Persuading the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons 9)

Even though the doctors had always said Ivy could relapse at any point until she was fully cured, his gut said something else was at work here. Because the blast of Ivy's location and being alive on the news earlier in the day, forcing her into hiding, seemed too much of a coincidence.

After all, it would only take one person with the knowledge of her location and a hatred of the Dragon Knights to try and harm his human. Handing her over to the Knights wouldn’t be enough for more than a few dragons harboring a grudge.

His dragon spoke up. If someone reached her, we'll find out who and take care of them.

No killing, though. You know better than that.

His beast growled. It's our mate, the female we love. We should rightfully be able to get retribution.

Let's see how she is and what the doctors know before planning a revenge operation.

You're too fucking calm.

One of us has to be right now, if we want to help Ivy the best we can.

His dragon paced inside his mind but at least remained silent as Zain entered the back entrance to the surgery building.

Emily Davies emerged from one of the rooms he passed and called after him. Zain turned around and barked, "Where is she?"

The human was used to dragon-shifters and their orders after living on Stonefire for so long, so didn't bat an eyelash. "Come with me. And save your questions for later, or I'll put you in a waiting room until Dr. Sid or Gregor has time to speak with you."

Even though Zain could probably punch a hole into the wall of any room in the building and find a way to escape, he merely grunted. "Fine."

The female guided him toward one of the smaller storage rooms. Only once the door was closed did she move toward the back and pushed against a section of the wall. It clicked and slid open, revealing yet another secret entrance, but one he hadn't known existed.

Since all he cared about was finding out what had happened to his mate, Zain didn't ask anything about it lest Dr. Davies carried out her threat to leave him somewhere to wait in agony.

After descending several flights of stairs, the human finally stopped at a door, pressed her thumb to a small scanner, and entered the area.

He barely paid attention to the number of doors or the layout. His mind kept trying to play out the worst-case scenarios for Ivy, and it took all of his energy to push them back.

Right now, his mate needed him to be strong for her. He couldn't s

uffer any distractions.

Emily finally stopped in front of a door at the very end of the hallway and stated, "Promise me that you won't start yelling at the doctors, and we'll go in, but not before."

In any other situation, he would've admired the human's strength. However, Zain merely replied, "Yes, fine, I promise. Now, show me Ivy."

She opened the door and moved out of the way. What he saw made him stop breathing.

Ivy lay pale—paler than usual—in a hospital bed, hooked up to a ventilator and various monitoring devices. And even though he'd watched over her for nearly a year when she was unconscious, she'd at least breathed on her own during that time.

Her condition was worse, much worse, this time around. She might die.

He rushed toward her, but Gregor stepped in front of him. "Not yet, lad. We need to talk to you first."

Clenching his fingers into a fist, Zain gritted out, "About what?"

Gregor's voice was softer as he said, "I know you want to touch your mate, probably talk to her, and try to comfort her. However, she's in critical condition right now. And even the slightest movement could send her over the edge."

Never taking his eyes off Ivy's face, he asked, "What's wrong with her?"

Gregor didn't miss a beat. "She's been poisoned. Not the same as the one used on her with the Knights. Nor would the dosage we think was used on her normally be enough to put someone into such a critical condition. However, with her underlying one, it was enough."

Despite the fact man and beast wanted to rush over and hold their mate close, and tell her to hold on, Zain forced his brain to work. "So someone knew what they were doing."

Emily chimed in. "It seems so. If Nurse Ginny hadn't found her when she did, it might've been too late."