Dragon's Claim

Chapter 4-3

DRAKE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND what was wrong with his mate. All he knew was that his heart was pounding something fierce inside his chest. Concern made his stomach queasy. If only she would talk, would tell him what was wrong. Then he could fix it. It was all he wanted to do. It was what he was good at.

But, his mate refused to even open her mouth at first. She looked like she was trying to swallow something foul. He wanted to reach out and pull her in. He wanted to reach out and shake her.

He wanted to scream.

His heart was pounding. It ached inside him. Then she spoke. Layla was going to drive? They’d been cooped up in those planes for hours, nearly the entire day, and now she wanted to drive to the Territory? He didn’t understand what was going on.

But, he remembered what Rhys and Gwen had told him. Ever since the uprising, since the day Malcom died, Layla refused to use her dragon form. She refused to even try to change shapes.

What had gone wrong to make her avoid what was such a big part of who she was? It made Drake want to kill Malcom all over again. He didn’t know at the time what Layla was to him. All he’d known was the red haze of rage as he watched Gwen destroy the white dragon before he could react.

Then, when Layla’s life was on the line again, Rhys said something ridiculous about American cheese and threw Drake off before he could attack Raphael. Layla had taken care of the traitor, but Drake had been left, both times, unable to help her.

Now, he didn’t know what it would take to get her in the air again. All he could do was nod.

“Then I’m going with you.”

Her jaw dropped. She held up her hands in defense. “No way. You go with your men. After what... after what happened at home, I think it’s best if you fly with them.”

“I can’t let you run around Nebraska all by yourself when you’ve never been out of Wales before in your life. You’ll take a wrong turn and end up in the middle of nowhere, get kidnapped be some weirdos, and then all ties with the red dragons will be severed because I managed to lose you in the first few hours on American soil.”

The corners of her mouth twitched. It was a hint of a smile that she tried her best to fight. Just the sight of it eased the ache in Drake’s chest a little bit. They had a lot of work to do if she was going to heal, if she was ever going to allow herself to grow.

Layla huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, but he took it as consent and turned to fill his men in on what was happening. They awaited with raised eyebrows. What was his mate doing to throw a wrench in their lives, was what he thought they were thinking. It made him anxious. Without the ties of blood to keep them together, Drake couldn’t afford outside influences to drive wedges between him and his family. Layla, despite her known status as his mate with the dragon men present, was an outside influence that was definitely pulling him in two directions.

But, when he approached them, they clapped hands on his shoulders and offered apologetic smiles. It was a warmth that he wasn’t expecting. It seemed that Layla had already been deemed family by this troublesome trio.

“Won’t change shape?” Isaac asked, thoughtfully.

Drake shook his head.

Marc looked past Drake, his eyes falling on Layla who was currently shifting from foot to foot fifty feet behind them. “She’ll get there. Maybe not today, but eventually. The Nebraska air will be good for her. Rent a convertible.”

Drake chuckled at his dragon’s response. It might not be a bad idea. He wondered if Layla would be susceptible to a fast car and the wind in her hair like some American women were. Cars had come a long way in his lifetime, no longer heavy, steel contraptions on weak wheels, but sleek, fiberglass deathtraps that made your heart race.

“That isn’t a bad idea.”

“Don’t do the Corvette,” Luc advised. “Get something manly, like a Mustang.”

Drake laughed. The men agreed to fly without him. They would get home long before he did, but that was alright. He found that he was looking forward to being alone with his mate for the first time. There would be nowhere she could run to, even with the top down. Layla could ignore him the whole way, but he didn’t think she would be able to.

Isaac and Luc unfolded into massive dragons, one steel gray and the other a myriad of colors and feathers. Marc stayed on the ground, one eyebrow raised as he looked past Drake. The leader followed Marc’s gaze and found Layla already strutting off toward the car rental building. Drake swore softly and took off running while Marc spared a moment to laugh behind him.

The last dragon took to the sky, his colorful body long and winding like Egyptian gold dragons they’d encountered in Wales. It had been a pleasant surprise for the twins to meet another species of dragon who shared a similar body trait. The twins had been enamored and full of questions. As far as they knew, as far as Drake knew, the twins were the last two Quetzalcoatl dragons in existence.

Once the dragons were gone, Drake was able to focus on finding his impetuous mate. She was leaning against the counter inside the car rental, glaring down at the man behind the counter. Drake breathed a sigh of relief and sidled up behind her, his hand touched her lower back and gliding to wrap around her waist.

She threw him an irritated look, but didn’t pull away.

“I told you to go with them,” she whispered, her voice insistent. Not because she wanted to be alone. No, she wanted him to be surrounded by his men because she was afraid. Her own leader had gone somewhere alone and paid the ultimate price.

It warmed him to think that she feared for his life. Maybe, deep down, she felt the magnetic pull of the mate bond and truly cared for him, even if she wouldn’t allow herself to experience the emotions. Drake flashed her a wide smile, letting himself glow with hope.

“Are you saying that you aren’t enough to protect me?”

Those were the words that struck home. He knew they would. Fifty years ago, they would have struck him just as hard. It was a cruel trick, to use words he knew to hurt, to stick in her craw. But, if it got the job done, he would do whatever it took.

To get his mate to open her eyes.

Her spine stiffened beneath his touch and she gave him a level glare. She was up for the challenge. He knew she was more than capable of protecting him from whatever came their way. She had taken on Raphael even when the white dragon held her life in his hands.

Drake turned toward the cowering man behind the counter and smiled, apologetic. Whatever Layla had requested hadn’t flown with the rental service. He didn’t want to ask. Instead, he set about requesting the car he wanted.

“You can’t be serious,” Layla huffed when they found the car he’d requested.

It looked as though it had been carved into existence, a classic American muscle car brought into the modern century. Red might have seemed cliché, but he’d requested it for her. For her family. Maybe, he was being a little cheeky.

Maybe he just wanted to be flashy and drive a red Mustang convertible.

Drake gave her an innocent look, like he didn’t know what he was doing. “What’s wrong with the car?”

She looked at it, lost as she tried to find the right words to fight him with. In the end, she threw her hands in the air and yanked the door open to throw herself into the passenger seat.

“You do realize you’re acting like a child, right?” Drake slid into the seat beside her.

“You should be used to it considering the company you keep. Maybe Luc rubbed off on me during the flight.”

Drake laughed. Layla was sitting up straighter, her arms folding away from her chest. She was opening up. He turned the key into the ignition and started the process of having the roof fold itself back. The sky appeared above them, open and blue save for a few soft clouds.

“Maybe I should have had one of them carry you to the Territory. Then I wouldn’t have chosen such a flashy car. Then again, I haven’t driven anything like this in a while, so maybe I should thank you instead.”

Drake wouldn’t have let any of the other dragons near his mate to carry her. That would be his job. Layla was not fragile by any means, but the idea of another man’s hands on her made his beast growl with anger. It made him want to throw himself on her, claim her and spread his scent all over her body. She would, probably, sooner punch him in the face rather than let him touch her like that.

“So,” he began, trying to pull himself away from thoughts of her body. “Tell me, what did the guys do to you?”

She raised an eyebrow.

“That came out wrong. I mean, what prank did they pull this time? Luc is notorious for it and he’s known to pull in everyone around him in the process. Once, he covered the toilet in their house with plastic wrap. It made the nastiest mess I’ve ever seen. Another time he convinced Isaac to get in a plastic bin and surf down a set of stairs. Thankfully, dragons heal quickly.”

Layla’s laughter filled him with light. It was like he suddenly found he could breathe again and it left a smile on his lips that wouldn’t be chased away.

“They... they may have blown up my couch.”

Drake gave her a double take, wary of taking his eyes off the road, but unable to process what she’d just said. “The boys blew up your... couch?”

She looked out the window as the memory played behind her eyes. The way she smiled as she thought about it made Drake a little less angry. Clearly, she had taken some kind of pleasure in Luc’s awful pranks.

“I don’t know how they managed to do it, but they took the airbag from the car they rented in Bangor and put it in my couch cushion. When I sat down, it launched me across the room.”

Emotions hit Drake like a wave. The wheel groaned beneath his grip and the car swerved in its lane. Layla sat up straighter, studying his profile, probably trying to figure out what she’d said to upset him. How could he tell her he was angry that his dragons’ prank could have hurt her, his mate? He was furious with them. The fact that they had damaged the car and not told him wasn’t even a thought in his mind at that moment.

“Why are you so concerned about my safety?” she asked, figuring it out before he could change the subject

He floundered for a moment. What could he say to her? What lie should he have ready to feed her so that she wouldn’t run from him altogether?

“I’m clearly fine.” She held up her hands as if for inspection. “I landed on a pile of DVD cases. It wasn’t fun, but it also wasn’t life threatening.”

No, she’d been there. She knew the difference. Drake should relax, should try to loosen his grip on the rental’s steering wheel. He forced himself to slowly draw in a deep breath before plastering a fake smile on his face.

Layla didn’t buy into it. He was never going to be able to fool this woman. If he was going to worry about her like this, she understood why the other dragons asked her not to tell him about their prank.

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