Page 12 of Cruel Daddy Dragon

“You smell like Eclipse,” Cyrus snarls quietly, “I thought I told you not to attack any more Eclipse members!”

“I know—but I can explain this time!” I insist.

People start to gather around us as they hear the conversation rumbling through the house in Cyrus’s carrying voice. Lena joins us first, wrapping a nightgown over her pregnant belly. There’s more movement. Milo, Kaius, and Evander join us from nowhere.

Great. I’m sure everyone will hustle to be here for this.

“Explain then,” Cyrus grunts.

I suck in a deep breath and answer.

“An Eclipse member attacked Sarah. He injected her with some kind of drug and tried to kidnap her,” I announce firmly, “I had to attack the Eclipse member to get her back and keep her safe.”

“What?!”Lena shrieks.

If anybody wasn’t here before, they’ve rushed down now—now, everyone is staring at me with intense eyes. Orion and Evander look grim. Kaius looks shocked, almost offended, and Milo looks worriedly around. Lena stares at me in pure horror. I scan the entire crowd before finally looking back at Cyrus, frowning hard at me.

“Kidnapped?” he asks, “That’s not Eclipse’s usual move. Why would they turn to kidnapping humans?”

“Forget that!”Lena screeches, cutting across Cyrus,“They injected her with drugs?! They tried to kidnap her?! Is she okay?!”

“She’s amazing, Lena, don’t worry,” I reply quickly.

Tooquickly. I see Kaius react first to that, shooting a smirk at Milo. Evander isn’t part of that interaction, but he raises his eyebrows when he hears me say that.

“I mean, she’s fine—she’s not hurt,” I add on.

Cyrus glances over at my slip-up and looks at Evander, wordlessly bringing him to the front of this conversation. Evander joins him at his side, and Cyrus looks back at me.

“How did this kidnapping happen?” he asks.

“I didn’t see it in full, but from what I could pick up, she had parked her police cruiser by the edge of the forest, outside of town,” I explain, “I’m guessing she parked there to do a foot patrol around all of town and then circle back. As I was onmyfoot patrol, I heard a gunshot and found her in the hands of a fully shifted Eclipse member. When he saw me, he took off flying.”

“Wait,” Evander says, frowning harder, “this was in the middle of Greyson Ridge? Not in the forest or anything?”

“No,” I answer, “It was on the very edge of town, but in town nonetheless.”

Evander shoots an alarmed expression at Cyrus, then back to me.

“Why?” Evander asks quietly, “Why would they attack a human in the middle of town? Surely they know how much trouble they could get into with the Council if they were spotted and revealed shifter existence to the humans?”

“I agree… This is very weird…” Cyrus murmurs, “They may have more power in the Council than they’ve ever had before, but they’re not above the most fundamental law we have.”

The Alpha looks down as he thinks aloud, then looks back to me.

“Carry on,” he orders, “What happened next?”

“After he spotted me, he took flight, trying to get out of Greyson Ridge as quickly as he could, taking Sarah with him,” I answer, “I had to take to the skies myself to fight for her.”

“Did you kill him?” Cyrus asks.

“Sorry, no. He got away when he dropped Sarah, and I had to go down for her,” I say, “I got back down, and I found she was drugged, but she was okay. She was dozy but otherwise unhurt.”

Cyrus nods.

“Well… it sounds like that was the best anyone could have done,” he says.

“Er, there’s one more thing,” I add, a little anxiety leaking into my tone.

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