Damien stepped off the Boeing C-17 Globe Master military transport, tactical gear backpack slung over one shoulder. His team followed behind him.

“Welcome to Russia,” Damien called out to the rest of the hunters and trackers.

They’d touched down on a private airbase run by the Russian military. After the end of the Cold War, the Brotherhood had created secret agreements with local military bases in every major country to have safe passage in and out of any region. The local military assumed that they were some kind of special forces, though the use of an American transport no doubt raised some eyebrows. The Brotherhood’s true identity was only shared with top government officials, and sometimes not even then, depending on the country’s stability. The last thing anyone wanted was for word of the supernatural to reach the general population.

“So do we get to try the local vodka?” Jason asked as they walked toward the four Mercedes SUVs waiting for them.

“Sure, between fighting dragons and saving your sister, vodka tastings are top priority,” Nicholas joked. Everybody laughed except Damien; his mind was firmly on the mission. Humor was good for morale, and Jason could always be counted on to make wisecracks. They all knew the danger of what they would be facing—it was part of the job.

Except this time his sister was involved.

Damien vowed that once he got her safely back to Detroit, he was locking her in her apartment for a month until she understood just how foolish she’d been.

Yeah, that will prove Meg wrong, his inner voice said sarcastically. She’d mostly kept quiet during the trip, but the way she’d looked at him… He couldn’t help but worry she was angry with him over what had happened with Charlotte.

They loaded their gear into the vehicles. Just as Damien opened the driver’s-side door, his cell phone vibrated. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen. The number was blocked. He was used to getting unknown calls in his line of work. “Hello?”

“MacQueen.” A Russian man spoke his name with a familiarity that put Damien on guard. It wasn’t a voice he recognized, and he knew every hunter on the Saint Petersburg team.

“Who is this?”

“A concerned citizen. I thought you should know that your sister is being held hostage by Rurik Barinov. I trust you understand how dangerous that is?”

Hostage? Charlotte was a prisoner of the Barinovs already? He clutched the phone tight and tried to remain calm. She’d only received minimal self-defense training, nothing compared to what Brotherhood hunters went through.

“How do you know this?” Damien demanded. Jason and the rest of the team were watching him closely. If someone had figured out how to contact him on his secure cell line, it couldn’t be a good thing. If they had his number, they could know a number of other top secret things that could put his hunters in jeopardy.

“How I know doesn’t matter. I thought you needed to know. The Barinovs go too far and must be stopped. Check your phone if you don’t believe me. I’ll send you a picture. Make them pay for what they’ve done to your sister.” The call disconnected. His phone suddenly buzzed with a text message. A picture downloaded, and his heart leapt into his throat.

It was a photo of Charlotte being dragged to the ground by Rurik Barinov. Glass from a window behind them was shattered, and a look of terror was splashed over his little sister’s face.

“Who was that?” Jason asked.

Damien stared at his phone for several long seconds before he spoke. There was no way he was showing them the photo, especially not Jason. His brother’s temper was legendary. Jason was the shoot-first-ask-questions-later-maybe type, and the last thing Damien needed was to give him a reason to be trigger-happy.

“The Barinov family has taken Charlotte as a hostage. I assume they will use her to get information about us and then eventually contact us for some kind of exchange.”

Damien forced himself not to let panic take over. This was not the first hostage situation he’d handled, but this was different. This was his baby sister. The promises he had made his parents burned deep inside his chest, reminding him that he could not afford to fail. He’d already lost one woman he loved to this job; he wouldn’t lose his little sister as well.

“Damien?” Nicholas’s voice broke through the rush of his panicked thoughts. “What are our orders?”

Orders—right. Get your head in the game, MacQueen.

He pocketed the cell phone. “We continue as planned. Converge on Charlotte’s last known location and secure the area. If she isn’t there, gain access to every camera and video recording in the surrounding area to track her down.”

Damien took his seat in the SUV. The rest of his team spread out across three vehicles and left the base. The distant lights of Moscow acted as a beacon, calling him to Charlotte.

I will find you, little sis. Just hang on.

* * *

Madelyn sat on the couch in her and Grigori’s Saint Petersburg apartment. “I think he really likes her.”

Grigori poured himself a glass of wine and his wife a glass of water. “I think so too.” He joined her on the couch, giving her a kiss before he handed her the glass of water.

Madelyn stared at the glass with contempt. “I miss wine.”

Grigori chuckled. He adored his stubborn little wife, but she had to be careful during her pregnancy. He was nervous, as was she. They were treading unknown waters, not knowing if a dragon shifter and a thunderbird could have children, or how it would develop. So far, the baby seemed healthy, but would it possess a dragon’s spirit or that of a thunderbird? Was it possible to have some kind of chimera, possessing qualities of both? No one knew. He’d hired the best doctors money could buy, those who knew shifter biology and could be trusted to keep the nature of Madelyn’s child and any unnatural test results secret. Even within their world, this was dangerous information.

“Is Rurik afraid of taking a mate?” Madelyn asked.

Grigori stared into the burgundy depths of his wine. “Our father was rigid in his ways, though he was a good man—mostly.” He amended the last bit quickly. Grigori’s father had killed Madelyn’s parents out of fear and the need for revenge. Thunderbirds had killed Grigori’s grandfather, because he had killed a number of thunderbirds in retaliation for the death of his grandfather…and so the cycle had gone for uncounted centuries. Now the thunderbirds had become all but extinct. It was a sobering thought, that Madelyn might be the last of her kind, and he prayed deep down that it wasn’t true.

“He gave us roles—one to lead the family, one to collect jewels, and one to defend us. Battle dragons are formidable at what they do, so most houses would kill them by killing their mates. Even the strongest dragon can’t survive a broken heart. My father convinced Rurik that he couldn’t take a mate. You remember Nikita, the human woman Ruslan Drakor killed a few months ago?”

Madelyn nodded.

“She was a potential true mate for him. It hurt him deeply to lose her, even though he never claimed her.”

Madelyn cuddled closer to him, her gray eyes filled with sorrow. “So if he gets too close to Charlotte, he could mate her by accident? I still don’t fully understand how dragons do that.”

Grigori chuckled. “Do you need a reminder of exactly how we mated?” He leaned in, kissing her and relishing her sweet taste. Madelyn finally put a hand on his chest and gave him a little push back.

“You know what I mean. How do you choose to mate someone at that exact moment?”

Grigori set his wine down on the coffee table and took her hands in his, lacing their fingers together as he tried to find the words to describe it.

“For me, mating was like…catching the wind with your wings and harnessing its strength. When I kissed you, it was as though I was spinning an invisible cord around us and binding us together. I opened up my mind and heart to you in a way I never have to another soul. I didn’t have to think about it, but I also couldn’t stop it. One’s true mate is a gift. I honestly don’t know how Rurik managed to resist Nikita.” Grigori squeezed her hands gently. “With Charlotte he’s already falling hard. I’ve never seen him like this. If he continues to spend time with her, he will cave and claim her.”

“Is that bad?” she asked.

“I believe he will fight falling in love and hurt them both.”

Madelyn frowned. “That would be horrible.”

“He’s stubborn enough to hold out longer than me or Mikhail.”

His cell phone resting on the coffee table suddenly vibrated. The name showed that the ID was blocked. Nothing unusual there, given his family’s ties.

“Do you have to answer that?” Madelyn asked.

“It might be important. If it’s business, I promise to hang up immediately.” He reached for it and answered.

“Barinov here.”

“Grigori.” Dimitri Drakor’s voice was instantly recognizable.

Grigori growled. “What do you want? I thought we finished our business when we saw each other last time.” If Drakor made any threats, Grigori would kill him.

“I thought that given our peace treaty has been restored, you deserved a warning.”

“Warning about what?”

Madelyn sat up, eyes wide with worry.

“Your brother is romantically involved with a Brotherhood hunter. Did you know that?”

“What?” Grigori got up from the couch and started pacing.

“Your brother is entangled with a MacQueen, Grigori. Charlotte MacQueen. She’s a hunter. What’s more, she’s the sister of their leader, Damien.”

Grigori went still, his heart racing. The Brotherhood had never been on good terms with his people. In recent decades they’d left shifters and their kin alone unless they threatened human affairs, but that hadn’t always been true. Some were notoriously proactive, and it wasn’t that long ago, during the Cold War, that they had been especially unforgiving.

And Rurik was interested in MacQueen’s sister? Another truth hit him like lightning. She was Rurik’s true mate. How was that possible? It wasn’t. There was something else at play.

He remembered his meeting with her, the attraction he’d felt because of her scent, despite his true mate being right there with him. It wasn’t natural.

Of course. It wasn’t natural. The Brotherhood must have found a way to manipulate a shifter’s senses. It could be she wasn’t a true mate at all but somehow was made to seem like one. Pheromones, perhaps? And she had been sent to bond with Rurik, tie his life with hers. He could already see how this would put them in a position of power over the Barinovs.

This could destroy them all.

“How do you know this, Drakor? Are you spying on us?” he asked, his voice deadly calm.

“I stay in Moscow on occasion, as per our treaty. And I see things. I keep track of the Brotherhood, which it seems you do not.” Normally, this chastisement would have enraged Grigori, but he was right, and the fear for his own mate and unborn child was too strong.

“You must stop her, Barinov. You know that as well as I do. If there’s only one thing we could ever agree upon, it’s that the Brotherhood of the Blood Moon is our enemy.”

That much was true, Grigori had to admit.

“I assume you’re leaving Moscow?”

“Of course. I’m going home, back to my lands. If I am to die, I wish to be on my own soil when it happens. Take care, Barinov.” Drakor hung up.

“What did he say?” Madelyn demanded, her voice breathless.

“Charlotte is not what she seems to be. She lied to us.”

“Lied?”

“She is a hunter for the Brotherhood.” He stared deep into her eyes, his every nightmare reflected in them.

“Are you sure? Can you trust Drakor? He tried to kill me.”

Grigori looked away. “That I will never forget, but…” How could he explain it to her? That some things were deeper than hate? Shifters lived long lives and did not easily forget past transgressions. The Brotherhood could not be trusted.

“But what?”

“Our families have stood against the Brotherhood for centuries. He wouldn’t make this up.”

Madelyn’s gaze was serious. “So then we assume for now that he’s telling the truth,” she replied slowly. “What’s next? Do we need to confront Charlotte?”

“Talk?” Grigori scoffed. “She plans to ensnare Rurik in her web, and he doesn’t even have a clue.”

“To what end?”

“I don’t know,” Grigori admitted. “If he were to bond with her, then she would effectively hold his life in her hands. Our entire family might be held to ransom or be forced to fight for their causes. And we would dare not retaliate. There are many possibilities, and none of them are good.”

“Oh God, Grigori, we have to stop her!”

“I will stop her. You must stay here.” He touched her belly, his heart breaking.

“But—”

“Madelyn, I won’t let you go anywhere near the Brotherhood. I need you to stay here and call Mikhail. Tell him everything. If something happens to me, you must immediately go with Mikhail and Piper.”

“If you die, then I die anyway,” Madelyn countered.

“Perhaps not. We do not know if the bond will work the same way between us. And it’s possible that your love for our unborn child could keep you alive. Regardless, there are fates other than death that might await me. I won’t have you put yourself at the same risk.”

Grigori dialed Rurik’s number, but it went straight to voicemail.

“Rurik, pick up your damn phone! Where are you?” He hung up and came back to Madelyn, catching her in his arms.

“My heart,” he whispered against her lips. “I love you with all that I am. Please don’t forget that.”

He knew she was feeling his fears. They had known the joy of love so short a time. It was unfair that they had only been together a few months. Grigori didn’t let himself finish the thought of what would happen if he couldn’t come home. It was too dark, too awful.

“Stay safe. Let Mikhail and Piper protect you and the baby.”

Before he could stop himself, he left her, his heart still aching. He had to find Rurik and save his family. He only prayed he wasn’t too late.