Claiming His Prize (Bad Boy Alphas) (Feral Breed Followings Book 2) (5 page)

“
I
’m not your mate
.”

Saern laughed, the sound echoing coldly through the chamber. “Of course you are, Treat. But we’ll get to that. First, do your job.”

His order practically dripped with arrogance, and I bristled in response. “Excuse me? My job—”

“Jane.” Mick’s voice made me jump, made me squeak, something that had the dragon cocking his head with interest. “Our friend here is going to join The Pack House soon, but he needs medical attention first.”

My stomach plummeted. This animal was coming to The Pack House. The wolves could be bad enough—rough and strong and filled with testosterone to the point of overload—but this guy would be a train wreck. He’d slaughter his opponents. The only one he could possibly fight and lose to would be Tidal.

Oh God, Piers.

“Jane,” Mick barked again, looking irritated.

I shook off my thoughts and focused on Saern, no matter how much I didn’t want to. “Medical attention. Right… For what?”

“Ignorant humans stealing the sky again,” Saern spat. “I clipped one of their wind machines, and it caught my wing. I can no longer fly, my treat.”

“I don’t—” I licked my lips, still worried about Tidal, still too terrified to move closer to the beast voluntarily. “I have no idea how to fix that.”

Saern roared a displeased sound, making the rocks shake all around me. I clung to the wall, curving in on myself. Forget The Pack House; this guy was going to kill us all here. But Mick didn’t cower. He just waved a hand in the dragon’s direction and waited until Saern had grown quiet again. Apparently, this was old hat to him.

“Examine the wing, Jane,” Mick said, the order clear in his tone. “His other wing is fine, so you can examine it as well to look for abnormalities and differences. Or you can examine Tidal’s when we get back.”

“Tidal isn’t going to shift in front of me.” I knew that, felt it with a certainty that infused my words. There was a barrier there, something between us that kept his dragon side from me.

“He will if I demand it.” Mick growled, deep and thick; a warning. “Now do as you’re told, girl.”

My body, my mind, and my heart sagged as one. This was my lot. Do as Mick told me to do, and be grateful for the chances he’d given me. I’d been his faithful servant for years, had done his bidding no matter how much I disagreed with him. I couldn’t start to refuse him now when we were in such dangerous company. Besides, it could be worse. Mick could have killed me already.

Fortifying myself with a deep breath, I took a single step forward, my legs feeling as heavy as concrete. “May I…examine your wing?”

Saern smirked, an exceptionally lascivious expression on his angled face. “By all means.”

He shifted directly in front of me, nearly knocking me over with the force of the transition. My heart pounded, my entire body growing cold and covered in goose bumps. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph… What the hell was I supposed to do with
that
? Taller than any man ever born, wider than three of them, the black-scaled beast sat blocking my path. Watching me. I tried not to look the animal directly in the eye in case they had domination hierarchy like wolves, but that didn’t stop me from seeing him. From noticing the details. The glistening moistness of his scales, the way he almost seemed to absorb the light. The near-constant hiss he released. This was a nightmare, a total and utter nightmare. And it was one I couldn’t just wake up from to escape.

As I edged around the side of the dragon, I slipped farther and farther into shadow. Saern blocked the small amount of light Mick’s torch lamp offered. I couldn’t work in that darkness.

“Light,” I said, holding a hand out to Mick. “Can you bring the light back here so I can see?”

He paused, his eyes flicking to the dragon. I knew that expression, though I’d never seen it on
his
face before. Mick was afraid of Saern. I couldn’t blame him; in fact, I almost pitied him. It had to be difficult going from the biggest predator to prey.

“Mick.” I nodded once when his eyes met mine. “Light? Please.”

Mick nodded and followed me, lighting my path. Saern didn’t move, didn’t turn or adjust his position one inch to make things easier on us. An act that struck me as telling. If Mick thought he was somehow in control of this situation, he was wrong. Dead wrong. And it was likely that I would end up paying for his miscalculation.

As I passed Saern’s tail, I stumbled over a pile of rocks. My arms flew up to stop my fall, my hands landing on the scaly back of the dragon. I recoiled at the feel, at the hard, cold, rocklike pattern etched underneath my palms. Saern sighed, though. Curving his back as if to elicit more touching. The move reminded me of Tidal craving the warmth of my hands. Of the fact that Tidal and Saern were one in the same. Both beasts inside. Both dragons.

Tidal just had more charm than this one.

As I finally reached my destination, I noticed the angle of the wing in question. The bone supporting the structure certainly looked broken, but I’d need to do a physical exam to be sure. Something I was dreading. I had no gloves with me, no barrier to keep between my flesh and his. But I had a job to do. I crawled up a pile of rocks to be able to reach Saern’s wings, and I let my years of medical training take over my thoughts.

With trembling hands and a sick feeling in my stomach, I ran my hands over the leathery flesh of the healthy wing. Saern didn’t move at first, just held stock-still as I gingerly sought form and function. Used my fingers to declare normalcy. When I was finished, I moved on to the damaged wing. Saern went stiff as my fingers made contact, so I paused and gave him a moment to collect himself. When he seemed calm once more, I tried to follow the outer support skeleton—the one with the definite angle where it should be straight—but jerked my hands away when the creature moaned.

“Am I hurting you?”

Saern dissolved before me, morphing into something from a nightmare. Half man, half dragon, some kind of dark, reptilian thing with patches of skin showing through scales. I swallowed down the gag his appearance brought on, trying to remain calm. To not be terrified by the…thing.

“Not at all, Treat,” Saern said, his voice a chilling combination of growl, hiss, and human. “The heat feels amazing.”

I nodded, my thoughts spinning off to Tidal once more. To how much he enjoyed the heat from my hands as well. To how cold he was compared to the wolf shifters at The Pack House. Saern felt even colder to me—chilled, almost—the ambient temperature in the cave probably the cause.

“Getting back to it, Treat?” Saern looked over his shoulder, his bugged-out eyes making me feel the need to bite back a scream. I swallowed and nodded, doing my best to stay professional. To stay brave. To ignore the instinct still yelling at me to
run
.

Saern continued to moan and groan through the exam, sighing when I placed my palms against him. I was diligent in my examination, if not a little quick. I wanted away from him and out of this cave. I wanted to be back at The Pack House with beasts I knew how to handle…and a dragon shifter who didn’t terrify me. I wanted all kinds of things I couldn’t have, but thinking of those wants kept my mind from focusing on the way Saern was obviously drawing a pleasure I wasn’t intending to give him from my touch.

When he shivered as I placed my hand at the base of his wing, releasing a purely sexual moan at the same time, I surrendered to my need to leave and cut my exam short.

“All done,” I said, hurrying away from him. “Definitely broken, though it appears to be knitting together slowly. Perhaps you should eat more protein and rest to encourage your body to repair itself.”

“How long?” Mick asked, staring at me, his face ashen even in the low light.

“I have no idea.”

“A few weeks,” Saern said, still in his half-human state. “Wings are not like other parts of me. It’ll take time to heal well enough to pull me through the air.”

Mick scowled. “You’ll fight in human form, though, so there should be no delay for our deal.”

Saern glared at Mick, his voice thick with hate when he spoke. “I will not fight without my wings. I understand your silly rules about not shifting, dog, but I will be whole before I purposely take on one of my own.”

Mick huffed, obviously not liking this development. Not liking it, but not giving up on his silly notion either. “Fine. You heal. We’ll be back tomorrow to bring you protein packs and to check on your progress. Let’s go, Jane.”

Saern smiled, the expression near horrifying on his current face. “Just one thing.”

Without warning, Saern shifted to his full dragon and grabbed me, pulling me right off the floor. His tongue flicked out, the forked end running all over my face and neck. I screamed and tried to wiggle my way out of his hold, but he was too big. Too strong. Even Mick just stood at the dragon’s feet, staring helplessly.

Saern hissed in my ear, and I whimpered in response. Something about the sound seemed to encourage him, though. He ran his scaly cheek against mine, hissing, his hands bruising me wherever he grabbed. His fingers spread wider, teasing areas he had no right to touch, making me scream again as I kicked and fought against his hold. But I was no match for him, for a dragon of his size and strength. No match at all.

Eventually, Saern shifted back to human with me still in his hold. We ended up with my body pressed against his humanesque one, with his arms wrapped around me in some sort of perverted lover’s embrace. He ground his hips against mine as he buried his face in my neck. Assaulted me with his arousal as his tongue left a wet trail along the curve to my shoulder. Enjoying himself, obviously. Making sure I knew exactly what my touch had done. Making sure I knew who had the power in this arena.

“Saern.” Mick’s sharp yell gave Saern pause, though he didn’t let me go. Not at first. But at least he stopped pressing himself against me. I was a shivering, nauseated mess, terror making my blood cold and my eyes fill with tears. But I was also filled with a rage hotter than a thousand suns. How dare Mick put me in this position? How dare this animal put his hands on me? For years, I’d worked by Mick’s side because he held the safety of my father over my head, but he’d always protected me. I was an asset to him. An asset he was apparently willing to sell off if it meant a good return in the ring.

Not anymore. I needed to figure a way out of this before Saern went further. Before he took what I would never offer him.

“You’ve made me hard, Treat.” Saern rocked his hips into mine one more time, chuckling as I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to pull away. “You’ll learn to like it, mate. Women always do.”

He set me down on my own feet, leering as he stepped back into the shadows. “I believe I shall take advantage of the warmth I feel from your touch to relieve my problem. You two may go. I will expect time with my mate daily until this ridiculous fight is over.”

And with that, he shifted to his dragon again and scrambled up the stalactites, hidden in the darkness once more.

Without waiting for Mick or his torch lamp, without heeding the one piece of advice he’d given me, I ran for the tunnel leading to the exit. It was dark, and I fell over the uneven floor repeatedly and banged into the walls, but I kept going. Kept heading for someplace safer. Kept trying to get away. The incline told me we were close to the mouth of the cave, though there was still no light. I ran anyway.

Finally, I stumbled out of the cave into the deep night blanketing the area, running through the shadows until I found the car. Mick was right behind me, lighting his own path.

“Are you insane?” I shouted as soon as we were away from the mouth of the cave. “You think dealing with that…thing…is a good idea?”

Mick growled sharply. “I’d remind you to mind your mouth.”

“And I’d remind you that you’re going to have an arena filled with humans, many of them women. That animal is…uncontrollable.”

“You worry about fixing his wing; I’ll worry about The Pack House.”

I sighed, desperate to find a way to reason with the man. Why couldn’t he see the issues Saern presented? “Sir, I just don’t think—”

“I didn’t ask you to think,” he spat. “Fix the goddamned wing, Jane, or I’ll drive over to that nursing home where your father is stashed and shift in front of him again. I already gave him two strokes. I can certainly influence a third. Do you understand?”

I recoiled as if I’d been slapped. Mick had never outright threatened my father, had never even brought up how my dad ended up needing twenty-four-hour care. I knew, of course. I’d been there when Mick had lost control and shifted to his wolf, had watched my dad’s eyes go wide, had seen his hand come up to his heart. I’d watched my father disappear as shock and fear caused a heart attack that led to a stroke that killed off a large section of his brain. Been by his side when the second stroke took almost all of what was left of him, leaving a shell of a man behind. I’d been there, and I’d done nothing to help him.

Ducking my head to hide the tears flowing freely down my cheeks, I backed toward the car. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Mick ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “One dragon in the ring has been amazing for revenue. Two fighting against each other? There is no limit to what we can make.”

“And if he kills Tidal?”

“So be it,” Mick said with a shrug. “The arrogant bastard needs a good beating anyway.”

Resigned but still hopeful Mick would do the right thing, I asked, “And what about me?”

Mick paused, looking uncertain for the first time since I met him. “We’ll figure out a way to break his claim. Dragons don’t mate like wolf shifters, Jane. They’re not as set. Perhaps we can entice him to leave you alone.”

I crawled into the passenger seat and turned my head toward the window, shivering. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, needing to be small and hidden. Refusing to voice what I knew to be true. There was no limit to the damage that thing would do. Especially to me. Mick had basically sold me to the dragon shifter, and there’d be no dissolving that deal.