Page 91 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

Despite my slow pace, though, I’m panting and sweating within half an hour and I’m seriously regretting my life choices.

I don’t even notice anything out of the ordinary until there’s a rag over my nose and mouth, and the world goes dark.

‘Where the hell is she?’ Tor snarls as we tear through the house.

With every empty room, my fears grow. Even the scent of her is muted, like she hasn’t been here in hours. But maybe that’s just my heightened emotions playing tricks.

‘I found something!’ I hear Drey say, and I hop over the mezzanine from the master bedroom without a second thought, slamming down onto the floor with a thud to get down there quicker.

A shelf falls from one of the walls, shattering a large vase, but I ignore it, my panicked eyes finding Drey. He’s holding a piece of paper in his hand. He thrusts it at me with a snarl and I glance over it.

‘Fuck! When did she leave?’

Tor makes it down the stairs and reads the note quickly. ‘She can’t have been gone for more than an hour. We would have noticed.’

Del runs in from the porch at that moment, her face grim.

‘What is it?’ Drey asks. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

‘We need to find her,’ Del gasps. ‘Now! I smelled another dragon on the wind. Julius.’

‘Aziel’s second.’ My heart stops and I reach out again, trying to find her as I have been since we realized she wasn’t in the house, but the sense I usually have of her in the fringes of my mind is missing.

‘It’s too late. She’s not here,’ I say quietly.

How did we let this happen? This was supposed to be our safe place. No one knew about it.

‘She has to be,’ Drey snarls angrily. ‘You’d have noticed if she was taken. You’d have felt it.’

I shake my head.

‘That’s not how it works, Drey,’ I growl.

‘He has her. We need to go back to the mountain as soon as possible.’ Tor paces the room. ‘He’ll kill her if he figures out she’s not carrying a human child.’

‘But he’ll know as soon as he sees her. She’s full-term in three months.’

‘But he never actuallysawher when she came to the mountain. He might not realize, at least at first. And he never lived in the human world, not even before the Fall. He’s ignorant of them in many ways. We have a chance.’

‘Del?’

She holds up her hand, her ear pressed to her phone. ‘I’m telling the females what’s happening.’

‘Is that wise? What if one of them?—’

‘All of them left when I sent them that footage.’ Her eyes flash. ‘Every single one. Even Raina was horrified, and she was very much aboard the Aziel ship. I trust them and we’ll need them, Drey. If Aziel’s allies fight us, we’ll need every friend we can get.’

He sighs, but nods. ‘You’re right.’ He hesitates. ‘Tell them about the baby, too.’

‘What?’ I grate out. ‘But?—’

I look to Tor, but my friend is nodding. ‘This is what will sway the faction back our way, Brax. If she’s in the mountain, it could ensure her safety if the females get there before we can.’

Del looks surprised, but then nods, going into her room talking. She comes back out a minute later with her med bag and a sword.

‘Let’s fucking go get your mate back!’ she snarls.

We’re in the air within five minutes, not even bothering to lock up the cabin, all of us hoping that we’ll return to it soon. We’d all wanted more time. With Mari. With the baby. But the flood has come, and we can’t keep the rising waters back any longer. The plan of returning only after we’d exposed Aziel’s treachery beyond a shadow of a doubt is in tatters. By taking our mate, he’s forced our hand, and he’ll pay in blood.