There was a phone in the living room. She'd seen it earlier.
She'd lost her own phone weeks ago, when she'd been first captured by the dragons. But there was one number she knew by heart.
Sarah.
Her best friend. The one person she'd always been able to trust with all the details about the men she'd been trying to date.
Sarah was the one who'd told her that Liam was an asshole and that she needed to drop him, a week before Alyx found out that he'd been cheating on her with not one, but three different women at the same time.
For a week, she'd thought that Sarah just didn't understand her and that she was jealous of the man Alyx had finally managed to find.
But Sarah was honest to a fault. She'd always said what she thought, and she'd never, ever let Alyx down, even if Alyx came home in the middle of the night after getting dumped by a guy and needed someone to cry to.
Shit. I should have called her right away. She must be so worried.
They'd wanted to hide, that’s why she hadn’t even thought of calling. Contacting anyone might have called attention to where they were.
But Sarah was her friend. It wasn't like Sarah would tell Steele about their hiding place. Sarah didn't even know shifters existed!
Sarah was also the most rational person Alyx knew. There was no way she'd believe that dragons and werewolves were real.
Which should make her perfectly safe to talk to right now.
With the phone clutched in her hand, Alyx settled down on the couch. Her heart was pounding as she waited for Sarah to pick up.
It was a call from an unknown number, and it was the middle of the night. Maybe Sarah wouldn't answer...
“Hello?” a familiar and sleepy-sounding voice said.
To her great embarrassment, Alyx promptly burst into tears.
“Who's there? Alyx? Is that—Is that you?”
“It's me, Sarah,” Alyx sobbed, then began laughing through her tears.
Suddenly the world seemed a much brighter place. She'd spent so long completely wrapped up in the shifter world that she'd almost forgotten how good her own life was.
She had a job she loved. And most importantly, she had friends.
Friends who couldn't turn into dragons or wolves or seagulls. But they were real friends—the best friends, who'd always have her back.
“Oh, my God, where are you? What happened? We've been so worried—”
“You won't believe what happened,” Alyx said, still laughing and crying at the same time. “I was kidnapped—”
“Holy shit. Alyx, where are you? You need to tell me where you are right now.”
“It's okay. I'm safe. I was rescued.” Alyx took a deep breath. “I was kidnapped by fire dragon shifters. You heard about that mountain that suddenly turned into a volcano? They held me captive inside that mountain for weeks.”
There was a long pause. Then Sarah spoke again, this time slowly and very carefully.
“It's okay, Alyx. Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right. Where are you now?”
Oh, to hell with it. She doesn't believe a single word.
“Hiding from the fire dragons. In a little town by the ocean.”
“Okay,” Sarah said again, her voice calming—the way you'd talk to a frightened child.