Page 160 of The Dragon's Mate

No, please.

The pleading and fear in her dragon’s voicebroke Kaida’s heart.

I’m sorry, my love, she said to her dragon as she tilted her head, exposing her throat.She stared at Cadmus, at the sorrow and love that radiated from his gaze, asthe needle slid into her neck with a sharp pinch.

The liquid was cold and alien and herdragon made another wailing cry. She took a deep breath, trying not to let herpanic get the best of her as the cries of her dragon grew quieter and quieter.She was still there, Kaida could feel her, could feel her sorrow and her fearand her rage, but it was like there was a thick wall of glass between them.Her dragon was throwing herself at it in an effort to get to Kaida, but theglass stood solid.

I’m so sorry,she repeated to her dragon.Forgive me.

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, let’sget down to business,” the senator said. “Obviously, we’re going to frame thethree of you for the murder. Once the people of this city realize you luredtheir senator to an abandoned hangar under the ruse of peace talk, when they’retold you killed a man and almost killed me, support for my bill willskyrocket. We’ll be saving mankind, and you will be a part of that. Youshould be proud of yourselves.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Bones said.

The senator laughed. “Not exactly the mostelegant phrase but it gets right to the point. Here’s the thing, you know wecan’t let the three of you live, right? There are enough bleeding hearts inthis city that they might actually believe the shit you tell them. So,” heshrugged, “this is the part where you die. Sorry about that.”

Martin grinned at the senator. “Jesus,look at their faces. It’s like they actually thought they all might livethrough this.” He turned to Bones, the lunatic grin widening. “Guess youshould have shifted when you had the chance, huh? Now you’re gonna die becauseyou wanted to save this old man who’s gonna die anyway. Stupid fucking animals…dumb as shit.”

“Get on with it,” the senator said withanother glance at his phone. “we don’t have all night.”

“Right.” Martin’s finger tightened on thetrigger of the gun pointed at Cadmus’s head. Before he could squeeze thetrigger, a roar pierced the inky darkness just outside of the hangar.

* * *

“You sure this is right?” Mal asked.

Both he and Bishop had volunteered to go withhim once he had his father’s cell location. Bren had accepted gratefully. He hopedhe was overreacting, hoped his suspicion wasn’t true, but that tingling sensationnagging at the base of his skull wouldn’t let him quite believe it. Realizinghis father’s cell was pinging at the abandoned airfield just outside of the cityonly strengthened his suspicion.

“Yeah, that’s my dad’s car parked by thehangar,” Bren said. “Kill the lights, would you?”

Bishop shut off the headlights and droveslowly toward the hangar. He stopped the truck when it was still a good sixtyfeet away from the building and shut off the engine.

The three of them studied the hangar. Therusted enormous doors were wide open at the front of the hangar but from theangle they were at, they couldn’t see inside.

“Pretty fucking creepy,” Bishop said. “Noway this is just a goddamn meeting.”

He rolled down his window and inhaleddeeply before looking at Mal. “Shit, you smell that?”

“Yeah.” Mal was unclicking his seat beltand opening his door. “Hurry.”

“What do you smell?” Bren climbed out of thetruck after them. “Bishop? What the fuck?”

Both Bishop and Mal were already strippingoff their clothes and fear slithered down Bren’s spine. “Bishop?”

Bishop shoved his jeans and briefs down hislegs. “I can smell at least a dozen humans and Cadmus and Bones.”

“What about Kaida?” Can you smell her?”Bren said as Mal made a low grunt and shifted to his wolf form.

“Yeah, I can smell her. She’s…”

“She’s what?” Bren pulled his gun from hisbelt and clicked off the safety. “She’s what, Bishop?”

“She’s afraid,” Bishop said.

He shifted to his grizzly form and rantoward the hangar, Mal loping behind him.

“Fuck!” His body shaking with adrenaline,Bren ran after them.

* * *

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