Dillon pulled his wings into his body, but even that couldn’t make his bulky form fast enough to catch up to the dragon ahead. He recognized the scent on the wind as a dragon from Zander’s clan. The dragon had landed near the cabin and then lifted back into the sky barely a minute later.
Dillon’s only thought was of Isabella, still in the cabin even though she’d told Gavin she would move. If the dragon had done anything to her, Dillon would make sure the dragon would never fly again.
He gave up on trying to be sleek and pumped his wings with all the power of the hot rage simmering in his chest. Dillon’s dragon was bulky. It was made for taking enemies down quickly and holding ground against attacks. The dragon ahead had been sent because its form was built for speed.
His confidence wavered until he saw a small form in the dragon’s grasp. Isabella waved her arms. Alarm surged through Dillon. He tried to fly harder, faster. He needed to get to her, but he began to realize that she was not waving for his attention.
Isabella’s gesture told him that she wanted him to back off. She pushed her hands out then pointed down at the cabin.
He realized that she would not withstand an aerial fight. Humans could heal broken bones, but if she lost the baby, she would never be able to get that little soul back. He knew just how badly she wanted the child. It was her reason for moving forward. Dillon couldn’t risk her and the child.
Against his dragon’s will, Dillon turned back toward the cabin. He slammed into the ground, his beast folding back, so he could pummel the earth with his fists. The ground folded beneath his fury, but it did nothing to make him feel better. Trapped inside Dillon now, his beast thrashed.
It told him to track her down, to do anything to get her back. She was their mate. No one else meant as much to him. Dillon reasoned with the beast, but the argument made him stagger as he got to his feet. He felt pulled in all directions.
On one side, his anger and honor told him to go after. On the other, logic kept him rooted to the ground. Dillon grasped the sides of his head and fought the beast back until he could find a moment of silence.
His first move should be to call everyone. He didn’t belong to a clan so he could babysit their asses all the time and get nothing in return. They were a family, so they could protect one another.
Dillon stumbled into the house while his beast fought against him. Its only thought was of Isabella. It chanted her name, the sound growing deeper and more desperate by the moment. Dillon ran past Isabella’s room and into his own so he could grab his phone from the nightstand. It had a dozen texts and missed calls from her.
His stomach dropped. Guilt tried to take its place, but he shoved it aside to focus on the task. He fired a message to Casey before calling Gavin. Casey would forward the message to Erik once he got it.
The phone rang. His heart refused to beat as he waited for Gavin to answer. For a minute, Dillon thought Gavin would ignore him—or that Gavin had lost control to his beast again even though it’d been a while since Dillon had to track him down.
“What do you want?” Gavin breathed into the phone once he finally answered.
Dillon snarled. “Nate is in town. He took Isabella.”
Silence made the line buzz. Then, Gavin hissed and hung up. Dillon had thought that Gavin would want more information, but that seemed to be enough.
Dillon’s dragon told him that the need to be human was now over. The beast pressed against the inside of Dillon’s skin, making him feel as though he would burst. He ran back outside and scanned the skies, wondering if more dragons would come.
Just as he was about to unleash his wings and let his beast take to the sky again, his phone screen lit up. An incoming call flashed Nate’s name. Dillon hadn’t even realized he had Nate’s number in his phone. They’d been in the same clan; it shouldn’t have been surprising.
Yet, Dillon had never interacted with Nate. The wide berth everyone had given him had made him feel alone and empty. The threads that had bound Dillon to his own clan had trapped him in a cage. He wasn’t that trapped beast anymore. Dillon was a man with a family and a clan to protect.
“Give her back,” Dillon growled the second he answered the phone.
Nate laughed. “It’s good to hear from you, too. You know, we’ve missed you back home. Everyone has been asking when you’re coming back.”
“There’s no point in lying,” Dillon said. He knew better than to think anyone in that clan had thought of him once he left. If anyone mentioned Dillon’s name, they wouldn’t have remembered who he was.
“I was trying to make you feel better,” Nate said. “If you don’t want to play nice, you don’t have to. Don’t worry, though. I’ll be a good boy. Your lady friend is unharmed. I’ve got her sitting pretty with a room service menu and all the television channels she could ever want.”
***
While the visitor wasn’t lying, Isabella held back the urge to chuck the room service menu at the man’s head. She could hear Dillon’s voice on the other side. She hoped her mate would stay smart and wait for her to escape.
She glanced around. It couldn’t be that difficult to get out of a hotel room. Right?
She only had to wait for the dragon man to leave so she could sneak out and run back. She wouldn’t run all the way back to the cabin. That would leave her vulnerable and out in the open for too long. Isabella had other options. Evangeline’s shop wasn’t far. If Evangeline wasn’t there, then Nellie would be. Nellie would be able to hide them both.
Then Isabella would be able to call Dillon and tell him that she was safe. He would come and pick her up from the shop and protect her.
But how could she protect them?
She ran her finger over the sharp laminated corner of the menu as she watched the stranger. The man hung up the phone and shoved it into his pocket as he shook his head. When he turned back to her, there was a soft smile on the corner of his mouth as if he found this to be all fun and games.
“Why do you care if these men get on with their lives?” she asked. “They’re not doing anything wrong out here. Just go home and leave us alone.”
He raised a brow, his expression telling her that he thought what she said was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. “You haven’t met my boss. If I don’t get Gavin to head home and face his punishment, then I have to face that punishment.”
She knew this wasn’t about a father wanting to spank a petulant child. Zander hadn’t bargained with his son to bring him home. The man hadn’t even tried to reason with Gavin. If anything, she could tell that Zander was threatened by Gavin. Zander wanted to wipe his son off the face of the earth for simply being the better version of himself.
“Why give power to a man who will treat you like that?” she asked. “Even I know when to leave an abusive relationship. If you stick around a man like that, he’ll end up being the death of you.”
“You really think escape is that easy? Another dragon tried to escape three years ago. Zander brought us the dragon’s horn and threw it at our feet to show us what happened to traitors. That man died. Now Gavin is courting death, too.”
Isabella swallowed. This guy didn’t seem awful. If anything, he was scared.
She straightened her spine. “I hope you know Gavin doesn’t care about me. Just because I was at the cabin doesn’t mean I’m important.”