12.

Peggy

A s we walk through Thunderstorm, I grip Cameron’s hand. It’s like he’s giving me the strength I need to make it through everything we’re encountering.

“You’re okay,” he says. “You’re safe.”

“But the clan isn’t. Fablestone isn’t. Thunderstorm isn’t. We’re all in danger.”

“Peggy, let me make you a promise,” he says. He turns to me. The rest of the group keeps walking, but he holds my hands right there in the center of the road. “I promise I will keep you safe. I promise I will protect you. No matter what happens next, and no matter what troubles we face, I will stop at nothing when it comes to your safety.”

He leans down then, and he kisses me. Nothing beats kissing Cameron. Nothing. There’s not a moment in my entire life where I haven’t wanted him kissing me, touching me, or loving me. Every ounce of my body feels like it’s on fire as he dominates my mouth, marking me as his own. He’s covering me with his love, and I will never stop adoring this man.

A moment later he pulls back, takes my hand, and leads me so we can catch up with the group. They’re stopped outside of a small, white building.

“This is one of the hubs,” Darrin says. “We have a lot of tech equipment in here.”

“It looks like an ice cream shop,” I say, pointing at the ice cream cone sign out front.

“That’s on purpose,” he says. “It’s a diversion. The shifters who live here know the truth, but visitors – wanted or not – won’t realize what this place really is.”

“It’s one of those places where the ice cream machine is always broken, huh?” Cameron asks as we step inside.

“Absolutely,” Darrin says.

He leans us through a small ice cream shop. Sure enough, there’s an “OUT OF ORDER” sign on the ice cream machine. We head to the kitchen, and then he reaches for the door to the fridge and pulls it open. Instead of this being a normal fridge, the door opens to a staircase that leads down.

“Here goes nothing,” Darrin says, and we walk down.

The stairs are narrow and winding. They feel like a mix between a spiral staircase and a weird ladder. Eventually, I turn backwards, so I can grip the railing and make sure I don’t go tumbling down into the abyss below us. At one point, the lights turn off. We’re quiet, but we keep moving. I don’t know how long we climb down for. It feels like an hour. In reality, it’s probably just ten minutes.

When we finally reach the floor, we’re in total darkness. I’m quiet. I know that the shifters can probably all see down here, but I can’t. I listen as the rest of the people in our group finish climbing down. Then, someone presses a button or flicks a switch, and the lights come on.

“Why’d you wait so long?” I ask Darrin.

“I didn’t spend a lot of time here. Wanted to make sure I got the right switch. This was Ryker’s place.” His voice holds a hint of sadness and disappointment. The words devastate me. He’s worried about his brother. I understand the fear. Everyone at Fablestone does.

We go through a door, followed by a long hallway. Each time we reach a door, Darrin inputs a series of codes. Cameron wasn’t lying when he claimed the dragons here are high tech. They’ve basically built themselves a fortress; however, it was still able to be penetrated.

Wilson, Cameron, Sabrina, Reece, and I are all that’s left of the Fablestone crew. Everyone else went back home. Still with us from Thunderstorm are Darrin, Meredith, and three dragon shifters named Erin, Samuel, and Christopher. The three shifters seem just as frustrated as the rest of us are to be here.

We find ourselves in a small command center. There are two rows of tables. Each one holds four monitors, making the total number of screens eight, plus the large one on the wall.

"What is this place?"

"This is where we find answers," Darrin says.