Pet Rescue Panther

by Zoe Chant

  Ben shook his head. "Not really. I think he's been making a little more of an effort lately, but he still never lets me forget what a disappointment I am."

  "Could he help us against Reive?"

  "No," Ben said flatly.

  "Melody did."

  "I know, and she's going to be in awful trouble with Dad because of it. Everything I've told you about draconic honor is stuff Dad taught me. He really takes it seriously, and he tried to impress on us to take it seriously too."

  "Yes, but this is life and death! All that is fine, but surely if your life is literally in danger, he'll change his mind—"

  "He won't," Ben said simply. "A dragon like my dad won't interfere in another dragon's business. He'd let me die rather than break his code of honor."

  Tessa looked up at him. There was no denying the flat certainty in his gaze ... or the veiled pain. All her life, she had wished she'd been able to know her parents, but if this was what having parents was like, suddenly she wondered if she might not be better off as she was.

  Especially if her parents had done something so terrible that someone had sent dragons after her because of it ...

  A sharp knock at the door made her jump. Tessa opened her mouth, but Ben raised a hand. He got quietly out of bed, retrieved his gun from under the pillow, and went to the door as the knock came again. It was followed an instant later by a male voice. "Keegan, if you're in there, I've got your shit."

  "Derek," Ben said on a sigh, and unlocked the door.

  Tessa's first impression, especially sitting on the floor, was: Wow, he's HUGE. Ben wasn't a small guy, but Derek was much taller and broader—not a speck of fat on him, just solid muscle, his wide shoulders straining at the T-shirt he wore with a truck-stop logo on it. His hair was buzzed off, and she glimpsed tattoos peeking out from under the T-shirt sleeves.

  "Well, this is a turnaround from the usual state of things," Derek remarked, sounding amused. "You know, you naked and covered in blood, me having to fetch and carry—"

  "Just shut up and give me some pants, asshole."

  Derek grinned and shoved a duffel into Ben's arms. "There you go. The clothes are mine, so they're gonna be a little big on you, but it's better than running around bare-ass naked. And—" He held up a bag with a burger chain restaurant logo on it. "Brought you some meat."

  "Derek, I could kiss you." The duffel gripped to his chest, Ben grabbed the bag with his free hand.

  "No thanks, I'll pass. And on that topic, Gaby had me throw in some of her things too, since you said there was a woman with you." Derek turned to give Tessa a grin, flashing very white teeth. "Aren't you gonna introduce me? Sorry you have to deal with this jerkass and his lack of manners, lady."

  "I was getting to that," Ben said through a mouthful; he already had the wrapper off a burger and had crammed a third of it into his mouth. "Tessa, this rude asshole is my friend Derek Ruger. Derek, this is my mate, Tessa."

  Derek's eyebrows went up. "No shit? You didn't mention that part."

  Tessa scrambled to her feet, realized she was holding a kitten, and put it quickly on the bed so she could hold out a hand. "Hi. It's nice to meet you. Thanks so much for helping us."

  Derek clasped her hand in his. "Pleasure's all mine."

  "Quit flirting with my mate, Ruger," Ben said as he set the duffel on the bed.

  Derek laughed. "I've got a mate of my own at home, and a six-months-along bun in the oven. I just think she deserves some recognition for putting up with you."

  Their easy rapport made Tessa feel shy. She used to think that she and Melody had a friendship like this, but now she was starting to think she'd never known Melody at all. She sat on the end of the bed and picked up a kitten to comfort herself while she watched Ben getting dressed in the loose workout clothes Derek had brought him.

  "You want to bandage those before you bleed all over my best sweatshirt?" Derek asked. "I brought first-aid supplies."

  Ben shook his head. "No, it'll heal up better if I don't cover it. It's partway there already. I just need protein and calories to finish the healing process." He started to unwrap another burger, paused, and held it out to Tessa. "Here. You haven't had anything yet."

  "Thanks." She was able to muster up a smile for him, and set the kitten aside as she took the burger. She'd never had trouble hiding her feelings from anyone before, but Ben looked at her with a soft gaze that seemed to see right through her.

  "Are you okay?" he asked.

  Derek slapped him on his uninjured shoulder, making him wince. "Of course she's not okay, nitwit. There's a dragon hunting her. Seriously. What's your plan?"

  "Don't really have one yet." With a last, concerned glance at Tessa, Ben sat on the edge of the bed and stiffly, one foot at a time, leaned forward to pull on socks. "The cabin's compromised. I'm not entirely sure how he found us."

  "Ghost found me and Gaby at the cabin last year, too. Apparently," Derek said, reaching into the bag for a burger of his own, "your safehouse isn't as safe as you think it is."

  "Ghost bugged your car, which is why I took special care to sweep mine. I really don't know how this guy tracked us down. The cabin's not in my name, and the only people who know about it are people who would never give me away." He turned, frowning, to look toward Tessa.

  "What?" she said, startled. "You don't think I did something, do you?"

  "No, of course not. I'd never think that. But do you mind if I see your necklace again?"

  "Um ... I guess so." She fished it out of her T-shirt and this time slipped the chain over her head. It was still warm from her skin as she placed it gently in Ben's hand. She had to force herself to let go; she'd rarely taken it off since she'd opened the box and found it there, let alone given it to someone else.

  "Huh." Derek leaned over to get a better look as Ben studied it. "What's that?"

  "It's just a cheap crystal that my mother left me," Tessa said, feeling self-conscious. The necklace meant a great deal to her, but it was worthless to anyone else, at least as far as she knew. Her neck felt cool and bare without the chain around it.

  "I'm starting to wonder about that." Ben held it up, twining the chain through his fingers. "Dragons always know where every piece of their hoard is located. At least that's what I've been told. Tessa, is there any chance this could have come from a dragon's hoard?"

  "How would my parents get their hands on something from a dragon's hoard?"

  "Could they have stolen it?" Derek asked.

  Tessa wanted to laugh, but she couldn't manage it. "My parents weren't thieves!"

  "How do you know?"

  "Because they just ... weren't!" She fretfully tore off pieces of her hamburger bun. "I don't know much about them, I was only a few years old when they died, but my dad was some kind of salesman and my mom was a nurse. They were just ordinary people. They weren't thieves or spies or anything special."

  "Maybe they didn't steal it," Derek suggested. "Maybe they found it."

  Tessa gave him a flat look. "My parents just accidentally found something from a dragon's hoard. And put it in a safe deposit box for me."

  "Hey," Derek said, "I'm just throwing ideas out there." He took a bite of his burger.

  "It's not likely," Ben said. He turned the crystal over in his fingers. "I still think this might be how Reive found us, though. Unless you have anything else on you that might have been used to locate you."

  Tessa shook her head. "Unless he visited my apartment and planted a tracking device in my suitcase."

  "I didn't think of that," Ben said.

  "I was joking!"

  Ben leaned forward. "Tessa, they're obviously very committed to finding you. There's no telling what they'll be willing to do. Would you consider getting rid of the necklace?"

  Tessa snatched it out of his hand, a surge of rage rushing through her. "No! It's mine!"

  Ben and Derek exchanged a look, and Tessa felt her rage draining away as quickly as it had come. She opened her fingers to find she'd clench
ed her hand so tightly that the edges of the crystal had left red imprints in her skin.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "I just can't stand the idea of not having it. It was my parents'. You probably don't understand how much that means to me, if you aren't close to yours. But it's all I have left."

  "I know it's important to you," Ben said. "But ..." He reached out. "Can I hold it again?"

  Tessa hesitated.

  "I'm not going to take it away. I just want to hold it. I've never seen you like this about anything else."

  "That's because I don't have anything else that means this much to me." She had an even harder time letting go this time. She trusted Ben, but there was still a tiny part of her that was irrationally afraid he'd take the necklace away for good.

  "But you've only had this for two weeks, you said?"

  "Two weeks, two days, it doesn't matter. It's from my parents. It's not special other than that."

  "I'm not at all convinced that's true." Ben held the crystal up to the light. "I think there's something very special about this. I just don't know what. We need to show it to another dragon, Melody if we can find her, or—I hate to say this—my dad if we can't."

  Tessa barely heard the last part; she'd almost forgotten that they'd last seen Melody engaged in battle with a much bigger dragon. "I really hope Melody's all right. It won't give away our location if we call her, will it?"

  "I'm not going to worry about that," Ben said, making her realize he was just as worried as she was. "Do you want to call her? I think it might be better coming from you than me, in case she thinks I'm on Dad's side. Or do you have your phone?"

  Tessa nodded. "It's in my pocket. May I have my necklace back? You said you weren't going to keep it."

  Ben handed it back, with visible reluctance.

  "I don't think it's hurting her in any way," Derek said quietly. "I mean, she looks fine."

  "Maybe not, but it's definitely got its hooks in her somehow."

  "You guys are imagining things," Tessa snapped. "It's my necklace. If there was anything magic about it, I'd know."

  She tried calling Melody, but the call went to voicemail, so she sent a text: Mel, thanks for the save, but we're worried! I'm with Ben. Call me.

  "Well, I guess that settles it." Ben sighed and swung his legs off the bed. "I need to take you to see Dad."

  "Is your dad even going to let me in?" Tessa asked. "From everything you've said, about how he doesn't want to get involved—and if it's possible for them to track me somehow, we'll be getting him involved whether he wants it or not—"

  "I don't care." Ben's eyes were hard as steel, and just a few shades darker. "You're my mate. I'm not giving him a choice about it."

  Tessa set aside the other half of her burger; she'd lost her appetite. Two of the kittens converged on it. She caught them and held them in her lap, to their obvious displeasure.

  They're hungry, she thought. I can give them some of my leftover burger for now, but what they really need is to be taken somewhere I can give them proper food and a litterbox.

  "How do you suppose your dad feels about cats?" she asked Ben.

  The grin that spread slowly across Ben's face was a wicked one. "I don't know, but I can't wait to find out."

  Chapter Eleven

  It had been a long time since Ben had traveled to his father's lair, but as they drove deeper into the mountains, down smaller and smaller roads, he was unsurprised to find out that he still vividly remembered the way. He might be only half dragon, and not enough to have gotten the dragon-shifting part, but certain things were stamped into his DNA. His dad was the head of their clan, and just as dragons could always find their hoards, a part of them would always yearn, like a compass needle pointing north, for home and clan.

  Ben thought about his collection of exotic weapons back home. He didn't really think of it as a hoard, and he didn't seem to have the same quasi-mystical attachment to it that true dragons did to their hoards. But he still liked collecting things. And all his years of traveling around the world had left him feeling unpleasantly rootless, a feeling that hadn't gone away until he settled down again.

  Some part of him was a dragon and would always be.

  "I think I liked the mountains around your cabin better," Tessa said. They were driving up a ravine with walls of bare rock on either side that seemed to lean over the road. The sun was already low enough that the road was in shadow. "They're ... I don't know. Friendlier, somehow."

  "So do I. But we won't be here for very long."

  Assuming they were allowed to stay at all. Ben thought it was flattering Tessa had paid enough attention to the things he'd said about dragons, and about his dad, to grasp the nature of the problem. Her mere presence in his father's lair would suggest that Darius Keegan was trying to hide her from Reive's clan, possibly drawing them into all-out clan warfare. Darius was definitely not going to be happy about it.

  But Ben didn't plan to give him a choice. He and Tessa were a package deal now. It was both of them, or neither.

  He tried not to think about the possibility that his dad might go for the second option.

  "Hey, Ben," Tessa said.

  Ben glanced over at her. She'd changed into a pink sweatshirt from the bag of clothes Derek had brought them; it looked good on her. "Yeah?"

  "Does Melody have a hoard?"

  Melody still hadn't texted them back. Ben was trying very hard not to think about the implications. "Sure she does," he said. "She's a dragon. They all do."

  "But I've been over to her apartment loads of times, and I never saw any sign of anything like that."

  Ben smiled. "What were you expecting to see?"

  "Well ... gold, and jewels? That kind of thing."

  "All hoards are different," Ben said. "It's not about money. Dragons hoard the things they value. What does Melody like best, in all the world? What's her apartment full of?"

  Tessa stared at him. A small furrow appeared between her brows. "Books?"

  "Yep."

  "She ... hoards books?"

  "Yeah, you've been to her apartment, so you know what it looks like, right? Bookshelves all over the place."

  "Wow," Tessa murmured. "What about your dad?"

  "Ah. My dad's more of what you might call a traditional dragon. Gold and jewels and that kind of thing are exactly in his wheelhouse."

  The car entered a tunnel; the world around them went black except for a row of lights guiding their way. "We're not going to a cave, are we?" Tessa asked nervously.

  "It's a very tastefully appointed cave."

  "You're joking, right?"

  They came out of the tunnel and the setting sun lanced them both in the eyes. Tessa put up a hand to block it, and Ben slipped on a pair of sunglasses. "See for yourself," he said, and pointed.

  They'd driven into a steep-sided valley, angled east-west and therefore collecting as much of the morning and evening sun as possible. His father's mansion was built high on the valley wall, perched at the top of a forbidding wall of rock. It was made of the same gray stone as the mountains, with red roofs that gleamed in the setting sun.

  "So ... not a cave."

  "No, not a cave. Though there is an extensive basement and wine cellar."

  The road crossed the valley on a narrow bridge. For a few moments, a sunset-tinted lake glinted under them, dotted with small boats throwing dark reflections into its glasslike surface. Along the lakeshore, scattered lights glowed warmly at them through the gathering dusk.

  "What's the economy here based on?" Tessa asked.

  "Tourism, mostly. Lots of vacation homes and a few high-end hunting lodges. Everyone around here knows my dad as a reclusive billionaire. I guess they aren't wrong; they just don't know all the details."

  Ben spoke to cover his own nervousness. He felt his panther growing restless inside his chest, reacting with a cat's instinctive unease at the presence of a larger, fiercer predator. Knowing intellectually that his father wouldn't hurt them (well, probably n
ot) did little to calm the beast inside him.

  The road forked, one branch going down to the lakeside and the small town near the bridge, the other switchbacking up the steep side of the valley toward his dad's estate. Ben drove past a series of PRIVATE PROPERTY - NO TRESPASSING signs.

  "This must be fun in the winter," Tessa remarked as Ben's car labored up an especially steep section of road.

  "Not if you fly in and out."

  Tessa glanced down into the valley. "I thought you said they—dragons—don't want to be discovered. Wouldn't people see?"

  "Huh? ... oh, I see. No, he has a helipad and a private airstrip up there. I meant flying in the normal way."

  Tessa gave a small, embarrassed laugh. "Oh."

  "But you're not entirely wrong," Ben added. "The mountains behind my dad's estate are mostly wild land. My dad and my other dragon relatives shift and go hunting back there. I'd suggest not going outside at night."

  "They wouldn't—"

  "Hunt a human, no, of course not. Ethical considerations aside, their code of honor absolutely forbids it. But a human and a deer could look pretty similar from the air under a waning moon. So just ... stick to the house and gardens unless you have permission to leave."

  Tessa shivered and nervously touched her parents' necklace through her sweatshirt. "If you're trying to be comforting, let me tell you, it's not working."

  Nice going, Ben's panther snarled at him. I can smell how upset she is; can't you? The panther was still on edge from proximity to the dragons' lair; Ben caught a flash of sharp, bared white teeth at the edge of his mind's eye.

  His panther didn't have to lecture him; he felt guilty enough as it was. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, reaching out to clasp his hand over Tessa's. She turned her hand over and laced her icy fingers through his. "It's going to be okay—really, it is. I know your impression of dragons so far is probably pretty negative, but they're really just people, like any other people. And I'll be with you. I'm not going to let them hurt you."

  This last statement was backed up by his panther's growl underneath his words. He wasn't sure if Tessa could hear it, but her fingers squeezed his tighter, and it felt as if her hand had warmed up somewhat.