Nathan cleared his throat. "I don't growl nearly as much as you do, Zain. So that works in my favor."
Lucien chuckled, and Zain glared at one male and then the other. "You two have become way too familiar around me. At one time, neither of you would look me in the eye."
Lucien shrugged—an annoying habit of his—and said, "It's hard to be nervous around someone you've seen singing drunken karaoke."
"It was the one time, and only the one time," Zain bit out.
Kai grunted—his way of snapping them to order—and spoke up only once all eyes were back on him. "Enough bickering, children. We have a general plan, and we'll continue to fine-tune it as we learn more about the human female." Kai looked directly at Zain. "You'll meet with Serafina this afternoon and learn what she needs from you."
He nodded. Kai dismissed Lucien and Nathan. Only once they were alone again did he add, "And play nice with the human. I know she's done horrible things and could even have played a part in attacking Sid or even my sister with those bloody drugs. However, if she can bring down the whole organization, anything is worth achieving that goal."
"Anything?"
"Yes."
Zain wanted to argue, but held back. Kai was the most stubborn bastard he knew, even more so than Stonefire's clan leader at times.
Add in Kai willing to overlook how the Dragon Knights had drugged his sister, making her dragon silent for months, and it told Zain volumes about how important Ivy was to Kai's future plans.
Zain's inner dragon finally spoke up. Just pretend this is a sort of undercover operation. Play the part of a nice male, maybe the opposite of your usual surliness.
I'm only surly because I've been relegated to babysitting duty for the last fucking year.
Only because of Ivy Passmore. Get everything we need from her, bring down the Dragon Knights, and maybe Kai will let us do what we really want—to take down the dragon hunters.
More than anything, Zain wanted to avenge his former friend's death. Fine, I'll be nice. But only so we can take out the bastards who killed Charlie and finally give her mate and son some peace.
Kai's voice prevented his dragon from replying. "I'll text you the time for the meeting with Serafina. You'll need to bring her up-to-date on Ivy and everything we know about her."
"Fine." Zain stood. "That just means someone else will have to put Dacian through his trials for the afternoon."
"No worries. It's about time I judged his abilities for myself."
Zain didn't envy the younger male at all. If Dacian thought Zain was a tough bastard, then he'd end up in a weakened puddle after Kai's routines.
However, if the younger male couldn't last through them, then he didn't deserve to become a Protector.
With a final bob of his head, Zain exited the room and headed to the office he'd been using to gather and store information on Ivy. Maybe all the prep work he'd done would help him finish the task sooner. Because it'd been far too long since Zain had led a team to root out some dragon hunters. Or he might be able to search for the rogue dragon-shifters who lived in the remote parts of the UK, ones who could destroy all the goodwill and progress the UK dragon clans had made over the last few years with one bad act.
Soon. It wouldn't be long before Zain could forget he'd ever met Ivy Passmore and finally move on with his life.
Chapter Three
The next day, Zain sat in front of a laptop with Serafina Rossi at his side, and asked her, "Are you ready?"
The Italian female was in her early thirties, with long black hair and brown eyes. While she wasn't as straightforward as her cousin Brenna and only talked when absolutely required to do so, Zain couldn't blame her. Reading her file, he'd learned how her entire existence in Italy had been dictated by her former leader.
To be honest, he wasn't sure how she'd secured a transfer to Stonefire. They had become rare between the UK and other mainland European countries in recent years.
His dragon spoke up. It probably happened because of Bram and Evie moving mountains to get her here, to help Gabriele after losing his mate.
Since Bram was clan leader and his mate was a former DDA employee with plenty of connections, his beast was probably right.
Serafina nodded, bringing him out of his head. In perfect English, she said, "Go ahead. I'm ready."
Zain pushed the Play button, sat back, and crossed his arms over his chest.
Even though he'd seen this video a half-dozen times, it still made him uneasy, not to mention full of anger at all the lies.