I would hate my mate if I could. I want to blame him. I do blame him, but I know that it’s not all his fault that Ancalagon is gone. The probability that the hunters stumbled across my son, killed a herd of shifters and were prepared to transport a baby dragon while I was away for one night, is highly unlikely. So, I’m angry at myself for not realizing that I was being watched but I’m putting that blame unfairly on Ishir.
When he comes for me, I can’t be with him. The pain in my heart, the agony of knowing that those hunters have my son, makes me unable to listen to Ishir. And why would he want me anyway. I’m a dragon. I’m supposed to be the strongest of the supernaturals. I’m supposed to be the protector of the supernaturals and I can’t even protect my own son. What man or shifter would want a mate that can’t protect their own child?
No one, that's who.
So rather than wait for his verdict that I’m not good enough for him, I leave. Okay, I knocked him off the mountain first. I couldn’t handle his gentleness, his soft words. They only made me feel worse. But I need to express some of this grief before pulling myself together and going in search of my son again.
I know Avani and Merethyl are searching. I know that Kaylani is searching, and most likely Tana and Kenna are searching as well. I heard Ishir is searching and yet, with all of us out here, looking for my son, we still haven’t found him.
That gives me pause. Why haven’t we found him? I mean, we have the best hunters on the planet looking for my son, but we haven’t found him yet? Why?
We’re looking in the wrong places. We’re looking where the now dead Chief used to keep supernaturals. We should be looking somewhere else…but where?
I stop my lament, thinking of where you could hide a baby dragon. There are plenty of places, but if you’re not in the wild, it doesn’t mean you’re not underground. The Chief was successful because he hid in plain sight.
Avani and Merethyl told me about the time they killed the Chief. And they told me that he had a son who escaped. Ancalagon is a lot like his father, reminding me of that saying ‘like father, like son’. Maybe the Chief’s son is like him, hiding in plain sight, only not in the wild.
I turn my head, looking in the direction of the city. What if he is in the city, hiding in plain sight, my son in the bowels of that horrible place? He could be holding my son underground anywhere in the city, but if he is, I can find him. I know it.
With renewed vigor, I begin flying to the city. I know Tana has a penthouse there. I’ve never been, but I’ll recognize her scent and of course, Ishir’s scent, since he still lives there, too. If I get there and his scent is strong, I’ll move on. But if it’s faint, as I expect it will be, I’ll land, borrow some of Tana’s clothing and begin searching for my son in my human form.
I wait until it’s dark and then begin flying over top of the city. It doesn’t take me long to catch Ishir’s exotic scent and follow it to a dark penthouse. I should have known that Tana would be in the condominium in the tallest building in the city. And her place is on the top floor with a convenient patio to shift and land on.
I walk to the sliding glass door and find it open. Of course it is, this is how Tana and Kenna come home. I walk inside, taking a moment to look over the space where Ishir lives. I follow his scent to a room that makes me sway his scent is so strong. I want to crawl into his bed and roll around on his sheets, covering myself in his scent. But I can’t do that, I’m here for a reason. My son.
I step away from his room and move down the hallway to Tana’s room. I can smell Cedric’s spring rainstorm scent mixed with Tana’s campfire scent. I walk into the room and go to the closet. She and I are a similar size, so her clothes fit me well enough, however, my feet are smaller than hers. I go to Kenna’s room and find a pair of shoes that will work for me.
Because I can’t help myself, I find a black hoodie in Ishir’s closet and pull it over me, surrounding myself in his scent and calming my nerves immediately.
I dig around the apartment, finding a spare key. I make sure it works for the door and the elevator before heading downstairs. I walk out into the streets, my senses overwhelmed with the smells of exhaust, different types of food cooking and the loudness of everything around me, car horns honking, people yelling at each other, music blaring from multiple places. How do people live here?
I pick a direction and begin walking, trying to filter through the scents all around me and find the one of my son. His scent of upturned earth after a tornado, would stand out here where everything else smells like machines and sewage.
I walk up and down the streets, finding a stopping point in two directions and working my way out of the city from there. Hours later, I’ve found nothing. I return to Ishir’s building and begin walking the same grid pattern in the other direction. By now, there are very few people on the street. The shifters give me a wide berth, it’s the humans that don’t know what I am.
I’ve had to knock out a couple of them already. They approached me and thought I was an easy target. They learned too late how wrong they were. I didn’t kill them, but they’ll wake up with a nasty headache.
I’ve just about given up when I catch the scent. I instantly go on alert, my nose rising in the air, sniffing until I catch it again.
I turn, following my son’s scent. It continues to get stronger and I pick up my pace, staying alert to my surroundings. If my son is here, they probably have some sort of security.
My son’s scent leads me to what looks like an abandoned building on the outskirts of town. I don’t hear him, but that doesn’t mean anything. He could be sedated.
I carefully open the door, sliding inside the space quickly before quietly closing the door behind me. Maybe I should contact Avani and the others, but I’m not wasting another moment, letting these creatures hurt my son.
I’ve barely taken three steps into the warehouse space when the lights flicker on, lighting up the room. There in the center is a man, leaning against a desk with computer monitors lined up behind him.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the air dragon. Finally. I thought maybe you weren’t as intelligent as I’ve heard,” the man says.
“Where is my son?” I snarl, the wind whipping up in the space around us.
“He’s safe, for now. But that very much depends on you and what happens between us today,” he says, obviously enjoying this.
I throw a blast of wind at him, knocking him to the ground, the smirk on his face replaced with a scowl.
“Now, now, bitch. You want to be careful. I’m the only reason your son is still alive.”
“WHERE. IS. HE?” I snarl at him.
He stands, grabbing a remote and turning on the computer monitors. Instantly, I see Ancalagon, a muzzle on his face, thrashing against the restraints that are holding him to the ground.
“He’s not here, not any longer. I’m not stupid,” he says.
I take a step toward the monitors. “Let him go.”
“I don’t think so. Afterall, his father did kill mine,” the man says, making me turn to him.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“Now THAT is the right question to be asking me. What I want is for you to work for me. In exchange, I’ll keep your son alive.”
“Why should I trust you?” I ask him.
“You shouldn’t. But I will tell you that your son is only alive because I choose for him to be. I’ve already implanted one of those explosives into his head. With a simple push of a button, I could kill him, and there’s nothing you could do about it.”
I look back at the monitors, seeing my son, my son who loves to fly, restrained on the ground.
“What do you want me to do?” I ask, knowing I’ll do anything for my son.
“I want you to take out the shifter population for me. I want them gone, all of them, but I have a list of the ones that I want taken out first. If you do that for me, your son lives. If you don’t, well, maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t.”
“How do I know you won’t kill him, anyway?” I ask.
“You don’t. But every week you will meet me here, give me an update on your progress, get your next assignment and then you can see your son on the monitors. Take it or leave it.”
I look at the monitor, watching as my son continues to thrash against his restraints, and I know I’ll do what he’s asking. I’ll go against everything in my blood, in my soul, to save my son. The dragons are meant to protect the shifters, it’s why they call Avani the Dark Protector. But for my son, I will sell my soul to this devil in the hopes that it will save Ancalagon.
“I’ll do it.”
“Good, I’ll see you in one week with your first assignment.”
Three months later I’m in the kitchen of my new home, my daughter in a swing out of the way but where I can still see her and my newborn son in a bassinet in the next room. Having two children four months apart has been a challenge, especially when you add on that our house was being built and the surprise that we have planned for today. It’s a big one and I’m so nervous that I feel sick. ‘Easy Zephyr. Everything will be fine, you’ll see,’ my mate coos at me through our mind link. I tap into his mind and realize that somehow my mate snuck in, and my daughter is now strapped against his chest while he’s outside setting up the fire pit for the dragons. We decided to cover up our surprise with an ‘open house’, inviting everyone so all of our friends could be here ot witness the event today. “I can’t believe you had another baby before I had mine,” Merethyl says coming in with Terra, their little girl, another dragon. “Tiger and dragon gestations are similar so I’m only pregnant 3 mo
One month later “Take a look at this, Ish,” Cedric says to me. He and I have been hunting the hybrids that we know are out here, but so far, they are adept at evading us. However, they leave their trail of devastation behind them. “They’re getting more violent,” I say to him. “Yes, I’m starting to be able to distinguish between the two groups. The first group of hybrids seems to kill to eat and they clean up everything but the blood. This group…” “They’re starting to enjoy the kill,” I finish for him. “And they’re upping their game. It’s as if they are practicing, almost like they are planning on attacking something larger, or stronger,” he says looking at me meaningfully. “If they come for our dragons, they will meet their match, and their end,” I say. “If they come anywhere near my children or my pack, I’ll destroy them. I was willing to help them before and maybe we can still help the other group, but this one? I’m not sure they want our help.” “This is the group that had a
When we couldn’t find Sunshine, we went back for Oliver, only to find that he’d been killed and eaten. “Hybrids,” Ishir had confirmed when we landed and saw the blood everywhere, more blood than when we’d left behind. Through our combined senses, I could smell them. “Should we go after them?” I ask him. I stay in my dragon form in case I need to quickly attack or defend, as Ishir is kneeling on the ground near the blood. “Zeph, this is violent. There's a lot of blood here. I mean, you and I are used to violence, we’re animals, but this is something else, this is vicious. I don’t want you near this,” he tells me, standing. “Ishir, I’m a dragon. I can handle vicious.” “You’re my dragon, Zephyr and you’re the mother of my kitten. You may be a strong and powerful dragon, but you have a soft heart. Let me protect you from this. I’ll get Cedric and we’ll go searching for them. You’ve suffered enough violence at Oliver’s hand. I’ll take it from here,” he says, stroking my snout as he ta
I lay here, strapped to the bed, like I have been for what seems like forever. It’s been a long time, two weeks, if my calculations are right, which is questionable since there are no windows in this room. But if I’m right, it’s been two weeks since my father was here. I’m not sure which is worse, the pain or the hunger. It only felt like a couple days after he left, that the man who gives me the injections left too and he hasn’t been back. I was okay for awhile because I had the IV fluids dripping into my body, but that dried up over a week ago. I’ve relieved myself multiple times and now everything in here smells terrible, the area between my legs feels raw and I'm worried it's getting infected, which it probably is. I hear the pitiful sound of the creature in the other room. He sounds so much like Ancalagon. I have no idea if it’s him or not, but I hope not. Once again, we’re trapped underground. “Cal, if you can hear me, I’m here. I know, I’m hungry too. I’m sure my father will
I hadn’t expected them to be back so soon. They’ve never returned so quickly after finding one of my laboratories. In fact, the last time, they burned it down, releasing all my subjects. This time, my subjects had escaped on their own. I had been watching from my personal laboratory since my lead scientist told me that the shifts were imminent. He wasn’t wrong, but what we didn’t expect was that they would grow to sizes that burst through their cages. They had become wild, killing the scientists before helping the others escape. The dragon and the tiger wouldn’t have known that some of the humans that had been laying on the ground, had become snacks for the vicious creatures, as they fed on their way toward freedom. Once again, I’ve been thwarted because my scientists don’t seem to know what they are doing. Thank goodness my “daughter” and her future mate are both still under my control. Eliane has been responding well to the treatments, almost as well as the dragon. I’m hoping tha
The voices in my head have started screaming again, only this time, they are telling me to do something, anything to help the children that this monster is killing. I’m stronger now, so I shut my mind off from Ishir. He is helping that boy, helping Everett and Kaylani try to save him, and while he does that, I go to Cyrene. I know what I have to do even if it kills me. I pick her up, kissing her and smelling her sweet, exotic scent, a mix of mine and Ishir's. “Zephyr?” Nova’s quiet voice asks from the doorway. I take one more deep breath of my daughter’s scent, then put her back in her crib before turning to Nova. She’s breathing heavily and there are tears in her eyes. “What’s going on?” “I have to go end this Nova. I can’t let Oliver and his men hurt you or any of these children any more. It will never stop while he’s alive.” Her lips quiver and she rushes to me, wrapping her arms around me. “Please come back to me. You’re the only family I have, Zephyr, you and Ishir. I love