Chapter 20
When we got backto the living area of the mountain, I didn’t ask them to lead me back to my room. They took me to what looked like a small cafeteria, or a large kitchen and dining area.
Eli grimaced when he saw me.
“I’ll grab your food. Sit down and rest,” Jasper said, striding off toward the place another dragon was already filling a plate.
I crossed the room and took the seat next to Eli.
“How bad is he?” Eli asked.
“Bad.” I ran a hand through a few of my waves.
There was dried blood in them, too.
“He didn’t agree to leave?”
“No. He won’t abandon you guys. He says you’re family.”
Eli’s forehead wrinkled. “And you’re not?”
“I don’t know. He still thinks he can survive down there for six months.”
Eli scoffed. “Cocky moron.”
I couldn’t exactly argue in the dragon’s defense. Not against the moron part, at least. And he was definitely cocky. That much was a fact.
“What are mated dragon pairs like?” I asked him, changing the subject.
It was a question I needed answered before I could even consider my terrible plan.
“Annoyingly close. The mental bond kind of ensures that. They’re rarely separated, but when they’re apart, they can communicate continuously. It drives you crazy in a way you can’t help but like.”
“Does the thunder always come first?” I asked.
“No. Most mated dragons spend their lives in the human world, and only come back to Main Mountain when we really need them. It’s been decades since we’ve called a mated dragon in. The only female here all of the time is the one mated to the leader of the thunder, if he’s paired off.”
Wow.
“So if I mated with August after all of this is over…”
“You’d probably go back to that cabin and live happily ever after.”
My throat swelled again. “Are you sure he’d be willing to leave? He won’t even abandon the prison to save his life.”
“Leaving now would put him in exile,” Jasper said, taking the seat next to mine. He set a plate down in front of me, holding on to his too. “If anything ever happened to you and he needed the thunder’s assistance, tradition would require us not to answer him. He would be alone. If he makes it through his six months, he’ll regain his standing with us, and be free to live his life with you without losing us.”
“You’re his brothers, but you’d walk away if he chose not to keep suffering in jail?” My voice was incredulous.
“It’s not us he’d lose, it’s everyone else.” Jasper gestured around the room, which was full of dragons eating and talking. Many of them were looking at us while they did one or both of those things.
I couldn’t claim to understand completely, but it did make more sense to me after their explanation.
And after everything I’d seen of August, had he ever put anyone else’s safety and well-being above mine?
No.
Then again, we had been in heat…
Argh.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make. Not even a little.
Another dragon shifter came over and sat down at our table, asking Eli a question about his shift at the prison. I listened to them talk while I ate, and started to get a better feel for the way the group functioned.
They were all rough and tumble guys, but they had each other. They were a family. And they were pursuing their freedom in the best way they knew how—by hiding from everyone and everything that could get in the way of it.
After we ate,I spent a while combing my mind for everything August and I had done to avoid sealing the bond. I wrote it out in bullet points, then summarized it. I didn’t write any details about the sex, because that was none of their business, but I tried to be fairly specific.
-decided to become a team and deal with heat together
-gave the magic everything it wanted except sealing the bond
-touched when it urged us to touch, spent all our time together, didn’t try to stay away or push ourselves.
-gave in to the desire when it hit, as much as possible without going all the way
It really wasn’t that complicated.
August holding me while I writhed in pain, without sealing the bond, was a bigger factor than anything else I wrote down. But that was his story to tell, not mine.
The dragons seemed satisfied when I handed the page over. That made me think at least one of our strategies was new to them, but I didn’t ask.
Instead, I played nice, hanging out and staying quiet as the dragons did their thing. It was interesting to see the massive guys all in their element, but my mind always went back to August.
And the stupid, insane decision I’d made after I talked to his brothers.
After dinner that night,I retreated to August’s room under the guise of going to sleep. I waited a few hours, forcing myself to stay calm and quiet, as if I was sleeping. I heard footsteps in my hallway at one point, which made me think someone was checking up on me.
But after that, it was only silence.
I gave it another few hours just to give myself the best chance of success, then packed my backpack and slipped out of the room.
My bare feet were silent on the cold stone as I padded down the hallway, finding the stairs with relative ease. There were two large pillows in my hands, and my backpack was near bursting, but I’d make it.
I forced myself to focus on counting the floors again as I walked down, and down, and down.
The sounds of the prison didn’t faze me.
I didn’t let them faze me.
When I finally reached the right floor, I let out a silent prayer that I’d counted right, and slipped down the hallway.
I passed two prisoners on my way through the mostly-empty hallway. One of them started mumbling when I passed him, but I ignored it.
August was asleep when I reached his cell.
My heart pounded so loudly I couldn’t even hear the noise from the other prisoners.
My stomach was tight.
My chest was, too.
August inhaled in his sleep—and his breath caught.
He sat up groggily a moment later, his movements slow enough to tell me he was in more pain than he’d shown when I saw him earlier.
He blinked once, and again.
I stepped closer to the cell.
He rubbed his eyes, and finally rumbled, “Tell me I’m dreaming, Fireball.”
“You’re dreaming.” I released one arm from around the pillows and carefully grabbed the cell door in the same place Jasper had.
It opened smoothly, and I didn’t try to hide my relief. “You’re not even locked in here, Auggie.”
“The thunder can’t lock me in a prison created by dragons.” His eyes narrowed. “Tell me again.”
“You’re still dreaming.” I closed the cell door behind me, listening as the strange locking mechanism refastened itself.
He inhaled. “You don’t smell like me.”
“I showered and changed.”
“If this is a dream, you should smell like me.” His growl made my body warm.
“Maybe you’re dreaming about touching me.” I crossed the room and set the pillows down on the small stone bed.
That thing was going to be a bitch to share.
There was another one in the other corner, but it was far enough away that I didn’t think there was a chance August would let me sleep on it.
He grabbed a pillow and lifted it to his nose. “This came from my room here.”
“Did it?”
I tugged my backpack off my back and started pulling out the big blanket I’d painstakingly shoved inside it. The top half stuck out the top part of the bag, but it hadn’t fallen out, so it was fine.
“This is too.” He grabbed the blanket, running the soft fabric between his fingers.
I didn’t reply as I pulled out a clean pair of sweats for him, some manly-smelling deodorant that we’d have to share, and one toothbrush that we would also be sharing.
Not the most sanitary of options, but hey. We’d make it work.
“Fireball.” He sounded angry.
“Still a dream,” I offered, zipping the bag up with the toiletries in it and setting it on the ground.
Someone would have to bring me tampons when that time of the month came around, but heat had put my period off for a good long while, so I was kind of hoping it would start again soon.
Then, we could seal the bond, and I wouldn’t have to deal with a period in jail.
Best of both worlds, right?
Minus the heat bit.
I’d be happy if I spent the rest of my life without experiencing heat again.
His hands caught my hips, and he eased my body to his. He turned me around as he did, so my front met his when I finally, gently, bumped into the bottom of the stone bed.
“Still dreaming,” I whispered, as his narrowed eyes move over my face.
Finally, his mouth met mine.
It was hot.
Brutal.
Lips, tongue, and teeth too.
He ripped away from me with a snarl after a moment, his hands gripping my face. “What the hell, Fireball? Who brought you here?”
“I did.” I held his gaze, defiance filling mine.
I wasn’t walking away, no matter what he said.
“You can’t be alone in here without losing your mind. You won’t leave to save your life. This is the answer.” I gestured toward myself. “Me.”
“You’re not staying in this fucking cell with me. I fought heat for weeks to keep you out of here. I watched you suffer, I forced myself not to do anything, I?—”
“How do you think I’ll feel when you die in here?” I demanded.
He blinked.
His forehead wrinkled, just slightly.
“Did you even think about me? You said we were mates, August. I woke up in our bed alone the morning after we finally had sex. You didn’t say goodbye. You abandoned me. Eli kept saying that you were coming back, that you wanted me, but you never said it yourself. I thought there was a good chance you were going to reject me up until you called me your mate this morning. I thought I was coming here for nothing, because you didn’t want me. I?—”
His lips crashed into mine again, harder than before.
More desperate.
I tasted his blood in my mouth as the kiss opened up one of his wounds, but he didn’t stop.
So I didn’t either.
He pulled me closer.
Kissed me harder.
Lifted me onto his lap and recaptured my face while I sat on his erection. How he was hard with all those wounds, I didn’t know.
His eyes met mine, fierce and emotional and still furious.
“I wanted you. I always wanted you, and I always will.” He kissed me again roughly, but pulled away a breath later. “I’m fucking pissed that you followed me here. It kills me that you put yourself in danger. That you snuck into the prison. That you flew with my brother. But I’m enough of a bastard that despite my anger, I’m relieved.” He brushed his thumb over my cheekbone. “Relieved that you’re here with me, so I’m not alone. That we’re still a team.”
I bit my lip.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve said goodbye. I should’ve thought about how much that would hurt you. I should’ve made sure you knew damn well that I belong to you as much as you belong to me—and that I would come back to you no matter what it took. Even if it meant abandoning the thunder.”
“You just told me you weren’t willing to leave them.”
The intensity in his gaze relaxed a bit. “I told you they wouldn’t let me die, and they won’t. When it comes down to it, they’ll get me out. They’re pissed at me, but they don’t want me dead. If they did, my brothers would get involved.”
My forehead wrinkled. “So they’re not going to leave you to lose your mind or suffer?”
“Oh, they want me to suffer. To lose my mind a bit, too. They just won’t let it kill me.”
Ah.
Great friends and family. Really, really great.
I couldn’t even pretend to understand the way dragons worked, but he didn’t seem bothered about it, so I didn’t say anything.
“Well, I’m not leaving,” I finally said. “Not until we’ve had a better conversation than this, at least.” I gestured between us. “Say you survive this for six months, what do we do next? What’s your plan? To become Jasper’s right-hand man or something?”
“I hope not to be involved in the thunder’s politics at all after this. Walking away from them would mean exile, which is why I can’t do it. If I’m exiled, I’m alone. If something happened to Brynn, my brothers, or you, I’d have no one to turn to. As much as I don’t like it, I need them to fall back on.”
Well, I liked that answer.
“I planned on going back to Scale Ridge,” he said. “Back to the cabin. I figured I’d have to chase some human male out of our house and woo you again. That we could live there, unless you needed to move for work. I plan to help the Villins with keeping the vampires in check, too.”
“Woo me again? I don’t remember being wooed the first time. You just told me we were a team, and I fell for it. What makes you think you could chase off some guy who actually tried to romance me?”
His lips split in a grin, flashing me a look at the wound I’d tasted when we kissed. It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but it didn’t look good. “I have a really big…” I lifted my eyebrows, and he finished, “Teeth.”
“A really big teeth?” I drawled. “That’s not even almost grammatically correct, Auggie.”
He laughed, rocking me against his erection a little. “I’d hope your memory is good enough that I don’t need to translate.”
It definitely was.
“If you ever vanish after we have sex again, I’m walking away for good,” I warned, gesturing to one of the walls as if that was the way I’d walk when I tried to leave. It wasn’t, but the dramatic effect was the same.
“Lesson learned. Won’t happen again.”
“Glad we have that figured out.”
He made a noise of agreement. “You do have to leave, though, Fireball. As much as I appreciate you sneaking down here half-naked with pillows and a blanket, I can’t let you stay. It’s not safe.”
“You said that if I was your mate, I’d have to go to prison with you to keep you sane.”
His eyes narrowed as he put together where I was going with that.
“Today, you said I’m your mate. Was it a lie?”
They narrowed further.
I had him by the balls, and he knew it.
“Of course it wasn’t,” he finally said.
“Then I have to stay with you. You’ll just have to deal with it.”
“Fireball…”
“Are we already back to this? I thought we established that you’d rather have me stuck in this cell with you than back home flirting up a storm at every nightclub I can find with Randa and Vi.”
His grip on my ass tightened painfully, and he growled, “Graduation. I missed it. Did you walk?”
“Yep. Randa didn’t give me an option.”
“Good. I want to see pictures.”
“I can pull them up on my phone later. We were talking.”
“Right. You went partying afterward?”
“Not necessarily partying, but yes. They dragged me and Eli to a nightclub.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“And did you go home with someone?” He had to grit the words out.
If he was having that hard of a time even asking me, he’d lose his mind altogether if he’d actually gotten out of prison and found me with someone else.
“No. I danced with a random guy, though. He grabbed me when I was on the dance floor.”
August’s hands tightened on my ass so much, it almost hurt. “I’ve never danced with you.”
“You never wooed me,” I reminded him. “We just became a team.”
A team with really good sex.
I couldn’t actually say I minded the lack of romance, when the outcome was what it was.
“Will the sex be as good between us now as it was before?” I asked. “Did heat make it better?”
“Heat made us want it more, but it didn’t make it better. If I fucked you in here, you’d enjoy it just as much.” He glanced down at the stone bed. “Almost as much. Because of the situation, not heat. Where did he touch you? How long did you dance?”
“Careful there, Auggie. You’re starting to sound jealous.”
His eyes flashed. “I am jealous. I’d have killed to be with you in that club.”
I liked his honesty, and his confidence.
Hell, I liked pretty much everything about him. The things I didn’t like were so minimal they didn’t matter.
“Now answer my questions, Fireball.” He squeezed my ass again.
“It was only for a second. He grabbed me, and grinded up against me. I pushed him away. His touch felt wrong, and made me nauseous. I puked in the bathroom afterward,” I admitted. “Eli and my friends don’t know that part. Don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t.” His hands slid up my back, over my arms, and into my hair. “Do you hate me for being glad he made you vomit?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t. Maybe even disappointed.”
He chuckled. “I like you.”
“I like you too.”
When he pulled me against his chest, I tucked my head against his neck. “I don’t care how angry you are, I’m not leaving.”
His chest rumbled. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
“I know you won’t. We’ll tell them to leave us in their shitty infirmary until our time is up.”
He squeezed me tightly. “I’m a lucky bastard.”
“I know you are.”
He laughed again. “How much did you have to eat the day after heat ended to feel normal again.”
“Oh, it was a lot more than the day after heat ended.” I launched into an explanation about my long recovery that made August mad—but his anger made him hold me tighter.
He could be angry for ages if he decided to, because I was exactly where I wanted to be.