Page 68 of Billionaire Dragon King’s Rejected Mate

“And yet you don’t know that you’re in love with the man.”

Randi almost smirked at her sister’s snark. She watched as Chance almost took a stream of fire to his neck. Fear hit her then in a way that stole the breath from her lungs as she watched the battle unfold.

He could get hurt, or worse. Her hands curled into fists at her sides and her entire body tensed as she stood there, unable to look away even as terror gripped her chest.

Because suddenly, it wasn’t the danger that mattered. It wasn’t the war, or the kingdom, or even the fact that she had been taken.

It was him. Bryn was right.

The realization hit her with a force that left no room for denial and no space to hide from it anymore.

Loving Chance had never been the dangerous part.

Losing him was.

Chapter 27

Chance

The wind at that altitude tore across the mountainside with a violence that felt almost alive, but even that paled in comparison to the force of the battle raging in the sky above.

Chance did not think. He couldn’t afford to. He was fighting for Randi and he would not lose her. He was fighting for love.

The moment he had seen the mouth of the cave and the moment he had felt that unmistakable pull that told him she was in danger, something in him had shifted past strategy and into something far more primal and unyielding.

Determination. Not the careful, measured kind that kings were supposed to possess, but something that burned through hesitation and left only one option. He was not leaving that mountain without Randi.

His dragon surged forward beneath him and responded to that resolve as though it were a command. Its massive wings drove them upward as another burst of flame streaked past, close enough that the heat licked across his skin.

Across from him, his father moved with practiced brutality, his own dragon cutting through the air with ruthless precision. Each strike calculated and each movement was honed through years of power unchallenged.

This was not a man who hesitated or who showed mercy.

The sky itself seemed to reflect that truth. The clash between them was violent and unrelenting as claw met scale and fire met fire. The sounds from the battle echoed across the mountains like a storm that refused to break.

But Chance did not yield. His random flights over Tampa Bay served him well in flight, but his inexperience in battle showed. Every time his focus threatened to split, every time the sheer force of Gunner’s attacks threatened to drive him back, there was one person that anchored him and pulled him forward instead of letting him fall.

Randi.

He saw her in flashes between movement and flame. She stood near the cave with Bryn, small against the vastness of everything around them. He was the only thing that stood between them and his father’s ruthlessness. Sven and Jakob were on their way, but when he’d received the call of Randi and Bryn’s location, he hadn’t waited for them to gather their forces.

His father fought with control and fear with the belief that power was something to be taken and held through force alone. Chance fought with something entirely different that his father had never understood or valued. He fought with something to protect.

That difference showed itself suddenly, like a storm finally breaking after building pressure for far too long.

Gunner lunged, driving forward with a force meant to overwhelm and end the fight in a single decisive blow, but Chance met him head-on.

The impact reverberated through his bones, but Chance did not give ground or retreat. He didn’t allow himself to be pushed backward.

Instead, he pushed forward. Harder and stronger.

His wings snapped wide as they surged upward before diving sharply. He turned defense into attack in a movement so swift it left no room for recovery.

For the first time, Gunner faltered. It was small, but Chance saw the opportunity and drove into it with everything he had.

The next strike landed precisely in a way that sent Gunner spiraling off balance. His wings faltered just long enough to break the rhythm of the fight and just enough for his control to slip.

They hit the ground hard.