Page 81 of The Dragon's Mate Proposal

They would all pay.

The goon I’d kicked through the wall came charging back through it, hitting me in the midriff. I twisted as I fell, landing on top of him. My fists came crashing down, blasting through his rushed defenses and breaking a nose.

“Asshole,” Lincoln snarled, coming out of nowhere with a vicious left hook that rocked me backward into a huge shelf unit. The entire thing groaned as wood was pressed to its breaking point. Several pieces snapped, but I slumped to the ground instead of going through it as the supports held.

I lashed out with a kick as Lincoln came close with a little too much arrogance. His shin snapped, and he screamed in agony, immediately falling to the ground.

The move left me wide open to the other thug, who delivered a brutal blow to my stomach, doubling me over as I tried to stand. His knee came up, but I was already yanking my head aside. Instead of a knockout blow, he merely grazed my chin, sending me stumbling back.

I reached behind me and chucked whatever I could grab from the shelves at him as he charged. The boxes didn’t slow him down, but they did force him to bring his arms up to protect his face.

Which was how he ran straight into my foot, driving the wind from his lungs. I snapped a kick to his head as he staggered, and in slow motion, the thug toppled down.

Baring my teeth, I headed for the back. Now, it was down to just Reed, Kalann, and myself.

I kicked the door open, instead of taking the obvious route.

“Sam!” I shouted—

And pain blossomed in my mind, vicious and cruel, driving me to my knees. Samantha screamed in matching agony as they did something to her. White-hot nails drove themselves into my skull, immobilizing me.

Reed snatched me by one arm and tossed me into the room. Across an open space, Samantha was bound to a chair. Behind her, Kalann had his hand shoved down the back of her shirt.

Through the haze of pain rendering me immobile, I knew just what he was doing.

He was pulling the scale from her back.

“That is quite enough, I do believe,” Kalann said, removing his hand as I lay on the ground, panting.

“I’ll kill you,” I whispered.

Kalann rolled his eyes and then reached into the tatters of Sam’s shirt and yanked again. As I bellowed, she howled, the sounds winding around themselves into a symphony of agony.

When Kalann finally stopped, he spoke quickly and without preamble.

“Here’s the deal, Cade. It’s simple. You sign over the gold mine to us. That land becomes mine and mine alone. Then we call our debt settled, and you’re free to go and … be with your human.”

Breathing heavily from the echoes of pain in my mind, all I could do was glare at him. If he thought I would simply ignore what he’d done to Sam, then he was in for a rude surprise.

“I want him dead,” Lincoln rasped as he appeared in the doorway on one leg, the other bent hideously sideways. “Dead! Kill the bastard!”

“Shut up,” Kalann said coldly. “There were five of you. If you couldn’t stop one of him, then you deserved what came your way.”

“He shoved a hook into Jarl’s eye!” Lincoln screamed furiously. “I want his head!”

“Lincoln.” The cold fury in Kalann’s tone got through to the irate shifter, who suddenly realized how perilously close to the line he was.

Nodding once, he started to leave the room.

“Now, then,” Kalann said conversationally. “Where were we?”

“You were going to hell,” I spat.

Kalann yanked the scale from Sam’s back once again, simply grabbing and pulling it partway up without even responding to me.

Sweat poured down my face.

“I’m sorry,” I gasped, staring at Sam. “I’m sorry for getting you into this. For—”

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