Their Runaway Mate

Excerpt

“Good grief, Jasmine, get moving. You know what to do.”

“But…” Her words ended on a garbled sob. It wasn’t like as if she didn’t know this was a possibility—the Department of Homeland Security had sent a letter explaining the situation to every woman without a family who had been shortlisted, or as they liked to call it volunteered—but everyone had assured them that the human rights groups had a convincing case. The decision wasn’t due to come in for months yet.

“I’ll come when I can. When it is safe. I’ll find you, honey, don’t you worry about that.” Trixy shook her head. “And I’ll do what I can to get this fixed.”

As soon as her aunt had disappeared from the screen, glass shattered over her.

Jasmine screamed.

Two yellow eyes peered through the broken shards of her bedroom window. Jasmine had never seen a dragon this close before, except in her nightmares. They’d always flown overhead, far above the realm of mere humans. Their kind didn’t invade human neighborhoods. They just didn’t. Until now.

A dark scar zigzagged down its reptilian face. Its scaly head was too large to fit through the narrow window, but before her eyes the creature began to morph and shrink. He was shifting to human form so he could come into her home.

The crash of more windows breaking pierced the thunder of her pounding heart. There were more of them and it seemed they were coming through every opening in her house. And if there wasn’t an opening, they were making their own.

“Stop!” A man’s voice broke through the chaotic noise.

He ran in front of the dragon and put up his hands as if he could command the beast like a lion tamer. Was he crazy? Maybe he was one of those vigilante slayers come to rescue her? Had he brought friends?

No one else came running. No one else shouted.

The frenzied sounds of her home being ruined still resounded through the air.

Her would-be hero glanced over his shoulder at her. Damn, he was a pretty hot savior. His dark brown hair was long enough to curl your fingers through, his green eyes twinkled, and his mouth was kicked up on one side in a lopsided grin. He winked at her before turning back to the dragon. Good grief, he may be sexy as hell, but he wasn’t the smartest guy around. He didn’t have a weapon or anything. There was no way he would be able to stop the swarm of giant beasts from invading her house and kidnapping her.

Why did all the good-looking ones have to be nuts?

At least he had stalled the invasion for a minute.

Jasmine scrambled to her bathroom—which was thankfully windowless—and bolted the door. The dragon’s deep chuckle followed her. She pushed aside the bath mat, fumbled for the hatch in the floor and wrenched it open. Almost a century ago—long before the average person knew about dragons—this passage had been used for smuggling alcohol during Prohibition. Now it was her only hope of survival.

A thump from the other room suggested that the beast had just jumped into her room. How long would it take him to break through the door? Did dragons in human form have much strength?

What a stupid question. Of course dragons were strong.

That’s why the council was sacrificing her and other single women to the beasts. “A treasure fit for a dragon.” Her mother’s lilting voice floated through her mind.

Shit, shit, shit.

Where was the blasted light?

Then her fingers found the switch, coated in cobwebs. She squeezed into the narrow opening. It was tight for the first few feet, then she ran out of ladder rungs and her feet dangled free. The whole idea of escaping through a secret passage was crazy. Would she make it? She prayed the opening would be too small for a dragon, even one in human form. But what if—? No, she didn’t have time to question that right now. She had to try. She and her mystery rescuer would never be able to fight off a squadron of the winged beasts.

Jasmine let go of the last rung of the ladder she’d been clinging to. She landed with a thud. The fall hadn’t hurt nearly as much as she’d feared it might. The small tunnel was tall enough for her stand but narrow enough to bang her shoulders. The yellowy glow of the lights in the underground tunnel made this whole thing seem even more surreal. A loud crack from above shot through the rock-hewn opening.

It was coming.

Oh, God, what had happened to her knight in shining armour? Please let him be okay.

Dust showered her as the beast crashed against the narrow hole again. She had to hope he was safe. She just fit in the space. Neither the invading dragon nor her would-be dragon tamer would make it through here.

The dark figure loomed over her. He was shouting, but all she heard was a roar of sounds. The words were unclear. He reached into the hole and grabbed at her hair. She wrenched away, wincing as a handful of strands pulled free.

Then she ran, chased down the passage by the dragon’s angry howl.