Mated to the Fire Dragon (Elemental Mates 4)

Just wait until I get out of here...

She used one of Zena’s combs to work a tangle out of her hair. It helped, a little. She was still no closer to looking like her true self, but at least her hair was sort of presentable now.

And then there was a harsh knock on the door.

Alyx flinched instinctively, her mouth dry. She forced herself to show no other reaction.

“I’m ready,” Zena called out in a bored voice.

The door opened. Another shifter guard stepped in.

He didn’t even acknowledge Alyx as he gave Zena a small bow.

“Your presence is requested.”

“Of course it is.” Zena gestured with her hand. “Get a bath ready for me when I return. And the bedroom needs cleaning.”

Alyx hastily nodded, not daring to meet their eyes.

Then the door closed.

Alyx took a cautious breath. For a long moment, she didn’t dare to move.

But no one came back for her. She was all alone in Zena’s rooms.

Perhaps Zena had meant it as a kindness, allowing Alyx to read some of her books while she was busy.

All the same, right now there was only one single thing Alyx could think about.

There hadn’t been any sound of a key turning.

The guard who’d taken Zena away had forgotten to lock the door.

Chapter Two: Braeden

Braeden didn’t move a single muscle as he lay in hiding, closely watching one of the back entrances to what had to be a secret fire dragon lair.

He knew because he, too, was a fire dragon. And not long ago, he’d lived underground with the rest of his people.

For centuries, ever since the Middle Ages when they’d been hunted almost to extinction by human knights, they’d hidden underground from all eyes. For centuries, their people had thought of nothing but revenge. Revenge on the humans who’d hunted them. Revenge on other dragon shifters—water dragons, earth dragons, everyone who’d refused to join them in their fight to subdue humanity before all fire dragons were wiped out.

But no one had joined in their crusade against humans back then, and so they’d at last been forced to flee deep underground, to gather their strength during centuries spent in caves and tunnels far below the earth.

There was a strange thrum of something in the air now.

It increased until Braeden could feel the hair at the back of his neck stand up. He kept utterly still, drawing on the power of his element to cloak himself in fire. If all went well, that should make him invisible to the senses of other fire dragons.

Then there was a rumble, and the side of the mountain he’d been watching all day seemed to split open.

Where there had been only dull, gray rock before, a dark hole had appeared.

An opening, just as he had suspected.

And now three dragons shot out, beating their wings to rise high into the sky.

A moment later, they were gone. Braeden clenched his teeth as the rock rumbled again and the opening vanished.

But now he knew where it was. It was a first step. The first on a very long road towards fulfilling the mission the council of elements had tasked hi