Peggy
I spend the day with Daisy and Cameron’s mom, Henrietta. She shows me around the vet facility at the clan and she plays with Mocha and Frappe. They seem to love getting to be around the other kittens who are being cared for at the veterinary clinic. I’ve never seen them this happy or active before, and it makes me glad.
But I’m still worried, and it shows.
Henrietta tries to talk to me and to welcome me to the clan, and I appreciate it, but I’m also nervous. The day passes slowly, and I have no way to communicate with the dragons while they’re gone. They didn’t want to take tech since the Lucky scientists could so easily intercept any transmissions.
All I can do is sit and wait.
I get a grand tour of the clan’s town, which is lovely and wonderful, and then Henrietta returns home to put Daisy to bed for the night. There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep or even to relax, so I choose to wait on Wilson’s front porch.
It’s stupid, but I can’t stand the idea of being anywhere else but here.
I need to be here when they get back.
“Rough night, huh?” A soft voice says.
“You have no idea.” I don’t look up.
“Oh, I do,” a woman says, stepping out of the shadows. She comes over and motions to the step where I’m sitting. “Mind if I join you?”
“By all means. I’m Peggy.”
“Natalie.”
“You have someone out there, don’t you?”
“My friends,” she says.
“Why didn’t you go?” I ask. “No offense. I’m not trying to be rude. I had to stay because I’m not a dragon.”
“I’m not, either,” she says gently.
“What?” I look at her sharply. A human living in a dragon clan? “Are you mated to a dragon?”
“No,” she chuckles, shaking her head. “I’m adopted.”
“By dragons?”
“Yep.”
“Wow.”
“You can say that again. I guess I had kind of a weird childhood. For a human, you know.”
“I didn’t realize dragons adopted outside of their clan,” I tell her. I suppose I just didn’t really think about it. It makes sense, of course, but the thought never really crossed my mind.
“Fablestone Clan members are giving and caring,” Natalie tells me gently. “They’ll do anything to help the people they love.”
“I can tell.”
“You’re Cameron’s mate, aren’t you?”
I pull my hair back and lean my head back so Natalie can see the mark on my neck. She examines it silently for a minute and then smiles.
“I thought so. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
We’re silent for a long time after that. Neither one of us really has anything to say. What is there to say?
“I hope no one dies tonight”?
“I hope they all come back”?
“I hope this isn’t a suicide mission”?
So we wait in silence and we hope for the best.
Eventually, despite our best efforts, sleep claims us, and Natalie and I pass out in front of the clan leader’s office in the darkness of the night.
*
“Wake up.”
Natalie shakes me and I sit up quickly. Instantly, I grab my head.
“Bad decision, bad decision,” I murmur as my head starts to throb.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “But they’re back, Peggy. They’re back.”
Instantly, I’m alert. I jump to my feet and rub my eyes, trying to get rid of that last little bit of grogginess.
And then I see them.
I see him.
And I run.
Cameron is walking alongside a woman: someone I recognize. Ellie. He found her. He found her, and he brought her back, and everything is going to be okay. The group of dragons is walking toward Natalie and me. The rest of the clan, the people who were left behind during the attack, are coming out in droves. Word got around quickly that they returned, and within minutes, a huge crowd has gathered with Cameron, Ellie, Wilson, and the rest of the fighters at the center of it.
And then I notice that something is wrong.
Someone is missing.
“David?” I whisper before I can stop myself, and Ellie instantly locks eyes with me. I see her tear-stained face, and I realize that despite her best efforts, she lost her husband. Her mate. The one who cared for her more than anything.
“Human,” she whispers, and she comes to me. She doesn’t run. She walks slowly, with a limp, and I know the scientists hurt her deeply, but she comes to me, anyway. Then she wraps her arms around me. “You kept your oath.”
“Of course I kept your oath,” I whisper. “Daisy is safe with your mother.”
“You warned my clan,” she says. “You got them to launch a rescue mission.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say I got them to launch it,” I tell her. “Cameron and Wilson arranged all of that, but I did get Daisy here.”
“You kept my oath,” she repeats, and then a smile spreads on her face as she pushes back my hair, revealing my mating mark. “And you took another one, I see.”
A blush spreads over my face and I nod quietly.
“Who’s the lucky dragon?”
“Yours truly,” Cameron says, stepping forward. He wraps his arms around me and Ellie and for a long time, he just holds us. All around us, dragons begin to touch and hug one another. They begin to reunite, but then Wilson steps forward and calls out.
“Someone go for Henrietta,” he says. “We have wounded shifters here and we need a doctor.”
“Wounded?” I ask, looking behind Wilson. That’s when I notice that the shifters brought back cages with people in them. They look like humans, but they’re not. They’re not human at all. They’re shifters who have been captured, tortured, and experimented on. They’re shifters who could be sick and who are definitely hurt.
“We need to get them out of these cages,” Wilson says. “And into the clinic.” He jerks his head in the direction of the building. It’s close to where we’re standing now, and instantly, everyone begins to move. Even Ellie, with her limp, and Natalie, with her human strength, move to begin helping the shifters.
I hear Henrietta’s voice before I see her. Instantly, she jumps into action and begins directing people. Someone starts breaking the locks on the cages, careful not to hurt the shifters inside, and then Henrietta begins guiding us as to where each person should go.
“My mom was a nurse,” I tell her, jumping into action. “How can I help?”
Henrietta looks me up and down and then a grin spreads on her face.
“You’re going to do just fine here, human. You’re going to do just fine.”