by Sophie Stern
I’m still. Daisy is crying and my kittens are meowing, but somehow, I manage to stay perfectly still as the dragon comes back down. He shifts into a man right as he lands, and then he looks at me.
“What the hell?” I manage to ask.
“We have to go now,” he says.
“I thought we were going to wait until the morning.”
“That was before,” he tells me. “That was before I knew.”
“Knew what?” I ask, confused. “What did you learn that you didn’t know before? Do you understand what the message means? Do you know who Lucky is?”
“Not who,” he says. “What.”
“Okay, do you know what Lucky is?”
He seems distressed. He begins to pace back and forth. Daisy manages to find her thumb and she starts sucking on it. I wish the kittens had thumbs to suck on because they’re meowing like crazy and tearing my backpack apart. Every so often, a claw catches my back, and I know I’m going to look like hell tomorrow.
“Lucky is an evil organization that hunts and performs science experiments on dragons,” he tells me. “Last week, they took a man from our clan and his daughter.” He jerks his head toward Daisy. “His wife left the clan to go find her.”
“Ellie,” I whisper, looking down at the baby.
“Yes. If she says Lucky is coming, then it means the dragons aren’t safe and we need to warn them.”
“But they’re dragons,” I whisper. “Won’t they just fight? Can the scientists really do anything to them?”
It might be ignorant, but I honestly don’t know what big, giant dragons are going to be up against when it comes to a bunch of scrawny little scientist nerds. Unless the scientists have a bunch of weapons, the dragons will simply breathe fire on them. Won’t they? Can’t they just demolish them with a single breath?
And that’s when I realize the scientists must have a weapon.
They have a plan.
And they know where Fablestone is.
If the dragons aren’t prepared for whatever it is that’s coming, if they don’t know there’s danger lurking, then they won’t be preparing for an attack. They won’t be ready for an invasion. I don’t know what Lucky has planned, but it’s nothing good.
We can’t waste anymore time. We must go to Fablestone and warn the dragons. We have to find Cameron and tell him what’s happened. I still don’t know this dragon’s name, but I trust him, and I think that’s the most important thing. He’s saved me. He might be big and scary and a little bit overbearing and bossy, but he’s the best shot I have at helping the dragons.
“Now,” he says, and I follow him outside.
“What happens next?” I ask him, and then he shifts. I’ve seen him shift twice already, but I don’t know if this is something I’ll ever get used to. He changes into his dragon form and then the dragon man kneels down before me.
You are mine, a little voice whispers in my head, and my entire body stills. Where the hell did that come from? Why would I think something like that? He’s not mine. He’s not anyone’s. He’s just a man. I’m just a woman.
And we’re just about out of time.
Somehow, I manage to climb onto the man’s back. It’s awkward and strange, and a little bit uncomfortable, but we manage to make it work. Once he’s satisfied that I’m not going to fall off of his back, he leaps into the air and he begins to fly.
The first rays of the dawn light are beginning to show, but I don’t pay attention to any of that. Daisy seems unfazed by what’s happening, and I’m guessing that she’s flown with her shifter parents many times before, but that’s not the case with me.
With me, this feels new and fresh.
With me, I feel like anything can happen.
We soar up and then down. The dragon stays close to the trees, which seems smart. It seems like we’ll be less likely to be seen. He flies in the direction of the stone tower, and then as soon as it comes into sight, he turns, and we’re off in a different direction. He does this several times, this changing of directions. I’m not sure whether it’s to keep someone off of our tail or if there’s another reason, but eventually, I start to lose understanding of which direction is which way.
All I can think about is the hope that I suddenly feel.
Now that we’re actually going to Fablestone, I don’t feel so fucking afraid or anxious anymore. I don’t feel like my entire world is going to end anymore.
No, right now I feel like suddenly, everything is going to be okay because this dragon is going to protect me and Daisy and Mocha and Frappe. He’s going to do whatever is takes to make sure we get there safely. He’s going to keep us alive one way or another, and then he’s going to help me save the dragon clan.
And we’re going to do it together.
Chapter Ten
Cameron
She.
Is.
Our.
Mate.
I’ve never been one to believe in dragon mates. To me, the idea of having a mate has always seemed like some fantastic fairytale that mothers dream up to get their children to sleep at night. Now that I’ve met Peggy, though, I’m starting to wonder if there’s some truth to the stories.
There’s just something about her that calls to me.
I’m fascinated by the fact that she swore a dragon’s oath. She made a vow to my sister, a woman she didn’t even know, and she kept it. She got Daisy to Fablestone. She trekked through the darkness of the forest, escaped from me, faced an evil wolf shifter, and lived to tell about it.
She’s strong and she’s courageous, and I don’t even think she knows it. I don’t think that Peggy looks at herself in the mirror and thinks, “I’m incredible.”
I think she looks in the mirror and thinks, “How can I help someone today?”
She has a heart of gold.
She’s also beautiful.
As she leans against me, holding Daisy, gripping my back, I’m filled with a sense of caution and this protective instinct I’ve never felt before. Oh, I’ve felt watchful of my sister. I’ve taken care of her, looked after her. This is different. This is more.
I killed for Peggy.
I killed that wolf.
I didn’t want to, but he was threatening her, and he wouldn’t back down.
She is our mate.
My dragon keeps whispering to me, urging me to do something about the fact that I feel something deep inside of me linking us together. Is this the mating call? Is this the link? Is this what my mother told me about all of those years ago?
I push the thoughts from my mind as I soar because right now, the most important thing is getting back to Fablestone and warning the others. I’m not sure what Wilson will want the clan to do. Maybe he’ll have us secure the perimeter of our home or perhaps he’ll want to play offense. Either way, it’s going to be a bloodbath, and I don’t want to have any more death on my hands.
Not today.
I wish I could communicate with Peggy as I fly to tell her it won’t be much longer now. She’s been hanging on so well and having such a great attitude about this entire thing. She could be bitter if she wanted to be. She could be sad or angry. She didn’t ask for any of this, but she got it. She could have walked away from my sister at any point. Hell, she could have turned Daisy in to the authorities and I never would have seen her again.
She didn’t, though.
Whether or not we end up being mates, whether or not she decides that’s crazy, I will owe her a debt forever, and I will never forget what Peggy has done for my family.
*
The sun is high when we reach Fablestone. At one point, Peggy fell asleep on my back. I heard her breathing deepen and I knew she had passed out. I’m experienced enough with flying that I understand how to balance during flight. This means I was able to ensure she didn’t roll right off my back. Daisy slept, too, so I hope they’re both feeling well-rested and ready for everything we’re about to deal with.
I could make a dramatic entrance and lan
d in the center of town, but I don’t. Instead, I choose to land directly in front of Wilson’s office. He doesn’t even wait for me to shift before he comes barreling out.
“What in the world?” He says.
“Oh, um, hi,” Peggy says slowly, and I can feel her carefully sliding off of my back. The kittens are meowing loudly and angrily, and Daisy begins to fuss. “I’m looking for Cameron,” she says.
“Is that right?” Wilson says smoothly. His voice is even and betrays no emotion.
“Yes. I have an important message for him from Ellie,” she says sweetly. “Also, we’ve been traveling for awhile, so if you have any diapers and more formula for Daisy, here, that would be great. She could probably use a change of clothes, as well.”
“You have Ellie’s child?” Now Wilson can’t hide the emotion in his voice, and I quickly shift back to my human form. He turns to look at me. Wilson is holding Daisy now, and Peggy is standing there, looking confused.
“Bad news, boss,” I say. “Ellie sent a message.”
“Yeah, I can fucking see that,” he holds Daisy up, motioning toward her with his head. Loretta Smith, his secretary, comes out of the office, probably to see what the commotion is all about.
“Oh my word,” she says, and she takes Daisy from Wilson.
“Loretta, can you please call my mother?” I ask her. “Tell her we’ve found Daisy and we’re going to need her to take care of the baby and,” I jerk my head toward Peggy. “Two little kittens.”
“Well, I never,” Loretta says, shaking her head, but she goes back inside my office, and I know we have about seven minutes before my mother arrives.
“I’m not giving your mom my kittens,” Peggy says, glaring at me. She hikes her backpack up on her back in a protective motion, but I smile at her.
“Don’t worry,” I tell her. “We’re going to have to deal with a lot for the next couple of days, and we can use all of the help we can get. My mother is a vet. She’ll be fine with the kittens.”
“A vet?” She asks. “Like, for animals?”
“Yes.”
“Is she like, your town doctor?”
“What? No! Shifters see shifter doctors. Normal animals see a normal animal doctor.”
“Oh,” Peggy says, but I don’t think she really understands, and that’s okay. I don’t have time to explain the dynamics of how caring for dragons works or the fact that our clan doctor left us to fend for ourselves. We’ve been operating at half-power, but we’ve been doing our best. Sooner or later, we’re going to have to find a proper shifter doctor to care for the clan.
Right now, my mom does what she can.
“What do I need to know?” Wilson says, looking at me.
“Well, I think that we need to find Cameron first,” Peggy says. “Because he’s the one I’m supposed to talk to.” She holds up her wrist, showing Ellie’s mark. “I promised.”
“She swore an oath?” Wilson looks at me, and I nod slowly.
“Do you know him? He’s part of this clan, right?” Peggy asks, ignoring his question, and Wilson just sighs.
“Come on, man. It’s time.”
I know he’s right, but somehow, I don’t want her to know I didn’t tell her. I don’t want her to think less of me or that I’m less of a man, somehow, for keeping this from her.
“What? Time for what?”
“Peggy,” I step forward and take her hands in mine. “I’m Cameron.”
This is the part where she slaps me.
This is the part where she calls me a creep and tells me to get lost, where she shouts that I should have told her earlier, where she tells me I could have stopped all of this from happening if I’d just been honest.
“You’re Cameron?” She asks, her eyes wide. She doesn’t quite seem to believe it.
“Yeah.” I swallow hard, waiting for the inevitable shouting, but it doesn’t come. Instead, Peggy looks relieved.
“Oh, thank dragons,” she says, wrapping her arms around me.
“What the fuck?” Wilson says, scratching his head. He seems just as surprised as me.
“I was hoping it was you,” she says. “This makes things so much easier. You already know everything and I don’t have to repeat it all to some weirdo I don’t even know.” She glances over her shoulder at Wilson. “No offense,” she adds.
He just shrugs.
“You’re not angry?”
“What? That you didn’t tell me your name?”
“Well, yeah. I thought you’d be upset.”
“No,” she says. “You saved me, and you saved Daisy, and you made everything okay. Thank you, Cameron. Thank you for everything.”
She hugs me tightly, then, and I’m not sure what to do, so I awkwardly pat her hair. Wilson bites back a laugh and I flip him the bird. Thankfully, Peggy doesn’t notice.
She pulls back and looks up at me. Then she reaches on her tip-toes and kisses me on the cheek. A wave of heat rushes through my body.
“Thank you,” she says.
“For what?”
“You saved me.”
Wilson clears his throat, breaking the moment, and we both turn to look at him.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he says. “But if you two would like to fill me in on how this human not only managed to acquire a shifter child, but get it to Fablestone safely, I’d be quite pleased.”
“Of course,” I say. I open my mouth to start telling him the story when I hear a shrieking sound from behind me.
That can only mean one thing.
My mother is here.
She marches up to us and wraps me in her arms.
“I should probably be slapping you,” she says. “But who has time for that? Where’s Daisy? I want to see her.”
“Daisy is inside,” Peggy offers helpfully. “A woman is getting her changed and fed.”
“And who are you?” Mom cocks her head to the side, looking at Peggy. She doesn’t look like she’s judging her. Rather, she’s simply curious.
“Peggy Dane, ma’am.” Peggy holds out her hand to shake my mother’s, and my mother looks at Wilson and me to silently ask if this is really happening.
“Peggy brought Daisy back, Mom,” I tell her. That’s all the information my mother needs. She wraps Peggy in her arms tightly and starts telling her how grateful she is, how we all owe her a debt of gratitude, and how she doesn’t know what we’d do without her.
Then my mother scurries into Wilson’s office and once again, we’re left alone.
“Okay,” Peggy says, turning to Wilson. “So it all started a few days ago when I was leaving work.”
She explains how she ran into Ellie, how she found out about Fablestone online, and how she had two strange people stop at her house. There were a few details she had left out the first time she told the story. When she explains that the people who stopped at her house seemed to be searching for Ellie and Daisy, my skin bristles. I have to fight the urge to shift and go find them right now because I want to kill them for trying to hurt my niece.
For trying to hurt my sister.
For trying to hurt Peggy.
When she’s finished, Wilson turns to me.
“This is bad,” he says.
“We should have moved sooner,” I point out, and he nods.
“We wanted more intel,” he sighs. “Fuck.”
“Look,” I tell him, placing my hand on his shoulder. “Nobody ever said being clan leader was going to be easy. It’s a hard fucking job. We should have gone after David as soon as he was missing, but we didn’t know anything. We didn’t know if he’d been taken, if he’d just left his wife, if he’d gotten hurt somewhere. Going in without an information would have been dangerous. Now we have something, at least. We know Lucky is searching for us and they may have already located our base. It’s only a matter of time before they attack, so we need to be ready.”
“Or,” Wilson says. “We could bring this fight to them.” He looks at me, and my old friend seems sad and pained. I know. This
hurts. All of it hurts. There’s nothing simple or easy about figuring out how to stop one of the worst organizations we’ve ever come across.
Lucky is known for capturing shifters and for performing experiments on them. I don’t know if they’re developing weapons, but I know they’re not trying to find the cure for cancer.
“I don’t like the idea of them coming here, Cameron.”
“I don’t, either.”
“I don’t like the idea of them coming onto our turf and attacking us in our own homes. If they’re planning to do that, they must have some sort of weapon that will prevent us from shifting.”
“Either that or they’re counting on us being too afraid to shift.”
“Maybe,” he agrees. “But I think it’s time to stop playing defense, brother. We’ve been in this forest a long time. We’ve lived among our own kind, minded our own business, and stayed out of the affairs of the world. Maybe it’s time to change things.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Not tonight,” he shakes his head. It’s only the afternoon, but it’s been a long day of traveling. I need rest. Peggy needs rest. I’m sure Daisy absolutely needs rest. Although part of me wants to go fight for my sister right now, sometimes having a good offense means being careful in the right ways. We won’t be timid anymore, but we’re going to play this smart.
“Tomorrow, then.” I tell him.
“I’ll send scouts out tonight,” Wilson says. “To see what information we can gather. We’ll send messages to Thunderstorm, too. The clan has our back, you know, and I have a couple of favors I can call in. The reality is that what affects one dragon clan affects all of us, though, so I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”
“What can I do?” Peggy speaks up quietly.
Wilson sighs. “You can’t come. I’m sorry. You were very brave, miss. Trekking through the forest with a child and your,” he motions to her backpack. “Animal companions is an incredible accomplishment, but at the end of the day, you’re still human.”
For a minute, I think she’s going to argue with him, but she just nods.