With a growl, Ryker’s dragon took over and initiated the change. Seconds later a shimmering black dragon three times the size of the sports car stood on the road, testing his wings.
Vector sighed. “We’ll meet you there. In the car.”
Dragon answered, his telepathic voice a loud boom in both his companions’ minds. No. By the time you get there, we’ll be gone. She comes with me.
“This isn’t your territory. Where will you take her?”
Dragon would have laughed if he weren’t so eager to get to his mate. He’d been alive for centuries. Explored every part of the world. He knew the air and the mountains, the forests and the rivers. Earth, all of her, was his home. Airport. Tomorrow. Dawn.
“Fine. Don’t be late, Ryker. If you aren’t back in control and at that airport with Katy by sunrise, it won’t be a friend coming for you,” Alrik warned.
Dragon didn’t bother to respond before he launched into the skies. If his mate refused him, he would welcome the executioner’s blade.
Deep within, the human part of him agreed. One way or another, the chains must come off. Their torment would end.
* * *
Katy: it’s me, katy. new number. long story. where are you?
Katy: why aren’t you answering me? Whatever you do, don’t go to the palazzo. call me.
Katy sipped at her breakfast tea and tried to ignore the awkward silence at the large table. Erik and the twelve Guardians—which he’d told her were other dragon shape-shifters in his clan—sat around the table packing away food like starving giants. Erik had eaten little and continued to study her with a pensive expression on his face.
What was he thinking? She’d asked him hundreds of questions, and he’d answered them all. She wasn’t quite sure she believed him, wouldn’t think twice about dismissing his claims if she hadn’t seen those dragons fighting over the water with her own eyes.
She glanced at each person at the table in turn. The Guardians on the private jet knew everything, had overheard her discussion with Erik. Her confession.
When she told Erik about the plan to switch places with Emily, he had actually thrown back his head and laughed. “You think you can fool a dragon so easily?”
Even now, she stared at him, irritated. “Well, your kingship, we didn’t know about dragons.”
What a freaking mess.
“I want to see it,” Katy blurted before she could change her mind.
“See what, my dear?”
“Your dragon. I want to watch you shift, or whatever you called it, into your dragon.”
All movement at the table ceased as if by magic, every single one of them looked like they’d turned into stone with her words.
Erik turned his head to look out one of the many floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over a large stone courtyard, took so long in answering that Katy started to squirm. It was the only movement at the table.
“Very well. Come with me.” Erik walked away from the table and out onto the courtyard through a large set of enormous double doors. Knowing what she knew now, she wondered if the doors were wide enough to accommodate a dragon.
Outside, the cold wind coming off the water cut through her borrowed jeans and sweater. One of Erik’s many servants had brought her a selection of nightgowns, clothing, and shoes upon their arrival at the estate late last night. Katy had pulled on the warmest pair of flannel pajamas she could find in the stack of offerings and crawled into bed.
Erik’s castle was far north. As in, the-air-smelled-like-ice far. The ocean waves below crashed against the rocks menacingly, completely opposite the warm waters outside Ryker’s estate in Italy. The air itself was damp and cold and made her bones ache.
She missed Ryker. Which was stupid, because he’d been lying to her the entire time. He was, technically, still engaged to marry Emily. And he was a shape-shifting beast who wanted to impregnate her sister via IVF and then kill himself. Or, have someone called The Executioner kill him. That’s what Erik called the man.
No, not man. Elf. Not only was she supposed to believe dragons were real, but dark elves, light elves, werewolves. She’d stopped Erik there, her brain refusing to compute.
“I’ve totally lost it; that’s the only explanation for all of this,” Katy mumbled under her breath as she walked behind Erik. Finally, he stopped in the center of the stone courtyard.
“Please, step back. Once I have shifted, you may approach. Slowly. My dragon knows and has agreed to allow you to see him.”
Was she supposed to thank the dragon? She had no idea. Backing away, her heart racing like a rabbit’s, she kept going until Erik nodded that she was at a safe distance.