He moved on, hurrying now that the chimp would have raised the alarm.
Fiona was in the next room. She lay on a thin mattress, dressed in white scrubs, shivering violently. Her skin was drawn, pale and even her hair seemed limp. Her eyes darted under her lids, and she flinched back from him when he called her name.
Patrick forced down the fury that threatened to consume him and rushed to her side. He grasped her shoulders, shaking her gently. A cry burst from her throat as her eyes flew open. One of her fists weakly grazed his face before she stopped. Her eyes were glazed, and she blinked rapidly, her brow crinkling as she struggled to focus.
The bastards had drugged her. He would have liked to have gone after them for that, but his mission wasn’t to take the Pack down. It was to get Fiona out. He had her. Now he had to get her out of here. One of her hands pressed to his cheek as he lifted her into his arms.
“Patrick?” her voice was so soft, so vulnerable. So unlike the woman he knew.
“I’m here,” he assured her as he headed back to the hallway, where the shrieks of the chimp still sounded. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
“No… you have to…” Her head fell to his shoulder and she let out a shuddering breath. “Something else. My brain… I can’t think… they drugged me.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he whispered as he headed back down the hallway, moving as quickly as he could—there was no point in being quiet now.
Just before he reached the animal room again, a woman stepped out of it. She gasped, freezing. Her eyes were wide as he slowed to a stop. Fiona took up his arms; he couldn’t get at his weapon without dropping her. His heart seized inside of him as he met the woman’s eyes.
Fiona’s head rose slightly. She mumbled something, then cleared her throat. “Utopia. Come with us.”
What? Patrick didn’t take his eyes off the woman as she shrank back.
“You don’t want to be here. I know you don’t. Come with us. We can protect you.”
The woman, Utopia, trembled for a moment before she whispered, “You can’t.”
She charged and Patrick swung Fiona to one side, causing her to yelp. He rose his weapon, but before he could fire, Utopia’s form had shifted smoothly into that of a snow leopard. She jumped off the wall to one side and sped down the hallway, letting out a feral screeching noise that made Patrick’s blood run cold.
“Fuck,” Fiona muttered.
Patrick pulled her back into his arms and forced a laugh as he rushed for the door. “Don’t use that sort of language.”
“You overuse it.”
The smoke outside was billowing even thicker and it wasn’t difficult to get Fiona to where Adam, Stephen, and Liam waited. Stephen’s face was twisted in pain and determination, but he still managed a greeting to Fiona. The other two were too focused on their work to bother noticing.
Patrick quickly took up his position and fired at their enemies, buying enough time to ask, “Where’s the E-team?”
“They went into that building there,” Liam replied, jerking his head toward a small building unconnected to the others. “The wolves have been trying to follow them in, but we’ve kept them off their tail.”
Patrick looked up at the arcs of electricity and cursed. “Let’s hope Evan is as good as he’s supposed to be.”
Fiona moaned. She started to pull herself up and Stephen had to push her back down. She swatted weakly at his hands. “You guys came in as dragons, didn’t you?”
A wolf was trying to sneak closer to the shed and Patrick fired off a volley of shots, causing it to jump back. In retaliation, the Pack fired another dozen blasts toward them.
“They’re not gonna try to kill you.”
Patrick cast a confused glance at Fiona. “What?”
“They want dragons. The Alpha is doing experiments. He thinks dragons are most powerful… this is a trap. He wants you alive…” She trailed off as her head fell to one side again, her eyes fluttering shut.
The electricity overhead flickered out. Two cries of triumph came from the shed, but the wolves howled. They dodged in closer, keeping up a steady stream of bullets at the dragon’s shelter. Patrick didn’t let himself consider the possibility that Fiona was right—there was no time for doubts and if she was mistaken or too drugged to know what she was saying, the results would be fatal.
He shifted at once, letting loose a blast of flame at the wolves. They yelped and scattered. Evan and Eugene darted from the shed, both shifting as well. Liam had gathered Fiona into his arms, and he shifted, Adam following after. Last came Stephen, face twisted with determination.
All of them jumped into the air. A cry of pain burst in the air, and Patrick swiveled to see a spear stuck through Evan’s leg. His stomach dropped as Evan was yanked back down toward the ground. A dozen men wearing fire suits yanked a heavy metal chain connected to the spear.
A high, snarling sound made him turn again. Fiona leapt out of Liam’s arms. Patrick rushed to grab her, but she slipped through his grasp like water and turned into a lithe orange and black cat. The tiger leapt at the first man on the chain; he released it, raising his hands to defend himself. Fiona slipped by him, running beneath the chain while the wolves shouted.
She was soon at the launcher. There, she shifted back human, flipped a lever and punched the nearest man in the face. The chain released rapidly as Eugene and Adam pulled Evan away from the ground. Patrick swooped low, kicking the launcher aside. Fiona jumped on it. He didn’t see what she did, but the chain came away free, letting the dragons carry Evan away with the chain falling behind them.
Fiona turned back into a tiger and leapt high. Patrick caught her, still in awe and Liam whirled around them, covering their asses with a burst of fire.
They were back at the Magnus Academy soon enough. Patrick landed, setting Fiona down. She was in human form again, utterly naked—clearly, she had not mastered the trick of shifting clothing with her. Her eyes were no longer glazed as she grinned at him.
“There’s a reason I say you need to learn how to do your missions without shifting,” she said and then crumpled to the ground.
Chapter Eight
“I’m alright,” Fiona said wearily as Patrick dropped to his knees beside her. The drugs had mostly worked their way out of her system, but her head was starting to pound with the exertion. Her stomach churned, but as she breathed through her nose, it settled. She looked up to see Patrick still beside her, his gaze worried, one hand reaching out toward her. She forced a smile, embarrassed at how relieved she was to see him standing there. “Really. I’m fine.”
Patrick put his strong arms around her. Fiona leaned into him before she realized that he was just picking her up. He put her on a gurney and squeezed her hand. “I’ll come see you when I can.”
Fiona wanted to protest. For some reason, she didn’t like the thought of Patrick leaving her, even though she knew he needed to look after his men. She nodded, pressing her lips together to stop herself from asking him to stay.
She was wheeled into the academy, growing stronger and more alert as every minute passed. Whatever the Pack had done to her, she wasn’t sure; the memories were all fogged up. She must have been under a pretty heavy sedation. It was only now working out of her system.
Dr. Clementine checked her over, the pinch of worry on her brow easing as she checked Fiona’s vitals. “Can you remember what they gave you?”
“No. They asked me about some things to see if I was allergic but… I don’t remember the names they used. I was pretty out of it. How long was I gone?”
Clementine hummed under her breath. “About a week. We were very worried, but Cooper was able to find out where you were being held. I didn’t think it was possible, but he did it.”
“I’ll have to thank him.” Fiona shivered as she thought about what they’d been doing to her. “They gave me so many drugs. Ran me through tests. I don’t even know what they were doing. Sometimes it hurt but… I was so afraid they were g
oing to take my tiger away from me.”
There was a knock on the door and when Clementine answered, Fiona sat upright. “Patrick! Come in.”
Clementine glanced at her, surprised, but stepped aside for Patrick to enter. He came in looking hesitant and unsure. When he sat on the chair beside the examination table, he let out a heavy sigh.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a shifter?”
“So that you wouldn’t know,” Fiona replied with a smile. “Because I knew you were going to keep underestimating me, and I wanted to teach you a lesson. You’d know if you read my file, though. How long have we been training together now? And you still haven’t bothered to learn anything about me.”
Patrick chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, I guess I should have done that. I shouldn’t have been so busy trying to undermine you. I’m sorry.”
Fiona’s heart swelled hearing him say that. She reached out to take his hand. Even though their relationship had been nothing but rocky up until this point, she was still more than happy that they could share something in common now. Something that she could hold onto… besides a single kiss, that was.
“You did a job with this rescue mission,” she told him.
Patrick’s gaze darkened. “Did we? I nearly got Evan killed. He’s going to survive, but he was hurt pretty badly, and it’s going to take him quite a while to recover from it.”
“You got me out,” Fiona argued. “And Evan didn’t die. Yes, it could have gone better. I’m not saying that it couldn’t have. But considering that you were half-assing your training and hadn’t had any training missions, I would say that it being successful at all is a good sign. Although I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely certain why Maura allowed you to take a mission when you weren’t trained for it.”
Patrick shrugged. “She recognized we were still the best for the job.”
Fiona smirked. “Good thing, too.”
“Can we talk privately?” Patrick turned to Clementine. “If you’re done with your examination?”
Clementine marked something on Fiona’s chart and nodded. “I’m going to want to keep you here under observation for a while, but I’m not seeing anything to be concerned about. Just try to get some rest, okay?”
Fiona nodded. After Clementine slipped out of the room, she turned a puzzled look to Patrick. He bent his head, staring at the floor with a slight scowl on his face. She frowned at him. Did he ask to be alone with her so he could ream her out or something? His expression certainly wasn’t promising.
“Whatever you have to say, just spit it out,” she advised.
Patrick glanced at her and shrugged. “I understand why you’ve been training us the way you have.”
“And you couldn’t have said that while Clementine was here?”
Patrick grinned weakly. “Well, yeah. I can’t admit that I was wrong now, can I?”
There was a teasing note to his voice that made her relax. “Oh no. Can’t have that at all. People might start to think you’re going soft.”
“Can’t have that,” Patrick replied, his smile starting to widen.
Fiona tapped her chin, her own grin turning wicked. “On the other hand, I think there are going to be plenty of rumors about that anyway.”
Patrick rose a brow in question.
“After all,” she gazed over his form, just noticing that he was still as dirty and bloody as he had been when they had landed at the Magnus Academy, “what sort of man comes to look after something he’s shown nothing but hostility toward before he takes care of his own injuries?”
A flush rose in Patrick’s cheeks and he ducked his head. “I’m not injured.”
“I know you’re all big and strong, but even cuts and bruises—”
“I’m not injured,” Patrick interrupted. He grimaced fiercely, and his hands tightened into fists at his knees. Fiona frowned, uncertain what was causing so much distress in him now. If he wasn’t injured, then what was the big deal? He finally met her gaze, his unhappiness showing from his eyes. “One of my men nearly died, and I don’t have so much as a scrape.”
Oh. That was it. Fiona wet her lips but didn’t know what to say to that. These sorts of things happened. But when she thought of how she would feel… what she did feel when the people she trained got hurt out on the field… she understood what was going through him right now.
“I’m their leader. I should be the one taking the brunt of it. They shouldn’t be getting injured under my watch. I should be protecting them. And yet Evan almost died. I knew we weren’t trained enough. This is on my head.”
“Patrick.” Fiona put her hand over his. “Maura still agreed to send you. Because she recognized, training or not, that you guys were the best for the job. If Cooper had tried to do it, he’d have been compromised for future projects. None of the other teams come close to having the skills necessary to pull something like this off. And I’m not sure how much longer I could have lasted.”
Patrick’s gaze turned hard and smoke curled from his nostrils. “What did they want with you?”
“I’m not entirely certain, but I’m pretty sure they were trying to take my tiger away from me.”
She put her hand on her chest, shuddering as her tiger growled softly, as though assuring her of its presence. Why the Alpha wanted to turn her human, she had no idea. All she knew was what she felt, and she was certain that was his plan.
Patrick clenched his hands. “I’m not going to say that we shouldn’t have gone in. I don’t regret doing that. I know that we were the best for the job. It’s that we could have been much more prepared. We could have been ready for what we faced. If I hadn’t spent so much time fighting you, then maybe I would have been better prepared.”
“It’s not your fault—”
“It is, though. If I hadn’t been so distracted by trying to prove that I didn’t need your training, I might have been able to understand what you were doing without it threatening my men’s lives. It was arrogant and stupid.” Patrick’s shoulders slumped as he leaned back in his chair. “And I’m sorry. Not only because of how I acted but because of the consequences. Evan shouldn’t have had to pay the price for my actions. And I am sorry for all the shit I put you through. I was an idiot.”
Well, Fiona wasn’t going to argue that part exactly. She reached for his hand again, softening once more toward him. She had been hoping that he’d come to this realization during the training mission. It wasn’t ideal that it had had to be a real mission; but nobody was killed. Evan would heal. Dragons were hardy. That was why the Alpha wanted one or two of them to experiment on.
She shuddered and put that thought from her mind for now. Maybe that was what he wanted from her; to be bait.
Whatever he’d wanted, it was over now.
“I knew that you were going to have a problem with me from the start,” she told Patrick, a wry smile coming to her face. “You see, I did read your file. I knew your record and what you liked to do. I thought your stubbornness would be a good asset. It’s why I selected you. And I was right. I just didn’t expect that so much of your stubbornness would be directed at me.”
Patrick’s lips twitched into a smile. “Well. Guess we all regret something, then.”
“Who said I regretted bringing you into the team?”
Patrick stared at her hard for a minute before he leaned forward. Fiona knew what he wanted and drew toward him instinctively, raising her mouth to his. Their kiss was soft, tentative. Patrick’s hands cupped her face, bringing her closer as he teased her lips open. Warmth spread through her body as a gentle tingling formed in her lips. She reached out, pulling him into her arms.
Fiona would have happily lost herself in his embrace, except as her mind cleared even further, she remembered... There were things that they had to deal with.
Reluctantly, she broke the kiss. Patrick looked worried and opened his mouth, but she put a finger on his lips to stop whatever he was going to say. He’d have the wrong idea about why s
he ended the kiss, anyway.
“I learned more about the Pack than the Alpha realizes. He liked to mock me. He’s got Senator Kinsman. He let that one slip on purpose, just to make me feel small and helpless.”
Patrick’s eyes took on that smoldering quality again. He let out a growl, and Fiona shook her head. She didn’t want to think about that right now. She was back, she was safe. Whatever the Alpha wanted, he wasn’t going to get it. He might have expected the Blaze Ops to come for her—and how he knew they were dragons was something else they’d have to figure out—but they had gotten away, and she was certain he hadn’t planned for that.
“I think I know where the Senator is being held,” she continued. “And since I’ve got a clean bill of health, we need to talk to Maura right away.”
She made to stand, but Patrick put his hands on her shoulders and pressed her back to bed. “I’ll bring Maura to you. Dr. Clementine wants you to stay under observation, remember?”
“But I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You were held prisoner for a week with who knows what happening to you.” Patrick gave her a firm look. “You stay here and rest, and next time we’re training… I’ll do some ballet for you. Deal?”
Fiona huffed but couldn’t stop herself from nodding. “Yeah. Okay. Deal.”
Chapter Nine
Fiona was asleep when Patrick brought Maura to her. Not wanting to disturb her, Patrick took the opportunity to shower, redress and give a debriefing to Maura before he made his rounds to check on his men again. Stephen was being kept in the medical ward for a few days to ensure his wings healed properly, and Evan would be here for at least a week. The spear had had barbs on it and as he’d healed around it, the surgeons had to do a lot of cutting in order to get it out. He was in bad shape but was already looking brighter with more color in his face.
Dragon’s Mission (Dragon Blaze Ops Book 1) Page 5
