CONRAD
ELEVEN
I heard the car before I saw it.
It wasn’t coming from the road but a track that ran parallel to it, and it was fifty yards back from us, almost hidden in the trees. Whoever was driving knew enough to avoid the main route and had switched off the headlights. I was on my feet before the driver cut the engine.
Durand was dozing against the wall behind the gas station. He'd faded in and out because his wolf was trying to heal his shoulder. While he’d slept, I got up, intending to move further away. But either my dragon convinced me to stay or I did. We’d have to figure this mating thing out, but not now.
I touched Durand’s good shoulder and that connection we shared surged from his skin up my arm. “Your family’s here.”
His eyes opened, but instead of being dazed, he was alert and jumped up.
He’d been trained well, probably by the people in the car.
Though I didn’t know what sort of reception I’d get, the Alpha had agreed to take me with them.
He might drive a mile and dump me, leaving me to fend for myself, but my dragon was a wily beast, and his skills tonight proved we were a match for Father’s flunkies.
But there was a hollowness inside me that needed to be filled, and deep down inside, I knew only this wolf shifter could do it. I’d been living a half-life since forever because of my family. But now I didn’t give a damn about them except for the danger they posed.
Durand looked over my shoulder and sighed, not with sadness, but if I was guessing correctly, it was relief.
Three people got out of the car. The other vehicles in the convoy must have diverted elsewhere. That was another smart move because a parade would draw attention from the wrong people.
The Alpha was out first. Even if I hadn’t seen his photo in the intelligence files, he was unmistakable as the man in charge.
He held himself like a man who'd been leading their pack since both his grandfather and father were assassinated.
That must have left a mark, just as me being blamed for something out of my control had shaped my life.
He moved toward the gas station with his eyes sweeping the area and his hand inside his jacket. If I made a wrong move, he’d fire that gun at my head before I’d had time to blink.
The second guy was broader and bulkier, and I pegged him as enforcer, but I’d also done my research on the second brother. He stayed near the car with his eyes on the tree line and a hand on his holster. That was Ranger.
The third person was a much older man. He was the Alpha’s spritely great-uncle Arnie, but a grandfather to the man who’d escaped with me tonight.
He was a chef, and he too had a gun, outlined under his sweater.
But an aroma wafted out of the car with him, and my mouth watered.
One cereal bar in the past fifteen hours had done little to satisfy my hunger.
“Madd, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Grandpa.” Durand grinned, and his face lit up for the first time since we’d met. “Something smells good.”
My dragon, while alert to the newcomers and their motives, was wary. The adrenaline that had coursed through our veins had subsided, and a heavy tiredness settled over me.
Durand crossed the distance between him and his Alpha in a few strides, and Flint caught him with one arm, pulling him in. His hand went to the back of his cousin’s head. As he held him, Flint’s eyes found me over Durand’s shoulder.
I waited as his brow furrowed and his gaze moved over my face. I imagined his mind checking it against whatever photograph he had of Evander. But the 11’s between his brows evened out, and that was the moment he must have understood there was a second brother, and that was me.
“You're the friend.” Flint still had hold of Durand who didn’t turn around. “And also the patriarch's son.”
Durand pulled back from Flint's grip. “Flint.”
“Enough, Madd. I’m talking to him.” He was no longer the worried cousin but the in-command Alpha. “We somehow missed that the patriarch had a second son.”
“Don’t beat yourself up.” Shit, I shouldn’t have said that. His nostrils flared. “My father has done that all his life.”
Flint nodded. I’d get no pity from him.
Ranger strode toward us. “You got Madd out.”
“That was my dragon. He took the lead.” Now wasn’t the time to go into detail about who Durand and I were to each other and why we’d run.
Flint’s gaze rested on me, and I wondered what was going on behind those dark eyes. But Durand grimaced, and Flint’s attention switched to his cousin’s shoulder. The Alpha tugged at the shirt collar and studied the gauze and the blood and yarrow stains.
“We'll talk later.”
The grandfather, Arnie, walked past Flint and me. He gave me a dismissive look before taking his grandson’s face in both hands. He turned it one way, then the other.
“You're too thin, Madd.”
“Grandpa, I was only held captive for a few days.”
“Days without eating properly. I brought food.”
“Uncle Arnie, you can talk in the car.” Flint steered Durand toward Ranger who bundled him in the car. "We have to move now. They’ll be looking for us.”
“And in the air. My father will have sent at least two to take their scales by now.”
Ranger punched his palm, apparently eager for a fight. But Flint shut him down with a look.
“There's a back route we can take. It’s a service road that runs south through the woods.
Logging trucks use it during the day, but it's empty at night.
It comes out on Route 12 about fifteen miles past the junction.
From there you can take the highway south and they won't know which direction you went.”
Flint's eyes narrowed, but if he didn’t trust me, there was nothing I could do to prove I wasn’t double-crossing him.
“Your GPS might not show that one, but I know every road within forty miles of that compound.”
I’d memorized all the escape routes, even though I never thought I’d make it out alive.
Ranger got behind the wheel of the SUV with Flint beside him. I went to get in the third row, but Arnie pulled me back, and without a word, he climbed back there, leaving the second row for me and Durand.
Durand avoided looking at me. His posture was so stiff I suspected he was wrestling with our connection. He did up his seat belt, and the loud click reminded me of a full stop.
“Turn left here.” I leaned forward between the two front seats. Both men glared at me as if I’d overstepped. “Then right at the fork. Keep the headlights off until I say.”
Now the pair in front shared a glance. Neither were used to be given instructions by a stranger, especially one whose family had kidnapped their cousin.
The road was narrow and overgrown at the edges, with branches scraping the roof of the SUV. My dragon was searching the sky and reading the air when he grabbed my attention.
“Stop the car now and kill the engine.”
Ranger must have heard something in my voice because he didn't argue. The SUV rolled to a halt, and now there was only silence in the woods.
“Nobody moves or speaks,” I whispered.
A shadow crossed the canopy above us. It was a slow and deliberate sweep of a dragon searching for something. The wingspan blocked out the faint moonlight as it passed overhead, and my dragon recognized the flight style before I did.
Vasik. One of my father's most experienced hunters. He was in the air, so my father had sent his best.
The shadow banked and came back.
Durand's hand gripped my wrist, and his pulse hammered against my skin. My dragon wanted to answer the challenge above us by having us shift and fight, but I held him back.
The trees were dense here which was why I'd chosen this road. From the air, the canopy was unbroken for miles. Vasik couldn't see through it, but if Ranger had had the headlights on, the glow would have endangered us.
The shadow passed a third time.
In the front seat, Flint had his gun out, while Ranger's knuckles were gripping the steering wheel. Behind me, Arnie was completely still.
I counted the seconds as the wingbeats moved east. The shadow shifted across the canopy and kept going, widening the search pattern away from us. I waited until my dragon confirmed the danger had passed.
“Go. No lights for another two miles.”
Ranger started the engine, and Durand released my wrist.
No one spoke, and Ranger craned his neck and peered at the night sky. I didn’t tell him he wouldn’t see the dragons until they swooped down and either crushed the car or smashed the glass and picked him up in their claws.
The trees closed in around us, and I continued to give directions until I got a tap on the shoulder. Arnie offered me a container of food and a napkin. My mouth watered as I thanked him and opened the lid to discover dumplings accompanied by a small container of spicy sauce.
Dragons were known for our love of spice, but I never suspected the wolves of La Luna Noir were partial to chili. They went up in my estimation a little.
“Mmmm. This is so good, Grandpa.” Durand had an identical container to mine, and he dipped a dumpling into the sauce and took a bite.
I gulped because I didn’t want to think about our connection, and I’d refused to consider his good looks. But he licked the sauce from his fingers, one by one, almost in slow motion, and I almost dropped my container. Oh shit, that was hot. Not dragon-fire hot, but so sexy.
I had to look away. This guy didn’t even like me, and he’d only told Flint to bring me along because of that thread that connected us. His head wasn’t telling him I was his one and only.
“You’re not eating. Don’t you like spice?” Arnie patted my arm.
“I love it.” I popped a dumpling in my mouth, and my senses exploded with coriander, lime, chili, ginger, and garlic on my tongue. “Mmmm.”
I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, there were four sets of eyes on me. But it was one pair in particular that were staring at me with the same intensity I’d experienced moments ago when Durand was eating.
Grabbing the napkin, I dabbed around my mouth and turned my head away from the man beside me and studied the countryside. Once we were far enough from the compound, I didn’t have a plan as to where I would go.
But I couldn’t resist sneaking another look at him. His hand was on the seat between us, just as mine was. We were only a few inches apart, and I slid my fingers half an inch closer.
“Now what?” Ranger turned onto the highway.