Dragon's Mercy
1.

24 Hours Earlier

"Elena, you're a cheating bitch!" The last thing Maria expected on her wedding day was to walk in on her fiance having sex with someone else, much less her own stepmother.

"Maria, it's not what you think!"

"It's an arranged marriage. No one cares what she thinks."

Maria had only met her 'fiance' Nestor yesterday since their marriage was arranged by her father, the head dragon lord in their territory.

"And the wedding's off."

"No, Maria. Be reasonable. We can still work this out."

Elena's eyes track to someone behind her. Maria turns, but it's too late. "Get her."

Something hard hits Maria over the head and everything goes black.

~W~

Present day

Her head pounds as her eyes flutter open, realizing the dark dungeon wasn't a bad dream. She pulls on the chain around her wrist and sees it's attached to an unconscious man with a muscular, burly chest and a chiseled jaw. She rears back with fury. It's Ryker, dragon lord over the demon flight and her mortal enemy.

Suddenly, his eyes shoot open, narrowing on her with a snarl. "Murderer! What trick is this?" Ryker jumps up, pulling the chain that connects his right wrist to her left one, pinning her to the dungeon wall. An electric shock moves through her as soon as he touches her. She knows he felt it too, because his eyes widen with surprise.

"Get off me! I'm imprisoned too, so I'm obviously not responsible."

"You Black Sun dragons will do anything to get your way. Kidnapping is nothing compared to your dragon flight killing my father and my sister!"

"Get the facts right. My father only ordered their deaths after your flight killed my mother."

His hands tighten on her wrists, pressing them harder into the wall. "I always knew I'd see you chained in a dungeon. I just imagined being on the other side of the cell."

Twisting her wrists, she loosens his grip as she stomps on his left foot. "Let me go! You're the criminal here." She pushes against his chest, which feels like a ton of bricks, but he releases her and steps back.

"One wrong move and I'll snap your neck."

"One wrong move from you and I'll claw out your throat. But since we're chained together, it makes sense to let you live since I can't drag your heavy-ass dead body out of here."

Ryker eyes her up and down in her wedding dress as his lips curve into a cruel smirk. "So, what's the Black Sun flight's most precious bargaining tool doing chained in a dungeon? Did you fiance realize you'd probably kill him in his sleep and get rid of you?"

She bristles, annoyed by how close he is to the truth. "Who kidnapped you?" She turns the tables on him.

"I don't know. I don't remember anything."

"Well, neither do I."

He holds her eyes as he lifts his cuffed wrist, slowly pulling the chain and forcing her closer to him. Ryker's piercing gaze burns into her as if he's trying to read her every thought. The dangerous growl that emanates from him sends shivers down her spine. "I can't shift. Damn it!"

She closes her eyes and focuses, but she also can't shift into her dragon. Ryker tries to pull the cuffs off with all his might, but they don't budge at all. "It's the cuffs. They're made of copper. We only have our human strength until they come off." Copper is severely harmful to dragons. It weakens them if touched and can be deadly if ingested. A door SLAMS in the distance and footsteps approach. Ryker moves toward their cell door, stepping on her wedding dress in the process. "Your damn dress is going to get us killed." She quickly reaches down and rips the long skirt from her waist. Ryker's dark gaze moves over her exposed legs. She raises her brows in return. "That works." She gets into a fighting stand next to him. Her body zings with adrenaline as the footsteps get closer. "Dragon hunters." Her blood goes cold. Dragon hunters are a large group of pure-blood humans who hunt dragons and sell their parts for profit. Their cell door opens and three hunters enter. Immediately, the leader shocks them both with a taser.

"Ahh!" She falls to the ground as white-hot electricity burns through her body.

"One move and I'll cut your arm off. You both are to do exactly as I say." The guard warns.

The hunters lead her and Ryker outside, where 50 other prisoners are either in cages or lined up by the guillotine.

"Ryker, we have to fight!" Ryker's mother, Simone, is also a prisoner. She stands by the guillotine with her wrists chained to a skinny prisoner.

"Mom! I'll get you out of here!"

"They're going to torture us before they kill us. Oh, God!"

Ryker lurches toward his mother, but the hunter leader pulls him back. "I have a special cage for you and Maria. I was paid extra to torture and skin you alive."

"Who paid you?"

The leader ignores Ryker and walks away. Another hunter guard roughly grabs Maria. "We're going to have a lot of fun with you tonight."

She lifts her right leg and knees the guard in the groin.

"Nice kick. He deserved that."

Another guard punches her. Ryker attacks the guard, hitting him in the throat. Three more hunters jump on Ryker, sending them both to the ground. After a few kicks and punches to them, they stand them back up. "I can't kill you yet. First, we need to strip you of all your value." The guard pushes her and Ryker toward a small group of prisoners. He forces a prisoner to drink an elixir. Maria watches with horror as the prisoner involuntarily shifts into a dragon. The hunters chain the dragon to the ground and cut off its scales one-by-one to sell at their market. The dragon roars with pain.

"How can they force dragons to shift?" She cocks a brow.

"I don't know. But we need to call a truce..... for now. We fight our way out of here together and I won't kill you when we get out of these damn chains."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Because you don't have a choice. We work together, or we die."

She looks into his serious gaze, annoyed her only option is to make a deal with the devil. "Fine. I'll agree to a truce."

There's a commotion to their left. "Get off me!" Ryker's mother kicks a dragon hunter and runs toward the woods, pulling the skinny prisoner behind her.

"Hey! Get back here!"

Maria and Ryker run after Simone to help her, but another hunter tugs her back. Ryker punches him in the kidney. The guard who attacked Maria earlier grasps Simone's throat and raises a fist to punch her.

"No, Mother!"

Just as the guard's fist is about to hit Simone's face, she shouts at him as loudly as she can. "Look! Dragons are approaching!"

The guard immediately looks to the empty sky as Simone kicks him in the stomach.

"Go, Mom. I'll take the guards." At his words, the Simone and the skinny prisoner take off toward the forest. "It was nice of you to help her, Maria." Ryker clenches his jaw as if regretting the words as soon as they're out of his mouth.

"Well, the killing has to stop somewhere."

"You're right. Now, follow me. Do exactly what I say." Before she can argue, he drags her to the forest, opposite the way his mother ran.

"What are you doing?"

"More guards will follow us instead of them since we're their main target."

He's right. The guards abandon chasing his mother and follow her and Ryker toward the opposite forest. Ryker cuts right and tugs her behind a boulder, pinning her against the rock with his hot, solid body.

"They went this way!" The guards search just on the other side of the boulder.

She looks up into Ryker's dark gaze as their hearts pound as one. Shivers run down her spine when he presses a finger to her lips, indicating for her to be quiet. She squeezes herself harder against the rock and pulls Ryker closer, trying to shield their bodies as much as possible. Heat sears through her core when his hips press into hers.

They both sigh with relief when the group moves past them deeper into the forest. "My senses are dull, but I smell hunters south of us." Ryker crouches low as he grabs a large rock. He smashes it HARD on their chains, but the copper doesn't even chip.

"I smell water northeast of us. There may be a boat or a way to cross that will get us away from here."

Ryker studies her face and she lifts her brow in question. "Don't look so surprised that I had a good idea."

"Oh, I'm not surprised. I know how devious your family's mind is."

"You should since it was your father who killed my mother."

Ryker's hands roughly grip her shoulders. She tries to shake him off, but he squeezes harder. "Yes. And my father is now dead, as well as my sister, who was innocent in all of this."

"No one's innocent. We've all nurtured our hate for each other for years." His eyes grow colder, but she doesn't back down. "You act all high and mighty, but you're no better than me."

"I never said I was."

"You didn't have to. Your arrogance drips from each condescending word you say." Pushing him off her, she steps away. But he grabs the chain, forcing her back toward him. "See, you're a brute! You'll do anything to get your way."

"And you won't? There's no way your father would pass his precious dragon flight down to you if you didn't share his murderous beliefs."

She holds Ryker's angry eyes. Instead of fighting the chain, she steps closer. "I'm proud of my father's beliefs. In the 20 years as our flight's dragon lord, he tripled our size. Our people no longer live in fear of being attacked by an enemy, like your own dragon flight." She pushes against his chest, but he doesn't move. The tension between them sizzles. Ryker grabs her wrists, but he doesn't move her hands from his chest. "And what did your father have to do to get that power?"

"Probably the same thing your father did and the same thing you'll do as dragon lord over your flight. You judge me, yet you're no different. The only reason you hate my father is because inside, he's the same monster you see when you look in the mirror."

"No. My conscious is clean. I don't kill innocents." Annoyed by his attitude, she pushes on his chest at the same moment she sticks her foot out, tripping Ryker and forcing him to the ground. With a thud, she lands on top of him. Instead of pushing her off, he continues to hold her wrists. "Now what are you going to do, Maria?" His intense gaze burns into hers as his hard, virile body moves beneath her.

"There they are!"

Suddenly they turn as a group of hunters shoots bullets at them. Maria and Ryker scramble to their feet. They run through the forest, stopping when they get to the edge of a steep cliff. Her stomach drops when she looks down and sees a rough river 100 feet below them.

"It's too steep! We'll never make it with our hands cuffed."

Ryker turns back around as 30 dragon hunters run toward them. "You're dead!"

He whispers to her as he raises his hands in the air, seeming to surrender. "I need you to trust me. Play along." Before she can argue, Ryker shouts at the hunters. "I'll give you Maria without a fight if you release me."

"Ryker, no!"