Page 40 of Claimed By the Sinful Dragon
Gaheris leaned back in his chair, arching a brow, and I grunted. Point made.
“That doesn’t mean I’m willing to go to war for them. And last time I checked, you weren’t either.”
Gaheris shook his head. “You’ve been living behind your high walls for too long. You have no idea what’s happening out there, do you? The way the shifters live? The humans?”
I snorted. “You mistake me for some other kind of dragon. The humans are nothing to me.”
“They’re less than nothing to Uther and his ilk. Slaves. Cattle. And the shifters? All this time, Rook, all this time we’ve spoken about rebels in the east, and not once, not a single time, have you asked the most important question.”
The back of my neck prickled, and my beast stirred uneasily inside of me. I spoke slowly.
“Why are the shifters rebelling in the east?”
Gaheris leaned forward, the whiskey in his hand forgotten. “They’re being tortured. Hunted for sport. Bred to be murdered.”
“No.” It didn’t make sense. Uther was ruthless, sure, and he’d hated the wolves even before the war, sure, but— “Fuck.” I raked a hand through my hand. “He’s just letting it happen?”
Gaheris shook his head. “No, Rook. He’s not just letting it happen. He’s not even just encouraging it. He’s made it law. No young dragon is considered ‘of age’ until they’ve got at least one kill under their belt. Onewolf.”
“Fuck,” I spat again. “Why the hell did no-one tell me?”
“I tried, but you’re not the easiest guy to get a meeting with.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me on any of the times we’ve spoken over the phone in the last decade?”
“What, all three of them?” he countered. “And if you think it’s safe to speak about this on the phone, you’re even more naïve than I thought. Please tell me that’s not the case, because if we’re going to do something about this, then I need my old friend Rook, the feared warlord. Not—” he gestured me up and down in a distinctly unflattering way, “—whatever the fuck this is.”
I waved him off. It wasn’t that I was naïve, I just…was out of that way of thinking.
“So, are we?” he asked, holding my eye.
“Are we what?”
“Are we going to do something about this?”
My lips curved into a smile. “What do you think?”
Chapter 20
Kaylee
The ground wasuneven, and my calves were already burning. It wasn’t hot, but a sheen clung to my clothing, and I was pretty sure I had at least one new blister. I glanced behind me, keen to see my progress.
And then my glance became a stare. Rook’s home still loomed above me, it couldn’t be any more than half mile away. Fuck’s sake, it felt like I had been hiking and climbing for hours. I flexed my shoulders against the bag slung over them. Probably would have been a whole lot easier if I wasn’t lugging this thing with me, but grabbing it had seemed like a good idea at the time. I figured if Rook had put it together when he’d planned on tossing me out, then it probably had a few useful things in it. I hadn’t stopped to look inside though. I had no way of knowing when Lord Lock-People-In-Their-Rooms Asshole would get back, and I needed to be as far away from here as possible by the time that happened. It had taken me too long to get out of the window and down to the ground—turned out there was a shortage of useful things like vines and trees anywhere close to my window, and I’d almost fallen twice while climbing down. A broken ankle was the last thing I could afford. Lying around waiting for Rook to catch me was not on today’s agenda. No way was I ever going back there. I don’t care what agreement he’d had with the alpha of my pack before I’d even been born—Rook didn’t own me. And my own pack turning on me and giving me away didn’t change that.
With a sigh, I wrapped my hand around the bag strap, forced my eyes forward, and got my feet moving again. Rook had beenconfident about people not escaping from here on foot for good reason. This ground was deadly, and if I hadn’t spent most of my spare time at the pack hiking, I’d never even have made it this far. I’d spent as much time climbing as walking, and more time than that trying not to slip or trip. The average wolf from my pack would have broken an arm or twisted an ankle by now. But I wasn’t an average wolf from my pack. They’d put me through hell, and it hadn’t broken me. It had made me stronger, and Iwasgoing to keep going, and Iwasgoing to get out of here. And no-one was going to stop me.
I didn’t have a plan for where I was going, beyond ‘away’. I couldn’t go back to my pack, couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t just tie me up and hand me straight back to Rook. And I couldn’t stay anywhere else in this territory. There was no way of telling if there were more packs here, or more dragons, and how loyal they might be to Rook. It was too dangerous.
Trouble was, I didn’t know how far Rook’s territory stretched in each direction. My best bet was just to pick one and keep walking—or climbing—until I was as far away from here as I could possibly get. As far away fromhim.
I let the thought power me as the sun trekked across the sky, and Rook’s home became a distant dot. Its height made it easy to see, even after what had to be hours of hiking and climbing and scrambling, but as long as it kept getting smaller, that was fine by me. Occasionally it would vanish from sight entirely as I moved through a thicker part of the woods, and I waited until I was covered in shadow and sheltered under a particularly dense section of canopy before I allowed myself my first break.
Ireallyhoped there was food and water in this bag. Was I ever going to be pissed if I found he’d packed me a ballgown orsome ridiculous shit. Not that I’d have put it past him, I bet he’d have found it freaking hilarious.
My shoulders sagged in relief as I spotted the water bottle and I quickly pulled it out, pausing just long enough to sniff it and be sure it really was water, because I imagine Rook would have found the idea of me stumbling around blind drunk just as funny as the ballgown. But apparently his sense of humor had deserted him, because the bottle was filled with plain, simple,blissfulwater. I’d drained half of it before my sense kicked in and I lowered it regretfully. There was no telling how long this would have to last, or when I might next find a clean source of water. Half the planet was basically uninhabitable, and those parts that were—mypart—was as much contaminated as not. I’d heard some wildlife around here, at least, which was a good sign. Rook’s land obviously wasn’t completely soiled, but every wolf in my pack grew up on stories about not venturing outside the packlands lest the poison and the monsters got you. Then again, the monster was probably Rook…because it was hard to imagine anything scarier than him lurking out here.
Setting the water down, I rummaged through the rest of the pack, pleased to turn up a container that turned out, on closer inspection, to have some kind of cooked meat in it. At least I wasn’t going to starve—today, anyway. There was a change of clothes, too, though luckily nothing thatlookedlike a ballgown, and a pair of hiking boots that I wished I’d found a few hours back. They looked like my size, and brand new, too… My brow furrowed. Had Rook got these especially for me?
