Page 99 of The Breeding Cave
Luciano snatched my hand and pulled me through the rooms toward an exit on the opposite side of the house. Fire crackled and popped above us, and the roof caved in, falling inches from me. We hurried out the door and into the woods.
“We need to get you to safety,” he said.
I grabbed his hand tightly. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“Yeosin,” he snarled, tugging me through the woods, “it isn’t an option.”
“I won’t run from them, not while you’re fighting to keep me alive.”
“I’m fighting to keep you alive because you’re my mate,” he said. “It’s what I was made to do. To protect you. To protect our family and the baby inside your belly. I’m not allowing you to argue with me this time.”
We began moving so fast that the forest became a blur of shadows and flames as Luciano and I darted between the trees, the roar of dragons echoing right behind us. They were on our tails, almost quite literally.
My breath came in ragged gasps, my heart pounding so loudly that I could hear it in my ears. Luciano tightened his grasp on my hand, but my legs couldn’t move that much faster.
“Keep moving, Yeosin! We need to find shelter.”
Move faster, Yeosin. If not for your life, then for your baby’s!
Suddenly, a deafening roar filled the air, and a massive shadow loomed above us. I peered up in time to watch a dragon swoop down with its talons outstretched. Before I could react, Luciano pushed me aside, taking the brunt of the attack, sprawling to the ground.
The dragon landed right on his back, his talons sunk deep in his muscle.
“Luciano!” I cried, reaching out helplessly.
“Run, Yeosin!” he shouted. “Don’t let them take you!”
I wanted to run to protect our family, but my legs and my heart … couldn’t make me. I struggled to my feet, but I had twisted my ankle on the fall down. Alvin descended, his massive wings beating the air around me and his talons circling around my belly.
He lifted me off the ground. I kicked. I screamed. I tried to escape.
Yet the world tilted around me, and I found myself staring down at my mate. At the father of my unborn baby. At the man I loved.
“Luciano!” I shouted with all my might, reaching out for him as if he could change all of this, as if he could … make all my problems go away. He had always done it for me before. “Luciano!”
Alvin pulled me higher into the air, then suddenly, the treetops became a blur of dark green and fire underneath me as we flew quickly.
Alvin nestled me closer to his body. “I have you now, Yeosin. You’re all mine.”
CHAPTER
FIFTY-FIVE
YEOSIN
Damn it, my eyes burn.
I stirred on something rough against my bare skin and wiped my eyes furiously with my fists. When the pain subsided, I slowly blinked my eyes open and sat up the best I could on a nest of twigs, stones, and gold.
Where am I?
I squinted through the dim light that flooded into the room through cracks in the cavern walls. My entire body ached, especially my ribs, but I did my best to support myself and pulled my knees to my chest, the sound of metal scraping against the ground making me jerk.
When I glanced down at my ankles, thick metal shackles were snapped around them. Slowly, memories began rushing through my mind, and I sucked in a sharp breath. The dragon, Alvin … he had captured me.
After dropping my gaze, I swallowed hard and realized that I hadn’t just been captured by Alvin, but that I was sitting in … I was sitting in a nest, one that reeked of long, endless nights filled with pleasure.
Except … nothing about Alvin had ever been pleasurable.
