side table next to the bed along with a cup. He’s wearing his soiled lab coat over jeans and a T-shirt. He pays no attention to me and now I wish I’d placed the sword under this side of the bed instead of pushing it back. I could separate his head from his body with one solid stroke of the blade. That thought makes me fight a smile. I don’t think Gerri would appreciate me killing the stupid dragon shifter. The large stain, curtesy of me, on his silly white coat makes me fight another grin.

“Do you expect me to eat that slop?” I ask as a way to break the ice. Whatever’s in the bowl smells horrid. I also need to rein in my libido and keep my eyes off his… well everything. This dragon is seriously gorgeous.

He appears startled that I spoke and his eyes snap to mine. “If you don’t like it, you can cook tomorrow. I have little time for domestic chores.”

I sit up suddenly and he takes a step back. “You think I’ll cook for you after you kidnapped me?”

He places his fists on his hips in a cocky manner. I would give anything to use my sword to cut him down a foot or two. “You can eat slop or cook, it’s up to you.” He talks to me like I’m a lesser human being.

“Insufferable,” I mumble under my breath.

He continues without acknowledging my complaint. “I have work to do and the last thing I have time for is a female. Make yourself at home, put food on the table, and wash my dirty clothes. That should keep you busy while I work.”

I stare.

He stares.

I can’t help, even as angry as I am, running my eyes over his body again. He’s given me a real lady boner and he shouldn’t be able to do that. While I’m staring, he huffs a giant breath from his throat, turns around, and marches out of the room. Yeah his ass is nice to look at too.

“Wait,” I yell. “That’s it?”

He looks over his shoulder while walking. “I don’t have time for a female right now. Stay out of my hair.”

He disappears but leaves the door open and unlocked this time.

Like an idiot, I lay there glaring at nothing in absolute frustration. He cannot be serious. You don’t kidnap a woman and then leave her to her own devices. Hell no. I deserve better than this. What about sex and all the things I was thinking he would expect? Not that I will have sex with him but doesn’t that go hand in hand with kidnapping an unwilling female to be your mate?

What’s wrong with me? I’m not staying even to make his life miserable though it’s quite tempting. I look down at the unappetizing gruel he left behind and I’m glad I had the rabbit earlier. I carry the slop to the window and then out to the ledge. The slop travels past the castle walls and splats on the ground eighty yards below. It does nothing to alleviate my fury.

Just how angry will Gerri be if I kill him?