Normally, Ella, a fellow teacher, would be the one to go and wrestle or soothe the teenager’s inner beast since she had been his teacher for far longer than Tristan had. But the female dragon-shifter was two months pregnant and she’d decided to avoid angering her mate by sitting this one out.
Not that he could blame her. A male dragon-shifter with a pregnant mate was not something you messed with. He was fast learning that himself.
Tristan’s wings missed a beat at that thought. Since when had he started to think of Melanie as his mate? Her being unafraid and accepting his dragon-form was doing strange things to his mind.
If there had ever been a way for her to convince him that she wasn’t like other humans, it would be for her to caress his hide while in dragon-form. If that hadn’t been enough, she’d then gone and kissed him on the snout.
His dragon-half still hummed at the feeling of her lips against their hide. His inner beast was content to let his human-form take care of their female sexually, but his dragon liked the odd caress or two. Especially since she wasn’t afraid of them. Next time, his dragon wanted to lie down and have her lean against him, or maybe have her stroke the ridge of his wing. Yes, that would feel good. Maybe she would even scratch behind their ears. Dragonhide could be itchy.
Tristan pushed his dragon back before he started thinking of every way he wanted their female to pet him. His beast was clearly smitten.
Thankfully, the rock formation designating their target destination came into view, and Tristan put all thoughts of Melanie aside. If he didn’t concentrate one-hundred percent on this rescue, the teenage dragon-shifter might die.
No. He wasn’t about to let that happen.
Per their agreed upon plan, Tristan fell back to allow the two Protectors to the front of their formation as they landed in the clearing near their craggy landmark. Kai nodded to Zain and then shifted from his blue dragon form back into a tall blond-haired, blue-eyed human.
Then Kai jogged to the far side of the clearing and disappeared behind a series of tall rock formations where the two teenagers should be waiting for them.
Both Tristan and Zain remained alert, but Tristan neither scented any threats nor heard anything unusual. Glancing at the bronze dragon sharing the clearing with him, Zain was standing on all four legs with his wings slightly extended, but he was relaxed and not tensed to pounce. The other dragon didn’t sense a threat either.
A few minutes later, Kai reappeared with two rather scared looking teenage males.
The Protector ushered the two boys toward where Tristan and Zain were waiting in their dragon forms. Once they were about a half-dozen feet away, Kai said, “Okay, lads, tell them what you told me.”
One of the teenagers, the one with dark skin and a closely shaved head, darted a glance to Kai and then said, “W-we didn’t mean for this to happen. It was just a dare, you see. But Miles wanted to prove he was just as fierce as one of the Protectors. So we set him a challenge—to bring back something with the Carlisle dragon hunters’ logo on it.”
The Carlisle dragon hunters?
Bloody fantastic. The dragon hunters divided themselves into groups that were the equivalent of a cross between a gang and a motorcycle club, and the Carlisle branch were some of the nastiest and most brutal dragon hunters in the United Kingdom. Maybe even in all of Western Europe.
Provided the boy was still alive, getting him out was going to take some finesse. Luckily, Kai and Zain were the top tier of security for Stonefire and knew a thing or two about getting in and out of dangerous places undetected. Like most other dragon-shifter Protectors, they had spent some time helping out the human military in their early twenties. In exchange, the British military helped to keep the dragon hunters at bay.
Well, at least most of the time.
Eyeing the two teenage boys, Tristan decided to let out a soft growl for good measure, and they cringed a little. Good. Maybe they wouldn’t pull this stupid shit again.
Kai said to the boys, “You two are going to stay here while we fetch Miles. If you don’t hear from us in the next two hours, you call someone else. Don’t try to run off on your own. Understood?”
The two boys nodded and Kai looked up at Zain and Tristan. “The boys hadn’t mentioned it was the Carlisle group when they phoned earlier. Our previous plan won’t work.” Kai’s light blue gaze moved to him. “Time is of the essence when dealing with the Carlisle hunters and we can’t afford to wait for back-up. Instead of hanging back until we bring the boy to you, you’re going to have to fly in with us to rescue him. Are you up for it?”
Tristan lacked the special ops-like training of any of the Stonefire Protectors, but even so, neither his human-half nor his dragon-half would abandon a young to the Carlisle dragon hunters.
He nodded and Kai said, “Good. Here’s what we’re going to do...”
He listened and hoped he could pull this off. The alternative was him dying and abandoning Melanie and their child for good.
And he sure as hell wasn’t about to let that happen.
~~~
Melanie was sitting inside Samira and Liam’s cottage, reading a book to Samira’s son, Rhys, when a loud sound that could only be called an ear-splitting moan rent the air. Rhys jumped at the cry before cuddling against her chest. The boy was shaking.
As she made soothing sounds and stroked the boy’s back, his actions told her that the moan wasn’t an everyday sound around Stonefire. She hated not knowing what it meant.
Samira rushed into the room and Mel pounced on the chance to ask her, “What the hell was that?”
Her friend looked worried. “A dragon’s been hurt.”