Page 55 of Daddy Billionaire Dragon

I curl up on my side with my eyes still screwed shut. I am going to fall asleep, and when I wake up, I will be in Lex’s bed, safe in his arms. It’s not real. It’s not real, I chant in my head till mercifully, my exhausted brain shuts down and I fall asleep.

Chapter 30 - Lex

After a few hours of hard flying, we reach the Grand Canyon. When I shift back, the conversation I had with my dad about a dragon shifter surfaces in my mind.

“What if it’s the Carnelian?” I ask, looking at Pat. Damon’s eyes dart from my face to Pat’s. He doesn’t know about the Carnelian.

“But didn’t you say he died?”

“What if he didn’t? Other than the Carnelian, do you know of any other shifters who frequented the Canyon?”

Pat scratches his chin and looks at me thoughtfully.

“Perhaps you’re right. But how does that help us now?”

“We need to look around the north rim. That was his haunt.”

We quickly fill Damon in on the Carnelian’s story. Then we shift and fly to the north rim. It is still a huge area to cover. We decide we will remain in our dragon forms and do an aerial survey. Damon quickly tells us how to do a grid search aerially. But even if we do this systematically, it might take us days to scour every inch of it. And after all that, it might turn out to be a false lead.

The only saving grace is that both me and my dragon know that Nic is largely unharmed. I know it the same way I knew she was in danger. If I needed any proof that a deeper connection exists between Nic and I, this is it.

A lot of things still don’t make sense, but one thing I’m absolutely certain about now is that Nic and I belong together.

Hang in there Nic, I’m coming for you, I think in my head, hoping she’s able to hear me, as we take flight and begin the search.

Chapter 31 - Nic

I don’t know what it was exactly that woke me up, but I’m wide awake now, and to my dismay, still in the cave. But my captor is not in the cave. Daylight is breaking over the horizon. The firewood has burnt down to embers, so the cave feels terribly cold. I hug myself to stop myself from shivering.

In the dim light of the day, a large part of the cave is still thrown in darkness. I force myself to stand up and walk to the mouth of the cave. Perhaps I’ll finally get my bearing. Perhaps I’ll even be able to escape.

When I’m at the mouth of the cave, I crane my neck and try to get a 360 degree view. Red-brown layered rocks are all around me, stretching for miles upon miles. Not a single soul is in sight. Below is a sheer drop as I had surmised the night before. I think I’m in a canyon. The Grand Canyon? Perhaps. The landscape certainly looks like it. How the hell did I get here from Pittsburgh? Even though I kept drifting in and out of consciousness, I know it that it hasn’t been more than twelve hours since my kidnapping. So how the hell did I get to the West Coast so quickly?

I might never be able to figure it out, just like I might never be able to escape from here. A sense of deep despair overwhelms me. I consider climbing down the mouth of the cave, but it is too risky. If it were only my life I was worried about, I might even have done it, but I have my baby to consider. Lex’s baby. Tears prick the back of my eyes when I think about Lex. I wish I had given him the news face to face. That way, I would have at least been able to see him one last time.

Through the tears blurring my vision, I see a large figure hovering in the distance. Sunlight is glinting off its translucent silver body. It is long and has wings. I know what I am seeing but my mind refuses to accept it. As if sensing my gaze, it turns its head to look at me, then starts flying towards me.

I scramble to my feet and rush inside the cave, trying to find something that might serve as a weapon. But strangely, while my mind is scared, my heart knows that I am not in any danger. The large dragon is flying rapidly towards the cave. There is no way that something that large will fit in this small cave. I’m safe after all.

But before my very eyes, the dragon gets smaller and smaller, till it transforms into a human shape, which rolls into the mouth of the cave. The figure is clad in a black wetsuit. It gets to its feet and turns to face me.

It’s Lex! Lex is the dragon! How can it be? Have I finally lost my mind?

“It’s okay. I’ve got you,” he says, taking me into his arms and pressing a kiss to my forehead. It is definitely Lex, but he is a dragon?

I suddenly lose all strength from my limbs and I feel myself slipping into unconsciousness yet again.

Chapter 32 - Lex

We had followed Damon’s aerial grid and had been systematically combing the north rim for several hours when I spotted the faintest glow of light coming from what looked like a cave high up on a rock face. I had almost thought I had imagined it, as when I looked again, it was gone. As pre-dawn broke through darkness of the night, a movement caught my eye deep down in the gorge. I looked down to see a dragon. He was the color of the rocks in the gorge, which offered him a perfect camouflage. I was of two minds, should I try and capture this dragon shifter and force him to take me to Nic, or did I continue my search for Nic. It took only a moment for me to decide. I breathed flames into the sky, a signal we had agreed upon if we found something, to get Damon’s and Pat’s attention. They would go after the dragon shifter while I tried to find the cave.

I flew closer to the cluster of rocks from where I had seen the light emanating. But there was nothing there. And then I saw her! I saw Nic looking out of the mouth of the cave. I went so weak with relief that I almost fell into the gorge. When I finally held her in my arms, she promptly passed out. The shock of seeing me shift was evidently too much for her already stressed mind.

In a way, I am glad she passed out. I flew her out of the cave and stopped only when we landed on the roof of one of the best hospitals in LA. Luckily, the doctors here are very discreet and I know a few of them personally.

Nic has been slipping in and out of consciousness ever since we landed here. After the preliminary examination, the doctors were able to confirm that she is largely unharmed. They wheeled her in for an ultrasound to see if the baby is alright.

Damon and Pat aren’t here yet, but TJ and Liam are expected any minute. I spoke to them over the phone once Nic was examined by the doctors. They have uncovered an important lead. I’m pacing impatiently in the waiting room when I see them.

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