Heat swirled in her core, and she found that she was staring at him—again. She quickly turned her head, hoping nobody had noticed. But seriously, what was going on here? If there was one man she couldn’t stand, it was Patrick Sheen. So why was she daydreaming about him now? When they were about to head out on their first-ever training mission? Sure, the stakes were fairly low here, but it was still the first training mission.
Fiona knew that Maura wanted the Blaze Ops ready to go. There had been ransom demands for the missing senator delivered recently, which meant he was alive. Maura had already agreed to send all the other teams to try to save him, but their enemies moved him around too much. They couldn’t get a fix on his location.
So now was not the time to be caught up in daydreams about turning Patrick’s aggression into something else.
“What’s our ETA,” she asked Liam, who sat beside her, as a distraction.
“Another hour,” he replied. “We’d get there faster on our own wings, you know.”
“I know. But then everybody would know that you’re dragons, wouldn’t they? The whole point is to keep it as a secret backup, not flaunt it from the start.”
Liam shrugged, looking unconvinced, and Fiona just sighed. They would come to understand why she had them practice holding in their dragons in time. Even the men who did like her and were more than eager to learn her other techniques, doubted her when she said it was best not to go in as dragons. But then, they were all used to being trained as weapons of blunt force. Not the slinking, shifting shadows that they’d have to be in order to get away with the type of missions they’d be given from now on.
Liam leaned in a little closer, entering her personal space as he lowered his voice. Everything in his posture and tone suggested a proposition of some sort, but the words he spoke were not very flirtatious.
“Rumor has it you and the Colonel were caught in an intimate embrace.”
“None of your business, Captain.”
“Is that why he’s been nicer to you? Finally managed to get him to—” Liam cut off at her glare, clearing his throat. He shrugged and leaned back. “Sorry. Just wanted to know if it was true. Have to say, if it is true, I’m a bit disappointed.”
Fiona snorted. “Don’t be. You’re not allowed to date your superior officer anyway… and I don’t think the Colonel is your type.”
Liam grinned at her and chuckled. “You never know.”
“Cheeky monkey,” Fiona laughed, shaking her head. “Well, there is still the whole superior officer thing. But I’m sure that if you asked permission, Maura would let you overlook that as long as Sheen isn’t giving you any special permissions.”
“Hmm, good point. I think it’d be too risky, actually. You see, I’m very charming and I have a way about me. I always get what I want. And then people would start accusing us of favoritism and I’d have to break up with him and it’d break his heart.” Liam winked. “You, though… I can see that working out.”
For half a second, Fiona thought he was referring to her and Patrick and she couldn’t breathe. Instinctively she looked at him again. Only to find him glaring at the two of them. Had he heard their conversation? But no, that was impossible. He was all the way across the plane, and they were talking in low voices. He couldn’t be hearing them…
She turned her face away from him, wondering now if he could read lips. “I’m not interested, Liam. If you get everything you want, you had better not want me because that will ruin your winning streak.”
“Ah.” Liam shrugged, looking disappointed but not like he was going to push it. “Alright, then. I suppose that’s just how it’s going to be.”
They lapsed back into silence, and Fiona tried to turn her mind back to the mission. Erica was being ‘held captive’ by the Shadow Ops team in a remote location. Once they got close enough, the Blaze Ops and Fiona (as an observer) would parachute down. From there, she and Evan would set up their command center and the other five would go in and recover Erica. The goal was to stay out of sight and then fly away after they’d gotten Erica.
What the Blaze Ops didn’t know that the Shadow Ops had certain devices with them that would be activated if they saw any evidence of shifters about the Blaze Ops. Then, certain anti-dragon measures would be deployed. Basically, if any of them shifted before the appointed time, their only way of getting out would be cut off.
And if that happened… well, at least they’d understand why she said to keep it a secret.
“Approaching the drop-off zone,” the pilot’s voice came through the headsets they wore. “T minus thirty and counting.”
“Alright, men,” Patrick said as he unbuckled his harness and grabbed a parachute. “Suit up and get into formation.”
Fiona undid her harness and reached for her pack. She was just buckling into it when Patrick, already in his parachute, came over to her. His eyes were hard and angry. What had happened to him being less of a douche in the briefing room? Had it all been a bet after all?
“If you can’t control yourself,” he murmured to her, sounding as pissed-off as he looked, “then maybe you should just step down and let somebody else take over your job.”
“If I can’t control myself?” she spat back, furious. “You’re the one who kissed me, Colonel. You’re the one who has been doing very little besides skulking around. So, if anybody needs to get control of themselves, it’s you.”
“Oh, but this isn’t the first time you’ve lost control, is it?” he shot back, eyes glittering now. “Or do you prefer not to think about—”
The plane rocked violently to one side, sending them both off-balance. Fiona was flung into Patrick’s chest. One arm wrapped firmly around her waist while his free hand snatched at the netting that was hung just for this purpose. The other men, half in their parachutes, flung about. Fiona ground her feet against the floor of the plane, regaining her footing, and reached out with one hand to grasp the netting. Her parachute was still only half on.
With a snarl, Patrick started to do it up for her. She swatted his hand away the best she could. “Take care of—”
“We have wings,” he shot back at her. “You don’t.”
A deafening boom made them all flinch. The plane jerked again. This time is dropped several meters. Fiona clung to the netting as she hung in the air for a prolonged second. The pilot was shouting over the headset but hers had gotten damaged during the second hit somehow. Everything sounded fuzzy and distant; she couldn’t understand what they were saying. Patrick’s arm was back around her. She wanted to scream at him to just let her go, to take care of his men—she could take care of herself. She’d been doing it ever since she was a kid.
Then there was another jerk. A grating noise. The back of the plane blew out, and the sudden rush of air lifted her from her feet once more. Patrick’s arm tightened around her. Fiona snarled as her tiger went into panic mode. It pressed against her throat, trying to come forward, protect her.
Only, shifting right now was the worst thing she could do.
Patrick gestured to the men, giving them hand signals. Fiona couldn’t see them all, but the message was clear enough. The group made their way to the back, fighting against the forces pulling on them. One by one they jumped clear of the falling plane. Fiona’s heart hammered as a jet of air caught her; she deployed her parachute and was pulled away from the others. Two of them had shifted into dragons, and she bit back a curse—emergency or not, they should have stuck with procedure.
Her hands gripped the strings holding her to the piece of fabric that was stopping her from plummeting to her death. Patrick jumped from the plane last. He wore no parachute and shifted as soon as he cleared the debris.
“Fuck,” Fiona growled but Patrick surprised her; he turned in the air and went right back for the plane.
That’s when she realized that the pilot had not ejected.
Another gust of wind blew her further away from the dragons. The two who had shifted wheeled about and went for the plane w
ith Patrick, grabbing the wings to pull it back up while Patrick attacked the cockpit, trying to get the pilot out. Even with the wind burning in her face, Fiona watched as she fell toward the Earth.
There was a flare of fire, black smoke and then she was falling among the trees and saw nothing more.
The trees snagged her parachute, dangling her several meters off the ground. Fiona let herself hang for a moment, breathing evenly to calm the racing of her heart. What had happened? Was it just a malfunction, or had they been attacked? If it was an attack, by who? Why? How had they found out? What did they want?
Well, she wasn’t going to get any answers sitting up here. Fiona released herself from the harness. She hit the ground and rolled to absorb the impact, then stood. She knew these woods and would be back to the Academy by noon tomorrow.
Or at least, she would have if at that moment a pack of wolves hadn’t jumped from the trees. Fiona tensed, drawing a knife from her belt as she quickly put her back to a tree so she couldn’t be attacked from behind. The wolves were big, far bigger than was natural. They faced her silently, eyes locked on her.
Fiona wet her lips, the questions that had been alluding her becoming clear. The Pack. They’d had a few skirmishes with the Academy since it started, but they’d never done anything like this before. She growled low in her throat when a man strode through the trees. He wore a deer’s hide for clothing; his hair was shaved but his grey-green eyes glittered dangerously.
“Dr. Tadfield,” he greeted with the barest hints of an English accent. “I’ve been waiting to meet you for a long time.”
Chapter Five
Hours of searching only revealed Fiona’s torn parachute and signs of a scuffle. It was shortly after that when Cooper showed up, his team of shifters melting out of the shadows they were named for. Cooper grimly told the Blaze Ops that Fiona had been taken by the Pack. Patrick hadn’t even heard of them before and was furious to learn that there was a threat this big that he hadn’t been told about.
The look in Fiona’s eyes as the plane was going down kept haunting him all the way back to the Magnus Academy. She’d been afraid but determined. Calm even in her fear. He should never have let her go. He should have kept hold of her and ordered the others to get the pilot out.
When they arrived back at the Magnus Academy, Maura was already waiting for them. Stephen and Adam had both received burns on their wings, which translated to burns and blisters on their backs and Patrick made sure they were going to the medical ward before he turned to the doctor. Cooper was already talking to her, a twist on his face as he glanced at Patrick, but Maura waved him off and marched over to him.
“What happened?”
Patrick ran a hand through his hair. Soot and ash from the plane’s burning engine came back on his fingers. She was a civilian as well. She was a shifter but wasn’t a fighter. The whole academy was under her command. He’d known from the start that he was going to step outside of the military chain of command. He’d known.
So why was it so hard for him to take orders from Fiona? Why had he balked so much against her?
“We were hit by some sort of explosive weapon,” he told Maura warily. The attack, the frenzied attempt to get the pilot out, the search for Fiona. It had left him feeling exhausted. “It took out our left engine on impact. We got another two hits before we started going down. The men and I got out. Fiona had a ‘chute. Once she deployed it, I went back for the pilot. He was trapped inside. By the time I got him out, she’d been blown away from the rest of us. When we went looking for her, she was gone. Then Cooper found us and said she’d been taken by the Pack. Which I should have been informed about before now.”
Maura frowned. She held up her hand, stopping him from pressing the issue further. “Get cleaned up and meet in the debriefing room. Make sure your men don’t leave the medical ward until they’re told they can. I know shifters think they’re invincible because they heal up fast, but that doesn’t mean they’ll heal right.”
Patrick nodded, rubbing a hand over his face.
“And get yourself checked over before reporting,” Maura added, worry creasing her face. “Won’t be any good to have you collapse.”
***
Patrick didn’t have a mark on him. He showered quickly and dressed in a uniform, then gathered his uninjured men and brought them to the debriefing room. There, they went over the events of the night again. Cooper also told his bit; when he saw the plane going down, he had sent Erica back here and went out to help. He’d encountered a few of the Pack and they had bragged about finally capturing Fiona before they took off.
Three of his men had been injured but not as badly as Stephen and Adam. After Cooper stopped talking, Maura hid her face in her hands. Patrick could see the weight of it on her shoulders. He wanted to say something to reassure her but remained silent.
Eventually, Cooper spoke, “I wasn’t aware of any previous times the Pack had come after Dr. Fiona.”
“They haven’t, as far as we’re aware.” Maura sighed as she leaned back. “This is not good.”
Patrick leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “And who are the Pack? What do they want?”
Maura glanced at him, looking uncertain for a moment. Then her expression smoothed out. “The Pack is an organization that we’ve recently discovered. They originated as a cult of sorts, recruiting shifters who felt like they were outcasts and giving them something to fight for. Their main teachings are that humans and shifters are fundamentally different and that everything that brings us closer together taints the unique qualities of both sides. They have become more aggressive since the death of their previous alpha. But as for what they’re after? We don’t know.”
“My men and I can—"
“The Shadow Ops has been tracking the Pack for some time,” Cooper interrupted. He sat straighter, his lip lifted in a snarl. “As the leader of the team, they fall into my territory, Dragon. Your team isn’t even a team yet. You lost Fiona. She trained us all and yet you’re the ones that—"
“If you’re supposed to be the ones heading the fight against the Pack, you’ve done a terrible job.” Patrick couldn’t stop himself as his flames burnt higher. The thought of Fiona out there in the hands of radicals? She wasn’t a shifter. If these people thought shifters and humans shouldn’t mix, what were they going to do with her? What did they want?
Cooper stared at him, startled by the accusation.
“They knew exactly where we were going to be. They knew about the mission and how to bring that plane down,” Patrick continued, glowering at Cooper. “And you didn’t even know they were interested. If you were halfway competent at your job, you’d have anticipated this attack and—”
Cooper snarled, jumping to his feet. “Are you seriously trying to blame this on me? You’re the one who has been hostile toward Fiona ever since you arrived. If you’re trying to say that someone in the Academy told the Pack how to get Fiona, I’d say that you might as well turn that finger around. You’re the newcomers. How do we know that you aren’t a double agent?”
A growl rumbled up Patrick’s throat. “Since when is accusing you of incompetence the same as accusing you of being a traitor?”
“At least my men like me.”
“Maybe you are a traitor then. Or at least a traitor in your midst.”
Cooper let out a bellow that sounded like his lion. Both his hands slammed the table. “My men were trained by Fiona. We’ve been through this together for years. You insult them again and I’ll rip off your fucking head—”
“Enough!” Maura leapt to her feet. She glowered at both of them, her hands in tight fists at her side. “Both of you just shut up this instant.” Patrick was too surprised by Maura’s sudden ferocity to protest but Cooper tried. Maura didn’t let him, though, talking over him until he fell silent. “Mudslinging and accusations aren’t going to get us anywhere. Cooper, you and the Shadow Ops find out where Fiona is and how the Pack found out about this training missi
on. It wasn’t broadcasted, but it wasn’t a big secret, either. The priority has to be finding Fiona, though. Understood?”
Cooper sank back into his chair. Worry creased his brow as he nodded. “We’ll find her. I promise, we’ll find her. You’re right, this is my fault. I didn’t know the Pack was as big of a threat as it is. But I will not sleep until Fiona is back here, safe.”
Patrick nodded his agreement to that statement. Everything he had done against Fiona swirled in his mind. It seemed like his past was back already, haunting him and more than ready to bite him in the ass. And more than anything else was that kiss. He didn’t know if he regretted kissing her or not; he didn’t know if it was a mistake or the best thing he could have done. All he could think of was that it marked a chance. For what, he wasn’t even sure. A chance to make himself a better man? A chance to stop being such a douche toward her and embrace her alternative training methods?
He didn’t know. But there was one thing he was certain of. “My men and I will be ready to extract her once her location is known.”
Everybody turned surprised eyes on him. He didn’t care what they thought of his proclamation. Cooper especially. This was why the Blaze Ops was being formed, after all. Rescue and recovery. They also had something to prove. His hands curled into fists as he stared at Maura.
A furrow pinched her brow. He already knew what she was going to say, even before she said it. That didn’t matter. He was determined. He would bring Fiona back. If it was the only thing he could do to even begin to make up for everything he’d done, he had to do this.
“You haven’t completed your training,” Maura started.
“I’m aware. But all six of us have years of military training. We have all been through this sort of mission in the past. We might not be trained in the ideal techniques Fiona wanted us to learn, but that doesn’t mean that we have no training. If the Pack is really as new as you have suggested, that means they aren’t going to be expecting a military-force rescue.”
Dragon’s Mission (Dragon Blaze Ops Book 1) Page 3
