Maggie smiled at Jane. “For the next ten minutes, you’re powerless, Jane Hartley. I hope you enjoy the show.”
She vaguely remembered Maggie having a Protector cousin. The bastard must’ve sent the second guard away on an errand.
Maggie turned her attention back to Kai, who was struggling even more against his restraints.
His pupils were slitted, meaning his dragon was in charge. And given his jerky, erratic movements, his beast wasn’t in his right mind.
As Maggie lowered her head toward Kai’s lips, Jane stopped breathing. “No.”
The dragonwoman ignored her to murmur to Kai, “I should’ve done this a long time ago. I’m finally ready to bring you the happiness you deserve, with someone who understands all of you.”
Maggie closed the distance to Kai’s lips, and Jane tried again to smack her restrainer’s head. When that failed, she used her heel to stomp his foot.
But the dragonman merely grunted and tightened his hold on her.
The bitch was trying to steal her mate and Jane was powerless to do anything.
When Maggie raised her head, Jane held her breath and hoped with everything she had that Kai’s dragon had been truthful when saying Jane was all that they needed.
Because if Maggie Jones started a mate-claim frenzy and stole Kai away from her, Jane would die a little inside. Mate-claim frenzies always resulted in pregnancy, which meant Kai would have a child. His duty would want to see it through with Maggie.
For the first time, she wondered if she’d been a fool for trying to win a dragonman’s heart when fate had decreed that another was his best chance at happiness.
But she quickly pushed the doubt aside. Kai was her dragonman. She had to believe that his love for her was stronger than a dragon’s instinct.
~~~
Kai regained consciousness inside the mental prison. His head was foggy and he could barely make out his dragon’s form at the front of their mind.
Female voices drifted through the space, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying at first. Then a voice he hadn’t heard in over a decade rang out clear. “I should’ve done this a long time ago. I’m finally ready to bring you the happiness you deserve, with someone who understands all of you.”
Confusion set in. Why would Maggie say that to him?
His awareness fully returned as strange lips touched his.
Roaring, his beast thrashed wildly. The drugs must’ve affected his dragon severely since he didn’t speak, but only roared and bellowed, trying to get free of the restraints around their arms, middle, and legs.
Not sure if his dragon would hear him, Kai shouted, She isn’t for us. Remember Jane.
As if on cue, Jane’s voice reached his ears. “Kai! If you can hear me, help!”
The desire to claim a female hit him at full blast. He fucking hoped it wasn’t for Maggie. We love Jane.
Still ignoring him, his dragon yelled as he finally broke the restraints around their upper body. A split second later, he extended a talon and ripped through the ones around their waist and legs. Jumping to a crouch on the bed, his dragon hissed and looked at Maggie.
Shit. Kai pounded against his invisible prison. He couldn’t allow fate to ruin his life and take away the other half of his heart.
Then his beast shifted their gaze to Jane, who was being held captive from behind by a male dragon-shifter.
His dragon finally spoke inside their head, He dies.
As he lunged at the male, Kai punched his mental prison wall once, twice, and on the third time, it cracked. He couldn’t allow his beast to kill anyone or he’d never hold Jane in his arms again.
With his dragon still in control, their human form punched the male dragon-shifter in the nose and pulled Jane away, until she stood behind them. His beast clocked the male again, and he dropped to the floor. With a growl, he moved to pin the male down.
Despite the effects of the drug and his beast’s raging nature, Kai drew on every speck of discipline he possessed to slowly create a mental cage for his dragon. It was hard to ignore the sound of his fist against the other male’s jaw, but he somehow managed it.
His future with Jane depended on it.