Trent was in a sour mood as he drove home that night. The conversation with Dr. Price had stayed with him, and he had mentally chewed it over through the rest of his shift.

Price was a good veterinarian. He cared about his clients, but the stress of keeping his independent practice afloat was starting to force him to put money before medicine. Trent could sympathize, but that was how good practices went bad. He didn't want to have any part of it.

Tonight, Trent would go over his finances and plot out an exit plan. Perhaps not right away, maybe not even in the next year, but someday, soon, he would strike out on his own.

He had savings, and a business loan shouldn't be too hard to secure. Winchester Bay could support an dragon-only practice as long as he kept the operation slim. Himself, a full-time nurse, and perhaps a second part-time doctor. Someone who was looking for fill-in work. Winchester Bay was a retirement community and there were quite a few professionals with a lot of time on their hands. He knew of a couple he could approach.

It might be a good idea to partner with a dragon shelter, too. Both businesses could benefit from sharing the rental cost of a large building.

… Working near Cole would be worth any financial risk.

Trent had a smile on his face as he parked, opened his car door, and stepped out. Then, the smile died.

He could hear piercing dragon shrieks all the way from his driveway. Quickly, he headed to the front of the house. What in the world was wrong with Lady?

Unlocking the door, Trent stepped inside and stared. His living room was a disaster zone. Pictures were ripped off the walls, a fancy vase with fake flowers knocked off its pedestal onto the floor. Most strikingly, the couch now had long gashes carved into it with sharp dragon claws. The white stuffing from pillows had been pulled out.

"What—” he started, too shocked to be angry.

Lady zoomed to him like a blue steel arrow. With another piercing shriek, she alighted to his shoulder and beat at his head with her wings, only to fly away as he instinctively hunched over.

What in the world was going on? Lady had seemed perfectly fine when Trent had left this morning. She had even taken more tidbits of meat from his hand. He had never seen such crazy behavior from a dragon—not a well-balanced one, at least.

Could this be some sort of extreme separation anxiety?

Lady flew around the room and hectic circles, calling as if she were lost. She darted to the wide bay window that dominated his living room, then away again.

Lady didn't seem to be physically injured. She was flying easily, and when Trent was able to briefly coax her to his arm there weren’t any visible injuries. The food bowl was empty, too. She had eaten and used the litter box set in the corner.

Trent was a dragon doctor, but part of being a professional was recognizing when he was over his head.

He pulled out his cell phone, and then realized with a little consternation he didn't have Cole's number in his contacts. So, moving to another room to muffle Lady’s continued shrieking, he called the clinic. Naomi was still in taking care of the overnight patients.

Trent endured her teasing, but she eventually gave him Cole's contact number which was listed in his file.

Punching it in, Trent waited impatiently as Cole's phone rang and rang before rolling to voicemail.

Frowning, Trent tried the number again with the same result.

Suddenly, Lady’s behavior took on an ominous tone. Lady was a Common dragon, which meant she hadn’t bonded with Cole or anyone else. But dragons as a species could be strangely perceptive. There had been well-documented cases of even Commons alerting other family members of car accidents and the like before a bad news phone call.

With a sinking feeling, Trent called Naomi back. This time, he asked for Cole's listed home address.

Thankfully, Lady stopped her shrieking as soon as Trent put her in her harness. He had no intention of leaving a frantic dragon alone to destroy his home.

To his surprise, Lady subsided and clung on to his shoulder with her tail wrapped firmly around his neck for balance.

The address on the GPS took Trent to the other side of town, literally across the railroad tracks. For a few minutes, Trent doubted he was headed in the right direction. He thought for sure he was almost to the railroad depot until he spotted a mailbox and turned down a small dirt road at the edge of town.

The large, aged dragon standing in a paddock told him he had found the right place. The shrieking from inside the small house— similar to Lady's panicked crying—told him the rest.

Parking the car, Trent rushed to the front door and found it ajar.

"Cole?" he yelled over the shrieking dragons.

No answer. At least, none he could hear.

Trent stepped into a narrow, cluttered galley-style kitchen. He found Cole collapsed on the ground.

Trent's heart plummeted. His training kicked in and he knelt to feel for a pulse. He founded steady and strong. In fact, Cole winced at the touch and shifted, one hand raising to his face were a red, puffy mark was already forming on his jaw.

"Stay still." Trent carefully ran his fingers up through Cole's hair and felt around his head. No blood, though Cole was developing one hell of a goose egg on the back of his head.

Cole's eyes fluttered open. "Trent?"

“It’s me. Do you know where you are right now?”

“Uh… home? What are you doing in my house?” Cole shifted again in an attempt to sit up and look around.

“I think Lady was trying to tell me you fell in a well.” It was a bad Lassie joke, and Cole looked too dazed to understand it. “Stay down. Are you in any pain?”

“Ugh. My head. My face…” Cole’s eyes widened. “The dragons! Are they okay? Raul didn’t hurt them?”

“Stay down,” Trent said with a bit more force and pressed his palm to Cole’s chest. It was a mark of how bad Cole probably felt that he laid back down. “I’m going to call an ambulance. Your dragons are fine.”

He glanced around as he spoke. It looked like Cole had built an indoor/outdoor aviary which took up half of the tiny living room and all of the backyard. At least ten pairs of dragon eyes stared balefully back at Trent, though none of them seemed to be visibly hurt.

“No… no ambulance.” Cole’s voice had a bit of a slur. “I can’t afford—”

“You were unconscious. You probably have a concussion. You’re getting seen by a professional.”

It would be better if his head was elevated. Finding half a roll of paper towels on the counter, Trent slid it under Cole’s head. The other man winced, but didn’t complain. His complexion had gone white, and from the way he was swallowing Trent thought he might be fighting back nausea. That was a classic concussion symptom.

Trent took the phone from his pocket and dialed for an ambulance. It was much better to keep busy doing that then what he really wanted: Ask what happened, and who the hell was Raul. But with a concussion, Cole’s answers would be garbled and might be totally wrong.

“Trent,” Cole murmured once he had hung up the phone. “I can’t go to the hospital. My dragons…”

“They’ll be fine. I’ll take care of them.” Still kneeling beside him, Trent gripped Cole’s hand.

Cole’s pupils were reacting to light, but there was a glaze to his expression that Trent didn’t like at all.

Before long, he heard a wail of a firetruck. The EMTs would not be far behind.

Trent counted himself lucky that the ambulance had arrived before the single police officer who showed up.

When it was revealed that Cole had been attacked in his home, there were several uncomfortable moments when the officer looked at Trent with a suspicious eye. The two paramedics quickly vouched for him. Cole did, too, in his pain fuzzed voice.

Poor Cole. He needed a scan and observation at the hospital at the very least, but was much more worried about who would take care of his dragons than his own health. He relaxed only when Trent promised over and over that he would watch them for the night.

“We’re taking him to Sacred Heart,” Eve, one of the paramedics told Trent. “If you want to follow along after…”

He did, and badly. But he wasn’t sure he would be able to hold himself back from stepping on any toes in the emergency room.

Besides, he had a promise to keep to Cole.

Lady was still in the car (luckily, it was a cool day with the ocean breeze and a layer of fog obscuring the sun). Trent stood with her on his shoulder as the ambulance pulled away with Cole inside.

He watched until it turned down the road at the end of the driveway and out of sight. Then, reluctantly, Trent turned back toward Cole’s house.

Ten pairs of dragon eyes glared back at him from the aviary. Lady hissed her displeasure at the others.

“Calm down,” he said quietly, “I won’t make you go into the aviary with the others if you don’t want.”

Miraculously, the dragon settled again. She was a perceptive creature.

Despite everything, Trent was a little impressed at the cleanliness of the aviary, and the glowing health of the occupants. He shouldn’t be surprised Cole took such good care of them.

“All right,” he said to the watching dragons. “Where does Cole keep your feed?”