by Amelia Jade
She stopped at the first hangar, the bay doors wide open to allow anyone to see inside. The middle of the hangar was empty, a solid concrete floor. The perimeter however was lined with bays that housed the suits themselves, along with a number of other pieces of equipment. She was no expert on the situation, but it looked like each tube-like bay contained racking that would allow the suit to outfit itself in different configurations.
Soldiers moved about, inspecting, working and cursing at themselves, each other, and the equipment. Their banter was good-natured and light, but even Kaitlyn could detect the nervousness frothing just below the surface. These men—and women, she corrected, noting several female forms inside the hangar—were all trained professionals, equipped with some of the most advanced technology known to mankind.
And they were scared.
“Charlie, quit knocking around and get that actuator replaced. We’re out of here in two hours max.”
Kaitlyn’s head followed the noise, her attention drawn not to the speaker’s target, but the speaker herself. A woman. Not only that, but she was in a position of authority as well. Interesting. Without thinking she stepped into the hangar and over to the robot-like metal suit that the woman was working on.
“Whatever you’re selling I don’t have time for,” the woman snapped before Kaitlyn could speak a word.
“Not selling,” she said with a smile. “Nor peddling, offering or begging.”
“Proselytizing?”
Kaitlyn huffed with laughter. “No, absolutely not.”
“You’ve got thirty seconds then. What can I do for you?”
During the entire exchange the woman didn’t look up once, yet she seemed to operate with complete certainty that Kaitlyn wasn’t a superior of some sort.
“I don’t really know,” she admitted, turning her thoughts back to the reason why she’d entered the hangar. “I guess I just find it fascinating to see a woman not only in the combat arms, but operating one of these suits as well.” She glanced up at the nine-foot tall robot head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to waste your time. You’re obviously going somewhere important.”
The woman finally looked up at this, her attention landing on Kaitlyn’s badge, then her face. She stood, and Kaitlyn was forced to look up at her. The soldier was tall, thick in the shoulder and obviously well-muscled. Her eyes were naturally hard, the gunmetal coloring of them giving her a cool stare without effort.
“You’re the one who came in the other day with that d–” She cut off abruptly and looked away.
Kaitlyn blew out air in a hard sigh. “You can say it,” she urged. “Douchebag.”
The woman laughed. “Not entirely what I meant, but close enough sometimes.” There was a brief silence while she grunted and worked a wrench or something on the left calf of her suit. “How’s it going between the two of you anyway?”
Kaitlyn gave an unseen frown before answering. “How the hell did you know that?” She figured there was no harm in being truthful. Whatever there had been going on between her and Aric was over now anyway. She could be open about it.
“Women’s intuition?” the woman replied carefully.
She laughed and pointed at the metal monstrosity. “I think your intuition is a little bit different from mine if you have the tits to operate this thing and take it into battle.”
The woman stood up and looked at Kaitlyn for a moment. “Maybe,” she said in the softest voice yet. Then she stuck out her hand. “Carla Giannone.”
Surprised by the sudden familiarity, Kaitlyn hesitated for a moment before responding in kind. “Kaitlyn Harver. And you really are one of the battlesuit operators?”
Carla grinned. “That’s a pretty bland way of saying that I’m the second-in-command of the Steel Scales.”
“The what?” Kaitlyn frowned.
Carla grimaced like she’d bitten into a sour orange. “We’re the best of the best. We train for all sorts of, um, weird scenarios.”
They were interrupted by the approach of another tall man. He rivaled both Aric and Kallore in height, with his general thickness halfway between the two. Long wavy hair of bronzed blond fell down the sides of his head, at odds with the low fade at the sides. Kaitlyn glanced at him, eyes of topaz focused entirely on Carla. He strode right up to her, gave her a passionate kiss, and then turned to Kaitlyn with a nod.
“Kaitlyn, this is Thorne, my, um, partner.”
Thorne looked her up and down briefly, evaluating, not checking her out. “Welcome aboard. It’s good to have another bonded, or soon to be I guess, bonded pair around.”
Another what? Bonded pair? “What do you mean?”
Thorne smiled. “Carla, how are things looking? We’ve got our orders and we’re moving out ASAP. The longer we wait the bigger the head start this thing has.”
“Half an hour if Charlie can get his shit together.”
“I’ll be ready!” a voice sang from across the hangar.
Around her more bodies were filing in now, including a handful of men who looked like Thorne and the others. Kaitlyn couldn’t help but wonder what it was with tall muscular men and this military base. She might not have noticed it, except they were all exceptionally good-looking as well. Beautiful beyond normal standards, each in their own way. It almost wasn’t fair.
“Sorry, we need to go,” Carla said. “I’ll see you around. Have fun.”
“Huh? Have fun with what? And what did you mean by bonded pair?” she asked, but Carla ignored her, climbing inside her armored suit and powering it up.
Kaitlyn stepped backward into the middle of the hangar as the suits came alive around her. As she skittered out of the building her eyes were drawn to the center of the concrete floor. In its middle was a black painted emblem of a huge armored suit. In one hand it held an equally large gun of some sort, but in the other it wielded a shield that looked straight out of a medieval era. Most ridiculously however, was the even larger outline of the creature it seemingly rode into battle.
A dragon.
What an interesting mascot for a unit of robotic battlesuits. Kaitlyn determined then that she would never understand soldiers. They were just too foreign to her way of thinking.
She cleared out of the hangar, leaving the soldiers to do whatever it is they had to do, and continued her walk, winding her way through the various areas until she came to the central hub of the base. All of it was centered around a giant hole in the mountainside that led deeper into the earth.
Soldiers came and went, as did others wearing what appeared to be scientific equipment. None of them appeared in a hurry, though they didn’t linger either. Curious about what was going on, she walked up to the lip of the tunnel. A few soldiers eyed her, but when they saw her badge she was let through until she stood on the very edge, looking down the smooth slope.
What was down there? It didn’t appear dangerous, and she had the clearance for it obviously, or someone would have stopped her. Turning she looked behind her, wondering if anyone would stop her. A familiar figure caught her eye, talking to yet another gorgeous giant.
Kaitlyn wasn’t ready to deal with Aric yet, and so she made up her mind and headed down into the tunnel, eager to see where it led, but more importantly, anxious to get away from Aric.
Chapter Nineteen
Aric
“Give her some space.”
Aric fumed at the other shifter. He’d made it a mission to get to know as many of them as possible when he arrived. Corde was one of the few that he didn’t know very well, having only run across him once. Another crimson dragon had come across a fuming Aric and asked him what was wrong.
The issue of his mate had come up, and he’d detailed how she’d just stormed away from him after he told her they had to stay in the US for longer than originally planned, giving him no reason for her sudden outburst.
“No,” he growled. “She is my mate, and I need to know what I did to bother her. Is there something awaiting us back in Europe that I’m unaware of? Some
thing urgent? I could send her home I guess if it’s really that big of an issue. Yet she never mentioned anything like that. There was no rational comment from her at all. Just anger.”
Corde shrugged. “Women, especially human women, can be unpredictable at times. I thought my mate despised me when she first met me. Turns out she did, but she still came around because I gave her time and space.”
Aric gave him a dry look that said he didn’t believe a word of it.
“All I’m saying is don’t crowd her.”
“Thank you, but I’m not. I just need an answer so I can figure out how to fix everything. I wasn’t trying to piss her off. I don’t get it.”
Why was she so upset about spending more time here? Once the reinforcements arrived later that day, assuming they left shortly after getting his message, then they could even explore the nearby town. Barton City, he thought he remembered it was called. Then when the other dragons returned they could go sightseeing elsewhere.
She was his mate and he wanted to spoil her like that. But in order for that to happen, she needed to not be mad at him for some unknown reason.
He clapped Corde on the shoulder in thanks, and then stepped around him, intent on resuming his pursuit of Kaitlyn. He’d almost caught up to her outside the Steel Scales barracks, but she was just ahead of him. Then Corde had appeared and that had delayed him yet again.
Now he just needed to…Aric came to a halt. She was gone. His eyes darted left and right. Just a minute ago she’d been right there. His eyes drifted toward the spot, and suddenly he realized where she’d gone.
Down the tunnel.
How had they let her do that, he wondered. She didn’t know about dragons or Outsiders or any of the real reasons behind the base’s existence. If she made it to the bottom before someone stopped her, then he would be forced to reveal to her the truth of it all before she was ready.
Aric’s steps lengthened. He sniffed the air near the entrance, confirming his fears that she had entered the tunnel. Lilac and wild daisies combined with a hint of fruity fragrance was all the indicator he needed to know she was down there. The only question left was whether or not she had too big of a lead for him to stop her before she reached the bottom.
He didn’t sprint, not wishing to cause alarm, but instead jogged at a quick pace, using gravity to help propel him down the slope faster than normal.
Why couldn’t she have just told him what was bothering her? No more secrets—just lay it on the line. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with explaining to her the realities of dragons and alien creatures and more.
Aric was well aware of the irony of his statement about no secrets, while still concealing the fact he could shapeshift into a sixty-foot-long dragon that could fly and breathe lightning. It was a completely different situation in his eyes however, and one that he wanted to rectify sooner rather than later.
He still hadn’t caught up to her by the time the slope began to level out. His fears were confirmed when he spied a diminutive form sandwiched between two tall men in military garb. They weren’t touching her, but it was obvious from the stance of all parties involved that she was being detained.
“What is going on here?” he asked, stepping closer.
Kaitlyn spun at hearing his voice. “Aric!” She sounded impatient, but her eyes, normally vibrant and active, were subdued.
She was scared.
The one soldier recognized Aric and let down his guard as the dragon shifter approached. “This woman has falsified her security clearance.”
Aric frowned. “What are you talking about? She has D1 clearance just like me.”
The soldier shook his head. “That’s impossible, sir.”
“Aric, what is that?” Kaitlyn interrupted, lifting a finger toward the portal.
“I’ll explain later,” he said.
“You will do no such thing,” the soldier said, reverting to a neutral stance toward him. “This woman could be a spy. Anyone with D1 clearance would not have reacted like she did upon arrival in the cavern area,” the guard stated. “Someone is lying here.”
He spoke into a communicator pinned to his shoulder that Aric hadn’t noticed at first. “Until that can be resolved I’m going to have to ask both of you two accompany me.” He gave Aric a knowing look. “I would appreciate it if you would do so without violence, but if you don’t…”
The threat was fulfilled as four battlesuits detached themselves from posts inside the cavern and marched over toward the little group, ready to back up the guard’s orders with force if necessary.
“You don’t need to do this,” he insisted, eyeing the mountains of metal, recalling his initial introduction to them. With his dragon under control it would be a different fight entirely, but these soldiers trained against dragons. They were ready for them, he knew that, with the suits constructed in a way that made them just as much a threat when he was in human form. “I can handle it from here. You have my word.”
“Aric, what the hell is going on here?” Kaitlyn asked, interrupting everything. “What are Outsiders? And what is that thing over there?”
He frowned. She must have overheard someone in the cavern talking. That was the only way he could imagine she’d heard the term Outsiders.
“Let her go at least, will you?” he asked, gesturing to where the unarmored guards were holding on to Kaitlyn’s upper arm, preventing her from running.
After a moment of thought the lead guard seemed to agree that wouldn’t be a problem. They let go. Kaitlyn wrenched herself away from them at the same time, rubbing her arms lightly while glaring at the guards.
“Now—” he said, attempting to get them away from the guards.
Kaitlyn interrupted him, however, leveling an accusatory finger in his direction and speaking without hesitation.
“Are there such things as dragons?”
Chapter Twenty
Kaitlyn
When he didn’t immediately answer her question, Kaitlyn became more positive than ever that she wasn’t hallucinating, that she hadn’t misheard the others speaking when she’d first entered the massive cavern. Nor had she imagined what was on the viewing screen on the banks of equipment just to the left of the opening, where she’d stood unobtrusively for a solid two or three minutes before her mouth had been unable to stay silent, gasping in shock at it all.
A battle had been fought here, and recently. She could smell the smoke in the air still, see the burns and gouges on the floor, and even on the walls. Giant talons had marked out a part of the wall, scratched by something definitely nonhuman.
The technicians had been talking about something called Outsiders, and she got the distinct impression they weren’t referring to people who did or did not have access to the base itself. There was something else going on here. There was no immediate sense of danger, so she’d crept closer to the monitor that several scientists had been clustered around, peering at it from the side until she’d gotten her first solid glimpse at the scene.
A massive red dragon had been on the screen, in the very cavern she now set foot in. It was fighting some sort of black…thing. It had whirled around, breathing fire, stomping on its attackers with its feet, and even batted one out of midair with its tail. Kaitlyn had watched in silence, mouth agape as the mythical creature leveled the playing field while the battlesuited humans moved in and finished off the job.
It was only when a blast of energy had arced through the shimmering rectangle that took up most of the cavern floor that she’d lost her cover. The noise had startled her and she’d gasped, taking a step backward. Someone had turned at the noise. Not recognizing her they’d called for guards.
That was when Aric had shown up. Despite how things had been left between them he’d immediately gone into rescue mode, coming at the guards in an attempt to get them to let her go. She felt bad tossing him such a loaded question, but now seemed like the best time to get an answer out of him.
The nearest suit stepped up next to Aric. “Don
’t answer that question,” the guard inside the armor said, stopping Aric as he opened his mouth.
Kaitlyn felt the hairs on her arms and neck stand on end as Aric turned to face the battlesuit. He placed a hand on the unit’s torso and her eyes bugged out as electricity surged up and down the humanoid form. Circuits blew and the battlesuit staggered before going dark and toppling over entirely.
Aric stood tall, glaring at the other units, daring any of them to come forward. “I will handle this situation. None of you are needed. You have my word on that. If you doubt it, you’re more than welcome to go bother Colonel Mara. None of you are in my chain of command, but I suspect she will not appreciate the interruption and will respond the way I wish I could.”
What the hell was going on? The command and authority that Aric now spoke with was yet again unlike anything she’d ever heard from him before. His body language and attitude expected obedience from those around him, and she watched in astonishment as he got it. The lead guard, the one who had first seized her, looked back and forth between her, Aric, and then over at the downed suit.
“Get him out of here,” he said, and the other battlesuits picked up their lame comrade and departed. The guard lingered for a few seconds longer. “Don’t make me regret this,” he said, his words directed at Aric. Then he too was gone.
“Well?” she asked impatiently, crossing her arms, still not having forgiven him from earlier.
“Well what?”
“What the hell is going on here? Are dragons real? I saw the video, but it could have been CGI.”
Aric stared back at her, his eyes the calm in the middle of the storm that was the rest of his face. “What if they are?” he asked. “How would you react?”
Something flickered in her head. An idea. Going out on a limb, she tossed another question his way. “Are you a dragon?”
