5. Alexandra

Alexandra wasn"t quite sure what she expected a vampire hideout to look like, but a corporate building wasn't it. The two of them circled high above a small office tucked into a corner against an undeveloped hill. A big parking lot isolated it from the main road into the city. It looked like any other tech or manufacturing office. There was even a slim cement sign on the main road labeling the business as DeVine Inc. Probably a legit business entity for the vampire clan to operate under.

The afternoon sun soaked into Alexandra's wings and scales, even at an altitude that plunged the air to uncomfortably cold on shaded belly. She wanted to fly higher. Push herself faster. Test her speed and the strength of her wings against Dakota's. She admired his un-marked black scales—a uniform, glossy darkness from nose to tail. Her beautiful emerald green was struck through with stark white scarring. Ripples where she'd torn through one form into the other, or pushed her dragon to grow too fast. Evidence of her struggles against the vampires in a hide that could turn any claw away.

The vampires hadn't left any marks directly. These jagged stripes were all self-inflicted. And for the first time, Alexandra analyzed another dragon's scales and found her own lacking. She simply hadn't had time or opportunity to think about it before. She was forever tagged as a dragon who couldn't shift smoothly. Who fought against herself.

Shame rose up in an unexpected wave. How could she expect Dakota, or anyone else, to take her as a mate? This wasn't something she could hide. Her past was on full display and always would be.

Familiar anger spiraled up to eat her shame. How dare Fate make promises She couldn't fulfill? Alexandra had fought and scrapped and survived for what? Just to be turned aside and judged for her struggle? No. Dakota wouldn't get the chance to turn on her. She would use him instead. For once she had a chance to turn on the vampires and extract her price in blood. Every hideout, every safe house, every single gathering place for the clan—she would wipe them all out one by one. And when Dakota turned on her to serve Malik, she would be ready.

Alexandra turned on a wingtip and pointed herself downward. She tucked her wings close, only flicking a bit here or a twitch of her tail there to stay on course. She blurred past Dakota who barked in surprise and was left behind.

She pinned her eyes on the office building far below. Target set. Claws ready.

She plummeted from the sky to land on the roof of the two-story building and simply razed the structure to the ground in a massive sweep of claws and tail. She battered through floors and office furniture. She hauled steel beams out of their place and threw them with the strength only a dragon could muster. Her fury made her highly effective. She swept her tail around, flattening the building to the ground in a single massive wave of destruction that littered the entire parking lot with debris. She crashed through glass windows, ripped through concrete and flooring, and eliminated the aboveground structure in a matter of seconds.

The wanton destruction lit a fire in her heart and she crashed through the floor into the basement, all teeth and claws and snarling. A pop of fire caught her attention. Alexandra pulled the first vampire out of its dark hole in the ground, grinding the creature's bones between her teeth. She flung it into the air where sunlight burned it like a sparkler. Only bone ash blew away on the wind.

She ripped through the underground structure with abandon throwing aside anything that got in her way and breaking anything too big to move on its own. She spent her fury on the building, digging out each vampire like a terrier set upon rats. They had no hope of escape.

Dakota gave her space. The building wasn"t actually that large and a full grown grown Dragon with wings out spread and a lashing tail more than occupied the space available. Dakota prowled around her, a big, black shadow that kept a wary eye out across the surrounding parking lot.

No one, not even vampires, could sleep through the demolition of their own building. Some tried to stay hidden in the protective darkness, their super strength and healing able to withstand even the crush of the building above them. One risked the light to make a run for it fast as lightning.

Alexandra snapped her teeth in the creature"s direction missed by a mile.

Dakota was there, swinging his tail like a baseball bat just as the vampire burst into flame under the sun. The vampire flew back toward Alexandra and this time she crunched it like barbecue, unwilling to let even a single vampire escape her wrath.

She rumbled satisfied growl in her throat clenched the right muscles in her chest. With a snarl, she spat a sustained beam of flame into the wreckage below her claws. Fire roared to life like a second monster unto itself. It burst into being everywhere she aimed. She pressed it into every corner of the ruined building, scratching at the flaming beams to uncover anything below.

She hissed with satisfaction as the conflagration burned against her scales. It was very gratifying to be on the offensive for once. She swelled with pride and hot, boiling pleasure at the total obliteration she had wrought.

Vampire blood and ash colored her teeth. She bared them at Dakota when he circled too close to her conquest. This was her hunting ground. Her success!

He growled and she snarled back, flicking her wings wide and up, her head low, her tail straight out. If he wanted a challenge she was more than ready to meet it. Her adrenaline was up and she was freshly fed. Dakota had been a danger to her for too long.

No longer.

As soon as his wings flicked out to meet her challenge she lunged for him. She snaked her head low, going for the neck, and tucked her wings in tight to her body to present a smaller target. She was fast. She was agile. She was deadly.

She was not prepared for Dakota to shift down to human at the first sign of movement. Her teeth whiffed over his shrinking head and snapped on air. Her lunge carried her awkwardly through the space he used to occupy and she high-stepped around him, unwilling to squish him by accident.

Immediately she lost track of him. She picked up one paw and swung her head around to scan, only to startle like a cat when something landed on her back.

She whirled around once in alarm before she got a hold of the reaction, then shifted down to human. She pushed her form fast and hard, familiar with the pain of her body ripping apart to accommodate her urgency. She shoved the dragon back inside and poured out of herself in a stumbling rush.

Dakota was there to catch her. He grabbed her shoulders to push her upright, then grabbed her face and grinned wildly. His hazel eyes gleamed.

She tried to hit him, or struggle, or something, but he just gripped her head and gushed, "You were amazing."

Alexandra mentally stumbled. She seemed to be doing a lot of that. Dakota's hands on her face, holding her up and cradling her like a precious thing sent jolts through her body. She shivered and felt completely upended. Her entire world was backwards. He was supposed to be her enemy. She wanted to fight him.

She wanted to kiss him.

Goddess, she was confused and overwhelmed. "Why don't you hate me?!" she snarled. What was so complicated about this? He tried to kill her, she killed him back, end of conflict. Why was he making this so difficult? Her dragon rode her hard, hissing that the challenge was incomplete and she agreed. Still, when she shoved all he did was absorb the hit and pull her closer.

"Hate you? Alexandra I think I love you. You were magnificent. I've never seen anyone commit so completely to the kind of violence you just brought down. It was stunning. You're like a force of nature. You're beautiful." He all but vibrated with intensity, his blazing eyes fixed to hers. Unbreakable.

The dragon in her needed satisfaction. If they couldn't fight, there were other solutions. Abruptly confident in this, Alexandra wrapped one hand around Dakota's neck and yanked him closer. She could have gone for his heart in that moment, shifted just one hand into deadly claws and slipped them between ribs like she practiced.

But she didn't want to kill him. She wanted to feel him against her. Wanted to know what his hands on her body would do. Wanted to lose herself in him so she didn't have to worry, just for a minute or two.

She crushed her lips against his and he received her the way an open plain receives the sun. She pressed and he yielded, giving up any and all ground she demanded without even a breath of hesitation. She poured herself over him and he caught her, body and soul.

They fit together among the debris, their powyr pealing off of them both in waves that cleared the ash from the air. She was blind to everything but the touch of his skin on hers, the way he guided her hips down, but let her set the pace. Her dragon burned for conquest and he let her claim him in every way. Until powyr rose in them both and Alexandra screamed her triumph to the Goddess Herself.

Fate might have seen to it they'd found each other, but they'd found their reflections in one another. The way the moon reflects the brilliance of the sun, but stands alone in the night sky.

Alexandra chose Dakota in that moment. She bound their souls together, tying the knots Fate had started. He belonged to her and no other.

Not even Malik could claim him.

Alexandra would slaughter anyone who tried.