Chapter 21

Everything in Austin protested at taking his mate into a potentially dangerous situation. She’d been through so much over the past weeks, but determination blazed in her eyes. If he pressed his point and left her behind, would she stay at the mansion? Not likely, but he had to try.

“If it’s Reyn and his men, they’ll be looking for you. We’d be playing into their hands if you went over there. Chances are it’s nothing, but just to be safe, it would be better if you stayed here.”

“Fine. Go. We’re wasting time.”

“Will you stay here?” he asked her, hoping for a yes but expecting a no. And he couldn’t blame her. If the shoe were on the other foot, he wouldn’t hide, either. Just because she was a woman didn’t mean she didn’t have the same protective instincts.

“Nope.”

Damn it. “Get on the damned bike.”

Without saying another word, she yanked the helmet onto her head. “It would be faster if we flew.”

“The last time we came under attack, they brought hunters with them. Dragons were shot out of the air like ducks in hunting season. We can’t all take to the skies.”

Tulia gasped and her eyes rounded. For a half second, he thought she might reconsider, but then she squared her shoulders and hopped onto the back of the four-wheeler.

He waited only long enough for her to wrap her arms tight around him before shooting down the trail. The bike was loud, but it wouldn’t matter. If the enemy was there, they’d already be watching both the air, and the ground. There was no element of surprise to be had.

The scent of unknown dragons drifted on the breeze long before they got anywhere near the cottage. Up above, he spotted Jace racing toward them from the mansion. A second later, a silver dragon shot up from somewhere in the trees to intercept. Mason’s pink scales winked in the sky as he set off to protect Jeff and Marie, but again, another dragon flew into the fray, delaying him. Damn it. Maybe those two had been the ones Tulia had seen and there wouldn’t be a surprise waiting for them when they got to the cottage, but he wouldn’t hold his breath. The two fighting his clan brothers in the air weren’t nearly big enough or strong enough to put on any kind of serious assault. No, they were the diversion.

He brought the four-wheeler to a gravel-spraying halt a few feet from the front door. As far as he could see, no one was around, but that didn’t mean anything. The flowers that had been set out for transplanting into the beds were strewn over the lawn, and the front door was ajar. Behind him, Tulia tensed, and before he could stop her, she hopped off the bike.

She might think to rush head-first into the unknown, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not while he was around to protect her. “Wait,” he told her as he stepped between her and the door. If she got mad, he’d deal with it later.

Marie’s fear permeated the air, agitating his dragon. He stood there for a second, his hand on Tulia’s arm, just in case she tried to push past him. Nothing stirred inside. He took a step closer, then another until he could reach it with his other hand, and gave it a gentle shove.

Still nothing.

He was about to go inside when a twig snapping behind them had Austin whipping around. Marie stepped out from around the corner of the cottage, her movements slow and a little jerky. Her whole body was tense as she looked at Tulia, then at him.

“Go. Go now,” Marie said, her voice barely above a raspy whisper, but it was already too late. Tulia slipped from his grip. Austin lunged for her, but she dodged him and was out of his reach before he could get to her.

An agonized grunt came from the side of the building, then in the next instant, a man that looked way too much like Charlotte to be anyone other than Reyn Rivers rushed out. He shoved Marie aside, sending her sprawling to land with a hard thud several feet away.

A shadow above blotted out the sun, and Austin’s heart skidded to a halt. “Get back, Tulia. Now,” he commanded, not caring if he sounded like an asshole.

Tulia’s eyes rounded. Her scream reverberated in his mind as a huge double-headed dragon swooped down, capturing her in its claws, and took her into the air.

Austin threw his head back and roared. Not much scared him, but the thought of losing his mate was more terrifying than anything he’d ever survived. The species wasn’t just vicious, it was deadly. It didn’t need force to kill its prey. A single bite from their poisonous fangs was all it took.

Austin didn’t bother stripping, he couldn’t have if he’d wanted to—his dragon would emerge, tearing through his jeans as though they were paper, one way or the other.

“They’ll kill her the second you take off,” Reyn said, his face a mask of crazed fury.

Pain lanced through every part of him as he forced the dragon down. “What do you want?”

“I already have what I want. But this is a close second,” Reyn said as he drew his hand up, pointing a gun straight at him.

Austin growled and stepped closer. He could handle a fucking bullet. He’d lived through being shot before—more than once.

“You really think I’m stupid, don’t you?” Hatred shone from the depths of the man’s soul. “You think I’d shoot you with a regular bullet? No. What I have for you is so much better.”

This made Austin pause. If he was incapacitated, he couldn’t save Tulia.

“Not so sure, now, are you?” Reyn spat. “Tulia was mine and she knew it. She sealed your fate when she let you mate her. Every time I fuck her, I’ll make sure to remind her that she’s the reason you’re dead. She’ll like that.”

A familiar roar up above shook the trees just as the gun went off, but Jace was too late. Molten lava burned through Austin’s gut as the bullet exploded into his flesh. More than the actual injury, the fire of the deadly chemicals blasted through him, taking him to his knees.

Unable to do anything about it, Austin watched as Reyn’s dark green dragon leapt into the air.

His breaths rasped out of his lungs in thin, wheezy bursts. Pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced tore through him. Pressure built in his head, pulsing and growing with each passing second until he thought his skull would crack wide open. Fuck.

He had to get up. Had to get to Tulia, but even as the thought entered his mind, his body gave out and he sprawled motionless on the ground.

“Go, now! Get to Tulia,” he heard Jace shouting, but Austin couldn’t move. Black spots danced where his vision ought to have been.

Heavy gusts of wind fanned against him. Dragons were taking flight, though he couldn’t tell who. It didn’t matter as long as they saved his mate.