An alarm blared through the prison, piercing through the blackness as the inmates jumped from their beds in the overcrowded cells.

“What is going on?” Ara cried, putting her hands over her ears to block the shrieking from bursting her eardrums.

“Fire alarm!” one of the women snapped at her. “Get by the doors!”

“It’s probably nothing, honey,” a blonde with pockmarks chuckled. “Every so often, the guards grab them when they’re having a quickie out near the back doors.”

But Ara knew that this was no false warning.

As they lined up against the bars, she suddenly smelled smoke, and sweat broke out over her forehead. She looked down at her white tank top, but in its place was a deep blue dress, falling in long folds to her ankles. Suddenly, she was aware of the weight on her head, and Ara’s hand flew up to touch the headdress she had come to identify.

The cries of indignant protests became screams of terror as the billowing choke of grey came seeping through the corridors.

“Let us out!” the women chanted in unison. “Unlock the doors!”

But as the clouds of smoke filled their lungs, Ara realized that there was no one to set them free.

Bloodcurdling shrieks met her ears and abruptly stopped.

She was alone in the cell, the women vanishing before her eyes.

“Hello!” she sobbed as tears began to stream down her face. “Hello, please help me! I can’t die here!”

A strange sound filled her ears, and while she expected it to be licks of fire coming to devour her whole, it sounded more like methodical footfalls: a dull, echoing thud.

“Hello?” she whispered, coughing slightly, her fingers curling around the bars. “Is anyone there?”

Ara saw him then, the glittering saffron eyes burning through the wispy tendrils, his leathery head high to the ceiling, despite his crouching stance. One claw extended the other, his gaze fixated on hers, and at once, peace eased through her, the panic forgotten. Pausing, he whirled his head to stare at her full on, mouth parting to reveal a glistening array of sharp, pointed fangs.

“You came,” she murmured, her hand reaching through to touch his head. “You came.”

He bowed slightly, allowing her to stroke the line of his snout, and Ara felt a spark of excitement flooding through her.

“Can you get me out of here?” she asked. “I don’t want to die here.”

“You won’t die here, Bella.”

She spun around, the dragon at her back forgotten as she stared at Titus.

“How did you get in here?” she demanded, her heart fluttering with happiness. Without giving him a chance to respond, she threw her arms around him, squeezing her body to his.

“We need to get you out of here,” Titus told her, pulling back slightly to stare into her face with concern. “You’re not safe.”

Even as he said the words, the smoke seemed to thicken around them, but Ara didn’t care. If she was going to perish, she wanted to do it in his arms.

“Not yet,” she begged, reaching up to pull his face to hers. “Please.”

His gray eyes were almost slate in the dimness of the jail cell, the smoke clearing as they kissed.

The familiar sweeping sensation enveloped her, and she felt his resolve to stop what was happening dissolving. She had been waiting for this moment since being virtually ripped from his arms, and nothing was going to stop her from feeling Titus’ skin against hers.

“Bella, please,” Titus moaned. “You need to go. I can help you—”

“Shh!” Viciously, Ara bit down on his lower lip, watching as his eyes widened in shock.

He seemed stunned, and she tasted blood, but the look of surprise was quickly replaced by a spark of fire. Dancing her back, he pinned her body against the bars, his mouth crushed to hers.

Ara gasped for breath, but he gave her no chance to breathe, his hands grabbing along the ruffles of her skirts, yanking them up to her waist. Abruptly, her head fell back, feeling the push of his hardness against her thighs, a fire of her own growing from the depths of her belly.

“You are in danger. The plan is to pin it all on you,” Titus rasped into her ear, his fingers spreading her cheeks apart beneath the hoops of her dress.

“No,” she breathed. “You’re wrong. They would never do that to me. It’s Skylar, all Skylar.”

He started to shake his head, but she twisted her fingers into his blond curls, forcing his head down along the line of her neck toward her swelling bustline.

“I should have never told you about the spell,” he murmured, his tongue lashing out to sample her skin. “If I hadn’t said anything, you would have never run off.”

His words were making her heady with pleasure, although they made little sense. It was the mere throatiness of his masculine tones causing a spill of heat from her center to lubricate his prodding fingers.

Ara was wedged between Titus and the bars, her back arching toward him as she silently begged him to take her, and he seemed to hear her plea. Suddenly, he was naked, his engorged member teasing at her pulsating button.

“Oh, yes,” Ara exhaled. “You’re all I can think about in this place. I knew you would come for me.”

Titus grabbed her thigh and yanked it up to his waist, a single, full thrust penetrating her.

She yelped, relishing the fullness of his manhood, and his fingers dug into the tender flesh of her upper leg. Pulling his head up from where he was nuzzled in her chest, she parted her mouth, their tongues playing as their eyes locked.

Titus began to pound at her, steady, deep, and hard. Ara gasped, savoring each thrust as if it was going to be the last, low moans of desire emanating from her diaphragm. His shaft grew slicker with her juices, his nails piercing the flesh of her thigh, and Ara’s body seized as her climax mounted.

“I knew you wouldn’t leave me here,” she mewled, quivering as she released against him. A feral grunt escaped Titus’ lips.

“I’ll never let you go again,” he vowed. “You are mine forever. No one can keep us apart now.”

Suddenly he choked, his body tensing, and Ara watched as his eyes turned into golden lava, his face contorting into the shape of the beast in the corridor. Hot streams of juice filled her, and she was caught in a place between reality and fantasy as her lover became a dragon.

“I’m sorry,” Titus mumbled. “I’m sorry, I should have told you before—”

A blow to her face shocked her back to reality, and Ara gasped, choking as she fell from her bunk onto the filthy floor of the prison cell.

Her cheek was on fire, and she blinked, trying to make sense of what was happening. As she looked around, she realized her other three cellmates were gone and she was alone with Inga, who hovered over her, smirking.

“Now I gotcha alone, don’t I?” she snickered. “No one around to interrupt us now, is there?”

Ara rubbed her face and sat up, unwilling to show the bully any weakness.

“If you’re going to—” Ara couldn’t bring herself to say the word aloud. “—abuse me, I’ll scream.”

Inga stared at her before bursting into a raucous laughter. She looked around as if wanting an audience. “Holy hell, woman, where do you think you are? No one gives a shit about you here. If I want to abuse you, I’ll do it all day long, and no one will give a rat’s ass about it.”

Ara believed her.

“Anyway,” Inga continued, leering at her, the gold teeth flashing in in the shadows. “I’m not gonna hurt you. We’re gonna be friends.”

“Friends?” Ara scoffed. “You just punched me in the face!”

Inga scowled. “You call that a punch? You really are as weak as you look, aren’t you?”

Ara jumped to her feet, her cheeks growing red, but she was not embarrassed. She was livid.

“Get the hell out of here,” she spat. “I’m not going to be your friend. You’re wasting your time trying to intimidate me.”

A slow smile formed on Inga’s face, and she folded her arms over her chest.

“Well, would you look at that,” she mused. “Who knew you had any balls under that innocent exterior?” She turned toward the bars and swung the cell door open. “I would reconsider the offer,” Inga commented over her shoulder. “Because the people you think are your friends would probably rather see you dead.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Ara yelled after her, idly wondering where everyone was. There was not a sound to be heard around their spot. I don’t believe for a second everyone is asleep and not hearing this.

Inga glanced at her, amused. “I mean your pal. Emma? Yeah, she made a deal to get dirt on you so you could take the fall for all your friends on that reserve job.”

Ara blinked and opened her mouth to deny Inga’s words, but her dream suddenly came flooding back to her in a horrific rush. What was it Titus had said?

The plan is to pin it all on you.

“Think about my offer,” Inga chuckled, walking away.

“Wait!” Ara called desperately. “What do you want?”

Inga paused, her face only half visible in the darkness now, her expression as disturbing as ever.

“I want what everyone in this shithole wants,” she retorted. “To get the hell out of here.”

“I have a good lawyer—”

Inga snickered. “You are a babe in the woods, aren’t you?”

Ara shook her head in confusion. “I don’t get it. What do you want?”

“I’m going to take care of your spy,” Inga said, “and you’re going to help me escape.”

“What do you mean ‘take care of her’?” Ara demanded.

“Do you want me to take care of your problem or not?”

“Not if you’re going to kill her!” Ara cried.

“Keep your voice down! I’m not going to kill her, you dumb asshole.”

Ara exhaled. “Oh.”

Inga stared at her through the shadows. “So? Do we have a deal?”

Ara swallowed, thinking about how much it would help if the witness was no longer a problem.

“You’re not going to kill her?” she insisted.

“I’m not even gonna hurt her,” Inga snapped. “Get it together.”

Ara nodded. “Okay. We have a deal.”