by Sophie Stern
I can hope.
And I am hoping.
She moans in her sleep before rolling over and snoring. Peggy isn’t what I would call a delicate sleeper. She is, however, the most beautiful woman to ever walk the face of the Earth. I’ll fight anyone who feels like arguing with me.
She’s going to be an incredible mom.
And me?
I’m going to be a damn good father.
The two of us fell in love unexpectedly, but then again, isn’t that how it always goes?
The moment you stop looking, that’s when you find someone.
It’s when you stop trying to make fate happen that fate finds you. It discovers you, wrapping you tightly in its grip, and it never seems to let you go.
A knock sounds on my front door, pulling me from my thoughts. I hurry out of bed, grab a pair of pajama pants, and wiggle into them. I dart out of the room and downstairs, hoping to get to the front door before the knocker strikes again. Peggy and I were up all night. She deserves to get some sleep.
I yank the door open without bothering to see who it is.
“Wilson? What the hell are you doing here?”
“Good morning to you, too, asshole.” He pushes past me into the living room and goes straight for the kitchen. “No coffee yet?” He asks, looking around. “Let’s make some.”
“Wilson,” I ask. “What’s wrong?”
The clan leader doesn’t come to my house often. When he does, it’s because something big is happening and he needs my advice or help. He’s officially in charge of the clan, but I help him out a lot. The two of us tend to work very well together: the result of years of friendship.
“It’s Lawrence.”
“What about him?” He was supposed to go to the stone tower last night to check for anyone. It’s not often that someone seeks refuge with our clan, but there’s this rule in the world of dragons that if you need something and you go to the stone tower on the night of the full moon, a dragon will come and help you. It’s this weird promise that’s become something of a legend. Without fail, one of us goes each month. It’s usually me, but I managed to convince Lawrence to go in my place because Peggy was ovulating last night.
“He didn’t come back.”
“What do you mean?” I glance at the clock on my stove. It’s mid-morning. He should have been back hours ago. Even if he waited until daylight to fly back, there’s no reason we wouldn’t have heard from him by now. That’s the deal. Even if there’s nothing to report, whoever goes to the stone tower has to report it. He should have checked in with Wilson. The fact that he didn’t means something is wrong, but I don’t need Wilson panicking right now. Maybe there’s a logical explanation.
“I mean he didn’t come back, Cameron. Something happened.”
“Don’t overreact,” I say cautiously. “The clan has been through a lot in the last few months.”
“Yeah, no shit.”
First my sister and her family were taken hostage by Lucky. My brother-in-law sacrificed himself to save me. Our clan managed to save a number of shifters from a nearby Lucky facility. We thought it might be the headquarters, but it wasn’t. We still don’t know where that is or how we’re going to take them down. Each day, we get a little closer to finding out who’s really behind this terrible organization, but days tend to pass slowly, and fighting gets tiresome.
After we brought the shifters back to our communities, Lucky struck again. This time by infecting us with a virus we didn’t know the rescued shifters had been exposed to. It was a nightmare. Again, we lost people. We’ve lost too many people. I don’t want to lose anymore.
Especially not my friend.
Especially not Lawrence.
“What do we do?” I ask. It’s the clan leader’s decision. He has to be the one to decide. Although I have plenty of ideas, I’m not sure how good most of them are. We could send out a search party. It’ll make us vulnerable, losing a large number of clan members for the day, but it might be worth it. Maybe Wilson will want to wait a few more hours, though.
“First I want a cup of coffee,” Wilson says with a sigh. “Then we’ll decide how long to wait for him.”
“Maybe someone came to the stone tower,” I point out the obvious. “Maybe he’s helping a dragon in need.”
“Maybe,” Wilson says, but his voice trails off, and we both know that’s not likely.
No, if Lawrence hasn’t come back yet, it’s because something bad has happened, and I hate to think about what.
Chapter Twelve
Lee
“Long time no see,” my tech geeks are in the lab, hard at work when I walk in.
“Fuck you very much,” I growl, slumping into my desk.
Marta and Jeremy exchange knowing looks, but don’t say anything at first. That’s fine. The silence is welcome after spending days trying to figure out exactly what we’re dealing with at Lucky. My biggest fear is that this fucking organization is going to come swooping in and either kill or steal away all of the dragons. They’ve got tech. They’ve got drugs. They’ve got it all, but every organization has a weakness.
I just need to find theirs.
Dragons can breathe fucking fire. Well, some of us can. If we can figure out where their main headquarters is? We can destroy them. We can take them down. None of this by-the-books bullshit. I’m not going to hire a lawyer. I’m not going to go to court.
No.
I’m going to lead my dragons to safety.
I’m going to lead them to a new tomorrow.
I’m going to save them.
And I’m going to do it properly: hacker-dragon style.
Jeremy and Marta still aren’t speaking. They’re just sitting quietly, staring at me. Finally, the silence is killing me.
“Just spit it out,” I say. I know they’ve been talking, planning, thinking. They’ve been researching. My team is fantastic and while we’re nowhere near as tech-y as Thunderstorm is, we’re getting there. One day at a time.
“We found something,” Marta says finally.
“What?”
“Something big,” Jeremy says. He points to his laptop screen, which is sitting on my desk. I didn’t even notice. That’s how fucking distracted and worn out I am.
“Explain.”
Marta jumps in. “We’ve been going over the notes from the rescue at the small Lucky facility. Clan Thunderstorm sent us their notes, as well. We all thought the rescue was too simple, too easy. Then we realized it was all a set-up so we’d bring their sick shifter patients back to the clan. Then everyone would be infected.”
“Tell me something I don’t know, Marta.”
She ignores my gruffness and continues, unaffected. “We thought maybe they were hoping to damage the clan, to hurt us. We didn’t know if they were going to try to kill us off completely or if they wanted to wound us, then come in and attack.”
“Okay.”
“What if it’s something else?”
“Get to the point.”
“What if they happen to sell an antiviral medication that stops the illness?”
“What the fuck?”
I turn to the screen now. When our clan fell sick, Natalie left to find Donald. He’s one of the best shifter doctors in the world and he was able to create a medicinal potion that saved both us and the Thunderstorm dragons. Now I’m staring at something on my screen I never thought I’d see.
Sure enough, it’s a description for a new medication that’s just been released.
“Dragon-X,” I read out loud.
“It’s a medication that stops symptoms of a couple of viruses. Based on the description, one of them is what our clan was infected with,” Jeremy tells me. “And look at the name of the pharmaceutical company.
“Providential,” I say. “It’s a fucking synonym for Lucky. Are we sure it’s the same people?”
Jeremy pulls up an interview with the head of Providential Labs. It’s a tall, lean woman with vicious eyes. He presses play and the repor
ter starts asking a question. When he finishes his question, the woman laughs. My blood runs cold because even before she starts speaking, I know exactly who it is.
I know exactly who we’re dealing with.
We’ve found them.
We’ve fucking found them.
The voice matches the one that’s been running through my head for the last few days. It’s the woman from the phone: the one at the end of the number Peggy gave me.
“How did you find this?” I ask Jeremy, looking up sharply.
“Each of the reports about the Lucky facilities talked about seeing a lot of teal medicine bottles.”
“I remember,” I tell Jeremy. It was one of the oddities about the witness reports regarding the infiltration and attack. “But I didn’t think anything of it.”
“We started pulling at strings while you were gone,” Marta says. “And this one started to unravel.”
“It turns out that Providential has a trademark on teal medicine bottles. They’re the only ones who use them. They also only have this one drug on the market, at least officially.”
“So we’ve found them,” I whisper, hardly able to believe it’s true.
“We’ve found them.”
Chapter Thirteen
Julie
My eyes are tired and groggy when I open them. The sun is shining, up in the sky, and I realize that I made the mistake of passing out. Fuck. Quickly, my eyes dart to where I tied up Nicole, but she’s still there, lying on her side, somehow managing to snore through her gag.
I kind of hate her a little bit.
Okay, I hate her a lot.
I feel something warm pressed against my back, and I roll away before turning to see what it is.
Who it is.
“Hey,” he murmurs, reaching for me. “Come back.”
I swallow hard.
Lawrence.
I fell asleep next to him and somehow, we ended up spooning all night.
And he’s still definitely, totally, super naked.
And if his morning manhood is anything to judge him by, Lawrence and I would get along very well if the situation were slightly different.
Meaning if we were on a date.
Which we aren’t.
Because this is crazy.
“How are you feeling?” I ask. I try to shove down all of the emotions I’m feeling. I can’t tell whether I’m attracted to him because he’s kind or if it’s because he’s so fucking attractive I can taste it. I can’t tell what I’m supposed to be doing in this situation and that kind of just kills me.
Until this point, my life has been really, really simple.
It’s been easy.
Well, relatively easy. I’ve had my battles, just as everyone has, but I’ve always known what I wanted to do with my life. Teaching has come naturally to me. It’s like breathing. I can’t explain how I do it: I just do. Working with students has provided me with a certain level of freedom of expression. I get to read the books I love and then share them with my students. I can pass on that love of reading and learning every single day.
It’s perfect.
Outside of work, I don’t have many hobbies. I suppose I didn’t really need them until now. When I was dating Andrew, just being with him was enough. We were talking about getting a house together, so I took on extra hours. Subbing and tutoring seemed like a fantastic way to kill time after work.
I didn’t count on my roommate keeping my boyfriend entertained while I was working my ass off to save up for a down payment.
Still, the experience hasn’t soured me toward teaching or working hard.
It’s just made me examine what’s really important in life and it’s made me question whether I’m the best judge of character. Somehow, talking with this dragon guy has been more relaxing, more simple, and more normal than my relationship with Andrew ever was. Is this what we were missing? The ability to just sit and talk to each other?
With Andrew, it was all about him.
He wanted something, so we did it.
Lawrence actually seems interested in me as a person.
“A little stiff,” he whispers. “Maybe a kiss will help.”
“Is that what you want?” I raise my eyebrows and lick my lips. Yeah, that kiss last night was fucking incredible. It was so out of character for me, but somehow, it felt right. The best part was that nothing else happened after. There was no awkwardness. There was no discomfort. We kissed, and then we just talked and talked and talked.
I didn’t mean to fall asleep and I don’t think he did, either, but if a kiss is what the dragon wants, then a kiss is what he’ll get.
I scoot closer.
“Don’t be shy,” he murmurs.
I move a little bit closer. I’m still totally dressed, but I can feel his hardness pressing against my belly. A shiver shoots through me. Desire. Aching. Wanting. I’m feeling so many things that I might go crazy, but I focus on one thing.
Kissing.
Lawrence tastes like perfection, and kissing him feels like heaven. I reach for his hair and run my hands through it while his tongue explores my mouth. It’s soft and gentle: a sweet kiss, but I pull away before it gets too deep. I pull away before I start to want more than I can give this man.
“How are you feeling?” He whispers.
“I…”
“Julie?”
“Lawrence.”
“It’s okay.”
“What is?”
“Nothing has to happen,” he reaches for my shoulder and touches it gently. “I’m not asking you for anything, okay?”
I told him about Andrew last night and he listened. He didn’t judge me for dating an asshole for so long. In fact, he has his own ex-wife. Erin. They got married after college and were only together a year before they realized it wasn’t going to work. She doesn’t seem crazy, and Lawrence doesn’t seem to have any pent-up anger toward her.
Still, I know the separation hurt.
I can see it in his eyes.
“I know,” I whisper. “I haven’t been with anyone since the break-up.”
“Me neither,” he admits.
“For real?” I raise an eyebrow before looking pointedly at his dick. “No offense, dragon, but how is that possible?”
He chuckles and pulls me close. Now he’s the one stroking my hair, touching my shoulders, running his hands up and down my back. I sink into his touch. His scent wraps around me like a blanket, and I feel calm.
Relaxed.
Safe.
Protected.
“I suppose I haven’t found the right person,” he says. Then, after a pause, he whispers so quietly I almost can’t hear him add, “Until now.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lawrence
We’ve dilly-dallied long enough. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but when Julie and I kissed, I felt this warm comfort descend over myself. It was kind of wonderful. I’ve never really felt anything like it before and I don’t know if I’ll feel anything like it again.
My inner-dragon thinks she’s our mate.
I think it’s a fairytale, but I kind of want it to be true.
I stand up and stretch under Julie’s watchful eye.
“How are you feeling?” She asks. “You seem to have regained all of your strength.”
I nod. “I feel normal. Pretty good, really.”
“Are you ready?” She asks.
“Not really.”
“How far is it to your clan?”
In lieu of answering, I jerk my head toward Nicole, who is definitely awake now.
“Let’s get her and go,” I say. “We’ve been loitering long enough.” Julie moves to untie Nicole’s legs. She removes the woman’s gag and whispers something to her. Anyone else wouldn’t be able to hear, but my shifter hearing enables me to clearly hear her asking if Julie needs anything before we go – the bathroom, a drink, food. I shake my head. Julie is so fucking considerate. Most people aren’t that way.
Most people would give
her a hard time.
Hurt her.
Julie doesn’t do that.
She treats the woman like she’s still important, like she still matters, and I have to respect her for that. After a minute, Julie gets back up and helps Nicole to her feet. She leaves the woman’s hands bound, but Nicole remains silent.
“All right,” she says. “We’re ready.”
“Are you going to give us trouble?” I ask Nicole. She shakes her head. I’m not sure what changed overnight, but some of her bravado seems to be gone. Okay, all of her bravado seems to be gone. I can’t pinpoint exactly why she’s being so meek, but I sure as fuck hope it isn’t some sort of weird trick.
“No,” she finally says.
“Fine.” I look at Julie. “Do you have a bandana?”
Julie fishes one out of her backpack and I motion for Nicole to come closer. She almost looks afraid as she steps forward.
“What’s wrong?” I’m not as kind as Julie. “Scared of the monster you tried to kill?”
“I didn’t try to kill you,” she whispers.
“I just…it was just…”
“You just wanted to capture me,” I say simply. I shrug. “I get it. That’s what Lucky is good at, after all. You guys capture shifters and then torture us until we give in and die.”
Nicole gasps.
“What?”
“Don’t act innocent,” I say. “I know what you are. Now fucking come here.”
Somehow, she manages to move. Her feet don’t seem to want to come forward, but I don’t care. I don’t care if she’s scared. I don’t care if she’s afraid. She’s part of something horrible, something evil, and I won’t stand for it. When she nears me, I fold the bandana neatly and then tie it around her eyes.
“Is that necessary?” Julie asks quietly.
“I can’t risk my clan,” I tell her. “I’m not going to kill you,” I say to Nicole. “But I also can’t have you seeing where we’re going. You understand,” I add, softening my voice. Maybe I am being too hard on her. Then again, I did see her shoot Bernie. Nicole isn’t above hurting people. Fuck, she isn’t above killing people. If it means getting what she wants, she’s going to do what it takes.