Page 41 of Dragon Boss

With a scream of fury, she threw herself forward, took the steps separating her and Gregor, and shoved his arm up just as he fired. The arrow lodged itself in the ceiling as Dmitri got to his feet. He was shielding his father the following second and she couldn’t blame him. Gregor, however, was practically breathing smoke in her face, eyes glowing yellow like the sun.

“Fuck you,” she hissed.

He smiled, wrapping an arm around her, swirling her around. She had no idea where he produced it from, but as the crossbow fell to the floor, a knife was pressed at her throat.

“No!” Dmitri yelled, taking a step forward, his hand held out.

“Oh? What, is this not turning you on?” Gregor asked. “You know, if this is your true mate—this pathetic excuse for a dragon, by the way—then I feel truly vindicated because I can’t imagine you were born to be a ruling head if your soul chooses someone like this to share that throne.”

She wanted to put her elbow in his torso, kick back at him, reach down and grab that ugly cock of his, twist it out of shape through the front of his pants, listen to him scream with pain. But she couldn’t bring herself to move. The blade at her throat was sharp enough to bite through her skin without much pressure. She was certain it would be enchanted to cause maximum damage if pressure was applied.

Her inner dragon was breathing fire through her veins, but she kept herself still.

Dmitri’s eyes were glowing embers at her, his frustration and outrage shining through. She met his gaze with one that was steady. She didn’t want him to do anything stupid. She didn’t want him to risk his life for hers. She had a feeling he would, though.

“It’s okay,” she said slowly. “I’m okay.”

Gregor chuckled behind her.

“He’s okay, you’re okay, we’re all just okay, aren’t we?” he asked. “Stay there,” he added to Dmitri, the hand that was gripping her arm tightly guiding her to step backward with him as he began to drag her away from the fighting.

Dmitri was beginning to look desperate, but she needed him to trust that she’d be all right. Somehow. She had to trust it. This was her former lover. She had to have learned what some of his buttons were. Though, truth be told, she supposed she had never really paid much attention to him. She’d never truly known him.

“You’re making a mistake,” she said. “Half of your men just died back there. You’re outnumbered!”

“Shut up.”

He dragged her down through a series of hallways, into the parlor with the wounded portrait. Her heart was skipping beats in her chest, though she tried hard to stave off the fear. Thinking as clearly as she could, she said, “You’re going to be at war, you know that, right? My father will never work with you. And if he doesn’t, then neither will the Aslanovs. They’ll come for you; don’t you get that?”

“I doubt it,” he sniffed, pushing her away from him.

He picked up a gun from a nearby table, pointing at her head with a casual air. He looked like a little boy with a toy.

“Sit down,” he instructed.

She had a seat on the same chair she’d been in when he brought them down off the roof.

“What are you even doing?” she asked.

“Will you just shut the fuck up?” he exploded.

He grabbed a roll of plastic wire, and she realized exactly what he was doing. He was tying her up again and whatever his plan was, the wire was sure to keep her from shifting. Shifting was her one way out of this. She closed her eyes, started the soft heat, feeling it spread through her veins. She hoped Dmitri would forgive her for smashing through the beautiful room, but before she could even begin scaling she felt the cold mouth of the gun between her eyebrows.

“Stop that,” Gregor warned.

She did.

He wrapped the wire around her wrists and pulled her to her feet harshly, wrapping it around her upper body as well. She clenched her jaws together as her inner dragon roared to be free.

“You’re such a fucking asshole,” she said.

“And you’re a fucking idiot,” he responded, cutting the wire with his teeth, making a tight knot. “Now, let’s see if we can’t poke a real fight.”

“What are you even talking about?”

He merely smiled, pulling her along to the window, opening it and stepping out on the ledge, his veins beginning to glow with the initiated shifting. She stared at him as he reached in, taking a firm hold of the wire crisscrossing all over her chest.

“No,” she said.

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