Juno frowned. “Yeah. I had no idea there were shifters here. Where are they staying, and how do you know about them?”
Wyatt shrugged. “They’re here and there. I mean there aren’t a lot of them. Not like there used to be, anyway. Only the ones that survived and were able to hide out. But I see them now and then. There are a lot of wolf shifters. Lots of bears. Some panthers. I even met a tiger. But you. You’re a bear,” he said, looking at her and frowning as he breathed in deeply to catch Juno’s scent. “Why’d you come to Chicago? It’s not exactly a Mecca of tourism, or a vacation spot or anything like that anymore. There are better places to hide out. If I hadn’t already been in the city, I would probably go find somewhere in the wilderness.”
Juno laughed “Yeah, well, I actually was in the wilderness. But I had what I thought was a great revelation that shifters are immune to the flu. I guess you already knew. Anyway, I came here to break into Hook Labs and find a way to come up with a cure.”
Wyatt raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you a scientist or something?”
Juno nodded. “Yeah. I am. I’ve been hiding out in the middle of nowhere in Michigan with my clan, but we have one human with us. When he got the flu, we thought he was going to die for sure. But we gave him a blood transfusion of sorts. Long story short, we put shifter blood in him, his body actually accepted it, and he recovered. Which made me realize that if we can find a way to get some of the shifter immunity that naturally comes from shifter genes and make some sort of vaccine or medicine out of it, we can maybe save humanity.”
Wyatt laughed. “You want to save humanity? I think it’s a little late for that. They were a lost cause, even before the flu hit. I’m surprised the human race has lasted this long as it is.”
Juno frowned. “They’re not all bad,” she said. “Some of them are good. It’s just hard for the good ones to stand up when the evil ones are so strong.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Wyatt said with a shrug. “But it seems a little late for a cure. Last I heard, more than half of the world’s population is already dead, and estimates are that up to a third of the ones still alive have already been infected with the flu. Everyone’s being advised to quarantine themselves and all that. But what good does that do? They can all hide until they have to come out to get food, and then they’ll probably catch the flu, too.”
“Well I feel like I have to do something,” Juno said. “I have to at least try. But I can’t get into the lab. At least not until I figure out how to get past the security system. I’m guessing there’s some sort of backup generator in this building that’s keeping it going.”
Wyatt nodded. “Yup. Funny, actually. There’s only two buildings in Chicago that still have electricity running: this building and a blood bank a few blocks away from here. The blood bank has multiple backup generators. I guess it’s always been that way because blood goes bad pretty quickly if it’s not contained properly. So, yeah, there’s all this blood sitting there that will probably never be used. But, hey, at least it’s not gonna go bad.”
Juno looked over at the door of Hook Labs again. Something about Wyatt was odd. She was grateful that he had helped her out, but she still wasn’t sure where the fire came from. And why wasn’t he saying who or what he was? He was mysterious, and a little bit obnoxious. At least he seemed to respect the fact that she was a shifter, and wasn’t freaking out about it. But Juno wasn’t really interested in talking to him anymore if all he wanted to do was pour cold water on her ideas to save the world. She jiggled the door handle of the lab again, even though she knew it would do no good. More alarms sounded, and Juno let out a long sigh as she stepped backwards again. Her only option was probably to try and find some sort of tool and slowly chip away at the door. She wondered where she could get an axe around here, then glanced backwards at Wyatt. His biceps were pretty strong. Maybe if she was really nice to him he would help her out. She didn’t really want to be around someone so negative for a long time, but, then again, she was kind of running out of options here. Wyatt raised an eyebrow at her and glanced over at the door.
“You’re serious?” he asked. “You really want to get in there?”
“Yeah,” Juno said. “I’m serious.”
“You really think you can save the world?” Wyatt asked, his voice a strange mixture of disbelief and admiration.
“Well, I think it’s worth a try,” Juno said. “I don’t think there are a lot of other options right now.”
Wyatt shrugged then started taking off his shirt.
“If it means that much to you,” he said, his voice muffled by the fabric, “Then I’ll break down the door for you. Step back.”
Confused, Juno took a few steps back, but Wyatt shook his head.
“No, I mean really step back. Like several feet away.”
Juno raised a questioning eyebrow, but did as she was told. Wyatt reached down and took off his pants causing Juno’s eyes to widen at the sight of his generous endowment. She hadn’t quite been expecting a show of that sort, although she had to say it was a nice view. He was obviously about to shift, and didn’t want to ruin his clothes. Juno bit her lip, excited to see what he shifted into. She was curious as to what kind of shifter he was, and why he had been so coy about it. This would be her chance to find out.
In the next instant, she found herself knocked backwards by the most powerful rush of energy she had ever felt. There had been no warning sound—usually shifters gave some sort of growl or roar before they shifted. But he hadn’t done any warning sound at all, and his shift was more powerful than anything she’d ever felt. The room filled with blinding lights and a sound like a hot air balloon filling with fire. Juno had been knocked to the floor, and she couldn’t move for a moment with all the light, heat, and energy that had flooded the room. When she was finally able to turn around, her mouth dropped. Where the door to Hook Labs had been, secure and proud only moments before, there was now a smoking, charred hole. To the right of that hole stood Wyatt—only he wasn’t Wyatt anymore. He was a giant dragon, his head held high as smoke came out of his nostrils and his mouth turned up in what looked like a devious grin.
“Holy shit,” Juno said. It was all she could think of to say, and she repeated the words in awe.
“Holy shit.”
Chapter Four
Juno sat dumbfounded on the floor.
“A…a dragon?” she asked.
Wyatt’s dragon obviously said nothing. He just stood there looking at her with the same piercing blue eyes, breathing smoke from his nostrils. His scales were shiny and iridescent. They changed from green, to purple, to blue, to almost pink and then back again as he shifted ever so slightly in the light. Juno was in awe.
“I thought dragons didn’t exist anymore,” she said. “I thought you were all extinct.”
Moments later, she felt another huge rush of power. When the room settled, Wyatt was standing in front of her in human form once again, naked as the day he was born. Juno didn’t even have the presence of mind to notice his nakedness this time. All she could think about was the fact that she had just seen a dragon, live and in the flesh. Wyatt simply shrugged and started pulling his sweatpants back on.
“Nope, not extinct,” he said.
Juno shook her head, still amazed.
“Wow, so that’s why I couldn’t tell what kind of shifter you were just by smelling,” she said. “I’ve never smelled a dragon before.”
Wyatt laughed. “Hopefully we don’t smell too bad?”
Juno cracked a smile. “Maybe a little sulfur-y,” she teased, earning another laugh from Wyatt.
“But, seriously,” Juno said. “I thought you were all extinct. How many of you are there?”
“Hard to say,” Wyatt said. “Not many, that’s for sure. But there are still some of us. We’re scattered all over the world, and we tend to be loners. I’ve never been much for clan life like you bears seem to be, and neither are the other dragons. If we come across each other then we acknowledge each o
ther and respect each other, but we don’t seek each other out.”
“Well, how are baby dragons born, then?” Juno asked.
“Ha!” Wyatt said. “It happens, you know. You meet a pretty lady dragon in a bar, and next thing you know one thing leads to another. Sparks fly, literally, and nine months later there’s a baby dragon. We tend to live a long time, so it’s hard for us to truly go extinct. Kind of like how you bears recover quickly from injuries. We just live through everything.”
“Interesting,” Juno said. “I mean, wow. I would not have believed that dragons exist if I hadn’t just seen this with my own eyes.”
“Yeah, well, we sort of don’t exist. At least not in the eyes of the people who hate shifters.”
“What do you mean,” Juno asked.
“Well, dragon DNA is weird. It’s ancient. I mean, I know bear DNA is too, but dragon DNA is incredibly ancient. And strange. It hasn’t been studied, and people aren’t familiar with it, so all these little shifter-detector eye scanners that the mayor had don’t pick it up.”
Juno’s eyes widened. “Wait. You mean you’ve been scanned and they haven’t detected you?”
Wyatt nodded. “Yup. I’ve been in the city the whole time. I never left. They scanned me and gave me a certificate of being human. They were doing that, you know? Disgusting. I guess there’s no one around to give certificates anymore, since the whole city is pretty much abandoned or dead. But they were giving you certificates, kind of like a driver’s license type thing verifying your humanity. They gave me one and I stayed here to try to help out the other shifters. It was hard to do, with everyone in hiding and everything in chaos. I mostly helped people escape the city by flying them out. Dragon wings are the best for flying out. Quiet and undetectable by police scanners.”
Juno’s eyes widened even more. “You can fly?” she asked.
“Yeah, Doll,” Wyatt said with a chuckle. Dragons have wings. Didn’t you notice mine when I was an dragon form?”
“No,” Juno said “Sorry. I was a little too busy just trying to process the fact that you were actually a dragon and had just breathed a giant fiery hole in the wall.
“Yup,” Wyatt said. “I’m a dragon. Fire-breathing, flying, undetectable by shifter scanners. The whole package.”
“Little bit cocky aren’t we?” Juno asked.
Wyatt laughed. “Nah. Not much to be cocky about, I guess. Doesn’t do me much good to be awesome when there’s no one around to see my awesomeness. And I’m not sure how awesome I am since I wasn’t able to save most of the shifters. I’m just one dragon, and there were hundreds of shifters, if not thousands, in the city of Chicago. I did what I could, but it was too big of a job for one dragon.”
Juno finally stood, slowly. She was still trying to work through everything she had just heard. She tried not to look over at the smoking pile of what used to be a man. Wyatt noticed her discomfort.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” he said. “But I didn’t want you to get killed. I don’t usually use fire to harm people, but in a life or death situation I will. It’s an awful way to die, you know.”
“No, I don’t know,” Juno said. “And I hope I never find out. Just witnessing it was bad enough.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry,” Wyatt said. “That’s why I shot him. To put him out of his misery. Is your cheek okay, by the way? I saw I singed it a little bit.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Juno said, reaching her hand up to gingerly touch the spot on her cheek that Wyatt had burned. She could feel the heat coming off of it, but it didn’t feel too badly. Thankfully, her bear genes kept her relatively healthy.
“Good,” Wyatt said. “I’m glad. And now you’ve got access to Hook Labs, just like you wanted. Anything else I can burn down for you before I go?”
Juno laughed. “I think you’ve done enough. But why don’t you come with me?”
She was intrigued. She had thought moments before that Wyatt was obnoxious—and he was—but he kind of had a reason to be. She didn’t want him to scamper off never to be seen again. She wanted to hear more about what it was like to be a dragon, and what he was capable of. She had grown up in the shifter world and was a panda shifter herself. She thought she had seen and heard it all. Supposedly, there were even unicorn shifters. Alaska, where she grew up, was a haven for shifters of all sorts, and she traveled enough in her early twenties to see just about every kind of shifter that wasn’t in Alaska. But she had never met a dragon, and she was pretty sure that if Wyatt left now she might never meet one again. He was so mystical and mysterious. She felt drawn to him, and she didn’t want him to leave just yet.
Wyatt shrugged. “I’m no scientist,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll do you much good in the lab.”
“Oh, come on,” Juno said. “You have something better to do today? This city isn’t exactly the most happening place at the moment.”
“I guess you’re right,” he said. “I’ll go with you. But only because I’m curious to learn more about you.” He winked at her and then started walking toward the door of the lab. With one quick hop, he jumped over the small pile of smoldering rubble and headed into the lab. Juno bit her bottom lip to hold back a smile, then scurried after him.
“Why would you want to learn more about me?” she asked, shivering as she stepped into a long gray hallway. It was cold in the hallway, almost as cold as outside.
Wyatt ignored her question for a moment, sniffing and looking around him.
“It’s got to be around here somewhere,” he said.
“What has to be around here?” Juno asked.
“Aha!” he said, still ignoring her question. “There we go.”
He pointed to a small computer panel on the wall, then punched a few numbers onto the screen.
“The temperature unit,” he said. “I turned the heat on. I don’t know why they have it so cold in the hallway. Maybe it’s some sort of extra security measure to make it extra unwelcoming. Or maybe someone left in a rush and dialed it down too far by accident. Anyway, it should warm up in here in a few minutes.”
Juno frowned. “Wait, how do you know the passcode?” she asked.
Wyatt shrugged. “I know all the passcodes to all of the security systems in the city because I rewired them.
“What?” Juno asked. “How did you rewire them? That doesn’t even make sense.”
Wyatt laughed. “Look, I’ve had a lot of time on my hands. After everyone pretty much deserted the city, I broke into government headquarters, police headquarters, and basically every headquarters I could break into. I rewired and recoded everything, so it’s all the same security code. And I know the code, obviously.”
“Then why did you burn the door down?” Juno asked. “Why not just let us in?”
“Because,” Wyatt said. “This place has an eye scanner. I still haven’t figured out how to rewire the eye scanners, so I can’t get into anything with an eye scanner. When I come across a problem, I just burn it down. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, tell me what kind of shifter you are?”
“I’m a bear,” Juno said. “I thought you already realized that.”
“I did,” Wyatt said. “But you’re not a normal bear, I can tell. What kind are you?”
Juno stopped in her tracks. Who was this guy, that he could rewire entire cities and could tell just by sniffing her that she was a different kind of bear than normal? Juno had always thought she had a pretty good nose. She could tell that someone was a bear or a wolf, or whatever kind of shifter they might be. Well, with the exception of a dragon of apparently. But even she had never been able to tell whether someone was a grizzly bear or a polar bear or any other specific type of bear just by their smell. She was both awestruck and a little creeped out at the same time by Wyatt’s abilities.
“I’m a panda,” she said. It was Wyatt’s turn to stop in his tracks. He turned around and looked at her.
“No shit,” he said. “I’ve never met one of you guys.”
Juno laughed. “Well, th
at makes us even, I guess, because I’ve never met a dragon.”
Wyatt smiled. “Yeah, I guess so. I heard that you guys were almost wiped out by a plague several years ago.”
“Yeah,” Juno said. “Before I was born. It was pretty bad, and we lost almost all of the panda shifters. There’s not that many of us left, but my dad survived. He was an Alpha, and something about the alpha gene made him more resistant to the plague, so he lived. And hence, here I am.”
Wyatt winked at her. “We make quite a pair. A rare dragon and a rare panda.”
Before Juno could answer, he turned around and walked down the hallway, which seemed to go on forever. Juno didn’t feel like she was as rare and special as a dragon, but she liked the way that Wyatt smiled and winked at her. A little thrill went through her stomach. Get it together, Juno, she told herself. You’re here to find a cure for bear flu, not to bat your eyelashes at a dragon, however sexy he might be.
The pair walked in silence for another minute, and finally came to the end of the hallway. They entered what appeared to be the main hub of the lab, and, as they stepped inside, Juno couldn’t help but smile. It had been a long time since she’d been in a lab, and she missed it. She had loved working on research before the world had essentially fallen apart. Part of her was excited to have the chance to do it again.
Danger in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 4) Page 3