Free Imre: Drago Knights MC (Mating Fever) by Saranna DeWylde

ghouls.
    “Oh gods, Imre!” Aranka grabbed his hand.
    Imre would incinerate the ghouls. He drew on his Alpha fire, but Glorfindel called out. “Don’t. If you breathe fire, there’s a curse that infect both Cezille and myself.”
    The building began to burn around them. Timbers crashed to the ground and even the concrete began to char.
    “Aranka, you have to get out.”
    “Not without my father.”
    “No, Aranka.” Glorfindel said quietly. “Not without Cezille.”
    “Daddy,” she whispered.
    “I can fight. I’m not afraid!” Cezille cried out as she struggled.
    “Look at me, daughter. You know what’s right. She’s a child.” Glorfindel smiled at her. “I’ve had my years, and they were many. Don’t ever doubt the greatest thing I ever did was raise you, Krysanthe, and Voshkie.”
    Aranka’s lip quivered. “I can’t.”
    He nodded slowly. “You can, and your sister will need you to help lead the Orlaith back to peace and prosperity after I’m gone. Take Cezille. Give her a home among our people knowing this is what I wanted. This is what I choose.”
    Her grief washed over him in a tidal wave. Imre didn’t think he could stand much more. He grabbed her hand. “Do as he says. We’ll make it right.”
    Aranka shook her head. “There’s no making this right.”
    Cezille fought against her bonds, seemingly fighting this sacrifice. “No, don’t do this. I don’t need this. I can do it. I can fight! Let me go out fighting. I’m fit. I’m strong. I’ll survive!” she squealed.
    Aranka stared at the key while the building burned around them.
    “Do you want me to do it?”
    “I don’t want anyone to do it.” She wiped the back of her eyes with her fists. “I love you, Daddy.”
    Glorfindel closed his eyes and smiled. “I’ll see you in the end.” Then he looked to Imre. “Protect her. Finish this. Don’t put that on her.”
    “I swear.”
    Aranka grabbed the key and unlocked Cezille’s bonds. She crawled over the scaffolding and toward the exit.
    And Glorfindel was King of the Orlaith no longer.
    His golden eyes turned black and his veins stood, dark like vines against his golden skin and he charged the cell, snarling and salivating for flesh.
    “The Alpha fire…” Aranka whispered.
    “No.” Imre said. “We’re taking him back to Hidden Mountain and the gold chambers that healed my brother.”
    “If we take him back and we fail, we put all of the Orlaith at risk. How are we going to get him back?”
    “Not we. You, Aranka. You can travel through the veins of gold faster than I could fly. He still has the collar on and we have the key. Use the magick to make him sleep until you get him to the mountain.”
    “I don’t think I can do this.”
    “But I know you can.” He kissed her. “I believe in you.”
    He cupped his hands over her around the key and willed Glorfindel to sleep. When he collapsed, Imre turned Aranka to face him.
    “You ran the veins just to see a ghoul. Don’t tell me you can’t run them now to save your father’s life.”
    “It matters now.” As if that somehow explained everything.
    “It always mattered. See yourself the way I see you. The way Cezille sees you. And I’ll meet you at the mountain. I’ll be right behind you.”
    She stood frozen.
    “I love you, Aranka. Believe in yourself.”
    And then, she and Glorfindel were gone.

Chapter 9
    H idden Mountain
    Three Weeks Later

    “ Y ou never did listen to me, Aranka.” Her father croaked from his sick bed. They were the first words he’d spoken since that night in Loup Marais.
    “Nope. And I never will when I think you’re wrong.” She threw her arms around him.
    “You can be right, this time.” He coughed. “My throat’s so dry.”
    “You swallowed a lot of gold dust on the trip home. I’ve never scaled the veins so fast.”
    “I didn’t know you could. Not like that.”
    “Me either. But Imre did.”
    “I’ll have to thank that dragon, after I beat him for tattooing his