Saved by the Billionaire Lion Shifter (Shifter Suspense Book 2), page 18
His ranting cut off. “You’re not acting like a lion at all. I know what you’re doing. Tactics from the hunted’s playbook…”
Harper’s eyes slid sideways and widened, but he was too late. Even without looking, Mathis knew Chloe had succeeded. The bright warmth of her success flooded into his mind, bursting in via the mate bond.
He turned to see her with both of the other eggs cradled in her arms, the case lying open beside her. She held the eggs like they were treasures. Protecting them. Mathis’ heart swelled with love and pride.
Harper rounded on Mathis, spitting with rage. “Deceiver! Traitor! You’re a disgrace to your animal!”
Mathis moved with feline grace, putting himself between the madman and his mate. For the first time that he could remember, he was completely at one with himself. Lion and man united in mind and heart. “You’re wrong, Harper. I’m exactly what I should be.”
“And you’re finished.” Chloe’s voice thrummed in Mathis’ heart. “Hear that, Harper?”
Mathis tipped his head, concentrating. He heard it, too. The steady roar of a helicopter’s engine. Outside, Julian raised his massive head to the sky and swiped at something out of sight.
“I guess someone heard the explosion before,” Mathis joked, backing up until he could take Chloe’s hand. She squeezed his, and he felt her wary joy rise like the tide across the mate bond.
“Or they got my distress call,” she countered him. “Wanna take a bet on it, babe?”
“Give up, Harper,” Mathis said quickly. They only had a few moments before Julian’s attention was back on them, and he wasn’t sure how much more the tower could take. “It’s over.”
Harper’s eyes flicked outside, then he met Mathis’ gaze with so much hatred that it felt like a physical blow. “Not yet!”
He raised the dragon’s egg in the air. In a split-second, Mathis saw what he was planning. The trapdoor across the stairwell had retracted when Harper hit the security panel. He was going to try to escape.
Mathis had less than a heartbeat to decide what to do. But it wasn’t any choice at all.
Harper threw the egg with vicious strength, and leapt for the stairwell. Mathis launched himself into the air. Time seemed to stop.
Mathis sprang, eyes fixed on his target. He twisted his body mid-air, ignoring the searing pain from the claw-marks on his back.
The egg was less than six inches from the floor when he reached it. Harper’s feet slapped on the stairs as he raced away, but Mathis ignored them. He curled around the precious egg, cradling it against his chest as he hit the floor.
He hissed sharply and lay still for a moment until the pain in his back subsided. The egg was heavier than he expected, and strangely warm. Alive.
Mathis’ heart constricted at the thought of what might have happened if he’d hesitated a moment longer.
“Did you get it?”
Mathis was lying with his back to the rest of the room. He sat up, turning to show Chloe the safe egg. Her whole body sagged with relief and she stepped forward into the light, the other two dragon’s eggs safe in her own arms.
“Oh, thank God. Now we just need to—”
A low growl interrupted her. The sound was so deep it seemed to travel into Mathis’ body through his bones, not his ears.
“Chloe, look out!” he shouted as the dragon’s massive head filled the hole in the wall.
The light that had surrounded her was blotted out. Hidden by the wall, she might have been safe, but not there out in the open. She was too close, and the dragon had seen her.
CHAPTER 24
CHLOE
Julian’s breath was like a desert wind buffeting her back.
Chloe turned slowly. The look in Mathis’ eye as the light was blotted out already told her what she would see.
When Julian had grabbed her that night she and Mathis had tried to steal the boat, she hadn’t seen him. She’d felt his scales and the tight ropes of muscles beneath them, and the long, dark curve of his claws as he fastened them around her waist, but she hadn’t seen anything. Whatever magic his scales held, it had kept his dragon out of sight, even when he was holding on to her.
He wasn’t bothering to hide himself now.
Julian’s scales were a smoky blue-black, absorbing light rather than reflecting it. His teeth glowed white in the darkness and his eyes gleamed like jade discs.
Chloe gulped. What if Harper had gone too far? What if the hold he’d kept over Julian had finally made the dragon shifter’s mind snap?
Then we’re all dead.
At least Thandie had made it out. She’d seen the fluorescent hummingbird dart down the stairwell after Harper.
“Julian?” she began, and then coughed as her throat closed up. Her mind was darting around like a fly trapped behind glass, but there was no way out of this but straight ahead. No distracting or dodging her way out of this encounter.
She took a deep breath. No tricks. Just the truth.
“Hey, Julian. Are you still in there?” She looked deep into the dragon’s eyes. Was there anything human left behind those gleaming jade discs? How would she know?
She remembered Mathis’ lion, and all the other shifters she’d seen in the ring. They’d been violent, intent on the fight—but always more than just animal. There had always been a spark of intelligence in their eyes. Some more-than-animal cunning in their tactics.
The dragon’s eyes narrowed, its cat-like pupils slits of pure black in the gleaming green depths. Chloe’s heartbeat thudded in her ears. Behind her, she heard Mathis grunt as he got to his feet. She didn’t dare look back. She just hoped he wasn’t going to do anything rash.
Of course he isn’t. He already saved the egg instead of going after Harper. He’s smart, and kind, and…
She groaned. I can’t think about this right now. I can’t.
Chloe stared in Julian’s eyes. “Ok, so, you haven’t eaten me yet, so I’m going to assume you are still in there.”
The dragon blinked. She felt a strange pressure in her mind, and then Julian looked past her.
She heard Mathis catch his breath. “He’s in there. Enough of him, at least. And his dragon won’t let the eggs come to harm, anyway.”
Chloe’s first instinct was to grab the eggs and run. She pushed the thought away. Using the eggs—Julian’s children, for all she knew—using them as collateral would make her as bad as Harper.
She shifted her grip on the eggs and held them out, one in each arm. Mathis came up beside her, his presence a welcome warmth at her side. He held out the third egg.
“Look, Julian, they’re safe. And you can take them back, now. No one’s going to keep them from you. Harper’s gone off… wherever he’s gone, so if you just wait for us to come down—”
The gravelly crack of stone grating on stone drowned out the rest of her sentence. Mathis’ arms were around her in an instant, protecting her and the eggs. The floor tipped beneath them.
Chloe just had time to calculate exactly how screwed they would be when the tower collapsed under them, before Julian swept her and Mathis up in one massive claw.
Chloe was crushed against Mathis’ chest as Julian pulled them out of the collapsing tower. The sunlight was so bright it hurt her eyes but she couldn’t tear her gaze away as the tower crumbled.
A blast of heat surged from the other end of the building, followed by another echoing crash. Chloe twisted in Julian’s claw, careful to keep the eggs safely cushioned, and saw flames licking at the roof tiles.
“What the hell is going on?” she breathed.
Mathis nuzzled the side of her head. “The kitchen wing exploded. I think Thandie had something to do with it. Shit—Thandie—”
“She ran after Harper,” Chloe said quickly. “I mean, flew after him. While you went after the egg.”
“That’s something, at least,” Mathis murmured into her hair. He saw something on the ground and his eyes flickered away, too fast. Chloe glanced where he’d been looking. The polar bear, Cane, was lying unconscious on the steps up to Harper’s tower, a pile of rubble around his head.
Chloe’s stomach lurched. He’d been so close. If he’d managed to make it to the tower—
But he didn’t, she told herself before her imagination got any further. He didn’t. You’re safe. We’re all safe…
“Look,” Mathis murmured into her ear, and Chloe followed his gaze again—this time, down to the landing beach.
“Thandie’s plan…”
The beach was crowded with Chloe’s old colleagues. She saw Nora, and the girls she’d gone through training with clustered around her; the kitchen and grounds staff were there as well. Even some of the fighters.
Everyone was gathered in small groups but as Chloe watched they pulled together into a single group.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out why.
The helicopter she’d heard earlier had landed on the path that led from the dock to the resort. It stood like a shining black bird of prey. In front of the crumbling sandstone building and windswept shrubberies, it looked like something from another world.
Mathis stiffened beside her. “What the hell is he doing here?”
Chloe had been focused on the crowd on the beach, but now she saw a man stepping down from the helicopter. He had dark skin and was wearing black fatigues. A moment later, an older woman followed him out of the chopper. He turned back, arm raised to urge her back, and Chloe didn’t need to hear her response to know what it was. Whoever this guy was, the older woman was in charge.
“Do you know them?”
“Yeah…” Mathis still sounded confused. He glanced at Chloe. “But they’re not exactly the people I would have expected my sister to send.”
“Uhh,” said Chloe, grimacing. “About that…”
Julian’s growl reverberated through them both, making the eggs in Chloe’s arms click together. She adjusted her grip on them hurriedly. “What—Harper!”
Her lips peeled back automatically. Harper was running down the path towards the helicopter, jerking from side to side as though he was trying to dodge something. As he got closer, Chloe saw what it was: a tiny, shining, fluttering hummingbird.
“Let us down, Julian,” she said, her own voice almost a growl. “I don’t want that asshole to put his charm offensive on those soldiers before we can explain what he’s been doing.”
Beside her, Mathis snorted. “Lance, taken in by anyone’s charms? I’d like to see that.”
Chloe felt that strange pressure against her mind again as Julian landed on the beach. Pebbles shifted under his massive weight, but no one else seemed to notice their arrival. Chloe exchanged a glance with Mathis, who shrugged.
“Beach full of frightened shifters, and a dragon turns up out of nowhere? That’s a recipe for a bad day.”
Chloe looked up into Julian’s face. “So, you’re just going to… hang out here, all invisible-like?”
The dragon stared back, impassive, and then the air around him shimmered. Julian, human-shaped, stared past Chloe’s shoulder up the beach to where Harper was approaching their rescuers.
“Harper needs to be held accountable for his crimes.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “As do I.” He hesitated. “Would you please…”
“Oh, of course.” Chloe carefully handed the eggs she was holding to Julian, and watched carefully as Mathis did the same. She half expected him to fumble the three eggs, but instead he gathered them all safely into his arms. For a moment he leaned over them, and then his shoulders sagged as tension flowed out of his body.
Further up the beach, Thandie had given up dive-bombing Harper and had shifted back into human form to slap him down. By the hoots from the crowd, no one was likely to step in to stop her.
Chloe’s heart thudded in her chest. Maybe she and Mathis would have a few moments to talk, before—
“Mathis? Mathis Delacourt?”
Or maybe not.
Mathis stared into her eyes. “Julian’s right. It’s time for Harper’s house of cards to come down.”
His eyes caught hers, and she couldn’t look away. Pale, warm gold that she would be happy to lose herself forever in.
But that isn’t going to happen, is it?
Chloe gulped. “Yeah,” she said. “I guess this is it.”
She was distantly aware of the male soldier hurrying towards them. They’d done it. The guy with the chopper clearly knew Mathis, so there weren’t going to be any problems with Harper pulling the wool over their eyes.
Which meant they were done here.
Mathis’ words echoed in her mind: We’ll beat Harper. And when we do—when we’re done here—I promise, you’ll never need to think about any of this again. You can pretend you never met me.
Her throat went tight, and Mathis’ eyebrows drew together. He stepped closer, one hand tentatively outstretched. “Chloe, are you all right?”
I’m fine. Everything’s fine. She managed to hoist a smile onto her face, and couldn’t remember when it had slipped off. “I—”
She hesitated. What was she going to say? What could she say? They’d had an agreement, and now it was over. Mathis had spent the last month being tortured. It wouldn’t be fair of her to change the rules on him now.
“Delacourt!”
Mathis’ hand was less than six inches from her face, but as the other man called to him he turned away.
“Lance MacInnis. Two questions: first, what the hell are you doing here? And second, what the hell took you so long?”
Chloe breathed out hard. She knew he didn’t mean anything by it—the adrenaline from the fight must still be rushing through his veins, making him forget about their agreement—but if he had touched her, she didn’t think she would have been able to hold firm. She would have told him how she really thought about him, despite all her promises.
She crossed her arms in front of herself. The soldier—Lance?—had stopped a few paces away, and was staring hard at Mathis.
“Christ, Delacourt. What the hell happened to you?”
Mathis glanced at Chloe with a frown on his face. “What do you mean? Didn’t Frankie tell you?”
“Frankie?” Lance looked from Mathis to Chloe and back. “Frankie isn’t telling anyone anything right now. I’m following up on a prank video that’s had the shifter community all across the globe up in arms.”
Oh, shit.
“Uhh…” Chloe hesitated as both men stared at her. Shit.
“What video?” Mathis frowned at Lance. “What the hell are you talking about? Didn’t you get our SOS?”
“Is that what you call it? Because I call it a hell of a lot of paperwork I don’t have time for. This isn’t like that shit you used to pull when we were kids, Delacourt, these days you can’t take a video of you shifting and expect it to stay under wraps.”
“What video?”
“Um—I can explain about that.” Chloe gulped. No need to worry about breaking the agreement after this. He’s going to hate me.
“Please do.” Lance’s eyebrows drew together and Mathis stirred, placing himself between Chloe and the other man.
She stared at the sand between her feet as she explained. She could feel Mathis’ golden eyes boring into her, but she couldn’t look at him.
“I did it, all right? I took a video of you fighting Sven that first night. And last night, I tried to contact your sister when I broke into Harper’s tower, but it bounced back. So I did the only thing I could think of.” She took a deep breath. “I put the video online, geotagged for the island, and tagged in some people I knew would share it. I made it look like it was leaked footage for a new movie, so more people would see it. I know it’s dangerous, but it was the only thing I could think of to do.”
“You put our whole society at risk,” Lance snapped, and Chloe threw up her arms.
“Well, we were already at risk. I’m sorry if I cared more about Mathis dying than some kids on the internet thinking there’s a new Harry Potter Fight Club film out.”
Lance’s eyes flicked back to Mathis. She saw him take on the marks on his face: the cuts that hadn’t healed, the mottled bruises lurking under his skin. His mouth worked.
“This isn’t another prank, is it?” he said in an undertone.
“Wow, figured it out, have you?” Chloe snarled. He glared at her.
“It’s not a prank.” Mathis’ voice was heavy, and Chloe’s heart ached for him. “Gerald Harper has been keeping shifters captive on this island.”
“Gerald Harper?” Lance looked over his shoulder. Chloe’s stomach twisted. Harper had almost reached them; if he got there before they got MacInnis on-side, if he convinced their rescuers that it was all a mistake…
“You have to believe us,” she burst out. “I know it sounds crazy, but everyone here will back us up. At least—”
She bit her lip and exchanged a look with Mathis. She hoped everyone else would tell the truth—but what if Harper still had some secret hold on the other fighters and employees?
Harper darted up behind Lance while her mind was still whirring. For a split second, she saw him as he was: sweating, panting, eyes wide and blood-shot with panic. Then he straightened up, swept his hair back, and became the suave, friendly Gerald Harper she knew and hated.
“Ah. Thank you for coming, Mr.…?”
Lance looked down at Harper’s outstretched hand, one eyebrow raised. “Mr. Harper, I presume?”
“The very same. And I’m so glad you were able to follow up on our call so quickly.”
“Your call?” Chloe’s cheeks flushed with anger. “You—”
“Nobody called, Mr. Harper,” Lance cut in smoothly. “Try again.”
Harper’s smile became brittle. “The alarm from our little mishap in the kitchen wing…”
“Strike two.”
Chloe stepped closer to Mathis. Not to touch, not to break their agreement. Just to feel his heat against her skin as Harper’s empire crumbled around him.
Lance leaned toward Harper, a thin smile on his face. “We did receive an alert from a nearby cruise liner, though. You could try to work that into your story, if you like.”
