Chapter 3

For several beats, Tulia couldn’t tear her gaze away as the tall male with pale, blond hair pursued her attacker. Her dragon cheered, but Tulia wasn’t foolish enough to think he was any better than those who chased her. There was something wild—fierce—in the way he looked at her. Possessive. Like he already considered her his. Her heart stuttered. For all she knew, he was from the Black Wing clan, sent to retrieve her directly rather than go through her Alpha to get her. He didn’t smell like the Black Wings she’d encountered before, but that didn’t mean a thing. Either way, she wasn’t waiting around to find out. If she was quick enough, with him battling Reyn’s man, she might get away.

With more effort than it should have taken, she turned her back on the stranger and ran. Her backpack was still on the ground where she’d dropped it when she’d been attacked. Grabbing it, she slung the strap around her neck as the sounds of footsteps crunched on the leaves and moss behind her. Reaching into the pocket, she wrapped her fingers around one of the stakes. She hadn’t gotten this far only to be taken straight to captivity.

On shaking legs, she whipped around, wielding the small weapon as though it were a mighty sword. “Don’t come any closer,” she said, her voice as tremulous as her legs.

Standing there naked, facing a male she had never laid eyes on, should have had terror filling every part of her, but it didn’t. His gaze met hers and stayed there, rather than dipping down the length of her body like that of the other male’s had before he’d backhanded her across the face and grabbed her by the hair had.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, his voice soft. He held his hands in front of him in as non-threatening of a manner as a six-foot-four male with extra wide shoulders could. He took another step closer. “Put your weapon down, and we can talk.”

Talk? Yeah, right. She wasn’t an idiot. And she sure as hell wasn’t giving up her weapon. “Stay where you are,” she demanded.

“My name is Austin Brighton,” he said as he came closer, extending his hand toward her stake. “I’ve been sent to retrieve you—”

Tulia gasped, her heart pounding, and stepped back. Not looking where she was going, her foot landed on uneven ground. With a painful twist, her ankle gave, and she stumbled. Her body lurched to the side, and she swung her arms out, trying to regain her balance.

A sharp scrape against her skin had a pinprick of searing heat blazing in her thigh. It blossomed into a scorching fire shooting down her to her foot and up her torso. Her movements slowed as every muscle seized. One moment, she was flailing, trying to keep from crashing to the ground, and the next, her arms were a dead weight she couldn’t lift and her legs no longer supported her weight.

“What the hell?” Austin shouted as he came to her with a wildness in his eyes that made her heart stutter.

She couldn’t force her lips to move. The burn in her leg and torso flared into an inferno, then slowly receded to a dull ache as the numbness set in.

Austin’s gaze flicked to the male lying on the ground where she’d left him with the stake still protruding from his body, then back to her. “What’s on there, Tulia? What poison are you using?” he asked, his voice loud, strained.

Helpless to do anything, her heart raced as he picked her up and started toward the center of the clearing, his gaze never leaving hers. “Is it natural or synthetic? Blink once for natural. If it’s synthetic, I’m going to have to find a healer—fast.”

Her eyelids were slow to respond, and it took more effort than she would have liked, but she blinked once. The worry etched on his face compelled her to give him the information he demanded. Even though she was the one in trouble, her dragon wanted to soothe this male.

He exhaled and looked up at the sky. “Thank God,” he muttered before he laid her on the ground at his feet. From her vantage point, she had a clear view of the hulk of a man towering over her. Thick muscles lined the columns of his legs. She forced her gaze higher, past his manhood to his chest and arms. This wasn’t about checking him out—though from what she’d glimpsed, he was ogle worthy—but about assessing him. How hard it would be for her to get away when the time came. Her heart sank. Every inch of him exuded strength and raw power. Damn.

If she could have, Tulia would have cried out her frustration, but there was nothing she could do. Not until the hemlock ran its course and her body rid itself of the toxins keeping her immobile. The one saving grace was that it was at least a day-long flight back to Eldurcrest and a bit longer to Black Wing.

Although she couldn’t be sure due to the numbness of her limbs, she didn’t think she’d stabbed herself with the stake. For one thing, Austin hadn’t pulled anything from her body, which she figured was a good sign. A scratch would deliver a lot less of the compound. Within an hour or two, the effects should start to wear off. Unfortunately, if her research was correct, with that would come blinding pain, but she’d handle it when the time came.

He gazed into her eyes for a moment longer before standing and glancing at the male still motionless a short distance away. When his gaze found hers again, the cold fury shining back at her started her heart hammering against her ribs.

“I’ll be right back,” he told her before he stepped away.

She’d been ready to do whatever it took to get away from Reyn’s men—kill them, even, to guarantee her safety—but that male was defenseless. She didn’t want to watch him be murdered in cold blood, yet she couldn’t keep from staring as Austin strode over to him.

Tulia’s heart beat faster, pounding in her ears. The other man’s scent morphed from fury to fear in an instant. Austin’s hands fisted at his sides, and a deep, vicious growl rumbled from his chest.

“From this moment on, Tulia Mills is under the protection of the Dragon Blood clan. Come near her again, and you’ll forfeit your life. Take that to your leader,” he commanded, his voice rough and raw, power lacing every word.

Tulia’s breath hitched. She was under Dragon Blood clan protection? She tried to think back to the conversations she’d had with her father about different clans. He’d listed those he considered friends and which he considered foes. But try as she might, she couldn’t recall which category Dragon Blood fell under, or even if it had been mentioned at all. She’d been so focused on trying to keep a step ahead of the enemy in the past few weeks, she hadn’t paid close enough attention.

Austin grabbed another pack she hadn’t noticed a few feet away and looped it around his back before coming to her again. He slipped hers from her body, his gaze only drifting as low as needed to accomplish his task before taking her clothes from where she’d left them, stuffing them into her pack, then slinging it, too, around himself.

“I’m going to shift and get you out of here,” he said as way of explanation, then stepped back.

Austin’s gaze never left hers as his body expanded and scales erupted where his skin had been. The sight of his dragon stole her breath. Iridescent hues of all colors shone over his deep purple scales. On any other dragon, it might have looked feminine—delicate even—but with heavy muscles bulging with his shift and his very male form, there was no mistaking the man beneath.

Mine, the she-dragon purred inside Tulia’s mind, but before she could process the proclamation, Austin wrapped the claws of one foot around her, cradling her entire upper body, then leaped up before grasping her legs in the other and flapping his mighty wings, taking them both up into the air.