Chapter Eight

" I DO NOT like this," Zane growled. He scooped up Savannah when she slumped under the influence of Quinn's concoction to help her sleep. He frowned from Savannah, who mumbled incoherently while her eyes rolled back in her head, to Quinn and Rafe. "I understand she needs rest, but I sense this takes her too far from us. Beyond the boundaries of mere slumber."

"Whether it does or not, she needs to sleep, cousin," Rafe replied. "Otherwise, she will be even more vulnerable, and you know it." He rested his palm against Savannah's forehead and closed his eyes, clearly getting a feel for where her mind and inner beast took her. "It will not be an easy sleep, but it's better than the alternative."

"She might have dozed off eventually if she was close to me," he countered. "She might have when close to her—"

"No." Rafe opened his eyes to Zane and shook his head. "Life has not been easy for her, so she's developed poor sleeping habits. She's not one to slumber willingly for long because she's taught herself to be vigilant despite how safe her life eventually became in the twenty-first century."

"Tell me more." He thought he knew a lot, everything, but what if he didn't? Suddenly furious because his cousin might know more about Savannah than him and purposely withheld information, he narrowed his eyes and growled, "Now."

"I cannot tell you what I cannot see," Rafe returned, no more afraid of Zane than he'd been when they were boys. Rather, he held his ground and didn't narrow his eyes in return but spoke plainly. "All I can tell you is her childhood was not easy. A childhood, I assume, you did not see."

"No, he didn't," Quinn said softly, seeming to pick up on what Zane wasn't sharing. Coming dangerously close, for that matter. Her eyes flickered from Savannah to him in surprise. "You tried to find her sooner, didn't you? Tried to save her even though you didn't know what you were saving her from?"

He shook his head, ready to deny it, but she went on.

"You did," she whispered, gently brushing a lock of hair away from Savannah's eye as if she didn't want to hurt her any more than she'd already been hurt in not one life but two. "You wanted to save her and keep her safe just like you did yours and Magnus's daughters. Craved keeping her safe right down to the deepest part of you." Her eyes rose to his. "Just like your little dragon did in another life when you tried to protect her from the monster coming for her."

While a part of him wanted to confess she was right, another part made of his darker half and his inner dragon, didn't want her or any other near his time with Savannah before she arrived here. Time that belonged to them and them alone. Or at least that's how he saw it. So he flared his dragon eyes at them, growled that they leave him and his mate be, and carried Savannah into one of many caves located in various areas he'd long prepared for her arrival.

This one, however, suddenly seemed ignored. Not enough despite several plush furs covered in his scent on a torch-flanked bed equally covered in his scent and his scent alone. One of many beds that carried no other female scent lest Savannah make her way back to him because he would not hurt her inner beast like that.

Would not hurt her despite how much she'd hurt him.

Unwilling to have her anywhere but in his arms when she faced whatever nightmares might come for her this time, he sat against the headboard with her on his lap and covered her with a fur. Then, he rested a blade by his side and did his best to keep his eyes off her beautiful face and on his surroundings. Even if a rogue dragon did manage to make his way down here, most knew better than to confront him, no matter his form. Yet still, whether time was slowed down or not, one could communicate with others, and therein lay the problem.

So he remained awake and vigilant, keeping a close eye on things while trying to follow Savannah's dreams. How could he not when they were right there skirting his subconscious, almost as if her dragon tried to keep him with her. As if their inner beasts were eager to discover the truth together, no matter how daunting.

A truth, as it turned out, that arose in his mind's eye so quickly he went from sitting on the bed with her one second to standing someplace else the next. Savannah stood beside him, clearly as aware of him as he was of her. They looked from each other to the same dank, scorched, lava-ridden cave they had witnessed before.

"Why are we back here?" Savannah said, her voice shaky. She shook her head. "I don't like it here. Not at all."

"Any more than I." He tried to pull her close and comfort her, but his hand merely slid through her. So he went to comfort her with words but stilled when he caught sight of her little copper dragon collared and chained to a ring burnt into a nearby boulder.

He clenched his fists and growled when he tried to reach her but could not. His steps were as phantom as the rest of him in this strange dreamlike place. Her dragon wasn't as tiny as before but still very young. Too young to be collared no matter the world.

"Look," Savannah whispered, spying his young dragon standing at the entranceway like a silent sentinel.

Like a soldier keeping watch.

"That's exactly what you're doing," Savannah said softly, seeming to sense it at the same time as him. "You're keeping watch over me." Her eyes narrowed, and her frown deepened when she noted what was further in the shadows. "And them, I'd say." She shivered as more of the cave, or massive lair as it were, became visible. "And you're learning from them, by the looks of it."

Zane took in all the tiny female dragons caged in the shadows, seemingly overseen by him in their last lives, to the far larger males overlooking grown females in cages.

"What is this place?" Savannah managed hoarsely. "I know it's a lair on Múspellsheimr, but whose lair? And why..."

She trailed off when a mighty roar boomed outside the cave so loudly it shook the ground and caused several stalactites to crash down.

"Dios me salve," Savannah murmured, making a crossing gesture over her chest as she said, "God save me," in Spanish. Her eyes widened, and the color drained from her face even in a dream. " él está viniendo . He's coming."

He was, and Zane felt it just as strongly before another roar shook the ground, and the same sulfur-ridden wind gusted into the cave. Meanwhile, young and grown female dragons alike visibly shook and retreated to the back of their cages. The grown male dragons remained stoic yet undoubtedly took pleasure in the females' terror.

All but one male, that is.

Though Zane's little dragon stood straighter, coming to attention like a well-trained soldier, they didn't miss how he kept a discreet yet concerned eye on Savannah's little dragon. Nor did they miss how she glanced at him just as discreetly in return, even as she trembled.

Even as she sat obediently, awaiting whoever was coming.

"I had never been more terrified," Savannah murmured. "Yet I was a little less afraid because you were there." She blinked as if trying to remember something just out of reach. "A little less afraid because somehow we were in this together."

"We were," he growled, growing angrier by the moment. While he was all for bondage and rough bed sport, he and his didn't deal in whatever this was. They didn't keep slaves, nor, as he suspected, happened far too often, they didn't rape for the sake of breeding. Or at least they hadn't before the illness. And even then, only a few rogue dragons did.

"He's coming," Savannah whispered telepathically, repeating what she'd said before but clearly unable to find her voice as the foul wind increased. A ghastly wind made from the roaring breath of a true monster. "And he's awful." She blinked back tears even as she stood up straighter, trying to rally the same courage as her little incarnate. "So incredibly..."

That's all she got out before a dragon out of anyone's worst nightmare stuck his massive, oily, spiked black head into the cave and roared fire at the ceiling so robustly the females wailed in fear, and even the males staggered a bit despite trying to hold their ground. Only two seemed to keep their footing despite their terror.

Little Zane and Savannah.

Savannah started repeating what sounded like prayers in Portuguese before she shook her head and blinked back more tears. "While he might have appreciated that courage in you, he loathed it in me. Hated..."

She trailed off and wailed in pain when the beast's mighty talons swooped down at her little dragon, but they were yanked out of the nightmare before Zane saw what happened. Good thing, too, because the rage he felt when Savannah awoke screaming in pain on his lap was beyond anything he'd ever felt. So thorough, it took a moment to rein in his inner beast and focus on soothing her rather than finding a way back into the dream and ripping her captor to shreds.

"It's all right," he managed through clenched teeth, resting her cheek against his chest. Like before, he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck under her hair and held firmly, trying to ground her. Let her hear his heartbeat. Smell his scent. Bring her back to the here and now. Pull her free of the nightmare she'd once lived. "It was just a nightmare, Savannah. A life long gone. A monster gone with it."

"Is he, though?" she said, her voice choppy as she tried to bite back tears. "Or is he right here in this life trying to destroy everything all over again?"

"I can only hope," he nearly said because there was nothing he wouldn't do to sink his teeth into his enemy's neck and deal him a fatal blow, but he understood that's not what she needed to hear right now. "If he is, we will deal with him. All of us. From your friends to my kin and every last dragon in every last kingdom."

"You sound confident," she murmured, relaxing just as quickly under his touch as she had earlier. "Yet I know deep down you're no more certain than I am that we can defeat this monster because he could exist inside anyone. An unseen traitor in our midst capable of—" she swallowed hard— "capable of such incredible brutality."

"If that is what you sense deep down, then you have not gone nearly deep enough because I will finish him once and for all if I have to." He tried to take the bite out of his tone. The building fury. "Finish him to keep you safe."

He tightened his hand just enough to show her his strength and make it even clearer he knew her in ways she barely knew herself. To lend her peace in a fashion those outside their particular breed could never understand.

"Yet I'm not your breed," Savannah said softly, following his thoughts readily enough. Though she seemed reluctant to move, she lifted her head and met his eyes. "I'm not of that awful world in this life." She shook her head, confused. "And if I were, this whole thing makes no sense. How you can soothe me by being so firm." Her gaze flickered over his face as if she couldn't help herself before her eyes locked with his again. "Because your dominance is clearly what soothes my inner beast. Dominance, I know I loathed in my last life on another world, so it makes no sense it would..."

When she trailed off, seeming to struggle with the words, he said them for her.

"It makes no sense my dominance would not just comfort but arouse you in this life?" He wrapped his hand around the side of her neck while tracing the pad of his thumb along her delicate jawline. "That's not how it works for any dragon that descends more directly from that world, or even those reincarnated from it. Females enjoy dominating as much as they enjoy being dominated." He thought about how best to describe it. "Here on Midgard, they are free to be what their female ancestors should have been able to be on their home world. Free to be dominated in a less violent way. Free to enjoy the pleasure male dragons can bring without having their dignity ripped from them. Without the excruciating pain females suffer on that world."

He couldn't help a small smile before continuing. "They also crave the dominance their female ancestors were never allowed." Yet again unable to help himself, he brushed the pad of his thumb across her full lower lip, mesmerized by its plushness. Pleased when he heard her heartbeat increase and caught the scent of her arousal pushing past her fear. "They revel in it...long for it even as they long to be dominated."

"The best of both worlds," she murmured, flicking the tip of her hot, moist tongue over the pad of his thumb in passing. Her dragon eyes flared, and she shifted her backside on his lap just enough to let him know she was fully aware of how hard he was beneath her. Just enough to send such a rush of pleasure through him, it took everything not to dig his hand into her hair, flip her onto the bed, and rip her clothes away. Show her just how good it would feel to have her own kind buried deep inside her.

Yet he would not. This time, this moment had to be hers. Had to help her free of the terror she'd just felt. The lack of control she'd experienced at the hands of a monster.

So he lowered his hands but could do nothing about his vision hazing red with his inner beast. Nothing about her catching all the things his dragon wanted to do to hers. How hard he would pin her down. How deeply he would thrust. The lengths he would go to. The sweet, unbridled, exquisite torture he would inflict until she gave in, let go, and screamed in pleasure.

"You are cocky, aren't you?" She ran one fingernail along his temple and jawline until she dug it in a little deeper and scraped it down his throat. "And brave by the sounds of it."

"I am," he assured. "How else could I rule so many powerful dragons?"

Glad Savannah was free of her fear and eager to see what she was capable of, he kept his smug, crooked grin in place. Willingly fell victim to her touch despite the power of which she was capable. In truth, he was more than willing to skirt death if it meant finally kissing her. Would willingly die a happy man and dragon if she welcomed his cock inside her but once.

"Yet you don't rule so many powerful dragons, do you?" she murmured, licking her lips as she pressed a finger into his mouth. "Not really."

Intrigued by her methods, he ran his tongue around her finger and flicked it before pulling it in deeper, showing her exactly what he would do to the nub nestled at the swollen juncture between her thighs.

Her dragon eyes flared at both his actions and thoughts, yet he felt no weakening in his inner beast or dwindling of his fire, implying she meant to destroy him. Instead, she pulled her well-moistened finger from his mouth and sucked it into her own, hollowing her cheeks enough to get the message across and make his erection so hard it was almost intolerable. Then, miraculously enough, she did something he swore he'd been waiting his whole life for.