Page 76 of Saving the Last Heir
“Unless you want the next shotgun blast to actually murder your baby sister, you will do as I say. Now, are you gonna be a good boy?” He jerked my head, nearly tearing the hair from the roots. “Because, right now, you aren’t showing me that you canbea good boy. Do I need to cut my losses now? Shift right here and now and bite your pretty boy head off, then stomp your sister’s egg to paste? Huh?”
“No,” I whimpered, and I hated how weak and broken I sounded. I was the fuckingalphaof House Adelmund—I wasthelast alpha of the winged dragons. I was stronger than this piece of shit. I was more powerful and could destroy him in a fair fight, yet here I was, crying in the dirt like a child, begging this man to spare my sister. He had me, and he knew it, and there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I could do but obey. “I’ll do it.”
As those three words left my mouth, I felt a little piece of my soul chip away. Whether Iactuallydid this awful thing or not, simply saying I would shredded some integral part of me.
How could I follow through with this? These people had no morals, no honor. Even if I kidnapped Bryn and brought her to her death, they’d never give me my sister back. If they did, what would stop me from telling Christian or the Torrenceswhat really happened? No. They’d keep her egg, and when she hatched, they’d keepher. They would continue holding her life over my head, forcing me to do more and more awful things until I was no longer the man I’d been before. They’d break me, and they’d break Christian too. He’d never recover from the loss of his sister. The Bauer family was the strongest of the wyrm dragons. If Joseph was right in his plan, the Anitolis would fill the power vacuum that would be left when both Christian and I were gone. I couldn’t allow that to happen.
“She goes to a private school,” Joseph was saying. My ears were ringing with panic and horror that I barely took in his words. “She also has violin lessons on Wednesdays. We’ll send you a full schedule of her activities so you can plan when to snatch her.”
I’d gotten to my knees, pressing my hands to my thighs, trying hard to stay calm. The drake guard had finally released my leg, having decided that all the fight had drained from me. He was right. The others still stood around in a ring, eyeing me warily, hot breath rippling the overlong grass.
“Obviously, you can’t be seen taking her. If the wyrms realizeyoutook her, then they’ll put two and two together and realize you were coerced into the kidnapping. I can’t let that happen. If you’re recognized, we’ll take a sledgehammer to the egg. Same thing if you fail. You get her, and you do the deed, then we talk about getting your own sister back to you.”
“Do the deed?” I gaped up at him in horror. “You wantmeto kill her?”
Joseph didn’t bother answering. He gazed back at me with placid soulless eyes, giving me the only answer I needed. Bile crept up the back of my throat.
“We have eyes everywhere. If you try to betray us, it won’t end well. We might even go full scorched earth. Maybe we won’t stop with your sister.” Joseph smirked. “What would you think of getting a video of my boys and me running a train on your sweet momma before we slice her throat open? Using her all the way up until she’s begging to die? Would you likethatto be the last thing you see? Things canalwaysget worse. Don’t fuck me, Jack. You fuck me?Ifuckyouharder. Understand?”
The shock and horror had begun to ebb, leaving behind an impotent rage that threatened to boil over. Deep in my mind, a storm rose, fueled by my dragon. He screeched and roared at me to tear this man apart. Images flashed through my mind of me doing just that—teeth biting through flesh, arms pulled from sockets,mouth shrieking in agony and begging for mercy. I had to clench my fists and push back against my dragon. I wanted those things as well, but if I tried anything, the man in the house would destroy my sister’s egg. I could probably defeat all of them, fueled by my anger and fury, but the man in the house could kill her faster than I could get to him. Even if I shredded them into unrecognizable piles of bloody flesh, it would be nothing more than a pyrrhic victory. No. I had to find another way.
“I’ll send you more details via text,” Joseph said as he stepped back. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
The other drakes backed up, barely giving me enough room to shift. I glared at Joseph as I slowly got to my feet. Once I was up, I stood still, frozen as if I was carved from marble, my eyes boring into his. The other man grinned back.
“You wanna do this?” Joseph said, his voice quiet and low. “We can. If that’s how you feel about it, we can have it out right here and now.”
With a force of will I didn’t even realize I had, I shook my head. “No. I’ll do it. But I’ll remember this. Don’t you think for aminuteI won’t. You’ll pay. Maybe not me, but one day, someone is gonna make you pay.”
He rolled his eyes, and waved a hand at me. “Get the fuck out of here and bring me that little bitch’s body. Go on.”
Unable to do anything else, I obeyed, shifting to my dragon form. I rose up several heads taller than the drakes. The other dragons shrank back instinctively as I stretched my wings wide, my jet-black body glinting in the sunlight. I leaned forward and let out an ear-piercing shriek of rage. They all flinched, including Joseph.
I leaped into the air. Pumping my wings hard, I rose higher and higher until I glided among the clouds, lost in thought. Angling west, I headed for my cabin. I couldn’t go home right now. The weight of this secret was too much. They’d all know something was wrong, and I didn’t have the strength to lie.
As frigid as the air up high was, it did nothing to soothe the burning heat of my shame and anger. I’d thought stealing a car was bad. Kidnapping? Not just that, but kidnapping a child I knew? How could I do that? How could I steal Bryn? Then there was the worst part. They wanted her dead. They wanted me to kill her.
I shrieked into the sky and breathed a gout of flame, a streak of fire thirty feet long drawing an orange line against the clouds. I flew through it, letting the heat flash across my sides.
By the time I landed at my cabin and stepped inside, every ounce of energy had drained from my body. Flopping onto my back on the couch, I spent several hours zoned out in a daze, unsurehow I’d gotten into this, and unsure how I would ever get out of it. There was so much on the line, and too many variables to navigate by myself.
If I didn’t do what Joseph wanted, he’d kill my sister and shatter one of the last glimmers of hope our people had. Mom would die of heartbreak, and winged dragons would slip from history. If I did do what he wanted, I’d never be able to live with myself. Hell, I knew deep down that Icouldn’tdo what he wanted. I kept seeing Bryn’s smiling face in my mind. The faint spray of freckles on her nose, her dark red hair, and the brown eyes that matched Christian’s. No. That was out of the question.
“Fuck!” I screamed at last, leaping from the sofa. Grabbing a ceramic coaster from an end table, I hurled it across the room.
It shattered against the wall, sending a fan of broken glass in all directions. The panic that had been building from the moment Joseph told me his plan now overwhelmed me. How did I get out of this? Even if I went so far as to kill myself rather than do his bidding, he’d still end up killing my sister and hiring one of his goons to take Bryn. This was on me, and me alone.
In another fit of rage, I slammed my fist into the wall. My shifter-hardened bones stayed intact, but an indentation of my knuckles remained on the wood.
Alone. I’m all alone. I have to figure this out by myself, like always.
The last few years, I’d done exactly that, shouldering the load and taking all the pressure. I’d done it because I thought it was what my father would have wanted, yet what had that gained me? Winged dragons continued to vanish, and my sister hadbeen kidnapped. Going it alone had gotten me nowhere thus far. Who did I turn to?
Christian was out. I couldn’t tell him what was going on. At leastIcouldn’t. Joseph said he had eyes and ears everywhere. Mom? She wasn’t in the mental state to help. And, yet again, Joseph said he had spies and ways of hearing in any of the places I might typically turn for help.
Pacing the cabin, I walked through the kitchen, clenching and unclenching my fists, racking my brain for a way out. As I did, I glanced over at the sink and froze, nearly stumbling. Unwashed plates. Plates that had been scraped clean after the last meal that had been eaten here. As I stared down at them, Shyanne’s face flashed across my mind.
Gripping the edge of the sink, I kept looking at the plates. Joseph didn’t know about my relationship with her. He’d never have a way of watching her or even know who the hell she was. If I asked, Shyanne would help. Even after my short time with her, Iknewwhat her answer would be, but could I drag her into more trouble? How could I live with myself if I kept turning her world upside down?
