“Raidyn says that I’m his—his mate.” I stumble awkwardly over the words. “He says we’re fated,” I add, hoping one of these men can explain all this to me.
The dark-gray dragon lifts his wrist to his face and speaks into some sort of wristband. His language is a frantic stream of harsh syllables and tones I can’t understand. Then he turns his sharp, furious gaze on me and begins speaking again.
“I don’t understand you!” I tell him. “I don’t have a translator chip. But I swear to you, I didn’t hurt him.”
He grabs my arm—gently, I note—and pulls me up to stand. He starts to lead me away from Raidyn, but I jerk my arm from his grasp. “Wait! I can’t just leave him!”
I don’t know why, but I feel strangely protective of this dragon-man I just met, who calls me his fated mate and regards me like I’m precious—the most precious thing in the world to him.
Yeah, I’ve definitely read one too many romance novels.
But I trust him more than these other guys. Despite touching him, I can’t understand a word this dark-gray man is saying.
I yelp in surprise when he hauls me over his shoulder and starts for the castle.
“Wait!” I kick and scream in his hold. “I don’t want to leave him!”
He bands his strong arm across the back of my legs, holding them still.
“Put me down!” I yell.
He keeps walking, giving me no indication that he’s going to listen. So, out of desperation, I clamp my mouth around his wing joint as hard as I can, though my teeth don’t even seem to make a dent.
However, that certainly gets his attention.
He hisses and jerks his wing from my grasp, then wraps his tail around my wrists, binding them together.
“What the hell?” I cry out. “Put me down! I’m innocent! I didn’t hurt him! I’m his mate! I don’t want to leave him!”
I‘m hoping that if I keep telling them that I’m Raidyn’s mate, they’ll let me go. I can’t help but be worried for him. At first, I thought he’d stolen me, but now I realize he thought he was saving me. And… he was. John would have probably raped me if not for him.
A horrible thought crosses my mind as the alien turns down a hallway with me slung over his shoulder. What if they’re going to eat me? Now that Raidyn’s down, who’s to say these guys even care who or what I am?
Frantic, I struggle harder, desperate to escape. “Please don’t eat me! My people taste terrible, I swear! We’re—we’re poisonous! You’ll die if you try to eat me!”
The guard’s shoulders shake, and I freeze.
Is he…? “Wait a minute. Are you laughing at me?”
Another guard joins him and the one holding me growls something to him. The new guy shakes his head and they both start chuckling.
Anger fills me. “Put me down right now,” I push through gritted teeth. “Or I swear you’ll regret it. When I get loose, you’re going down.”
They start guffawing, the guard beside my captor doubling over as he barks out another laugh.
That’s it—these guards are jerks. Once Raidyn wakes up, I’m going to tell him everything and then these two jokers are definitely going to get demoted.
At the end of the long hallway, they step through a set of ornate doors. From my angle, I can’t see the room, but I assume it must be massive since their footsteps echo loudly through the space.
The guard slings me forward and lightly places my feet on the floor. Despite his obvious attempt to treat me gently, I bat his hand away.
He stares gaping at me as if he cannot believe I’ve just hit him. He only has a moment to look stunned before both men drop to one knee, bowing in deference to someone behind me.
I still. The hair rises on the back of my neck as I slowly turn. My jaw drops when I come face-to-face with an older version of Raidyn.
This must be his father, the king.
Dressed in long, flowing, light-gray robes, he looks every bit as regal and aristocratic as his son. Right down to the stubborn set of his jaw as he glares at me.
One of the guards relays something and the king’s eyes fly wide, then narrow as he turns his attention back to me. He leans in and grips my chin firmly, studying me like I’m a strange animal that just wandered into his home uninvited.
His lips pull back in a feral snarl that rumbles in his throat.
“You need to let me go,” I tell him. “Raidyn says I’m his fated mate. He asked me not to leave him. I demand you take me back to him. Now.”
He relinquishes his grip on my jaw, snapping at the guards.
They scramble to their feet and without warning, the dark-gray one slings me over his shoulder again. His tail wraps around my wrists and his arm encircles my legs, already anticipating that I’ll struggle. Which I do. Excessively.
“Let me go!” I cry. “You’d better hope Raidyn never wakes up. Because when he does, I’m going to make sure you both get demoted. Or better yet—fired.”
A chortled laugh escapes my captor.
“Yeah, laugh while you can, buddy. Soon, you’ll be jobless. Good luck working anywhere after you get fired from the royal palace. How’s that going to look on a résumé? I’ll make sure everyone knows how you’ve treated me.”
He stills and I wonder if he’s finally taking my threats seriously.
Instead, he pushes through a large set of doors and we’re plunged into almost total darkness as we start down another hallway. This one smaller than the last. Everything smells earthy and damp here. A cold breeze travels past us and I shiver. Whatever this place is, I already don’t like it.
A moment later, he tugs me forward
