Page 8 of Cold Foot King

She wanted to ask how he knew so much about dragons. She wanted to ask him so many questions, but the fire was getting closer and Raynah was yelling for her to hurry.

“Can you Change? You might fit if you Change.”

“Can’t. Been trying this whole time.”

Shoot. Maybe it was the meds messing with his system still? Or if his animal had been suppressed too long, he wouldn’t be able to get his human form back for a while. It worked like that for some shifters. “Can you find another way out?”

“Sure,” he said in a dead tone. It was a lie, but he didn’t seem to care that she could sense that. “Hurry now.”

“I’m…” She frowned. She didn’t know what to say. She hated him, but she was grateful to him. “I’m sorry,” she said, but her complicated feelings were swirling like a tornado inside of her. She didn’t know why she was saying she was sorry. None of what had happened here had been her fault. She shouldn’t be sorry for anything, but she was.

“Me too,” he said, his glowing eyes steady on hers.

He meant it. He’d told the truth. He was sorry. Katrina could hear it clear as a bell tone in his voice.

Her eyes prickled and burned, and she didn’t know if it was from the smoke, or from the mass of emotions undulating inside of her.

She bunched her muscles and leapt up, grabbed the lip of the vent easily, and pulled herself into it. She hesitated though. She turned and looked into the room. King was standing there, looking up at her. “How many?” She had to know.

“How many what?”

“Don’t act stupid. How many?”

He paced away, and back. “Leave.”

“How many?”

He paced away again, and a low rumble emanated from him. The fine hairs on her body electrified.

“I have to know! How. Many!”

“One!” he roared. “One! One! One, fucking one! You!”

Whatever she’d expected the answer to be, it wasn’t that. No, the breeders each had a roster. They went through them. It was their awful job. One? Just one? Just her?

“Come on,” Raynah yelled from behind her, tugging on her shirt.

She would never forget this. She would never forget the rage in his eyes as she left him there to burn.

There were still so many unanswered questions. Half of her wanted to stay and ask them, and half of her wanted to run as far away from this place as she could get and never think about it, or him, again.

She ripped her gaze away from her personal nightmare and forced herself to follow Raynah. King’s roar of anguish followed her, echoing through the twenty feet of vent shaft. Up ahead, Raynah had kicked out the thick cover, and Katrina could see daylight.

Gah, how long had it been since she’d seen the sky? Six months? Yeah. She had been buried under the frozen tundra of Alaska in this heartless prison system, where so much more happened than anyone on the outside realized for six months. Kept separate from her animal for six months. Half a year only being half of herself.

She scrambled out of the opening and scanned their surroundings. The cover was just above the frozen ground. The top of the prison only stood above the ground by about five feet on this side of the prison. She imagined the door King couldn’t get open. It must’ve led down a hallway to more of the building, positioned underground.

She stood up and glanced over the edge of the roofline, to see the dragon. Damon Daye was really here. His blue scales were three shades darker than the sky, and he was blowing fire on the other side of the prison. They had to go while he was busy over there.

The dragon was supposed to be an advocate for shifter rights, but here he was, burning a shifter prison and all its inhabitants to the ground. If the world knew how awful Damon really was, everything would be turned upside down.

She pointed to the fence. “Look!” There was a huge cut in the chain link, like someone had made it out before them, and had already cut it. Great. Now she wouldn’t have to figure out a way to get Raynah over the razor wire that was positioned in loose spirals above the fencing. “Stay low to the ground.”

She and Raynah bolted for the hole in the fence. King could’ve made it out with them, if only he’d been able to Change back into his human form. Or if he could’ve ripped the vent open wider for his gorilla to escape. She glanced back, but she couldn’t see him through the vent. The wall was too thick, and the other side was in shadow. Was he hanging there still? Was he watching her escape? Was he feeling hopeless?

“What’s wrong?” Raynah huffed out, circling back to her and tugging her hand.

Katrina hadn’t realized she had slowed down. She kicked up to a run again, but a few steps later, she came to a stop.

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