Page 40 of Dragon Bodyguard
“What are you saying?”
She sat up properly, her heat disappearing from along his side. He wanted to pull her to him again, tell him they should just forget it. But he couldn’t.
“I’m saying your father made a deal, years ago, that a child of his would go to the Volkovs. He traded you for the deal they’re now involved in. The deal that’s falling apart. And the Volkovs are cashing in.”
“What?”
“I’m saying your father is part of it. That he’s the one who orchestrated the kidnapping. I’m saying that’s why he’s been more attentive, why he brought you on this trip.”
She stared at him, her eyes wetting with tears as the implications began to sink in, seemingly making sense to her.
“To make me seem like I’m a fully acknowledged offspring,” she filled in. “To make the Volkovs believe that he cared that he’s losing me. To make the deal carry more weight, but when he made it… He traded me because… he doesn’t love me.” She sucked in her lower lip to keep it from trembling, but tears still filled her eyes as she finished, “I don’t matter.”
“Hey,” Misha said, shifting so that he was facing her, taking one of her hands in his. “You matter.”
She wasn’t looking at him, keeping her gaze fixed on the carpet. Then she pulled her hand free and rose to her feet, saying, “He wouldn’t.”
“Kristina.”
“Hewouldn’t,” she repeated, beginning to pull her clothes back on.
“Where are you going?”
Tugging her pants over her hips. “I don’t know.”
“You can’t leave,” he said, watching her pull on her shirt, buttoning it haphazardly as she slipped her feet into his shoes. “Those are mine,” he commented.
She didn’t offer neither comment nor reaction to that statement, keeping them on as she headed up to the front door. She quickly figured out the double-lock, got the door open, and stalked outside. His eyes trailed her, concern and amusement mingling until he recognized the severity of her traipsing across the grounds, especially in this area.
The damn CCTV.
“Kristina!” he called after her.
Odds were in their favor that the right people would be watching and that they’d be fine, but the risk was that the wrong person caught sight of them on those monitors and then they’d be fucked.
He got to his feet, pulling his pants on, ignoring the rest of the garments as he followed her, barefoot, outside.
She was stomping in that decisive way she had, through the trees, hair flying. She stumbled; his shoes were too big for her. He didn’t want to keep yelling her name. There could be strangers in the forest, invading dragons roaming the estate and their kin had better hearing than most creatures. He’d already been foolish once.
“Hey,” he hissed. “This isn’t safe.”
“I don’t care,” she said, glaring at him over her shoulder. “If my father is doing this to me, then I want them to take me. Let them! Here I am! Come get me!” she yelled, throwing her arms up before turning her eyes to the sky. “Show me your faces, you fucking cowards!”
“Jesus,” he swore, keeping his voice down as he caught up with her, grabbing her wrist to make her halt. “Stop it.”
“No,” she said, this time yanking free with ease. She was stronger than he’d expected. Her inner dragon flaring around her irises, telling him to keep back. “We’re going back to the house,” she stated.
“Kristina,” he repeated, hoping that her name would somehow be enough to reach through the anger he could tell was growing uncontainable, but her inner dragon sent itself glowing through her veins, showing her mounting fury.
“My whole life,” she said, shaking her head. “All I’ve tried to do was fit into what he said I should be. Or not be. I watched my siblings… half-siblings and I thought, wow, if I could only be a bit more like them. Even if it was just a little bit more. I didn’t know how, so I kept to the side and to myself and thought that was all I was ever really going to get anyway. And I made peace with it. You know? I wasn’t ever going to get brought into the fold. Well, look at me now.”
She smiled, and in that moment, she looked more dangerous than he’d ever seen another dragon look.
She turned, veins firing white hot, and in the next moment she shifted, changing shape from human into a gorgeously blue-scaled dragon.
He stared as she took off running, spreading large iridescent wings and taking off into the sky.
A blue dragon.
