Page 39 of So I Dared a Dragon

“Okay, I’ll be completely candid with you, because it doesn’t do anyone any good to pretend everything is going as planned.” Tina set down the mug and pushed her shoulders back. “Calista’s a security nightmare. She’s pissed off more shifters than we can count, because we’re never sure she’s telling us the whole truth. Every time we talk to her, more details magically emerge. The Montana pack—which is where Calista and Bibi hail from—have been on our watch list the entire time we’ve worked on the show. They’ve caused trouble for many packs, including theColorado Ranch pack who are major sponsors of this show. Full disclosure, I’m Colorado Ranch pack. Bibi has aways insisted she can handle whatever they try to throw at us. There have been some situations that were mitigated without her knowledge. While our fairy dragmother prides herself on having her fingers in every pie when it comes to this show, realistically, she can’t do it all. It’s the security team’s job to make sure she can concentrate on what she does best—making the magic happen in front of the camera. But since Calista arrived, things have been getting more serious.”

Magnus made a low, grunting sound. It didn’t matter that his instincts were right. It was most important that we found who did this and made them stop. I’d keep asking questions until I understood what rules I was being asked to play by, and then I’d make sure those bastards didn’t win.

“What do we know specifically about the threats that have been directed toward Calista?” I asked.

“Everything with the latest incident looks like business as usual, which is why the delivery was brought to her trailer with no questions asked,” Marissa volunteered. “We work with both the delivery and the gourmet gift shop regularly. There was no reason for any suspicion, and of course, the note was sealed. Both companies are closed for the evening, so we’ll have to wait until morning to get details about the order.”

I didn’t understand. “You just said it would be a long night, but we have to wait for morning to get details?”

“For those details,” Tina corrected. “We’ve been monitoring other threats, so there’s plenty to keep us busy.”

“Doing what?” Magnus motioned to the humans perched in front of the monitors. “Watching TV all night?”

“If that’s what you want to do, we can make you some popcorn and you can get cozy,” Tina countered. “Or we can send you out to the mountains to see it for yourselves.”

“We’re headed inside the mountains?” I asked. There had to be a catch. All the sudden Tina was willing to give us what we’d been told was nearly impossible? It couldn’t be that easy.

“To the mountains,” Marissa corrected. “But if we need to go inside, we will.”

“Who is ‘we’?” Luca asked.

Tina shook her head and pulled her phone out of her pocket. The screen lit up as she swiped her finger across it.

“I had a feeling it would be an interesting night,” the voice on the other end of the call said when she answered. It was deep, unfamiliar, and sounded like a shifter. Probably a wolf, since they were plentiful on the crew. “It’s always a crapshoot to have the first date of the episode on a full moon.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but that voice was right. It had been so long since we’d been able to fully bask in the sun and moon’s cycles that of course they’d have an effect on us. It was probably the reason that I’d painted those scales on Calista’s arm.

I cursed myself. I couldn’t let outside forces make me put anything in jeopardy.

“Oh, Hugo, always the hopeless romantic.” Tina grinned at the screen.

“No, I still have hope.” He sighed. “Is Bibi there?”

“She and Calista have gone home—"

There was no missing his growl.

“But I have Aarix, Magnus, and Luca with me. You haven’t met them face-to-face yet, but you signed off on their background checks before we started the episode. They’ll be very interested to hear what you’ve been working on.”

Hugo cleared his throat. “Since you arrived and claimed there might be more dragons underneath the mountains, I’ve been watching those areas closely. We’ve always seen activity there, but I’d only closely examined under threat of attack.Thankfully, that means a lot of that area hasn’t been closely monitored. But I’ve put together a heat map. I can send you a link.” There was a pause and a pinging noise. “There are some hot spots, the likes of which I’ve never seen before.”

One of the workers pulled up the map that Hugo sent over onto a computer. The screen showed a fairly accurate topography of the mountains. There were blobs of color on it. Some small ones were blue and green. Red and orange were more plentiful, little blips moving through the area and a steady pace.

But the spot on the screen the worker tapped on, like he wanted to make sure it was real, was yellow, almost white, and much larger than the others.

There were a few other smaller white-yellow spots, clustering around that larger one.

Tina’s eyes widened. “Can you tell us what these hot spots typically represent?”

“Sure. It’s picking up on areas that have heated objects that are not part of the land. Usually, it means an animal is passing through, and we’ve used this technology to track down shifters that have posed a threat to the show. Shifters tend to run warmer than animals or humans that only have one form—we theorize that’s because their bodies need the extra energy for transformation. But these spots are registering temperatures much higher than what we’ve seen for wolves, lions, or bears—which are the most common in these mountains. It’s registering far warmer than even Lars.”

I looked at the guys, and their faces lit up. There was life in those mountains. “Have those hot spots moved at all since they registered on your map?”

“Very little,” Hugo said. “They’re in a remote region. Typically a lot of snow cover this time of year. Heat like thatelevates the avalanche risk, and it hasn’t been safe to send any of our team out there.”

“We can get out there,” I said. “Are you coming with us?”

Tina’s and Marissa’s mouths dropped.

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