Claiming His Prize (Bad Boy Alphas) (Feral Breed Followings Book 2) (4 page)

T
he morning
after the blood draw, I woke up shivering, thinking of Tidal alone in his room and wondering if he was as cold as I was. Though he might not be alone. Bringing women back to your room was against the rules for the fighters, but everyone knew Tidal didn’t follow all the rules. He didn’t have to. Success in the ring and the money he brought in kept the bosses happy and gave him a free pass.

Most of the time.

I’d dreamed of the dragon shifter all night, had woken up twice gasping as the desire from my naughty imagination had taken me over. But dreams and reality didn’t always mix. Still, after the second time, I’d needed to break out the toy I kept tucked away in my nightstand. It was small, a little finger vibe I’d snagged at a drug store, but it helped take the edge off so I could go back to sleep. Nothing like what I really wanted.

Stupid, handsome, charming, protective dragon with the impressive…package.

Frustrated with myself for many reasons, I threw the covers off and stumbled from my bed. Within fifteen minutes, I was showered, dressed, and on my way to the medical ward. I’d been up late helping patch up fighters who’d brawled in the training center, just as I’d expected from the heat raise. I wanted to stay in bed and sleep more, but there were fights tonight, which meant I’d be even busier. I needed to make sure all the supplies were organized and the rooms cleaned before the walking wounded started trickling in. The dead ones never cared if I had gauze handy or not.

I was working in exam room three, triple-checking that each acetylene torch was functional and close at hand, when Mick sauntered through the door.

“There you are.”

His voice made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I wasn’t ready to deal with him, was still too distracted by thoughts of Tidal to face the man. But I had to. No one kept their back to Mick for long if they were smart.

“Here I am.” With shaky hands, I placed the torch on the counter before turning his way, my fake smile firmly in place. “How can I help you, sir?”

“How’s Tidal?”

I shrugged even as my blood went cold. There had to be a reason why he was asking about Tidal. He never asked about a fighter unless he was worried they’d died. “Fine. Bloodwork shows nothing abnormal from what I can tell.”

He hummed and nodded, closing the door behind him. “So, you think you understand dragon physiology?”

I looked from him to the door and back, my instincts flaring bright. My answer was more cautious, my words specific. “I understand as much as I can considering I’ve only ever had Tidal to study.”

“Good, that’s good.” Mick strolled around the room, his eyes unfocused, his hands clasped behind his back. He reminded me of a tiger in a cage. Threatening. Bored. Psychotic. “Jane, I’m going to need you to keep a secret.”

“Of course,” I said, though the words made me sick to my stomach. Mick and secrets meant trouble. Lots of trouble. I’d been the victim of his secrets for years, but he just kept piling them on.

Mick glanced at the door, his movements growing quick and jerky. Something I would have guessed as nerves showing in his body language. Something I’d never seen from him before.

“We’ve got an off-site project that needs extra attention. I’ve been handling it on my own to this point. The other owners aren’t involved.”

The speed of his words, the almost babbling manner in which he spoke made chill bumps rise on my arms. What the hell was all this? “Okay.”

“I’d like for you to consult on the project for me.”

I wanted to say no. I wanted to say hell no and run for the door, to be honest. I wanted out of this place, out of this life, and away from The Pack House, too. But Mick would never allow that. Any of it.

In fact, Mick gave me a harsh stare as he turned the screws just that much tighter. “I bet your father would be so proud of what you’ve become, Jane. He always wanted you to be a doctor.”

And there it was. The noose around my neck. The Achilles’ heel to my entire future. The reminder that, no matter what I wanted, I had to bend to Mick’s will.

“I’d be happy to, sir.” My voice surprised me. It was low, crackly even. Lifeless in its tempo. It was the voice of someone who had given up.

Mick grunted, his eyes again darting around the room. “You cannot breathe a word of this to anyone. Ever.”

A shiver of dread raced down my spine. He’d said those words to me once before, about a minute before I practically fainted when he shifted to his wolf form. That one promise had kicked off the free fall into what my life had become. One shift, one moment that wasn’t as private as we thought, resulted in my father losing his mind and me being trapped working at The Pack House. Forever.

“Of course,” I whispered, wishing there was some way I could say no. That I could escape to another reality where I was free to do what I wanted and not stuck being enslaved by the beast before me. “Whatever you need, sir.”

Mick’s smile spread in a slow and calculating way. “I think you’re going to bring a lot to this project, Jane. Now, come. Let’s go play with my new toy.”

I
t didn’t take long
for Mick to drive us to the location of his special project, though it certainly wasn’t what I’d expected.

“This is it?” I asked, staring out the window at the mountain rising from the grass.

Mick grunted and pointed. “The entrance is behind that brush.”

I squinted, trying to see past the shrubbery and dead branches. “Is that—”

“A cave. Yes. Very observant. Come, Jane.”

I swallowed down the fear the place instilled in me and grabbed the door handle.

“A word of warning,” Mick said, dragging my attention back to him. “Whatever you do, don’t run.”

He was out of the car and moving toward the hidden mouth of the cave before I could fathom the meaning behind his words. Don’t run? Like…how you’re not supposed to run if a dog threatens you? What the hell was in there, and why was running something to avoid?

Resigned but wary, I sighed and followed Mick. One step inside the cave, and a fear unlike any I’d known slammed into me like a brick. Terror even. Something was very wrong in this place. I felt hunted, watched…like prey. A feeling that refused to leave and, in fact, grew stronger as we walked deeper into the low-ceilinged space.

When the darkness finally overpowered the light, making it nearly impossible for me to continue, I stopped.

“Keep going. We’re not there yet.” Mick said, his voice harsh.

“I can’t see.”

There was a sigh and the sound of movement before Mick turned on a large, torch-style flashlight. The heavy piece of equipment did little to dispel the shadows and even less to calm my nerves.

“Better?” Mick asked, sounding more irritated than concerned. I nodded, feeling chastised. Mick turned and strode deeper into the slowly widening tunnel. I hurried after him, my blood pounding in my ears, my skin cold. The tunnel was horrible, a long, dark road leading to something I didn’t want to know about. But it was nothing compared to the cavern at the end. It was in that moment, as we ducked through a small opening in the stone walls, that every instinct I had told me to do one thing.

Run!

I clung to the rock wall to the right of the opening, denying my instincts and working to keep my feet still. There was something dark in this place, more so than just the lack of lights. A shadow among the inky black. Darker than dark. Something breathing in the quiet, still air.

I swallowed hard, willing myself to stop shaking. “Mick?”

He shushed me, taking a few more steps into what I was finally able to see as a large, natural chamber of some sort. Stalactites hung high in the air, the sheer size of them something amazing to behold. But it was the shadow moving between the mineral formations that truly stole my breath.

“Don’t run,” Mick whispered when he heard my gasp. I swallowed hard and pushed my back against the wall, needing something solid to hold on to. Mick glanced over his shoulder, the look in his eyes only making my fear grow. It was not the expression of a confident man. But he turned to face the slithering shadow up above, then took another step into the dark.

“I brought the physician I told you about, Saern,” he called, his voice echoing in the cavernous space. “Please come say hello.”

A deep, dark chuckle sounded from above, just before a cold wind blew through the chamber. With a crash, a huge beast landed before me. Tall and wide, with scales the color of a moonless sky and even darker eyes, he dwarfed me. I whimpered and pushed myself against the wall, my fingers scraping against the rock.

The beast sniffed, his forked tongue nearly touching my skin. I recoiled, biting my lip to keep from screaming. A dragon. Another fucking dragon. One that instilled more fear in me than Tidal ever had. One that set my instincts to flight with no option to fight. One I wanted nothing to do with.

With a huff, the dragon shimmered, twisting and shrinking until he reformed into a dark-haired, humanoid man. A very naked man.

“She’s lovely. A treat.” The dragon shifter took another step toward me, his movements far too slithery to be human. He was nothing like Tidal, who could easily pass as human without seeming to try. This thing was all…animal.

“She’s here to help us.” Mick stepped closer, a growl in his voice. The man—Saern, if Mick was correct—whipped his head around, his movements extraordinarily fast, almost as if it was disconnected from his body.

“You promised me a treat.” Saern’s voice made me shiver, made my stomach plummet.

But Mick shook his head. “She’s not your treat.”

Saern sighed, looking me over with a covetous gaze, raising his hand as if to touch me. “Pity.”

I edged to the side, trying to avoid Saern’s clawlike fingers, unable to stop myself from retreating. The shifter cocked his head in a way that spoke of a hunter examining his prey, a look I’d never seen on a human face.

“She’s skittish,” he hissed, almost sounding excited. And, oh God, was he right. I was skittish. I was fighting every instinct I had to stay put. Don’t run, Mick had said. A nearly impossible command.

Mick growled again, the fierce rumble reverberating in the cavern. “She’s protected.”

“Another pity.” Saern slipped closer, his footsteps nearly silent. “I have a feeling she’d give me a good chase.”

I bit back a scream as he raised his hand again, inching closer. Those black eyes were locked on my chin, hungry eyes. Filled with evil and want and arrogance. Hissing, he ran a finger down the side of my face, his rough skin leaving a burning trail along my cheek.

“You’d make me work for it, wouldn’t you, my treat?”

“Mick,” I whispered, looking for help from the only person I thought might be strong enough to give it.

Mick growled long and deep, nearly making the room shake. “You will keep your distance, dragon.”

“Or what?” Saern smirked, not even bothering to turn toward the wolf shifter. “What exactly do you think you’re going to do to me, dog?”

Mick didn’t answer, though his growl turned harsher, fiercer. Saern stood before me for a moment, staring into my eyes, completely unaffected by the other shifter. Moving closer instead of retreating. His pupils were long and oval, more reptile than human, the fork in his tongue more obvious than Tidal’s. His beast was stronger. His humanity deeper within him.

Shit.

“Are you worried, treat?” Saern’s smirk grew as I turned to escape his fingers.

I shook my head, unable to look him in the eye. Trying my damnedest to simply keep breathing.

Saern chuckled. “Your blood flows faster when you lie. Did you know that?”

“That’s enough, Saern.” Mick’s command made the dragon shifter pause. His smirk dropped to a scowl, and his eyes darted to the side where Mick stood for the briefest of moments. But then they were back on mine, and he was leaning closer. Whispering in my ear. “Your dog thinks he’s in control, doesn’t he?”

Before I could ask what he meant, he swung back, kneeling a few feet in front of me. Bowing, it appeared. I looked to Mick, expecting some sort of response, but he seemed as confused as I felt.

“Saern?” Mick questioned, taking a step closer.

“My name is Mesaern Thundairous of the Vontruiler clan. And I choose you, Treat, as my mate.”

“
Y
ou lost
your balls in that last fight, Tidal? You’re hitting like a girl.”

I slammed my fist into the heavy bag and shot a look over at Beadan. “I know a number of girls who could kick your ass, man, so I’ll take that as a compliment.”

He laughed and went back to working the small bag while I started a high-low kick sequence on the heavy one. As much as I was training and working, Beadan was right. I wasn’t hitting as hard I normally would be. I’d become obsessed with thoughts of Doctor Jane. I’d fallen asleep thinking about her, woken up in the middle of the night thinking about her, and ended up jacking off in the shower thinking about her. The woman wouldn’t leave me alone. And it was no longer just an I-want-to-get-her-in-my-bed obsession; it had grown into the I-want-to-get-to-know-her kind. A truly dangerous kind. The kind that would get me killed if I couldn’t knock my own head back on straight in this crowd.

Though perhaps it wasn’t my obsession with her that was so distracting. It was the lack of her at the moment. I hadn’t been able to find her this morning when I’d gone to the medical wards. Someone mentioned she’d left the site with Mick, which had soured my mood. It shouldn’t have. Before that last fight, before the ear and the shot and the rescue the next day, I could go a couple of weeks without seeing her and barely notice. Now, I’d been separated from her for what amounted to a matter of hours, and I felt as if I were missing a part of me. Even my dragon was silent about anything other than her as he waited to catch another glimpse of the good doctor. But she was gone, and I had no idea when she’d be back. So I’d come to the ring for practice. That had been hours ago, and I was still stinking up the joint with my shitty moves.

Trainer Laudon hopped into the ring and stood behind the heavy bag, a frown on his face. “You’re out of sync.”

I growled and tried to kick without the bag coming back at me, only to fail once more. “Shit.”

“You okay, Tidal?”

“I’m fine.” I struck with my fists, giving up on lower-body training and going back to working my arms.

Laudon grabbed the bag and leaned into it, holding it in place. But after only a handful of hits, I knew this wouldn’t work. My mind was too scattered, my body too far on edge. My dragon was practically pacing on my last nerve. I needed a break.

I stopped hitting and doubled over, breathing hard. Laudon came running as I knew he’d do.

“You okay?”

I shook my head. “Yeah, man. I need to use the bathroom, though.”

The trainer took two steps back and gave me a sympathetic frown. In a building full of men, there was one thing everyone understood. Sometimes, you had to drop a load alone.

Laudon nodded and smacked my shoulder. “Find me when you’re done and we’ll try again.”

I nodded and left the ring, trying not to move too fast. Once I was out of the training area, I headed for the service hallway that ran the back length of the building. At the end was an emergency door leading outside, one I hadn’t used in a long time. We weren’t allowed outside, and we certainly weren’t allowed to do what I was about to. But if there was one thing I’d learned about the difference between wolf and dragon shifters, it was that the wolves were easier to control. My beast refused to be tethered. I could either get outside and shift or suffer until he tore through my mind and took over. The former seemed the better option.

I rushed through the door without looking back. As soon as I hit the tree line, I shifted. Skin became scales, wings pushed through the flesh of my back, and my eyesight sharpened. The world became a sea of colors—red and blue, orange and yellow. All denoting the temperature. All showing a rather cool day on the mountain. Spots of brighter colors scurried through the undergrowth, animals moving about their business. They ran from me as prey tends to run from predators, but they were no concern of mine tonight. I needed wind, I needed space. I needed to fly.

My wings unfurled behind me as I took two steps and jumped, taking to the air smoothly. This was what I’d been missing since I’d been fighting my way through The Pack House. The freedom, the feeling of letting go that came from soaring above the trees. I couldn’t fly for too long or go too high, but I could take a few loops around the mountain. Just enough to clear my head and settle my dragon. Enough to figure out what was going on with the good doctor.

But as I arced over the river and beat my wings to go higher, the irritation from my dragon didn’t disappear. It was a weight on me, a tether around my neck, tying me to the ground. It grew and pulled tighter the farther away from The Pack House I flew, drawing me back, refusing to let me escape. Irritation sizzled under my skin, and smoke trailed from my nose. For the first time in my life, flying wasn’t enough to calm the billowing currents inside of me.

I swung back around, heading for The Pack House. The weight I felt as I flew away lessened, the direction the right one. But the reasoning behind the sensation was something I couldn’t understand. So I stepped back, giving more mental space to my beast. Letting him take over our thoughts. It was something I rarely did, as the loss of my humanity scared me, but this time, it was needed.

Digging deep, trying to see what my dragon saw, I gave him as much control as I felt comfortable letting go of. And he took it, practically singing his joy at having the reins hang free. At first, it was almost as if the beast was blocking me, as if he didn’t want me to see what he wanted and needed. Why he was so focused on staying at The Pack House. I could only see red and orange, fiery hot colors that made the dragon needy and demanding. That blocked everything from his mind but whatever was behind the wall of color. But then the focus changed, moved back, and out of the fire came understandable shapes and shadows. And I knew.

The dragon had chosen Jane as his mate.

I landed on the riverbank with a thud, not even shifting human once more like I normally would. My tail swished back and forth as I paced the rocky shore, my yowls, hisses, and grunts peppering the forest with sounds rarely heard. How had I missed this? While I knew I was definitely attracted to Jane, I hadn’t expected
this
. Hell, I hadn’t expected to ever find a mate. My father had told me the stories of our kind. I knew the legends that followed us, the ones we let the other shifters believe. That we chose mates at random, that they weren’t fated, that we could leave them and choose others if the whim hit us.

All lies, sort of.

The truth was our dragon chose their mate. The connections took time, took getting to know someone. It was much like how humans chose a spouse, except that once our dragon had chosen a mate, that was it. The dragon chose once in their life, tying their soul to the one they wanted for their remaining days. No, it wasn’t a fated connection; it was one we had to work to build and nurture. There was no instant attraction, no understanding that the two belonged together. There was only the feeling of rightness that came when you realized they were the one for you. When they proved their loyalty. When you claimed their body, mind, and spirit as a part of your own.

And blessings to anyone—human or otherwise—who stood in your way.

“Shit,” I hissed as I finally shifted human. For about the millionth time in my life, I gave thanks that dragons shifted with their clothes, unlike our wolfy counterparts.

Sitting on the bank of the river, I grabbed the neck of my T-shirt and pulled it over my head. I was too warm for once, too worked up from flying and figuring out what my dragon had done. So I balled up the fabric and rested it behind my head as I lay back on the cool ground. The sky was a field of color, clouds hanging high above in fluffy counter to the sleek blue. I stared for minutes or hours, waiting for guidance. Letting my dragon settle so I could figure out what to do.

When he finally did, when he sat back and gave me the ability to work with him once more, it was with one thought in mind.

Mate.

“She might not want us,” I said out loud, even though he could hear my thoughts. But I knew, even before the dragon laughed inside my head, that it didn’t matter. I’d still be chasing her. I’d still crave her. There was no turning off the mate switch once the dragon had chosen. No second chances or do-overs. Jane was it for me, for my dragon, forever.

I just had to figure out how to make her feel the same way about me.