Page 5 of The Dragon's Mate Proposal

“But I bet it wasn’t built with this in mind,” I said to the empty street with a chuckle, inhaling deep.

A brilliant blast of orange flame erupted from my mouth as I bathed the stone, metal, and glass in dragon fire repeatedly until the stone ran like water. After letting the worst of the heat dissipate, I went to town with my claws, ripping out the barrier, tearing it free with casual ease and tossing it aside as I burrowed my way in.

The lobby was large enough for me to stand up in. Which was convenient. Marble tile underfoot broke as I began to dig. Rebar and concrete shattered under my razor-sharp claws, and I scooped out ton after ton of debris.

There was a drop as I fell into a lower level. But I didn’t stop. I kept digging. Thick metal plating blocked my path to the next level, but dragon fire and claws rent huge gaps in it as well, and I proceeded to the next level. And the next. Past the subway and into the bowels of the earth, as I sought out the treasure trove below.

Yes. This will fix everything.

The floor below me collapsed with a suddenness that caught me off guard, and I let loose a shocked cry as I hit the bottom in a pile of concrete dust and other debris, my eyelids flicking closed to keep the irritant out. The sound of my landing echoed into the dark, and I smiled. I knew it wasn’t a pleasant look.

“Excellent,” I said, opening my eyes and letting them adjust to the dark, eager to see the piles of gold bars that would greet my arrival. A sight that—

Air rushed in through the nostrils on the end of my snout as I looked around in alarm.

“No!” I shouted, whirling, looking upon cage after empty cage, where the gold bars should be piled high, ready and waiting for me. “No, this isn’t possible!”

Howling in rage, I stormed through the vast underground chamber. There had to be some left. Even one cage that had been missed! I shifted into my human form, vaulting railings, kicking apart doors to explore every chamber.

But everywhere I went, there was nothing but emptiness.

“Was it a lie?” I hissed, returning to the main chamber, not believing what I was seeing. “No, it couldn’t. Not one of this magnitude. The gold was here. It had to have been. The miserable humans must’ve taken it with them when they fled.”

That made sense. It was just like them to care more about their wealth than the well-being of the millions of citizens they had left behind in the mega-cities of the East Coast. Cowards. Every single one of those in power.

However, my hatred for them didn’t solve my current problem because I was still in tremendous debt to Kalann and his partners. They’d hounded me relentlessly, but my work on the front lines of the war had mostly kept me out of their reach.

Now, though …

Angry at the universe, I let my dragon wings sprout from my back. Crouching, I leaped high into the air, my wings flexing downward and propelling me up like a bullet through the hole I’d dug. I popped out onto the ground floor, landing casually on the shattered tile, my boots crunching the logo of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. For a moment, I almost blasted it clear away with fire in a grand gesture of petulant anger.

“Not worth it,” I mumbled, walking out of the building, lost and confused. I had no path forward now. Nothing that would—

The dragon tail hit me in the side like a wrecking ball. I flew across the street, crashing through the glass window of another skyscraper’s ground level and sliding across the tiled entry until I hit the reception desk hard enough to shatter the wood. Lying there in the cloud of splinters, I coughed furiously, trying to catch my breath.

I could hear debris crunching underfoot as someone approached.

“Cade, Cade, Cade,” they said.

My fingers tightened as I located them with the sound of their speaking, placing them in my mind, even as my eyes remained closed.

“We’ve been looking for you, you know. Have you been avoiding us? That’s not very nice, you—”

Crunch.

The chunk of desk I’d grabbed slammed into their shoulder as I erupted out of the pile of wood. It broke over the speaker’s shoulder, but the impact was still strong enough to throw them to the floor.

I booked it for the entrance, but as soon as I was outside, a second man dropped down on me from above, slamming me into the ground with incredible force. For the second time in a minute, I was rendered breathless.

“Don’t run,” the new attacker chuckled, driving a fist into my kidney from behind as I lay face first on the concrete sidewalk. The blow was vicious, sending pain spiking through my brain. “We have so much to talk about.”

Another fist to my side followed that. And another.

I managed to gather enough breath at that point to throw the attacker off my shoulders. He tumbled through the air, but his dragon wings spread wide, steadying his flight until he landed easily on the balls of his feet.

“Come now, Cade,” he said, spreading his arms wide. “Is that any way to react?”

I snarled. “I’ll show you a reaction. Try me without surprise.”

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