Later, alligator, Jo thought to herself.
A minute later, in the produce section, Jo watched with amusement as Dallin got cornered by another woman—this one with a kid in her cart—who was trying to appear as casual as possible while hitting on the frustrated male.
Jo chuckled at the idea that the most threatening thing for Dallin at the supermarket would be other shoppers getting in his way because they were checking him out.
But thinking about it only made her annoyed. Even a little angry, though it definitely wasn’t because she was jealous.
No way.
The more she watched other women perv on him, the more Jo realized she needed to just remove herself from the situation. So instead, she headed for a quiet corner of the market, parking her cart and pulling out her phone to take a couple photos to post on her social media.
Normally, she loved her job. Loved always anticipating the next project, coming up with ideas to make delicious, visually appealing things for people to replicate at home or just enjoy watching being made.
But it was difficult to focus on things like confectioners’ sugar and egg whites when there was the possibility that everything she knew to be real in this world could change in an instant.
Of course, that was only if Dallin and that mysterious packet were telling the truth.
Behind her, Jo heard the click of the emergency exit door to the side of her opening, and for a split second, she wondered why it hadn’t set off the store alarm. Then again, those things were often disabled because kids constantly triggered the alarm, right?
Before she had a moment to turn and look, a hand covered her mouth, and she was yanked backward by someone much taller and stronger than her. Another figure grabbed her cart and pulled it with them, clattering heavily as she was dragged into an alley behind the store.
Before she knew what was happening, she was pushed to the ground, the smell of dumpsters mingling with the afternoon heat. She looked up, knees smarting a bit from being pushed down, just as one of the figures threw her cart to the side, dumping its contents all over the dirty asphalt.
The men—there were two of them—were clad in black leather jackets and wore dark shirts and jeans. They were both oddly tall, though not quite as tall as Dallin, and they appraised her with an odd, predatory curiosity.
Only then did she notice the pitch black of their eyes, so dark the orbs didn’t even reflect light off of them as they watched her with cruel grins.
“I told you I was right. Perfect timing. Her signal was getting stronger by the day,” one of the two men exclaimed excitedly.
Both men had long faces with pointed, sharp features and exuded a sort of otherworldly aura as they watched her.
Jo felt like she was looking at something that wasn’t quite human.
It was the second time she’d felt that today.
“Where’s your watchdog, beacon?” the meaner one said with a glare, coming closer to Jo with an ominous, outstretched hand. Her heart pounded with fear, all of her muscles clenching with the need to run or fight, though she could do neither.
Suddenly, the door through which she’d been dragged flew open, so hard the metal creaked and banged and stayed stuck in an open position.
But Jo didn’t have time to focus on that as a huge, raging figure appeared in the alley behind the two men.
“Right here, you chaos sons of bitches,” Dallin exclaimed, arms out, hands in tight fists.
Chaos? Beacon? These had just been strange words on a pamphlet not long ago. But right now, they seemed like very real things.
The two men in black immediately turned their attention toward Dallin. But a moment later, she heard one of them scoff, a dark chuckle that made her skin crawl.
“A dragon? That’s all?” The disdain in the dark, ethereal-looking men’s voices was confusing to Jo, given that Dallin looked like he was about to rip a train in half or something.
“Just go back to your master, little pet dra—”
In a motion that was quicker than her eyes could even fully follow, Dallin’s fist rocketed forward with a punch into the guy’s jaw, stopping him midsentence and sending him flying thirty feet backward into the alley. He would’ve certainly gone farther had he not been stopped by a brick wall at the end. She could hear the sound of stone cracking from the impact, though it might have been something else breaking too.
She could see the teal of Dallin’s eyes glinting in the sun as he turned to the stunned man on his left that clearly hadn’t anticipated what had just happened a second ago.
Jo hadn’t anticipated it either, to be fair.
It was like she was on the set of some movie. Only it was all real.
The man in the leather jacket raised his hands defensively, but they did nothing to protect him from Dallin’s leg as he caught the man in the side with a powerful kick that made the air whoosh around them. Like a person launched from a freaking cannon, the guy flew sideways, tumbling like a rag doll across the empty back alley before he rolled to a stop not far from his friend.
Dallin sent Jo a quick glance, the rage in his gaze softening for the barest hint of a moment before he turned toward the men down the alley. One was slowly extracting himself from the wall while the other just groaned.
How was either of them still moving after that?
Jo did a quick once-over, making sure she wasn’t hurt or even dead, given what was going on, before pulling out her phone to call 9-1-1 as she stood up. After all, she’d nearly been kidnapped. At least she thought so.
A sudden blast of green light and wind and heat filled the alley, making Jo drop her phone from the impact of it, rattling her slightly. But when she looked toward the direction of the light, all she saw was Dallin coming toward her, brows turned down in harsh slashes on his forehead.
And behind him, there was nothing but a faint green glow that dissipated into the empty alley.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that whatever had happened, the men were gone now. For good, if her intuition was right.
But who were they? Why had they been here? What was going on?”
“I—” Jo opened her mouth to say something, but Dallin reached her in the same moment.
And to her utter surprise, he pulled her into his embrace, huge arms encircling her closely.
“Shh, you’re safe now,” he said, his voice low and harsh but oddly soothing. A sound she didn’t even know she needed until she’d heard it.
And in spite of her racing thoughts, Jo just held him too, letting her pounding heart relax.
She didn’t have the slightest clue what was going to happen.
But she knew the world as she understood it would never be the same now that Dallin was in it.
5
His heart was beating like it was going to jump out of his chest.
He’d never felt like this before, not in his entire life.
How dare those bastards come near Johanna? Near what was his to protect. His.
Possessiveness like nothing else was still surging through his veins.
And with that, the strange desire to kiss her. To claim her as well. He didn’t have a word for it except the thought WANT in his head on repeat like a broken record.
Was this what it felt like to find the one?
No, it couldn’t be. He just wanted his collar off. That was it. He’d just been scared something might have happened, ruining his chances at freedom.