6.

Julie

M aybe I shouldn’t have come. We land outside of Clan Thunderstorm. I’m not sure what I expected, but it’s not a huge, steel wall that stretches into the sky.

“What the hell?” Cameron shifts into his human form. So do Lee, Lawrence, and Wilson. Donald stays as a dragon for now. I know why. He views himself as a healer: not a protector. He doesn’t think he’s strong enough, but the rest of us do.

“Why is there a giant wall?” Natalie asks.

“Color me surprised,” Nicole mutters. She shakes her head. “Seriously. Didn’t they ask us for help? How do we get inside?”

“I don’t want to be na?ve, but couldn’t we just, you know, hop over the wall?” Peggy speaks up. That’s exactly what I was wondering, too. Wouldn’t it make the most sense to just climb right in, rather than trying to find some sort of entrance? The shifters are big, and they should be able to leap right in. The dragon men look at each other, though, and I think they know something that the rest of us don’t.

“What is it?”

“There’s some kind of force field,” Cameron says.

“Meaning?” I stare at him, knowing I can’t be hearing him correctly.

“We can’t get inside,” Donald says, finally shifting into his human form. “Shit. How are we supposed to get in?”

I stare at the wall, trying to assess the situation. What I know so far is very limited. We received a distress call. We responded. Three dragons are missing, presumed dead or hurt. Now we can’t get into Clan Thunderstorm.

“When was the last time anyone came here?” I ask. “Is there a chance that the clan was, you know, infiltrated?”

“No,” Lee says. “There’s no way.”

“Really? I think there’s a way,” Wilson says with a growl. He gestures to the wall. Annoyed, he squats down, picks up a rock, and throws it at the wall. It bounces off.

“You really showed it,” Cameron says.

“Bite me.”

“No, take a look at the wall,” Nicole says, stepping closer. She ignores the minor outbursts from the shifters. “There are no cameras here. Shouldn’t there be cameras?”

“Good point,” Wilson says. He stares at the wall. Thunderstorm is a clan known for being fierce. Powerful. Most of all, they’re tech-driven to a fault. They know more than anyone else that technology drives everything. There’s no way they wouldn’t have cameras here unless...

“Someone else built the wall,” I realize. “Someone’s here. Someone’s got them.”

“Nobody could put up a wall that fast,” Wilson says. He shakes his head. He places his hand on the steel. The rest of us do the same.

It’s cold beneath my hand, and I listen quietly, but I don’t hear anything. The dragons also press their ears against the soft steel, but they don’t seem to hear anything inside, either. Whatever is happening, they’re at a loss, just like I am.

“Maybe the clan put it up as a defense,” Nicole offers.

“If they knew there was trouble, they might have,” Natalie agrees. “That doesn’t make sense as to how they were able to construct the whole thing so fast. Plus, you know, the force field.”

“We aren’t going to know, and it doesn’t matter,” Donald says. He turns to Wilson, our leader. “We need to get inside. There’s no sound. Nothing. It’s either a trap, or the shifters inside are injured. Either way, I want in. Find me a way in.”

Donald is a good dragon. He’s a healer, which means that most of what he does revolves around trying to find ways to protect people. He’s not really interested in doing anything that’s going to hurt or damage people. He doesn’t like fighting. He likes finding ways to make peace.

I look over at my mate. He smiles at me and nods. I’m scared, I realize. For the first time in a very long time, I feel scared. Lawrence makes me feel safe, though. I know that no matter what we find inside of the clan space, he’s going to be here looking after me.

“What if they’re hurt?” I ask.

“Then we’re going to help them,” Wilson says. “Julie, you wait here with Natalie and Nicole. Peggy, too. When my mate and Reece arrives, tell them what we’re doing.”

I nod. I know better than to argue. It’s decided that Wilson, Cameron, and Lee will head inside with Donald. Lawrence is given the task of watching over the humans. Years ago, I might have been offended at being left outside, but I know that there are a few reasons they’re doing this.

First of all, we are humans. We’re going to notice things that the dragons don’t. Poachers are usually humans, too, which means that we girls can try to figure out exactly what the poacher group was doing out here. Maybe they’re still lurking nearby.

The other reason they’re leaving us is so they can really focus. They’re going to devour the interior part of the clan’s space. They’re going to smell, and shift, and explore. They don’t need us to get our human scent on everything because they’re searching for the scent of poachers.

“Start looking,” Lawrence says. “See if there’s anything around. Don’t go far.”

“If there were poachers around, they must have left some sort of evidence,” I offer. I reach for Lawrence’s hand and squeeze. I don’t want to risk anything today, but somehow, I know we’re risking everything. Just being here is dangerous. We’re coming in blind. The people who called and asked for help gave very few details. They certainly didn’t tell us they were barricaded within a space that had a sort of force field.

“We can start by looking for whatever is causing the force field,” Nicole says. She used to work for poachers. It wasn’t on purpose, and we’ve all moved past it, but she’s still really tough when it comes to knowing what their moves are. “If they’re trying to keep dragons out or in, there must be some sort of device that’s causing this.”

“She’s right,” Lawrence agrees. “Start looking. The others will search for a weak spot that will enable them to get inside the clan’s space, but in the meantime, we can help them by finding and disabling whatever is causing the force field.”

He catches my eye, and I realize that he’s scared.

Shit.

Dragons can’t shift when they’re scared, and they really can’t think clearly when they can’t shift. I need to make sure that Lawrence is ready for absolutely anything that comes our way, so I hurry over to him, and I press my hand to his chest.

“Hey,” I tell him. “You’re going to be okay.”

“Promise?” Lawrence whispers. I nod.

“I’d swear an oath on it.”