Reawakening the Dragon: Part Two (3 page)

That’s what you said before.

This time is different. Jane is no blushing virgin flirt. Enjoy this kiss.

If it will make you shut it, then fine. I’ll do it just this once.

After all, once he could stop thinking with his cock, he and Jane had work to do.

As soon as Kai guided them into the alley and around a corner, he stopped and tugged Jane against his body. As he leaned down for a kiss, he forgot about the future. For the first time in over a decade, Kai was going to steal a few minutes for himself.

Chapter Two

There were a million reasons why Jane shouldn’t waste time kissing Kai Sutherland in a private alley. But as his lips moved toward hers, she forgot about all of them. Her whole body was on fire and Kai Sutherland was the only one who could feed the flames.

His warm, firm lips touched hers gently at first before he took her bottom lip between his teeth and nibbled. Then he tugged and released. She leaned forward for more, but Kai retreated an inch and moved a hand to her breast. Even through her bra and top, his touch sent a tingle through her body.

As he traced her hard nipple, he whispered, “Later, I’m going to touch you properly.”

“I never agreed to any such thing.”

His eyes turned predatory, reminding her he was half dragon. “You will.”

Never one to back down, Jane leaned into his hand and traced her fingers down Kai’s chest to the waist of his trousers. Moving her hand under his jumper, she touched the warm, hard planes of his stomach and Kai sucked in a breath. As she rubbed against the trail of hair above his waist, she wanted to touch what lay at the end of it.

Kai’s voice was rough when he added, “I don’t have time to fuck you, Jane Hartley. But just know that my kiss is a preview of what’s to come.”

“I didn’t—”

The dragonman shut her up with a kiss.
 

As his tongue found hers, Jane moaned. She would never get enough of the heady male taste that was Kai Sutherland.
 

Then the dragonman ran his hand up under her top and she gasped as his large, rough hands brushed against her skin. The pulse between her legs increased as she waited to see what else he would do.

But damn the man, he removed his hand and fisted her ponytail. She should be offended at the caveman-like action, but each gentle tug only made her wetter. Craving any kind of relief, Jane hooked her leg around his and rubbed against Kai. The friction brought her closer to the edge.
 

Kai broke the kiss, spun around, and pushed her behind him. Jane blinked a few times before she realized what happened. “What’s wrong?”

The dragonman put up a hand. Anxious to know what was happening, Jane peeked around the solid mass of dragon-shifter in front of her, but the alley was empty.

After Kai scanned the sky, he took Jane’s hand and tugged. “Let’s go.”

Keeping her voice low, Jane asked, “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

Kai remained silent until they were almost out of the alley. Glancing at Jane, he raised an eyebrow. “As much as I wanted you to come against my leg, someone was climbing on the roofs.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“My hearing is better.”

When Kai didn’t elaborate, part of Jane wanted to kick him in the shin. She knew he was remaining quiet for their safety, but she hated being in the dark. She whispered, “Is it safe to move?”

“I don’t know.” Kai glanced around until his eyes landed on a metal skip bin behind them. “When I give the word, hide behind that skip and send a text to Nikki. Ask her to come to the alley.”

“Fine, but don’t do anything daft.”

Kai briefly met her gaze. “I ask the same of you.” Before Jane could reply, Kai ordered, “Go, now.”

Knowing Kai would better handle the situation than she, Jane ran toward the skip. The second she reached it, the sound of someone jumping onto the cobblestones echoed through the alley. The urge to check on Kai was strong, but he was trusting her to have his back. Jane wasn’t a soldier, so she followed Kai’s orders and sent a text to Nikki, asking for the dragonwoman’s help.
 

She trusted Kai’s abilities, but who knew how many men and women could be waiting on the roofs of the surrounding buildings.

The wait to find out what was happening was going to kill her.

~~~

Kai tensed, waiting for the threat to appear.
 

What he hadn’t told Jane was that the footsteps were still audible; someone kept shifting their feet against the roof tiles.

At least the female had listened to his orders and would hopefully remain safe. The possible threat had taught him a lesson, though. Females were distractions. If he hadn’t been kissing Jane, Kai would’ve picked up the sounds straightaway.

He wouldn’t be so reckless again.

A male jumped down in front of him and remained crouched low. From the height and build, there was no way the male was a dragon-shifter.
 

Kai flex his hands. Taking out one human wouldn’t even wind him.

Kai watched the male, waiting for him to make the first move. Eventually, the human stood up and drew a knife.

Normally, Kai would extend a talon or two and easily finish off his opponent. But he couldn’t risk exposing he was a dragon-shifter to the human before him, especially since he still needed to track the hunters and find a way to take them down.

As they stared at one another, a car pulled into the end of the alley. From the corner of his eye, Kai could see it wasn’t Nikki.

Right, he needed to take this male down before he had a group attacking him. If that happened, he couldn’t guarantee Jane’s safety.

His dragon growled.
Take care of them. We must protect her.

Kai faked a lunge and the knife-wielding male moved to the side. Drawing on his speed, Kai rushed the male, hitting him in the stomach before he could swing his knife.

The weapon clattered to the ground. Kai adjusted his grip and slammed the male’s head against the wall. Tossing the unconscious human aside, Kai turned toward the car.

Five men stood in front of it.

The odds might actually be even now.

Drawing them further down the alley was his best chance at picking them off one or two at a time, so Kai moved a few feet backward.
 

Then the five bastards pulled out guns.

Fuck.
It was time for a new plan.
 

Running, Kai jumped and gripped the edge of the gutter and pulled himself up onto the roof. Aware that he needed to draw the guns away from Jane, he ran in the direction of the men on the ground below. If he could just make it to the edge of the roof and jump off, the men should follow.

He half expected the men to shoot at him, but they didn’t. If they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves, then Kai was dealing with something much more than a random gang. He wondered if they were Carlisle hunters. They were the only dragon hunter group to possess such restraint.

Kai paused at the edge, waiting to see what the men would do. However, they moved further down the alley. Could it be they were after Jane?

His dragon roared.
We must protect her.

Giving a sweep of his surroundings, he spotted Nikki running toward his location. But then the human named Jeff darted out from a hedge and grabbed her. Since Kai trusted Nikki to handle herself against one mere human, Kai ran back toward the alley. He’d deal with the male later.

Running as fast as he could, Kai quickly arrived at the location he’d use to make his attack. He jumped onto the ground in front of the five men. “What do you want?”

The tallest one spoke up. “Move out of the way, mate. This is your only warning.”

Kai growled. “No.”

Raising his gun, the same man replied, “We’re going to take the reporter, one way or another.”

Kai lunged low. A gun went off and hit the skip bin behind him.
 

After throwing the nearest human against the wall, he turned toward the leader. But the leader was already heading toward the skip.

Drawing on his dragon’s strength, Kai ran for the male. He couldn’t let him reach Jane.

Just as Kai landed a punch to the man’s kidney, gun shots rang out behind him.

~~~

Jane clutched her can of pepper spray and waited. For whatever reason, a group of weapon-wielding men were after her.

She had no idea why anyone would want her. The Dragon Knights had harassed her the most over the last few months, but ever since the DDA helped to capture a large group of them on Lochguard the previous month, things had turned quiet. And since she’d yet to report anything on the hunters, she didn’t think they would target her. After her story, yes. But not before.

As the sound of running feet and then a thud filled her ears, Jane pushed all other thoughts away. She only hoped Nikki came to help soon. Kai might be good, but from the quick peek she’d had a minute ago, he was vastly outnumbered.

Another thud sounded at the same time as gunshots rang out. The urge to check on Kai was strong, but Jane resisted. She couldn’t afford to distract the dragonman from his task.

Then things fell silent except for the sound of footsteps coming toward her.
 

Her heart pounded. Maybe it was Kai.

A brown-haired man with a hard face appeared in front of her. Seizing on her split second advantage, Jane turned her head away as she sprayed her pepper spray into the man’s face.

Once he screamed, “You bitch,” Jane ran around him and saw one other man. It wasn’t Kai.

Kai was unconscious on the ground next to some of the others. But he was also covered in blood.

Shit.
 

That was all she could think of before the man waved his gun at her. “Drop the pepper spray, love.”

What to do, what to do?
There was no way she could reach the man before he fired. She guessed he wanted her alive or she’d be dead already, but there was a lot a person could do without killing you.

A whoosh swept through the alley right before a purple dragon flew over them. Taking advantage of the distraction, Jane kicked the gun out of the man’s hand and smacked his nose with the heel of her hand. She was about to kick him again when the dragon flew past again, but this time, the beast knocked the remaining attackers against the wall.
 

Everyone was on the ground unconscious, except for Jane.

Jane looked up. While she had never seen Nikki in dragon form, she had a feeling that was who the purple dragon was.

Hovering over them, the dragon motioned her front talons toward Kai’s arm.
 

Jane forced her gaze away from the purple beast and rushed to Kai’s side. She wasn’t a doctor, but Jane knew she needed to stop the bleeding.

Ripping a section from her shirt, Jane tied the material tightly around Kai’s injury. While not the most sanitary of methods, it was the best she could do.

The dragon gave a low growl above her. Looking up, Jane saw the dragon motion her to the side. While Jane wanted to stay with Kai, the dragon knew what was best for him.

The second Jane was out of the way, the purple beast gently lowered her form until she could maneuver her back talons around Kai’s body. She lifted her talons and then the dragon looked at Jane and nodded.

Jane didn’t speak dragon, but she assumed Nikki was saying everything would be all right.

What Jane didn’t expect was the dragon to then wrap her other set of back talons around her middle. As the dragon beat her wings and carried them into the air, Jane’s stomach flipped. Unstable heights weren’t really her thing.

Yet glancing over at Kai’s unconscious body, she swallowed and willed her stomach to behave. Kai had been hurt protecting her. She could survive a short dragon flight to help him.

Still, she avoided looking down as the dragon carried them away from Gateshead and toward the west. It looked like Jane was going back to Stonefire.

She only hoped they made it in time to save Kai.

~~~

Nikki beat her wings as if her life depended on it.
 

Well, truth be told, Kai’s life depended on it, and given all that he’d done for her over the years, she would make bloody well sure he lived. All she needed to do was reach Stonefire, and Dr. Sid could patch him up.

Not caring that she’d feel sore the next day, Nikki beat her wings faster. There was still a good thirty minutes to Stonefire.

She could spend the journey fretting over something she couldn’t control, such as Kai’s life, or she could use the time to sort through the facts she’d learned from the human named Jeff. Once she’d had a grip on his bollocks, he’d told her anything she’d wanted; sometimes it was useful to have the ability to extend a talon or two.

Jeff had sold out Jane to the Dragon Knights. Nikki, like much of the dragon-shifter community, had taken their previous month of silence as a sign they were fading back into history. While Jeff hadn’t known anything about the inner workings of the Dragon Knights or what plans they had in store, the knights had put out a £5,000 reward for Jane Hartley. Jeff had found out about the bounty through his less-than-legal contacts and had merely wanted the money.

Nikki stole a glance at the human female. The news about the reward was going to complicate things, especially since Nikki didn’t know how many people knew about it. If the bounty became public knowledge, every wannabe lowlife would be after Jane.

She only hoped Bram was ready for this headache.

Putting aside all of the problems they would encounter once they landed, Nikki studied Jane. She was pale, but conscious and looking intently at Kai. There wasn’t any guilt, just concern. The human wasn’t screaming or fainting as most did on their first dragon flights.
 

Jane was tough, which was exactly what Kai needed.

Nikki would just need to convince Bram to keep the human on their land. Knowing Kai as well as Nikki did, he would push the human away after what had happened in the alley. But Nikki knew Jane was Kai’s best chance at even a smidgen of happiness; no female in her recent memory had stirred the head Protector so much. Sure, she knew the story of his true mate denying him, but Nikki had been young at the time, not even a teenager, and hadn’t paid attention.