Page 5 of Monster

“On three,” Deacon instructed.

They tugged the cage off the ground. Drake felt the tearing of flesh at his back from the weight of the beast.Clenching his teeth, he fit back a roar of pain until the sensation passed.They marched toward the road, carefully moving over obstacles and around trees.

By the time they’d loaded the cage in the back, Drake was exhausted. His body wouldn’t let him rest. Too much adrenaline was still pumping through his veins.

“One of you needs to stay in the back with him,” Deacon said.“I’ll drive.”

“Shotgun,” Jaeger called quickly.

“Thanks,” Drake responded. “I am the one who stole the truck. Don’t I earn any points?”

“I had to listen to that thing scream the entire time you were gone,” Jaeger muttered. “I need a break.”

Drake shook his head, all while climbing into the bed of the truck.“We can take turns.”

“Sure,” Jaeger said before climbing into the passenger side of the cab.

Deacon got behind the wheel before sliding open the small window between the cab and back.“Hold tight.It shouldn’t take us long to get to our base now.”

“Knock on wood,” Drake whispered under his breath.

Deacon revved the engine before they took off into the night.

The wind whipped through Drake’s hair. The cool night air turned icy over his flesh. He should’ve forced Jaeger into the back.The ice dragon would’ve enjoyed the illusion of winter. Being that he was half fire dragon, the cold did nothing for him.

The wind did offer something, though.

A scent twisted itself around him, something unusual. One he’d never scented before.He scanned the horizon, trying to determine what they’d driven through. Most of the aromas they’d found out in this countryside weren’t ones he’d enjoyed. Swamps and fecund growth… he wasn’t sure which one was worse. But this one… it filled his nose and demanded he take in a deep breath.

“W-where… where ammmm I?”

Drake barely heard the growling question over the racing wind. He looked down at the only possible source—the beast in the cage beside him.

A pair of clear, even green eyes looked up at him from the face of a beast.

Or rather, half beast. The creature had partially shifted into human form, stuck somewhere between man and monster—but closer to man.

“On the way to safety,” Drake finally answered before inhaling the scent again.

“Who… who arrrre you?” The words were more growl than syllable.

Another wave of the scent Drake had enjoyed hit him squarely in the face. It was coming… my gods, no… it was coming from the creature. Drake’s body tensed as he considered the question in a new perspective.

Who was he?

“A… friend,” he answered, unwilling to say more, his own mind refusing to make the connection.

“I…” the man growled in what sounded like pain. “I…” His body twisted, reforming the monster he’d been. A dullness entered those green eyes. The next sound was a roar that sounded almost cat-like.

The scent faded. Drake inhaled, wishing it would return to him, but it was gone.

Proof I was wrong.A scent like that doesn’t just… disappear.

He drew in the beast’s smell, once again trying to determine what it was. Drake knew what Project Zed did to shifters. He’d seen the hybrid animals the scientists had forged in their labs. He’d heard the screams as they’d been tested on.

Made and remade.

He’d seen their suffering, too drugged to know up from down.

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