Free Marked by an Assassin by Felicity Heaton Page A

edges and the last thing he wanted was a sixty foot reptile with a temper misunderstanding him.
    No assassin crossed a dragon.
    Well, none that lived to tell the tale anyway. He was sure some idiots thought they could tackle a mark of that magnitude and that their target ate them and used their bones as toothpicks.
    “Where am I?” The male’s voice grew louder and Harbin could almost sense him on the other side of the wall, resting close to him.
    He was powerful. Too powerful for the cell to hold if he lost his temper?
    The thought of escaping and grabbing the female snow leopard in the panic had his heart leaping in his chest, and he had to draw a deep breath to settle himself. He wasn’t in any danger. He didn’t have to fear Archangel or give in to a need to escape that only made him weak and pathetic.
    Hartt was coming.
    And, fuck, for once Harbin couldn’t wait to see Fuery.
    The mad bastard would tear Archangel a new one when he popped into the facility with their boss, and Harbin wanted to see the dark elf rip through the mortals with his sword.
    He wanted to put them to his own blades too.
    Harbin pushed the pleasing image aside and focused on his neighbour. Maybe he could get some information out of him or use him to his advantage in some way. He just had to push his buttons a little.
    “A complex filled with bastards. From the twittering I’ve heard during the past day, they’re quite excited about you.” Lies, but probably the truth. Archangel got excited about anything rare landing in their hands, and you didn’t get rarer than a dragon shifter.
    Which led Harbin to wonder how the hell they had gotten their dirty paws on him.
    “Where is Anais?” There was desperation in those three words, and it gave all of the dragon’s feelings away.
    He felt deeply for whoever Anais was and the maturing side of Harbin could appreciate that, his screwed up instincts finding it sweet and appealing. He didn’t need a damned mate. There was no time for love in his life, and bitches definitely didn’t deserve a drop of affection from him. Females were traitorous, backstabbing whores.
    “She a dragon too?” Harbin ground the words out as politely as he could manage given the anger churning in his gut, the fury roused by the thought of the female who had betrayed him.
    She had used her wiles on him, had seduced him into believing she was attracted to him and desired to be with him. He had been stupid enough to think she was being honest, that she might be more than a tumble in the hay. The barbs of her lies still stuck in his heart, slowly working deeper, tearing it apart.
    He growled under his breath and clawed at his chest, struggling for air as he tried to regain control of his mind and shove her from it.
    “She is mortal.”
    Those three words sent him back over the edge and he stumbled away from the wall, mind reeling as he stared blankly at the other side of the cell.
    Mortal.
    A cold shiver ran through him followed by a hot blast of anger.
    They had done it again. They had sent a female to seduce a fae male, no doubt in order to capture him for one of their studies.
    He snarled through his fangs, ploughed his fingers into his silver hair and yanked on it as the anger inside him coiled tighter, burned hotter. The flames ate away at his control, shattering his mind and turning his heart to ash in his chest as everything came flooding back.
    The bar. The beauty. The betrayal.
    He collapsed to his knees and curled forwards, unable to breathe as those terrible memories washed over him, racking his tired body and tearing him to pieces. He tried to hold himself together, scrambling to gather each broken piece of his soul before the memories leaped forwards, but he wasn’t swift enough.
    White snow. Red blood.
    His beloved mother and sister, their sightless eyes staring at the heavens, to the place where they roamed free with their ancestors.
    Stolen from him too soon.
    Hot tears rolled down his face as he