The lab building soon came into view, but something was wrong. The front door hung at an odd angle, and through the windows she could see overturned furniture and scattered papers.
"That door's been forced," Kade observed grimly, bringing the SUV to a sharp stop.
Before he could protest, Maple was out of the vehicle and running toward the building. Behind her, she heard Kade curse creatively. But more concerning sounds hit her as soon as she crossed the threshold—grunts of effort, the meaty impact of fists on flesh, Ben's voice raised in defiant refusal.
"I'll never tell you where she is, you bastards!"
Maple's vision went red. Without thinking, without planning, without any regard for the size difference between herself and the two men currently using her best friend as a punching bag, she launched herself into the fray.
The smaller of the two attackers had Ben pinned against an overturned lab bench, his fist drawn back for another blow. Maple threw herself between them with a feral snarl, her archaeological training in hand-to-hand combat from years of working in dangerous locations finally proving useful.
Her first punch caught the man in the kidney, making him grunt and stumble. Her second aimed for his solar plexus but he recovered faster than expected, his own fist connecting with her ribs in a burst of white-hot pain.
The impact sent her stumbling backward into the lab bench, her side colliding with the metal edge hard enough to make her gasp. Something in her wrist twisted wrong as she tried to catch herself, sending sharp pain shooting up her arm.
But Ben was already moving, his battered face set in grim determination as he grabbed a heavy ceramic vase from the scattered artifacts and brought it down on the man's head with a satisfying crack. The attacker crumpled to the floor, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Across the room, Kade was making short work of the larger man with the efficient brutality of someone trained in combat for centuries. One moment the thug was throwing punches, the next he was unconscious on the floor, Kade standing over him without a hair out of place.
"We need to go," Kade said curtly, already pulling out his phone. "Before reinforcements arrive."
He made a quick call—something about a break-in that would bring human authorities to clean up the mess—while Maple helped Ben. Her ribs screamed in protest, and her wrist was already beginning to swell, but Ben looked far worse. His face was a map of bruises, one eye swollen nearly shut, and he was holding his ribs like breathing hurt.
"You need a hospital," she said firmly, slipping her arm around his waist to support his weight.
Minutes later, the drive to the hospital passed in a blur of worried conversation and careful planning. Ben would call his girlfriend Jackie once he was safely in the ER, then have her bring him to the hidden dragon town once he was released. The city clearly wasn't safe for any of them anymore.
When Kade finally pulled away from the hospital, leaving Ben in the capable hands of medical professionals, Maple finally allowed herself to acknowledge the throbbing pain in her ribs and the sharp ache in her wrist. Yet all she could think about was getting back to Rune, back to the safety of his arms and the sanctuary of his territory.
Exactly twenty minutes later, the mansion appeared ahead of them, its ancient stones glowing warm and golden in the sunlight. But as Kade's SUV pulled into the circular drive, Maple saw a familiar figure standing on the front steps.
Rune.
Even from a distance, she could see the tension in every line of his powerful frame, and the barely leashed energy that suggested his dragon was very close to the surface. When he saw her emerge from the passenger seat, one hand pressed protectively to her ribs while the other cradled her injured wrist, something shifted in his expression.
The controlled mask he wore for the world cracked, revealing raw concern and a fury that made the air around him seem to shimmer with heat. Before she could take more than a few steps, he was there, sweeping her up into his arms with a gentleness that contrasted sharply with the dangerous energy radiating from him.
"We need to treat these injuries," Rune said, his voice roughened with emotion he wasn't quite managing to contain.
As he carried her toward the mansion's entrance, she caught sight of his face—and the look he shot Kade promised a very serious conversation in their immediate future. But for now, his entire focus was on her, on getting her safe and cared for.
This,she thought as his familiar scent wrapped around her,this is what love feels like.
SIXTEEN
RUNE
The grand staircase felt endless beneath Rune's feet as he carried Maple toward his private chambers. Each step sent waves of protective fury through his system, his dragon snarling beneath his skin at the evidence of harm done to their mate.
When he'd felt her panic spike through their growing bond an hour ago—that sharp, electric jolt of fear that had cut through his carefully controlled police interview like a blade—he'd abandoned all pretense of human civility. The detective's endless questions about twisted metal and charred bodies had become background noise the moment Maple's terror flooded his consciousness.
He'd left the Phoenix police station with barely a word of explanation, his Porsche eating up desert miles as he raced toward home with single-minded desperation. The twenty-minute drive had stretched like hours, every second amplifying his certainty that Elias or Serena had somehow breached his territory, found his hidden town, and discovered his mate.
But when he'd arrived to find the mansion empty—no Maple, no Kade, just the hollow echo of absence—something primal had nearly broken free. He'd been seconds away from shifting intohis dragon form and tearing across the sky in search of her when Kade's SUV had appeared in his circular drive.
The sight of Maple emerging from the passenger seat, one hand pressed protectively to her ribs while the other cradled her wrist, had nearly shattered his control entirely. Only the obvious pain etched across her features had kept him from demanding immediate answers, and from roaring his fury at whoever had dared harm what belonged to him.
Now, as he shouldered open the door to his private chambers, Rune forced himself to focus on what she needed rather than what his dragon demanded. Revenge could wait. Maple required care first.
