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“You shouldn’t be here. This part of the realm is not safe for those like you,” he replied.
“It’s not exactly like I had a choice,” I spat.
I leveled him with my best ‘if looks could kill’ glare, and he didn’t flinch even a little bit. In retrospect, maybe poking the mad dragon human shifter dude was a bad idea, and I swallowed back my uneasiness. I stayed quiet, waiting for what he might do next and assessing my options, not that there were many.
He just stood there for a long minute, consuming me with his presence as I trembled before him. With a gentleness that I didn’t think him capable of, he lightly gripped my chin and forced my face up so that I had no choice but to look him in the eyes.
The sight of them was beautiful.
Up close like this, I could see a light blue ring that encapsulated the inky black depths of his pupils. The blue gradually darkened to a lustrous sapphire that was flecked with tiny droplets of silver. I just stared into the sparkling gemstones of his striking gaze, losing myself in the surprisingly liberating captivity of it all.
His body just barely brushing against mine was just as equally distracting.
“Did the Dark King send you?”
“Dark King?” I echoed. I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t even know what he wanted, but it was getting really hard to concentrate on anything else with his hard physique pressed up against me.
Why did I want to move even closer to him?
I pulled in a heated breath, my chest rising and falling with my growing anxiety. There was something else there though that I couldn’t ignore, an entirely unwelcome feeling in a situation as dangerous as this one.
There was attraction, a deep-seated animalistic yearning that was unfurling in my center with little to no explanation whatsoever.
The raw masculinity of his scent hit me next. Jasmine, vanilla, and spice took over my senses, capturing me in a haze that made my head whirl. Then a subtle smokiness followed on the tail end of the initial spiciness, taking hold of me and refusing to let go. His suspicious stare bored me down, making me tremble with overwhelming feelings of arousal, fear, and abject disbelief.
I was stronger than this. If I was going to die, I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. If he had plans to hurt me, I was going to hurt him first. This was just a human man, and I could fight back against someone like that.
I wasn’t going to just poke the dragon. I was going to put him on the ground.
You might regret this, Ella…
I didn’t pay any heed to my inner voice. I just reacted.
I brought my knee up hard between his legs, catching him dead center in the balls. His face crumpled, and I took advantage of his brief moment of weakness to slip out of his grasp. Taking a chance, I grabbed one of the sticks that looked like a torch off the shelves and dipped it in the fire, barely even waiting for it to fully ignite before I took off into the shadows and the mystery of the rear of the cave.
I thanked the heavens that it didn’t stop a few feet into the darkness. I raced down what was seemingly an endless dark hall. It took everything in me not to look over my shoulder and back at the strange man chasing after me. I didn’t need to look. I knew he was already up and moving. He was close enough that I could almost feel his icy breath on the back of my neck. With increased concentration, I kept my eyes on the ground, which saved me several times from tripping over a loose rock along the way. His footsteps pounded into the ground behind me, and I raced as fast as I could.
It wasn’t enough.
I could hear him closing in on me, and I cried out, my foot catching a jagged edge of rock. I flew forward, closing my eyes with the full expectation that I was about to fall and bash my skull open on a sharp, craggy rock. I didn’t fall though. I didn’t even make it to the ground.
He caught me in midair.
I cried out as his hand wrapped around my upper arm with the strength and power of a vice. With a certain measured gentleness, he pulled me back up to my feet. I cried out again, both from his touch, and at the unexpected rescue.
“Lesser men have been sentenced to death for raising a hand towards me,” he growled. For some reason, his response immediately annoyed me.
“I am no man,” I snapped back.
His tenderness had put me on edge. Why not just let me fall after I had been the one trying to hurt him?
“That you aren’t,” he echoed. With a sigh, he dragged me back towards the warmth of the fire. In my ire, I hadn’t really noticed the drop in temperature, but I was beginning to shiver. Had he noticed and thought I was cold? Was he trying to get me warm?
“I can’t leave you here. You won’t survive,” he stated. There was an irritated edge to his voice, like he couldn’t be bothered, or I was a burden of some kind. It made me feel increasingly uneasy, especially since he hadn’t let go of my arm just yet.
What was this? I wasn’t some damsel in distress that needed to be rescued. I’d taken care of myself all my life. Not only that, but I hadn’taskedfor his help either.
I should be appreciative that he didn’t let me fall, and that he knew enough to realize that I needed warmth, but I still couldn’t push my apprehension aside. He pulled me in closer and I drew my arm back. Before I could even think about what I was doing, I slapped him across the face.
