Chapter 25

TWENTY-FIVE

Samantha

Help! Please help me! I scream in my mind.

I can sense my men. They're frantic. But for some reason, they seem far away.

Darkness wraps me in its cool embrace, and I hit the earth beneath the water, being shoved along the ground by the massive dragon on my back. Fear unlike anything I've felt in my life awakens inside of me. I struggle. I fight to shake him off, but nothing works.

Am I still unworthy now? he hisses in my mind. Will you still dare to insult me here?

I continue struggling, fighting against him, twisting and turning, but he digs his claws in deeper.

You did this. You chose this. You could have chosen me.

He has to run out of air at the same time I do, right? That's when I'll be able to escape. That precious moment. Unless… he's built to endure water better than I can. Then I'm going to die.

There's no escape, female. Agree to be mine or die.

Unable to help myself, I shout back. If you have to threaten a female with death to have her, you don't deserve her!

His claws tighten deeper, drawing a whimper from me. I'm running out of air, what little I had. He's got me pinned. There's no way out.

I open my lips and a strange wail leaves them. It's loud. Louder than I would've thought possible underwater. There's a unique sound unlike anything I've even imagined. It goes on and on, seeming to fill the water with the sound.

When I'm done, nothing has changed. I'm still stuck. I'm still dying.

And then, I realize there's something I can do. Something dangerous. Something that's probably stupid, but I'm left with no other choice.

Closing my eyes, I will myself to shift back into my human self.

It happens in an instant, and then I'm kicking my feet to reach the surface. It takes a lifetime as my lungs burn and my body aches. The tears from the green dragon's claws feel large and deep, but I just keep kicking.

When I surface, I drag in a breath, then start to fall back under. I don't have the strength to get myself to shore. I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Strong arms wrap around me. I jerk away, but then Granger's soothing voice comes. "It's me. I got you. Just let me save you."

And then, I do nothing. I just lie there as he drags me back to shore. My body hurts. My lungs burn. I feel like I could collapse and sleep for days. Without Granger, I have no doubt I'd simply die out here.

I hear movement in the distance. The green dragon, I'm sure. The water rocks harder, but Granger never slows. He's like a machine. My savior. And I'll be forever grateful to him.

He's just a man. A human. I don't know why he would have swam out here to try to save me from a dragon when it so easily could have cost him his life, but I'm glad he did.

The cold strikes me then as my adrenaline fades. I start to shake, and I realize Granger is shaking too. Then we reach the shore. He drags my body onto the snow and ice, then sweeps me into his arms and carries me through the frozen wasteland.

"Almost there," he whispers.

My head lulls, and I see where he's headed. Just off the shore, there's a little place, like a cave in the ice. He's going to tuck us into the space and hope like hell the dragons can't find us. I want to warn him my scent will give us away, but I can't.

We step beneath the shadows of the ice shelf, then continue deeper until we get to the little cave. It's small, barely enough room for the two of us, but as he pushes us in deeper, I can't help but think this is the best place we have a chance at staying hidden from the dragons.

"C-cold," I chatter.

He's shaking too, but he pulls me against him and starts rubbing my body with his cold hands. I lean into him, loving the feeling of his warmth against my icy body. I've always felt safe with Granger, but I've never felt like this before. He's the only reason I'm alive right now.

"T-thank you," I whisper, then lean up and kiss him lightly on the lips. "You saved me."

He freezes, staring down at me.

It's strange. I've never noticed how dark his eyes are. There's something about them that makes me feel like I could stare straight into his soul.

"Thank you," I say again, and kiss him, this time for a couple seconds longer.

I hadn't meant to make it longer. I'd meant to make it something innocent… I think. A kiss between friends, because that's all we are. Friends. I'm just confused. It's cold. We've been through so much.

He's back to rubbing me. "You'll be okay. I'm right here. I'm always right here."

Sam! Aydan's shout is pure panic in my mind.

Sam! Evander calls. Where are you?

I hadn't even known we could communicate like that when I was in human form. Maybe we couldn't before. Maybe we're changing.

I'm here. I'm with Granger. We're safe. He saved me.

I can sense their emotions. Sense them calming. If only by a little bit.

In the water in front of us, near where I'd been dragged down by the green dragon, the green dragon surfaces. I can sense his fury from where we sit and know without a doubt that once he catches my scent, he'll try to kill me.

"I have to go," I tell Granger. "If he finds us together, we'll both die."

Granger's arms tighten around me. "You're hurt! There's no way in fucking hell you're going to go try to lure that thing away from me."

I'm surprised. My gaze finds his. "Granger?"

His jaw ticks. "No way in hell, Sam."

"You're logical. You have to understand that–"

His eyes darken. "There's nothing logical about the way I feel about you."

It's weird. I know he's saying we're best friends. That we're family. But it feels like he's saying something else. Something that makes me feel strange.

But no, it's the cold. It's this crazy situation.

The ocean suddenly rises like a massive wave and crashes far too close to our hiding place. My gaze snaps out to the water, and I see the green dragon. He's trying to swim to shore. His movements are angry and uncontrollable, and he's staring at us.

My scent must be pretty obvious.

Just a short distance from us on the shore, the brown dragon comes crashing down. He's only there for a moment before he starts to stalk toward us. Evander is on the brown dragon's back in an instant. Both of them are covered in open wounds that send deep red blood flowing over their scales. The brown dragon turns around and starts biting at Evander.

When that doesn't work, he rolls, crushing Evander beneath him and getting free. The brown dragon leaps onto Evander and clamps down on his shoulder. Evander makes a sound of distress, and I push away from Granger.

"I have to help!"

Granger catches me. "You're hurt. Their goal is to get you. What can you possibly do?"

"Watch."

He takes a deep shuddering breath. The icy water covers him. His dark hair is wet and covered in ice. "Fine, but I'm not leaving your side."

It's not what I want, but I nod.

Stepping out from the protection of the ice shelf, I move closer to the brown dragon, waving my arms. "Hey! You! Brown dragon!"

He releases his mouth from Evander and turns his big head toward me, roaring. I can see it in his eyes. My scent is getting to him. Distracting him.

Evander uses the distraction to his advantage. He rolls so that he's on top of the brown dragon and uses his claws to tear into his wings. The brown dragon makes a screaming sound, and then my gaze is jerked to the green dragon, who is getting far too close to shore.

There's a streak of gold in the sky and then Aydan comes crashing into the green dragon with all the power of an asteroid. Roars fill the air. I watch Aydan biting the green dragon over and over again, fury in his every movement. A cloud of red stretches out in the water, and my stomach churns, even though I'm thankful that most of the blood isn't Aydan's.

Evander and the brown dragon separate. I can see Evander looking for the next angle to attack, when the brown dragon leaps into the sky and takes off. He's flying badly, clearly wounded. I don't know if this is a trick, if he's coming back, or if he's done with this.

The green dragon gets free of Aydan. Within seconds, he reaches the shore. Granger is suddenly standing in front of me, like his body could do anything to protect me against the dragon in front of me.

Evander gets between us, flames exploding from his mouth. Every time the green dragon tries to reach us, Evander is there, keeping his huge body between us and our enemy.

After a few times, the green dragon makes an angry sound and goes shooting straight into the air. Aydan reaches shore. I see his muscles tense as he moves to take off after him.

Don't , I say. Let him go.

Aydan huffs. We should go after them.

Evander rounds on me. We should kill them while they're weak.

My teeth are chattering together. We're all wounded. Granger and I are freezing. We need to get home.

Neither of them seem convinced. Please.

There's a pause, and then, Alright , Aydan says. We'll go home. You're right that we'll probably need most of what's left of our energy to get there.

Agreed , Evander responds after a tense moment.

I turn to Granger. Unable to help myself, I hug him tightly. "We're going to go home now. I'm going to take you, really carefully, okay?"

He gives a tired laugh. "A flight in a dragon's claws? Who could say no to that offer?"

I pull back and cup his face. Our eyes lock, and I have the strangest desire to kiss him again. To be close to him. To thank him for everything he's done for me today.

Instead, I pull away and get far enough that I know he'll be safe. Within seconds, I shift back into my dragon self and feel my wounds pulling, fresh and painful.

Moving closer, I gently scoop Granger up into my clawed hand, and then we all take off into the sky. They're hurt worse than I thought. Their wounds are large and painful-looking, but no one says a word the whole flight back. We just keep going, because that's all we can do.