Page 9 of Fated to the Dragon King (Alpha Dragons’ Fated #4)

Hayley

He drove on, his chilly gray eyes flicking here and there as he watched the traffic around us. “Is there a decent place to eat around here?”

I nodded. “There’s a steakhouse a few miles further on. It’s expensive though, but it has great food.”

“I can afford it.”

I worked to keep the acid out of my voice when I said, “Of course. You have your inheritance now.”

Alaric snapped a sharp look at me. “Are you going to keep throwing that at me? Like it’s something I lied to you about?”

“Sorry, but I’m feeling a bit used,” I replied, ignoring the dangerous glint in his stormy eyes. “You have what you want, now you’re going to fly off home like I’m nothing. Like I wasn’t ever anything to you.”

“You were paid,” he snapped. “Quite well, in fact.”

I shrugged, gazing out my window. “There’s more to life than money or fancy houses. My ex-boyfriend pursued it like the holy grail.”

I resolutely watched the cars outside my window, focusing my attention on the buildings and storefronts, feeling about an inch high.

Alaric will surely regret marrying me now.

If Brad didn’t love me, only wanted my body for his own pleasure, why would Alaric be any different? I must be damaged goods.

“I can end this marriage tonight if you want.”

I said nothing until after we reached the restaurant.

***

The chill between us failed to thaw by the time we reached the restaurant. Alaric held the door for me, then, as stiff as a plank, gave crisp orders to the ma?tre’d. The poor man took one look at Alaric’s stony expression, and hastily escorted us to a table far away from the main dining room.

We had ordered steaks and shrimp from the menu, and received our glasses of wine from the waiter, when Alaric spoke. Despite the dim lighting overhead, the tiny table lamp that gave off only a hint of illumination, I saw his cold gray eyes soften. I sipped my wine, wishing I was anywhere but here.

“There’s so much you need to know about me,” he said slowly. “My people. Where I come from.”

“You sound as though you come from another planet,” I commented lightly.

“No. Not a planet. But certainly a place you’re not familiar with.”

“You can start now. If you want.”

Rather than talk, Alaric shook his head. “Tell me about you. Everything I don’t already know.”

I looked away, swirling the wine in my glass as I studied our fellow diners.

Average, normal people talking while they enjoyed the evening out in a nice restaurant.

Some had their families with them, some were couples.

A few businessmen chatted over the tables with their meals over with and drinks in their hands.

“There’s nothing to tell,” I said at last. “My parents are somewhere in the wilds of Florida, you smacked my sister down, I’m just a chick with funky colored hair.”

“You aren’t a ‘just’ anything, Hayley.”

I curled my upper lip. “A sex toy.”

“That’s enough, dammit.”

I shrugged, and drank more wine, wondering if he’d take advantage of me if I became totally inebriated. He probably would just because he could.

“Let’s not fight.” Alaric smiled slightly. “Your funky colored hair is gorgeous, you work hard, you write beautifully. You have a true talent for insight, and Willow thinks the world of you.”

“Willow?”

“Her great gift is seeing into people’s hearts, you know,” he said. “She’s my aunt.”

I chuckled, my sour mood lightening a fraction. “You’d said that before ,but I still don’t see the family resemblance.”

“My father’s sister,” Alaric said, then sipped his wine. “After his death, she took me in hand. Raised me. Taught me right from wrong.” He suddenly laughed. “As much as she can anyway.”

“Where is your mom?”

Now, Alaric looked away. “I don’t know. She, well, she abandoned the family after my father’s death. No one knows where.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t remember much about her,” he replied with a shrug. “Or him, for that matter.”

“Willow is a very kind person.”

“She’s like my best friend.” Alaric paused, his head tilted slightly. “Wrong. She is my best friend.”

“So, you have no other family?”

“A few cousins.” Alaric’s mouth twisted in a small grimace. “One is my enemy, my rival. We’ve hated one another since childhood.”

“Rival? That’s a rather odd word to use, isn’t it?”

“No.” His gray eyes meet mine steadily. “In my country, I’m a very important person. Sort of like royalty. Damon, my cousin, wants me out of the way so he can take my place.”

“Yikes,” I murmured, sipping my wine. “That bites. Don’t you just hate it when family can’t get along?”

“Yes, I surely do.” Alaric lifts his wine glass in a half salute. “Here’s to those families who love one another unconditionally.”

I drank, feeling the wine, and the company I’m with, going straight to my head.

I hadn’t eaten since lunch, and if our meal doesn’t come soon, I’ll be completely shit faced when it does.

Alaric’s focused attention on me both flattered and alarmed me.

Brad, my ex, barely paid any attention to me unless he wanted sex.

Alaric couldn’t possibly fall in love with me.

Not with me.

***

“Do you want to go for a drive before I take you home?”

Home? Is that what his house is? His home, sure. But not mine, never mine. Nor will it ever be mine.

“Remember, I have to get up early and go to work. The boss won’t like it if I’m late.”

From behind the steering wheel, Alaric sent me a wickedly impish look. “Tell the boss to go stuff himself.”

“Oh, he’ll love that.”

“You can afford to quit, you know.”

“Since he’s leaving soon, I’ll have no choice in the matter.”

For that comment, I received a sharp glance and a shake of his head.

He said nothing, but the air between us turned several degrees chillier.

My head spun slightly from the wine I’d drunk, and not even the heavy meal managed to take the edge off.

I felt stupid and lonely and depressed, a familiar menage a trois that surely would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Alaric drove us toward the coast, and the cliffs high above the beach. I know the area is a hot spot for lovers, a place where kids make out in the back seat of their fathers’ cars. I absently wondered if Alaric had more on his mind than he’d let on.

“Why are you here?” I asked. “In America, that is. Working a real estate company.”

Alaric rubbed his jaw with his free hand. “My home is rich in beauty, but poor in resources. We have companies all over the world turning profits and funneling the money home. We use it to purchase the goods we need.”

“That’s cool,” I said, meaning it. “So, you’ll have a manager run the office here once you’re gone?”

“That’s the idea,” he replied, turning the truck onto a dirt road that led to the park and the ocean’s overlook. “But I’m also looking for someone.”

“Not your true love, obviously.”

“Cease with the jabs, can’t you?” Alaric sent me a short glare. “I hoped for a pleasant evening tonight.”

“So, who are you looking for?”

I made the question light, humorous, but the look I received from Alaric’s icy gray eyes was far from amused. It sent an unpleasant shiver through my stomach. It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Alaric could be a very dangerous man.

He spun the wheel to enter the gravel covered parking lot. He said, his tone flat, “My fiancé.”

I blinked. “Your – fiancé?”

“Ex-fiancé to be perfectly accurate,” he replied in that same expressionless voice. “She’s with my enemy, Damon.”

“Oh.”

“It’s not just for the sake of my injured pride that I’m searching for her,” Alaric went on. “But she committed a heinous crime back home. She must be returned for trial and punishment.”

I sure don’t want to be in her boots. I wouldn’t want a guy like Alaric chasing me with deadly intent.

“Do you know where she is?”

“I hired a private investigator to help me locate her,” he replied with less animosity and more humanity. “He said they went to Mexico. Acapulco.”

“How will you get her back when he finds her?” I asked, curious. “I mean, you’re not like a cop. Or a lawyer? Are you?”

“I don’t have to be. I’ll hogtie her in chains and take her back. Damon, too.”

That’s not exactly legal. I thought that, but decided not to speak it. I was in enough trouble with him already. Me and my mouth. It might not take much for him to backhand me across my face from where he sat.

It’s what Brad would have done.

Only a few cars sat in slots near the fence that blocked visitors from the cliffs that overlooked the ocean. Alaric stopped his truck at the furthest end of the lot, making me again think of lovers making out in back seats.

It’s awful damn lonely out here. Maybe more than lovers come here to these cliffs. A shudder ran through me as I noted the sheer isolation and the steep drop to the sea below. Easy way to get rid of someone you don’t want around.

“I love the sea,” he said as we got out. “I come to this place a great deal.”

He took my hand, walking with me to the promontory. I glanced around, but saw nothing of the other vehicles’ occupants. It was as though we had this spot all to ourselves. The salty breeze swept through my hair as we paused at the protective fence separating people from the steep drop.

It occurred to me, through my drunken haze, how little I know of Alaric. I remembered he only needed a wife in order to gain his inheritance. He has that now. Alaric stated he planned to leave America and return to his home. He promised to be nice to me, and thus far, I supposed he had been.

What he said in the truck hit me. I can end this marriage tonight if you want. He isn’t an American citizen, but of some distant country. What’s to stop him from bringing me to this lonely lookout on the pretext of just going for a drive, picking me up and dropping me over the edge?

Nothing.

Oh, gee, officer, I told her not to go past the fence, she did it anyway. She must have slipped and fallen. I’m so sorry she’s dead.

He’d never face trial and punishment. Just skip off to his country with no extradition laws and be marriage free. A widower with no ties.

Fear plunged its icy dagger into my heart.

I hung back, pulling my hand from his.

“Hayley?”

Alaric turned toward me, his face featureless in the dark. Far below, the waves crashed against the rocks, booming, as though calling my death knell. He was so much bigger than I was. Impossibly strong. I’d never win if he managed to grab me in his powerful hands.

“No,” I gasped, staggering, stumbling over the rocky and uneven ground of the promontory as I backed away from him. “No. Don’t touch me.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, stepping forward.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I spun and ran.

“Hayley!”

He chased me. I ran across the parking lot, panic driving me headlong into the darkness and heading toward the road.

The road where I could flag down a car, jump inside, escape Alaric and his murderous intent in the squealing of tires and a cloud of dirt.

My breath snagged in my throat, tore like thorns.

I was a runner. I ran for exercise.

But I’d never run for my life before now.

“Hayley, stop!”

Headlights hit me full in the face. A car drove straight toward me. Us.

Alaric was close behind me. So close, I heard his heavy breathing, I thought I felt his hot breath on the back of my shirt. The car spun toward us both, headlights glaring.

I’m saved. The driver will see I’m in trouble, jerk the door open for me –

The car didn’t stop for me. It didn’t stop at all.

Instead, it wheeled around in a tight turn filling the air with dust. The passenger stuck a gun out of the window, the car’s dash lights glinting off the deadly barrel.

“No!”

Alaric hit me from behind.

I went down, face planted in the gravel of the parking lot.

I never heard the gunshot.

The bullet struck me on my left side, smashing through my ribs on its way to my heart.

I heard Alaric scream my name, but his voice seemed to come from a long distance away.

He heaved himself off of me. I think he turned me over, but I couldn’t be sure. Even so, I stared up into his face, his eyes, felt his hands press against my wound. Pain lashed me with the force of a cat o’ nine tails. Cold leached into my flesh, sinking into my bones.

I blinked.

Alaric was gone.

Where he had been was a monster from hell.

Great eyes blazed down at me from an incredible distance away. Massive jaws opened and belched red-orange fire into the night. Leathery wings blotted out the stars.

“I’ve got you. Hayley, I’ve got you.”

Alaric’s voice, and yet not his. Talons, similar to an eagle’s but far, far larger, opened up over me.

I know I must have hallucinated everything, for those tremendous talons closed over me. They picked me up carefully –