Mutts Like Me

by Keri Armstrong

  “What’s in it for me? To help you save your friends.” He emphasized the words and folded his arms across his chest, his muscles becoming more pronounced.

  He really was extremely hot, no pun intended. Could almost make a girl consider...

  No, no, no. Not considering. Nope. No way.

  “Um, good karma?” I said quickly, silently praying he hadn’t heard those last thoughts.

  He chuckled, his gold, almond-shaped eyes crinkling at the corners as I felt myself blush, hard.

  “I will help you,” he said cheerfully. “And prove to be worthy to be your mate.”

  Wait, what? There were so many things wrong with that statement I didn’t know how to respond.

  That was a novelty for me, and he did just agree to help.

  Again, not giving me a chance to respond, he grabbed me, shifted, jeans exploding apart, and started soaring upward. He held me close to his beating heart, my cheek pressed against his warm, softer underbody.

  I will help you wolf, but you’ll need to present your case in front of the elders to convince the others.

  We went through a hole that I hadn’t noticed, and didn’t look big enough for us to fit but luckily, we did. It opened into the rim of a larger space and we shot forward before spiraling downward. We flew up and down, speeding through a lot through narrow tunnels like the greatest roller-coaster ride ever.

  Not.

  And by the way, my name is Sunjoo.

  Huh? Now, he’s introducing himself?

  ‘I would say nice to meet you, but I’m still debating on that one,’ I projected at him, gritting my teeth.

  He laughed.

  ‘And um, Marti, here.’

  His grip tightened ever so slightly as we started drifting downward.

  I am glad to meet you, Marti.

  We landed more gracefully this time but he was still holding me. Because he shifted back, I tried really hard not to look anywhere except his eyes.

  And maybe failed.

  He chuckled.

  ‘I really hate dragons,’ I thought clearly.

  Sunjoo pouted and I smirked.

  We were standing in a vast damp chamber, and I could hear the other dragons approaching with talons scraping the earth.

  It was the perfect setting for a horror movie.

  “I really hope you’ll survive this, wolf,” he said, pushing me to the center of the cave.

  He shifted back to his dragon form but stayed close by. That made me feel somewhat better. Somehow.

  Everywhere around me were dragons. And they all regarded me with some degree of malice, distrust, or just as plain food.

  I gulped. If I’d thought Sunjoo was big, some of these guys were massive. I just hoped they would listen to me.

  What is this, Sunjoo?

  A voice asked in my head, even though it wasn’t precisely meant for me. This telepathy thing sucked ass.

  You’ve been out again.

  Guilty, he replied but didn’t sound guilty at all.

  I got a feeling he liked being a rebel.

  Is it an offering? More voices joined in.

  Not pure blood.

  A wolf.

  I could almost feel the disdain and disgust that traveled with that last thought. They all started to circle me, assessing, projecting their thoughts, comments, and questions, until I felt like I was standing inside of a beehive.

  She’s innocent at least.

  All the while I stood still, not moving a muscle. It was the hardest thing I had to do in my entire life, but I didn’t want to trigger any chase instincts and end up as dragon food. Not while wearing my best boots.

  I could swear one of them rolled his eyes at me. Another just looked hungry.

  Mmm, wolf meat.

  ‘Yuck. You are all disgusting,’ I thought at them.

  Some of them huffed a little and jerked their tails in annoyance.

  ‘Well, if you didn’t like what you’re hearing, maybe you should all stop listening!’ I screamed in my head.

  Sunjoo flinched beside me. Enough, he warned.

  “They started it,” I mumbled.

  Still, he was probably right. I was there to ask for a favor. Antagonizing them wasn’t the best course of action.

  Just eat her. The biggest one boomed, twitching with his tail like he’d had enough of this charade. His jaw snapped inches away from my face.

  Sunjoo shifted instantly and wrapped his own tail around me, protectively. But I want her, he whined.

  That was it. I pounded against his flesh with my fists, forcing him to let me go. He did.

  “I am not food, and I am not some rent-a-bride, you perverts. I came here because I need your help.”

  Every pair of eyes looked at me in utter shock. I guessed they weren’t used someone speaking to them in that way.

  Right. Um… And I sometimes speak before I think.

  “Hello,” I waved. “My name is Marti.”

  Sunjoo moved back in front of me. The Awakened are back in full force.

  That put a pause on Dragon Radio for a second.

  I used that moment to carry on. “What Sunjoo said is true, they are back and have resumed their experiments. Some of my friends were captured because they resisted. We desperately need your help to get them back.” I used my most diplomatic voice, channeling the spirits of every Miss Universe I could muster.

  The one that said I should be eaten twitched his tail again, stepping closer to me. I could smell his breath and nearly gagged. He clearly wasn’t a big fan of flossing.

  The events you speak of are not our concerns. We live beyond human squabbles.

  A lot of the other voiced agreed.

  Squabbles? I greeted my teeth. It was hard to be civilized around this crowd.

  “What about Clara?” I countered. “Do you not care what happens to her, because she was captured as well.”

  Clara? Our Clara?

  How does she know her?

  Where is she?

  Again, someone sniffed at me, this time from behind and I stepped closer to Sunjoo out of instinct, however misguided it might have been.

  She speaks the truth. I can smell Clara, came a new voice.

  It doesn’t matter, the dominant voice was insistent. She made her choice.

  But the new voice cut through. I do not agree.

  Nor do I. Clara is still one of us. Another voice cut through.

  Sunjoo seemed to grow taller beside me.

  My parents, he explained.

  The two dragons came from behind to stand closer to me and Sunjoo. One of them lowered his head to look at me.

  We will help you, young one, he projected.

  That didn’t sit well with the rest of them.

  Don’t be a fool!

  Fool? For doing the right thing?

  Yes, fool. They do not matter. Only the weyr does.

  We cannot just bury ourselves, deep in the ground, and ignore what is happening to the outside world.

  That is our way. We stay together and stay here.

  I felt the murmur of agreement that washed through them.

  “You are just a bunch of cowards, hiding in your caves. It’s pathetic. Well, I hope it crumbles on top of your heads,” I yelled.

  Sunjoo looked alarmed but I was beyond reason.

  “And you call yourselves ‘mighty dragons’. You’re just a bunch of whiney bitches and oversized lizards.”

  Okaayyy… maybe I went too far. That was the second time that day I pissed off a dragon. Or more precisely, dragons. Plural.

  Great job, Marti.

  There was a lot of steam coming from a lot of nostrils and Sunjoo snatched me out of there in the nick of time before I became barbecue.

  A couple of fireballs passed over our heads as we flew out of there to safety.

  “That went well,” I breathed out.

  He chuckled. I like you my little wolf. You are fun to be around.

  And that is how Sunjoo, his parents and I returned t
o the spot from where he’d kidnapped me.

  My soon-to-be-dead friends were still there looking for me, and the dragons stayed behind while I went to have a little chat with them. That is, pretty much scream at them the whole time.

  “Marti, thank god.” Caleb was visibly relieved when I approached.

  Foolish guy.

  “All of you are in deep shit, for forgetting to mention, oh, all those important bits of information about human sacrifices and virgin brides, before kicking me to a fricking dragon’s lair.”

  Two of them had the decency to look ashamed. One did not.

  Laurent shrugged. “I thought they would never go for it because you’re a wolf.”

  I wanted to punch him in the face. But it was a really pretty face; I didn’t want to mess it up. Maybe kick in the groin?

  “Yeah, they made it pretty clear how much they hated my guts. To mix with them, I mean. They were not so picky about having me for lunch. Although, I did call them a bunch of whiny bitches…”

  They all gawked at me.

  Sunjoo moved forward a few steps, as if he debated whether he should intervene.

  He was completely naked again, of course, and I wanted to bang my head against a tree.

  Laurent saw that, too. “But apparently, you are still engaged,” he deadpanned.

  Someone snickered but I growled, “Shut up!” and all noise stopped.

  “I apologize, Marti, but it looks like you did okay,” Laurent added after a while.

  I shrugged, irritated, but conceded that he had a point. “Three dragons are better than none, I guess.”

  Caleb surprised me with a hug. “Yeah, they are.”

  I allowed it for a fraction of a second before shrugging him off when Sunjoo started to frown. He and I so needed to have another serious chat about this not happening wedding business.

  Meanwhile, I turned my attention back to the group. “So, I did my part. Now what?”

  “Let’s have a chat with our new allies, and come up with a viable plan to rescue everybody,” Laurent said, walking toward the dragons. Only Sunjoo was in human form, his parents refused.

  What Laurent said sounded so easy, simple even, but life never worked that way. Mine never did, at any rate.

  “Um, can you please find some clothes for him first?”

  Now they all openly laughed at me. “Sure thing. Anything for you Marti,” Caleb said giving me a final squeeze.

  I didn’t care if they all thought I was prudish. Continuing to be faced with a naked Sunjoo was more than I could handle right now.

  A couple of scorched trees later, we finally reached an agreement.

  But my part in the story was pretty vague.

  “Marti, we think you should sit this one out,” Lauren said when I openly asked about it.

  Oh hell no, not this crap again. Why did everyone want to keep me in the corner? I could contribute, damn it.

  “You try to keep me away, and I’ll find a way to join you anyway,” I warned.

  “And probably die in the process,” Anjelica mumbled.

  “Look, Marti, it just makes more sense. You can’t even shift right now,” Caleb argued.

  What the fresh hell?

  “What are you talking about? Of course, I can...” I frowned then started to panic. Something was wrong with me. I couldn’t find my wolf!

  “The spell we put on you,” Anjelica started explaining when she saw me freaking out. “To cloak you. Prevents you from shifting.”

  I remained silent for a moment. Maybe we could use that to our advantage.

  “Let my wolf come with us, I will protect her.” Sunjoo winked at me and I wanted to kick him. Really hard.

  Don’t.

  I turned back to Laurent. “I need to go,” I pleaded. “Toshio is there...”

  But how could I finish that sentence? That I thought he turned traitor because of me and would be too ashamed to come with us? That I needed to be there to convince him otherwise?

  I squirmed as I felt Sunjoo’s unhappy wondering about just who Toshio was, but I didn’t have time to explain it all.

  Then I got an idea.

  “I just thought of something, so please listen to me. And if you don’t like it, I’ll do as you say,” I bluffed.

  After I’d explained, Laurent slowly nodded. “That could actually work,” he said.

  I whooped, lifting my arms in the air.

  So the plan was finally formed with me in it, and after sunset, we would go and rescue our friends.

  Or die trying.

  Chapter Fifteen

  We crept up to their base, as close as possible, making sure not to disturb the perimeter where the guards were watching the facility, and waited for the change in shifts. At precisely 2300 (as Laurent put it) the front gates would open for the guard rotation. I didn’t ask how he knew. There was something about him that just inspired confidence.

  So much so that I’d followed his suggestion to brave the dragons…. I risked giving him a side-eye, but he was checking the time.

  He looked up from where he crouched not far from me and put up two fingers.

  We wouldn’t have to wait much longer. I could sense Caleb and Anjelica guarding our backs, using cloaking spells to cover us. And the dragons…well, they were nearby, too.

  There was a low whistle and right on time, the massive gates started to part. Even despite their size, they didn’t make a sound. It was spooky as hell.

  That was my cue.

  I stepped out from my hiding place, quietly creeping closer until I came to the open area, then kicked a rock towards one of them to draw their attention.

  The guards immediately spotted me and raised their weapons, but I put my hands up in the universal gesture of surrender and continued to slowly walk toward them like I didn’t have a care in the world.

  As if. I only had those, but never mind.

  They shouted at me to stop, which I did, in front of the largest guard.

  “Take me to your leader,” I ordered, nearly laughing out loud.

  I always wanted to say that line.

  Another approached me. “Don’t move,” he shouted, then started to frisk me.

  I rebelled, wiggling out a little. “Watch it, clammy!”

  The rest of his pals laughed. The clammy one shoved me, not appreciating the humor.

  They formed a circle around me, which is what I’d been hoping for.

  “Um, guys, fire in the hole,” I said glancing up.

  A wall of fire appeared all around me, incinerating all the soldiers at once. They didn’t even get a chance to scream properly.

  Damn, that felt hot against my skin. Still, I didn’t move. It really did smell like chicken and I suppressed an urge to gag.

  I was so going vegetarian after this.

  That was fun, Sunjoo projected above me then flew away to do his other part. That is, create a diversion and kill as many bad guys he could in the process.

  I signaled to the others on the ground to follow me to the entrance. There, I took the card I stole while clammy hands was groping me, and swiped it across the keypad so our ground crew could enter the building before we split up. It was riskier that way, but we could cover more ground in a shorter period of time.

  “Don’t die,” Caleb said to me over his shoulder, jogging away.

  Annoyed and touched at the same time, I made a face at him. “I’ll do my best.”

  Knowing that all hell could break loose at any moment, I ran as fast as I could toward the room I found the wolves last time. All the while praying to god to not get seen, or worse.

  Since I was currently stuck in human form, I was pretty defenseless.

  Then I reminded myself that Laurent gave me some pretty fun weapons to play with.

  It was a bit difficult this time around to get to them without shifting but, with some nice self-pep talk (Come on Marti, move that ass of yours!), I managed.

  To say they were surprised to see me would be an understatement. I
tried to reassure them while I was opening my pack to get to the pliers.

  “I’m going to get you out of this, I promise,”

  I suppressed a moan when I saw they were in even worse condition now than before. They were weak and clearly in pain. Where large patches of fur and skin had been removed, the wounds were left open and raw. Some were missing parts altogether: ears, paws.

  My vision turned red. With a tool in my hand, I approached the first cage.

  Fuck!

  The locks were all new and looked completely different, digital. They kept the bars more secured in all four directions and if I had to cut around them, it would take me forever to free just one.

  One of the wolves whined.

  “I know, I know. I’m working on it.”

  He smashed his paw against the cage, pointing.

  And then I saw. In the far corner of the room, there was a control panel for every one of those goddamned cages.

  I groaned. I wasn’t that computer savvy so figuring out how to hack into it was beyond me. I scanned the room quickly and grabbed the first thing that was lying around. It was some kind of metal cattle prod. I shuddered, and started whacking at the control panel with it. To my relief, it must have caused a short circuit because all the cages sprang open at once.

  As did the alarm.

  “Run,” I ordered. I needed them someplace safe, so I could continue my search.

  A lot of them listened but the rest lingered, unsure of what to do.

  I could feel their hesitation as they whined. We’d played through this part before, and then, like now, it was a little disconcerting that things seemed to be going too easily.

  As far as I could tell, no alarms had even gone off before now. I gave my head a quick shake to clear it of any thoughts but the mission at hand.

  “Run, now,” I screamed at them again, trying to make them understand. “Don’t wait for me. Get out of here, while you still can!”

  That did the trick. They bolted into the hallway. I just hoped they wouldn’t get recaptured. Or killed. But I couldn’t stress about their faith at that moment because I had to go my own way.

  I had to find Toshio.

  Still gripping the metal rod, I ran out then through a long corridor until I came across a single door labeled LAB1 and LAB2. I tried the handle and it was unlocked. Once in there, a set of twin doors, one on each side, greeted me. I reached out to the first door to find that it, too, was unlocked.