Page 12 of The Forsaken Heir
Did he think I was going to go along with this? Be all meek and obedient? Nope. No, thank you very much. Air hissed in and out of my lungs as I pelted toward the tree line ahead.
Before I could get within a hundred yards of the trees, though, a hand caught my arm.Holy shit, dragons were fast. He hauledme around, and I came face to face with a huge man. He had to be at least six-two. It was rare I met a guy who actually looked down on me.
He pushed his long, dark hair out of his face as he panted. “Please. This will be easier if you come quietly. My name is Vi?—”
I twisted in his grip and kicked him in the stomach. His stomach was disconcertingly firm and muscled. My foot damn near bounced off firm abs, but the kick still had him letting out a gust of air and doubling over. Before he could recover, I swung a fist at his face, recalling all the hours I’d spent in aerobic boxing classes. It wasn’t exactly self-defense, but along with my natural shifter strength and speed, it might be enough to get me out of this mess before the guy did whatever he was planning to do.
I hissed in pain as my knuckles connected with his face, then whirled around and hissing in pain as my knuckles smashed into his chin, I spun and tried to run again. The dragon barely registered the strike, though, and he had hold of my shirt before I’d managed to get more than a couple feet away. I yelped in surprise as my feet went out from beneath me and I crashed to the ground.
Fear surged within me as the guy straddled me.
“Stupid… mother… fucker,” I gasped as I slapped at his face and chest.
He winced and grunted as I attacked, but there was no stopping the giant of a man. In fact, as he grabbed my hands and arms, I got the sense that he wasn’t even really trying. He could have knocked me out with one smack in the face if he was using his full strength. Strange. That meant he was truly only trying to capture me, not injure me.
“Please don’t shift, okay?” he said with maddening calmness as he worked at securing me. “If you shift, this will get more difficult.”
I tried to buck him off me. “Screw you!”
His powerful grip was like a steel band. In the misty moonlight, I saw him extract zip ties from his back pocket, then he slipped them around my wrists in perfect precision. The plastic bit into my skin, but it wasn’t painfully tight.
“You split my lip,” the dragon said sadly.
I couldn’t get a good look at his face, but he sounded shocked and even a little sad.
“Yes, I split your lip,” I growled. “You fucking kidnapped me, asshole.”
He ignored me as he made quick work of tying my ankles together as well, essentially turning me into a trussed-up animal. While I writhed, the man pulled out a cell phone and called someone.
“Got her… Yeah, she fought pretty hard…No, I didn’t hurt her. Calm down, Rasp. See you in a second.”
Rasp? Who the hell was Rasp? What kind of name was that anyway? Dragons all liked to use those old-school Roman and Greek names. Before my mind could question it further, lights slashed through the tree line. Two headlights. Shit. Even if I’d made the trees, I’d have been screwed.
A black SUV pulled up beside us, and another man leaped from the driver side door. The bright headlights illuminated his smiling face.
“Oh, holyshit,bro! You freaking got her. Good job, my man.”
This new arrival was as big as the man who’d caught me, but not quite as tall, and had short strawberry-blond hair. The only good thing I could say about him was that he looked at me like a prize rather than a piece of meat.
“Are you okay, lady?” the new arrival said.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Duh,” he said with a goofy grin. “We’re dragons.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I hissed and went back to trying to break my bonds.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” He knelt beside me and grabbed my hands. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”
“Yeah,” the first man said. “We don’t want to hurt you.” He leaned forward and back, sort of rocking in place.
What the hell was this? They kidnap me from my home, haul me out to the middle of nowhere, and tie me up, but they don’t want me to hurt myself?
“Vincent? Vincent, come on, grab her legs, I’ll get her shoulders,” the man named Rasp said.
The larger man was still rocking back and forth slightly, his eyes somewhat distant as he reached down and took hold of my feet.
“Sure thing, Rasp,” Vincent said.
