“Okay, so the monsters are Tryns…what does that make you? I saw you, remember? Horns, tail, nasty-attitude.”

He snorted. “That wasn’t me.”

“Then prove it cause it sure looked like you.” She squeezed her hands into fists. If he was lying about getting Alice help, she was going to punch him as hard as she could and take her friend to the ER.

“I can’t.” Sweat beaded his brow. “If I try and transform now, my wing will never heal properly and there’s a chance it still won’t.”

“Wings?” she croaked out. The demon had had those too. “How are you not the same then?” She wanted to believe him, but she’d seen the monster…demon…whatever it was called as him first.

When they turned toward an abandoned warehouse, she skidded to a stop. “Where are we going?”

This is what happened in scary movies. Had he lured her here to get her away from help and now he was going to hurt her and Alice?

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He kept walking, then disappeared behind the building and into the parking lot.

Anxiety and terror mingled in her gut. She should run away. Now. But she couldn’t leave her friend. She had no cell phone with her or even mace. What could she do against Levx anyway? He’d been strong enough to bend open a thick metal door and he hadn’t denied being something other than human.

The sound of flapping echoed around her so loud she ducked thinking a bird was flying too low. A burst of wind brushed her hair into her face. No, not a bird, something much larger.

Swallowing the boulder throbbing in her throat, she rounded the corner. There in the empty parking lot was a dragon. A huge one the size of a metro bus. Turquoise scales covered its body. Its tail slapped the ground and the few street lights vibrated from the impact.

It lowered its head, teeth bared, and let out a roar that made Megan’s heart quiver in fear. Was it going to hurt Alice or Levx?

Megan clenched her jaw and rushed forward, intent on pulling Alice away from the creature’s reach, when she noticed a backpack strapped to the dragon’s foreleg. What?

“She knows,” Levx whispered.

Before she could ask what he was talking about, the animal’s massive body shimmered and shrunk. The wings folded, disappearing into the body. Muscles and flesh twisted and bones snapped. It sounded painful. Then a woman stood naked in front of them. No, not just any woman, Levx’s sister wasn’t it?

With her face pale, Desmonda quickly dressed. “Where are my boys? You said they were here but only have two humans with you.”

“They were here…went up against a Tryn by themselves because father refused to send help to Megan and her friend here.”

She shrugged, pulling on her jeans, “And why would a Tryn be interested in either of them?”

“Megan was thinking about being a surrogate—”

“Is she pregnant?”

“No.” He shook his head but he didn’t meet Megan’s stare.

“That’s why your company hired surrogates, isn’t it? Because you need human,” she swallowed against the bile rising in her throat, “incubators.” Images of the alien movies she watched growing up of a monster bursting out of her chest made her stomach roll.

Thank god she hadn’t signed the contract yet or gotten artificially inseminated. Wait, was that why Levx had run off the other night? Because he was really a…a dragon? “When were you going to tell me? About what you really are? Shit, do the other women know?”

“Where are my boys?” Desmonda stepped forward and even though she was in human form, Megan felt a wave of power rush outward as if the dragon were standing there and not a mere woman.

The Triplets. They had come to help her. If not for them, “What can I do to help find them?”

Desmonda faced her, tears glistening in her eyes. “Tell me what happened and pray they are okay, or I’ll break the no-eating human rule.”