Page 63 of The Breeding Cave
Moments passed, and then Luciano reached for the package. But instead of taking it, he wrapped his hand around the doorman’s throat and slammed him up against the wall so hard that the wall dented and the drywall fell in chips at his feet.
A wave of fire burst out from the doorman’s throat. The flames, aimed at Luciano’s face, spread around and licked his skin. But before they could burn him badly, Luciano ripped out his throat, and the dragon fell to the floor. Dead.
When Luciano turned toward me, a burn stretched from the bottom right side of his face up to the left side of his forehead. “Grab your stuff and don’t fucking argue with me. You’re leaving tonight, and we’re never coming back here again.”
I moved closer to him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeosin,” he growled. His burn mark suddenly began healing itself as his beast emerged from deep within his body. Eyes burning brightly, he drew his tongue across his canines. “Grab. Your. Stuff.”
“What’s going on here?” Brent asked from the doorway with a jar of pickles.
“You’ll take Yeosin to the cave,” Luciano said as if the man he had just killed wasn’t lying in a puddle of blood. He rolled up his sleeves and picked up the package. “This building has been compromised.”
“Any sign of Joseph?” Brent said. “I’ve been asking around, and nobody has seen him.”
“Joseph is gone?” I asked, eyes wide and worry building up inside my belly.
Is he gone because of me too? Did I come into Luciano’s life and hurt everyone?
“Yes,” Luciano said, lengthening one of his nails into a sharp, bloody talon and cutting through the tape of the package. It ripped open with ease, the blood from the doorman dripping off his fingers and into the package.
My nosy ass looked over his shoulder into the square package, and a piercing scream escaped my lips. I shuffled backward until my back bumped against Brent’s chest, my heart thumping in my ears.
It wasn’t just anything in that package.
No, it was Joseph’s head.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
LUCIANO
“Joseph!” Yeosin cried, dropping to her knees in the puddle of dragon blood.
Steam emanated from her knees, the only part of her body in direct contact with the blood, and I quickly pulled her to her feet, examining two new burns on her legs.
What the—was she allergic to dragons?
No, that couldn’t be it. She had said her ex-boyfriend was the leader of the clan.
If she were allergic, then she wouldn’t have been able to survive with him. Never mind how she could get burns in her sleep, if Ella really had told me the truth earlier at the office. Who the fuck knew anymore? None of this made sense.
But I had to figure it out. It was the only way to keep her safe.
Brent furrowed his brows. “Why is she burn?—”
“I don’t know,” I said.
Yeosin’s knees wobbled, and I placed her on the couch. She doubled over and threw her head into her hands, her body trembling. “How could they do this to Joseph?! He was the nicest person I’d ever met. W-w-why?”
As much as I wanted to, I didn’t have time to answer questions, nor did I have the answers. The war between the beasts and dragons had started so long ago. They had taken so many of my friends, family, and pack for reasons that I would never know.
“If you run into any trouble at the cave, contact me immediately,” I commanded.
Brent nodded. “I’ll protect her.”
I snatched him by the collar and yanked him closer. “If I find out that you’ve touched her, I will do to you what I did to him,” I said, gesturing down to the dragon at my feet with his throat torn out of his body.
