Page 71 of Emerald Waves
Yes, but he sent you out to die and as a youth. That’s unacceptable.
Death would be too kind for him.
Knowing that horrible man was this close to my family infuriated me. “They came for me. He knew I was here, but the question remains, who’s the mole that alerted him of that?”
That was by far scarier than knowing he was in the town I now called home. I was well protected within the compound walls and given I worked from here as well, there wasn’t a single reason for me to leave this place. I was perfectly content within these walls.
My life, my heart, my soul—everything had changed for me. The once timid, shy, afraid of his own shadow man was gone. Replaced by a strong husband and soon to be father. I’d protect our child with my life as I would my mate, though as a protector he would likely never call on me to do so. But I’d be there in a heartbeat if he had.
How many lives have the Gorynych ruined? How many senseless deaths have they caused? And now, they wish to seek out all the outcasts for their own gain.
Not on my watch.
And that’s a hill I’ll die on.
Ionus, Mattias, Odem, and Quint burst into the library right as I said, “We need to do everything we can to find all the outcasts before the Gorynych do and bring them to a safe place if they haven’t already found their mates. It’s clear that’s what they’re after.”
“Aye, and fast,” Ionus replied. “Larkin, I want to meet with the prisoners. Anything we should know first, Emerson?”
“The man didn’t have time for a son whose nose was buried in books. The final disappointment was my lack of shifting. The most he ever said to me was to yell how worthless I was andthat if he had to, he’d beat the dragon out of me. Needless to say, the beatings didn’t produce the results he wanted.” At least my dragon blood healed the wounds and broken bones. Too bad nothing could erase the mental ones.
I’ve got you now, mate.
I know.
“Simmer down, Caro. We can’t question a dead prisoner.”
“I have no issues with that. There’s still one more.”
Mate, word will get back. We need to find out who the Gorynych informant is and deal with them first.
Trust me, I will and when I find them, they’ll regret it.
“Does anyone have a clue as to who the informant is?” Mattias asked, solidifying what I’d already assumed, Caro had shared our earlier conversation with his brothers.
“None,” Larkin was the first to speak. “The dragons I fly with I trust implicitly.”
“If I recall correctly,” I flipped through the stack of papers on my desk out of habit even though I knew what I sought wasn’t there. “I could be wrong, but Larkin, isn’t there a database with all the Dragon City residents in it?”
“Yes, for shifters, but not for humans.”
“Bingo!” Odem chimed.
“Yes, bingo indeed,” Ionus growled. “The shifter database includes blood samples and clan lineage. Emerson, would you be able to sift through that and look for anything that stands out? How had we not thought to seek out those clans from the onset?”
“Absolutely, I’d be happy to help.”
“I’ll give him access to it,” Larkin replied. “Now, the question remains, how do we interrogate the humans without causing a scene? We never worried much about them because they posed no threats to us.”
That was a leader problem to figure out, I had enough on my plate. Before I could dive in though, our little one growled.
“I need to feed my mate. I’ll be right back.”
Helicoptering for the win!
Caro, our little one is chattering away today. The hum of his voice…his. Caro, it’s a boy!
A dish dropped and crashed a moment before my dragon flew into the room, scooped me up and swung me around as he announced, “It’s a boy!”
