Page 19 of Her Dragon Defender

Tremotino had threatened his mate. Which meant he could not suffer Tremotino to live.

Blaze left his mate on the balcony and raced inside, to find Tremotino almost out the door.

Not while he drew breath. He seized Tremotino around the throat and lifted him into the air.

"My men threw you out. You have no right to be here!" Tremotino wheezed. Like the man had any authority right now.

"I got bored and left. Your men had nothing to do with it," Blaze growled. "I only came back for her. Good thing, too. I thought you were trash when all I thought you did was develop land illegally. Now, it turns out you not only rape priceless historical sites, but you're turning your villainy on people, too? What makes you think you have the right to hold women against their will in your castle, so you can have your way with them?"

"She's my price!" Tremotino coughed out. "My fee for hosting this ball for that bloody school that lives rent free on my property! They have their balls here, and I get one girl to do whatever I want to for the night!"

Mirror Academy was selling their students to trash like this? When he was done with Tremotino, Blaze was going to pay that so-called headmistress a visit. This time, a whole army of gargoyles wouldn't protect her.

Then his mind caught up. Not one ball, but multiple balls. Eden wasn't the first girl he'd taken. What if the last girl he'd tried to claim was Diana?

"What did you do to my sister?" Blaze hissed.

Tremotino grinned. "I fucked her senseless, while she begged and pleaded and screamed for more. Just like all the others. They love it, you know. Being showed who's boss by a real alpha male."

A man who had to drug women to get close to them.

"Coward!" Blaze bellowed. He slammed Tremotino into the floor, and felt considerable satisfaction when something cracked. He longed to smash the man's face, but he'd get no answers out of Tremotino if he had a broken jaw. So he aimed lower, breaking a couple of ribs instead.

Blaze took a deep breath. "Tell me where my sister is, or the next one will turn your head into pulp."

TWENTY-THREE

"Coward!" Blaze bellowed. A moment later, Eden heard a solid thump, followed by another. "Tell me where my sister is, or the next one will turn your head into pulp."

Eden knew she should have been horrified at the thought of such violence – of one man killing another, only metres away from her, so she'd be a witness to murder – but after all the things Craig said he intended to do to her while he had her tied to the bed, helpless to stop him...she wished she could ask Blaze to turn dragon, and use his claws to slice a few bits off Craig, before he killed him.

Did that make her a bad person? She already knew she wasn't a real fairytale princess. Sure, she wanted to spend the rest of her life talking to and taking care of animals, but...ah, hadn't the Disney Rapunzel hit people with a frying pan? And she'd had a lizard, not a dragon. She'd always related better to Flynn than Rapunzel in that movie, coming from the foster system and all. Not to mention her desire to raise money to start an animal sanctuary...not so different from Flynn's dream...

Yeah, but now she'd caught her breath, she wouldn't have said no to Rapunzel's frying pan so she could whack Craig with it.

"Where's my sister?" Blaze demanded.

"I don't know! I've never met your sister!" Craig sobbed. "But I'll make sure you're arrested for this. Maybe she'll come visit you in prison!"

No. Blaze might be a dragon, but he wasn't the villain here. Time Craig got a taste of his own medicine.

Eden crossed the room and grabbed the vial on the table. She twisted off the lid. "Hold him down," she instructed as she knelt down next to Craig, and pinched his nose shut. A moment later, when he gasped for breath, she poured the contents of the vial down his throat.

Before he could spit it out, Blaze's uppercut closed his jaw. A second punch knocked him out cold.

"Is he dead?" Eden asked.

"No, but he will be if we stay here any longer. I'll pull down his castle on top of him, too. I'm not sure I can restrain myself, after what he said he'd do to you," Blaze growled. "I need to get you out of here."

Eden reached for the door. Once again, it was locked. "We'll have to go through his pockets for the key," she said, eyeing Craig with distaste.

"I have a better idea. If we fly out of here, no one will ever know I was here, and no one will see us leave. When he wakes up, not remembering anything, he won't be able to come after you. Or me."

Eden shook her head. She'd stood on that balcony, and looked at how far down it was. Too far to climb and... "I can't fly," she blurted out.

Blaze grinned. "But would you like to?"

Before she could answer, they were out on the balcony again, and Blaze was transforming before her eyes. Bigger and broader and scalier and...in one mighty claw, he scooped her up, tossed her onto his back, and dived off the tower.

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