The Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lore) (13 page)

“Explain,” he snapped. “Why are you trying to hurt Luca?”

Raw temper flashed in her pale green eyes as she took a step closer to him and poked him in the chest. “I’m not
trying
to hurt him. I’m just going to kill him.”

Pissed off at how cute she was angry, he kept his face neutral as he cocked a brow at her. “What did he do to deserve death?”

Her mouth snapped shut as she studied him. “I’m not telling you,” she finally decided as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the bed’s footboard. “You’ll only try to stop me, or you’ll agree with him, and I’d rather not have to hurt you, too, at the moment.”

He cleared his throat to keep from barking out a laugh. “Try me,” he said.

She had that stubborn tilt to her head that said she was hurt but was masking it with anger. “He said dragons don’t have friends.”

He frowned in confusion. “He’s right. We don’t.” He held up his hand before he moved over to crouch in front of her, bringing them closer to eye level. “Why do you want to hurt him for that?”

“Because, damn it, he’s let you hurt for the last two thousand years without trying to help!”

All humor gone, Daniel went rigid. “Let it go, princess. This isn’t a battle you need to fight.”

He should have known better. “No!” she yelled at him as furious tears shined in her eyes. She was back on her feet, prepared for war. “You saved my life. You think I set you up to be killed, and yet you saved my life. You’re still protecting me, and he just lets you live with this hell in your head!”

His jaw clenched tight against the anger raging through him, barely managing to grit out, “I don’t need to be fixed.”

She snorted at him as she rolled her eyes, the effect completely ruined by the tear sliding down her cheek. “Okay, Daniel.”

She needed to stop this shit, and she needed to stop it now. He closed off, determined to use every weapon in his arsenal to get her the hell away from him. He wouldn’t let her go far, of course, but he wasn’t a project, and he wasn’t going to keep her.

Knowing it would hurt her and push her away, he crossed his arms over his chest as everything about him went bored. “You’re good, princess,” he murmured quietly. “I’ll give you that. So what’s the end game here? Keep me close until you can get to a phone?”

Her beautiful face crumpled. “You think I would ever let anything hurt you? I’ve spent the last eleven months trying to find you, just to make sure you were alive.”

He snorted at her. “I mated to you that night.”

Fire glinted in the depths of her eyes. “I’m aware.”

“I just tried to kill you.”

“You were dreaming.”

His brow winged up again. “I accused you of trying to have me killed.”

When she just stared at him, her face mutinous, he stalked over to her, impatient and pissed off. He needed something from her–to yell at him or scream, or even try to kick the shit out of him–just
something
to let him know he was getting through to her. His people needed the little sanity left in him, and his pain-in-the-ass mate insisted on screwing even that up.

She leapt at him suddenly. Even as he braced for impact, her tiny body hit his, wrapping around him and holding on.

Just like that, and just for a second, Daniel forgot why he was fighting. She held on as if she didn’t ever want to let him go. His face buried in her hair before he could stop himself. Even as it staggered him how much he needed her, he closed his eyes and breathed her in, letting her soothe some of the ragged spots deep inside of him.

Ryuu.
He was an idiot. He knew it. He didn’t know what part of him was so messed up he needed a woman this much, especially a little hellion who refused to let him have any peace, but he couldn’t shake this need for her. He couldn’t make himself let her go.

His lips skimmed over the delicate curve of her throat. A soft, erotic sound of pleasure escaped her, and that was all it took his body to go rock hard and aching. Dragging his mouth to hers he sunk into it as he turned, backing her into the window, not bothering to hold back any of his confusion or need or pain. If she wanted him so damn much, then she could deal with all of him.

Her legs wound around his waist as he hitched her up, her mouth as greedy as his. But when her slender hand slid over his damaged shoulder, reality hit with the force of a Mack truck. He nearly dropped her as he jerked back, a low savage sound rumbling through him.

“Stop it,” he snarled, her beautiful eyes dark with hurt and confusion.
“Ryuu.
Stop being so fucking naive!”

As her pain slashed through his own chest, it was sheer stubbornness and force of will that had him setting her down so he could walk away from her.

He escaped into the kitchen. Opening the fridge, he grabbed a couple of beers. He tossed one to Luca. Because his legs threatened to give out, he sank to the floor. Too exhausted and pissed off to move, he simply pulled his knees up, resting his arms against them as he dropped his head against the cabinet behind him.

Fuck. He realized she wasn’t going to accept breaking the bond. Worse, if she found out he wouldn’t survive the fracture, there was no telling what the hell the woman would do.

It didn’t make sense. He’d battled Hunters, werewolves, and every other kind of shifter out there. He’d fought in countless wars, had commanded armies of tens of thousands, humans and dragons alike, fought mythical beings all lost to legend. None of it had ever scared him like his mate did.

“You look like shit.”

“I know.” Closing his eyes, Daniel brought the beer bottle to his throbbing temple. “
Ryuu.
What do I do, Luca? How the hell can I even begin to make this right for her?”

He felt Luca sit next to him. “Talk to her. Cage is a bigger bastard than you are most days, and Seren still loves him. He’s a damn dragon hunter, she’s a dragon, and they still find a way to make it work. So you accused Shelby of attempted murder. If it helps, I thought she was going to take the butcher knife to me.”

Despite his raging headache, Daniel snorted. “She would have. I’m not sure she would have killed you, but you’d have known not to piss her off and insult me again by the time she was done.”

Luca was quiet for a long moment. “I never thought you’d do it.”

Daniel pried an eye open. “Do what?”

“Find someone who fit you.” Before Daniel could respond, Luca continued. “Do you want it to work with her?”

“No. She’s too soft and I’m too hard. She may like me now, but she’s known me for less than forty-eight hours. Once she realizes I only get worse, and how bleak and demanding my life is, along with how little of my time and attention she’ll get, she’ll want out.”

“Yeah, well I for one am grateful she’s back in your life. You’ve always been an unpleasant bastard, but we’ve all contemplated killing you at some point over the last year, just to put us all out of our misery.”

Daniel shot him a glare, but he was too frustrated to put any heat behind it. “I can’t get her out of my fucking head. No matter how hard I try, she’s in there, and I can’t get her back out. I worry about her every second of every day. Not being able to be next to her has nearly driven me out of what little sanity I have left.” He took a long pull from his beer, needing to get wasted. “Now imagine if I accept she’s my mate. She’s the most famous actress in Hollywood, and I’m the dragon king. I can’t live in her world. It’s too big of a risk of someone finding out what I am, but she belongs in there. Worse, she’d never be safe, not as my mate. Not as long as there are enemies out there capable of using her as bait to get to me, and there always will be.”

“So where do you go from here?”

Daniel shrugged once, and finished his beer. “I told her I’d find a way to break the mating bond.”

Luca blew out a low whistle. “You know what it means.”

“Yes.” Daniel’s voice was devoid of emotion. “It means you’ll be king.”

* * * *

Daniel avoided the bedroom area for the next hour, determined to keep as much distance from her as he could. He had plans to make, but the attempt on her life gnawed at his brain. Nothing added up, and it was making him twitchy.

The guards that surrounded the building were his most trusted men, but still, he couldn’t relax. The feeling something was coming, that Shelby’s shooting was spiraling them toward an unstoppable end, grew in his belly with every second he couldn’t find the answers.

If someone had recognized his mark on her and wanted to draw him out, Daniel was more than willing to play the game. There wasn’t a force on earth–other than his mate–capable of scaring him. He sure as fuck had faced worse than a sniper with an obvious death wish. If the intention had been to lure him into war, though, there should have been a sign, somewhere. Something only he’d recognize, something to let him know what the hell was going on.

The absence of some kind of signal was pissing him off. No matter what channel he watched, there was nothing to give him a clue. The shooting played on an almost non-stop loop, which wasn’t helping. Every time he saw her small body take the hit, the fury inside of him ratcheted up again. It took everything he had to swallow it back so he could concentrate on looking for something new, some angle of the shooting he hadn’t seen before. Something to give him a goddamn hint of what the hell was going on.

After another hour, he decided his only option was to question Shelby again. It had nothing to do with needing to see her, or the way her soft voice soothed his frayed nerves. It didn’t.

He came up short when he saw her standing in front of his television with tears swimming in her eyes.

She dashed at her tears, her eyes never leaving the screen. “They’re saying I staged the shooting yesterday to get out of what happened last year.”

He moved up behind her. Not knowing what else to do, he reached over her shoulder to switch the television off. “They’re idiots.”

“Maybe.” She let out a pathetic snort, wiping at her tears again before she turned to face him. Instead of meeting his gaze, though, she kept hers locked firmly on his chest.

He nearly staggered under the weight of emotions that hit him. This woman, with her pale blonde hair, soft green eyes and body that could make the most devout monk sit up and beg, was every fantasy come to life. Even in the time he’d been sure he hated her, he’d never been able to get his body to stop craving hers like his dragon craved flight.

“No maybe,” he growled, allowing the beast out just enough to make his point as he took an involuntary step toward her. It was always involuntary. Even when common sense told him to flee, he was moving toward her. She tilted her head back. Despite himself, he liked the way she looked up at him. “They’re idiots,” he repeated. He brushed a strand of blond out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. “If you want, I’ll find every one of them and shove their microphones and theories down their throats until they choke on them.”

Her breath caught in her throat as she searched his face. “You’d do that for me?” she asked quietly.

“That’s just it, princess.” He took another step closer to her, backing her into bed. When she fell back onto it, he leaned in, bracing his hands on either side of her head, forcing her to accept his invasion of her space. “I’d do anything for you. It scares the fucking hell out of me.”

* * * *

Something was different. Shelby knew it. The storm was still in his eyes, but instead of the barely banked rage she was getting used to seeing, now he was just…wild. Untamed. He was sucking up all of her oxygen, too, and making her nervous. Her pulse raced like mad. Every inch of her body and soul wanted to get closer to his. It was a desperate ache she didn’t know how to fight. When she couldn’t control the need any longer, her hands came up to rest against his waist. “You’re angry at me,” she whispered, her eyes searching his.

“No.” He shook his head, but his gaze lowered to her mouth. With a low, hoarse growl, his lips skimmed over the curve of her throat. She heard him grunt in satisfaction as her skin shivered for him. “But I need you to be angry at me. Don’t accept my bullshit, Shel. Fight me. Tell me I’m a bastard, because I am.
Ryuu,
I accused you of setting me up. Hate me for it, please.”

It was the ragged plea in his voice that broke her heart.

She pressed her lips to the pulse point in his throat, before she slid her hands hesitantly over the massive muscles of his shoulders, reveling in the feel of the sheer hardness of him, in the way they bulged and flexed under her fingers. God, the man felt like heaven. This time, he didn’t jerk away from her. He didn’t use a glamour spell to hide his damaged arm, either. “You saved my life,” she whispered, needing him to understand. “Don’t you get it? You could have left me to die, but instead, you brought me here to keep me safe. Why would I hate you?”