3. Three

three

These beasts looked like they could kill the entire house full of men without breaking a sweat. I meant what I said. I wanted them dead.

Fury whipped through me, heating my skin and tensing my muscles.

"Try to relax." A lighter gray with blue eyes, this one was Cavi. I blew out through pursed lips and attempted to do as he asked. It was easier when I looked at Drym. His gold eyes calmed me. Maybe because he'd saved me, or maybe because he looked at me like I was precious.

He had carried me in his arms, his hands so gentle.

I barely felt a whisper when he used one of his wicked-looking claws to hook a lock of hair that had fallen in my face and push it back. He smoothed the back of his finger down my cheek, and that small kindness turned my anger to relief.

"You smell sad. Why?"

Tears leaked from my eyes and I reached my hand to the side of his face and buried my fingers in his fur. He was warm and soft and the tears came harder. "Because I feel safe, and my mind is dealing with all the fear I've held at bay."

He nodded. "Yes, you are safe."

He tilted his head, and I buried my fingers further into his ruff.

"Would you like more water? Are you hungry?"

"Water would be nice." They didn't withhold water or food, but I'd been running a long time before I ran into Drym.

Another bottle appeared in front of me, the cap already off. I sipped this one slower. "I don't mean to be rude, but what are you guys? I mean, without the horns and tail, I'd say you were werewolves, but I didn't think anything like that existed. Guess you're living proof I was wrong."

"They called us wyrfangs, but you're right, we aren't wolves, or werewolves, or dragons. We are all of them."

I looked around at each of them again. "I don't follow. Who is ‘they'? What do you mean you aren't them, but you are? And hold up—dragons? Really?"

The other golden-eyed beast sighed and nodded at Drym. "We knew we'd have to explain to someone, sometime. This moves our timeline up, but perhaps she can help us with what our next step should be."

"Yes, those creatures exist, and we suspect, many more."

"Holy crap. Dragons." Mind blown, I shook my head to get back on track. "Who is this ‘they'?"

"They were scientists. They created us, raised us, trained us." Drym looked at the others. "Tortured us." He held up his right hand and turned the inside of his wrist toward me. "Branded us."

The marks on their wrists were a brand? They'd been marked like cattle? A sinking feeling that their story was much worse than I could imagine hit my gut, but I didn't interrupt.

"From the moment we were born to surrogates, they taught us to hunt and evade. They taught us to survive. They tested our limits. We are a blend of creatures, a mix of DNA spliced into a single embryo. Whatever they thought would make the best weapons, they used. Dragon and werewolf, mainly, but we honestly don't know beyond that."

"No one stopped them? I thought the government oversaw all labs doing genetic modification. Actually, I thought those kinds of experiments were illegal."

Drym's head tilted toward me, his ears pricked forward. "Is hunting human women legal?"

I laughed, the sound so rusty it startled me. "You have an excellent point."

A massive wyrfang entered the cave, and although I felt comfortable around the others, this one was different. More menacing, deadlier. His red eyes glowed, and when they lit on me, they narrowed in anger. I shrank and Drym moved to block me from him.

"Report." That was Kragen. He had an air of confidence and control about him that branded him as the leader.

His growl was so deep, I could barely understand him. "Tracked them to a house. It looks nice until you look into the basement. One tiny window with bars. It's a gods damned prison in there."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's where they kept us."

"Us? There are more females there?" Drym's ears were flat against his head.

I blinked to stem more tears. "There were. I was the only one left."

I was suddenly smooshed against Drym's soft chest, his skin like velvet over steel. His fur was shorter here, showing off the sculpted muscles in his chest. I sank into him.

I should have been screaming and running as fast as my legs would carry me, but I felt … safe. For the first time in a long while. They were weapons, Drym had said as much. They certainly looked like they could rip me in half without breaking a sweat. But I wasn't afraid of them.

"And the men?"

Roul's eyes seemed to flare darker, brighter, a blood-red glow that made him seem even more dangerous than before. "The house was empty."

"Fucking cowards ran." I was angry they weren't all dead.

Quin stepped around so he was facing me. "Is there anyone we can call?"

"No. We figured out none of us had families that would file missing persons reports. They were careful, calculated."

"Oh, thank fuck."

The two closest to him slugged him none too gently in each arm.

"Ow! What was that for? You know as well as I do we would have had to tie Drym up if she wanted to leave. Either that, or figure out real quick how we were going to break our existence to the entire human populous."

The gigantic newcomer grumbled at him. "Shut up, you idiot."

"What? At least I asked. None of you other imbeciles thought to see if she had people worried sick about her."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to sound so happy she didn't." Cavi said as he packed away his first aid kit.

Kragen's voice cut above the rest. "Drym, maybe you should take her to a room and let her rest?"

I couldn't tell if the rumble beneath my ear was humor or irritation.

"That's probably best."

He scooped me into his arms with ease, so careful not to rub any of my scrapes or the bandage covering the cut they'd sutured. The kindness and care I was getting from these beasts—these wyrfangs—was more than I'd had in months.

I swiped at his chest, smearing my tears over his skin. He leaned over me and I felt his muzzle against my back. His body almost completely enveloped me and I'd never felt more cherished or protected.