Mated to the Fire Dragon (Elemental Mates 4)

And that was when he realized that he was being watched.

Someone had been keeping an eye on the tunnel leading outside after all. As soon as he'd come forward, two dragons approached, eyeing him suspiciously.

He was clearly one of them—but he was a stranger who didn't smell like this lair. Worse, he carried the scent of the outside world.

“Halt. Who are you?” one of the guards hissed.

Braeden obediently stopped, keeping a tight grip on his flame.

“Courier and hunter, Dylan of the Inferno lair,” he proudly replied, spreading his wings with the natural arrogance of their hunters. “Delivered a message. Was sent down to assist. A human has escaped?”

At the display of his powerful muscles, the two weaker guards bared their teeth but begrudgingly stepped back.

Braeden had never imagined that the blind obedience to authority ruling their communities would one day be of use, but right now, he was very grateful for the iron fist with which Steele ruled here.

“Go to the northern tunnels,” one of them said, nodding towards an opening in the rock hidden behind the crooked, strangely pale trees, which were all that would grow beneath the fake sun in the caves. “Captain Kane will find a use for you.”

Braeden gave a sharp nod in acknowledgment, then spread his wings and soared, flying above the copse of cave trees. Behind, he could see the stretch of fire dragon civilization: fields of mushrooms and potatoes, and beyond, the cave sheep they'd bred over centuries down here in their caves, who yielded little wool, but had grown accustomed to the moss and the pale, hard grass that grew beneath the dragon fire sun.

Braeden folded his wings when he reached the entrance to the northern tunnels. He kept his dragon form, making it past another pair of guards without being stopped.

Captain Kane was in human form, so Braeden shifted as well. He reported for duty with curt words, giving no explanation, other than that the guards had told him to report here.

“Good, good,” the captain said, distracted. “Can use any pair of hands or wings I can get. If we don't find her before evening, Steele will have my head. Go on, join the patrol gathering over there.”

Braeden nodded. Within, new excitement rose.

Steele was here. Or at least—Steele was expected to be here in the evening. No wonder his heart had kept pulling him down into this lair.

This was where his duty had needed him to go all along.

Chapter Three: Alyx

Out of breath, her heart racing so fast that she thought it would explode, Alyx pressed herself into the tiny opening she'd found behind a rock.

She felt as if she'd been running and hiding for hours. In the strange light of the torches that illuminated the tunnels and caves, it was hard to know how much time had passed.

Perhaps it had been only minutes—even though it felt like a never-ending nightmare.

No. No, it has to be at least an hour or two. Zena wouldn't have returned to her rooms that early. Once she did, whoever accompanied her realized that I was gone. And then they sounded the alarm.

It had been at least another hour since she'd heard the sudden, angry roar of dragon shifters that had told her that her time was up.

Her escape had been discovered. The shifters were after her.

And worse. Alyx had failed to find the way out.

The tunnels were like a maze. At first, she'd blindly made her way forward, choosing the tunnels that seemed to lead her away from the dragons, and later on, choosing tunnels that seemed to lead upwards.

But she'd ended up running in circles. No matter

where she looked, she hadn't been able to find a way back to the sunlight.

Maybe there isn't one. Maybe the dragons are trapped down here just as I am. Maybe I'll never see the sun again...

Biting back tears, Alyx forced herself to breathe deeply. This wasn't the time to panic.

Right now, she was still free. Which was more than she'd had during the past few weeks.