Fury of Seduction (Dragonfury Series #3) (16 page)

He disliked it. Immensely.

Retreat had never been his thing, but he knew his commander was right. He couldn’t take out all seven by himself. He needed a boatload of backup, which...shit on a stick...wasn’t available right now. The rest of the Nightfuries were a tad busy, playing hopscotch across Seattle with a horde of Razorbacks on their tails.

And him? His mission didn’t include getting dead.

Tania needed him. She’d waited long enough, and he couldn’t wait another second. Sonar pinging, he tracked her location, picking up the trace energy she left in her wake. The tingle slid around the horns on his head, and he growled, loving her vibe as it lit his senses on fire. God, he wanted to see her face. To make sure she was really all right. To soothe her fear, untwist her temper, and atone for her hurt feelings.

Sounded like an excellent plan. Only one problem with it, though.

Anger was unpredictable, and Tania’s was beyond volatile. And he deserved every ounce of her venomous
response. Mac only hoped she forgave him when he explained the reasons behind his actions. Otherwise he could kiss his ass—along with his balls—good-bye.

Out of breath from yelling threats, Tania paused to refill her lungs. Her chest inflated, renewing her resolve even as her stamina wavered. God, she was tired, aching so much from hammering the barrier that her muscles quivered. And no wonder. Being trapped inside an air bubble was the craziest kind of workout. One of champions, not for the faint of heart or someone who lacked upper body strength.

Frickin’-frack. She really needed to spend more time in the gym. With a tyrannical trainer and a handful of free weights, because her arms were giving out, along with her will to fight.

Muscles throbbing, her hands nothing but twin balls of pain, she swallowed the panic closing her throat. No way would she go there. The place called terror expanding deep inside her could go to hell. She refused to let fear win. Not again. She’d been there, done that earlier (and would have the T-shirt printed later if she survived to see another sunrise).

“Courage, remember?” she whispered to herself. “
Courage.
”

The pep talk didn’t do much good. Time was slipping away, making her question her own mind. And the sound of Mac’s voice. Had she really heard him talking to her? Had he really told her he was coming for her? That he was within striking distance...somewhere out there...swimming
to rescue her from wherever she was in the middle of the godforsaken ocean?

Well, that had been...what? Five minutes ago? Ten?

Tania couldn’t tell. Couldn’t make her mind work well enough to count off the seconds to keep track of passing minutes. Blood rushing in her ears, she looked around, scanning the darkness outside the globe. Where the heck was he? She didn’t think she could take much more without breaking down. Without starting to cry again. Or scream as anger lost its power and the soul-rampaging terror returned.

Tania started to shake, the trembling no longer about the cold. For some reason the bubble exuded warmth now, soothing her bone-deep chill one shiver at a time. And still she shook, physical exhaustion and mental fatigue taking a terrible toll. Combating the next quiver, she hung on, trying to be strong.

Her resolve lasted half a second before she shouted, “Mac!”

“Here.”

His voice came out of nowhere, a beautiful, deep baritone full of promise. With a quick inhale, Tania spun on her knees in the center of the bubble, searching the abyss behind her. A glow cut through the darkness, coming at her like twin laser beams. Her breath caught. Shuffling to the other side of her prison, she pressed her injured hands flat against the curved wall. Ravaged by her rampage, her torn nails squawked and her fingertips throbbed. She ignored the agony as hope picked up her heart.

The air bubble’s velocity slowed. Water whirled against it with white swirl. Tania swayed with the movement, feeling the bump as she stared into the inky depths, watching, waiting for—

A blue-gray dragon materialized next to her.

With a yelp, she sucked in a sharp breath and jumped backward. She landed with a thump, her behind now aching as much as the rest of her. “M-Mac?”

Aquamarine eyes aglow, he reached out with a huge talon. Tania cringed and scrambled, pressing her back against the opposite wall. But even as she put distance between them, she couldn’t look away. Incredible. Weird. Astounding. He was power personified, a freak of nature with his horned head, webbed claws, and knifelike blade riding the ridge of his spine.

She sucked in a quick breath, dismay running hand in hand with fascination. Which was just plain stupid—the fascination part, not the freaked out part—’cause...holy crap. No way should she be looking at him and wondering about all kinds of inappropriate things. Like how he could breathe underwater. Or how he transitioned from a man to, well,
that
.

Tania frowned, her mind sharpening as she looked him over. Good lord. He was enormous, just flipping...
huge
.

Palming her prison with a webbed paw, he grabbed the bubble like a baseball, smooth scales glimmering in the near darkness. The curved points of his claws clinked against the globe. The sound echoed, pinging like silverware against glass. “Hold on,
mo chroí
. I’m gonna bring you up.”

Up was good. A dragon talking to her? Not so much. Except...

She wasn’t afraid anymore. A surprising reaction. Way off the wall considering all she’d seen tonight, but...God help her. She was so glad to hear Mac’s voice, relief shoved fear aside. He’d kept his word and come after her, and,
like it or not, that made all the difference. Needing more reassurance, she reached up and pressed her hand into the center of his talon.

Tania blinked. Yes, he was real. She wasn’t imagining things. Or him...scales, fangs, and all.

With the thin barrier separating their palms, she rasped, “I want out...please, just get me out.”

“Another minute and we’ll be on the surface.”

She nodded, her gaze riveted to him, taking comfort in the aquamarine of his eyes. Strange, she knew, but the color calmed her. Made her believe it was Mac instead of a stranger. Instead of a monster with every intention of harming her. And as he propelled her upward—swimming through ocean currents, blowing by schools of fish and the rocky side of a jagged reef, bladed tail swishing like an alligator’s—Tania wondered when she’d lost her mind.

Somewhere between the bridge and here, certainly.

Proof positive lay in the fact she trusted Mac to keep her safe. To help her instead of hurt her. Crazy talk? No doubt.
Gentle
and
dragons
, after all, weren’t normally synonymous. But as the surface of the ocean rippled above them, winking in the glimmer of Mac’s gaze, Tania couldn’t deny the truth.

Everything had changed in the space of an hour. Imploding her life. Sending her reeling. Catapulting her into the unknown.

One in which dragons existed.

Now she needed to decide which way to jump and where to go from here.

Tania hardly made a sound as he broke the surface of the water with her in his arms. Her shoulder blades bumped the wall of his chest. Mac hugged her from behind, drawing her in, keeping her head above the swelling pitch of ocean waves. Water streamed from her dark hair, smoothing the long strands flat. Gasping, she tilted her face toward the night sky. The long, indrawn breath sounded painful, more wheeze than actual inhale.

She filled her lungs again, shivering so hard Mac heard her teeth chatter. He wrapped her tighter against him, lending her his body heat, and summoned hot water. The warm flow swirled, then washed in, making Tania sigh. As her tremors lessened, satisfaction rolled through him, dragging pride with it.

Holy shit. He’d done it. Gotten the job done and her out in one piece, away from rogue claws and off Ivar’s radar. No small feat. The unfortunate causality, however, was Tania. Regret lit Mac up like a war zone. His conscience dropped bomb after bomb until he imploded on a mental minefield.

Ah, who was he kidding? Good job, his ass. He’d scared the hell out her and...

Mac’s brows collided. He hated that it had gone down that way. With her stuck in the middle: being driven off a bridge, screaming and crying while he trapped her in an air lock deep underwater, propelled her out to sea, toward safety and away from the fighting.

But no other choice had existed.

The mission was goat-fucked from the word
go
. And Tania? She suffered the consequences, a casualty in the ongoing war with the Razorbacks. Although she’d done well, all things considered. Most people would’ve curled
up and died down there. Yet she’d yelled at him instead, threatening him with...

Well, a shitload of things. Not the least of which was damage to a certain part of his anatomy. Mac cringed, the male in him reacting to the imagery. He liked his package exactly where it was, thank you very much. No need to switch up the arrangement. So, yeah, he wouldn’t be reminding her of that particular promise anytime soon. Or...ever.

Another soft swell rolled past, sending them bobbing on the surface. Tania twitched into a full-body quiver. He hugged her closer, using his voice—and a quiet tone—to soothe her. It didn’t go well. She was too tense, her lungs locked down, working hard to draw each breath. With a murmur, Mac breathed in her beautiful lily-soft scent, cuddling her with an eye to her comfort, even as his body reacted to her proximity.

Par for the course with Tania around. But that didn’t mean he would act on it. She deserved better from him.

A death grip on his urges, Mac shoved his arousal aside. He was stronger than that. The territorial beast inside him might not understand the difference between giving comfort and appeasing sexual need, but he did. No way would he add that insanity to the mental bag of WTF Tania no doubt already carried around.

So he held her instead...and waited. Tapping into her bioenergy, gauging her level of anxiety, he talked her off the ledge, using each murmur to ease her from frightened to calm and even. Little by little, her muscles unlocked, releasing the tight coil of tension, helping her to take deep breaths. Cresting another wave, Mac kept them buoyant, floating together inside the sickle-shaped cove of the small
island. His gaze scanned the shoreline, night vision picking up trace along craggy outcroppings and the T-shaped dock jutting into the bay.

His mouth tipped up at the corners. Private. Beautiful. Remote. The island sat fifty-seven nautical miles from Puget Sound’s outer marker.

He’d won it fair and square in a poker game from some rich asshole in Boston seven and a half years ago. Perfect timing as it turned out. With his honorable discharge from the navy rubber-stamped, he’d needed somewhere to go...a new place to make a fresh start. The deed to the island had given him the incentive to pull up stakes, head west, and lay claim to the only land he owned.

Home sweet home. One he came to every chance he got.

And now Tania was here...in the spot he loved most in the world. Fitting that she would be the first to visit what he considered his oasis. Not even his partner had rated a look-see. He’d kept Ange in the dark, refusing to invite her in. Which was how he liked it: part of his secretive, isolation-loving MO. No one needed to know where he went every weekend or how he spent his vacation time.

All that would change, though, when he pinged Rikar with his location.

His secret would be out, prompting an invasion in more ways than one. First the Nightfuries would show up. Second? Ange would hammer him with questions and encroach upon the privacy he’d tried so hard to maintain.

Mac sighed. Things changed. Some for the better, some...not so much.

Giving Tania a gentle squeeze, he raised his head from the curve of her neck. She was calmer now, able to breathe without the awful hitch in her throat, but—

She twitched against him.

The rolling shiver wound Mac tight, setting off his internal alarm system. Shit. She should be yelling at him by now. But contrary to his expectations, she hadn’t said a word. Not one peep since he’d uncloaked and started dragging her up from the ocean’s depths. Which scared the hell out of him. She should be on the rampage, pounding him with accusations along with her fists.