Dragon's Challenge Read online

  But he didn’t.

  A sharp, stabbing pain hit him in the shoulder, a dart sinking deep into his muscle. Stephen let out a cry as he tore it out of his skin, the blood immediately starting to trickle free. His flames grew smaller, being starved out as the blockers swept through his body.

  Just as they hoped.

  “What was that?” he shouted, forcing outrage onto his face as he fumbled with the dart in his hand. “I said I wanted a meeting and—”

  “And we’re taking precautions,” Carter interrupted, laughing.

  Cooper smirked, putting the dart gun away. “You don’t think I’m so stupid as to think that you were genuine in your offer? Especially when you did so much to get Maura out of our hands to begin with? I know the Blaze Ops too well to think this is anything but a poor attempt at killing us for your precious Alice’s death.”

  Stephen hunched, making himself appear weaker as he snarled.

  “Not to mention that trick you played last time,” Carter added. “Did you really think I was going to just walk in on it again?”

  The two of them came forward. Stephen held the used dart out in front of him like a weapon, glaring at one and then the other. “There was no trick this time! Maura is alive. She survived your attempts to butcher her. And since you have the flash drive, we don’t have anything to protect ourselves. But you can’t get into the flash drive.”

  Cooper stopped where he was, eyes narrowing, but Carter strode forward still smirking. “We’ll manage. I very much doubt that Alice will do anything to help us, even with her life on the line. She’s a stubborn bitch, isn’t she?”

  Stephen growled low in his throat, stopping himself from attacking. Wait for the signal!

  How much more time did he need to buy? The look on Cooper’s face… he was guessing something was up. Stephen dropped the needle, letting his hands fall to his side. “Fine, then. Fine, she doesn’t know I’m here. She doesn’t know I’m making this deal. But she will take it. Because it’s not just her life in danger, is it? And we all know how stupid people can be for their mates.”

  “Wait. Are you saying that you are her mate?” Cooper’s face twisted in disgust, and he spat at him. “Trust Maura to fall for someone like you. How very progressive of her.”

  Stephen ignored the implications of Cooper’s words. He’d had plenty of insults toward his sexuality over the years, and what somebody he didn’t even like had to say wasn’t even on his radar.

  “She will tell us what we need to know,” Carter agreed, shooting a glare at Cooper. “Because you’re going to make her tell us. Now come along quietly, unless you’re suicidal.”

  Karey’s voice crackled in his ear, high-pitched and scared. “Now!”

  Stephen grinned. He popped the top off the needle in his other hand, the one neither Carter nor Cooper had noticed. He jabbed it into his thigh, heart racing and pupils dilating as the shot of adrenaline coursed through him.

  “The thing is,” he growled as his flames flared to life once more and both Cooper and Carter whipped out their weapons. “You have no idea how suicidal I am.”

  Cooper fired off several bullets, but as he had already turned his back and was running, they went wide. He shifted, bounding away in his lion’s form. Stephen jumped at Carter, knocking his weapon out of his hand. Carter shifted, his wolf’s head snapping at his jaws.

  Stephen lifted the wolf and threw him into a tree before he shifted himself. His wings snapped out wide. With one hand, he pinned Carter to the ground while searching for Cooper. He’d disappeared. Couldn’t have gone far. But time was ticking by, and Karey was shouting in his ear again.

  “You have to leave now.”

  He had no mic on him, no way to tell her that he’d lost Cooper. He roared out a curse mingled with flames as he wrenched Carter from the ground. The wolf’s claws tore at his scales, and his jaws clamped painfully on Stephen’s wrists. Another growl. Stephen shook him roughly, then took to the wind. All around, more wolves were rushing toward them; the backup that Carter had brought. The wolves leapt and snapped at him as he flew over the forest, their howls ringing in the air.

  Soon, though, they were all left behind, and Stephen moved higher above the trees.

  At one point, Carter bit hard at a rather tender spot on Stephen’s elbow—in retaliation, Stephen dropped him. Carter howled as he fell, and Stephen swooped down and grabbed him just before he was impaled on the trees. He then flew even higher. The wolf stopped struggling this time.

  Half an hour later, Stephen dropped down into another meeting he’d set up—this one telling law enforcement that he was going to turn himself in. Heavily armed cops all took aim at him as he dropped Carter in their midst. The wolf staggered. Stephen circled once, while gunfire burst toward him. Apparently, the noise was too much for Carter—he attacked. Several of the cops shifted, one of them an eagle taking wing after him, but Stephen laughed in his throat and took off while the cops were distracted trying to contain the mad wolf in the midst of them.

  “Stephen, we need you at Loggerhead!”

  I’m almost there.

  They had chosen this spot to meet up with the cops on purpose—it was less than five minutes before he was at the Loggerhead prison, where Fiona was being held. Another dragon flew in the sky above it, while another crouched on the fence, snarling and shooting flames at the first. Stephen grinned as he dove toward the dragon on the fence. He tucked his wings in against his body, stretching his arms out before him.

  The dragon on the fence saw him seconds before he collided with her. She threw herself backward, but Stephen hit with full impact. They fell backward, breaking through the fine webbing that overcast the prison yard. Electricity snapped through the air, but it was nowhere near as powerful as it ought to have been.

  The eagle that had been chasing him let out a cry and turned tail.

  Adam dove sharply into the prison. He hit the ground, shifting to human form, and darted into the building. The guard Stephen grappled with tore at him. Her slender snout grabbed onto the joint between his neck and shoulder. He yanked at her wings, but she only held on tighter, kicking and clawing at him.

  Blood spurted into the air as scales shed. Stephen wasn’t sure which one of them was bleeding more. His claws raked across her belly, and she finally released with him a cry of pain. He punched her face, but a tremble went through him. His fires were starting to fade once more, the adrenaline shot wearing off. Stephen growled as he once more punched the other dragon.

  Adam burst from the prison, a bundle of cloth in his claws. Stephen threw himself into the air, climbing over the fence. Adam turned mid-air, letting a blast of fire out at the guard. Stephen jumped into the air but barely managed to clear the prison before his fires just winked out. He fell hard, tumbling over several cars in the parking lot as his dragon form fled from him.

  A roar above him made him look up. Adam was turning around, coming back for him.

  “No!” Stephen shouted, waving his hands at him. “Get out of here! Go! Karey needs you.”

  Adam wheeled around once more. He gave one look at Stephen, let out a roar of pain and fled. Stephen wiped his mouth, only allowing himself to be grateful that Adam wasn’t going to be caught as well. There was shouting and alarms blaring from the prison, and Stephen booked it toward the distant tree line. Gunfire burst from behind him, and his heart leapt to his throat.

  A giant wolf bounded from the trees. Stephen skidded to a stop. He turned on his heel and raced in another direction. How did Carter get away from the cops? Blood rushed in his ears and down his arms. A bitter taste was heavy in his mouth.

  I never told Maura I love her.

  The wolf was on him in the next second. A giant paw batted him over, but instead of teeth crushing his skull, the wolf dropped to his belly and jerked his head to his back. Stephen blinked rapidly, wiping the sweat from his eyes. That wasn’t Carter…

  “Sly?” he gasped out, certain his eyes were playing tricks on him.


  Sly jerked his head again and growled.

  Another burst of gunfire reminded Stephen that there was no time to doubt. He scrambled onto Sly’s back, and the wolf sprang to his feet. He raced back into the trees while the dragon guard came after them, with a whole posse of shifters behind her. Stephen dug his hands into Sly’s fur as they disappeared into the trees.

  It was another two hours before they lost the hunting party and were able to rejoin Maura and the others. Maura still wore the uniform she’d worn to sneak into the women’s prison to find Fiona and get her out while Stephen and Adam distracted the guards. The bundle he’d carried out was just that—blankets and clothes made to look like a person.

  Everybody was there. Patrick, Liam, Eugene, Adam, Sly, Evan, Fiona, Utopia, Clementine, Karey, Maura.

  Maura.

  Stephen rushed to her, throwing his arms around her and kissing her deeply. She tangled her fingers in his hair, pressing her body against his. Small whimpers of desperation burst from her.

  “Alright, get a room already,” Sly snarled from where he stood, arms folded.

  They broke apart and turned to him. Maura’s brow creased. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d left!”

  “I did,” Sly grunted. “But I decided to come back. I figured you lot would get the Blaze Ops out. Now you can get everyone else out, too. Including my men.”

  Stephen noticed that the other wolf they’d already gotten out with him was nowhere to be seen but didn’t comment. There was no point right now. Instead, he turned to Maura and pulled her close again.

  “I love you,” he breathed, marveling at every inch of her beautiful face.

  A smile blossomed over her face. “I love you, too,” she answered, then kissed him again.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Maura slipped off Stephen’s back, stretching her legs as he shifted back to his human form. God, that was a long ride. As she bent over, stretching out her back, she caught sight of him—he was ogling her ass openly. A grin spread over her face as she pushed out her ass a little more, and he gave a groan.

  “You know what you’re doing, don’t you?” he asked.

  She rose her brow. “Is now the time for that?”

  “Hey, you’re pretty much the first person I’ve ever had a crush on who has a crush on me, too. Can’t I revel in it?”

  Maura laughed, dancing back to him for a kiss. She was just as high on their new relationship as he was. After everything that had gone wrong, they deserved this occasional giddiness. “We can’t dawdle too much longer; the others will be waiting.”

  “A few more minutes won’t hurt.”

  It had taken quite some time, but finally, all the Blaze Ops were gathered together. Prison had done a real number on them and each of the dragons had bad injuries that took some time to recover from, especially since all were overdosed on blockers after Stephen and Maura had broken Evan and Adam from jail.

  Luckily, out of all their mates, Fiona was the only one in jail. After breaking the rest of the dragons out, it was a fairly simple process of getting their mates and children to come join them. The first few days were rough, constantly running in the forest to escape the people hunting them.

  Sly brought them to a secret place, though, where they could be kept hidden until they recovered. It was impossibly well disguised, a series of rooms carved into the sheer side of a cliff that could only be accessed through a passage that was almost impossible to see from the outside, unless you knew what you were looking for.

  “We really do have to go,” Maura moaned into Stephen’s mouth. She hated having to break this moment, but when the others were anxious about whether or not they’d be hunted to the death…

  Reluctantly, Stephen moved back. “Wish we could get more privacy.”

  “So do I, but we’ll just have to be grateful for what we have right now.”

  Stephen sighed as he followed her through the slit in the rock, giving the signal whistles so that the others knew it was them. They emerged into the brightly lit area that Liam and Utopia’s son Aiden had nicknamed ‘the courtyard’. Everybody was gathered together, waiting.

  “Well, we weren’t ambushed,” Maura said in way of greeting, nodding toward Eugene who had worried about that.

  He grinned back at her as he rocked his sleeping son, Clementine leaning her head against his shoulder. “Glad for that, at least.”

  “But we also didn’t get the bounties and arrest warrants off of us,” she continued, sharing a glance at Patrick—the Colonel had said that it was unlikely that they’d be able to get the governor to back off entirely. “Cooper’s still out there, and he’s got enough information to scare the governor.”

  Adam put his arm around Karey while she absently folded her hands over her ever-swelling belly, a distant but determined look on her face.

  “Carter’s in jail, though, and he’s going to stay there,” Stephen added. Karey gave him a small smile of thanks. “And we were able to argue the governor into removing the death bounties on us again. I think it’s because we’ve been inconsistent that we weren’t able to get him to do more.”

  Fiona frowned from where she stood, just behind Patrick in the midst of giving him a shoulder rub. “So, we release some of that information, show him we’re serious?”

  “I’m pretty sure if we do that, he’ll throw in the towel,” Maura replied. “He’s already between a rock and a hard place. I’m sure Cooper is blackmailing him, too, even though he can’t have the information he’s threatening to release. We push the governor any further, and I’m sure he’ll quit. Then we’ll have to start over again. Right now, I think it’s best to keep him where he’s at and go forward with a new plan.”

  “And you got the other thing you were going for?” Sly asked.

  She pulled a small flash drive from her pocket. “Yes. This is the last one.” She dropped it to the floor and ground it under her heel. “Now nobody can use that information against any of us, either.”

  The Blaze Ops all nodded, and Stephen let out a small sigh of relief. Maura kicked aside the debris, her stomach twisting. The last bit of their protection was gone. Now, all they had was each other. Stephen put his arm around her shoulders and smiled at her. They had had a long talk about this. It had not been easy for her to come to this decision, but from now on, she knew she had to put her trust in the people around her.

  Sly’s teammate from the Howling Ops, Devon, was there as well. He seemed uncertain about being in this situation at all, turning his glare on each of them in turn. Maura resisted the urge to glare back at him, knowing that the situation was new and difficult for him. Sly settled beside him, rubbing his hand over his head and then pulling him closer to pat his back.

  Patrick stood, limping slightly as he strode forward with Fiona at his side. “We will have to decide what we’re going to do next, then. If blackmail isn’t going to work, then we’ll have to find Cooper and take him out. After that, maybe we’ll get more progress.”

  “I agree,” Maura said, nodding. “Before we do that, though, you all need to recover. I don’t know if they had mirrors in jail, but none of you are in the physical state you should be.”

  Grimaces met her statement. They were all still bulky and muscular, but it was very clear to all of them what she was talking about. Each of them had lost weight, and even Liam, who was arguably the fittest of them all, looked like he hadn’t seen a gym in several months. Which wasn’t surprising… each of them had been in solitary confinement until they were broken out.

  “So, we are going to take some time,” Maura continued. “We are going to rest, recover and when we are strong again, we are going to take this fight to Cooper. We will show him no quarter, and we will not allow his betrayal to go unanswered.”

  She took a deep breath, looking from one to the other. She had once been head of the Academy, and she had to prove that she still deserved that position. There was more to her than holding to regulations and letting others put tog
ether their teams. She knew how this team operated. From now on, they each needed responsibilities. They had to pull together, make themselves stronger.

  “Clementine. You’re the best we’ve got at keeping yourself hidden in the forest,” she continued, “so you’re going to be our recon specialist. Evan will teach you how to use his technology, and you’ll go out to get updates on what’s going on out there. Sly, Devon,” she nodded at the wolves, “you’ll be in charge of hunting. Utopia, Aiden, Liam, and Eugene, you’re on gathering roots, berries, anything else you can find for food. We need more than meat. Patrick and Fiona, fishing. Karey, you’ll be in charge of keeping the caves neat and orderly, as well as maintaining a daily chore list—you’ll say who cooks, who washes up dishes, who cleans up the latrine and any other duties as you see fit.”

  Karey blinked in surprise but straightened and nodded.

  “Stephen, you’re to make sure we always have enough water and help whoever needs you during the day.”

  “Will do,” Stephen saluted her, grinning.

  She spared him a smile before she grew serious once more. “Adam, Evan and I will lay down false trails to get Cooper and the cops off our tails. I know this is a scary situation, but we have to make the best of it. We are going to get through this, so long as we stay together and don’t let ourselves freeze up. We will get things back to what they were.”

  From where he sat with Devon, Sly grunted. “Yep. That’s why we’re all here, alright. Because we want to restore the Magnus Academy and the Blaze Ops and Howling Ops and all that jazz. It’s not because we have no other choice because our teams weren’t important enough to break out of jail.”

  “The Howling Ops weren’t being targeted,” Evan told him. “From everything we’ve found out, your teammates are safe. And it’s not like it’s the plan to just leave them there, either.”

  Sly nodded once. “All the same. Come on, Dev. Let’s go get a deer. We’ve got a lot of mouths to feed.”

  Maura sighed and Stephen took her hand. She really couldn’t blame Sly for his surly attitude, but the effect on morale was obvious. Things were tense enough as it was without adding in that sort of attitude.