by Zoe Chant
He turned around and held out a hand to Keeley, who was still sitting frozen on the floor. “It’s all right,” he reassured her, and sighed. “I apologize in advance for this, but—”
The banging stopped. Lance resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That makes it, what, almost a minute for them to remember they have front-door keys?
His snow leopard flicked its tail, half-dismissive, half-territorial. The panther should have reminded him.
“They’re my friends,” Lance reassured her as the front door burst open and slammed against the wall. “Or they were, until this very minute.”
Heavy footsteps thudded through the apartment, and then Mathis Delacourt’s broad-shouldered form appeared from behind the bookcase partition.
“You’re alive,” he remarked in his gravely voice, and then called over his shoulder: “It’s alright, everyone! He’s not dead!”
“Clearly not,” Lance snapped. Another man appeared behind Mathis: Grant Diaz. Lance nodded greetings to the panther shifter and returned his attention to Mathis. “Should I be?”
Mathis grinned. “Depends on who you ask. I thought going straight to the source would be the best bet.”
Mathis hop-skipped sideways as his mate, Chloe, pushed past him. “Idiot cats. If he’s fine, then get out of the way... Hi, Lance.” She grinned at him, but her eyes were darkly shadowed. “You’ve caused a lot of people a lot of overtime, you know that?”
Lance frowned. Chloe worked in comms at the agency, but—”The mission was meant to be need-to-know only.”
“That was two days ago, Lance! The last anyone saw or heard from you, you’d just been shot!”
What? “That can’t be right,” Lance said, taking in Chloe’s angry glare and the two men’s quiet relief. “I’m sure I checked in after I woke up this morning. No, yesterday morning. Or… I meant to, at least.” He patted his pockets.
Grant feigned shock, leaning back against the bookshelves. “My God. He doesn’t even know where his phone is. Are you sure you’re really Lance? Or should we add bodysnatchers to Irina’s X-Files investigation?”
“No, just teleportation,” Lance muttered, giving up on his pockets. When had he last seen his phone, or his tablet, for that matter?
“I heard my name.” Irina Diaz walked slowly in past the others, one hand resting on her round belly. “I’m assuming that means it’s safe to come in, and—ooh. Sofa.”
Grant had sprung upright the moment his mate walked into the room, but Irina dodged his arms and moved towards the couch. She turned lovingly teasing eyes on him.
“I see a sofa, love. Have you checked it for traps? Germs? Unpasteurized cheeses? Too late, I’m going for it.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him with her as she eased herself onto the sofa with a sigh of relief. Grant sat beside her, wrapping his arms around her possessively.
Chloe, meanwhile, had stopped glaring at Lance and was looking behind him with open interest. Lance’s snow leopard snapped defensively, which only made Chloe raise an eyebrow at him. He could sense her plover regarding him coolly from behind her eyes.
“Well, well, well,” Chloe drawled, eyeing up Keeley. “Someone’s been busy... I guess the reports of you being shot through the chest were exaggerated, after all.”
“Not exactly.” Lance rubbed his chest, where the fresh scar was a constant ache.
The room fell silent. Chloe looked at him in shock, and Mathis’ face fell into grim lines. Grant pulled Irina closer to him.
“What?” Mathis surged forward and for a moment, Lance thought he was going to tear his shirt off. “When were you going to tell us about that?”
“When—” Lance began, and was interrupted by an unhappy howl.
“Okay!” Keeley started to stand up, struggling slightly as Maggie wriggled in her arms. Lance helped her up, and she flashed him a quick, only slightly panicked look before turning to face the others. “If any of you want to know what Lance meant by that—yeah, you too, lady hiding behind the bookcase there—then you’re going to help us get this baby to shift back into dragon shape.” She added, under her breath, “Because holy fudge no one is going to be able to hear anyone else speak while she’s like this.”
Lady hiding behind the bookshelves? Lance sniffed the air, filtering out Keeley, Maggie, and his friends. “Zhang, is that you?”
Carol Zhang edged around the side of the bookshelves. “Sorry, boss.”
Lance just shook his head. “What are you doing here?”
“We provided her with a key, and she provided our break-in with legitimacy,” Grant drawled, massaging Irina’s shoulders.
Carol opened her mouth, then winced and closed it. Although she was technically no longer standing behind the bookshelf walls, she was clinging to them like a limpet.
*Sorry, boss. Briers told us there was no sign of anyone going in or out of your apartment, but I didn’t feel right not checking. And then your friends all found me downstairs and insisted on joining in.* She winced again as Maggie let off another round of wails. *But you don’t need me here now...*
*Stick around. You can tell me what the hell’s been going on while I’ve been... in recovery.* This time, Lance was the one who winced. He hoped that last bit didn’t sound as weak an excuse to Zhang as it did to him.
Two days without checking in, after the last his team heard of him he was under fire. What was wrong with him?
Keeley brushed against him and caught his eye. The touch of her arm against his burned like fire. There’s your answer.
“Hang on... dragon shape?” Chloe’s eyes widened as she stared at the red-faced, screaming baby in Keeley’s arms.
“Yes, she’s a, a dragon,” Keeley raised her voice over Maggie’s yells. “And we need to get her back to being a dragon, before we all go deaf!”
*If we all shift—* Lance began, and then switched to speaking out loud so that Keeley and Irina could hear. “If we all shift, she might get the idea. I think that’s how she went into human form in the first place.”
“Uh-huh,” said Chloe, sounding unimpressed. She gave Lance a meaningful look, her eyes flicking from her, to Keeley, and back. “And…?”
First I forget to check in at work, and now I forget to introduce my mate. Lance could have punched himself. Instead, he put one arm around Keeley’s waist.
“Everyone, this is Keeley Smith. She rescued—” He paused as Maggie shrieked with rage again. “She rescued Julian Rouse’s niece from the kidnappers when our retrieval mission went south.” Tenderness softened his gaze as he looked down at her, tucked into the curve of his arm.
“Julian’s niece? Hang on—is that? Is she...?” A wondering smile broke out across Chloe’s face. “Oh, do you think she remembers me?”
“She’s a newborn?” Irina asked from the sofa, her voice weak. She looked up at Grant. “I thought newborns were supposed to be sleepy and adorable?”
Grant gave her a reassuring kiss and then turned away with a look that suggested he needed reassuring himself.
Lance hid a chuckle and took Maggie from Keeley. She handed the baby over, looking relieved, and Lance immediately realized why. Holding Maggie in human form wasn’t like holding her in dragon from. Dragon-shaped Maggie was sleek and nimble and used her tail to keep her balance; human-shaped Maggie didn’t even seem to know what her arms and legs were, let alone how to use them.
Lance sent psychic feelings of calm and reassurance to the baby dragon shifter. They bounced off her mind like oil off a hot pan.
He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Maggie hatched in dragon form, and this is the first time she’s shifted. She’s not, er, exactly taking it well.” No shit, six pairs of eyes replied. “She shifted after watching me do it, but watching me shift back wasn’t enough to pull her back into her dragon form. Maybe if you all show her, too...”
Mathis and Grant exchanged a look. “It’s worth a try,” Grant said.
Mathis frowned, and Chloe touched him gently on the cheek, just
below the knotted scar that crawled from his forehead to below his eye. He smiled at her.
“I’ll be okay,” he murmured, so softly Lance could barely hear him over Maggie’s shrieks. He looked up and caught Lance’s eye, straightening his shoulders. “Let’s do this.”
He stepped forward, one hand outstretched to shake Keeley’s. She took it, smiling nervously.
“Mathis Delacourt. Lion shifter,” he introduced himself as he shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Keeley.”
He moved into a spot of open floor in the middle of the room and, with only a moment’s hesitation, pulled off his shirt. Long scars ran down his back, souvenirs from his time as Gerald Harper’s prisoner. He grinned over his shoulder, dropped his trousers, and began to shift.
Lance’s spine stiffened as he saw how much effort it took Mathis to shift. He glanced sideways, meeting Chloe’s hard-eyed glare. She was fiercely protective of her mate, and with good reason. Mathis had almost died on that island, and none of them knew how long it would be before he was fully recovered.
When Lance looked back at Mathis, he was in lion form, his golden mane warm in the afternoon sun pouring through the windows. He shook his heavy head, looking up at Maggie in Lance’s arms.
Maggie stared back. She’d frozen mid-scream, her face still screwed up, but utterly silent. And still human-shaped.
Lance sighed. “Try changing back?”
The buzz of private telepathic conversation reverberated against the edges of Lance’s mind. Was Mathis talking to Maggie, he wondered, or was Chloe talking to him?
Mathis shook his mane, and the air around him shimmered. A moment later, he was kneeling, human-shaped, on the floor. Chloe hurried to his side, and Lance felt the buzz of private communication as she checked on him.
“Sweetheart, I’m fine,” Mathis complained, though the shining pride in his eyes at his mate’s attention made his complaint ring false.
Lance jiggled Maggie in his arms as she began to grizzle quietly. She’d been enraptured by the sight of Mathis shifting—but was still human-shaped.
“Me next?” Grant rose from the sofa, his movements preternaturally smooth and feline. He introduced himself to Keeley—Grant Diaz, panther shifter—and held an arm out to his mate.
Irina smiled. “Irina Diaz. Human. And...” She patted her stomach. “Mystery Diaz. I guess we will find out in a few months what his or her story is.”
With a feline smile, Grant shifted, as smoothly as every other movement he made. Green eyes stared up from his panther’s pitch-black face as he looked across at Lance and Maggie, who was once again intent on the shifter but, still, human-shaped.
*She’s very alert for a newborn, isn’t she? And shifting, after only two days.* Grant’s psychic voice was rueful. *Honestly, after last week’s prenatal class, this is the last thing we need. The other parents terrified Irina enough with all their stories of what shifter children get up to.*
Grant shifted back, and as soon as he was dressed, slipped back onto the sofa beside his mate.
“My turn.” Chloe cracked her knuckles, then turned back to Carol. “Unless—no, you probably don’t...”
“Not unless there’s a private swimming pool around here,” Carol mumbled.
“It’s all down to me then. Boys, watch how it’s done.”
Chloe shot a dazzling smile at Keeley as she walked over. “Chloe Kent. I work for Lance, as you might have picked up. Mathis is my mate, same as Irina over there is Grant’s.” Her eyes gleamed mischievously. “It really is lovely to meet you, Keeley. Now, let’s get this baby back her wings, shall we?”
She knelt down in front of Maggie, her eyes going soft. “Hello, sweetheart,” she crooned. “Do you remember me? I bet you do, somewhere deep inside. And you remember how to be a dragon, too. You just don’t remember that you remember.” She crinkled her nose. “Wow, that’s getting confusing. Let’s just stick to the basics, huh?”
Chloe shrugged off her dress—Lance stopped looking at this point—and there was a soft whoosh of air as she shifted.
Maggie gurgled with excitement, punching the air with her arms and legs.
Lance knelt down so the little dragon shifter was closer to Chloe. Chloe, a plover shifter, was barely a foot high in her bird form, but Maggie’s eyes went wide and gold as she stared at her.
Gold. Her dragon was peering through her eyes, and Lance thought he knew why. As Chloe hopped back and forth in front of them, he became sure.
It was simple, really. Chloe had wings.
She spread them, flapping them slowly while Maggie watched, entranced. Maggie’s pupils lengthened, becoming cat-like slits.
Chloe hopped up closer. *Aw, hey, cutey. Do you remember me? I didn’t even know I could shift, back when I first saw you. I’m still not very good at it. And all the others are probably laughing at me right now because I can’t stop them from listening in on me talking to you. What can I say, I used to be a reporter. And now I work in comms. Why even bother talking if everyone can’t hear you?.* She waved her wings slowly. *But being a bird shifter is great. Because it means I have wings, and with wings, I can fly.*
Lance felt Chloe gather her psychic energy, and the image she sent to Maggie exploded into his mind. An image, and feelings, too. Wings stretched out either side, balancing on the changing breeze as the world unrolled miles below. Freedom and excitement and the promise of adventure.
Maggie stilled, sneezed, and a moment later Lance was holding a wriggling baby dragon. He set her down, and she pranced up to Chloe.
*Oh, she’s gorgeous,* Chloe gushed, hopping on the spot. *Hello sweetheart!* She spread her wings as Maggie trotted towards her and let the tiny dragon carefully sniff at her. *You’re a million times cuter than your uncle, no mistake. I’ll tell him so next time I see him. Wait…*
Her bird face couldn’t frown, but Lance felt the suspicious glare in her psychic voice.
*Lance… he does know about her, right?*
Lance pinched the bridge of his nose. *I’ll add that to the list of things I absolutely intended to do in the last 48 hours.*
*Better put a note in your calendar. If you even remember where your phone is,* Chloe said, mockingly. *Ooh, cutey, do you want to learn how to fly?*
Keeley sighed with relief and grimaced as Lance caught her eye. “Is it bad that I’m handling her being a baby dragon better than her being a baby, er, baby?”
“Not at all. I think Maggie prefers being like this, too.” Though I hope Chloe isn’t serious about teaching her how to fly, Lance added silently. She’s enough of a handful as it is.
“Boss...” Carol looked on the edge of putting her hand up like she was in class. “I’ve let the team know you’re okay. Do you want that report now?”
“I think we all do.” Mathis rubbed the scar on his cheek. “And Lance’s, too.”
Knowing that the dragonling’s first shift would have taken a lot of energy, Lance suggested they convene in the kitchen.
“Is anyone else hungry?” he asked, after Maggie started digging in to what was left of the salmon.
“Only for information,” Chloe retorted at once. “Come on, Lance. What the hell happened?”
Lance sighed, made sure Maggie was settled with her meal, and sat down next to Keeley. She leaned in close to him.
My mate, he thought, his heart glowing. His snow leopard was practically purring with the chance to tell them all how brave she was.
“I separated from the rest of the team at the station, when it became clear the egg had hatched,” he began.
He told them a version of the truth that excluded Keeley being his mate and watched their reactions. Mathis, Grant, and Chloe all glared at him as though they knew he’d left something out. Carol Zhang frowned to herself, her flat black eyes lost in thought. And Irina looked pale.
“The dragon scales,” she whispered. “Before Francine kidnapped me, none of you even knew shifters could go completely untraceable like that, but now it seems
like they’re turning up everywhere.”
“Not everywhere,” Lance said. Mathis’ eyes flew up. “Remember, we traced them back to the source.”
“You think this has something to do with Harper?” The lion shifter automatically pulled his mate to his side. Chloe grumbled, but pressed the side of her face against his chest, giving him the comfort he needed.
“How can it be? He’s locked up, and we’ve investigated all of his business associates.” Lance rubbed his face wearily. “But the people who took the egg had scale shields. Which means there’s either another, separate group out there that not only knows about the Rouse dragon powers, and already has access to scales, or...”
“Or Harper wasn’t the head of this particular snake.” Mathis’ face settled into tired lines. “You hunted down everyone who ever visited the island, but if he’s only one branch of a wider organization, then... Christ. How deep does this all go?”
Lance felt the ground crumble under his feet. Good question. He gritted his teeth. “That’s what we need to find out.”
“Who’s Harper?” Keeley asked.
And while you’re standing on the edge of a cliff top, wondering how far the drop is, Keeley’s already in over her head. Lance brushed the backs of his fingers along her arm.
“Gerald Harper is a shifter criminal,” he began, and Chloe snorted.
“A shifter piece of shit, more like,” she muttered.
Lance nodded. “Yes, that, too. He owned a private island off the east coast, further south, where he imprisoned other shifters and forced them to fight gladiator-style for his amusement.”
Keeley swallowed. “I’m guessing you don’t mean in the giant-rubber-weapons, American Gladiator sense.”
“No.” Mathis’ voice was heavy. “Harper is a sadistic psychopath. If it wasn’t for my mate, I wouldn’t have survived.” He pulled Chloe close, his face uncharacteristically serious. Then he flashed a teasing grin at Lance. “I guess you know how that feels now, Lance. Shot through the chest. Jesus. Good thing you’d already dragged Keeley into your problems.”