Page 1 of Fallen for the Two-Headed Dragon

Chapter One

Dana

“You won’t be fertile forever, you know. I really want us to start thinking seriously about our future family.”

Jackson’s words drifted past Dana through the mountain air, which was becoming more and more crisp as they made their ascent. This hiking trip through the Rockies was supposed to bring them closer together, but he kept spewing the same rhetoric about her fertile eggs as always and pushing her to get a job to support a nonexistent family.

“You should tell the temp agency tomorrow that you need something long-term and sustainable for kids, especially something with upward mobility. Ask about the maternity program.”

“Okay.”

“Are you even listening to me?” Jackson whirled on her. A rock scuttled from underneath his thickly treaded boot. Dana watched as it jumped over any pebbles in its way and passed between her feet to make a turbulent escape down the mountain pass.

“Of course I am, Jackson,” she exasperated. She slipped her glasses off and wiped the lenses on her athletic tank top, causing even more streaks to line her eyesight when the plastic frames settled back onto her nose. She ignored them and walked past him with a practiced calm.

At this point in the three years they’d been together, she’d become an expert at tuning him out. Much like the way he tuned her out every time she reiterated that she didn’t want kids. The cosmos only knew who was winning the argument, although it appeared Jackson had already decided.

She was as afraid of dying alone as the next person, but that wasn’t the reason she stuck around. Jackson had supported her as she followed her passion for writing. At least financially, he’d supported her dreams of authorhood while she made very little income to contribute. If not for him, she would be living with her mom and sister in her hometown of Witmore, likely driving to and from Colorado Springs with a part-time job and writing only when she had the time.

She owed Jackson a great deal for how much he’d done for her. If not for her sense of guilt and duty, maybe she would have left. As it was, she was beginning to wear down.

They paused at the lowest peak on this trail, which was still a decent summit. Jackson slipped his arms around her waist from behind. The gesture was so gentle, she leaned into it and thought, maybe I’m being ridiculous. At twenty-seven years old, she knew plenty of women her age who were happy to be mothers. Her friend Cicily had an unexpected pregnancy and she constantly preached about it being the best thing to ever happen in her life.

Maybe it could be that way for Dana, too.

Jackson sighed. “This view is great. The only thing that would make it better would be if my hands were resting all the way out here”—he held his hands out as though her belly were bigger than a basketball—“instead of this flat strip.”

“Right, like I would be climbing mountains if I were a whale,” she snorted. Leave it to Jackson to remind her exactly why she didn’t want to waver on the kids thing just as she was considering giving in.

Thankfully, Jackson was utterly predictable and couldn’t go a full five minutes without reminding her she was a baby farm. With a shake of her head, she reached for her glasses as he retreated from her backside. It must be the altitude messing with her head, tricking her into believing his little gestures could be anything other than ploys to get his way.

The ground scraped under his feet somewhere behind her. His hands firmly met her shoulder blades and he grunted with effort as he shoved her off the mountain.

There was no time for anger or shock. Wind surged past with too much force for her limbs to fight, the noisy rush deafening. She hardly registered that she was falling, but her body took the beating of the cliffside. Not far down, she hit a slab of flat cliff with enough force to steal the breath from her lungs. The impact slowed her descent significantly and she slid, then tumbled on her side until she reached brush. She rolled and rolled, her whole body scraping and chafing as she bowled through the brush.

Her body was limp and battered by the time she reached level ground, rolled down a small incline, and plummeted deep into a bear cave.

“Asshole!” she shouted when she realized she was alive. Every bone and muscle in her body screamed with pain, her synapses on fire. The fact that she was alive was a miracle.

“That cock-sucking bajingan! Jancok kon!”

She lay still and checked in with her body. Her elbow felt funky and didn’t want to move from its crooked position. That’s fine, she could live without an arm, right? Blood covered her in many places, a whole chunk of skin missing from her thigh. It was grotesque to look at but didn’t feel broken. It would definitely get uglier before healing.

If not for the cliff a couple yards down breaking her fall along with her tuck-and-roll skills, she would have died. Had that been Jackson’s plan for this trip all along? Or had it been a spur of the moment thing? Agree to have his babies or die, apparently. She’d narrowly dodged that bullet. Moments before he pushed her, she’d truly considered giving in. That fucker almost got his way.

Her aching muscles revolted as she lugged herself into a seated position. With a full-body wince, she reached for her glasses but came up with empty air. Great! Just what I need. She would have to come up with money for new glasses on top of everything.

Okay, okay. She could do this. She just needed to climb out of the sloped tunnel and blindly find her way out of the woods. This was the same park they always hiked. She could get to the trail and find her way to the convenience store to call a car. Luckily, her pack and supplies seemed to have survived with her. If she made it home tonight, she could at least grab some personal items and her only remaining pair of contacts before heading to her mom’s house in the morning. The bastard was probably going to continue his hike and stay at the lodge for the next couple nights as planned, because why not?

A large, strangely shaped red rock took up most of the discernible area of the cave, but there were piles of junk strewn about as well. Shiny objects glinted and vied for her unfocused eye. Peculiar items, sparkly things that wouldn’t usually be found in an underground cave, even if someone were squatting there.

“Weird.”

The textured rock moved. Two long, thick pillars of crimson extracted themselves from the main lump and moved forward, sending her scrambling back with a hiss of pain.

Two sets of eyes settled on her. Dana frantically looked between them, her neck whiplashing from side to side as all four eyes blinked slowly. A translucent membrane slid across the slitted irises followed by a heavy red lid. Both snouts dragged in deep breaths that commanded the air around her, sucking her tattered sleeves up toward them. Long, thin, forked pink tongues flicked out from both mouths, revealing double-lined rows of teeth as they dragged over dry lips.

Dana screamed. She catapulted out of there as fast as she could. She ignored the blazing hot pain in her elbow as she leaned on it to climb and the searing open wound of her leg as she stumbled.

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