Elin
Her hand swung out to the side to stop the dragon shifter. Although he hadn’t announced his intentions, the set of his shoulders told both her and all the gunmen in the room what he was planning to do.
“Not yet,” she said softly, speaking out of the corner of her mouth.
Elin couldn’t tear her eyes away from the portly man standing on the other side of the display from them.
The room itself was small and limited in size. It was roughly oval in shape, with two stations each to the left and right at the far ends of the oval. In the center of the room was the main operations table, a computer built into the horizontal screen. Beneath them was metal grating covering the floor, beneath which ran all manner of cables and cords.
Overhead white neon lighting was strung from front to back, at odds with the rest of the room’s layout. Elin knew it well, because until the day before, this had been her command center. The heart of her base, that she commanded.
Now it had been turned over to one Brigadier General Rick Moore. A man she’d thought had left the military nearly two years ago. Now she was finding out that not only was he still enlisted, but he’d been promoted. On top of that, in what was surely a poorly designed plan to twist the knife in her back as she finally quit, they’d sent him to take over for her. All of the success she’d achieved with Kallore would be credited to him.
Unless of course you just let Kal break his neck.
It was a tempting option, so much so that the hand holding him back wavered and dropped several inches.
Moore must have had some inkling of what was going on, because his face paled slightly when Kallore pushed gently at the blocking arm, though he didn’t force his way through it. She could just imagine the scorching look the general was receiving from the man who had proclaimed her his mate.
His drive to protect her, to rid her of Moore forever, was endearing as it was tantalizing. But the rational part of her mind knew that killing Moore wouldn’t solve a damn thing. It would be a temporary satisfaction, but in the end the fallout from it would haunt her quite likely for the rest of her life. No, Elin needed to try her way first. If that failed, then she would unleash her not-so-secret weapon. Maybe.
“You will give the general the respect owed to him!” Cutprice snapped from the side.
Kallore’s hand flicked out without warning. Elin tensed, ready to duck out of the way of the bullets, but when nobody fired it became clear to her that the dragon shifter hadn’t thrown anything.
“What are you doing?” Cutprice asked as Kallore repeated the motion.
“Getting the distance right,” he rumbled with a savage grin.
“Right for what?”
“For when you speak up for the last time.”
Everyone in the room inhaled at the naked threat. Cutprice seemed ready to blow at the seams, but a motion from General Moore—she still couldn’t believe that!—silenced the fuming officer. What a sycophant. Defending the general’s honor! It made her want to vomit. Preferably on Moore’s perfectly shined shoes.
“Why are you here, General?” she asked again, this time giving in to her military background. She could respect the rank, just not the man behind it in this case.
He tried to smooth his uniform over his protruding belly before responding. “To relieve you. I thought that had been made clear already.”
Grating her teeth, she nodded. “It was. But the why behind it was not. What did I do wrong?”
“Wrong?” Moore brushed aside the word with a hand. “Nothing at all. But it was felt that with the success of the program to date, that a finer, gentler hand was needed, along with someone who had the rank to ensure that everything went smoothly.”
She snorted. “In other words, you weaseled your way in here to claim all the credit for my success. Which, by the way, isn’t even mine. There would be no success if Kallore hadn’t chosen otherwise.”
General Moore smiled. “Which is precisely why I am here. To ensure that the subject is treated properly and not alienated.”
Kallore stiffened next to her at being referred to as a subject. Elin silently urged him to stay calm for just a little longer. She still had one last card to play.
“I’d like to see written orders.”
Cutprice fished something out of his pocket under the wrathful gaze of Kallore before handing them to one of the armed men. The soldier, dressed in all black, stepped forward uncertainly and thrust the papers at Elin before retreating swiftly as she took them. A quick glance showed them to be perfectly legitimate.
“Very well. I wish to speak to Lieutenant General Knefferson, to formally dispute and protest this action. I cite the well-being of the base and all our potential new allies as reason.”
General Moore’s faced clouded up with rage as she spoke. The protest was also perfectly legitimate, but it was rarely used. If this were any other situation, Elin would likely have simply gone along with her original orders. But this was different. The outcome of her actions here could dictate the entire scope of the war with the Outsiders. With Kallore and others of his kind at their side, it was entirely feasible that the humans had a chance. That maybe they could even win the battle without horrendous loss of life.
But if General Moore took over, she knew that none of the others would help out. Kallore would talk any dragon they woke out of it, if Moore didn’t alienate them all on his own, which was possibility enough. Elin was backed into a corner, and she had to do whatever it took to emerge, even if it was spitting in the face of a superior, no matter how much he may deserve it.
“Very well,” Moore hissed furiously. He punched some buttons on the display in front of him and then stood aside, gesturing to the screen on the wall behind him. It took nearly a minute, but eventually the face of Lieutenant General Knefferson appeared.
“What is it, Rick? I’m busy here.”
“I know, General, I apologize for the interruption. Major Mara has formally protested her orders and requested to speak to you over their contents.”
The ebony-colored general on the screen swiveled his gaze until he was staring at her. “Very well, Major,” he said, stressing her rank. “This had better be damn good.”
“Yes, sir. It is, sir. I need you to know that by doing this, you are breaking up a well-functioning team that would be better suited for helping to onboard any new recruits to the program far better than anything General Moore could come up with. It is something Kallore and I have—”
She fell silent as General Knefferson raised a hand. “Major Mara. You had better have a better reason for protesting this order than wanting to stay near your lover.”
Elin’s face burned with shame at the comment. She could just hear all her naysayers in the army whispering about her behind her back. How all these years she’d lied about General Moore, that it was she who tried to blackmail him after all. It broke her heart, but she knew she couldn’t afford to show weakness. Not now. Not at this critical point. She would do everything she could to resolve this horrific mistake, before it got a lot of people killed.
“Absolutely, General. Even if I were out of the picture, Kallore would still be a better representative to have around to help acclimatize new recruits.”
“Kallore is not going anywhere,” General Knefferson told her, a look of mild confusion on his face.
There it was. His opening. Elin just hoped he saw it.
Kallore moved closer to her side, and even a step in front of her.
“I go with Major Mara.” He enunciated each individual word with force, making it clear to the video screen and everyone present in the room that there would be no arguing that statement. “If you remove her, I leave as well.”
Knefferson shook his head. “Kallore, you will stay there and do as you are told. Is that understood?”
Elin gaped at the complete disrespect for the dragon shifter. Did they not realize that Kallore stayed here not because he felt obligated to the military, but because he wished to? The dragon could leave any time he wanted, but he hadn’t, because he wanted to be near her. There was no way they were going to keep him here against his wishes, and treating him like he was a mere soldier was going to do the complete opposite.
“Kallore,” she started, but the dragon shifter was done listening to her now. He stepped forward, his skin darkening. She realized he still wasn’t wearing a shirt. The paleness was fading, replaced with a sandy, tan-colored hue.
“I am not your pet, General,” he said angrily. “Nor am I an experiment of yours.”
Around the room men brought their guns up to their shoulders.
“I am not a recruit nor a contractor for you to order around.” His voice was escalating now, until it reached a tremendous bellow that rocked her back on her feet.
She ducked out of the way and ran for the exit to the room as he lost his temper at last. Reaching the hopeful safety, she turned in time to see some of the men rush him. He beckoned them on, a wild grin on his face as he waited for her to get out of the way.
“I AM KALLORE!”
The force of his voice tossed the men back like ragdolls.