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All he had to do was get her to safety. Even though that meant never seeing her again.
NINE
CHARLIE
Dear God.Charlie knew she wasn’t frightened enough.Has it really come to this?
Sure, she wasn’t frightened enough, but for fuck’s sake. She was dangling maybe several hundred feet in the air. She had just escaped a pit filled with skeletons.
Then she had been rescued by a dragon shifter.
It was all a bit much, and anyway, being frightened wasn’t her greatest priority.
All she could focus on was holding onto Hammer’s dragon claws. His nails dug uncomfortably into her shoulders, and she felt herself slipping several times. So she had resorted to holding on.
She hadn’t noticed his injury at first. When he was in human form, the injury was in his shoulder. As a dragon, the wound was in his wing. How long could he carry her like that?
It was clear that Ajmal wasn’t going to give her up without a fight. He knew that Hammer had rescued her and was sending his strongest men after them.
And Hammer was certainly strong enough to take them on, but only when he wasn’t wounded.
They were maybe sixty miles away from the hotel when Hammer started hovering lower in the air. He had almost let go of her several times, and he was weakening fast.
They were far from civilization. Which might be for the best. They could get lost in the wilds for a while.
“We need to land!” Charlie yelled up at him. The dragon carrying her gave a heavy huff.
But as they neared a thicket of trees, he flew even lower. He only let go of her when they were about two feet off the ground. Charlie fell lightly, rolling to the ground.
Hammer did not land as gracefully. Instead, he landed with a thud. He was midway between shifting. Charlie watched with fascination as his body twisted and contorted.
His wings disappeared first, then his claws, and finally, the hard lines of the dragon’s face.
She could have studied him all day if he let her.
He groaned slightly when his human form appeared completely. She averted her eyes when he rolled onto his stomach and crawled for his bag.
She got up, dusting herself off while he pulled on clothes.
Charlie looked around, turning to admire the trees that surrounded the clearing. She could hear water bubbling in a stream nearby. The air was fresh and cold. The sun was still rising.
She turned at the crackling of twigs and dried leaves behind her. Hammer came up to stand next to her. His eyes were focused on the horizon, and he shielded his face with his hand. The sun had risen, and Hammer’s sense of urgency was infecting her.
But a grimace crossed his face as he started walking. Charlie stopped, waiting until he noticed she wasn’t keeping up with him.
“Your shoulder needs to be treated. I know this place well. I can use some medicinal plants to make sure it doesn’t get septic.”
Hammer snorted and hefted his bag higher onto his shoulder.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he said in his deep rumbling voice. “But there really is no time for shit like that. Let’s just get going.”
There was no arguing with him,Charlie thought. So, she followed him complacently, even though he was clearly in pain.
It truly was beautiful in the vast open spaces of the country. They were surrounded by all kinds of flora, and whole ecosystems that were created and died every second.
But there was no time to enjoy any of it. Charlie could not fight the burgeoning anxiety that roiled in the pit of her stomach.
They had barely made it out of the hotel alive. And now they were in the middle of nowhere, with nowhere to go.
