Page 44 of Devoted to the Dragon

The call on my dragon goes unanswered. She is so deeply asleep that it feels almost as if she has disappeared. Whatever the Council hit me with was powerful. The hole where my dragon should be is so vast I think I’ll split open.

But I can’t focus on that yet.

A search of the crash site doesn’t lead me to my wolves. I survey the area, sniffing to help me. It isn’t my dragon’s nose, and I huff at my stupidity. My brain still can’t comprehend my dragon’s absence, and it takes me longer than it should to orient myself with the night sky, but then I’m racing toward our checkpoint.

The Council is in the forest, their howls filling the night air. My feet are getting torn up without my dragon’s skin, but I keep weaving through the ferns and underbrush, searching for signs of Fennik and Gunnar.The forest grows darker, but I should be nearing the river, which will take me to the cave. I scan the trees as I go, listening for water.

A clamp sounds, the snap of a trap set. My body is suspended in midair, and the world tips over.

Chapter 21

Knox

“It looks like you’ve been caught, dragon,” I chide, stepping from the shadows.

I’d hoped the dragon would manage an escape during the night. Her door didn’t open until morning, and instead of leaving, she’d marched into the Council and proved herself to be a bigot, like the wolves. Her hatred for my kind is so ingrained that when Sloan offered her an out, she chose to fight with fire.

It’s better this way. It’s easier to ignore the temptation to do something reckless, like kiss her. Instead, I focus on her hatred and try to let it fan mine.

The dragon dangles precariously from a tree by her bound ankle, the net tight around her. The harder she fights, the more it sways. She curses and tries to free herself, but it’s useless. The powerful dragon who mowed down wolf after wolf has been reduced to a tiny human.

I step closer and catch the net. She fights, of course, but she is trapped. And even though it’s twisted, the fact that she’s naked and bound for me makes my dick hard. I pull her closer and hold her head between my hands.

“These traps are the king's idea of security, and I must admit I’m surprised they worked. I prefer shadow-walking, but apparently, that’s creepy and frowned upon in wolf country,” I explain.

Why the fuck am I talking? She is nothing to me. I owe her nothing.

Despite what I tell myself, one of my shadows severs the rope. She drops to the forest floor with a thud, moaning. Before she recovers, I straddle her hips and pin her with my weight.

Up close, she is just as beautiful as I imagined, even though bruises and scratches mar her skin. She is covered in blood. Hers. The wolves’. So much blood that her white hair is streaked black in the low light and her pale skin looks as if it was splattered with paint.

She spits in my face. “Kill me already, snake. If you don’t, know that when I escape, I won’t hesitate.”

Without conscious thought, my shadows open and take a real taste. The moment her energy touches me, it’s ecstasy. Her soul… It sings. It’s an orchestra of blinding light, iridescent and shining so fucking brightly. Her energy is so powerful it rearranges my insides and reorients me to her sun. My serpent slices through the net, compelled to free her.

She surges forward, attacking me with her nails as she struggles against my shadows. Those nails of hers as sharp as fuck. They dig deep into my chest. My face. My dick pulses as a pained pleasure rips through me.

We tumble, and she breaks free, scrambling to her feet and taking off into the forest. The moonlight catches her skin, and where the light touches, she seems to glow. I chase her, compelled, tethered by an unseen leash.

She trips, trying to weave through the thick ferns and foliage, and stumbles on slow human legs over rough branches. In herweakened state, I easily overpower her, pushing her against the trunk of a towering tree.

I’m desperate to understand why I can’t get her itch out of my skin. My hard cock nudges against her back, and the feel of her bound in my shadows makes me shiver. Nothing about this makes sense. Everything is twisted.

My breath saws out of me, but it isn’t the chase. My face, where she clawed me, feels as though it’s on fire. The blaze burns down to my soul, making everything in my body hurt and sing simultaneously.

“What is—” My strangled words falter, the fire so intense it feels as if I’m turning to ash. Everything I thought I knew scatters away in the blaze.

The dragon stops fighting, staring at me wide-eyed over her shoulder.

A long guttural howl fills the air, followed by another and another until the forest vibrates with the sound. The wolves have scented her blood and are coming for her.

The dragon’s eyes lock on mine. Her golden eyes are bottomless, beautiful, and hauntingly sad. Her claws might as well take my eyes out too because I know that I’ll never be able to see anything but her.

The air between us charges with static electricity, and her energy reaches for mine. My shadows lunge for her. I lean in, and for the briefest moment, she meets me, her soft lips brushing against mine before she remembers we’re enemies and she bites my tongue. She pulls away, her eyes dropping to my chest.

Mine follow, and it all makes sense. The rune for mate burns brightly, glowing where the brand of magic has awakened on my skin. My magic responds, my shadows coiling around us, finishing the binding between us. The serpent strikes, my fangs piercing the dragon’s shoulder.

Her lips open with a pained gasp. “What have you done?”

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