My father hadn’t needed a cane. Far from it.
He’d always been an extremely fit man, and the memories I’d had of him carrying that cane had baffled me.
Until now.
“Holy shit,” Nikolai said. “That’s what he used to use that for. We always used to steal it!”
I remembered that, too.
And just the thought of having to go through the channeling of that power by myself was crippling.
“So what happened this time?” Skylar asked from somewhere beyond the wall of muscle that made up my club members.
“That,” I panted, “was Farrow, bonding with his dragon.”***
“This is like that Godzilla movie where it shows up in the middle of New York and starts tearing down buildings,” Blythe said at my side.
Blythe, Declan, and I had ridden to where I knew my baby brother was.
Which, of fucking course, was in the heart of Dallas.
He was visiting his girlfriend, Macy, and his dragon had landed on the fucking rooftop where the hospital allowed helicopters to land to bring in critical patients.
The dragon had already chased off two such helicopters as he waited for Farrow.
Farrow, the stupid fuck, was too busy doing his girlfriend to stop and think about the situation and who he was putting at risk.
The dragon, for instance, being the first such being.
The second would be all the other victims in the helicopters.
If Farrow didn’t get his shit in order, he wouldn’t have a dragon.
Mostly because I could see, right this very second, fifteen Purists driving up to the complex, with what looked suspiciously like a fucking cage on the back of it.
It looked like the truck I’d seen in Nikolai’s pictures, but much more reinforced. And worthy of holding a dragon.
An alive dragon.
“Fuck,” I hissed, awareness creeping into my mind at just what kind of predicament we were about to be in.
Nikolai, do you see this?
I’m going to kill him, my brother’s voice growled through my subconscious.
Agreed. I get him first.
If you get him first, I won’t be able to kill him. I get him first. You second.
Boys, my soon to be wife’s voice purred. Let’s find out what he’s doing before we threaten to kill him.
Turns out, she was right.
Go get him.
My brother followed my order, and five minutes after he breached the building, I got a distress call.
His girlfriend has him tied to the bed. And she’s holding a knife to his junk.
We let that hang in the air for a few long, stilted moments before I said, “Um, what?”
Blythe buried her face into my back, laughing so hard I feared she’d fall off Declan’s back.
Declan, can you get me down there without putting yourself at risk?
I got a huff of amusement from the dragon that clearly said, ‘You’re joking, right?’
“Alright, well stop fucking around and do it then,” I growled in annoyance.
“What about me?” Blythe asked.
“Stay with Declan,” I ordered her as we landed in the same alley where it all began over three months ago.
Had it only been three months?
It felt like longer.
Seasons…if not years longer.
“Be careful,” she called once I had both feet planted on the ground.
“Always am, Drakina.”
I had no way of knowing those would be the last words I’d say to Blythe for a very long time.
Because if I had, I would’ve never gone into that building.
I would’ve never left her side.
Because had I known, I would’ve taken the hit that was meant for me and saved myself some heartache.Chapter 19
I burn 2000 calories every time I put on fitted sheets.-Blythe to KeiferKeifer
“Let him go,” I ordered darkly, staring at the crazed woman like she was nothing more than lint on my shirt to be picked off and discarded as the lowest form of trash.
Her eyes fairly lit with fire.
“He used me!” She screamed.
“I did no such thing. I only told her that I couldn’t be with her anymore,” Farrow hissed through clenched teeth.
I would’ve, too, if I had my balls threatened with a knife.
Although, I never would’ve been in that position.
I had more brains than that.
“Farrow, you know what you have to do,” I ordered him.
His eyes closed.
“I love her,” he croaked.
It was only after I saw his mouth not move that I realized that he hadn’t spoken aloud, but in my head.
Do it. You’re about to have your dragon taken by the Purists before you’ve even had him, and my woman is unprotected out there.
He closed his eyes, grabbed the knife, and pushed her away from him in the same breath.
She went flying, and it was only the pocket of air that I used to cushion her fall that saved her from having her head bashed in by the wood paneling across the bedroom.
He swallowed thickly as he moved slowly from the bed, eyes stricken.
He gazed down at the unconscious woman for long moments before he grabbed his jeans off the floor of the bedroom, grabbed his boots, wallet and keys, and left the bedroom.