14. Ogden

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

OGDEN

I watched Lux’s ass as we ran down the road, my heart racing. He’d fallen deep into a rut last night, and I’d helped him through it. Did he remember? Did he realize it was me? Did he know I joined him when his final climax let his dragon rest?

Did I want him to know?

Rehan, with Jay at his side, jumped a small fence and ran up the side of a hill. All of us slid to a halt at the top. My gaze ripped from Lux to Jay. The blood drained out of my face. I was as bad at Tyson. I’d cheated on Jay, the woman who wore my mark. I could make every excuse that I’d done it for her. That Lux was one of her mates. But Tyson had used the same excuses.

I clenched my fists. If I told her, she’d use it as more proof our marks weren’t natural. And they were. I was madly in love with Jay, and only Jay, right? I squeezed my eyes shut as hard as I clenched my fists. No longer running, the cool air sent a shiver down my spine, and I forced my thoughts away from what I’d done and focused on this frigid, new world.

“I know you have questions, but we’re easily identifiable and definitely not on your island anymore.” Jay turned to me with flushed cheeks. “Ogden, I’m riding you.” She grinned before schooling her face. “We’re headed south, toward Dublin, Ireland’s capital, to find a place to hole up and regroup. I don’t own any property in Ireland, and that trip through the Ley Line fried my electronics. So, we’re at the mercy of the Alliance.” She looked right at me. “Unless you’re willing to orgy it up.”

Guilt twisted my gut, and I bit my lips shut. Next to me, Rehan crossed his arms over his chest, which might mean yes or no. Tyson rubbed his arms, his gaze darting everywhere at once, while Lux’s eyes shifted from human to dragon and back again too fast to be comfortable for either beast or man.

Jay let out a frustrated breath. “Fine.”

I released my breath, and my guilt eased.

“The Alliance?” Rehan prodded.

Jay nodded. “It’s a group of shifters who run the ‘oops, I’ve teleported, and I’m trapped’ hotline. Basically, they help out stranded supernaturals so they don’t cause trouble, which is precisely our situation at the moment.”

“You own property?” Tyson asked, apparently slow to process our conversation. “I thought we took your identity when you came to the island.”

Jay rolled her eyes. “At this point. I’m assuming Betty Strop is a completely made-up person, as were her assets.” She poked herself in the chest. “A thousand years old, remember? I have a diversified portfolio and a loyal vampire accountant who has been working for me since the eighteenth century. I could buy your island, not that I want it.”

I rocked back, momentarily surprised, before a grin split my face. Of course, my mate was loaded. Not that it mattered, but with a thousand years of life and her intelligence, it shouldn’t have even surprised me.

“Og,” Jay snapped. “You have a problem with the plan?”

I shook my head, still beaming at her with pride. “Head to Dublin, find a place to regroup.”

Jay pursed her lips, probably confused by my easy agreement. I might not quite have her intelligence, but I was close, and this wasn’t my world. I needed to pick my battles.

“Peachy.” Jay glared at each of us. “No dragons, no scales, no flapping, no hard banking, we are paragliders.” She held her hands out in front of her with a pretend bar in her grip. “You fly like this. If you see someone wave at you, you wave back. Humans don’t believe supernaturals are real, so pretend to be human.”

Lux grew one of his horns and crossed his eyes. “Like this?”

Jay groaned. “You’re worse than Drama Llama.”

Lux snorted, and Jay slid to my front. “I guess it’s less riding and more carrying,” she said, waiting to be picked up.

“Jay, we can’t keep butting heads,” I said. “We need to come to some agreement.”

Jay pursed her lips. “We did. For now, orgy is out. I get it, but it doesn’t mean I can’t ask. Over and over and fucking over.”

Tyson smirked, and I fumed. “That isn’t respecting our decision.”

Jay took a deep breath. “Probably. Just get us to Dublin. One bloody thing at a time.”

I clenched my fists, but I couldn’t argue.

Soon enough, I was in the air with Jay in my arms. Bare-chested and shivering, I pulled her close. An unnatural warm wind picked up, helping steer me directly to Dublin. I looked down to see Tyson and Lux’s magic slightly glowing in Jay’s eyes. It didn’t take long for a large, sprawling city to appear. A massive building, not quite in the center, looked exactly like a pint glass. It had a lipped roof, which would give us decent cover.

“That one,” we said at almost the same time.

Jay grinned, and the air under my wings doubled in speed before cutting out directly above the building. I let myself fall, still cradling Jay and landed with a soft thud. Jay rolled to the lip, staying low.

“It’s mostly glass at the top,” Tyson said, already hanging upside-down over an edge. “With a metal staircase and a door along that bit with no glass.” He pointed.

Jay sighed, her attempt to stay out of sight wasted. “That would be an emergency exit. While you’re looking, are their security cameras on it?”

“Yup,” Tyson said. “Someone’s waving at me, should I wave back?”

“No!” Jay sprinted forward and pulled him up. “We’re not supposed to be up here. We will, as quickly as possible, slip into that emergency exit and pretend we belong.” She turned to Lux. “Lux, I’ve seen the air spark with electricity when you’re angry. Can you control that?”

“Yes,” Lux nodded.

“Great,” she walked to where I assumed the emergency exit was. “Follow Tyson’s footsteps and fry the cameras.”

Tyson snorted, and Jay narrowed her eyes at him. “You do not get credit for doing the wrong thing, even if it helped us in the end.”

Tyson smirked while Lux did what she asked. Static filled the air, and little lines of electricity ran from the air prince's fingers into the wall a few feet on either side of him. Pops of electrics burst as Lux’s magic fried more than just the camera.

“Ah, maybe not as much control as I thought.” Lux batted his long eyelashes at Jay. “I think I fried the door as well. It’s been a while.”

Jay wrinkled her nose. “It is what it is, inside now.”

With our tank tops back in place, we dropped down, shuffled through the slightly smoking door, and found ourselves at the edge of a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows and even more people. The smell of dark beer permeated the space, and bodies pressed together made the room almost stifling hot compared to the outside. I’d never been in a room so full of humans or dragon shifters. The press of bodies slowly churned, gravitating toward the windows where phones and cameras snapped and flashed. It was something else, and my dragon retreated to a far corner of my mind, extremely uncomfortable.

I wasn’t a tall dragon shifter. Pretty average, really. But in here, I felt like a giant. Only a few people stood at my height, and I found myself peering down at everyone.

“How did you get out there?” a man asked, bumping my shoulder in the press of bodies.

I furrowed my eyebrows. “Ah, the door popped right open?”

“Cool,” the man said and shoved past us.

Someone grabbed my hand, and I jerked back, only to realize it was Jay. My mate gave me a reassuring smile. I calmed a little before she tugged me through the crowd.

It didn’t take us long to find the exit, go down another flight of stairs, and slip into another well-lit room. This one was not packed shoulder to shoulder with bodies. Jay guided us to a table made of barrels. She fanned out bits of paper with a golden harp on it. “Who’s getting us beers?”

“Where did you get those?” I asked.

“I swiped them off the bar upstairs.” Jay narrowed her eyes. “Do you want beer or not?”

Tyson stole the papers out of her hands. “It’s not Scotland, but it’s close enough. I want everything.”

Jay grinned, and Rehan shook his head while the fire prince sauntered to the bar.

“Is anyone sitting here?” A woman asked Rehan, pointing at the empty chair on his left.

The water dragon froze as if unsure what to say. Jay elbowed him.

“Ah, yes…“ Rehan said. Jay elbowed him again. “Er, no. Have a seat.” Rehan stood and pulled out a chair.

The woman blushed while the man with her paled at Rehan’s size. Our water dragon’s tanned, sculpted arms did look amazing, sticking out of his dark tank top.

“Sweety,” the woman sat, fanning herself. “Why don’t you go grab us drinks?”

“Ah,” her sweety stammered, his camera hovering above the table in indecision.

Jay leaned over to Rehan. “You are arguably the hottest man in this room, and I need to use a phone. Use what you got and make us a friend.”

“Because it’s ten AM,” the man finally answered his sweetie’s question, still eyeing Rehan.

Rehan looked around the room, drawing the man’s attention to the large number of tourists with beers in their hands.

“I guess this is the Guinness Factory. It’s why we came here.” The man set his camera on the table, and the woman reached out and squeezed his arm. “We are on vacation; we can be naughty.”

Heat rose to her face, and her eyes slipped to Rehan while she said the word ‘naughty.’ I looked at Jay and found her glaring daggers at the woman before noticing my attention and smoothing out her face.

I quirked my lips. “Feeling a bit possessive, mate?”

Jay glared at me, and I winked.

Despite Rehan’s awkward start, it didn’t take long for Jay to have the woman’s phone in her hands. Tyson returned with the beers. I’d just taken my first sip of rich and creamy dark malts when the lights cut out.

My claws were out in a heartbeat while Lux stood and slid to my back.

Lux, defending me again, well, us, but choosing my back, not our mate’s. I winced, and my gut twisted. What had I done?

Suddenly, the lights came back, swirling with color, and a stage lit up with the jarring sounds of a bagpipe. I retracted my claws while Jay lunged for Lux, pulling him back to his seat. At the far end of our table, a man and a woman with curly red hair dressed in all black stepped up and started dancing, their feet hammered the tabletop with metal in perfect synchronization with the music.

My head spun as my crazy morning hit me. Less than two hours ago, I lost my stomach at the sight of a dead body rotting on my tropical island. Now, I sat in the center of a show, watching two very lively young humans dance with a beer in my hand.

“I need my phone back!” the woman squealed.

Jay made a few more hasty swipes before opening up the camera and returning the device to the woman. She immediately pointed her phone at the dancers and whooped with excitement. Rehan forgotten.

This wasn’t just a different island on Earth. I felt like I’d been transported to a different world.

Jay took a deep breath and nodded, which I assumed meant we were set. The crowd began clapping in time with the music, and after a sip of beer, Jay joined them. Though I wasn’t sure if I liked the thick creamy malt, I was thirstier than expected and downed half of it. The room spun slightly, and I forced myself to breathe.

Ireland.

I was off my island for the first time in my life.