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Before I can answer, he slaps me again, harder. My head snaps back, the world tilting.

Then he throws me over his shoulder like a sack of laundry, grunting as he carries me into the woods.

“Fucking fat bitch,” he snarls as he stalks toward a black sedan half-hidden beneath the trees. “Should’ve killed you when I had the chance.”

He tosses me into the back seat and my head bounces off something hard.

Stars explode behind my eyes, and I wonder how many knocks it’s going to take before I’m concussed.

I try to scramble, to kick, but he’s already tearing duct tape from a roll and binding my hands and feet.

One final slap across my mouth with a strip to keep me quiet.

“Duck your head,” he growls, slamming the door. “Stay down, or the next thing you’ll get is a fucking bullet.”

I nod. Not only because I believe him, but because I don’t have a choice.

And as the engine roars to life, and he peels off down the dirt trail, I close my eyes and think of Zeke.

Of the feel of his lips on my skin.

How good it feels when his arms wrap around me.

The way he says, “I’ve got you, Petals. Always.”

Because Michael thinks he’s unstoppable.

But he has no idea what’s coming.

He has no idea what it means to steal a Dragon’s mate.

And I know with everything inside me that Zeke is coming for me.

Because he said he always will. And I know—I know—he’ll burn the world down to bring me home.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE-ZEKE

I’m teetering on the edge of the precipice between losing my self-control and keeping my skin.

This isn’t a good thing.

If I let that happen? If I allow myself to shatter? Then the Dragon will take over and the world will be lost.

That’s not a boast.

It’s a fact.

The monster inside me? Let’s just say he’s the stuff the legends all talk about.

Every Dragon has power.

A special elemental sort of magic that he weaves with his very breath.

Mine? Well, let’s just say there is a reason wild beasts heed my commands.

Even now, the wildlife around me can sense my mood.

The birds take to the skies and everything from the largest deer to the tiniest chipmunk scurries away.