Stupid dragon bitch. He wasn’t afraid. Never had been, never would be.
“Then we will keep you alive. For a very long time.”
A loud boom sounded in the room and he jumped to his feet. The small window, which let drops of light in the room, was hard to reach, however when he leapt he could manage it and he held onto the bars to keep himself at the right level. The dragon Queen hissed as she rushed from his cell. He had no idea if she was going to investigate the noise or not.
All of Robert’s attention focused outside. A large shuttle travelled upwards from the ground. In its wake, a ball of fire seemed to shoot the thing skywards. Although the machine was a distance away, the sheer power it exuded created a boom the likes of which he’s never heard before.
He watched with his mouth hanging open. The human’s shuttle took them off the planet. He hadn’t lost track of too much time.
Robert gritted his teeth. In other circumstances, he would let himself feel the emotion of the moment. His mate, the human he had loved for a year without consciously remembering her, was gone.
Gripping the bars, he tracked the path of the shuttle for a few more seconds before he dropped back to the floor of his prison. Robert closed his eyes. Losing control while he was at the mercy of the dragons would only hasten his death. An ache formed in his chest and he knew it was a hole formed by her absence. He’d never be able to fill it.
Mated werewolf soldiers always ached for their other halves. He’d seen it. However, most of them made it through the time by holding out of the idea they would see their other half again. Robert knew, for him, a reconnection would never happen. She was lost to him.
He’d never gotten to mark her, to feel the peace knowing she was fully his would have given him.
Well...no more.
Robert wasn’t going to let anyone else feel pain by the dragons anymore. He’d been given a chance, albeit a small one, to put an end to the dragon wars. No way was he going to screw it up.
Everyone else would go home to their mates. All that needed to happen was the Queen dragon had to die. Robert had killed hundreds of the beasts. For his last hoorah, he’d do it in Tatyana’s honor.
Time had become his friend. The longer they made him wait to see the Queen the more energy reserves he would have. He’d never see his mate again, and he’d not gotten to say goodbye. The dragons would pay.
****
The door to the cell opened, and two green dragons stalked in. It had been three days since they’d done anything with him. They’d even forgotten to feed him. He’d wondered if he was to be left to starve to death. Dying in such a way would be a disappointment, especially since he had a game plan. Seeing they’d come to find him meant he’d finally be given his chance.
Robert raised his head to look at them and didn’t acknowledge their presence otherwise. The greenies were unable to communicate with the werewolves and he was grateful for the silence. Nothing irked him more than hearing the dragons speak. His language sounded so wrong coming from their lips.
One of them hissed then shoved him toward the door. He could easily shift and take the two of them without breaking a sweat. Only he wasn’t going to, they weren’t his target. If their scientists were right, the dragons’ matriarchal nature and total allegiance to their queen, would cause them to break at the very second of her death. Their need for her was the reason they protected her so completely.
The dragons had made a mistake when they hadn’t killed him immediately. He hadn’t been made leader of his group because he was a politician. It had been his dragon ending abilities, which had caught the eye of the commander who had given him the role. Lately, he’d been off his game and he knew it was because he had found, lost, and forgotten his mate. Waiting to mate did strange things to male werewolves. Perhaps he should consider himself lucky he hadn’t started foaming at the mouth.
Fucking up was never an option.
His fingers tingled and he forced himself to stay steady until he entered the chamber where he knew the Queen waited. He could smell her and the orange scent mixed with the general metallic taste of their lizard nature gagged him. Robbie swallowed the discomfort. One way or the other, he wouldn’t have to deal with her aroma for very much longer.
“Werewolf.” The dragon Queen hissed as he walked into the room. “What was the thing which took off to the skies days ago?”
He didn’t give the bitch another second to speak. Most werewolves couldn’t shift when they’d been tortured. Their bodies, starved or hurt, wouldn’t make the change. It left them vulnerable to the beasts hunting them. Robbie had no such issues. He never had.
Every werewolf had to be careful when they shifted. It was always possible the wolf could take over completely and the non-animal side of their personality would be lost forever. There was a time and a place to give into the animal—usually at the end of a werewolf’s life—only Robbie was more than happy to let his wild side go crazy.
It was a time to put the war to an end. His mate was gone. The Queen needed to be, too.
Robbie lunged, shifting mid-flight. He took a last look at the world through his human eyes. His canine self would rule for the remainder of his days, and Robbie had no doubt he would manage the job. He was luckier than most, he’d known his mate, albeit briefly. And she had been spectacular.
The world narrowed. Sights, sounds, screeches and blood ruled his thoughts. He was a packless wolf and he needed to punish the animal responsible for ending all which had been good and right in his life. He’d tried to take care of his human for so long, needed to keep him strong until the female came to claim him.
She was gone and blood would flow. The dragon female screeched as he rushed forward tearing at the guts and the wings of any who got in front of him. They could burn him only they wouldn’t dare risk it inside. Stupid creatures. He was smarter than they were and it was about time he got to show it.
The Queen reared back, her eyes wide and her wings flapping. She shouted something in dragon. He didn’t care to understand what she said. He launched forward as two dragons clawed at his back.
They were pulled off. For a second, he scented wolf in the room. Recognizable. Known. They weren’t his concern. No, only killing the Queen mattered. She turned to flee and wasn’t fast enough.
He tore into her throat and blood poured everywhere. This time, when she screamed, it was only to gurgle. Dragon blood coated him as he ripped the female beast responsible for so much pain to shreds.
Time didn’t matter. Only death. Only right. Only justice.
Behind him a whine sounded and he ignored it. Whatever the other wolf wanted, it would have to wait. He wasn’t done. Another whine, this one more insistent. With a huff, he turned around to see. Half a dozen wolves stared back at him, waiting. A quick scan showed him dead dragons lined the walls of the dead Queen’s throne room.
A wolf stepped forward and nudged at him. He knew the male, had been aware of him for the entirety of his life. Brother. Twin. Packmate. He had a human name only it didn’t matter. None of the non-wolf concerns were important anymore.
Quickly, he scanned the others. All of them had been part of his human’s pack or family, the two things denied to him by the dragons, the enemy who had taken away his mate.
He threw his head back and howled to the skies. His female was gone. No victory would ever be sweet, no enemy ended would ever matter enough.
In front of his eyes, the male wolf who had been with him before birth shifted into his human from. The man walked forward and knelt.
“You saved us.”
He huffed. If the male tried to pet him he would bite off his hand. What did the brother-slash-man want from him? Why could the world continue with his female no longer on it?
“Your choice to leave us isn’t acceptable.” The male shook his head. “You aren’t allowed to check out. You don’t get to go. There are still dragons to be ended, decisions to be made, and your mate, if she is living through the hell you’ve
pushed on her, will need your attention. So help me Robbie, you don’t want to disappear yet. You’re strong. Push back. Come here. We need you.”
It took him a moment to register what the two-footed male said. The only part which interested him involved his mate. She was gone and yet the male said she hurt and it was his fault. How could such a thing be?
“Right.” Auggie—that was the male’s name—spoke again. “Tatyana needs you.”
His body vibrated. The human part of him he worked so hard to protect who had finally given in and let him do his job fought against him. He should stop him only it wasn’t possible. If the female remained on the planet and needed him, he had to do as his two-legged self.
It was hard to shift. There would be pain to bring him back. He huffed his discomfort. Someday he’d be in charge again. When he was old. With the female.
With a scream which started somewhere in his stomach and filled the room, Robbie rushed back to his body. He hit the floor hard and tasted blood in his mouth. The Queen was dead and Tatyana needed him. Those two thoughts kept him from losing consciousness, from giving into the blackness he really needed to recover from being buried so deep inside of himself.
Auggie cleared his throat. “You never do anything in half-measures, do you?”
“Fuck, no.” His voice sounded hoarse but it worked. “Someone better tell Command the Queen is dead. Where is my mate? What kind of trouble is she in?”
His limbs shook yet worked, which he’d always be eternally grateful for. The last thing he needed was to face plant.
“She’s with Caitlyn and Dougal. My guess would be we have no time to waste.”
****
How could she still be puking when there was nothing left in her body to purge? It had been two days since she had been able to keep anything down. Tatyana leaned her head against the cool tile floor and tried to close her eyes. The room spun anyway.
The door to the bathroom opened and closed. Seconds later, a cool washcloth touched her forehead and it felt as if Caitlyn had placed a million needles on her skin. She winced and pulled back.
“Not any better?” Stress marred Cait’s voice.
“Here’s the thing.” She opened her eyes to look at the woman who had become over the last forty-eight hours an incredible friend to her. “I’m dying.”
Caitlyn knelt next to her. “Hush with your talk.”
“I’m a doctor. I know death and, right this minute, I can smell it on myself.”
Dougal’s mate shook her head. “I’ve been reading those studies. It’s very hard on every woman who shifted. They were all near death. Some of them lived through it and became werewolves. Let’s assume that’s going to be you. Seconds ago you said you could smell death. You scenting things must be a good sign. Your senses are changing, scent improving.”
Tatyana groaned. “Unfortunately, it’s an expression I’ve used for years.”
Twenty-four hours earlier, she had been more lucid, less dizzy and in the moments when she could bear it she had read the study her cousin had reminded her about. There was a chance, if the data was to be believed, she would live. Or at least there had been a better shot of it working the day before. Every day, which passed without her body shifting, lessened her chances of survival.
Her insides burned and she ached to be held by Robert once more before she passed.
“It should have taken them two days to reach him. Another to figure out how to rescue him. If it then takes them two more days to make it back here, it’ll be too late.” She took Caitlyn’s hand. “Please believe me, one way or another, my experience is going to be over before then. And I want to thank you for being here with me.”
Tatyana didn’t say what really weighed on her mind when she could think past the pain of her insides on fire. What if they didn’t reach Robert in time? What if he was already dead? Caitlyn had gotten the dragon to tell where they had taken Tatyana’s werewolf. The creature hadn’t known what the Queen would do with him. It hadn’t been in the plan to kidnap a werewolf, the dragons had done so spontaneously.
What happened to dragon prisoners the Queen didn’t specifically want?
“Don’t thank me. We’re family. In two ways, apparently. We share genes and you are going to be my mate’s brother’s mate.”
“I watched you when you were young.” Not as much as she had viewed Robert only enough to know the other woman talking to her. “You don’t deal in bullshit, so let’s not do so.”
Caitlyn nodded. “So strange to think about.”
“I know. Please know it was always with, at least on my part, the best possible intentions. I get that it’s strange and invasive. We were trying to understand your people better. The policy of watching was around long before me. For me, however, it always felt more personal than science, which is maybe worse.”
Caitlyn shook her head. “I’m not concerned with the ramifications of it. I’m more worried about you dying on the floor. When you survive, you can explain humans to me and I’ll try to make sense of it all.”
And there was the no lying part of Caitlyn Tatyana had wanted to see. “Will you tell him I didn’t suffer?”
“I thought we both agreed I didn’t do fabrication.” Caitlyn sighed loudly. “Okay, it won’t make a difference. Have you seen what happens to us when we lose our mates? We break. He’ll know I’m lying because he’ll smell it. Although it won’t make a difference to him ultimately. He’ll go wolf permanently, and then he’ll die within a year or less. That is what happens.”
“Never mind then.” She closed her eyes.
Tatyana had never wanted to be a wolf. As she obsessed over Robert she hadn’t wanted to join him in his shifting. On the floor, in her present situation, she’d do anything to sprout some fur.
“You don’t know what I’m about to tell you, Caitlyn.” She kept her eyes closed when she spoke. “And maybe I shouldn’t keep talking only I want you to know I care. When you were burned, years ago, my father snuck into your hospital room and gave you medicine, which helped keep you alive. He said you were too special to be allowed to die.”
Caitlyn gasped. “I had a dream of a person injecting me with something at night. They told me I imagined it.”
“You’re a dragon speaker. You’re the ones who stand between the dragons and the rest of the world. Don’t let them sideline you because you’re a woman.” She coughed. “Okay. Enough.”
Tatyana dragged herself to her knees and crawled from the bathroom.
Caitlyn touched her back. “Where are you going?”
When she’d made her way into her lab she stopped and looked around. The light was too bright and it made her head spin. “Damn it. Why is nothing easy?”
“I’ll answer your question if you answer my mate’s.” She jolted. When had Dougal come in the room? “What do you think you’re doing?”
She pointed at the cabinet in front of her. “See the second drawer to the left? Could you open it?”
Caitlyn crossed in front of Dougal and did as she asked. “All I see are syringes.”
“Grab one.”
Dougal shook his head. “Not until she tells us what it’s for.”
“If I haven’t shifted in twelve hours, dose me with the medicine contained in it.” She crawled toward the table where she had cared for countless patients, most recently Robert. “Help me onto the table.”
Dougal grabbed her with his one remaining arm. He was remarkably capable with only a single hand left. With his assistance she managed to climb onto the table. It felt good to have somewhere to stretch out which wasn’t the floor. Small things, they’d make all the difference in how the next few hours went for her.
“What will the medicine do?” Caitlyn again. Tatyana hoped they didn’t have too many more questions. What she needed was quiet.
“It’ll make me go to sleep. I used it on Robert and August days ago. You won’t be killing me or doing anything you’d later regret, I promise. It will put me to sleep and then, hop
efully, I’ll simply be knocked out while I die.”
“Tatyana...”
She interrupted Caitlyn’s protest. “Twelve more hours and then I’m a lost cause. I don’t want to know its coming.”
“But...”
Dougal was the person to interrupt and she closed her eyes as he spoke. He sounded so much like Robert. All the Owens men had the same cadence to the way they sounded, scratchy, deep, completely male. Only Dougal’s wasn’t the version she wished she could hear.
Where was Robert? Was he okay?
Had the dragons harmed him? His capture was all her fault. She should never have gotten on the roof, out in the open as she had. What had she been thinking? There were steps to take, precautions to be made to avoid the detection problem. She hadn’t gone through her checklist, or worn her equipment. She was going to die and whatever was happening to Robert was likely worse. She’d never been able to see inside those dragon prisons, but the males who came out were never the same.
“She has the right to say she wants to sleep through it. We do the same, don’t we? Not with drugs but with the final shift, becoming the wolf, letting them handle things when we no longer can.”
“Dougal.” Caitlyn’s voice raised a degree. In the last day, Caitlyn had sounded so controlled. This was the first crack in her armor Tatyana had seen. “There has to be a happy ending for Robbie. He came back from the dead. You’re all practically calling him Alpha. It can’t have been for him to lose his newly found mate and then go off to die himself. Almost everything in the world is destroyed. Surely there has to be some kind of happiness for Robbie.”
How could Caitlyn still have hope? Taty closed her eyes and drifted. Dougal and his mate could figure out the whys of it all. Tatyana was dying. It was too late for her to fix anything. Her people had left, the shuttle taking them to the sky. Her sister would be so pleased to be done with the whole thing.
She was floating...somewhere. Her insides burned and it no longer mattered.
****
Tatyana came to with a start. She was drenched in sweat and someone was shouting. No, it was more than one person.