Colton finally managed to track down a few people who saw him driving a black Toyota Camry with an Alabama tag and a Tasmanian Devil decal on the back corner of the windshield—just like the one in the corner of the parking lot.
Thanks to the help of a hacker he knew and a few illegal maneuvers, he finally tracked him to this area in Atlanta. He’d found the car at the hotel and went in to get a room for himself. But at some point, Justin slipped outside and left. Colton panicked and drove around in random circles looking for him, and when he finally gave up and came back here not too long ago, the car was back.
This time, he was staying in the damned truck until he set eyes on his cousin, no matter how long it took.
We’ll find him, his dragon said, pacing with agitation inside him.
I know. At least I think I do. It’s been too long.
I have a bond with his owl. He’s still alive, and he’s close. We will find him.
Colton shook his head, not replying. It was hard to stay hopeful like his dragon wanted, but he was trying. But whether he did or not, he knew he’d never give up, even if it looked completely hopeless. He’d scour the ends of the earth for his cousin for the rest of his life, if that was what it took.
It was times like this that he wished he’d become an Enforcer, though. That he had a team of badasses skilled in hunting at his back. Hell, he could have already found Justin if he had that.
For the millionth time, he thought about calling Blake Olsen. He’d gone through Enforcer training with him, and although they hadn’t stayed close like they became during that grueling month of training, they stayed in touch. He knew Blake had an Enforcer team of his own, and knowing Blake as he did, they had to be the best of the best.
The only thing stopping him was that he’d found out the current mission the Blood and Bone Enforcers were on, and it was an important one. They’d found a male dragon who was kidnapping female dragons and auctioning them off. They were in the process of rescuing the females and taking Fernandez down—otherwise, Colton would have called them in ages ago.
But if he didn’t set eyes on Justin—or at least hear from him—in the next week, he was calling them in, even if they were on an important mission.
Fucking entitled male dragons. They gave the whole species a bad name. They’d been taught from birth that they were superior in every way, that they had a right to everything. That if they saw something they wanted, they could just take it with no questions asked. And that included the females.
All dragons hid what they were. The majority of people, shifters included, had no clue they even existed anymore. Dragon hunters used to roam the earth—they still did, although they were scarcer these days—hunting them down and killing them. Probably because they were a threat, and most people feared what they didn’t know, especially anything that was more intimidating than them.
Kill them before they killed you. It was the number one rule of dragon hunters. They thought surely all dragons were evil man eaters, just waiting to devour them. And since there weren’t any other shifter species capable of defeating a dragon in a fair fight, it painted a target on their backs.
Kill
ing a dragon also gave someone bragging rights for life, since they were nearly indestructible in their animal forms. So not only did they have those who were scared hunting them, they also had idiots who wanted the title of Dragon Slayer.
Over time, their species had dwindled to few, and they were hovering on the brink of extinction. It didn’t help that dragon babies were born few and far between. The women had difficulties getting pregnant, and the gene only passed through them. If a male dragon impregnated a different species, the child would always be the other animal. And if a female mated a different species, it was still rare for her to have a dragon baby.
That was why the females tried even harder than the males to hide. They didn’t only have the hunters to worry about, they had the males, as well. Males were full of their own importance and their need to carry on their line, and they wouldn’t hesitate to steal a female when they found her.
Fernandez wasn’t just stealing them for himself, though. He was stealing them to auction them off to others and making himself a huge profit by doing so. The man was reprehensible scum.
Besides the situation with Justin, that was the only other time Colton yearned to be an Enforcer. He’d give anything to be on Blake’s team, taking him down. His dragon hummed in agreement, and the sound sparked his ire more. He’d love to be there when they took him down, and he’d take pleasure in tearing him apart.
Because it didn’t have to be this way. If each generation would stop teaching their children—the males, especially—that they were entitled to everything they wanted, the vicious cycle would end. The men might actually be fit to walk the earth, and the women wouldn’t have to spend their lives fearing not only the hunters but their own species.
He was living proof that the old ways could be ditched. Maybe it was because his dad was a snowy owl, not a dragon. Colton was a rare breed—not only had his mom gotten pregnant with him, but he’d gotten her dragon and not his dad’s owl. Or maybe because after his parents were killed, he went to live with his aunt and uncle, neither of whom were dragons. Regardless, it meant that being a dragon didn’t mean they had to be total pricks.
Movement caught his eye and he jerked his head around sharply, disappointment filling him when he saw it wasn’t Justin. Blowing out a breath, he settled in to wait.
He wasn’t going anywhere until he found his cousin.
Chapter Two
Yawning so wide she felt her jaw crack, Katia stood from her chair at the front desk, making her way to the coffee pot on the counter behind her. Despite her best efforts, it took her forever to fall asleep the night before, her mind too full of mysterious, creepy men to rest easily. She’d gone through half a pot already, but the jolts of caffeine didn’t seem to be working very well.
She rushed to pour her cup, ready to sit back down as fast as she could. Her feet were still aching from the double shift the day before. Maybe she was getting too old to keep up the schedule she had. Snorting to herself, she took a long sip of coffee, not caring that it was still too hot to drink. It could burn her tongue all it wanted, so long as it woke her up a little.
Maybe she was working and studying too much. She felt a hundred years older than her twenty-six years. Sometimes she wished she didn’t have such a strong work ethic and could have taken her uncle up on paying for college. It would have made life a lot easier, and she would have been done with school a long time ago, working one job in her chosen field.
Instead, she was working two jobs that weren’t even close to being what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, and spending every other moment in class or studying. She was worn out, more tired than she should be, but she still didn’t regret making the choices she had. She’d make them all over again if she had to.
Still… maybe it was time to try to carve out a few hours to find a real life. Maybe even go on a date every now and then. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone on one. Years ago, she was sure.