“Damianos!” she yells.
My weak heart constricts with the need to call out to her. To tell her she is not alone in what will surely be her last act upon this earth. But the duct tape…
“Damianos…baby…please…”
My entire body jerks when her voice suddenly appears inside my head.
The torture…it made me forget. I can communicate with her like this. Over our mate bond.
“My queen...” It takes every single bit of mental strength I have left to formulate that answer. Pitiful and small.
“Damianos!” she calls out again, her voice excited.
There comes much clamor, then I hear the creak of the door at the top of the stairs opening.
“So you got magic tricks,” her voice calls down the stairs. “Good one. But can you come up here? I swear this baby is about to come flying out of my vagina like ‘welcome to the show!’”
I don’t answer. I can’t answer. Even as I hear the pad of her bare feet coming down the stairs.
“Damianos? Why aren’t you—”
She stops talking abruptly when she sees me.
I cannot stand up, or even fully lift my head, but I stare at her from my one working eye.
She is here, standing before me.
Collarless.
But how?
That is the last thought I have before darkness overtakes me.
Chapter Two
When I awake again, my world is no longer a fog of memories and pain.
In fact, my circumstances are much changed. I am still shackled, but not to a wall in a cold, dark basement. I’m lying in a warm bed with my wrist and ankle shackles attached to an iron frame. And, instead of a butcher knife, I can’t reach, I’m looking up at the ceiling. My arms are still thin, but my body no longer aches. And the gnawing hunger has disappeared, replaced with a strange bloated sensation.
But how has this come to pass?
“You going to stay awake this time?” a voice asks above me. “You’ve been fading in and out for the last week.”
Apparently, I’ve been here a week. Also, my jailor is no longer a dragon who looks and sounds like me.
I shift my eyes to the right to find Ola, with a strange device in her hand. It almost looks like the machines the last 20th century-born Colby used to steam the floors of my Greek estate, except there is no attachment at the end of its hose.
“Hey, don’t judge,” she says, following the direction of my gaze. “I had to figure out some way to get all this beef broth into you. And we’re not exactly set up for an IV.”
Her defensive words both horrify me and explain the strange, bloated sensation in my stomach. “You fed me broth…through that contraption for an entire week?”
She shrugs. “You weren’t up for eating, and I wasn’t up for letting you die. And here you are, still alive. So I’m thinking the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you.’”
I glare up at her. “I will not thank you for shoving a janitorial contraption into my mouth.”
I expect her to glare back. One of my most vivid memories of our brief time together was how adept she’d been at squinting up at me with murder in her eyes.
But instead, she scans my face, her eyes filled with a question. One I can’t put a name to, so I demand, “Why do you gaze upon me so?”
“I’m just trying to figure something out,” she answers.
“What? What are you trying to figure out?” I ask testily. The way she is looking at me, her formerly hard eyes soft and curious, unsettles me more than her murderous glare ever did.
“I’m trying to figure out if he’s in there,” she answers, her voice just as soft as her eyes. “I’m trying to figure out if the dragon I fell in love with is inside of you.”
The dragon I fell in love with…
Her words still my tongue, but what she does next stills my flame.
She reaches out and cups my cheek.
My entire body shudders, and before I can think upon my actions, I find myself nuzzling my large head into her hand. Seeking her warmth.
“I’m not sure what’s going on. Where Other You came from, or why he disappeared the way he did. But if the dragon I fell in love with is still in there, please come out,” she whispers. “Because I’m having a hell of a time holding my family off, and we have a little dragon wolf to raise.”
Dragon wolf…
The strange reference draws me out of my trance. Reminds me of her state when I saw her last. Heavily pregnant with my progeny housed within her womb.
But now her belly is much reduced. With a start, I realize out loud, “You survived the birth!”
“Ta-da emoji!” she answers with the twirling gesture I believe the upright primates call jazz hands. “Your girl, Ola, came through, just like I said I would.”