Heart of the Dragons: Bad Dragons 2

  Heart of the Dragons

  Bad Dragons 2

  Terry Bolryder

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Also by Terry Bolryder

  Author’s Note

  Wait!

  Don’t read this book without reading the first in the series or you’ll be lost!

  Kiss of the Dragons (Bad Dragons Book 1)

  This is a reverse harem romance with six sexy male leads fighting each other and everyone else to get to one human woman who is lost in their world.

  I hope you enjoy the journey of Anna and her dragons!

  Thanks,

  Terry

  Chapter 1

  Anna

  “How did you sleep?”

  I turn over in bed at the sound of a knock on the door following Rainier’s words.

  I don’t want to see him.

  “Go away,” I call out, rolling over and staring at the cuff on my wrist. The one he put there last night to keep me from running.

  Not like I have anywhere to go. The dragons who were protecting me are locked in his basement, and who knows if they are hurt? I have to find them and…

  “Let me in, please,” Rainier says quietly. “I won’t ask again.”

  “I can’t. I’m chained.”

  “Invite me, then,” he says mildly.

  I know he’s just going to come in anyway, but it irks me to invite him. He took my choice away by chaining me, and I still don’t know his intentions.

  Plus, it hurt my trust in him, considering I liked him when I first met him in the library. Why did things have to go badly now?

  “I’m coming in, and then I’ll explain,” he says, and I sigh as the door creaks open and I hear his footsteps enter the room.

  I don’t look at him.

  Last night, a few of his servants brought in my bag and anything else I could need, including some weird clothing that doesn’t look at all human.

  They took my cuff off and left me to change but came back in shortly after to put it back on. There is enough length on the delicate chain for me to sleep comfortably, but I hate seeing it on my arm.

  I roll onto my back, and the chain jingles as my arm flops above my head and I stare at Rainier, who is walking in and pushing a table with something on it.

  I push myself up in bed and stare at him as he pulls two plush chairs up to the table.

  “Breakfast?” His tone is pleasant, and I notice a teapot and two cups plus some plates filled with little pastries.

  Just as I’m opening my mouth to tell him where he can shove his pastries, my stomach rumbles.

  He raises a dark-silver eyebrow at me, then smiles. His silver hair is down in a low braid, and it would look odd on anyone else. But with Rainier’s sharp features and harsh, intelligent eyes, it just softens him slightly.

  Not enough to let my guard down.

  “I’m sorry about the cuff,” he says, waving a hand at it. I gasp as it disappears.

  “How did you do that?”

  “I made it. I can take it away,” he says simply. “Tea?”

  I just stare at him blankly as he holds up the teapot, which is delicate white china with little silver swirls.

  “You kidnapped me and imprisoned my friends, and you expect me to drink tea with you?”

  He shrugs mildly. He’s wearing a soft white robe over a gray tee shirt and black lounge pants and looks utterly comfortable.

  I try not to think about the hard, cut muscles showing everywhere the clothing begins or ends. His neck. His forearms that extend out of his robe. His ankles.

  “I think both of the things you stated are reasons you might actually agree to take tea with me, considering I have all of the control in the situation,” he says.

  I let out a grunt and slump into one of the chairs, realizing he is right. It’s surprisingly soft and I am hungry, so when he hands me a plate with a cup of steaming tea and a few fluffy muffins on it, I take it eagerly.

  If I’m going to be captured, I might as well eat.

  Looking around the room, I realize this is probably a better fate than what awaited me if I hadn’t found Griffin or if Griffin had decided to sell me.

  If we hadn’t found Seth, would he have insisted on letting me go?

  I shake my head and eat another muffin, knowing I’ll need my strength if I’m to go up against this big brute.

  “Few people would ever call me brutish,” Rainier says smoothly, pouring himself a cup of tea. “I’ll thank you to keep your thoughts less slanderous.”

  “I’ll thank you to stay out of my head,” I mutter, making him cock his head curiously at me.

  I shouldn’t have looked up, because there are those eyes. Dark gray with that silver ring sparkling around them. Eyes I don’t understand.

  “I’ll try to stay out of your head, but it’s hard when you’re as obsessed with information as I am,” Rainier says.

  “Griffin can stay out of my head. Why can’t you?”

  “Does Seth stay out of your head?” Rainier asks, leaning back in his chair, slowly splaying his long, pale fingers over the arms of it. “Griffin doesn’t want to own his own thoughts, let alone others’. But I bet Seth still reads your mind.”

  “Maybe,” I say. “But at least he doesn’t talk about it.”

  “Fine then,” Rainier says. “Let’s talk about it, and I won’t have to read your mind.”

  “Talk about what?”

  “Why you’re so upset that I imprisoned two misbehaving dragons.”

  “They aren’t misbehaving,” I retort. “They’ve been protecting me.”

  “To what end?” Rainier’s handsome face is impassive, but I can see a calculating look in his eyes. “You shouldn’t be so innocent, dragon heart.”

  “Anna.” I correct him because I’m really tired of being called the other thing.

  “I mean, you probably are a dragon heart at this point,” Rainier says. “So it’s not amiss to call you that.”

  “Why would I be?”

  “You made it here, didn’t you?” His hands curl into the chair slightly. “How close are you with Seth and Griffin exactly?”

  I feel my cheeks heat and bite into a sandwich so I have an excuse not to answer him. “Not that close.” I’m not sure I should tell him anything that has gone on.

  Spending time with him again, it really seems like he’s not a bad person… but he still has my friends in the basement.

  “I’m not like them, you see,” Rainier says, crossing one leg gingerly over the other. “I’m here by choice, while they were sent here.”

  “Why are you here, then?”

  “There are things I can learn,” Rainier says. “I’m obsessed with learning.”

  “You should learn more about feelings,” I mutter because I feel like he is totally missing that subject.

  I wonder if he even has feelings.

  “I have feelings,” he says sharply.

  “Then how could you just betray Seth and Griffin like that? They are your friends. They came to get help from you.”

  “For what?”

  “To ask about me,” I say. “To see if there is any way
to help me back to my world. Or—”

  “Or to see if they could use you,” Rainier says. “You don’t know them like I do.”

  “And you don’t know them like I do,” I snap back.

  Rainier lets out a long sigh as he pushes his braid back over one shoulder. “Fine. I’ll let you see them. See that they aren’t being hurt or punished, all right? But you have to do something for me first.”

  “Fine,” I say irritably, shoving the rest of a muffin in my mouth. “Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

  “You have to beat me at chess.”

  I glance up at him, careful to guard my thoughts about that particular activity. “If you can read my mind, what is the point of chess?”

  “I won’t,” he says. “Dragon’s promise.”

  I sigh, brushing crumbs off my hands. I want to see Seth and Griffin, and one game of chess isn’t so much to ask. “Where’s the board?”

  Rainer waves a hand, and the door opens behind him and a wooden box hovers through to land in his hand.

  A small table comes in after, and when it lands next to our breakfast table, Rainer puts the board down on it.

  Then he waves a hand, and my chair moves slightly to the side in front of the chess table.

  “I’m never going to get used to that,” I mutter. “Does Lee know I’m here?”

  “I don’t want you to get the idea that I’m close with Lee,” Rainier says. “He usually does his own thing. But he came to me that day and made an offer, and I took it.”

  “What was the offer?”

  “I’m not talking about that right now. Or about Lee. It’s immaterial to the subject at hand.”

  “Which is?”

  “Whether or not you can beat me at chess,” he says with a calm smile on those full, perfect lips.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be super smart?” I ask.

  He nods, setting up the pieces with his hands and not his powers. “It’s one of the gifts of the silver dragon.”

  “So how am I supposed to beat you?”

  “You aren’t,” he said. “But it’s a way to get you to spend time with me.”

  “So there isn’t any hope of me seeing Griffin or Seth?”

  He shakes his head. “Probably not, but it can’t hurt to try, right?”

  I lower my brows. He doesn’t know it, but I might just have a chance at beating him. I stare at the board for a long moment, at the beautifully carved wooden pieces. At Rainier’s face, intensely focused.

  This game means a lot to him for some reason.

  And I mean to play it and win.

  “You first,” he says, pushing the board toward me.

  I make my move. An aggressive one. I just want to see what he’ll do.

  His face is calm, and then he makes his move, blocking a few potential moves I could have made.

  I’m having fun now, and I move another piece, setting up a different option.

  He moves again, and I can see him going for a standard quick checkmate.

  When I block him, something sparks in those gray eyes.

  As we continue to play, taking each other’s pieces, blocking known strategies, I begin to feel a little bit excited. I could win.

  There’s something soothing about playing chess. It takes me back to another time when I was troubled and it gave me something to distract me.

  When my sister was first hurt in the wreck, I spent a lot of nights by her bedside, waiting for her to wake up. Mom and Dad both had to work, and I hated being home alone and thinking of Gayle in the hospital.

  I brought some board games at one point, and there was a really nice orderly who liked to play chess.

  He’d played competitive chess back in high school, and we had a lot of fun games together where I learned everything I could. It distracted me from the long nights, the beeping monitors, the feeling that my whole future was slipping away from me.

  Right up until the day I folded up the chess board and walked away because Gayle was never going to get better and the orderly had been assigned to another wing.

  Sadness falls over me at the memory, making it hard to remember the strategy I was using. I stare at the chessboard with eyes that are starting to blur with tears, remembering those days where things seemed too desperate.

  Then things just got tiring and sad. Which is why I ended up here. Why I need to keep going and press on so Lee will heal her.

  “I assume Lee will get in touch with you again when he’s ready,” Rainier says softly, and his eyes are slightly wide when he looks over at me. I swipe at my tears, hoping he hasn’t been reading my thoughts.

  “Yeah, I bet,” I say. “I’m just confused about the whole situation. Why he hasn’t showed up again. He did for a few times.”

  “He’s odd,” Rainier says. “Even I don’t know when he’ll show up.”

  “But you still wanted me sent here.”

  “I figured once you met Seth and Griffin, you’d be eager to be with a dragon with more… class.”

  I laugh as I swipe at the last of my tears with my pajama sleeve. “Right. Class. Like kidnapping someone and forcing them to play a game to see their friends.”

  “Well, I never would have threatened to sell you,” he retorts, making a move I have no idea how to counter.

  I’m still trying to get the memory of that beeping monitor out of my head.

  “Your turn,” he says softly. His head tilts slightly, like he’s waiting expectantly for something, so I finally study the board again.

  I frown at what I see there, then look up at him questioningly.

  He just studies his nails, acting like nothing is off here.

  When I take my piece and move it into position, declaring checkmate, he doesn’t even respond.

  Instead, he stands with a sigh and packs up the board.

  I watch him, confused.

  When he’s about to leave through the door, he turns back to me, so tall he barely fits in the frame. “I didn’t mean to read your mind, but you seemed so sad. For what it’s worth, I am sorry about your sister.” His hand rests on the handle, caressing it. “When you’re changed and ready, I’ll take you down to see Seth and Griffin.”

  Without another word, he leaves, closing and locking the door behind him.

  Chapter 2

  Anna

  After a shower, I change into some human clothing from my bag. A black, hooded pullover sweater and jeans plus black ankle boots. A white tank underneath that doesn’t show.

  I pull my hair into a high ponytail, squeeze my cheeks to look less dead inside, and let out a sigh as I stare in the mirror.

  Rainier let me win at chess. I know it. He didn’t admit it and I’m not sure he ever will since kindness seems like weakness to most of these dragons, but I don’t care.

  It’s at least something to consider.

  And a distraction from the thoughts that are still making me numb.

  I stretch nervously, wondering how Griffin and Seth will react to seeing me. Will they be mad at me for getting us in this mess?

  I walk to my door and put a hand on the knob, and when I go to turn it, I hear a little click.

  When I open it, Rainier is outside waiting for me. He must have telepathically unlocked the latch when he sensed me there.

  There is something attractive about being with someone like Rainier. Everything would always be managed. Carefully taken care of. Everything would be… pristine.

  But there’s also a coldness emanating from him. A cool, collected frost that makes you think he just doesn’t operate like other people. Or other dragons.

  When I walk toward him, he stands and puts out an arm for me to take. I shake my head, but his brows lower and he keeps his arm out insistently. “You go down there with me or not at all.”

  I sigh and wrap my hand gently around his bicep, trying not to think about how big or hard or warm it is. Rainier sucks, I tell myself. He sucks.

  I feel him flinch slightly and feel somewhat guilty, but he deser
ves it. He imprisoned my friends.

  He walks me to the door that leads downstairs and takes my hand as we go down the spiral staircase together. When we reach the ground floor, he takes me to a nearby door, opens it, and starts down another flight of stairs. This one is straight.

  As we descend, I can feel the air get cooler. It’s like we’re going into a cellar, and I can smell wet earth.

  Our feet touch dirt, and we walk a few feet down a tunnel before he reaches a big steel door. He pushes it open, and I stare at the sight in front of me as he pulls me in.

  It’s a lab but unlike anything I’ve seen before.

  There are tables with crazy-looking equipment. Bottles bubbling on tables. Shelves filled with potions. Strange, mechanical machines moving on their own.

  Rainer pulls me through this room to a door on the other side.

  He pulls keys out of his pocket and unlocks the heavy wood-and-metal door, and when he pushes it open, I smile in surprise.

  Behind glass, there are two cells next to one another, and in them, surrounded by comfortable furnishings like a bed and table and chairs, are Seth and Griffin.

  Griffin stands in his cell, his red hair matted in every direction.

  “Tell him to stop pulling at it,” Seth says from his bed where he is lying down and reading. He cocks an eyebrow at Rainier. “Was all of this really necessary?”

  “I can’t trust you,” Rainier says softly, keeping my hand on his arm as he turns to face the other dragons. “You’re both criminals.”

  Griffin snarls and comes forward to slam both fists on the glass in front of him, and the force of it startles me. But the glass doesn’t break. “You shouldn’t trust us.” He snarls at Rainier. “You let me out, and I’ll show you just how criminal I can be, you fucking traitor.”

  “Tsk, tsk, such language,” Rainier says mockingly, pushing me slightly behind him as he steps forward to meet Griffin.