The Alpha Dragon’s Prisoner

Mike’s Hard-Xander

Maximus leaves so quickly that nothing is left to be said. As I make my way down to the cells of the cabin where we keep our prisoners my anger spikes. After everything that we have been through today and shared, she just rejected my touch. She said nothing as I held her hand on our journey or guided her with a well place palm on her lower back. As soon as we got in front of someone though she didn’t want me touching her.

Maximus already knows that we are mates. The actions that she showed just don’t make sense. The conversation that I had with Maximus before I gave him instructions keeps playing in my head as I decipher our words to see where I made a mistake. I slow my steps before I get to his cell. With a few deep breaths I clear my head so that I can deal with him. So, far he has found a way to get under the skin of everyone that has tortured him. I hate to even admit that he got undermine a time or two. The bastard just knows entirely too much. Even things that he shouldn’t know about our clan.

At least we can work out some of our frustrations on him. Perhaps we can actually hit him this time. He does deserve it.

Even though I agree with my dragon I am not willing to stoop to that level. I have never had to physically torture a prisoner and I don’t plan to start doing that now. The methods that I use to get answers are bit unorthodox but they have always worked for me now. When I step in front of his cell the bastard has the gall to give me a smile. I return it knowing that soon he won’t be smiling at all. We both know this.

As I take in his haggard looking face, I can see that someone has been in here with him recently. A few of his fingers are bent in the wrong direction and he is covered in a slight sheen of sweat. If I had to guess I would say that it was Maximus. His methods worked at first to get answers but eventually he just stopped responding to the pain.

“So Michael, I hear that you wanted to see. What do you have to say for yourself now?” I question him as I take my usual post across the cell. I had to learn quickly that I didn’t want to be anywhere near him when I felt the need to torture him. I have messed up two really nice pairs of shoes because of his weakened bladder.

“Hey there alpha old pal. I was wondering what was taking you so long. I’m guessing that the new bus load of people that arrived worked out, huh?” he ask as he looks around the cell. I furrow my eyebrows as I wonder how he got that tidbit of information. Before I respond I decide to link Maximus first.

“Did you tell our special project about our incoming humans today?”

“Nope, the only thing that we talked about was where I was going to send him if he didn’t answer my questions” he says.

“Has anyone else been in this cell?”

“Negative, I stayed there all day out of sight and no one came through” he answers.

“It’s no longer a suspicion that we have a mole. Someone is giving him information” I state as I close the link.

“I have no idea what you are talking about” I tell him playing dumb to see how much he knows.

“Ah. It’s all good. I would have figured that you would go for the red head instead of the brown haired girl. She’s younger than you right?” he ask with a chuckle as he decides to get up. The sound of his bones cracking almost makes me sick. Looks like our blood is finally wearing down in his system.

“You do know that your days are numbered right? Don’t you at least want to help your son before you die a horrible and painful death”? I say changing the subject.

“No, the piece of s**t made his decision. He has always sided with his mother. Now he chose her but chose to follow another b***h too. She probably gave birth to another” he says as he gives me his signature grin.

The smile that he receives in return is deadly. I could almost be mistaken before I start his torture but I believe that I say a flash of fear in his eyes. Ceron pushes forward just as uses our gift. His body jerks as he surrounds him with it. Calling Magma those horrible names and the disrespect to those two little angels we have learned to love really pissed him off.

Michael’s scream bellows through the air as his eyes turn gold. The horrified expression on his face brings joy. He deserves to suffer. If it were not for him, Jefferson would be safe in our clan. Magma could have lost her bond to Igneous forever. Maximus could have lost Emily just as he had found her. Lastly, I wouldn’t be suspecting one of my own as betraying us.

He collapses to the ground as his mouth opens wide into a silent scream. Ceron pulls back the flow of our gift with a growl as he speaks. “One would think that you like the way it feels. Due to your screams I know that you don’t. Tell me what you see” he demands as the poor excuse of a man begins to silently cry.

“I…I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the life I wanted. The decisions that I have made. It’s the way that things could have been” he mutters trying to catch his breath.

We should just send him into the ether and be done with him. I have talked to Martell. He will help Maximus do it whenever we are ready.

This decision has certainly been weighing on me. A part of me feels like that would be showing him mercy. To send him into the quiet abyss to slowly fade away as he travels through time and space. Igneous suddenly has no care to what happens to the man that raised him after all that he has done. Ivette still can’t even talk about him. He has caused to much pain.

“Is there something that we could do with our gift?” I ask him for the first time.

That would be a mercy that he does not deserve. He takes our torture as pleasure because it is. Our power allows him to see all that he wants and desires in love. It is only torture to him because he has never known it.

“I don’t understand what that means. How is it torture and pleasure? We don’t see what we show others” I ask as I look at the man in contemplation.

For someone who has known even an ounce of love, we can choose to magnify it. To show it in its truest form if you will. However, for someone such as him, who has never truly learned to love, it will show him something so far out of his reach. It becomes a deep regret and the ultimate dream that you will never reach.

As he finishes his explanation an odd sound fills the air. The sound immediately has my shoulder tightening as I start to search the room. Needing to keep the human distracted I push out my gift once more so his attention isn’t on me.

“Maximus, Michaels cell now” I command through the link. He pops in just a minute later.

“We just dropped her back home. She’s all safe and tidy” he says as he pops up mid walk.

Lifting a finger to my lips I hurriedly quiet him as he stares at Michael. A gleam of surprise is in his eyes as he listens to the man scream high pitched like a girl. His back is bowed where he has fallen to the floor. Looking at Maximus I tap my ear telling him to listen. Just as fast as I do that I release my gift and the air goes quiet again.

That static sound is even louder now as we both rush over to where its coming from. We crouch over Igneous’ father as we listen for where it is coming from. He opens his mouth to let out a sob and the static gets louder. Maximus grasp him by the jaw squeezing it as he opens his mouth wide. Reaching in he grabs a hold of something in the man’s mouth and yanks. A blood curdling scream fills the air from Michael and he grabs his jaw as he moans.

Maximus opens his hand in my direction and I can see what looks like a tooth. On closer inspection I realize that it is not a tooth at all. It may be the shape of one but there is no mistaking the mother board that is attached to it. Just as I make the connection to what it is Maximus closes his fist and crushes it. He pulls a napkin from his pocket and drops the remnants of it there. Leaning forward he starts to turn Michael’s head this way and that way. I can clearly see that he is looking for something but I have no idea what.

“You think there could be more?” I ask him through our link.

“Not a chance. Two won’t work in such proximity. However, that was just the responder. That design had to listen to every word he said. He knows to much so that someone has to be giving him information. There has to be a receiver” he states.

I watch what he does closely so that I can follow his process if this is needed again. I can’t believe that we didn’t notice this before. The entire time he has been in our cells he has just been spying on us. Giving these stupid people more information on us. There is no telling what he has given them. Mentally I curse myself for this. I should have known to check for such things.

He tugs on the man’s left ear that is out of my vision so I lean closer. A piece of silicone close to the color of Michaels pale tone is dislodged from inside his ear. He tugs it slowly as a small black cord also follows. He places it into the napkin and folds it gently before putting it in the pocket of his robe.

“Now, you have no choice but to give us some answers. No one is going to help you now?” Maximus says as he growls in the man’s face. This just took the cruelty of the man to a whole new level. He could have lived out his days here in relative peace had he not decided to keep hurting us. The longer I let him stay here, the more I am giving him the chance to harm my people.

Once we gain our answers of him in this visit. We will give his family the chance to say goodbye

I know that the way this is going is me taking the easy way out. We have never had to get rid of a prisoner before. We have let go of the suspecting humans that made their way onto our land. Majority of them have been scared beyond repair and knew not to mess with him. Letting this man go just wasn’t an option anymore. Looking at the hatred in Maximus’ eyes I know that this is the right decision.

“Who were you in contact with” I bellow at him as I roll my gift over him.

“Damn, I guess the cat is out of the bag. It doesn’t matter now; they have the information that they need” he says laughing.

Strengthening my gift, I pull Ceron forward so that he feels it more. “What information did you give them?” I question him.

“The almighty alpha dragon really hasn’t figured it out by now. You really don’t know why I wouldn’t want anyone but you to question me? Why every time I gave you answers was when you used your gift?” he says as he stares at me like I have two heads.

I pace as I try to put the thoughts together. What am I missing? It obviously had to do with me but why. Somehow I just don’t think it was because I was the alpha. There are a thousand of us out there and there is bound to be someone stronger than me. What would make me so special to these people.

It’s us.

“What do you mean?” I ask Ceron as I stop my pacing.

I have always told you that you were special Xander. From the time you were a boy I have been trying to get you to see it. No other dragon has the marking that we bare on our skin. We have seen many come to our clan. All colors have repeated.

Whirling around to face him I look at the human in a new light. He is way cleverer than we pegged him to be. “You were sent to gain information on the only golden dragon. We didn’t catch you. You let yourself be caught. So, when did they break the news to you that our blood couldn’t heal you?” I ask him confidently.

They would have had to lie to him to get him to go through with it. If I have learned one thing about him during this time it’s that he wants to live. Maybe they haven’t gotten that far in their experiments and don’t know how to save him. It is still possible but there is no chance that we will save him now.

“I’ve known since the moment I made the decision to come here. Knowing I was going to die was motivation. Since there is nothing on this earth that can save me I might as well go out with a bang” he says shrugging his shoulders.

Maximus guffaws in laughter and I join him. Looks like we finally have the upper hand here. He doesn’t know everything after all. He looks at the both of us like we have gone insane as we ask. The look quickly turns into anger when he realizes that we are laughing at him and not the situation. I decide to let Maximus be the one to break it to him.

“Damn, all this time I thought you were smart human. They played you. They got you to do their dirty work instead of saving your life. Looks like they just didn’t think you were worth the blood” he says as he wipes a tear from his eye dramatically.

“What the hell are you going on about?” he shouts even though he doesn’t have the right.

“Let me spell it out for you stupid. Either they haven’t gotten as far in the experiments as we have or they didn’t want to save your life. You told out alpha here that they have been experimenting on people of interspecies DNA for years. We have only been doing It for one and have already found he solution. So, that leads me to believe that they didn’t want you alive” he says with a quirk of his brow.

The shocked look on his face brings me nothing but pleasure. Walking forward I kneel down so I can get close to his ugly mug. “Now, because of what you have done, you will die very soon. You don’t get to live after hurting my people. As soon as your wife and son say there final fair well, we are going to have the time of our lives. This guy here is going to open a portal to nowhere and push you through with no destination in mind” I whisper to him as his eyes widen.

“Since your body is already withering away because it didn’t get enough of our blood, you will just waste away. You will be surrounded by a sea of absolutely nothing just like what you are. Nothing. You are going to fade away into existence and no one on this earth will miss you. That is the fate you decided on when you decided to f**k with the dragons” I growl.

Rising from my feet I turn to leave the cell. He has taken enough of my time today away from my mate. I still need to figure out what happened when I left her on the landing pad. “Wait” he says I continue to walk out of the cell as if I don’t hear him. The whooshing sound in the air lets me know that Maximus has either left or gone invisible. “Please” he pleads. With a heavy sigh I turn to face him but say nothing.

“I have no right to make a request. I know this I do but if I am going to die, I would at least like one last wish. Please” he says. The poor bastard looks so dejected that he can’t even lift his head. I guess the weight of everything he has done has finally set itself on his shoulders. Standin in silence, I wait for his request.

“Before he sends me off, can you do it once more. Can you show me again?” he whispers.

We owe him nothing.

“No” I answer and continue to move my feet. His sobs ring through the air as I take the stairs two at a time. When I exit the cabin Maximus is already waiting for me.

“I got to hand it to you man, I didn’t know you had it in you. Whatever you did to him had him crying like a little girl. It was epic” he says holding his hand up for a high five. I glare at him as I don’t return the gesture. He needs to know that this wasn’t fun for me.

“Set a meeting for first thing tomorrow through the link. We need to make our clan aware of the threat that we face and how far they are willing to go. We need an increase of patrols also. Make some of them sky patrols and not just the ground. If we truly have other people interspecies DNA on the opposite side then I want no surprises” I command him.

“Done and done. Anything else?” he ask as he looks at me. I shake my head no but for some reason he still stares.

“What?” I ask him.

“Just curious what you did to him. I’ve seen and done a lot of torture man. Never have I seen someone act like that though. What are you hiding?” he ask. I look at him wondering if I should answer. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but it is a dark side to my gift. As wholesome as I am most would think that my gift of love could never have a dark side.

He is our beta. It is time that we put more trust in him. He can handle it. We would not have chosen him if he couldn’t.

“The other side of my gift. You know that I can make a personal feel and see the ultimate love. However, for one who had never received it, I can turn it into their worst nightmare. According to my dragon it can work like a pool of memories. It takes moments in time when love should have been given and adds it to show you what would have changed if love were involved. It depicts a picture that you feel to the deepest part of yourself and shows you what you will never have” I tell him as I watch his face.

The laughter I receive in return makes me crack a smile. “Damn, that dark. Remind me not to piss you off man. If that what you and your dragon did to him then I want no parts” he says.

My name is Ceron. Tell him my name.

“His name is Ceron. He apparently doesn’t like to be called dragon anymore” I tell him honestly.

“Nice, looks like you got your chick hooked. She gave your dragon a name. Does this mean that she is accepting the bond?” he ask as he folds his arms.

I sigh heavily as I rub my temple. It seems like every time I thought we made progress today we ended up taking even more steps back. “No, she has not agreed to accept the bond” I huff out. There is no hiding the emotion in my voice at how that makes me feel.

She will accept the bond. We just have to work on it.

“Uh, you want to talk about it?” he ask as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He refuses to meet my gaze and I feel how awkward the moment has gotten. However it does nothing to deter me from spilling my guts.

“I can’t get close to her. She refuses to let me touch and even told me not to. When I do touch her though she responds to it so I know she feels something. Then I somehow say the wrong thing and it’s like we are back at square one. I have no idea what the hell I’m doing Max. I just know that I want her” I tell him honestly.

When I look up he is watching me closely. His crystal clear blue gaze shines bright in the light of the night. His eyes flash for just a moment and I know that Martell has said something to him. I will gladly take any advice right about now.

“Share something personal. Chicks kind of like that I guess. It shows that we are human or some s**t and not looking to just get laid” he says real awkwardly. My mind races in thought of what I could share with her. There are so many things that I want to tell her but I have no idea where to start. What could I share that is meaningful enough that it could get through to her?

You already know the answer to that question.

I feel my face pale at the very thought of what he means. He wants me to share my marks with her. I have never allowed anyone to get close to them. I am so protective of them because it is what makes me different. I want to be a part of my people and not have them look at me as a pariah. Differences just don’t do well here. All eyes would be on me because I am the Alpha.

“Whatever thought just passed through your head, that’s the ticket. The way you paled means it’s something that you don’t want to share with anyone. Your mate should always be the exception. The one that you hide nothing from” He says as he comes forward. “Now let us whipped men get home to our women” he chuckles.

He place a hand on my atm and we are flying through the ether. We pop right into the living room and startle my poor mate making her drop a class of water. Before she can even move I have swept her off her feet and laid her on the couch as she yelped at my actions. “Stay” I say as I walk into the kitchen. Grabbing the broom and dustpan I make quick work of the mess and mop the are just to be safe.

When I am finished I return to where I placed her on the couch and freeze as I offer her a hand. I was so worried about her possible injuring herself that I never bothered to see what she was wearing. My mouth goes dry as I look at her legs on full display. My c**k hardens behind my robe and I know that there is no hiding the reaction seeing her legs is giving me.