Chapter 19
August’s roomwas just as bland as everything else I’d seen in Mate Mountain.
Dark sheets.
Dark blankets.
Simple, solid-looking furniture.
No decorations of any kind.
It had open-air windows, like the ones in the gathering room. I took in a deep breath, trying to catch his scent, but the fresh air had wiped it away too thoroughly.
Knowing I smelled like Eli, I slipped into the bathroom without exploring or snooping further.
Exhaustion caught up to me as I scrubbed myself clean. By the time I pulled on a shirt from August’s closet, I was ready to tuck myself into bed and sleep until it was time to find my man.
My stomach growled, but I ignored it.
I didn’t expect the dragons to feed me.
They didn’t even want me there.
I could survive without food though. I’d eaten more than enough to feed an army since heat ended.
I was pulling the blankets up my body when a knock sounded at my door.
Though I had to bite back a sigh, I didn’t hesitate to answer it. Ignoring a visitorin Mate Mountain seemed like a good way to make the dragons hate me even more.
So, I reluctantly answered the door.
When I found Eli on the other side, with a loaded plate of food in his hands, I relaxed slightly. There was another guy with him, but the other guy looked more curious than irritated, so I didn’t mind.
“How are you feeling?” Eli checked, handing me the plate.
“Tired.” I accepted it, pulling it into my arms and resting it against my abdomen. My stomach growled again, and his expression turned knowing. “Hungry,” I admitted.
“It still doesn’t seem like you’ve recovered.”
“I’m fine.”
Eli rolled his eyes.
The guy with him looked amused.
“You should be better by now, shouldn’t you?” Eli asked.
“I don’t know. No one gave me an instruction manual, believe it or not.”
Eli snorted. “You and August are a mess.”
“I’ve realized that.”
The guy with him grinned. “What are you going to do if he agrees to leave with you?”
“I don’t know, leave? We’ll figure everything else out after the fact, I guess. I don’t even know if he wants me. I just don’t want him to die.”
It was a lie.
I wanted a hell of a lot more than that.
I just didn’t want to admit it to them, in case August really did turn me down.
“He brought a bag full of your stuff back with him,” the new dragon said. “He’s not going to turn you down.”
“He did?”
I noticed the strap of a bag on Eli’s shoulder, and my eyebrows lifted when I saw my school backpack. The one that had vanished when August left.
Something told me the rest of my missing things were probably in there too.
Eli handed it over, and I unzipped it.
Sure enough, clothing items and a blanket had been neatly placed in Ziploc bags and arranged in the backpack.
I put my plate of food on the ground and pulled one out, staring at the bagged tee for a little too long.
It was the one I’d worn after heat ended, when we finally made love.
“Why are they in bags?” I asked. Him and the other guy were both still watching me, clearly intrigued.
I figured they were curious. They’d never been around human women very much, other than Eli being around Brynn. And considering he’d watched her grow up, I had to imagine that made her seem less strange than a human would.
“To preserve the scent. It’s a brilliant idea,” the other guy said.
I would open one of the bags and investigate for myself, when I wasn’t in front of the two guys.
“Thanks for this. And for the food.” I gestured to the plate. “I appreciate it. See you in the morning?”
That last question was pointed at Eli.
He agreed.
“You might have weird dreams,” he said, before I took both my backpack and food into August’s room. “The demons’ magic is supposed to affect humans when they’re hungry. Don’t be surprised when it hits you.”
Great.
I thanked him for the warning, closed the door behind me, and locked it too.
Opening the bag, I inhaled and sighed.
It definitely smelled like us.
And like sex.
I sealed it back up again and worked my way through the plate of food before falling asleep in the blanket that smelled like me and August.
My dreams werefull of fire.
August’s mouth was on my body again.
His hands were on me.
He was driving into me.
Taking me against a wall, in a shower, in the tub we’d shared after his magic faded from my veins.
It was like being in heat all over again.
When I woke up halfway through the night, I took another shower and didn’t dare let myself fall asleep again.
Jasper knockedon my door the next morning.
I had been lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering how August was going to react when he saw me for hours.
I didn’t have any other clothes to change into, so I pulled on a bra and a pair of shorts I’d found in my backpack. August’s shirt went over the top, of course.
He’d lose his shit if I showed up half naked.
Unless he didn’t want me anymore.
My stomach clenched.
My mind had been running through all of the ways he could tell me he didn’t have feelings for me, and the many possible ways he could tell me to go to hell.
It would hurt the most if he didn’t say or feel anything, though.
I hoped Eli and the other dragon were right about him still being interested in me. The way he’d brought my backpack with him told me they might be right. But that had been so soon after heat ended, logic told me his feelings could’ve changed or faded.
Especially while he was hurt, and inside a prison cell.
I couldn’t let myself obsess about that, though.
Dragon shifters surrounded me, one on every side as I followed Jasper through the hallway and down a set of stairs.
Those stairs were followed by more stairs.
And more stairs.
And more stairs.
So many stairs that I started to wonder if maybe the shifters’ size wasn’t because of their magic—it was because they spent their whole lives climbing stairs.
I huffed and puffed my way after Jasper.
No one offered me a hand. If August was possessive, having their scents on my skin wouldn’t work out well for any of us.
I couldn’t help but hope he would care.
That he would want me.
I counted the floors and turns as we went, embedding them into my mind as much as possible. I wanted to make sure I could find my way out, in case I got stuck or left behind.
The further down we went,the more I could hear sounds echoing through the hallways we passed.
Pained moans.
Rattling chains.
Angry voices.
Something hard hitting a wall rhythmically.
My arms were around my middle and my stomach was clenched painfully, when we finally stepped into a hallway.
“Don’t make eye contact with anyone in the cells,” Jasper said, not pausing a beat. “Don’t get close to any of them, either.”
I took a step closer to Jasper.
The dragons around me tightened the gaps between us.
Silence reigned as we walked through the cold stone halls. The dragons around me kept me hidden from the prisoners’ sights, and hid them from me too.
A few minutes later, we slowed to a stop.
“What do you want, Jas?” August’s gravelly voice made my entire body tense.
He sounded exhausted.
Worn out.
Hopeless.
“You’ve got a visitor.”
“What?” August’s harsh question made me bite my lip.
My mind couldn’t decide whether to focus on the sexy dreams it had been hit with the night before, or the many possible ways I was about to be rejected.
Jasper finally stepped to the side, and my gaze met August’s.
He was a mess.
His hair was damp with grease and blood, slicked away from his face.
He had two black eyes. The bruise on one was a sickly yellowish-green color, and the other was dark purple.
He was shirtless, and his torso was covered in tattered white and beige bandages. Most of which he’d already bled through.
His pants were black, and despite the dark color, obviously stiff and stained with blood.
His normally-golden skin was pale, and he was slumped over a stone bed that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
My eyes widened in horror at the sight of him.
August was on his feet in a heartbeat. The scent of his blood hit my nose, and my hand flew to my mouth as he grabbed the metal bars of his cell. I noticed thick metal cuffs on his arm and ankle, and a thin one around his throat.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” His snarl was low.
Furious.
Feral.
I didn’t know if he was talking to me, or to Jasper.
My chest tightened.
He was going to reject me.
“Get my mate out of this prison now.” His eyes were shifting.
Heating.
Burning.
It took a moment for the words to register.
Get my mate out.
My mate.
He was talking to Jasper.
About me.
Calling me his mate.
The tension in my stomach eased slightly.
The guys were right.
He was still mine.
I stepped forward, and August took a breath in.
A deep breath.
Like he wanted to fill his lungs with the scent of me.
“Fireball.” His voice was strained.
I stepped up to the bars of the cell and set my hands over his.
His gaze ran over my face, slowly.
Taking me in like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“Hey, Auggie.” My voice was soft.
His eyes closed.
The expression on his face was both pain and relief. Like I was making everything harder and easier for him at the same time.
“You don’t look so good,” I said.
It was an understatement.
A massive understatement.
A harsh chuckle escaped him. “You still look perfect.”
My chest ached. “I overheard Jasper and Eli talking. You’re going to die in here if you stay.”
He closed his eyes, but didn’t disagree with me. Not when he looked like he did.
“Can’t you isolate him or something?” I asked Jasper. “Leave him in this room alone until his time runs out?”
“Shifters don’t do well alone. Most immortal beings don’t. We lose our minds.” Jas didn’t beat around the bush, which I both appreciated and hated at the same time.
A moment of silence passed.
An idea occurred to me. An insane thought. One I couldn’t speak aloud until I’d had time to really, truly consider it.
“Can you put me in there with him for a few minutes and give us some space?” I finally asked.
The four dragons who’d accompanied me looked at each other.
August didn’t say a word.
His eyes were still closed. His body was still tense.
Jasper finally said, “We can’t give you long.”
But when he grabbed the metal door, it opened at his touch. It must’ve been dragon magic, because it responded immediately, and there was no visible lock.
Did that mean August could open the door himself if he wanted to?
Or that I could open it, since I had his magic in my veins after his bite?
August remained exactly where he was as I let go of his hands and slipped into the cell.
After the door closed behind me, the dragons walked away.
I waited until I couldn’t hear their footsteps anymore.
Then, I quietly crossed the small cell and wrapped my arms around August’s middle lightly, careful not to bump any of his injuries.
He remained still, his body trembling slightly.
“You can hug me, you know,” I whispered.
“If I get my arms around you, they’ll have to rip them off my body to make me let go again.” His voice was still strained.
My throat swelled.
I released his middle, and he tensed.
But when I ducked under one of his arms, slipping myself between him and the cell’s bars, he groaned.
His fists tightened on the metal.
He pressed his forehead to it so hard, it had to have hurt.
I wrapped my arms around him, and he shook almost violently. “Does that hurt?”
“No.” He had to grind the word out.
“Do you want me to let go, or step away?”
“Never.” The answer was so vehement, I pressed my head to his chest. “You smell so good, it hurts.”
My body trembled slightly too. “You didn’t say goodbye, August.”
“If I’d looked in your eyes and seen anything but hatred, I wouldn’t have managed to make myself leave.” He pulled his head from the metal, and took another deep breath in as he lowered his nose to my hair.
The shaking in his body grew worse.
I tightened my hold on him as much as I dared with all those wounds.
“You called me your mate,” I said.
“You are my mate.”
“We didn’t seal the bond.”
“If the consequence was anything less than your death, we would’ve done it weeks ago. As far as I’m concerned, you’re mine.”
“I can’t be yours if you let yourself die or lose your mind in here, Auggie.”
He took in another deep breath of my scent. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Eli told me your only chance of getting out is to walk away from the thunder for good. You stay and die, or you leave and survive.”
One of his hands slowly released the prison’s bar, and his arm wrapped around my waist. He pulled me closer—and tighter.
He didn’t seem to care about his wounds the way I did.
“I can’t leave them any more than I could leave Brynn as a kid, Fireball. The thunder is full of assholes, but they’re my assholes. My family. I’m relieved not to be leading them anymore, and I don’t agree with everything they believe, but I won’t walk away from them because of that. They’re just as entitled to trust in their traditions as I am to think they’re shit.”
That perspective made me trust him more, as insane as that sounds.
Who didn’t want that kind of loyalty from a guy? From a friend? From a mate?
My political views could be different from his, and he wouldn’t walk away from me for it. I could screw up badly, to the extent of throwing him in prison, and he would still stay loyal.
“They could let you die in here, August.”
“They could. But they won’t.” His second hand finally released the metal bar, and that arm went around me too. His fingers buried in my hair as he pulled me closer. Tighter.
I hugged him back hard, realizing that was what he wanted. “You’re bleeding on me,” I whispered.
He gave me a low, rumbly chuckle. “At least you’ll smell like me.”
I couldn’t suppress my smile. “You’re practically a caveman.”
He grunted for me, and I snorted. When he laughed, I did too. Hard.
His laughter died, and I heard footsteps on the stone floor.
“Would we ever get to seal our mate bond, if you did decide to leave with me?” I asked him, my humor forgotten.
“I think fate would send us into heat again eventually,” he murmured. “Could take a few days. A few months. Maybe even a few years. But it’d happen eventually. I’d hunt down a witch and force her to figure out a way to ignite it again if I had to.”
“Romantic,” I drawled.
“I don’t give a damn about romance. I just want you.” He hugged me tighter. “I’ll see you in a few months.”
My eyes stung. “You better not be bleeding the next time we meet.”
His hand brushed my ass, squeezing lightly. “That a threat?”
“Yep. I’m very terrifying.”
“Five and a half feet of pure fire.”
“Keep yourself safe, Auggie.” I finally started detangling myself from him as Jasper opened the cell door.
He held me tighter. “Wait there.” His growl was strained again. “Don’t touch her. Don’t let anyone else touch her, either. Get her far away from here.” There was a pause. “Who the fuck did she ride to get to the mountain?”
“Eli,” I answered for Jasper. “He smelled awful, and he’s terrible at flying in a straight line.”
His muscles relaxed slightly. “I’ve been telling him that for decades.”
“Centuries,” Jasper corrected.
My stomach tightened.
They really had been family for more than a human lifetime.
If I did go along with my plan, would I ever come first for him? Could he ever choose me over them, if it came down to it? Because I could respect loyalty in a messy situation like we were in—but I could never promise my future to someone who would abandon me if his brother asked him to.
Family was important, but if I really became his mate, he would have to consider me his family too.
Could he do that?
And just as importantly, was I willing to risk everything for the insane plan I’d come up with?
I finally let go of August and peeled his arms off of me. He was reluctant, but he eventually let go.
His hands wrapped around the bars again, his bruised face in the gaps between them and his chest pressed tightly against the metal.
My shirt was wet with his blood in multiple places, and the scent of it filled the air even more strongly than it had before.
The dragons I’d come with fell into position around me, hiding me from August again before we started to move.
My mind replayed the moments we’d shared and the facts of the situation as we walked back up the stairs.
He was hurting.
And I had to decide whether or not I could live with that.