Chapter 2

TWO

Samantha

Hours have passed. I expected by now for Evander to have caught up with our car and be with us. I expected tension and fighting between the men, and I wasn't looking forward to it. The thing is, the more time that passed without Evander joining us, the more I was looking forward to the fighting. I can handle fighting. I just need him here.

I did the wrong thing. I left him to deal with that monster. If he dies, it's because of me.

"We're officially off the mountain," Granger says tiredly from the front seat, pointing ahead briefly with his good arm as if there's some kind of red blinking sign indicating our location, before quickly grabbing the steering wheel once more.

I say nothing. What's there to say? I'm safely off the mountain, and Evander is… hurt? Dead? I don't even know, but I should've been there with him. My chest feels like I'm dying without him anyway. I might as well be at his side.

"Sam?" Granger says from the front seat, and his dark eyes are concerned.

For him, I would fake a smile if I could. I love it when he smiles, and the corners of his eyes crinkle. Sometimes he laughs too, and the sound rolls from his stomach out of his throat in a way that makes me laugh even harder, but not today. Neither of us laughs.

He looks exhausted. He's in wrinkled clothes, and his dark, messy hair is even messier than usual. There's dirt smeared on his face, his hands, his neck. Everywhere. And one arm is in a sling. Something happened to these two, and if the pulling feeling in my chest wasn't so painful, I would've already asked them about it.

"Sam?" This time, it's Aydan who speaks from beside me. He's been studying me, frowning a lot, struggling for the right thing to say. Even so, I know whatever leaves his lips will be the absolute wrong thing to say even before he speaks. "Why are you so upset?"

Bingo.

Aydan looks like hell too. His clothes are torn in little parts. There are blood stains on the back of his shirt, and his blue eyes hold just a little bit of pain. His blond hair is stained with blood, his skin is dirty. Whatever happened on that mountain, these two have suffered. They don't deserve my silence, even if my heart is being slowly ripped out of my chest.

"I should have stayed."

The betrayal and shock on Aydan's face makes me wish I'd stayed silent. "There were two huge dragons fighting. What the hell did you think you could do?"

I stare at him, not backing down. "I'm a dragon too."

My words have an impact. They both look away. Is it that they're disappointed about what I've become? Or that they still don't believe it?

"Even so, you, Granger, and I are the Wolf Pack. We're a family. We're all the matters. The only thing that could've happened back there was you getting hurt, and we weren't going to allow that to happen."

"If I tried to help him, you would've tried to stop me. You two would've been at risk. That's the only reason I didn't." My words are laced with sadness, and a little bit of an accusation.

"Why do you care about what happens to him?" Aydan practically spits the words out. "He's nothing."

"He's something. To me. To my dragon," I admit.

The tension in the air increases. I glance toward Granger and see his back is rigid. He's expecting a fight, and I'm pretty sure he's going to get one.

"What? What is he to you?" Aydan asks angrily.

I look away. "I don't know."

More silence.

"Is that where those marks on your neck came from? Him ?" Aydan's words are low and angry.

I don't answer, because answering won't make this situation any better. I know Aydan like I know my own heart. He wants to pick at this thing until he gets to see every inch of my heart and feelings, and then he'll find some logical way to make my feelings seem foolish. But one thing Aydan has never understood is that feelings in themselves are illogical.

Granger clears his throat from the front seat. "We're all tired and hurting. A lot has happened over the past day. Sam is a dragon. We nearly got ourselves killed, several times over and–"

"What?" I ask, and my hands curl into fists. "How did you nearly get yourselves killed?" My mind starts working. "When I saw you last, Granger, I didn't even know if–" My words break, remembering him in that cavern, unconscious, abandoned in the dark.

"Ah, come on, don't," Granger says, but I can tell he's pushing aside tears too. "I got a little bump on the head, a shoulder torn out of its socket, and a few scrapes and bruises. They make me look rugged so the ladies should be all over me. Basically, it's like my health bar got down halfway, but I was never in any real danger."

I rub away a tear that's made it down my cheek. "If you're halfway down on your health bar, you should be hiding somewhere recharging, not still in battle."

"Maybe," he says, giving me that smile that makes his long dark lashes look even longer. "But I hadn't saved the fair lady yet."

I laugh, playing with the chain of the necklace Dr. Abigail gave me. "The fair lady is a dragon."

"And I am her forever warrior," he says, with a little bow of his head.

I'm smiling, and the tugging on my heart eases, if only by a little bit. I know it's going to sour my mood, but I turn to Aydan. "And what happened to you? You were outside the cavern when it struck."

Aydan runs his hands through his hair and winces, dropping his hand. "Ended up off the side of the mountain, but lucky for me I hit enough things on the way down that I didn't end up splattered over a cliff."

A gasp slips past my lips. "Aydan!"

Granger's gaze meets mine in the rearview mirror. "I stitched up his head with superglue."

I stare in shock. "You guys should have gone straight to the medical room on campus."

"Nah," Aydan says. "We did exactly what we were supposed to do and headed straight for you."

His words ease a little bit of my anger towards him. "And then you somehow managed to avoid the green dragon and find me?"

"Just barely," Granger says, one hand clutching the steering wheel. "We ran into it in town. Got trapped in our car for a ridiculously long time, but then it caught the scent of something and took off."

I'm shaking, imagining them and the green dragon. They're human. Not like me. They're fragile now, and I have to protect them, even though they think they're still protecting me.

"Yeah, it can follow my scent. I still don't understand a lot about how it works, but I know it's tracking me. That's why I think we need to go to Specter Inc. They might be the only people who know enough about dragons to keep me safe."

Aydan shakes his head. "I don't like heading off to some place that sounds like an evil corporation from a superhero movie just because some guy told us to."

"So, what do you suggest? Hide and hope the green dragon doesn't find me?"

Before Aydan can retort, saying some assholey thing, Granger jumps in. "If that thing was able to track her all over the mountain, chances are Sam won't be safe anywhere without some major help."

Aydan leans back on the seat, looking irritated. "I guess we really should hope that asshole gray dragon manages to kill it then."

I glare. "Did you not know who you were rooting for before this point?"

He doesn't back down. "No, I didn't."

Fuck. "He kept me safe!"

"Is that all he did?"

"I'm not doing this!" I shout back.

Granger cuts in. "If the dragon can smell you so well, how come it took so long to find you at the cabin? I mean, when you were on the move it made sense, but not scenting you after you stayed in one place for an entire night? Isn't that weird?"

My cheeks burn. I'm not about to say, probably because I smelled more like Evander than myself . "I don't know."

"Yes, you do," Aydan says, then his jaw moves. "How are we supposed to help you if you keep lying to us?"

"I'm not lying to you."

He's about to say something, when my phone starts to ring. I yank it out of my back pocket, see the unknown number, and answer, hoping against hope that it's Evander. Somehow.

"Hello?"

Aydan leans over and clicks the speaker button on, but I'm so focused on the phone that I don't even glare in his direction.

"We're looking for Captain Evander Pierce."

"Who is this?" I ask, my hand tightening around the phone.

There's a moment's hesitation. "Specter Inc."

I release a slow breath. "This is… uh… the female dragon. The green dragon ambushed us. Evander stayed behind to fight it but should be following me shortly."

Another pause. "Understood, but we have important information for you before you arrive at base. We've done as Captain Evander requested and looked into as much as we could determine about dragon females and males scenting them. Technically, all of this is a hypothesis, but it's the best we could do." Another pause. "Female dragons can be scented by dragon males from a long distance. We're thinking over continents and oceans, if that gives you any indication of just how powerful a female's scent is to the males. We suspect that because dragons were so rare, this was a biological necessity to continue the race. What's more, female dragons' scents should be stronger during ovulation."

Granger waves for the phone to come closer. "So, how do we hide her scent?"

The person on the other line clears his throat. "That is private information."

I roll my eyes. "Evander is going to be annoyed as hell when he hears that you're allowing one of the only dragons on earth to remain in danger when you could help me."

"But the people with you–"

"Are helping keep me alive, and they can only do that with all the information."

There's a loud exhale of breath. "You're right, of course. We do want you to arrive here safely." Another pause. "Well, it seems that a male is able to conceal her scent with semen, essentially by making her smell like the other male. This method of concealment would work best with another dragon, because their scents are so strong, but could also work with a human male if… done enough. We believe this is how female dragons were kept safe: by having a male dragon essentially claim her and keep her scent concealed beneath his."

The car is drop dead silent. Drop. Dead. Silent.

Granger is beat red. "So, her scent has to be concealed with someone else's? Would perfumes or cologne be enough?"

"That's a negative," says the man on the other end. "Well, to clarify, it does help to conceal her scent, but not enough, depending where she is in her ovulation cycle. At certain times, yes, other times, not at all."

"Where are you in your ovulation cycle?" Granger asks me, then goes an even deeper shade of red.

"I have no idea," I say, wanting to melt into the seat.

Granger sighs. "So, we just need to plan for the worst, which means, uh, a man needs to… cover her with his scent? That requires sex, correct?" he asks, like we all need the clarification.

"Uh, affirmative," the man says again. "At least that's what the research shows. Once we have blood samples and imaging, we may be able to figure out a less… invasive way of covering her scent, but that's all we have for now."

This is horrifying. "Thanks for letting us know."

The man continues. "It should be made explicitly clear that we don't want to lead angry dragons right to our base. And I mean dragon s . There are reports coming in from all over the world of dragon sightings. The female dragon, that is, er, you, may find yourself pursued by multiple males. With this information, and accepting how dangerous dragons are, there is no way you should arrive on base without your scent being properly masked."

Properly masked? Hell. "So, uh, how long does it last? You know, if a female's scent has been covered? How often do I have to… do it?"

Granger and Aydan are both staring at me. Hard.

"That's hard to determine without the evidence we require from blood and other bodily fluids. This is all speculation. So, we're only guessing, but it seems likely the female should plan on being properly covered shortly before coming to base. Enough of a distance away that the male dragons won't know exactly where to look."

I refuse to look at any of them, so Granger answers, "Got it. We'll, uh, take care of it."

"We'll be sending our coordinates to you shortly. And please pass on this information to the Captain. We'll be here waiting for you."

The call ends. Silence descends. I slide my phone back in my pocket and stare out the window at the trees passing by like there's nothing more important than those trees. But it's hard to pull off when I can feel Aydan's gaze burning into the back of my head.

"So how long has it been?" Aydan asks, his voice dangerously low.

"How long?" I repeat innocently.

"Aydan…" Granger begins from the front seat.

"And how come the green dragon didn't find you sooner?"

I squirm in my seat, gaze fixed outside.

"We should just be glad she's okay," Granger says, his voice just above a whisper.

I can sense that Aydan wants to say more, but he leans back on the seat, and his gaze is suddenly fixed outside his window too. The awkwardness is miserable. I can almost feel them picturing the way I've spent my last few hours while they've been fighting for their lives, and I want to melt off my seat and slide out the door. What's more… apparently, I need to fuck someone before I reach the base.

So now, the question is… who the hell am I going to fuck?