Mated to the Fire Dragon (Elemental Mates Book 4) Read online

And there was the hint of fire magic he’d looked for, running like a wire-thin thread of heat through this part of the rock.

  Braeden called out to the dancing flame in his heart, and the thread began to vibrate.

  A moment later, an opening appeared in the rock before him. It revealed the dark tunnel hidden beneath, large enough that a shifted dragon could fit through.

  Braeden remained in his human form as he stepped inside. After he’d taken several steps forward, the rock rumbled, and the opening behind him disappeared.

  For a moment, it felt as if darkness had swallowed him.

  Patiently, Braeden waited. After a moment, his human eyes grew used to the sudden darkness. He began to pick out the subtle, red glow in the distance that beckoned him onward, calling out to both his human need for light and to the fire within him.

  It was silent inside the mountain. He walked for perhaps half an hour—it would have been faster to travel in his dragon form, but he wasn’t certain whether that might alert them to his presence.

  If he was very lucky, the dragons of this lair hadn’t heard about how he’d betrayed their kin. Still, better not to chance it.

  Furthermore, he wasn’t quite sure if his new-found power as the master of fire might not give him away. He'd been working hard to keep the flame within him contained, but he was still new to it.

  Before, he'd been strong. He'd been one of the fighters sent out to the surface for that first direct attack against one of the dragons of the council of elements.

  But he'd never been filled with such power before. He could feel it coursing through his veins even now.

  The element of fire had chosen him.

  Now he just had to prove that he was worthy of the fire inside his heart—and worthy of a seat on the council.

  He made his way forward through a maze of tunnels. Everything was still silent and dark, except for the torches that burned here and there, each of them lit by dragon fire, so that they would burn for days without fuel.

  He could feel them now. Somewhere down below, in a vast system of tunnels and caves, there lived a group of fire dragons.

  And there was more—someone or something very powerful was in residence. He could feel it, like a red-hot flame that throbbed in the earth deep below, pulsing in time with the flame in his own heart.

  Steele.

  He gritted his teeth as he carefully moved onward. It could be his enemy: the powerful fire dragon who'd attacked the council of elements, who'd wanted to claim the seat of fire as his own, destroy the council, and then wreak havoc upon humanity in revenge for the way they had once hunted dragons.

  But that was many centuries ago, and for all that Braeden had grown up like Steele, hearing tales about the evil knights who had mercilessly slaughtered them, he'd since spent time among humans.

  He'd been a prisoner of the council of elements—at least at first. And then he'd begun to make friends and learn about humans and their strange ways.

  Humans were not at all like what he'd expected.

  Instead of spending their days thinking about cruel ways to kill dragons, they'd invented ice cream, night clubs, and TV.

  And Braeden would be damned if he allowed Steele to murder all humans before he found out how Game of Thrones was going to end.

  For a moment, he grinned as he imagined Steele's reaction to the dragons in that show. Dragons that couldn’t shift. Dragons serving humans.

  Then he froze, his dragon sensing a sudden disturbance.

  To the left, there was a crack in the rock large enough that a human could hide in the shadows within.

  Hastily, he squeezed himself into the natural alcove, then drew up his powers. He cloaked himself with a wall of invisible fire—just enough that no fire dragon would feel anything out of the ordinary when walking past him.

  He didn't know if it would hold up to direct scrutiny—but hopefully, two couriers sent out to the surface wouldn't have time to search a crack in the rock that looked perfectly ordinary.

  A moment later, he could hear the rush of wings.

  He pressed himself further back against the stone, allowing the fire inside him to fill his thoughts.

  He was nothing. He was rock. He was fire. A thread of heat within the stone, nothing more.

  Then there was the sound of claws on stone. They walked right towards him.

  And then they stopped.

  Braeden didn't dare to breathe.

  A moment later, he heard the sound of boots on stone rather than claws.

  They'd shifted into human form.

  Why...?

  Then Braeden heard the sound of a third dragon approaching from the same direction he'd come from.

  That explains it.

  He tried to calm his racing heart. They still didn't know he was here. They'd shifted because there was no way three grown dragons could squeeze past each other in this tunnel.

  Three humans, on the other hand, had no such trouble.

  That was one of the reasons the entrances to all of their lairs featured such narrow tunnels.

  In the case of an attack, it made it very easy to defend them. Only a single dragon at a time could advance towards them.

  Braeden listened attentively as the three shifters greeted each other.

  “What's wrong? Why in such a hurry?” the shifter who'd returned asked suspiciously.

  “You haven't heard yet? That damn human has escaped,” one of the other dragons growled. “Can't be found anywhere.”

  “No fucking way has she made it up here. She'd need wings for that. Still, boss says we have to sniff around the entrance, see if we catch a sign of her.”

  “It's hell down there. Boss is very angry.”

  “She one of those test subjects?” the returned shifter asked. “Boss should've killed her when those experiments failed. I hate that stink of human in our own home.”

  The shifters laughed coarsely. “Oh, this time she'll get it. Boss is going to kill her himself as soon as he finds her. Better hurry back down. He'll want you to help in the search.”

  The newly arrived shifter groaned. “Fuck, I'm hungry and tired,” he complained. “This better be over quick.”

  A moment later, Braeden felt the particular, small burst of fiery energy that told him that they had all shifted back into their dragon form. He heard the sound of claws on stone again—this time walking into two different directions, two dragons going towards the exit, and the returned shifter continuing in the same direction Braeden was going.

  Just to make certain, he waited for ten long minutes until the tunnels all around him had returned to silent darkness, not even a hint of dragon fire to be glimpsed around him, except for the torches.

  Braeden's heart was racing—but no longer because he was infiltrating the home of people who'd declared him their enemy.

  A human woman. A human woman imprisoned here, they said!

  He had no idea what experiments the other shifters had talked about—but he didn't need to. She was a human, imprisoned in the lair of a group of fire dragons.

  This was everything he'd sworn he'd prevent from happening.

  He didn't even know that they'd started to imprison humans—but then, he was beginning to learn that there was a lot he didn't know about the fire dragons who led them.

  Steele. Steele’s behind all of this.

  Something about the powerful fire dragon had seemed terribly off the last time they'd faced each other.

  He'd seemed...corrupted. Braeden had been able to feel the evil inside him.

  No, he wouldn't put it past Steele to imprison humans. After all, Steele's goal had always been the subjugation of humanity. What would one human woman matter to him?

  But she escaped. Right now, she's free. And in terrible danger. If they catch her...

  Braeden took a deep breath. There was no time left to lose. He was a stranger to this particular lair, and even with his newfound powers, he knew that it was a terrible idea to take on all the fire dragons gath
ered here.

  But he had to help her. He had to find her and get her out of here.

  That's why the flame had chosen him. That's why he was the master of fire.

  It meant power—but it also meant duty.

  And for the first time in his life, Braeden understood why the dragons of the council of elements did what they did. It was something Steele, despite all of his power, would never understand.

  Braeden had been given this power to use it—not for his own personal gain, but for the good of them all.

  And for the good of a helpless human woman who'd been imprisoned in a lair of fire dragons. That's why he was here.

  He wouldn't leave without her. Because there was no one else who would—or could—help her now.

  Determined, Braeden stepped out into the tunnel. He kept a tight grip on the flame within him, hoping to keep his power from shining forth and announcing his presence to his enemies.

  If he could manage to appear like an average fire dragon, one of the many fighters who got sent out on missions to the surface, he might manage to move among them undercover. Which would give him time to find the escaped prisoner before someone else could get to her.

  Braeden closed his eyes and abandoned himself to the fire in his soul. A moment later, he had shifted, the body of his dragon filling the tunnel.

  There wasn't enough space to fly—but his dragon could move much faster.

  His claws struck sparks from the rock as he began to run, heading deeper into the mountain, the flame in his heart pulling him onward with sudden urgency.

  At last, the tunnel ended. And there, right before him, a giant hole led straight down into the mountain.

  Thousands of years ago, the mountain had been a volcano. Now all that was left was a giant, circular vent that led straight down into darkness. The sides were perfectly smooth. A long time ago, the rock had been under a terrible pressure as magma rose to the surface.

  No wonder the fire dragons had built a lair here. It was a perfect defense against any sort of shifter without wings.

  And it also meant that a human prisoner stood absolutely no chance of escape...

  Still keeping a tight grip on his flame, Braeden spread his wings and dived down.

  He descended for several minutes until he found a ledge, deep beneath the earth. Beneath him, the darkness loomed, and he felt a sudden, strange aversion rise inside him.

  He’d never minded the darkness. He’d been born in it.

  But something about the bottomless chasm set him on edge, the flame within him hissing and sputtering.

  Anyway, there was no need to go deeper. The pull of duty led him to land on the ledge. He was not meant to go further down into the bowels of the earth.

  He was meant to stay here, where another, larger tunnel opened up before him.

  And there, at the end of it, he saw the familiar light of dragon fire.

  He had made it to the lair.

  Still in his dragon form, he made his way forward, holding his flame in an iron grip to keep his power from spilling out.

  For some reason, the tunnel was empty, although he would have expected a sentinel to be stationed here.

  But luck was on his side. Perhaps all guards had been called away to help with the search.

  Braeden didn't see a single dragon until he reached the vast cave that opened up at the end of the tunnel.

  He stopped to take a deep breath, instinctively hunching his shoulders as memories of his childhood rose up.

  At the top of the giant cave, a ball of dragon fire burned, filling the cave with light and warmth.

  Now that he'd spent so much time in the world of humans and other shifters, he realized that the colors were off. It wasn't the warm light of the sun that filled the cave. There was a reddish tinge to it, and shadows looked deeper, colors slightly off.

  But it was the light that had illuminated his childhood. As strange as he now realized it was to spend so much of his life in a lair deep underground, it was also completely familiar.

  This was who he was. This was where he belonged...and these people were his kin.

  No.

  He bared his teeth, shaking off the feeling.

  He was a fire dragon. He was not ashamed of that.

  But he was ashamed of hiding in the darkness. Ashamed that so many of their children had been denied the light of the sun.

  Ashamed of the harm his own people could do if they were let loose on humanity.

  Determined, he strode forward.

  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, a
nd 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.

  Think. You've always been good at that. Think quickly. I need to get out!

  Perhaps she'd been wrong to avoid the tunnels where she could hear the sounds of dragons in the distance. If there was an exit to the outside world, then it made sense that the dragons would use it—and guard it.

  But if they see me, it's over.

  Alyx pressed her hand against the stone. Was that the faint vibration of a dragon approaching?

  She waited for a long moment, but everything was silent.

  Then she forced herself to her feet once more, ignoring the pain in her sides and her sore calves as she ran into a tunnel that curved away from the one she'd explored moments before—and which had led to a dead end.

  Everything hurt. She was so exhausted and so thirsty that for a moment, she thought of her tiny little cell with helpless longing.

  Then she shook off the thought.

  No. I won't be a prisoner again. I won't let them torture me with their potions ever again.

  Alyx raced onward, cursing herself once more for the excuses she'd found to not renew her gym membership three years ago.

  But then, even if she looked like one of the models in the gym ads, it wouldn't have helped her one bit.

  Dragons were dragons. No self-defense class would have helped her down here.

  No. What she needed was wings. Or Indiana Jones himself to lead her through this deadly maze.

  Alyx gritted her teeth, pushing on even though she was close to collapsing from exhaustion.

  Another tunnel opened up in front of her, leading to the left—and slightly upwards.

  Could this be the way out?

  But just when she'd taken her first step into the new tunnel, three tall men suddenly appeared from an opening in the rock to her left.