Sold To The Dragons (A BBW Paranormal Romance Book 1) (20 page)

I strung an arrow in my bow and began spotting for a target. But, to my dismay, I soon realized that all the hundreds of shifters beyond the east side window were still far too tightly packed for me to even clearly see whose face was smeared with red paint and whose wasn't. And even if I had been able to see that clearly, I still wouldn't have been able to take a shot, considering that all the shifters were moving so fast, and the risk of me hitting an Ashcrest shifter would be too great.

I also had another problem. My longbow, though it was a shorter one, was still quite long; held in position, I had to stand a foot or two away from the window in order to keep from knocking it around on the windowpane, which, of course, could easily throw off my aim. I also had to stand a bit further back than I would have liked in order to properly pull my arm back in preparation to release a shot. This made it so that the windowpane and the surrounding stonework obscured my field of vision.

After studying my bow and the windowpane for a few moments, I realized there might be an easier solution than attempting to shoot from a foot or two behind the window. By leaning
out
the window just a few inches, after clearing the sill with my bow, I'd be able to shoot easily and much more efficiently, and with a completely clear field of vision as well.

I realized I'd be overlooking fifteen stories of pure air, but I wouldn't be looking down, and heights had never bothered me anyway. And with the windowpane hitting an inch or two above my waist, I knew there wouldn't be any real risk of me falling. It would take serious effort. I'd probably even have to launch myself into a jumping dive or swing one leg over the sill in order to accomplish the task. Which, obviously, I had no intention of doing.

And so, with my heart beating a bit faster, though still not from anything that even remotely felt like fear, I carefully extended my bow out the window and then leaned the upper half of my body out to join it. The tight knot of hundreds and hundreds of shifters had now broken up, and I immediately saw several chances for me to fire off an arrow at a Destroyer without risking a hit to an Ashcrest shifter. But I still had to be careful, I knew. My judgment and timing had to be perfect. My aim had to be perfect.

While a cool, light rain began misting my face, I pulled my arrow back in the string, waiting. Waiting for one massive green Destroyer to move just a little to the left, or another, this one a smaller brown one, to move just a bit to the right, away from a group of Ashcrest dragons near him. I was so intent on surveying the scene that I didn't even see or hear a Destroyer swooping in from the north until he'd dug his talons into my shoulders, lifting me right out of the window.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The bloodcurdling scream I made hurt even my own ears. Within seconds, the Destroyer had me high above the castle, clutching me in his talons. I looked down and saw buildings and houses in the city as small as dots. The castle itself appeared like a toy.

I looked up and couldn't see much else besides the jewel-green, scaly belly of a Destroyer. Jewel-green, though with large flecks of gold. Just based on descriptions I'd heard, I knew the dragon flying away with me had to be Cain, the leader of The Destroyers, the shifter who'd taken Tom hostage in an attempt to get me for himself.

I’d dropped my bow, though I didn't even remember doing so. However, I still had my bag of arrows on my back, and somehow, I was still clutching in my right hand the arrow I'd been intending to shoot.

Now
I was scared. Now I was terrified. I could barely even think. The scream I'd made had seemed to take every last bit of my breath.

But I knew one thing for certain. I couldn't scream anymore. Though my first and only scream may have served a purpose in alerting someone to my plight, I was now well out of hearing range. All the other shifters, both Ashcrest ones and Destroyers, were well below me now. And I needed to conserve all my breath and strength. I just needed a second to get my bearings and think.

Curiously, I realized that despite being held in what I knew were razor-sharp claws, I wasn't feeling any pain. It occurred to me that it was possible I had been sliced and was just in profound shock, though a quick glance at my shoulders told me I hadn't been cut. My gray sweatshirt wasn't stained with even a speck of blood, at least as far as I could tell.

But then, it suddenly made sense. If Cain wanted me for his own so badly, he surely wouldn't want me sliced to ribbons by the time we arrived in Dimwood. Somehow, he was holding me with his finger-pads only so as to avoid this.

This realization also led me to another that lessened my panic just slightly. Cain wasn't going to drop me, sending me hurtling to my death. His intention wasn't to kill me or hurt me; it was to take me back to Dimwood for his own.

I took several deep breaths, considering this, while his enormous green-and-gold wings beat the air above me. I knew I couldn't let him take me to Dimwood. He and his men would be on alert for Alec's invisibility trick this time. I might never be rescued.

I knew I had to think of a plan to save myself, and fast. The other shifters were becoming mere specks in the distance behind us. It didn't seem as if anyone had heard my scream.

I had my arrows, and surprisingly, I had my wits about me, at least for the most part, I realized. I was already doing better than the last time I'd been in danger. I wasn't freezing up. My mind was still working. I was thinking thoughts that were actually semi-coherent.

One of them was the idea to try to reach up and stab Cain in the stomach with my knife-sharp, titanium-tipped arrow. However, I almost instantly realized why this would be a terrible plan. If I was successful, he'd likely drop me. And I'd fall to the ground and die, without a doubt. It didn't matter if I landed in a field or a lake; there would be no surviving a fall from this dizzying height. So, essentially, any attack I made on Cain would be an attack on myself, as well, in a way. But I couldn't think of what else to do.

It was only then that it hit me. My phone was still in my pocket. Actually stifling a laugh, I transferred my arrow to my left hand, then began reaching into my pocket with my right. But before my fingers even touched my phone, a great roar coming from somewhere nearby made me whip my head around, gasping.

"Blake."

He was charging, massive wings flapping, heading right toward us at incredible speed. But suddenly, not even a second after I spotted him, he slowed. Drastically. To a stop, from what it looked like. Cain slowed to a stop as well and turned his body in the air, turning me with him. With a low roar rumbling in his chest, he seemed to stare Blake down for a long moment or two before suddenly breathing a jet of fire at least a hundred feet long. I definitely felt the heat from it, though being below Cain, the fire didn't touch me directly. However, Blake had to swoop out of the way in order to avoid being roasted.

Immediately, Cain took off again, pulling me along so fast that icy raindrops felt

like needles, pricking at my skin.

  I turned my face to look behind us, a bit of panic rising in me once again. "Blake!"

But I couldn't see him anymore. Nor could I even see any of the shifters fighting back in Ashcrest anymore.

"Blake! Where are you?"

Still speeding forward, Cain gave me a little shake that I knew was some sort of a warning to shut up. So, fearing what he might do if I didn't, I stopped yelling, though I still continued looking all around for any sign of Blake. He seemed to have literally disappeared into thin air.

However, I knew in my heart that he hadn't abandoned me. I knew there was no fire in the world hot enough to just make him give up and leave me behind. And soon, I saw where he'd gone. 

Several hundred yards in front of Cain and me, he suddenly swooped down from a long line of dark gray clouds. Cain immediately slowed to a stop again, moving his wings just enough to keep us suspended in the air. A low, ominous growl rumbled in his scaly green chest. I knew what was going to happen next; he was going to breathe another jet of fire. And Blake obviously couldn't return fire, being that it could burn me. But, I realized, he
could
catch me.
If
I could get Cain to drop me.

As Cain sucked in a great lungful of air, likely in preparation to release it as a jet of fire, I acted without really even thinking. Somehow, my brain just made my body
move
. With my right hand, I snatched my arrow out of my left, then thrust it upward in one fast, powerful jab, really putting my shoulder into it. But the tip of the arrow didn't even pierce through his scales.

Instantly, I tried again, with the same result. Cain now began to shake me again, so violently that my teeth chattered. But I didn't give up. I couldn't. Because I knew most mothers wouldn't.

With my voice coming out as some sort of animalistic snarl, I thrust my arrow upward, into Cain's soft underbelly one final time, putting my shoulder into the action even stronger than I had before. And the third time was the charm. My arrow pierced a scale and sank into flesh at least half a foot. Roaring, Cain reared back, releasing one of my shoulders. But I still didn't stop in my assault, though now dangling from one claw, and a claw that seemed to be losing its grip.

I reached back into my drawstring bag, pulled out another arrow, and thrust it upward into the thick part of his leg. The arrow didn't sink in, though it cut him, and blood began pouring from the wound. Almost immediately, I felt myself falling.

THE FINAL
CHAPTER

I fell through the air at least a hundred feet, screaming, before landing on something that felt similar to a mattress. The object fell with me for a while it felt like, gradually cushioning my fall, before seeming to slowly stop itself and then begin ascending just as slowly. It was only then that I was able to open my eyes. And I saw that I was on Blake's back. Of course.

After pulling myself up to sit and gripping the roots of his coal-gray wings, I cautiously turned my head, expecting to see Cain on our heels. But he wasn't anywhere close behind us. He wasn't anywhere I could see at all.

I'd just begun to catch my breath when Blake and I arrived back at Ashcrest only a minute or two later. We didn't enter the city on the east side, as the battle appeared to still be raging. Instead, Blake flew us around to the opposite side of the castle before descending and dropping me off right at the steps of a side entrance. He didn't need to shift into human form to tell me what to do. After climbing off his back and giving him a quick kiss on the side of the neck, I raced toward the entrance, flung open the heavy oak door, and dashed inside. Where my legs instantly seemed to turn into rubber.

With my back pressed against the door, I sank to the floor, my knees literally giving out from beneath me. I was suddenly crying. I was suddenly sobbing. About what, specifically, I didn't even know at first. The thought that maybe my teeny-tiny baby had been hurt or damaged somehow during all the jostling I'd endured during my ordeal. The embarrassment I felt that I'd been pulled from a window after assuring Blake and Steven so many times that everything would be just fine if they'd just allow me to do my part in the fight.

I was crying about both of those things, but also about something else. Something that made an emotion that felt nothing like fear or shame rise in my chest. I was actually a little bit proud of myself. I hadn't froze up. I hadn't choked. I may have been yanked out of a window after making what was, in hindsight, probably a stupid decision to lean out of it, but after that, I'd kept my head. I'd taken action. I'd proven to myself that I wasn't a coward. I was brave. And I'd done something my child might admire someday.

Something a bit more heroic than just standing on an auction block, willing myself not to run.

The door that I'd entered led to a darkened corridor that was deserted. I sat crying with my back against the door for a long time, I wasn't even sure quite how long, while hearing distant sounds of roaring coming from the opposite side of the castle. When the roaring and great whooshing noises finally stopped, they seemed to stop suddenly and completely. But my legs still felt too rubbery for me to stand on them. And I wasn't quite done crying yet. Or thinking. Specifically about something I wanted to ask Blake.

After several minutes, my phone went off and it was him. He simply asked me where I was and then listened to my response before saying that he'd be right there, then hanging up.

Soon, I scooted away from the door when he gently began trying to open it. Within a second, he was on the floor with me, pulling me into his arms, asking me if I was all right.

I nodded, lifting my face from his hard chest. "I'm fine. I think. Nothing hurts at all. But how about everyone else? Is everyone else okay? And any casualties on our side?"

"Zero, though some pretty severe injuries. Those few men should heal in time. The Destroyers weren't as lucky, though. Probably safe to say they've been vanquished. All but a few wounded stragglers, anyway."

"And Cain? Did anyone catch him?"

“Steven, actually. Finished him off in midair. Finished off the amazing job of taking him out that
you
started." Blake paused, pulling away slightly, seemingly to study my face in a thin slant of light coming through a small window in the door, which was the only source of light in the corridor. "Before I whisk you away to see the doctor, I just want to quickly tell you that you're the bravest person I've ever met in my life. And I've known since the day I met you that you possess strength and bravery beyond compare.

“Whatever happened at the encampment near Dimwood, whatever happened when you froze up...it was just a fluke. That's not who you are. You're the woman I saw today, stabbing a dragon while suspended from a single claw. You're that incredibly brave, strong woman who doesn't give up. And that's exactly what kind of mother you'll be, too."

With tears streaming down my face again, I could only nod, squeezing my eyes shut. But very soon, I opened them again, remembering what I'd wanted to ask Blake. "I know we need to get to Dr. Clark's, but can I just ask you something first? I know you're proud of me for what I did, but are you sorry you agreed to let me help in the battle? Just considering what happened, and maybe more even what
could
have happened, are you sorry now that you said yes?"

A few seconds ticked by before he responded.

"Am I sorry that what happened, happened, and that you had to spend several surely terrifying minutes being dragged through the air by a Destroyer? Yes, absolutely. I'm sorry any time you're scared. And it makes me almost literally sick to think about what
could
have happened to you. As it did when I heard your scream just faintly, through all the other noises of the battle. But that being said, am I
sorry
that I agreed to let you help in the battle? No. I suppose I'd probably say yes again. And that's because I've come to realize that my job isn't
just
to protect you; my job is also to support you and nurture you as a whole person. My job is to support you in doing whatever you need to do to be happy with yourself.

“Which, in this case, I think included agreeing to let you prove yourself
to
yourself. And all this isn't to say that, God forbid, my father is ever taken hostage again I'm ready to let you offer yourself up as a one-woman rescue team or anything, as was your first plan to prove yourself, but...I'm willing to let you be the strong, capable, brave woman you are, during times when we've both calculated the risk and find it acceptable to us both. Does this make sense?"

I nodded with fresh tears welling in my eyes. I'd decided something while Blake had been speaking. I'd decided he was the man for me. The man I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with. Not Steven, as much as I loved him, too. But Blake was now the man I loved most and knew I would love forever, without a doubt. He was the man I wanted to marry. He was the man I couldn't live without. He was the man I hoped was the father of my baby. Hoped desperately.

In a sudden rush of words and tears, I told him all this, then paused to take in a great lungful of air and let it out slowly. "I have to be with you, Blake. Even if the baby isn't yours. We'll just have to find a way. Maybe we can still get married and just share in the raising of him or her with Steven. But no matter what, I know that I want to be with you, and only you, from now on. I want you to be my husband. And I want to be your wife."

After studying my face for a long moment with his eyes a bit shiny in the dim light, he gently but abruptly picked me up like a baby, stood, and began walking through the corridor to the center of the castle. "There is nothing...
nothing
I want more than to marry you. Nothing.

“But before we drive ourselves crazy thinking of solutions to problems that might not even become reality, we need to get you checked out by the doctor first, to make sure you and the baby are really okay. And at the same time, maybe we can even get the paternity results. And maybe they'll be just what we want to hear."

A short while later, I sat up and rearranged a cotton gown over my body after having been given my second physical exam of the day by Dr. Clark.

She beamed at me, revealing her sparkling white teeth. "You and the baby are just fine. And I'll go out and let Lord Blake know while you're getting dressed. After that, the two of you can just go ahead and wait in here while I quickly head to the lab to check your other test results from earlier today. I'm afraid the attack on the city delayed my work a bit."

I nodded and thanked her with what felt like a thousand butterflies flapping their wings in my stomach.

Once dressed, I poked my head out in the hallway, and not a moment later, I was in Blake's arms yet again. Which was now the only place in the world I wanted to be.

Like we'd done that morning, we sat in chairs in the exam room, waiting, though this time without Steven. I couldn't deny that I felt a bit guilty to not have him present, when it might soon be revealed that the baby I was carrying was his. However, Blake couldn't reach him by phone, and he wasn't even sure where he was. And neither of us wanted to wait until he could be located. I, for one, knew I couldn't wait. The minutes were dragging by slower than any I'd ever experienced in my life.

Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, Blake gave my hand a gentle squeeze. "No matter what, we will be together, Kira. I promise you this. Though we may not even need to, we
will
find a way."

No sooner than the words were out of his mouth, Dr. Clark entered the exam room holding a clipboard. But unlike that morning, she wore a bit of a poker face now. Which wasn't to say she was frowning, but she certainly wasn't wearing her usual smile any more, either. Now her expression was what I would have described as one of pleasant detachment, maybe. Pleasant professionalism. I had no idea what that meant. Because I had no idea if she knew who I now
wanted
the father of my baby to be.

But fortunately, possibly hearing my rate of breathing increasing noticeably, she didn't keep us in suspense for long. After taking a seat opposite us, she glanced down at her clipboard. "Kira and Lord Blake, I want to let you know that I personally ran a test to determine paternity myself, and a colleague of mine also ran a separate test for verification purposes. The results of both tests were conclusive."

My rate of breathing suddenly slowed. And actually stopped. I was now holding my breath.

"Kira, the father of your baby is the gentleman sitting next to you."

I'd thought that maybe I'd exhausted all my tears back in the corridor. But I'd been wrong. I would have collapsed in my seat if Blake's strong arms hadn't been instantly around me. With my face in my hands, I sobbed silently, eyes running like a faucet, until a burning sensation in my lungs reminded me that I had to breathe. I sucked in great lungfuls of air with my face against his chest, still sobbing, while he smoothed my hair and whispered sweet things in my ear in a voice so husky it sounded like he was struggling with a bit of strong emotion himself.

Soon, Dr. Clark stood and began heading out the door, beaming. "I'll give you two some privacy now. But before I do, let me say congratulations, you two. I wasn't sure if I'd be delivering good news or breaking hearts in here today. I think I might have been as nervous as you two."

That was quite impossible.

After a few more minutes spent in the exam room, Blake carried me to the elevator, took me up to my apartment, and tucked me into bed.

He called his father first, and his father delivered the news to Steven. Steven left Ashcrest that night without even saying goodbye to Blake or me. Which, I had to admit was likely for the best. My heart hurt for him, and I knew a part of me would always love him and miss him, but Blake was my future now. Steven told his father that he wasn't exactly sure what his plans were, but that he'd return to Ashcrest someday. Just maybe not for several years. Maybe not even for decades.

In the days following the battle, Dimwood was razed to the ground, and all women and children were brought to live in Ashcrest. One of the women, who'd been the wife of the previous leader before Cain, told of an amulet that had been kept in a vault by The Destroyers for as long as anyone could remember. The Destroyers, ever superstitious, were convinced that it gave them increased strength and power. But some of the older women, including the one who told Tom and Blake about all this, had heard tales about the core of the amulet containing something called radioactive waste.

None of the women knew exactly what that was, being that there weren't many books in Dimwood. But they knew it wasn't something good, and that it was something that might even be responsible for the world's fertility problems post-Freeze.

Tom immediately sent a team of scientists in to locate the amulet and examine it. And it wasn't long before they determined that the stories told by the older women of Dimwood weren't just old wives' tales. They were nearly certain that the amulet could be responsible for the fertility problems that had been plaguing women for centuries.