Treasure Lane Dragons: Complete Series (BBW Paranormal Dragon Shapeshifter Romance) (31 page)

“I’m here to see if you’ll stop this nonsense and act like a Greenmeadow is supposed to. What would the rest of the Council say?”

“They’d tell me to go for it. This is not the fucking Middle Ages anymore, Carrick. We don’t carry princesses off into the sunset. And unless we get over living in the past, we’re as good as trash in the bin of history. I can’t understand why you won’t see that,” Cillian forced out between gritted teeth.

He’d had the same conversation with him so many times, and still he couldn’t get through to him – like talking to a wall with a shitty attitude. And right now, he was in no mood for it. He felt his skin crawl and his intestines twist and rumble, the fire wanting to consume him inside out. While he was usually in perfect control of himself and his dragon, the dragon now wanted to take control of him. With Carrick acting the way he was, Cillian wasn’t sure he had the nerve to stop the dragon for much longer.

Carrick looked at him, smirking. It took all of Cillian’s strength to keep from hurtling the brass knuckles right at his smug face. He was so much like his father – blind to change and ignorant to progress or any worldview other than his own. It was hard to imagine that they were brothers at all, though looking at him was like looking at a younger version of himself. The eyes were the same emerald, and his nose was just as straight and regal, his cheekbones high and jaw strong. So similar, yet completely different.

“I don’t understand your constant need to conform to the ages. We are dragons, brother. We
make
the ages. The present will be whatever we want it to be. If we rise up and take what is ours, there isn’t a force strong enough to stop us.”

For the first time in many years, Cillian saw a spark in his brother’s eye. A glaring, worrying look that made him want to knock some sense into him. Passion without direction was a dangerous thing, but passion directed at things unwise and unkind was a nightmare in the making. The man in him rebelled at the very thought that Carrick was proposing, but his dragon…

His dragon listened. They were primal beasts after all, built to rule, to conquer and to guard. Those things had become more and more scarce now. No wonder a dragon would feel the pull for a darker time, a time when things were built with the dragon, not mankind in mind.

“They’d slaughter us,” Cillian said, his voice low, fighting against the dragon.

It seemed like an impossible battle, being torn between his need to find Ruby, his desire to make his brother understand that the path he was on could lead to nothing but destruction and staying in control when his dragon thought best to take it from him.

“Who are
they
?” Carrick asked, emptying the glass with one gulp.

He set it down, sneering at Cillian. A line of smoke spewed from his nostrils, wafting up in a thin pillar. It somehow gave the madness in his eyes more weight.

“The shifters would join us, not that we need them. Wolves, bears, lions… They could all be wiped out by a single dragon. It was only because they honored us as stronger than they that we ever kept them around at all. Now, I think our forefathers should have destroyed them a long time ago. I can’t believe we’ve sunken so low – dealing with them, talking to them. Befriending them. Disgusting.”

“It doesn’t matter who’d join us and who wouldn’t. As long as we’ve been around, we’ve worked to hide our identities, to keep all shifters out of the public eye. You are not the first to think that we should be ruling, not co-existing. And you know what we’ve done to shifters like you? We’ve made it as if they never existed at all. Is that what you want, Carrick?

I can understand you thinking that I am not doing right by the family, that things should be different for us. But that is on us, not the rest of society. Your problem is with me, not with everyone else.”

The moon cast a hazy glow around his brother, standing in front of the window. Carrick smirked, wrapping his fingers behind his back. He wore heavy bejeweled and crested chains around his neck. The cuffs he had on his wrists were adorned with the family crest and large emeralds. He was dressed in only the most expensive clothes. He was everything that Cillian wasn’t and never wanted to be.

“An astute observation, brother. You
are
my first problem. But I feel you are a problem solving itself. Or unraveling itself, if you will.”

He grinned, menace dripping from his words. That was all Cillian could take.

In a flash, he had crossed the room, jumped over the couch and grabbed Carrick by the chest. Cillian slammed him against the window as if he weighed nothing at all, the reinforced glass shuddering and quaking under the weight of the two large shifters. Cillian could feel chains breaking and the gold spilling to the floor. It physically hurt him, as badly as it did Carrick, but he had more pressing matters to attend to – like shaking some fucking sense into his baby brother.

“You know where she is, don’t you? Don’t you!? Answer me, you European slime,” Cillian hissed, pulling him back and slamming him against the glass again. He could hear it beginning to crack.

He didn’t care. Color seeped out of Carrick’s face, and his hands grabbed at Cillian’s wrists.

“You’re insane,” he choked, his eyes wide with surprise.

For all his posturing, it seemed that his plans didn’t account for a man mad with worry for his mate.

“Compared to you, I’m a poster boy for mental health. Where is she? Who has her?” he demanded again, the adrenaline pounding in his veins and making everything else disappear into the backdrop of his mind.

A thought occurred to him, watching his little brother dangle, surprisingly helpless. He saw stunned surprise there, and despite what Carrick put forward, it became painfully obvious that it was just that – all words, no action. Cillian gritted his teeth, looking at his worm of a brother, made soft by their father’s staunch beliefs in a world that would not return. A chilling realization ran through him.

“You never planned to challenge me at all, did you? You’d never win… You’re smaller, slower, weaker…This is how you wanted me. Half out of my mind with rage and worry, bringing me down so you could take my place. You fucking runt, that’s what this is, isn’t it!? Who put you up to this? I know you can’t be this smart on your own. You never bothered to learn a useful thing in your entitled life.” Cillian hissed, one hand clenching around Carrick’s throat and slamming him against the window time and time again.

Fear brimmed in the younger Greenmeadow’s eyes. It broke something inside Cillian, but he didn’t care. There was no room for that now.

“Fine! Fuck, let me down, Cillian!” Carrick croaked, his hands clawing at Cillian’s face.

Cillian loosened his grip, but only a little. He trembled with fury – a time bomb that could go off at any second. Somewhere out there, Ruby was in trouble, and it was all because a spoiled brat thought he could do a job reserved for men. Right then and there, Cillian vowed to himself that if he got Ruby back, he would do his damndest to end up nothing like the last few generations of elders.

He’d work for their name. He’d make it worth something again, so that wretched, spineless lizards like Carrick wouldn’t be the ones carrying their legacy.

“It was Romulus. He… he suggested I… that. Fuck. Okay, I don’t think you should be the elder. I don’t like how you’re handling our name,
working
like we’re some common lizards. Romulus got rid of Remington, so I thought I could do the same. Please, Cillian, let me the fuck down.”

Cillian’s face hardened. That’s what he, along with Devon and the Goldplains hadn’t been able to figure out. Remington Redblade had attacked Devon Bluewing, stealing his bride, challenging him for Treasure Lane’s Head of Council, a position his family had never held. It had seemed odd to Cillian that the hot-blooded but calculating Remington would take such a risk, but it all made sense if there was a snake like Romulus whispering into his ear, ready to strike when he was at his weakest, making him think that he had to fight for his position as elder.

Just like Carrick had tried to do to him. For a moment, he almost felt sad for Remington – an emotion that quickly passed when he looked at Carrick. Violence only understood violence.

“No,” Cillian said simply.

He pulled Carrick back one more time and with a roar, slammed him into the cracking windowpane, letting go just as the window shattered into a million little pieces. As if in slow motion, Cillian watched his little brother flail for a few moments, eyes wide with fear and surprise, before his instincts kicked in and he shifted mid-fall. The emerald green dragon pulled himself up at the last moment, careening over the sidewalks for a second before speeding upwards and disappearing into the clouds like a bullet from a gun.

As the last flick of his tail disappeared into the clouds, so did Cillian from the apartment. The door slammed behind him, leaving no trace that he had been there at all, other than the shattered window and the cool night air now blowing through the living room. He was perfectly certain that he wasn’t going to regret what he’d done. What’s more, he was certain who had his bride.

And they weren’t going to be happy to see him when he found them.    

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ruby

Ruby’s red dress fit her as if it had been sewn right on her body. She knew it hugged her curves perfectly, showing off her assets in their tastiest form, and she worked it for all it was worth. Just like she’d expected, Trident had come for her a little after she woke up, and he had the good fortune of getting the first look at her. All long tan legs in high pumps and a body that shifters would kill for – she was a dame to behold.

Her lips were as red as her name, and on the outside, she was cool and collected. On the inside, though, her stomach jumped with butterflies with every step she took, and her palms were sweating like she was about to risk her life. Though, she wasn’t entirely sure whether that wasn’t the case. She was playing with wolves, and the wolves had big teeth.

Ruby put on her most dazzling smile as she entered the common room, now turned into some makeshift hall complete with plastic tables and chairs, and she could even spy a tablecloth or two. It all felt very tongue in cheek, but if Cable wanted to put on a show, hell, she could play along. She took a deep breath, ignoring the thump of metal music in the background as she locked eyes with her ‘betrothed’, dressed in his finest leathers. She’d spent far too much time being a pawn for others. This time, she was going to be in control.

She left Trident’s side and glided across the room. Her smile faltered a little and her stomach did a somersault as she saw the pendant dangling around Cable’s neck. At least her assumptions had been correct. Cable was holding onto the dragon stone, and if he had it, there was still a chance she could get it from him. It was a small mercy that he hadn’t hidden it somewhere or discarded it altogether.

I wonder if he knows what it is,
she thought, steeling her nerves.

Cable stood up and the ruckus around him dimmed a bit, expectant eyes turning towards Ruby. She made like she didn’t see them at all and was completely blind to the interest brimming around her – as if she only had eyes for Cable. He liked it, she knew.

“Cable,” she said softly as his hands locked around her waist and pulled her nearer.

He smelled like her worst nightmares. She smiled even brighter.

“My reluctant little bride!” Cable exclaimed, bringing forth another wave of hoarse laughter from the bikers around them.

Ruby could almost feel Yaya cringing from her spot next to Trident, her friend having been brought along to witness her humiliation. Ruby pecked Cable on the cheek and wrapped her hands around his neck, hugging him warmly. She had to wonder what it said about her that she could pretend to like the man so effortlessly, even though deep inside she felt nothing but disgust and discomfort.

“I hope you have learned your lesson now, Ruby. You shouldn’t run from me. I don’t like it when you run,” Cable said darkly, lowering his voice so only she could hear him.

His grip tightened around her waist, and Ruby had to catch herself to keep from wincing.  His fingers dug into her flesh, as if he was trying to nail her to his side, never to leave unless he gave her express permission. She nodded demurely, anger bubbling in her stomach.

“I don’t like it when I run either,” she admitted.

At least that was the truth. Ruby Accardo was done running – that much she’d promised herself. If she didn’t like something, she’d just have to fight her way through it or suffer the consequences. Nothing but horrible things had come from turning her back on her problems.

“Good,” Cable said after a pause, his breath smelling of beer and garlic sticks – the mainstays of any great wedding.

His grip loosened a little, and Ruby exhaled, unknowingly having held her breath. She smiled as he sat down and pulled her onto his lap, making her curl up against him. It felt entirely wrong to be so close to him, but Ruby had a plan, and that plan couldn’t be brought to fruition without doing a few things she didn’t want. The pendant caught her eye, its dark glow somewhat muddled by his hairy chest with just the top of the stone peeking out from under his ragged black tee.