Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

N ausea hit Hayley as she regained consciousness. Her stomach flipped, and she willed it to settle.

After a few seconds, she dared to open her eyes, only to find she was locked inside a small, dark room. The only light came from beneath the door on the far side.

For a few beats, her heart raced, and she was thrown back to the bunker, followed by memories of the trunk from her childhood.

But then she remembered not only Nathan but also their unborn child. They both needed her as much as she needed them. Which meant getting a grip on her panic and trying to get her brain to focus.

She breathed in and out a few times, imagining Nathan's smiling face and then him shifting before the sun glinted off his scales in his dragon form. Love coursed through her, making her more determined than ever to escape this place and finally tell him how she felt.

Right. After one last deep breath, Hayley tugged at her wrists, which were bound in front of her. The zip-tie cuffs wouldn't be easy to remove, so she focused on surveying the room for anything helpful.

The floor under her was smooth, and the wall behind her was painted. The floor, in particular, differed from any place inside the town hall, which meant she'd been moved.

How they'd moved her was the question. And then it hit her—had something happened to Rafe, Dawn, and Sarah too? All because they'd volunteered to accompany her?

Focus, Hayley. Recall events leading up to you passing out. She'd never fainted from hunger in her life, and she doubted that had been the reason, even if she was pregnant. She'd had tea and biscuits while in the DDA offices. But surely, the DDA wouldn't try to drug her?

Unless there was a traitor or traitors in their midst?

As she tried to wrap her head around that fact—everyone assumed they'd been rooted out when the current DDA Director, Rosalind Abbott, had taken office—she heard voices. At first, they were garbled. But then they were right outside her door, and she strained her ears.

The first man said, "If she's pregnant with the dragon-shifter's bastard, then we need to keep her alive until it's born."

A second man replied, "I don't see why. The whelp won't be valuable until it's an adult and we can drain it of blood."

"We might be able to do that sooner now, thanks to our head researcher. Besides, Bourne's sister ordered us to watch over the woman. Are you going to fucking disobey her?"

"That chit is barely an adult. Why the hell do we need to listen to her?"

"Do you want to deal with her older brother? You know what he did to Harry."

"Fair point. I like my bollocks where they are."

"Then we need to take care of this bitch until told otherwise. She'll fight it at first, so we need to keep her drugged until she loses her spirit."

As they debated hiding the drugs in food or simply shooting her up, Hayley tried to process their words. They wanted her child. For their blood, or something else sinister.

No bloody way. She'd die before she let that happen.

But to even have a chance, she needed information. She couldn't fight them off physically, but she was clever. Maybe clever enough to trick them, if she could learn enough about them.

As the doorknob twisted, Hayley closed her eyes and feigned sleep. She wasn't quite ready to talk with them. No, she wanted them to keep chatting and sharing more than they should.

And while she was determined to try and save herself, she also hoped Nathan and the others knew she'd been kidnapped and were looking for her. Because otherwise it could be a very long time until she had a decent chance of escaping.

Once they saw she was still asleep, they cut off her zip-tie cuffs, positioned her so she laid on the floor, and tossed a blanket over her. Apparently, she was going to be treated better until her child was born.

Man One said, "Right, we'll have to check on her later. The doctor said not to give her more drugs until these wore off. Let's make sure there's nothing in the room she can use to hurt us or herself."

"I checked it earlier."

"Yes, but you overlook things. Remember what happened a few months ago?"

"Are you ever going to fucking let that drop?"

"Since she managed to get out of her room, down the stairs, and nearly out the front door, no."

"Well, now all she does is sit on her bed and mumble to herself. Her baby is due anytime now, and then we can get rid of her."

"Or keep her to pass around the men."

They both laughed and anger churned in Hayley's stomach. Wherever this other woman was, she would find a way to rescue her, too.

The men continue to chat about her prison. Apparently, it was an old, grand house that had fallen into disrepair, like so many others. It still looked to be crumbling from the outside, but the inside had been fixed up.

They even mentioned the name once—Fairfields. Hayley had heard that name before, and it wasn't more than a few hours from Manchester. In fact, it was closer to the Lake District than Manchester.

Which meant it wasn't too far from Stonefire.

Had Stonefire managed to overlook such a close threat, though?

Remember, the hunters have been working in silence for a few years. Anything is possible.

Once they left her alone again, she slowly peeked an eye open and saw that there was a window on the far side, but it was boarded up. It must've been dark outside earlier, but a little light came through now.

That helped calm her a fraction. It also gave her an idea. They'd left her hands unbound. And after listening for a few minutes, she ascertained the men were gone. For the moment.

She slowly stood, toddled, and used the wall to keep her upright. After inching along the wall, she made it to the window and spied between the cracks of two boards.

There wasn't much to see that would help her—just endless farmland and forests. However, judging by the height of the window, she was probably on the first or second floor and not the ground floor, meaning it would be difficult to sneak out and try to get away.

No, that wouldn't work. What she needed was a mobile phone to send a quick message to Stonefire.

Maybe if she pretended to faint, she could fall against one of the men and take his phone. She was no sleight-of-hand expert, but if she cried or acted hysterically, it might be enough of a distraction.

Now all she had to do was wait for the opportune moment.

Hayley placed her hands over her lower belly and whispered, "We'll escape somehow, little one. Let's hope that between me and your dad, we find a way out of here and rescue that poor woman they talked about, too."

Nathan ran his hands through his hair and debated getting another cup of coffee. He'd been at this for three days, and all he'd been able to determine was that Bourne did, indeed, have a half-sister. And she'd used fake documents to get hired by the DDA.

Bram was dealing with the DDA about that, thankfully. If only Nathan could find a critical piece of the puzzle to pinpoint Hayley's location.

His dragon spoke up. Maybe ask Arabella again if she's found anything.

Finn told me he'd cut off my bollocks if I asked before breakfast again.

His beast huffed. I could take him.

Maybe. But I'm not risking injury. What if Hayley needs us?

Fine. But take a break for a few minutes. If you don't eat something, I'll take control and make you.

He stood just as his phone vibrated. He quickly opened a text from an unknown number. But it made little sense: 6191869512419 .

Even if he wasn't quite sure what the message was, he desperately wanted to believe it was from Haley. Not even his dragon tried to dissuade him from that thought.

After staring at the string of numbers for about a minute, he remembered the easy codes from their time together in the bunker, and wondered if Hayley had relied on a similar tactic. Nothing too hard, just difficult enough to be confusing at first glance or to someone not looking too closely.

Since it was all numbers, he tried the simplest cipher he could think of, with each letter representing its place in the alphabet.

And after figuring out some were double-digit number sets, it spelled something: Fairfields.

He knew that name—it was on Kai's list of potential hunter hideouts. After all, they seemed to favor rundown locations that they repaired only on the inside, and Fairfields fit that description.

After dashing down to Kai's office, he entered and asked, "Has anyone checked Fairfields?"

Kai didn't even blink an eyelash. "Not yet. We were working through the locations further away first. Why?"

He explained about the code and added, "It has to be Hayley sending us a message. Only she would use a simple code like we solved during the time in the bunker."

"It probably is. However, we're going to do this right." Kai narrowed his eyes at Nathan. "Don't go charging off alone. If you want to help, then you need to come with me."

"You're letting me go on the mission?"

"Provided you promise to follow orders, then yes. You get a lot of leeway with the tech side of things. But when it comes to life-and-death situations on the ground, me and Nikki know better."

He nodded. "I'll listen. Anything, if it means I get to help rescue my female."

"Right, then come with me."

As Kai texted something on his phone, Nathan tried to calm his racing heart. It'd been years since he'd helped in the field, and he needed to be cool and collected or he'd risk getting himself killed.

His dragon spoke up. We can do this. For our female and child, we can do anything.

Yes, we can. The hard part will be in not trying to hunt down and kill the bastards who kidnapped and held her.

Eventually, Kai and Bram will do that. For now, focus on Hayley and our future together.

Nathan imagined holding his child and mate in bed. Or, later teaching his kid how to fly for the first time. Or Hayley spoiling them with biscuits and cakes every Christmas, making it a family tradition.

He wanted all of that, and more.

By the time they arrived at the landing area used mainly by the Protectors, Nathan was considerably calmer.

A large group of Protectors waited there, some in their human forms and some in their dragon forms. Kai waved Nikki and Rafe over, and once they arrived, Kai said to everyone, "We think we know where Hayley is—being held at Fairfields. Whilst we're going there for her, there could be others. Sid and Gregor will wait nearby, just in case someone needs our help. Especially since there may be other pregnant females being held—several carrying dragon-shifter children went missing in the last six months—so take care not to scare them. Our priority is their rescue, but anyone else there we can take alive would be good too, to interrogate. Me, Nikki, and Rafe each have a wing of dragons at our command, and Lochguard is waiting on standby, in case we need their help. Let's try to do this as quickly and quietly as possible. Be ready for your leader's command to fly. We'll depart within the next thirty minutes."

Affirmations—both from humans and dragons—filled the air. Once done, Kai turned toward Nathan. "You're with me." He looked at Nikki and Rafe. "We follow the newest plan for a hunter rescue. Understood?"

The pair nodded. After rescuing Percy Smith and the others from an illegal research facility, the Protectors had been devising new rescue strategies.

Kai looked at Nathan again. "Come on. I'll give your instructions once we're with the others."

Nikki said, "We'll get Hayley, no matter what, Nathan. I vow it."

"Me as well," Rafe stated.

He nodded. "Thanks, Nikki, Rafe."

In the days since Hayley's kidnapping, Nathan had accepted that no one could've stayed conscious with the amount of sedative shot into Rafe's system. It'd nearly been too much, and the fact Rafe had recovered and was willing to risk his life again—especially only being human—made Nathan respect him.

Nathan followed Kai to his wing of dragons. The rest of Kai's team were already in their dragon forms, so as soon as Nathan was with them, he found an empty spot, stripped, and imagined his nose elongating into a snout, wings growing from his back, and his form stretched until he stood in his dragon form.

Both man and beast awaited orders, impatient to fly and find their female.