by Vella Day
Chelsea smiled. “Hi,” she said.
“How did it go?”
“We had fun. You have the best family.”
He gathered her in his arms and kissed her. “I do at that. I missed you.”
She leaned back and placed a hand on his chest. “I’m here now.”
“That you are. How are you feeling? Are you too tired to enjoy what I have to offer?”
Chelsea laughed. “Never. Even if I wanted to sleep, I don’t think my wolf or my dragon would let me.”
“Has your dragon spoken to you yet?” His wolf had been in a constant conversation with his dragon about how much they needed her.
“If you are asking if they are begging me to ravish you, then yes.”
“I like animal battles like that.”
He swooped her up in his arms, ready to spend the rest of the night making love to his mate.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Last night had been amazing. Declan had driven her crazy, kissing her slowly and then sucking on her nipples and pussy until she was ready to explode. Chelsea tried to reciprocate, but he seemed determined to drive her wild first. Even though the girls had warned her that after she mated her desires would increase, Chelsea hadn’t believed them. Now she did.
Chelsea sipped her morning coffee as she relived their glorious night together. It had been so cool when not only her blue sparks had flown off her body, she’d actually glowed light blue from the inside. Declan said that meant she’d have black scales, scattered with pretty blue ones. She couldn’t wait until she shifted. Blue was her favorite color.
Declan had left early this morning. He, along with Finn and several of the other Guardians, were on a mission to find the missing shifters. Chelsea could only hope that Sanditra hadn’t been the one responsible for taking them. Now that she was dead, these caged souls might never be freed.
Considering how strong-willed Sanditra had been, she might have mentally controlled Stick and Marty to do her bidding. Hell, they might not remember where she was keeping them—assuming they both had been involved. Wherever those shifters were, she hoped someone was watching over them.
Once she finished breakfast, Chelsea pulled out her laptop and began checking out colleges to find the perfect school for veterinarian medicine. After an hour of searching, she’d found two. The question was whether any of her Earth credits would be accepted.
She thought about calling Declan to see if he could find out something about reciprocity between Earth and Tarradon, but she didn’t want to disturb him, especially since he was on a mission dear to her heart—finding those poor shifters.
Before she could figure out her next move, someone knocked on her front door. Chelsea stiffened. She couldn’t tell if it was a shifter or not, which was odd, but she chalked it up to the fact that her body was trying to incorporate two animal beings at once.
Even knowing that Sanditra was dead, she cautiously glanced out the living room window. The only vehicle in her drive belonged to her. From her vantage point, she couldn’t see who was at the door. Darn.
“Who is it?” she called out.
No one answered. Then what sounded like a bird’s beak rapped on her door, and her body sagged. It hadn’t been a knock at all—just some woodpecker. She certainly didn’t need him to drill a hole in the wood.
Wanting to shoo him away, she pulled open the door, and the damn thing flew in.
“Oh, no you don’t. Get out of here. Scram.”
As much as she liked all animals, it wouldn’t do the bird any good to be cooped up in the cabin. The bird flew toward the door. Right as it passed her, it shifted into a man.
Chelsea was so stunned that she couldn’t move. Never had she heard of a bird shifter. “Marty? What…what are you doing here?” This couldn’t be good.
He stepped back and withdrew a gun from his jacket pocket. She froze. Chelsea had never had a gun pointed at her before. Probably because she’d watched so many cop shows back home that she raised her arms.
“Where’s Sanditra? And how did you get away from her?”
He must not know she was dead, but clearly he knew Sanditra had kept Chelsea captive. A thousand responses tumbled through her mind. Maybe Marty wasn’t out to kill her. All he wanted was information. Should she tell him the truth or lie?
“I don’t know. But Declan does.” It wasn’t as if she was throwing her mate under the bus, but he could squash this little bird a lot better than she could.
“You know nothing then?” Marty asked.
“Chelsea, are you okay?” Declan’s voice filtered into her mind, and it took her a moment to remember they could communicate telepathically.
“Marty is at the cabin—and he has a gun pointed at me.”
“Hold on. I’ll be there in five.”
It took a second to remember Marty’s question. “I don’t remember much after you helped me escape from that trap. I remember waking up outside, tied to something. You weren’t there then, but I imagine you would know more than me.”
“Sanditra was there, right?”
“I couldn’t say. It was all a blur, but I do know the next time I woke up, I was inside a house, and Sabrina, or rather Sanditra, was there.”
He paced in front of her. Chelsea lowered her arms and remained still, trying to figure out her next move. She could shift and attack, but he did have a gun.
Marty swung back around to face her. “How did you get away?”
“At the time of my rescue I was unconscious. When I woke up, Declan told me that he and a few others had found me. He never said how. Apparently, several of the dragon shifters took on Sanditra. I think she might be dead.”
Marty’s face seemed to change colors right in front of her, and his gun hand wavered. “Go outside.”
“Why?” Her chest squeezed tight, though she’d have a better chance of attacking him in the open.
His lip curled. “Because I said so.”
With his free hand, he removed a silver collar from his pocket, the same kind that she’d worn when she was captive, and her heart slammed against her rib cage. He dangled it in front of her. There was no way she’d let him take her.
Think, think.
Let me take him, her wolf said. I can do it.
Okay. You have one chance, so get it right.
Chelsea might not need Declan to save her after all. She nodded to the side table. “There are the keys to my car. I doubt a crow can carry a wolf.”
“No, I can’t.”
While fighting wasn’t her thing, she would do whatever it took to save her child. She stepped out onto the porch. Without warning, Marty kicked her square in the back, and she went sailing through the air. Even though she stretched out her arms to brace for impact, she landed face down in the dirt. Anger welled inside her so hard it nearly short-circuited her brain. The fucker would pay for that. Her knees and elbows stung from the abrasion, but other than that she seemed okay.
“Chelsea?” Declan’s thoughts came out strangled. “I’m almost there.”
She didn’t want him to worry. She had everything under control. “I’m good.”
“Get up,” Marty commanded.
She rolled over, trying to catch her breath. Instead of standing, she rose to all fours. Two seconds later, she was in her wolf form. Not wanting Marty to have time to react, she charged. Just as she leapt at him, he fired his gun twice in rapid succession. Hot piercing pain sliced through one leg and then the other, causing her to miss her mark. When she landed two feet from Marty, her legs collapsed, and her snout smashed into a rock. Shit.
Her wolf would heal her, but not in time for her to escape. Fury ripped through her so fast that her body nearly exploded. The next thing she knew, her limbs seemed to be splitting apart, and her head felt like someone had attached two claws on either side of her face and were pulling in opposite directions. When she finally focused, she was eye level with the top of the cabin. What the hell?
Marty dropped his gun and the
silver collar, and then rushed toward the car. Confusion and elation blasted her at once. Holy shit. She’d shifted into a dragon! Chelsea hadn’t commanded the change, but her dragon must have known that the only way to defeat this ass was to change form. Sure, her legs hurt somewhat, but since she was mostly wing, the injuries seemed small.
Extending her claws like she’s seen so many dragons do, she caught Marty before he got in the car. With a quick flap of her wings, she soared upward, not worrying about whether or not she could fly. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted another dragon racing toward her. The smattering of red scales told her it was Declan.
Right before he reached her, Marty slipped from her grasp. He sailed downward and then shifted into his avian form. “Marty just escaped!”
“I’ll stop him,” Declan telepathed.
A huge stream of fire shot from Declan’s mouth, and just like that, Marty was no more. Chelsea was so relieved that she totally forgot to flap her wings. As she tumbled downward, her instincts kicked in, and she beat them once more. After leveling off, she turned around and headed back to the cabin. Declan pulled up alongside her a second later.
She shifted back into her human form and dropped to the ground. Okay, that had been a big mistake. While the bullet holes had closed up, blood covered both of her legs.
“Chelsea!” Declan picked her up and rushed her into the house. “He shot you?”
“Yes, but my wolf, or maybe it was my dragon, kind of healed me.”
He set her down on the sofa. “Not enough. How about shifting into your wolf again? Between the two of us, you’ll be good as new in no time.”
“Can I have a kiss first?”
He grinned. “You can have anything you want. I can’t tell you how scared I was when I felt your pain.”
She reached up and stroked his face. “You are my world.”
“And you are mine. Now I need to heal you, so do as I say.”
Happy that she was safe with Declan, she shifted into her wolf form. He began by placing his hands on her stomach. He’d told her how he’d been able to sense a second life force inside her. Because of this recent event, he was probably making sure the baby was fine.
“Our child took it in stride,” he announced with a smile.
“She’s strong,” Chelsea shot back.
“She? Never mind. I don’t even want to know. She or he, I will be happy the moment our child is born.”
Heat shot through her when he touched her legs, but even her wolf seemed impressed with the way the pain was dissipating. Between the two of them, her strength slowly returned.
Chelsea roused to the smell of coffee, not aware she’d fallen asleep. She shifted and sat up.
“How are you feeling?” Declan asked with a smile.
She glanced down at her legs, and then ran her hands down them to where only two faint marks remained. “It’s remarkable. I know my wolf can heal me, but she isn’t that good.”
He laughed. “You not only have your wolf to help, but your dragon is also very powerful. I just added a touch of magic to make the two work together. Angelique’s spell kept the baby safe, but I would suggest you keep out of harm’s way from now on.”
Declan placed a cup of tea on the table in front of her.
“Tea?”
“I’ve heard it’s safer for the baby.”
She smiled. “Thank you. Just so you know, it wasn’t as if I asked for Marty to stop by.”
“Why did you let him in? You had to have suspected he might be dangerous.”
“I didn’t let him in. Not really.” Chelsea explained about hearing the bird tapping and then how he just flew in.
“Stick told me that Marty was a crow shifter. I’m sorry I forgot to mention it to you.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t sense he was a shifter. I might have opened the door anyway even if I knew.”
Declan nodded. “Did he say what he wanted?”
“He wanted to find Sanditra.”
“Ah.”
She went on to explain the subsequent events. “If you hadn’t fried the bastard when you did, I would have killed him.” This conversation seemed to worry him anew so she changed the subject. “Did you make any progress on finding the shifters?”
Declan leaned back against the sofa. “No, but the men are still looking.”
“What about Stick? What does he say?”
“That he knows nothing about anything, though he admits there were animals that he was treating in the backroom. He claimed the silver collars you noticed were merely monitoring devices so he could tell if any were in respiratory distress.”
“Bullshit. Marty had one of those monitoring devices with him—to use on me. He dropped it when I shifted into my dragon form. What did Stick say happened to these animals?”
“He said all but two recovered from their infection, and that the rest had already been adopted. The two ill ones are with a different vet—one with more sophisticated equipment—or so Stick claims.”
“That’s a total lie. Have you checked with your cousin Anderson? If someone in my family went missing, I’d report it.”
Declan drank his coffee. “I asked, but there haven’t been any new reports of missing men. I would imagine that if Stick, Marty, or Sanditra abducted these men or women, they might have been ones without a family.”
“That would be smart. What are you going to do now?” she asked.
“We’ll regroup in a little while to come up with a plan. In the meantime, I’d like you to consider something.”
He sounded ominous. “What?”
Declan picked up her hands. “I’m worried that Stick might come after you—or send someone else to harm you.”
She sagged. “I’m not staying in the safe house.”
“I know. What would you say, to visiting your parents?”
Joy and adrenaline surged through her. “Really? Of course I’d love to see them, but I’d miss you too much.”
He leaned over and gave her a rather chaste kiss. It was as if he feared she wasn’t ready for more.
“But you’ll go?” he asked.
“I will if you come with me.”
He dragged a knuckle down her cheek. Chelsea knew him well enough to know he would if he could. “How about if I take you there? I’ll stay a few hours, meet the parents, and then head back. I would love to get to know them, but I do have a few people to save here.”
She appreciated his compromise. “How long would I need to stay? Being away from you for a long time is not an option. It’s hard enough not being with you every hour of every day.”
He curled a finger around her hair. “I do love you.”
“And I love you, which is the problem.”
Declan lowered his chin. “Chelsea, stop stalling. I would feel a lot better knowing you were safe.”
She loved safety too. “I do have our child to think about.”
“That’s a yes then?”
Unable to come up with a logical objection, she nodded. “Yes, but I need to shower first. I’m not fit company for anyone.”
“Go ahead, and I’ll help you pack.”
She saluted him and stood, feeling almost one-hundred percent.
Chapter Twenty-Four
While Declan enjoyed meeting Chelsea’s parents, he needed to end this mess with the missing shifters once and for all, so he and Chelsea could get on with their lives. After a tearful goodbye on Chelsea’s part, he left.
Within minutes, he was in the SinCas hallway, striding into the conference room. Finn, Thane, Griffin, Tory, and his dad were seated around the table, coffee in hand, chatting up a storm.
He’d already contacted Finn and told him that Chelsea and he had gone to Earth, and Finn couldn’t have been more pleased.
They looked up. “How did the trip go?” Finn asked.
Declan smiled. “It would be an understatement to say your parents were happy to see her. They also kept asking when you and Kaleena would return for a visit.”
“Soon.”
“Declan?” his father said with a reprimanding tone.
Finn tossed him a quick smile. “We’ll chat later.”
Declan nodded and took a seat. “What do we know?” he asked.
“We canvassed the area for hours,” his father said. “We didn’t find shit.”
Declan snapped his fingers. “I should have thought about this sooner, but I couldn’t detect Sanditra’s shifter signature before or after she shifted.”
“A powerful dark lighter can cloak better than anyone,” his father shot back.
“Could Sanditra have created a spell to dampen their shifter signature to make it harder to find them?” Thane asked.
“It’s possible, but it’s not like we can ask her,” Declan said. “Chelsea told me that she could tell those in the cages were shifters, but I should have asked if their total signature had the strength of one or ten.”
“If Sanditra was the Royals most powerful dark lighter, maybe Stick took them to the castle. For all we know, the Royals paid him for delivery already,” his father said.
“Do we have a clue what the Royals want them for?” Griffin asked.
His dad shrugged. “It could be a way to increase their slave population.”
Fuck. “Who would know?” Declan asked. “Certainly not aunt Teresa, our useless queen. The king keeps her in the dark when it comes to the running of the province.”
“Good point.”
Declan pushed back his chair. “I’m going to find Stick. I’ll convince him it’s in his best interest to talk.”
“We already stopped by the shelter, but he wasn’t there,” Finn said.
Damn. “Unless he figures out a way to get through a portal, he has to be on Tarradon somewhere. I don’t see him abandoning those shifters. He doesn’t seem the type to leave that kind of investment behind. No, he’ll be nearby. Where however is anyone’s guess.”
“Need any help?” Thane asked.
It would be near to impossible to search everywhere. “Sure.”
