Blackwing Dragon (Harper's Mountains 5) (8 page)

Rowan cried out as release exploded through her body, pulsing around his fingers. Kane was thrusting into her grip so hard now, so fast, like he was close, too. So damn sexy, but she wanted more. She wanted another orgasm, but better. She wanted him inside of her more than she’d wanted anything in her life. Rowan shoved her shorts down her hips in desperation, and Kane was there, on top of her, cradled between her legs, briefs shoved down his hips, his erection so long, poised at her entrance, and all he had to do was slide into her and end her agony.

But he stilled, arms locked on either side of her face, his triceps bulging, his eyes blazing like green fire, his black hair draped in front of his face, the swollen head of his cock resting against her entrance. Why was he stopping? No! Rowan wiggled lower, chasing him, but Kane flinched away, stumbled off the bed. “Fuck, what are we doing?” He was holding his chest as though he felt the same burning sensation that was filling her heart right now.

“W-what do you mean? I thought we were…” Rowan sat up and covered her breasts with her arms. “I thought you wanted to be with me.”

“I’m a fucking Blackwing, Rowan.”

“So?”

“So you don’t remember half an hour ago when you saw my eyes and got terrified?
Terrified
, Rowan. I could smell it on you. And now we’re gonna do this?”

Anger blasted through her like a cannon ball. “You sleep with women in bathrooms but you don’t want to be with me? I like you!”

Kane grabbed his jeans off the floor. “Don’t, Rowan. Don’t compare yourself to a quickie bathroom-fuck. You don’t want to be one of those women.”

“I do, too! I want you.”

Too loud, he asked, “You want to be someone who adds to the emptiness?”

Rowan gasped at the pain those words slashed at her heart. In a rush, she pulled the comforter over her because, right now, she’d never felt so exposed, so vulnerable.

Kane only bothered with jeans before he strode for the door. He threw it open, but stopped before he disappeared. “Rowan, you and I can’t be. We can’t. And I can’t push us that far and expect us to be friends after. I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

In the instant before he let the door swing closed behind him, he lifted his gaze to Rowan’s, and his eyes were so sad she had to look away. She didn’t want to see that kind of pain in anyone, and especially not the man who already felt like so much more than a friend.

Something small and warm splatted against her wrist, but she knew what it was before she even looked down. A small drop of damning crimson sat on her pale skin. It had begun.

The Sickening was here, and it had reared its ugly head in the moment her heart had been damaged by Dark Kane. Warmth trickled down her lip from her nose, and a sob wrenched up Rowan’s throat.

Her treasure was lost, The Sickening had begun, and she was alone, far away from the safety of Damon’s Mountains. All she wanted was for Kane to hug her and tell her everything would be okay, but one broken dragon couldn’t fix another broken dragon.

And Kane had made it perfectly clear.

They weren’t friends.

Shit, what was he doing? Kane gripped his T-shirt harder and paced in front of room 10B. Everything in him, every instinct, every desire, wanted to go back in there and fuck Rowan. No, not just fuck her. She wasn’t one of the other women she was comparing herself to. She was more. So much more.

He couldn’t breathe. His chest was so damn tight he couldn’t draw a full breath, and now he was panting in desperation. When a soft, heartbroken sound drifted from the room, Kane hated himself. Hated everything. Hated his past, hated his future, hated the man he’d become. Hated the man he was born to be.

Rowan was crying because of him. Crying over a man who didn’t deserve her tears.

What was it about her? He’d planned on going to the pool and sitting in a plastic lounge chair until morning so he could give them both space, but here he was, staring at the window of their shitty hotel room, completely helpless to leave.

She’d done something to him. Bewitched him maybe. He’d never believed in that stuff, but Kane had known Rowan less than twenty-four hours, and she felt like the damn moon, and he was the tide, affected by her whims, her moods. If she’d told him to stay…if she’d demanded it, he would’ve. He wouldn’t have been able to say no.

What the fuck was wrong with him? And why did his chest hurt so goddamn bad? He pressed his palm over his heart to see if his skin there was as hot as it felt. Another sob, and he couldn’t fucking breathe! This wasn’t how he’d seen the day going. It wasn’t how he saw his life going. He was supposed to be alone for always, but Rowan came in, busting up his walls like a bull in a china shop. She’d shattered him in a day.

And the noise in his chest? The one she’d drawn from him? That wasn’t supposed to exist. He didn’t control the dragon, didn’t have access to The Darkness anymore. But there had been the rumble there, so familiar. It had felt like home, and something deep inside of him had told him Rowan was to blame, or perhaps thank, for a glimpse of himself again. He’d lost his mind in desperation to hear that sound again. To make that sound. He’d kissed her in a silent plea for her to fix what was broken inside of him, but Rowan didn’t have that power. No one did. It wasn’t fair of him to attach to her. It wasn’t fair on her, and it wasn’t fair on him, because the second she figured out what was wrong with him, and how weak he really was, how useless, she would leave, and he would be full of nothing but infinite hollowness.

Hope was a slow and painful death to a man like him.

He was a shadow, at home with loneliness. At home in the dark, but Rowan was light. She was happy and loved people. She was social and mirrored strangers’ smiles without effort. She was jokes and laughter and constant happy chatter, and he was a stone gargoyle that would shroud her life in darkness.

He’d known her for less than a day, but already he wanted better for her. Tomorrow, he would take her to the airport, make sure she got her rental car, and let her go. And when she was safe, far away from him, he would go to work finding her treasure. He would make sure she was okay. And maybe when she was in Nantahala and he lived near, he would do little things for her to make life easier. Little things she would never notice. Pay for her drinks at the bar, or cover her coffee if she was in the drive-through behind him one day. Maybe he could put in a good word and help her get a job in Bryson City, so long as she didn’t know it was his kindness helping her out. Rowan didn’t need to attach, but he could tell here and now, as her soft sobbing shredded his insides, that she was his. Not his to keep, but his in the only way he could have a woman—from afar.

Determined not to listen to whatever instinct was screaming to go in there and fix her, Kane squatted down and narrowed his eyes at the door to 10B. He could still smell her on him. Rowan’s pheromones had been off the charts calling to him, filling his head, filling his damn jeans. Here she was breaking down, and he was outside her room thinking about the way she’d felt when he slid his fingers inside of her. Of how she’d writhed against him and begged for more. Of how her mouth tasted and her hair smelled like roses. Of how gold her eyes had turned when her inner dragon was riled up. Of the easy way his fingers had slipped through her blond waves, the way her lips parted right before he kissed her.

She was inside, crying, and he was thinking about how fucking sexy she was.
Monster.

Kane wanted to spit, but stood and linked his hands behind his head instead. His leg hurt again. Rowan had made it better for a while, or maybe it was the adrenaline from the fight, he didn’t know. He wanted more relief, though.

She was inside crying, and he was wishing she could make
him
feel better.
Monster.

Was it wrong that he already wanted her forgiveness? Was it wrong that he wished he could just walk in there and she would open her arms and pull him in close and tell him he wasn’t an asshole? He was shit at apologies.

She was inside crying, but he wanted her to siphon the bone-deep regret from him so he could breathe again.
Monster.

Debating on going for a drive to clear his head, Kane grimaced at his Bronco, but when he did, his lip didn’t hurt like it should have. Kane ran his finger over the split that asshole had punched into his bottom lip. He couldn’t find it. Frowning, he strode to his truck and leaned down, searched for the cut in the driver’s side mirror. Where the fuck was it? Rowan had been kissing him just as hard as he’d done to her, so it should be looking like crap about now, torn to hell and maybe still bleeding, but nope. The bruising around his mouth was already gone, and there was no split. Kane searched his face desperately, looking for any sign of the fight, but there was none.

Stunned, he stood up and stared at the door to the hotel again. His healing was shit, but Rowan had done something to him. Maybe kissing her had healed his face faster, or being around her, or…something.

She was a witch. That was the only logical thing that could explain the way he felt about her, and now this? Witchcraft. Some Supes had extra powers. Vamps did for sure. Super healing, speed, strength, agility…why would it be out of the realm of possibilities that Rowan was a dragon and a witch? There was heavy magic in the Bloodrunner line, and clearly some of that had passed down to Rowan.

Maybe that’s why Damon had tucked her away in his mountains like a princess in a tower for all those years.

Kane should be wary as hell right now, but instead, Rowan had somehow demanded even more curiosity from him. That saying “curiosity killed the cat”? Well, curiosity was going to get his ass burned alive by Damon and eternity in the belly of the blue dragon himself.

Kane needed to get away from Rowan. He needed to separate them, put distance between them, and get ahold of his damn mind before he lost it completely. All he had to do was get in the Bronco and drive away. His keys were in his pocket.

But he couldn’t. He tried, but he couldn’t force his hand to open the door. Rowan was still crying, he couldn’t move, and he was going to be pinned here all night, waiting for her to release the hold she had on him. And he still couldn’t breathe.

He hadn’t felt this powerless since that night at Jeremy’s house when The Darkness had taken over. But this was different. It wasn’t The Darkness controlling him now. He was alone in this body. No, there was another dragon to blame for this paralysis.

Anger flooded him, black and roiling. He wasn’t just some plaything.

Kane took a step toward the hotel room and then another. It was easy moving this way, he just couldn’t move to escape her. Fucking traitor body was fine walking back into danger, but not to flee to survive.

Kane threw open the door, ready to strip her down for controlling him like this, but the second he did, the weight lifted as though it had never existed. His lungs filled with oxygen and he felt…relief.

Rowan had her back to him at the sink, her shoulders shaking with her crying. When she looked up at him in the mirror, his stomach dropped to the floor. The tissues she was holding up to her face were soaked with blood. Shit.

“You left, and then I felt something warm, and I already know what this is,” she cried, her face crumpled and desolate. “It’s The Sickening. I have to find my treasure, and no one can help me.”

“Shhhh,” he said, taking the tissues from her. “Let me see.”

Her face was covered in smears of red, but her nose didn’t look to be bleeding anymore. “Look, it’s done.”

“It is?” she asked in a pitiful voice.

“Yeah, princess. It’s over. Tomorrow we’ll track down your suitcase, and this will all just be a bad memory. You have time.”

“How much?”

Kane shook his head helplessly. “It took months for Harper.”

“Did she bleed this bad in the beginning? Did she get headaches?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered, wiping her face with a wet washcloth. “I’m not a Bloodrunner, and she wouldn’t ever share that information with me.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What is your treasure?”

That question gutted him. He would’ve given his other leg for the instinct to find a treasure, but he wasn’t okay. “Princess, I’ll never need a treasure, and I’ll never undergo The Sickening.”

Rowan’s pretty blue eyes got so round. “Why not?”

And this was the moment when he admitted something awful. When he admitted his greatest shame. When he told Rowan just how beyond help he was.

“Because,” he murmured, “my dragon was taken from me.”

Kane’s dragon was taken? Rowan didn’t understand, but he’d cut off her questions as they’d readied for bed. His eyes had dimmed, and he had shut down. Now he was lost in his head, oblivious to everything around him.

Kane had taken one of the pillows off the bed and spread a thin blanket on the floor for himself, but while he was taking off his shirt, Rowan had pulled the pallet back up onto the bed.

“What are you doing?” he asked in a tired voice.

“Making history.”

Kane sat on the edge of the mattress and unhooked his prosthetic leg. “What do you mean by that?”

“Think about it. Blackwings and Bloodrunners have been enemies for centuries, but here we are, best friends—”

“Acquaintances,” Kane corrected her.

“And diddle buddies—”

“I finger-banged you once.”

“And now we have two sides of an ancient war sleeping in the same room. Fate led us here, Kane. Let’s snuggle.”

Kane didn’t even fight her, just set his prosthetic leg on the chair by the bed and climbed under the covers with her. “You’re relentless,” he muttered.

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“Would you like to be the big spoon or the little spoon?”

Kane’s teeth flashed in a white smile in the dark. “Big.”

“Fantastic choice. That way your wiener can touch my butt cheek.” She rolled over and waited, not missing the soft chuckle behind her.

Slowly and carefully, Kane rolled toward her and hugged her back tightly against his chest. Indeed, his stony erection pressed against her butt. “This still doesn’t change anything tomorrow.”

Rowan yawned. “Technically, it is tomorrow.”

“Hm,” Kane grunted noncommittally.

Her eyelids grew heavy with the air vent blasting cold air onto her and Kane’s warm, strong body pressed against her back. Even his knees were drawn up, touching the backs of hers. “Kane?”

“What?”

“I don’t mind that part of your leg is missing.” She bent her knee up higher, drawing her calf to where his shin would’ve been. “I mean, I wish you still had it so you wouldn’t hurt, but it makes you unique. I’ve never met a man like you.”

“You’ve never met a shifter without his animal, and a man without all his body parts? That’s not shocking, princess. We’re a rare breed.”

Rowan rolled over in his arms and snuggled against his chest until he relaxed again. “You feel whole to me,” she said sleepily.

Kane went quiet. She would’ve thought him asleep if he wasn’t rubbing her back gently. He smelled so good, like lingering cologne and some masculine deodorant probably called Grizzly Motorcycle Pine Tree or something. His heart beat strong and steady against her cheek, and despite him being a Blackwing, she’d never felt so safe in the arms of a man.

He let out a long, steady breath, as if he’d been holding it for a while. “Rowan?”

“Mmm?”

“Are you magic?”

She smiled sleepily and kissed his chest right along the edge of his tattoo. Silly dragon. He was the one who had made her feel better after the terror of The Sickening. “No. There is no magic in me.”

“Swear?”

Rowan bit him gently, then released his pec. She ignored her inner dragon’s urging to bite him again harder. “I swear.”

Kane swallowed audibly in the dark and whispered, “Night, Roe.”

Rowan’s lips stretched with a smile that felt so good. Roe. Not princess or Bloodrunner, but by the name her friends called her.

He’d just given her a gift. He’d just called her a friend and settled her sickly dragon even more.

Kane didn’t realize it, but he was the magic one.

****

Three days. Rowan gripped the steering wheel harder and heaved a stressed-out sigh. Three days, and she would have her treasure back. The airline guaranteed it. Meanwhile, she didn’t have time or money to hang out in Asheville while they looked for the lost luggage, so here she was, following Kane’s Bronco in her rental convertible.

Kane turned off at an exit that read Bryson City. The GPS was telling her to follow the highway, but she hadn’t said a proper goodbye to him, so like the stalker she was, she followed him off the exit ramp, down a few back roads, and into a gravel parking lot near an old-fashioned tourist train station. Two hours in the car, and she needed to stretch her back and legs. At least she hadn’t had a bloody nose yet today. She didn’t even have a headache, so maybe Kane was right. Maybe she had lots of time.

“Fancy meeting you here,” she called as Kane got out of his Bronco.

“I’m hungry as fuck,” he said. “Come on. I know a place with fried mushrooms that look like little dicks.”

Rowan snorted. “You know the direct way to my heart. I was following you to say goodbye, though.”

“They have homemade ranch. You can make it look like jizz on the mushrooms.”

Well in that case… Rowan marched herself right on over to Kane and linked her arm in his. “Lead on, sexy dragon.”

Kane tensed. “I don’t like you calling me that.”

“Well, you are sexy, so…”

“No, I mean the dragon part. I’m not a dragon.”

“Your glowing dragon eyes say differently. Look at this sparkly rock.” She stooped and picked it up, then showed him because Kane was being sweet and pretending to be interested. It glittered gold like fish scales in the sunlight when she turned it in her palm. “This is for you.”

Kane’s eyebrows lowered, and he took it slowly. “What is it for?” he asked suspiciously.

“To keep in your pocket so you can always think of me.”

“Jesus, woman.” Kane turned to the side and chucked the rock as hard as he could into a small grove of trees.

“Kane!” she yelled, instantly furious.

But when she looked back at him, he was grinning. He held out the rock, still sitting on his palm. The turd. She shoved him hard in the shoulder and didn’t even feel bad when he went off balance and had to right himself on his bad leg. Rowan crossed her arms and marched toward the main drag. “I’m never letting you see my boobs again.”

Kane was laughing now, and it made her even angrier. “Roe, wait.” He caught up in front of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and pulled her to a stop. Even if he was going to apologize, he was still smiling so it wouldn’t count.

“I gave you a treasure, and you were going to throw it away.”

Kane angled his head, dipped down lower so he could catch her averted gaze. “Stop pouting and look.” He held up the pebble between his thumb and forefinger, then shoved it deep into his pocket. Right next to his obvious boner.

“Why are you turned on right now? I’m angry.”

“Yeah, well…” Kane glanced around and adjusted his dick. “You’re really cute when you’re mad.”

Rowan made an offended huff of breath. “Kane, I’m a
fucking dragon
, as you keep reminding me. I’m not cute when I’m angry. I blow fire, stomp on trees, and destroy stuff.”

“I’ll buy you lunch if you spend eight dollars or less.”

She wanted to stay mad, but his stupid smile was so freaking handsome, and he didn’t have smile lines either. His face was smooth as though he never grinned, yet here he was teasing her. “I’m gonna spend nine of your dollars,” she sassed, turning on her heel and striding toward the stairs to the restaurant he was pointing to.

It was lunch rush, and the hostess told them they had to wait while their table was cleaned. It was too crowded inside, so Kane led her outside. Rowan rested her elbows on the railing that skirted the outside eating area. This was her first real look at the town. A train was blowing a whistle behind them, and a pair of jacked-up trucks were racing down the main street. Tourists were everywhere. She could tell they were tourists because they hauled souvenir bags and wore Bryson City T-shirts with little printed bear logos all over them. Restaurants and souvenir shops lined both sides of the street, and beyond the sleepy town, green mountains jutted up to meet the vibrant blue sky. It would be fall soon, and likely cold, but not today. Today the weather was perfect.

Kane leaned against the railing, mirroring her stance. “Is it a lot different than Saratoga to you?”

“Yes and no. They’re both small towns and have the same sleepy feel. It’s the mountains that are different,” she murmured, staring at the towering hills outside of town. “Damon’s Mountains are covered in evergreens.”

“These will stun you in the fall.”

“You like it here?”

Kane nodded. “I do. I’ve been trying really hard not to get chased out of Bryson City.”

“Who chases you?” She would kill them. Kill them? Clearly she was losing her mind around this man.

“Kane, your table is up,” the hostess called. She was setting a pair of menus on a table outside in the shade. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you eat anywhere but at the bar inside,” she said lightly.

“Yeah.” Kane shot Rowan a frown across the table. “It’s a nice day out here.”

The waitress, Sandy, her nametag said, placed her hands on her hips and beamed at Rowan. “Two years eating in here, and he’s never let me sit him anywhere but the bar. Same seat every time, too. Right at the end, away from everyone.”

That drew Rowan up short. How sad to want to be alone for all his meals like that. The server got their drink orders and scurried off. Rowan leaned forward. “Don’t you have friends?”

“No,” Kane said, void of hesitation. Then he lifted his menu in front of his face to show her the conversation was done.

Rowan snatched it out of his hands. “And who chases you?”

Kane growled and leaned forward. “Everyone, Rowan. The wolves, the vampires, the bears, panthers, lions, boars. Whoever settles a territory doesn’t want a dominant shifter living there without fealty to them.”

“But you don’t have the animal.”

“They don’t know that, and it needs to stay that way.”

“So many secrets.”

“And I’ve trusted you with them.”

“Not all of them. What happened to your dragon?”

“Nope.” Kane sat back and lifted his menu in front of his face again, this time too far away from the table for her to yank away.

“I’m spending ten of your dollars now. Do you want to play footsies?”

Kane chuckled from behind the menu. “Play with my good leg so I can feel it.”

And she did. Rowan rested her foot right inside of his and rubbed the toe of her sneaker against his heel. When Kane gave in and dropped the menu, the corners of his lips were still in a smile. “You don’t care about personal space at all, do you?”

“No.”

“Are you one of those girls? You know…the ones who need constant affection in a relationship?”

“Yes.”

“Needy,” he accused.

“Not needy. It’s natural for shifters to crave affection. Even with my friends, I like to hug them or bump their shoulders or sit really close. I grew up in the Gray Back Crew, and we’re an affectionate lot by nature. I’m not weird Kane. Maybe
you
are.”

“The Bloodrunners are like that,” he said so softly she almost missed it.

She wished he wasn’t wearing the extra pair of sunglasses he apparently kept in his Bronco for when he got his smashed in fights. She wanted to see his eyes when he’d said that. The tenderness in his voice caught her off guard. “How do you know?”

“Because I watch them. I work with Wyatt, and I saw him before Harper came. I saw him before the Bloodrunners formed a crew. He was empty, angry, wanted to fight all the damn time. Now he’s like one of those goats at the petting zoo. You know which ones I’m talking about? They just sit there, getting petted, looking all drunk and happy.”

“I’ll be sure to let Wyatt know you compared him to a drunken billy goat.”

“You know what I mean. And when I see the crew at the bar, they are always touching. Even the ones who aren’t paired up. Hugging and linking arms, like you do to me. It’s…”

“It’s what?”

“Unsettling. Confusing.”

Rowan sighed and rubbed her foot against his ankle. “Does it feel good when I touch you?”

Kane shrugged one shoulder up and muttered, “Sometimes.”

But sometimes not. That’s what he was saying. Rowan frowned down at her menu so he wouldn’t see the hurt on her face. It wasn’t fair for her to get frustrated if he didn’t like touch. It was his body.

“Kane, why aren’t you in a crew?” she asked before she could change her mind.

He took a long drag of his water before he answered in a careful voice, “You know why.”

“You’re a shifter.”

Kane’s gaze tracked a woman walking close by their table. He clenched his jaw and leaned forward, then whispered, “I’m not. I’m just a man now. And I don’t want to have this conversation again.”

“My mom is human.”

Kane leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, angled his face like he was studying her. “So?”

“So she’s a Gray Back just as much as me or my dad, or Beaston, Jason, Aviana, Georgia, Matt, Willa, any of them. She’s crew. Doesn’t matter that she doesn’t have an animal in her. If you found a crew, no one would chase you anymore. You could be safe. You wouldn’t be alone.”