Far, far below is the castle, its walls and turrets the size of a child’s toy. I squeeze my eyes shut. The dragon snaps its wings, and we plummet.
I’m still screaming, out loud or in my head or both. I keep my eyes shut so tight, my forehead throbs. Then I land on a cold, hard, flat surface.
The beeping cuffs on my wrists fall blissfully silent.
With wind blasting from under its wings and whipping through my hair, the dragon lands beside me, in the middle of the castle courtyard. The space I thought was huge now seems just large enough to hold it. The tips of his folded wings reach two stories high. Its wedge-shaped head is as big as a car. Patches of scales shimmer and reflect the sky, effectively turning it invisible.
The dragon can turn invisible. So that’s how he crept up on me in the desert after Gabriel lured me to the middle of nowhere. He was invisible.
No sign of the men in uniform I saw before. What does Buttons think of a creature from a medieval myth landing in the castle courtyard? The prim and proper butler probably knows the proper etiquette for welcoming a dragon. Or maybe Gabriel mostly stays invisible.
It tips its mighty head up to the sky and breathes fire into the air–a bellow of rage. The heat warms me, even from a distance.
Gabriel is angry.
Funny how I’m not the least bit afraid of him in this form. I was afraid of falling. Afraid of flying, dangling from his talons. But I’m not frightened of the dragon.
I somehow instinctively know that he will always protect me.
His anger is only that I was in danger.
That I left him.
There's a hum, and my cuffs snap to the ground.
Eek! I’m lying on some sort of metal sheet, and the cuffs are doing that magnet thing again, holding me down. I struggle, but by the time I’ve freed myself, metal bars have spiraled out of the platform edge surrounding me. I'm in a round prison, a cage with no lid.
“Gabriel,” I yell in frustration. “Gabriel!”
Across the courtyard, the dragon stares at me impassively. The entire platform, bars and all, shudders and begins to descend.
6
Gabriel
Once Tabitha is safely underground, I shift back to my human form and yank on a pair of pants.
She nearly died.
My mate nearly died.
It’s a fucking wonder the dragon didn’t destroy a whole city in his rage. Thank fate we saved her. Our sweet, beautiful, very naughty mate.
I don’t want to imprisoner her, but–
Oh, who am I kidding? Some part of me always knew it would come to this. That was why I had the cuff technology developed to track her and trap her. To hold her in any position I like, anywhere I like. And right now, I have her spread eagle on the platform and completely at my mercy. Tabitha is mine, and she’s about to find out what happens when she puts her safety at risk.
When she tries to leave me.
Of course, I did encourage her to run that first night in the castle.
That was foolish of me. I never imagined she would risk her neck climbing the edge of a crumbling rock ledge!
Fate, what if she’d fallen? What if I hadn’t been in dragon form, at the ready to catch her with my claws? What if I hadn’t been at the castle at all?
I would’ve lost her again. Once more, before I ever claimed her!
Fate may not favor me so much as I believed when my bride first woke me from dragon’s slumber.
I don’t go to my mate immediately. I’m too angry. Too upset about almost losing her again. Yet I can’t stay away, either. I stay in the shadows, needing to be near, letting her scent, the fact that she is still alive, soothe away the rampaging rage that I fear most.
Tabitha
The lower the cage descends, the less the bracelets are magnetized.
I sit up, my palms planted on the cold metal, trying to orient myself. Something closes overhead, cutting off my view of the sky and leaving me in the dark, like I'm in an elevator shaft of some kind. Machines whir. The cage keeps descending.
I grab the bars and take a deep breath. Adrenaline courses through me.
The dragon was incredible. And he can turn invisible.
That’s why I don't remember our second meeting. That’s why I fainted. He lured me to the desert, and then a dragon appeared, and I passed out from shock.
Machinery hums, and the cage stops. I’m alone in the cool darkness. At least there’s air blowing in from somewhere, and it’s fresh and clean.
Slowly, a few lights blink on, and I retreat to the center of my cage. I’m in a huge warehouse-like space. The few fluorescent lights illuminate the far-off walls and the raised platform the cage rests on. A humming sound whirs nearby. Somewhere in here is a server room with an army of fans blowing to keep the place cool.