Per their agreed upon plan, Tristan fell back to allow the two Protectors to the front of their formation as they landed in the clearing near their craggy landmark. Kai nodded to Zain and then shifted from his gold dragon form back into a tall blond-haired, blue-eyed human.
Then Kai jogged to the far side of the clearing and disappeared behind a series of tall rock formations where the two teenagers should be waiting for them.
Both Tristan and Zain remained alert, but Tristan neither scented any threats nor heard anything unusual. Glancing at the red dragon sharing the clearing with him, Zain was standing on all four legs with his wings slightly extended, but he was relaxed and not tensed to pounce. The other dragon didn’t sense a threat either.
A few minutes later, Kai reappeared with two rather scared looking teenage males.
The Protector ushered the two boys toward where Tristan and Zain were waiting in their dragon forms. Once they were about a half-dozen feet away, Kai said, “Okay, lads, tell them what you told me.”
One of the teenagers, the one with dark skin and a closely shaved head, darted a glance to Kai and then said, “W?we didn’t mean for this to happen. It was just a dare, you see. But Miles wanted to prove he was just as fierce as one of the Protectors. So we set him a challenge—to bring back something with the Carlisle dragon hunters’ logo on it.”
The Carlisle dragon hunters?
Bloody fantastic. The dragon hunters divided themselves into groups that were the equivalent of a cross between a gang and a motorcycle club, and the Carlisle branch were some of the nastiest and most brutal dragon hunters in the United Kingdom. Maybe even in all of Western Europe.
Provided the boy was still alive, getting him out was going to take some finesse. Luckily, Kai and Zain were the top tier of security for Stonefire and knew a thing or two about getting in and out of dangerous places undetected. Like most other dragon-shifter Protectors, they had spent some time helping out the human military in their early twenties. In exchange, the British military helped to keep the dragon hunters at bay.
Well, at least most of the time.
Eyeing the two teenage boys, Tristan decided to let out a soft growl for good measure, and they cringed a little. Good. Maybe they wouldn’t pull this stupid shit again.
Kai said to the boys, “You two are going to stay here while we fetch Miles. If you don’t hear from us in the next two hours, you call someone else. Don’t try to run off on your own. Understood?”
The two boys nodded and Kai looked up at Zain and Tristan. “The boys hadn’t mentioned it was the Carlisle group when they phoned earlier. Our previous plan won’t work.” Kai’s light blue gaze moved to him. “Time is of the essence when dealing with the Carlisle hunters and we can’t afford to wait for back-up. Instead of hanging back until we bring the boy to you, you’re going to have to fly in with us to rescue him. Are you up for it?”
Tristan lacked the special ops-like training of any of the Stonefire Protectors, but even so, neither his human-half nor his dragon-half would abandon a young to the Carlisle dragon hunters.
He nodded and Kai said, “Good. Here’s what we’re going to do...”
He listened and hoped he could pull this off. The alternative was him dying and abandoning Melanie and their child for good.
And he sure as hell wasn’t about to let that happen.
~~~
Melanie was sitting inside Samira and Liam’s cottage, reading a book to Samira’s son, Rhys, when a loud sound that could only be called an ear-splitting moan rent the air. Rhys jumped at the cry before cuddling against her chest. The boy was shaking.
As she made soothing sounds and stroked the boy’s back, his actions told her that the moan wasn’t an everyday sound around Stonefire. She hated not knowing what it meant.
Samira rushed into the room and Mel pounced on the chance to ask her, “What the hell was that?”
Her friend looked worried. “A dragon’s been hurt.”
Her heart skipped a beat as dread pooled in the pit of her stomach. If it was Tristan that had been hurt…
Stop it. She had no idea if it had been Tristan’s cry she’d heard or another dragon’s. There was no reason to get upset for nothing.
Forcing her voice to remain steady, she asked the all-important question, “Do you know who made that sound?”
Shaking her head, Samira came over to lift Rhys off Melanie’s lap. “No, and I can’t leave Rhys or risk taking him with me if there is indeed a wounded dragon. I hate not knowing who it is. Can you go check it out?”
The fact Samira had asked her to go check meant the world to Melanie because sitting around and fidgeting while her man was out doing something dangerous was not her style.
Of course, she still didn’t know everything about Stonefire yet and she wasn’t about to go out blind. She asked, “How do you know that was a wounded dragon?”
Samira cuddled her son close and her expression went grim. “Believe me, once you hear that sound, you never forget it. A dragon only cries that way when they’re close to dying.”