Authors: Dahlia Rose
She
bit her lip as a moan was wrung from her when he slipped his fingers inside her
and pushed her up against the wall.
“Come
for me,
Shaloh
.
Give me your essence,” Raul growled.
He
was relentless as he took her over the edge not once but twice until she could
feel herself sliding to the floor. Raul lifted her up and brought her legs
around his waist. He brought her down onto his cock and filled her up. Raven
was pressed against the wall as he thrust deep, again and again. He kissed her
as she wrapped her arms around his neck. It was like sharing a breath and she
became a part of him. It built inside her, the feeling of primal lust that made
her body shake and her flesh quiver around his thick rod. Raul pushed her past
the point of reason until she screamed his name as she came. “Again,” he said
harshly. He drove into her with wild abandon and she accepted every inch of him
into her soaking wet pussy. She arched into him, writhing even though she was
pressed against the wall. This time, when Raven came, Raul followed her with a
guttural yell that declared his possession. He walked her over to the bed and
placed her on it and she was so completely sated that she didn’t even open her
eyes when she felt him cleaning her with a warm washcloth.
“Lay
with me, Raul,” she murmured sleepily as he tucked her under the blankets.
He
pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently. “I’m here, sweet one.”
It
could’ve been the tension that fueled the hot sexual relief, but she was so
tired she could hardly keep her eyes open.
“They
all love you, Raul, and I love you too,” Raven said sleepily. “Don’t go there
alone, please. I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”
“You
won’t lose me. Hawke was right. You never know when love will find you, and
when it does you are unable to resist,” Raul murmured. “I love you, my
Shaloh
. Now sleep.
Tomorrow is another day.”
Raven
let sleep claim her and even then, as she struggled through her dreams where
she and Raul battled the
Shen
, instinctively, she
knew he was gone. He’d tucked the blankets around her tight, so she wouldn’t
know, but she felt the cool breeze as he opened the window and snuck out. She
sat up with a small cry and scrambled out of bed to find clothes. Her dragon
was gone and there was no way in hell she was going let him fight this battle
alone.
Chapter
Nine
The
rain meant nothing to Raul or the lightning that cut a jagged swatch across the
tumultuous sky. He had only one thing on his mind and that was to infiltrate
the
Shen
stronghold and find his father or the man he
thought was his father. His life had taken one big flip and turned everything
he knew upside down. The only constant in his life was Raven—her fiery
spirit and intelligent mind. When he told her he loved her he meant it, but first
he would take care of the
Shen
who held his father.
Then he would follow his heart directly to Raven and ask for the king’s consent
to be her mate.
Disobeying
Hawke would, of course, come with consequences, maybe even cause him to lose
his position as one of the twelve warriors. He knew all of this, but his
resolve was set. Tonight this needed to end once and for all. His life had been
a revolving door of relationships that meant nothing to him because he hid his
heart where no one could find it, locked it up, and threw away the key. But
Raven came along and she found where he had hidden his heart,
then
broke down walls to get to it without the key. Raul
found that he didn’t want to run anymore or fight off the feelings he felt.
Raven was his mate.
The
area where he’d noticed the activity was right below him. Raul flew high enough
that he would not be detected and used his dragon sight to access the comings
and goings of this new cell. The king wasn’t there; it had too small of an
entrance and not enough space in those old mines for the big motherfucker. That
beast would have no room to turn in there and would crumble
the
hallow
mine around his ears. They were up to something. That was for
sure. Probably holding women for breeding along with his father. Raul swooped
past the area to land on the other side of the clearing. There, he changed into
his civilian clothes he carried in a small pack. Raul moved stealthily toward
the mine, using the rain and cover of darkness to move in closer. There was no
way he could use the main entrance. Raul began to hunt for the secondary shaft
that all mines had in case of emergency or collapse. He found it behind thick
shrubs and thorn bushes. He had no problem being scratched by the spines and
thorns of the branches. He figured when Raven caught up to him she was going to
unleash a hell one hundred times worse than some measly thorns. But he also looked
forward to her wrath with excitement and a kick of desire. Her anger was going
to be foreplay when he got back home to her. Somewhere in the back of his head
a little voice asked him,
What if
you don’t get back home?
That was not an
option that he would even consider thinking about. As he climbed through the
shaft of the mine and slipped into the darkness, whatever happened would
happen. It was time for the truth.
The
stench of the
Shen
enveloped him. The musty smell of
their skin and sweat made him want to cover his nose, but he needed both hands
free. They lived in nests and lacked for hygiene. You could smell one a mile
away. He moved slowly, trying to mask himself against the darkened rocks and
hoped they wouldn’t notice his own scent over their filth. He could hear them
skittering about the front as he moved deeper into the mine. The old mine
shouldn’t be this hot and he knew they probably had made fires to warm
themselves, plus used their liquid secretion from their own bodies to make it
habitable. They mixed it with leaves and paper, whatever they could find, to
make a nest. He’d take a long shower, maybe two when he got out of this hole. The
thought of touching the rock walls made his skin crawl. Finally, he saw an old
access tunnel and a
Shen
sitting out front, standing guard.
That had to be where they were holding his father. He crept closer and at the
right moment he lunged and caught the
Shen
over the
mouth before he could yell. With a quick twist, he snapped his neck and dragged
him into the shadows. After dropping him on the floor, he moved into the tunnel
and came into a room, where a cot sat in the corner. He saw an outline of a
figure lying there and his heart leapt as he moved toward it. When he dragged
the covers off, he saw lumpy old sacks of rocks and his father’s emblem pinned
to one. It was then that he knew he was caught in a trap—one made by his
own stubbornness. He heard laughter at the entrance and turned to see the
Shen
looking at him cheerfully.
“Welcome,
dragon of the court. We were hoping you’d join us for dinner,” the leader
snickered. It was the same one, the general, who he fought and the one who
threatened Raven. “First you, and then the beauty who helped you live the first
time around. This time, it will end differently, I assure you.”
Raul
smiled grimly and flexed his muscles beneath the T-shirt he wore. Maybe he
wouldn’t be making it home after all. He should have expressed more fully his love
for Raven, given her his shield. He should’ve taken her in front of the king as
his mate when they were in Paladin. There were a lot of things he should’ve
done and now realized he may not get to. He wasn’t going down without a fight,
that’s for sure. They would try to keep him from shifting because then the
battle would change and he would have the upper hand. He would rip as many of
them apart as he could, starting with the bastard who wanted Raven. He would kill
him first. He would lure them into the open tunnels where they couldn’t
restrain him and then he would shift.
“Let’s
see who will be left standing at the end of this game,” Raul smiled coldly and
rushed forward with a roar. The battle was at hand.
* * * *
Raven
paced back and forth in the penthouse. She was acutely aware of
Daisye
watching her every movement and that only seemed to
irritate Raven more. How could they expect her to just sit there and not go
fight for the man she loved? She knew she shouldn’t have warned the others of
his leaving. She should have just taken off after him, even if she didn't have
a way of getting there. Just because they were dragons didn’t mean she could
leave Raul’s fate in their hands. Oh, hell no, she was going to help her man.
“I
can see the wheels in your head turning, Raven. We are not going,”
Daisye
said firmly.
“If
it was Hawke in that situation would you just be sitting here?” Raven
practically shouted. “Unless you have a
taser
hidden
somewhere that can keep me down, I’m going and that’s final.”
“How
will you get there without a car?”
Daisye
asked.
“My
mother’s dig site leader taught me how to hotwire a car when I was twelve,”
Raven replied.
“No
need for that. I’ve got one waiting downstairs,”
Daisye
got up and put on her coat. “I was just timing how long before you actually
stopped pacing so we could get out of here. Hawke should know better than to
order me to stay put. Sometimes I think I may have to bean him on the head.”
Raven
grinned. “Let’s go help our men.”
“I’ll
drive. I’m badass on the roads,”
Daisye
replied.
With
that, they found a common ground that cemented their friendship. Raven slid
into the passenger seat and had barely fastened her seatbelt before
Daisye
pulled out with a screech of the tires. She was a
badass driver all right, with emphasis on the bad. Raven found herself praying
to actually get there alive. The woman shouldn’t be allowed to drive.
“Are
you sure you have a license?” Raven demanded to know.
Daisye
laughed. “Don’t worry, kitten, I’m a pro
at this.”
“Lord
save us,” Raven muttered and began repeating the hail Mary’s she had learned
from Sister Lucia in Chile.
By
the time
Daisye
finally parked, Raven was ready to
roll out the car and kiss the ground. One thing was certain. She was flying
home in style on Raul’s back.
Raul,
his name careened through her and she took off running with
Daisye
yelling behind her. She barely glanced up when she heard a cry from above. A
dragon flew by with a serpent in its mouth and dropped it out of the sky. She
heard it crash into the trees nearby, and from that height the
Shen
serpent had to be dead. The dragon wasn’t Raul. This
one was red all over except for one long string of gold scales along its back all
the way down to the tip of his tail. Raul would gleam in the night as moonlight
glinted off the emerald green and gold of his dragon form. Raven kept moving
forward towards the sounds of fighting that were getting clearer and louder
with each step. She ran through the brush, hardly noticing that they scratched
her cheeks or pulled at her clothes. All she wanted was to get to him and make
sure he was okay. Just as she got free and into the clearing she heard a roar
and the ground shook. Most of the ground in front of the mine was littered with
dead and mangled
Shen
. She had seen three dragons
outside of the mine, none of which were Raul, so she knew he was inside the
mine. The rocks of the mine suddenly began to crumble inward. She screamed Raul’s
name and tried to rush forward, but a dragon with fiery red scales stepped in
front of her path while
Daisye
, who had finally
caught up, pulled her back.
“Raul,
Raul!” she screamed and with a burst of strength broke free from
Daisye
. She ran towards the rocks of the collapsed mine and
began to struggle with moving them. “He could still be alive. Help me!” she
screamed.
She
turned and saw that Hawke, Aki and
Lleau
were now in
their human form and completely naked and all were staring at her with sadness
on their faces. “You sons of bitches, come help me!” She was not going to lose
him now. If she had to dig every piece of stone out herself and find him, she
would.
Hawke
came over and took a rock out of her hand. “The collapse affected the entire
mine, Raven. If he wasn’t able to shift in there he would have been crushed.
Aki saw it all collapse from the sky. There is no way—”
“No,
don’t you dare give up on him. Don’t you dare!” she sobbed. “If you had gone
with him, if you hadn’t ordered him to stay…” She fought with him, pounded on
his chest, and pointed to the three men who called Raul their brother. “You
killed him, all of you killed him!”
She
tried to run past
Daisye
who caught her in her arms
and she crumpled to the ground. She looked up at the woman who was openly
weeping as well. Raven wondered why
Daisye
was crying.
She didn’t lose Hawke. She still had her man to hold her at night and to love
her unconditionally. The ground began rumbling again and she heard more rocks
slide and grate against each other. She couldn’t look, to see the mine caving
in even more. The thought of him being in there was more than she could stand.