Breakfast Club

MADDIE

The butter sizzled and browned the second it touched the frying pan. Perfect. The pan was just how I liked it.

Hael materialized behind me and pressed his body against my back.

~Well, how I like everything.~

~Hot.~

“Are you going to fry our eggs, little rat, or burn them to a crisp?” he asked, leaning down so his humid breath tickled my neck.

~“My~ eggs,” I corrected, wiggling away from his imposing physique before I cracked one into the cast iron.

The egg crackled, spewing yolk all over the marble countertop.

“Hmm.”

I watched Hael reach for a mixing bowl from a high shelf in the cabinet. Muscles rippled beneath the golden skin of his bare torso.

I paused for a moment, watching him. I was transported to the evening before, when he fucked me ever so sweetly…

And ever so hard...

I shook the fantasy away, touching the mint bracelet on my wrist.

It wasn’t the first time I was thankful Hael couldn’t read my mind.

“You know, rat,” he began, placing his supplies on the counter. “I don’t need to read your mind to know what you’re thinking…”

I glared at him, but he just smirked.

“Just like I know you’ll want some of my pancakes,” he teased.

Instead of responding, I scooped my sunny-side-up egg from the pan and left for the dining room.

I took a seat at the head of the table and admired the view.

Alright, I could admit it.

I had missed the Dobrzycka penthouse.

Dating billionaires had some perks. Even if it also came with some...complications. Like, for example, that they were dragons.

I sighed as the nightmare from Club Emerald the night before flashed before my eyes.

What I saw was worse than a dragon. Loch had become a monster. He’d beaten Darren to a blood pulp. Maybe worse...

I was traumatized from my run-in with Lochness.

Hael had calmed me with mind-blowing sex and his general presence—which was somehow ~sweet.~

But I was still sensitive after the awful night.

Hael appeared at my side. I poked my egg distractedly.

I didn’t want him to know I was so shaken up.

He served me a short stack of pancakes and a pile of bacon. Based on his speed, I knew he had prepared the food with dragonfire.

“I don’t want them unless—”

“They’re chocolate chip, you brat,” Hael replied through gritted teeth.

As he took a seat beside me, I gave him my sweetest smile, with chocolate all over my teeth.

He rolled his eyes but bit his tongue.

~I could get used to this nice boyfriend thing,~ I thought as I crunched on a piece of bacon.

“There is something I’d like to discuss with you, Maddie,” Hael began.

Needless to say, I was suspicious. He hadn’t used my real name since, well, ever.

And Hael wasn’t exactly one for “discussion.” He was more comfortable giving orders. Or locking me in a cage until I submitted to his will.

Hael was staring at his hands, which were folded together. His knuckles were white. He hadn’t touched his breakfast yet.

“It’s about...um,” he continued, meeting my eyes, “your job.”

I shoveled another forkful of pancake into my mouth. If he thought I would make this conversation easy for him, he was dead wrong.

“I worry about you with those scummy junkies,” Hael said. “And I’m wondering if you would…”

He had clearly hit a mental wall, and he let out an exasperated sigh. Grabbing a butter knife in his fist, he slammed it down so that the blade stuck into the wooden table.

“I want you to fucking stop selling overhead,” he finished.

I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Oh, ~now~ I see why you were being nice. Because you want something.”

~Typical.~

It was just like Hael to try and manipulate me.

But as he rested his head in his hands, I could tell it wasn’t ~totally~ true.

Hael was trying to be good to me, even if it was in his awkward, Dragon Lord way. He did worry about me on the streets of the Skeleton Quarter.

And he missed his brother.

“I’m not going to quit,” I told him. It was clear it didn’t come as a surprise because he didn’t react. “I know those alleys like the back of my hand. I won’t get hurt.”

I was bluffing, of course. Just the other day, a gun had been so close to my face that I could practically taste it.

But I wouldn’t stop selling. I liked the money. And honestly, I missed the rush of the Skeleton Quarter.

Sure, my clients were scummy junkies, but they were my people. That was where I was ~from.~

“Oh, ~right,~ street rat,” Hael spat as he slapped his palms down on the table. “You were held at gunpoint, and you think you’ll be safe?”

For a moment, I was at a loss for words with a forkful of pancake halfway to my mouth.

Hael had a point. But he was trying to control me. He wanted to take away my income—the thing that made me autonomous.

And it struck me as ~insane~ that he could be worrying about ~my~ safety while his own brother was torching people at the drop of a hat.

No one was safe in Requiem City with Lochness prowling the streets.

Well, no one except me.

How ~fucking~ ironic.

“I’ll make a deal with you, Hael,” I said, lowering the fork. “If you can stop Loch from torturing and murdering innocent people, I’ll stop selling overhead.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, sizing him up.

“Well, I wouldn’t say they’re exactly ~‘innocent’~—”

“Not the point!” I shouted.

Hael sighed, and he let his head fall into his hands once more.

Finally, he met my eyes. He looked tired.

“You think I don’t want him to stop?” he asked. “Of course I do, rat.”

“Then stop him.”

“I’ve tried. I can’t do it alone. I need you to help me.”

I swallowed. I felt resolve solidifying within me.

I was going to take down Lochness, even if I had to get Loch in the process.

“Of course I’ll help you. We have to get Loch back,” I managed a small smile. “But how?”

“That’s what I don’t know, little rat.” Hael pulled his knife out of the table and inspected the blade. “That’s the one thing I don’t know.”

Storm

There they are, my love.

Silver

How sad that they’re so thin…

Silver

Perhaps this setting depresses me.

Storm

We will help them.

Storm

They rely on the drug because they ache for their true form.

Silver

Indeed, my love.

STORM

I watched Silver pick the dirt from beneath her fingernails. I knew my mate was uncomfortable here. She preferred the sky to the ground. And she hated the street.

Me, I didn’t mind.

Even though we were sitting in the gutter.

I let my gaze drift down the rancid-smelling ally, over the rats, the pools of tepid water and excrement, the empty syringes and canisters of overhead.

The Skeleton Quarter was base.

But from its ashes, two dragons would soar.

A lone dog howled. A few streets away, a bottle smashed.

I eyed Dane and Aneurin. Their human forms were tall and formidable, but the effect of the drug was clear in the slouch of their shoulders.

Their strength was just a shadow of what it could have been.

The two brothers stood together in a corner, huddled over something they held in their hands.

I knew it was a near-empty container of overhead.

They were nervous.

Madeline would be back, the good little pet. By selling overhead, she was unknowingly executing my plan.

But the twins were nearly out of money.

I rose to my feet, pretending to struggle with aging joints.

My disguise required such exaggerations.

Storm

Would you like to join me?

Silver

Indeed.

Silver

You lead and I will follow.

I gazed into Silver’s violet eyes. I winked and took her hand, pulling her up.

We traveled down the alley toward the twins. Their mind link was weak from the overhead, so they didn’t sense us coming.

Of course, they didn’t even know about the mind link. They didn’t even know what they were.

Sorrow stabbed my heart.

How devastating that they lived their lives this way. In the gutter.

Not knowing that they could soar above it all.

What a loss for all of Requiem that our own could live like this.

I detested this city. It was built on violence and selfish ambition, and it never changed. Not in its hundreds of years of existence.

We were bound within its dingy walls. Like kings locked in a dungeon.

Even the most powerful beings in the universe fell prey to the evil pulsing of Requiem’s iron heart.

We ~all~ deserved to be free. And the only way to break that God-forsaken curse was to unite every dragon in Requiem.

“I sense your struggle,” I boomed, causing the two men to wince. They turned to me with shocked expressions.

Certainly, they were wondering who I was.

My long silver hair was matted. It sprouted from my chin and even my ears. My nose was knobby as a ginger root.

I wore tattered cloaks that dragged along the cement street.

Perhaps I looked like a wizard of the sewer.

Beside me, Silver’s ethereal beauty nearly shone through her disguise. Dirt smudged her face. She wore long robes and her delicate feet were bare.

“You rely on this drug. This overhead,” I said.

Dane narrowed his bloodshot eyes at me and Aneurin crossed his arms. They were rather fearsome, even in this sorry state.

“Perhaps it gives you strength. Perhaps it allows you to escape from this place.”

The brothers shared a glance.

“It is only a momentary fix, because you have yet to find your true form. The life you are destined for. Certainly, you’ve felt its pull?”

Silver whispered. “The call of the forest.”

“The rush of the wind,” I continued her chant. “The silky sensation all over your skin.”

“The fire that flickers from orange to blue.”

“The carnal desire for blood, flesh, and sinew.”

My mate and I went quiet as Dane and Aneurin froze in place.

I smiled, revealing my rotten teeth.

Indeed, their time was near. To realize their terrifying potential.

“Who are you?” Dane demanded.

“No matter,” I replied. “You will know soon enough. When you rise from the street to the sky.”

“Greatness runs through your veins. There is no escape.” Silver smiled ominously.

“You are Twin Leading Breeds,” I whispered the heavy truth, though it meant nothing to the brothers. Nothing yet.

“You are destined to lead,” I added, “your own kind…”

I turned to Silver. Our task was almost complete. Taking her hand, I began to lead her away, though I continued to call:

“You will have your heart’s desire. You will find what you seek...a high that never comes down...”

Silver and I were reaching the end of the alley. I turned to look over my shoulder at the bewildered twins, trapped in their human forms.

The brothers shared a meaningful glance, clearly distraught by my speech. Good. Aneurin began to run toward me. He wanted to know more.

“Until next time,” I called.

And just for fun, I snapped my fingers. My mate and I disappeared in a cloud of black mist, leaving the brothers alone in the ally.