The green dragon’s eyes glittered with his fire, stoked to turn her. “Ready to be mine, sweet thing?”
She wrapped her fist around the hilt of her small knife. She had one shot at this. One.
Pinning her with his weight, he managed to work one hand up to clasp it around her jaw, squeezing painfully. “I’ve been waiting for my chance at a mate.”
No way was she letting this asshole try to turn her.
He just didn’t know it yet.
Rather than fight him, she held still. In the second he relaxed just the tiniest bit, falling for her lack of resistance, she struck. With the wail of a banshee, she aimed her dagger at his neck.
And missed.
The dagger embedded itself in the curve between his neck and shoulder. He roared his pain and fury and jerked off the bed, hand going to staunch the blood flowing from the wound she’d inflicted.
She took advantage and scrambled to her feet, then launched herself at his back, and, wrapping an arm around his neck, she stabbed the knife down into his chest. Then again. And again. And again. But the blade wasn’t penetrating deep enough to stop him. Damn dragons and their strong bones.
He reached back and grasped her by the shirt. Flinging himself forward, he launched her off of him. She tried to keep her feet under her as she hit the ground, but stumbled, and that was her biggest mistake.
Because in that small moment, he got to her. The shifter lifted her up by the throat and threw her against the wall so hard, her entire body felt it. The crack of her head when she struck the rock wall was so loud, even the sound was a reverberation of pain.
Hadyn fell in a heap on the floor.
Stunned and barely conscious, her mind was screaming at her that she needed to stay awake, to fight with everything she had.
But blackness was all consuming.
…
Another boom resounded through the mountain and Mathai smirked at Rune. “Didn’t you unlock all the entrances so your friends could join us?” the red dragon shifter taunted.
Fuck.
I should’ve burnt that war room to the ground and screw the possibility of needing the mountain defenses after all this.
“Pity,” Mathai said. “I’m sure you could have used the help.”
“What do you think I am?” Finn’s voice sounded from the darkness behind Mathai, coming from the direction of the dragon-sized tunnel.
The fighting suddenly grew louder. The Alliance leader’s expression broke its usual stoic expression, sliding into something so full of hatred, it turned his face grotesque.
“Indeed,” Mathai murmured.
Then he backed up a step, in the direction of the fighting where no doubt the other Huracáns were working their way through his men.
Rune waited. There was no way out.
His dragon was going berserk in his head, pushing him to go find Hadyn, but the way he needed to go was past Mathai and the fighting, so he forced himself, yet again, to delay.
“Very clever,” Mathai spat.
Then he placed his hand flat against the rock wall of the corridor. A door slid back in a grinding thunk. The Alliance leader disappeared in the blackness beyond, and the door slid back before Rune or Finn could so much as take two steps toward him.
“Fuck me,” Rune muttered in surprise.
But he didn’t have time to give chase. He turned to Finn. “Hadyn’s in trouble.”
“Go. We have this.”
Rune didn’t even wait for Finn to finish speaking before he was sprinting down the labyrinth of hallways, making his long, twisted way through the mountain to the residential section. Then up an impressive staircase that wound its way up what had always reminded him of a wide turret. He followed the scent of mint and the distinctly tangy smell the blue dragon who’d had her had given off.
Other smells joined in, but he made it to a doorway and knew beyond a doubt she was in there.
No guard waited outside, and no sounds came from inside. When he tried the handle, he found it unlocked. Slowly, carefully, he pushed it open, then froze. Black fire consumed his vision, his dragon roaring in his head.
A man loomed over Hadyn, who was sprawled on the floor looking far too lifeless for his sanity. Her bloody knife lay on the ground, probably knocked from her hand by the stronger, faster dragon shifter who was bleeding from several spots.
Rune didn’t even consciously know what he did. One second, he was standing in the doorway, the next, he was standing over the man’s body, a head dangling by a tuft of hair in Rune’s hand. He’d ripped the motherfucker’s head clean off.
With an uncaring toss, he dropped the thing and rushed to find Hadyn. She was out cold, but alive. Bruises were already forming across her jaw and around her neck. Carefully, he lifted her to the bed.
“Love,” he said gently, taking her face in his hands. Never had she felt so frail against his fingers. “Wake up for me. Open your eyes. You’re okay. I have you.”
Please gods, let her be okay. For the first time in his entire life, Rune wasn’t entirely sure if he could handle it if she wasn’t. He was supposed to protect her, dammit.
“What happened?” The demanding male voice sounded from the doorway.
Rune would’ve growled, but Chaghan was pushing him out of the way before he had the chance. Calling her name, they tried everything they could to wake her up, but nothing was working.
…
A solid hour later, Hadyn still hadn’t come to, and Rune’s dragon was threatening to burn the entire mountain down if she didn’t. For the hundredth time in as many minutes, he walked a few paces away only to turn and come back to stand at the foot of the bed.
His people had taken the Alaz mountain. That much had been communicated. At this point, he didn’t have a fucking clue about how many they’d killed, captured, or routed. Finn still had the teams of their helpers going through every nook and crag searching for remaining souls inside. A task made much more difficult by those damn hidden tunnels that they’d had no idea existed until now.
He didn’t give a fuck about any of that.
Hadyn wasn’t waking up.
What did that green fucker do to her?
The others were debating quietly between themselves about trying to match one of the dragons in the mountain with her blood type, hoping the healing properties of dragon blood would help.
Meanwhile he stood, useless, fighting back his dragon who was roaring so loudly, his head was starting to throb. He paced then stopped again.
If she didn’t wake up soon, he was going to need to kill something.
Qara glanced at him, then looked to her mate, likely communicating telepathically with him, because Chaghan turned his head as well, then moved away from Hadyn to come talk to him. Rune caught a glimpse of Hadyn’s pale face before her father’s bulk blocked his view of her. Bile surged up his throat.