Page 4 of Dragon’s Revenge (Irresistible Dragons #7)

Chapter Three

W here was Rhene?

Erwan hadn’t slept in days, unable to even close his eyes without knowing where his mate was, his other half, his everything. Rhene was alive. Erwan knew that much beyond any doubt because he could feel their connection. But that was only a small consolation when they had no clue where he was.

And Fergal and Gregor hadn’t reported back in either. They were probably still on their way home with the group of omegas, and somehow, Erwan had never thought to get their phone numbers. And neither had they, which only proved they were products of the time they’d been born in, when phones had not existed.

Initially, Rhene’s brothers tried to reassure Erwan that everything would be fine, but now that they hadn’t heard from Rhene in four days, they were also beside themselves with worry. Palani and Kean had gathered with Erwan and Jermon, as well as with Sivney and Emma, to see if they could figure out a way to locate him.

“His last location was near Jokkmokk,” Palani said, holding up his phone.

Erwan frowned. “How do you know? He never made a call.”

“I have him added to an app that can track your friends’ locations, and it says his last location was there.”

Erwan hadn’t even known that existed. “Do I have that too? Sorry, this is all new technology to me.”

He handed his phone to Palani, who made a couple of quick swipes and then handed it back. “Yup. See? That’s his location. You’re sharing your location with him as well, by the way, which you need to turn off. If they have his phone, they can see exactly where you are. Or at least, where your phone is.”

Crap, Erwan hadn’t even considered that. Not that he’d known about the whole location-sharing thing in the first place, but still.

“I would suggest leaving it on for now,” Sivney said. “If they have his phone, they would’ve seen it already, and turning it off now will only make them aware we know about it. If we leave it on, we may be able to use it to our advantage.”

Smart. Sivney was clearly thinking ahead.

“Good thinking,” Palani said.

Kean had already pulled up a map of Sweden on his phone and was now zooming in. “Jokkmokk is still pretty far north, and there’s not much around. It is, however, located on the only road leading north.”

Palani frowned. “A road means anyone can get there. If he’d still been in the wilderness, it would’ve narrowed things down. Humans—non-shifters, I mean—can only cover so much distance in a day and are very limited in what they can do, especially once winter hits. It’s a little easier for dragons or wolves, though we’d still have to shift.”

“Which is also more complicated in the winter,” Sivney said. “In the summer, clothes are optional, but in that climate, that’s not possible.”

“So let’s put ourselves in Rhene’s shoes,” Palani said, leaning forward. “We all know him well. The plan was to take a plane back, right? What airport was he heading toward?”

Kean tapped on his phone. “According to Wikipedia, Kiruna is the most northern airport in Sweden.”

Erwan shook his head. “We didn’t want to fly in there out of fear others attending the Dragon Council might be as well. We wanted to show up unannounced. He would’ve been heading for Lule?, which is on the Baltic Sea, close to the Finnish border.”

Kean whistled between his teeth as he looked at the map on his phone. “That’s a lot of ground for him to cover.”

Sivney’s brows furrowed as he stared at his own phone. “His last location is right between where you guys were and Lule?, and there are three roads that he could’ve taken from Jokkmokk to the airport.” He looked up. “He may have hoped to catch a ride.”

“Catch a ride? In northern Sweden?” Kean clicked his tongue. “The odds would’ve been low. Big risk to wait for a car or truck that may never come.”

Sivney shook his head. “No, look at the map. There’s one road that goes north to south and one from Jokkmokk that leads east. Anyone going anywhere in that entire region has to travel through that town. And it would have to be supplied as well, right? I’m assuming if this is their only road, they’d make sure it’s accessible. So there’s traffic to be expected there. Not a lot, but enough to ensure a ride, especially if they realized he was a foreigner.”

“Good point,” Kean conceded.

“Or he may have simply headed for the nearest town that would have cell service,” Erwan said. “He wouldn’t have gotten on a plane without contacting me or the pack first. So he may have asked for directions to the nearest inhabited place…which was Jokkmokk.”

“Let’s assume you’re right, and you may be because that sounds like Rhene to me,” Palani said. “That means something happened in Jokkmokk. Something that got him into trouble to the point where he pulled on your magic…before disconnecting.”

“No, that timeline isn’t right,” Jermon spoke up. “Check the time of that last location. That’s a few hours after we felt his connection sever. So something would’ve happened before he reached Jokkmokk.”

Erwan pressed his lips together, fear bitter in his mouth all over again. “If he ran into trouble before that, it had to have been dragons. He was in the middle of absolutely fucking nowhere. Who else could’ve gotten to him there?”

Palani nodded. “I agree, and moreover, who would’ve even known he was there in the first place? Nothing else was going on except for the Dragon Council, so no one other than dragons would have known.”

“Do we think Cladhaire and Baoth could’ve made an attempt on his life?” Jermon asked. “It’s not like they haven’t tried to kill him before.”

“I doubt it,” Emma said. “Not that I question they’d want him dead, but from what Erwan told us about what happened, I can only surmise they must’ve been reeling. They lost their clan, the Murphys—their allies—lost their clan, and they were basically stripped of all their power. I don’t think they had the wherewithal to go after Rhene.”

“The Murphys, then?” Palani scratched his scruff. “But they would’ve been dealing with the same blow, right?”

“Yeah, but there’s more of them, and they’re younger and stronger,” Emma said. “I could see them pulling it off.”

“But they wouldn’t have had much time to set a real ambush,” Jermon said. “It would’ve had to have been more of a spontaneous attack, an impulse decision.”

“We’re assuming the reason he needed our magic and the reason he’s now disappeared are the same,” Erwan said slowly. “What if they’re two separate events?”

“You’re saying he had more than one group on his ass?” Kean sighed. “He needs to work on his charm.”

Despite everything, Erwan laughed. “You should’ve seen him at the Council. He was fearless. Absolutely fearless. I’ll never…” His voice broke.

Sivney patted his hand. “Don’t talk like that. Don’t even think it. He’s alive, and he will be okay. We have to believe that. This is Rhene Hightower we’re talking about. Badass pack alpha, mate to the King of the Doyle clan, and the biggest smart ass I know.” Sivney shot a look at Rhene’s brothers. “Well, other than you, Palani. No offense.”

“None taken.” Palani nodded. “And I couldn’t agree more. I’m not saying I’m not worried, but I have a lot of faith in Rhene’s abilities to get himself out of trouble.”

“If I may return to what you said, Erwan…” Jermon frowned deeply. “Other than Cladhaire and Baoth and the Murphys, who else could be after him? It wouldn’t be the O’Connors since they don’t take the initiative, and I doubt it was someone from the Fitzgerald clan. So who else is left?”

Silence filled the room.

“I don’t know,” Erwan finally said. “But we pissed a lot of people off, starting with…”

Wait. No, that couldn’t be, could it? It made no sense that they’d go after Rhene and not one of the dragons, unless…

“What about the dragon slayers?” he asked.

“The dragon slayers? We haven’t seen or heard from them since that first attack,” Jermon said.

“But did we kill them all? I don’t think we did.” In fact, Erwan was certain of it.

“You know, I’ve always wondered how the dragon slayers knew where to find you,” Emma said slowly. “They don’t have dragon magic, so they couldn’t have traced the boost in magic like other dragons could. How did they know where you were?”

Erwan nodded at Jermon. “Jermon suggested Cladhaire might’ve been the one to tip them off.”

“Interesting theory,” Emma said. “And one I find very plausible. It would fit everything else.”

Erwan swallowed past the tightness in his throat, the same one he always experienced whenever he realized all over again that his own father had tried to kill him. Repeatedly. “He’s wanted me dead for a long time, so yes, it fits the pattern.”

Jermon leaned forward. “It also explains how the Murphys knew about the attack. We know they were in communication with Cladhaire. We found that out the night the Murphys tried to abduct Erwan. It’s not a stretch to consider that if Cladhaire tipped off the dragon slayers, the Murphys would’ve known. They knew the attack was coming, and they had to choose to either let us die or come to our defense.”

“I agree, but why did they choose to stand with us?” Erwan shook his head. “That part still doesn’t make sense.”

Jermon threw up his hands. “Maybe to see if you were still a white dragon. Or to try and butter up to you and make us believe they were on our side so they could learn our weaknesses. The added bonus would be getting rid of the dragon slayers, or at least some of them—though why the dragon slayers never considered this was a setup is beyond me, but that’s a whole different story.”

As out of left field as his brother’s theory sounded, something about it rang true to Erwan. It connected a few more pieces of the puzzle. “It doesn’t even sound that outlandish, to be honest. In a weird way, it kind of makes sense.”

“It certainly sounds like something Cladhaire would do,” Emma agreed, and how Erwan loved them all for consistently calling his father by his first name rather than bestowing any honorifics on him.

“I agree that it’s a possibility, but do we really think they have Rhene?” Palani asked. “Why would they go after him?”

“To get to me,” Erwan said softly. “If the dragon slayers knew about the Dragon Council, they may have noticed Rhene and me attending. Without a clan to protect us, we were the weakest links to get to. And then I suddenly disappeared and Rhene was on his own…without any dragons around him to have his back. With dragons, the slayers always have to worry about magic, but not with Rhene. He has magic, but they may not know that…and it’s a different kind, one they may not be able to read.”

“I hate to say it, but it would also explain why we haven’t heard anything from anyone,” Jermon said. “Surely if the Murphys had gotten their hands on him, they would’ve either killed him”—he shot an apologetic look at Erwan—“or they would’ve reached out to us for, like, a ransom or something. But we haven’t heard a peep, even though we know he’s still alive.”

Fuck, Jermon was right. Erwan’s blood ran cold at the thought. “Then what do they plan on doing with him?”

“I can think of only one thing.” Emma’s voice was barely above a whisper. “They’re after the White Dragon. They want to get to you, Erwan…and Rhene is the key.”

Palani sat up straight. “If you’re right, does that mean a second attack is coming? Will they try to attack the Hightower pack again?”

“More like the Doyle clan, but yes,” Emma said. “That would be my guess. But they’re not after the wolves. They have no beef with them. It’s us they want. Dragons.”

“Unfortunately for them, there’s a whole lot of wolves in between them and the dragons,” Sivney said, sounding ice cold and determined as fuck. “And we won’t let them get anywhere near all of you.”

“Don’t forget that we’ll soon have as many as thirty-five extra omegas to protect,” Erwan said.

Then he froze. Oh fuck. Was that why they hadn’t heard anything? If the dragon slayers knew what went down at the Council, they knew about the incoming dragons. They could be simply biding their time, waiting for the dragon omegas to arrive. Because once they had, the majority of the remaining dragons worldwide would be in one location…on Hightower pack land. Judging by the gasp Jermon let out, his brother had come to the same realization.

“What?” Palani asked, looking from Erwan to Jermon and back. “What conclusion did you come to?”

But Kean had already connected the dots. “They could be waiting for everyone to get here…and then make their move. We may have less than a week before they attack again.”

Sivney rose, and despite his short stature, he radiated authority. “Then we’ll make sure we’re fucking ready for them.”