Dragon Hunter by Charlene Hartnady
Chapter 7
Riley opened her eyes. The room was bright. She stretched, feeling sore. Her muscles ached. Everything ached. Then she saw it. Since when did she have a crystal chandelier in her room? Her eyes narrowed. Since when did—?
She sat up, sucking in a breath.
“Morning,” a lazy voice said from next to her. As in…next to her in the bed. What? Had she been drinking again? She remembered leaving the royal offices. She remembered coming back here and being pissed off, and that’s where things turned hazy. Did they…? No way! Just no! She’d remember if she’d slept with Fog. She hadn’t been drinking, either.
Riley turned to the left. The bed was so big that there was at least a couple of feet between them. Fog lay with one of his arms behind his pillow. The sheet was low on his hips.
He looked…he looked very much naked. At least his chest was bare. His hair was slightly mussed.
“Um…why are we in bed together? What time is it, and how did I get here?”
“You were exhausted by the time we got back.”
She clenched her jaw. “Those royals of yours are bastards!”
“So you said about a million times after we left.” Fog smiled. He had a really great smile. It lit up his whole face. Made his eyes dance.
“I remember sitting on the sofa. You made me hot chocolate…” She was struggling to remember. It got hazy from there. Exhaustion would be a good reason for that. She’d heard of sleep-deprived people missing whole chunks of their lives. Sleep deprivation was a form of torture…or had been…somewhere in the world. Remembering half facts was her thing.
“You were fast asleep when I got back with your hot chocolate. You didn’t budge when I carried you to bed, or when I…I took off your jeans. I thought you would be more comfortable if—”
Riley gasped. “You did what?” She pulled the sheet away from herself, and sure enough, her legs were bare.
“Sorry! I didn’t look. I swear. I left your shirt on…and your panties.”
“Thank the lord!” she pushed out. Did that mean that he had contemplated taking those off her, too?
“I know humans can be shy.”
“Understatement of the year. As to not looking…” She widened her eyes. “You can’t tell me that you pulled a pair of jeans off of an unconscious woman without looking.”
“I didn’t look look.” Fog sat up and gave a languid stretch.
Good lord, but he was strong. She tried not to ogle him too much. “I see that you also decided that us sleeping together was a good idea. I don’t just sleep with random guys.” Riley realized that she was being a bitch. She squeezed her eyes together and gave her head a small shake. Everything was a huge mess. Her best friend was still missing; she was allowed to be a little cranky. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be…ungrateful. It’s just… This is crazy, weird…” She shook her head. “I can’t believe this is happening.” Her voice hitched. “I can’t believe they’re making me leave. I can’t leave. I have to find a way to help Ashlyn. I’ll go back myself if I have to.”
“Hey, it’s going to be okay.” Fog touched the side of her arm. “I have an idea. Let me get you some coffee.” He lifted his brows. “Then we can talk about it?”
Before she could say anything, he threw the covers off and stood up. OMG! He was wearing a pair of tight briefs. They were white. Her eyes immediately went to his meaty ass. The term “beefcake” came to mind. “Um…coffee sounds good.” Riley watched him walk to the kitchen.
He turned back. “Cream and sugar?”
“Um…yes…no… What was the question?” She rubbed her face. “I think I must still be tired,” she mumbled. What was wrong with her? Just because his package looked bigger than it had when it was hanging free did not mean that she got to lose her mind. It wasn’t a normal reaction for her. Then again, nothing about this situation was normal. “I’ll take cream, no sugar,” she blurted. “Thanks,” she quickly added.
Fog nodded once and got to work. He poured himself a juice, offering her one, which she declined. Riley found her jeans folded on a chair next to the bed. With a sheet wrapped around herself, she made her way to the bathroom. After taking care of her basic needs, she washed her face, rinsed her mouth, and pulled on her jeans.
Fog was leaning on the counter drinking his juice, still in the underwear. Good lord! At least the tighty-whities were better than him being naked.
Riley kept her eyes above shoulder height. “Thank you.” She picked up the mug and took a sip. “This is great. You said you had an idea? I’m up for anything that will get Ashlyn back and make those bastards pay for what they are doing to her.” She felt her face crumple. Riley put a hand over her mouth, a small sob escaping. She took a few deep breaths, pulling herself back together. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was choked. “It’s just that whenever I think about it, I get so worried, and that makes me emotional. I don’t normally get emotional, so it’s hard to deal with it.”
“It’s completely understandable. Look, I know I said otherwise to the royals yesterday, but your friend is more than likely okay. Why would they interrogate one of our males for so long about human females if they planned on abducting them and doing them harm? They wanted a ton of information so that they could win the females over. I can’t guarantee it, but if these cave dwellers are dragons, they will hopefully have honor.”
“There was talk of wing-cutting.” Her eyes were wide. “That sounds like torture to me. Why would they torture someone if they are good people? That doesn’t make sense.”
“It wasn’t torture. Storm mentioned that the cave passageways are super narrow in places.” He pulled in a couple of deep breaths and seemed to turn a little pale. “Dragons shift easily when we’re in dangerous situations. It can even happen against our will if a situation is bad enough. If we feel threatened or in truly dire circumstances, boom, we shift.” He took a deep breath. “Trying to squeeze through a narrow passage would be considered dire. We hate tight spaces. Take us into a narrow passageway, and we might accidentally shift.” His jaw tightened. “Shift and become trapped, which in turn would spell danger, making us unable to shift back. It would be a nightmare. Trapped under the ground in a narrow space…our wings smashed.” He looked like he might throw up.
“I still don’t quite get it. What does removing wings have to do with it?”
“Dragons are huge,” Fog said. “We’re much bigger with our wings. They would have forced Skarn to shift and then removed his wings so that he wouldn’t become trapped in the narrow cave passageways. Perhaps they told him what would happen if he went down there without removing his wings. If given the choice, I know I would probably agree to have my wings removed. It will have left gashes on his back in human form. If he accidentally shifted under duress caused by being in such confined…” Fog swallowed thickly, “spaces, he would not have been as big without his wings. It will have meant less chance of becoming trapped down there. That’s why his wings were removed twice. Once to get him down there and once to get him back out. There was no mention of the cave dwellers cutting their own wings off. Maybe they don’t have them anymore. That doesn’t make sense.” Fog was talking to himself.
“You’re talking about actual claustrophobia? Are dragons claustrophobic?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Yes, for the reasons I just described. Tight spaces are not our idea of fun.” He gave a shiver.
“No wonder your lair is so open.” She looked around his apartment. Every space in this place was large. The ceilings are high. The hallways wide. Even the doors were big. She thought back on their conversation. “It must have been terrible to have his wings cut off, though.” It was her turn to give a shiver.
“I’ll assume it wasn’t torture or a barbaric act. It was probably a considerate act, especially if they did it to help Skarn, not to hurt him. Sensing a threat, he would have shifted. If he’d become trapped in his dragon form, it would have meant hours of agony until he was weak and passed out, at which point he would have reverted to his human form. In that case, they did a kind thing. I think it’s looking more and more hopeful for your friend.”
“You can’t be serious! What about this business of eating her?” He seemed to have conveniently forgotten about that.
His eyes got a panicked look for a moment. “They won’t eat her, Riley.”
“That guy yesterday said—”
“I know what he said.” Fog sounded exasperated. “He was talking about “eating out.” Not eating.”
She frowned. “Eating out…eating…” What was he talking about?
“Dragons love the taste of human pussy, Riley. He wasn’t talking about actually eating a human.”
She gasped. “How did that go over my head?” Riley felt like an idiot.
“You’re stressed! Sun should never have said it. He’s an asshole. He was joking, even though it’s true. Nothing tastes better than—”
“I get it.” Her voice was shrill. “Okay, fine.” Her cheeks felt hot. Her whole body felt hot right then.
“Ashlyn is more than likely okay down there. I hope—"
“Hope?” Riley shook her head. “I can’t live on hope. I can’t assume she’s okay. I need to do something, Fog.” What he was saying made sense, but she still couldn’t drop it. Wouldn’t leave Ashlyn.
“You also can’t go charging into that cave system yourself to try to rescue her. I agree with Thunder on that one. You could get yourself into some real trouble.”
“What am I going to do? I can’t go home. Your asshole of a king won’t let me stay here.”
“We need to come up with a plan to rescue her.” Fog looked like he was thinking it through. “Nothing seems feasible. What we need is some time to figure it out.”
“Ashlyn doesn’t have time.” Riley could hear the frustration laced in her voice. She took a sip of her coffee, hoping the caffeine would soothe her jangled nerves.
“Don’t freak out when I say this…”
She groaned. “Maybe don’t say it, then.” She shook her head, taking another sip of her coffee. “I’m already freaking out.”
“I’m sure your friend is just fine.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“No, I can’t. I absolutely agree with you. It sounds like they have taken her in the hopes that she will choose a mate and have offspring. You heard all of this yesterday.”
“Or use her as a sex slave,” Riley grumbled. She could feel her blood boil. If Ash was hurt, she was going to hunt down those sons of bitches. Riley didn’t care if they were stronger and faster; she’d make them pay. She’d use her meager savings to buy as many lights as possible and burn their eyes out.
“If they took her to use as a sex slave, then it is probably already too late to stop that from happening.”
Riley plonked her mug down and coffee sloshed over the rim onto the pristine white counter. “What do you mean by that?”
“She’s been with them for at least thirty hours. A lot can happen in thirty hours.”
An instant lump appeared in her throat and her eyes stung. She had to work hard to keep herself from crying. “You’re not helping here.”
“Despite what I just said, I don’t think they want to force her. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to save her, because I’m with you on this. I think we should try.”
“I can’t leave. They can’t make me leave. I have to be here.”
“Which brings me to my plan.” Fog finished his juice. It looked like he was buying time, mulling things over. “I can only think of one way to make that happen.”
“Yes?” she urged him. She had a feeling she was going to hate whatever it was he had to say.
“I’m eligible to take a mate. You humans call it marriage. I won’t get into the differences because they don’t matter.”
No way!
“Are you saying we should mate? I don’t want to get married.”
Fog laughed. “No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Not even close. If I am interested in taking a female as a potential mate, I am permitted to bring her here for a period of time to test compatibility. Those are the rules.”
“What? Like if you both have the same interests?”
“In a manner of speaking,” he gave a cryptic half-answer, although she couldn’t understand why that would be. Maybe she was misreading him. “My suggestion is that I put you forward as a potential mate. I can let the royals know that I am attracted to you, that I would like to keep you here for a couple of weeks to test compatibility…”
“Weeks?” Her brows shot up, along with her adrenaline. “Ashlyn can’t be stuck down there for that long. And I can’t stay here for weeks. I have a job, a life.” Shit! She was supposed to fly out tonight. She needed to get a hold of Operations. More importantly, she needed to call her mom.
“I realize that,” Fog said as she looked his way. “It wouldn’t be weeks. It would be just as long as it takes to come up with a rescue plan for your friend Ashlyn. I need to try to see who I can recruit to help me.” He looked unsure, even gave his chin a scratch. His eyes clouded over with an emotion she couldn’t pinpoint. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to accomplish that. Not with this latest piece of information. It might be only me in the end. It will take a little time. It needs to be properly thought out. Then we’ll go in and get her and then you can both go home.”
“You make it sound simple.”
“There will be nothing simple about it. I will need to research those cave systems. I’ll need special equipment and gear. That type of stuff would need to be ordered.”
Everything in her lightened. Riley smiled. “Thank you so much! I’ll owe you so much. Ashlyn would just need to hold on for a little while.”
“I will need to get permission for you to stay. I’ll tell Storm that we’re attracted to each other. I’m hoping he’ll buy it and let you stay.”
For a second, her eyes wanted to drift down his magnificent body. That was just it; she was attracted to him. Who wouldn’t be? The guy was just over the top gorgeous. Of course, that meant he was on the “No-go List,” which was perfect since she wasn’t here to actually date him. That was all a ruse to get permission to stay. “I can go with you when you ask them, if you want?” she offered.
Fog shook his head. “No. I think it’s best if I go alone. There is one little, pesky problem.”
“What problem? You ask the royals. I stay for however long it takes to get this plan in place and get Ashlyn back. Then we leave. It sounds simple, but really good. In fact, you’re a genius. Thank you, Fog. I really appreciate you doing this.”
“Nope, I’m pretty sure there’s a major problem. One that you need to be very aware of.”
“What is it?” she pressed. “That major problem would be what, exactly?”
“Compatibility isn’t just about having the same interests. There are other ways to test compatibility that don’t involve hobbies and dating.” He pulled in a deep breath.
“Surely we can do whatever needs to be done. What other things?” She couldn’t think of anything. Maybe they had weird rituals. She could do weird rituals.
“We would be expected to fuck…and often.”
