Chapter Ten
Without warning, the door burst open, and the room filled with tigers. They were the largest she had ever seen, no doubt shifters rather than the ordinary Bengal tigers they had crossed paths with earlier in the journey. Then, a man walked in through their center, approaching Thomas and Josh, who had shot up from their seats and instinctively pushed Kara and Barb behind them protectively.
“Why are you here?” the man demanded.
“We came for a safari. What exactly is the problem here?” Thomas replied.
“The problem is that you don’t belong here,” the man replied.
“We are merely tourists. I thought this little outfit of yours was set up to do tours. Do you treat all of your guests this way, or are we just lucky?”
“I wouldn’t get too snarky with the attitude if I were you,” the man told him. “We know what you are. Khalib could smell it on you from the first day, but we wanted to give you time to reveal your intentions.”
“You mean you were waiting for an advantage to present itself. You brought us out here to the middle of nowhere and into a confined space where you could surround us. So, I guess the real question here is: what are your intentions?”
“You don’t get to ask questions. You’d be wise to just answer mine.”
“I don’t think we have to do anything.”
“Did you really think we wouldn’t know what you are? We have no problem with the human, other than the fact that she shouldn’t be with someone who is not her kind, but dragon shifters are not welcome here, and that one,” he said, pointing around him toward Kara, “I can’t imagine what bred such a creature or what sort of creatures she carries in her womb. It’s an affront to nature.”
For a moment, Thomas looked stricken as he looked down at Kara who had slipped out from behind him a bit and stood by his side. He pushed her back behind him without a word, redirecting his attention toward the man in front of him.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Omar, the leader of this pride, and you have no business here. We don’t want trouble, but we also don’t want you here. So, what we are going to do is send you on your way. I think you would do us all a favor by not showing yourselves in the daylight, but I’d advise you to find your way out of this place as quickly as your wings will take you once the night falls. You wouldn’t want to be out there at night with the wildlife, and you certainly wouldn’t want to be out here with us if you’re still around come morning.”
“Do you really think you and your little band of kittens are any match for a dragon?” Josh spat back at him.
“Within these walls and with a human and an expectant mother to protect? I most certainly do,” the man said.
Kara’s eyes opened wide. She had assumed the comment before was just a reference to a future child, but now he was insinuating that she was already with child. Could that be possible? She was momentarily taken aback as she tried to grasp how that could have happened when they had taken all precautions, and then she was curious as to whether he was just guessing or could really tell.
“Ah, you didn’t know,” he replied, smiling down at her. “That’s right. You’re going to have a…something. I don’t know what that thing will be,” he said as if he found the possibility distasteful.
“I am a dragon shifter. Thomas is a dragon shifter. If I am with child, then it will also be a dragon shifter,” she said angrily.
“Is that what you think? You believe your impurity doesn’t show itself to us? You don’t think it affects the unborn you carry? I pity you. Your future will only bring you pain.”
“That’s enough. We’ve heard enough. You want us to go? Fine. We will go. You could have left us where we were last night. Instead, you brought us further in only to leave us. I’d say you were hoping we’d fight. Is that what you want? A fight?”
“We had our reasons for waiting.”
“I’m sure you did,” Thomas replied, nodding for the others to move toward the door.
Outside the building, the four of them whispered back and forth as they made their way back toward the grove of trees they had passed through to get here.
“What about our things?” Barb asked.
“It’s all just survival gear, nothing important. Just leave it. We’ll retrieve the rest of our belongings once we get back to our rooms at the hotel,” he said.
“We should go back there and clean them all out,” Josh growled.
“No. We will not. We have Barb to consider, and we can’t risk Kara getting injured if what he says is true,” he told him angrily.
“No matter what they are doing, they are still my kin,” Kara added, though she wasn’t feeling very much like family at the moment.
“I don’t understand any of this. Why not just turn us away at the airport before they ever brought us out here?” Josh asked. “Apparently, that was why Khalib was acting like such an ass early on. He knew we were shifters and even that Kara is some sort of hybrid.”
“I don’t know, but I don’t care anymore. All I want is to get us out of here in one piece. We need to stay together and put as much distance between us as possible until nightfall, and then we’ll fly out of here,” Thomas told him.
“We should have grabbed some water or something,” Kara groaned, realizing they weren’t very prepared for even the few hours that remained until darkness would fall. At least they had gotten part of a meal before everything had fallen apart.
“Just hold tight right here for a moment,” Thomas said, turning to run back toward the camp.
“Thomas, don’t…” Kara began, but it was too late. She wished she had kept her mouth shut. It was a relief when he returned just a short time later with one of their packs that had a full water bladder and some snacks in one side.
“All right, let’s go,” he told them. They headed toward the opening in the woods and along the trail that led back to the river.
“Do you know where we are going?” Barb asked him.
“Not really, but we came down this river, so if we can get back to it, we can follow it back to where we came from,” he told her.
“If we don’t get eaten by something first,” she mumbled.
“Worst case scenario, Josh and I will shift and fight while Kara shifts and takes you up and out of danger,” he told her.
They all fell into silence as they made their way toward the water, but not too close to it. There would still be some daylight left once they arrived, so they would get within sight of the river, but out of sight of reptiles that might view them as a snack. They’d then follow along on foot until the dark unfolded enough for them to take flight.
“What was that?” Josh asked suddenly, stopping in his tracks and turning back toward the direction from which they had come.
“I don’t know, but it isn’t our problem,” Thomas replied.
“I hope you are right about that,” Josh told him before they continued along.