Page 50 of Cole's Command

Chapter Seventeen

Cole

––––––––

WATCHING HER SPRINT away, Cole blew out a breath. He should have seen this coming, should have guessed where her thoughts were headed even when he hadn’t been listening to them.

“Shit!”

Banging his fist against the steering wheel, he opened his door and stepped out into the fresh air. He’d hoped he’d been making progress and was helping Eden to see reason, but her mad dash into the surrounding brush suggested otherwise.

“Fine.” Shrugging out of his shirt, he discarded the garment to the seat and stripped out of his pants. “Have it your way.”

Pinning his stare on the figure of the woman he wanted, he started after her. He didn’t need the dragon to be physically faster than Eden, and it didn’t take long for him to close the distance between them. Hearing his approach, she peered back nervously.

“Stay back!” she cried, almost losing her footing as she noticed he was naked. “I mean it, Cole.”

“Not an option,” he confirmed as her focus returned to where she was running. You know that, Eden.”

This wasn’t getting him anywhere, and slowing his pace, he let her get away. Sure, he could catch up with her, but then what? Eden was headstrong and capable, and Cole would have to wrestle her to the ground to stop her getaway. The last thing he wanted to do was harm her, even inadvertently.

“Better let the dragon handle this,” he decided, although there was no one there to hear him.

Concentrating on the beast swirling inside, he acknowledged the heat expanding from his core, surrendering to it as it rose to consume his mortal body. In a flash, the dragon emerged, his claws hitting the ground as his snout stretched high into the air.

“Eden.” His voice reverberated across the ground, and he enjoyed the panic on her face as she spun to acknowledge him. “You don’t have a choice, little girl, and you know it.”

He wasn’t sure where the spontaneous pet name for her derived, but picking up his pace and advancing on his target, the noun was fitting. Older than him she might be, but as he watched her turn and run, Eden had never looked so fragile.

“Come here.” Leaping forward, he extended his front paw and caught her safely in his grasp.

“No!” Her scream was so shrill he thanked the gods that there was no one else in earshot.

“You’re safe,” he reminded her, although he accepted it might not feel that way to her in that moment. She’d only just discovered his shifter secret, and was now being snatched away by the beast himself.

“Let me go.” Her tiny fist hammered against the outside of his flesh. “Damn it, Cole. Let me go!”

“You don’t want me to do that,” he confirmed, extending his strapping wings and taking flight.

“Oh, my God!” she gasped, falling still the instant he left the ground. “Oh, my God. We’re going to die.”

“We’re not going to die,” he reassured her, holding her closer to his chest as he soared in the frigid air. “But I do need to get you to the lodge as soon as possible. It’s too cold for you up here.”

“Cole!” Turning her face away from the looming elevations, she buried it beside his blue skin. “Please.”

“I’ve got you.” He hoped his words were reassuring as he swooped through the low cloud. “I won’t let anything happen to you, little girl.”

Fireside mountain towered ahead, and on it, the lodge that would offer them sanctuary until their misunderstandings had been ironed out.