Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
THORNE
When I considered all the many ways my life might end, being sliced into dragon steaks wasn’t top of the list. And yet here I was, trussed up like a holiday ham, wrapped in an enchanted net.
Ropes secured my jaws, preventing me from spewing fire.
While the poison in my blood kept me from shifting, it also had made me helpless as a newborn nerf, snuffing out my flame.
Still, the hunters took no chances. They’d secured my weakened body to the ground with chains and stakes.
Once they were confident that I was restrained, the band of idiots had made camp for the night.
They waited for someone they called The Butcher to chop up their prize.
Apparently, I was valuable enough to warrant a skilled processor.
Ironically, this wasn’t the first time my pretty face had put me on the chopping block.
Nor was it the first time I’d been betrayed.
The difference being that in this instance, it was my own brother who betrayed me. While every muscle in my body ached, it was my heart that felt the pain. After all the years I spent at his side, catering to his every need and desire, this was the thanks I got.
Worse, I’d left Serafina in his deceitful hands.
Once again, someone I loved would suffer while I was away, unable to save them.
Loved. I choked a laugh, smoke rolling from my nostrils.
Only the threat of death could wring the truth from me.
I was completely, utterly in love with Serafina.
“Something funny, dragon?”
“Your butt-ugly face.” If only the hunters could understand me. It would have made my insults about their whore mothers far more satisfying.
“Ah, leave the dragon alone, Lars.”
“What’s the matter, Slim? You going soft?”
“Just seems unsporting like,” Slim defended. “Pathetic prick isn’t even fighting anymore. It’s like his spirit is broken.”
I’d determined Lars, with the bald head who sported a dragon scale vest, was the leader of this macabre band. While Slim, who was built like the scraggly twigs of a tree, along with a fellow with gold teeth and another who reeked of spoiled cabbage, were his underlings.
“Want to suckle the dragon at your tit, do yah?” Goldie sat on a log beside the fire, pretending to rock a baby. His metallic smile gleamed in the firelight.
“Flark off.” Slim grabbed his sorry excuse for a crotch. “I’ll give you something to suckle.”
It was beyond humiliating that this band of morons had managed to capture me. I grunted a depreciating sound.
“Got something to say, dragon?” Lars slammed his boot into my hindquarters.
“Ease up, Lars,” Slim whined. “You’ll damage the merchandise.”
“Yah, well, I’m tired of waiting for The Butcher to arrive to gut this bastard.” Lars stumbled to his pack and extracted a pair of grippers and a filet knife. “Think I’ll start carving off pieces of his hide right now. See if he still thinks it’s funny.”
He marched toward me, maniacal glint in his eyes, while his partners sputtered their objections. My muscles twitched and twisted, moving mere inches in their restraints. For a bunch of morons, they’d trussed me up good. Flames save me. This was going to hurt.
Then—Lars froze. A strangled groan tore from his throat. He bent double, one hand bracing against my hide, the other clutched over his stomach.
A wet gurgle filled the silence, followed by the foulest sound I’d ever heard from a man’s backside.
“Holy hell, Lars.” Slim gagged, fanning his nose. “Smells like something crawled up you and died.”
Lars staggered, face pale, sweat breaking across his brow. “Watch…the dragon.” He gasped and bolted into the trees.
“What’s gotten into him?” Slim scratched his head, eyeing the greasy bowl of stew he’d finished not long ago.
Goldie doubled over next, clutching his stomach. “What did you put in that stew, Slim?”
“Now don’t you go blaming me. What do you take me for an—Goddess save me.” Slim gripped his stomach as if he feared his guts may fall out.
“Flarking hell.” Cabbage, the last man to succumb, clasped his stomach as well and lurched to his feet. Sweat dotted his brow. “Slim! You bloody bastard. You’ve poisoned us.”
In unison, the three of them bolted for the woods, shouting, “Watch the dragon!”
I blinked at the empty camp. “What in the seven hells just happened?”
“I thought they’d never leave,” said the sweetest voice I’d ever heard in my long life.
Serafina.
That dying ember sparked, my heart soaring.
She sawed a short dagger into the rope around my muzzle. “Why are you still a dragon? If you were a man, you could slip out of these.”
“Poison arrows,” I answered through the Draconian mind link.
“The laxative I snuck into their stew was far too kind,” she snarled.
She’d drugged them? Brilliant girl. “I could kiss you.”
Her eyes flicked up, fierce and unyielding. “Save it for after we escape.”
The ropes securing my muzzle dropped to the ground. I rolled my lips and flexed my jaw. “How did you get here? Where’s Alaric?”
“He tried to seduce me,” she spat, voice tight with anger. “Right before he tossed me in the dungeon.”
“Seduce you?” The scales along my neck rattled, dragonflame smoldering. First, I’d pull out his talons one by one, then—
“He failed,” she added, interrupting my plans. “Hence the dungeon. I escaped, stole a horse, and followed your flame through our bond. Just as you said you could do with me.”
My chest swelled, the dim spark at my center glowing brighter still. My mate was more than beautiful—she was unstoppable. She freed another rope, and I twisted, snapping through the rest with my teeth.
“Hurry,” she demanded. “The hunters could recover at any time.”
Together, we slashed the net and tethers that secured me, enough that I could crawl my way out. Once free, I drew a deep breath, feeling as though an entire mountain had lifted off my shoulders.
“Hop up,” I ordered, desperate to keep her out of reach. These hunters would die for what they’d done to me. But if they laid so much as a finger on her, I’d make their deaths slow and agonizing.
She scurried up my foreleg and onto my back. “Let’s fly out of here.”
“Can’t. The poison weakened me.” Nor did I desire to leave—not yet.
I didn’t have long to wait as Lars staggered into the clearing from the woods. He hiked up his pants, confusion flashing across his face as he took in the sight of me standing free.
“What the—”
I lowered my head and blasted him with a molten stream of fire. I’d heard far too much of his blathering.
He ignited instantly, his scream ripping through the night.
“Don’t look, Sera.”
“Oh, I’m looking.” Her furious words sent a tingle of delight through my veins. “I heard what these monsters had planned for you.” Beautiful, smart, and bloodthirsty. Perfect.
Lar’s piercing shriek echoed through the trees, and his cohorts raced from their woodland toilets. They stared, mouths agape, at their leader, who screamed and writhed in the flames.
“Boss?” Slim’s voice cracked. His gaze swung to me, and horror blanched his face. “Hathor’s ballsack. Now, see here, Dragon.” He raised his hands in a placating gesture. “We were just kidding around. No harm done. Right?”
“Wrong,” Serafina snarled, the vehemence in her tone causing my lips to curl. “Tell me who sent you to capture my dragon, and I’ll order him to go easy on you.”
My inner beast preened at her words. My dragon.
“Never got his name,” Slim blurted out. “Arrogant fella. Goldish hair. Fancy clothes.”
“Alaric,” she spat.
“That’s him.” Goldie bobbed his head. “Fellow’s name was Alaric. It’s his fault your dragon’s hurt. So, how about you let us go? No harm done. Right, sweetheart?” Goldie flashed a metallic smile.
Serafina leaned over my shoulder and snarled at the idiot in a way that had blood heating my veins. “Run.”
Without uttering a single objection, the cowards spun and fled, abandoning their smoldering leader.
“We’re letting them go?” I rumbled.
“Hell, no,” she scoffed. “There are some in this world who actually deserve to burn. Light them up.”
I adored this vicious side of her. “As you wish, Princess.” Another blast of liquid flames set the remaining hunters on fire. As well as their weapons and carts.
“Let’s go.” Serafina patted my shoulder, and I was happy to obey.
Despite my weakness, I managed to drag my pathetic carcass a distance away from the campsite before I collapsed near a rolling stream. Air dragged in and out of my lungs, thick and sludgy. Even lifting my tail was too much effort.
“Thorne!” She scrambled off my back. Gentle hands massaged my muzzle. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
I wanted to snort at her confidence, certain it was death that held me in her grasp. The poison they’d used was too potent for my debilitated body to defeat. “I love you, Serafina.”
She gasped. “What?”
Of course, she was overwhelmed by my admission. What woman wouldn’t be? She’d confess her adoration as well now.
Her grip on my muzzle tightened, her eyes going wide.
Her booted foot nailed me in the shoulder. “Thorne, you idiot. You are not dying on me. Snap out of it.”
“I tell you I love you, and you call me an idiot?” I groaned.
“As if you would have said it otherwise,” she spat.
She had me there. Funny how emotions came easily when you were near death.
“Roll onto your side,” she commanded, running her hands along my throat to my chest. I did as she ordered to give her better access, her touch enough to work a purr from my throat, despite my agony.
“Hold on. I’ve got you.” She clasped the stone pendant she wore and set her palm against my sternum, connecting with my dragonflame.
Her touch warmed against my scales, a golden light emerging from her hand.
The dying ember at my center sparked, then roared.
Heat surged, turning sluggish veins into molten rivers.
My muscles shuddered with returning strength.
Blessed flames, she was doing it.