Page 7 of Captured By the Scaled Outlaw
The ‘Misya Swamp Pipeline Project’ is a major source of my shame and regret. Grandma instilled in me a respect for nature that was lost by one bad decision, and I’ve worked the rest of my career to make up for the damage I’ve done. However, I had hoped this secret would remain deep within the shadows.
Saliva collects at the corners of my mouth.
It’s not such a secret anymore.
I struggle against Lowell’s grasp, his sharp claws needling my cheeks. My body screams at me to flee like a rabbit caught in a snare, fight-or-flight pumping adrenaline into my veins. My skin flashes between hot and cold, the hairs on my arms standing on end.
“What’s with that look on such a pretty face?” Lowell says cheekily. “Afraid I’ll rip you apart like you and your government have done to everything around us?” he tuts, tapping his nose against mine. “Rest assured, I won’t give you the same swift death. I’ll make sure you know just how much I hate you.”
I reach my shackled hands to Lowell’s chest for balance while he turns my head back and forth, inspecting me. He moves me with ease, as though I’m a doll. I’m no match for his brute strength.
Turning my head to face straight forward, Lowell stares daggers.
“Eyes like little emeralds… so fragile, like all humans,” he mumbles, pressing a single claw into the soft skin of my cheek. I flinch, sucking my teeth as he drags the claw towards my temple. Blood spills from the cut, and Lowell’s pupils dilate with hunger.
I swallow hard.
“What are you talking about? The land was barren and desolate. All life was extinct,” I argue, my brows drawn together. Lowell’s claws pinch my cheeks even harder, his scales darkening to black.
“Life tends to perish where it is beingpoisoned,” he growls. “But the bribes were too good to pass up, huh? Material goods over life? A common downfall of all living, intelligent beings.” My heart hammers away in my chest, memories of sitting in the previous Director’s office as he convinced me to abandon my morals in favor of a larger commission for cutting corners.
I needed the money for Grandma’s funeral, so I took it despite the pit in my gut. It felt dirty to take immoral money to bury my grandmother whose life purpose has been dedicated to morality and utilitarianism. But I was twenty-one, and up to my eyes with college debt.
My brain finally catches up to Lowell’s words after all of the self-pity is done wreaking havoc, my thoughts skipping like a broken record ofthe same word.
The words are so foreign, so outlandish, my brain almost doesn’t process them.
“Wait,poisoned?”
Chapter 4
Anger flashes in Lowell’s eyes like fire behind stained glass.
“Yes,poisoned,you fucking idiot,” he snaps. “The Hookhead Storks became critically endangered from your government dumping an unknown chemical in the swamp. All to create a viable land for construction.”
Fear and confusion mix in my gut, and the feeling is sour.
He’s spouting nonsense.
“What the hell are you on about?” I spit, anxiety palpitating my heart as two searing amber eyes glare into mine. “Most of the local animals went extinct from what was determined as depleting resources and disease. There was even another study done on the area afterwards that confirms this.”
Lowell snorts, releasing my face and shoving me away from him. His grin is not the friendly kind.
“‘Depleting resources and disease’? Well, if you want a joke, you’re going to fucking laugh at this one.” He grabs my braided hair and yanks it, laughing when I yelp with pain.
He drags me to the other end of the room, using his hold on my hair as a lead.
My feet slide across the ground, muscles rigid as I try to regain balance, but my efforts are futile. Any attempts at standing or pulling back are met with sturdy resistance.
Lowell flings a side door, pressurized air popping my eardrums. When I wince, his grip tightens, a dark chuckle of amusement rumbling from his chest.
Lifting me effortlessly by my hair, Lowell tosses me past the threshold and onto my bottom. He slams the door behind him with his tail while Ginny and Guy are left on the other side.
The strong smell of sulfur, mud, and wet earth soon overshadows the ringing in my head. My vision focuses and I see a large glass dome overhead with natural light pouring in. The surrounding area is filled with trees and soft-looking ground, the air thick with humidity.
It looks like an artificial biome.
From afar, a Hookhead Stork stares at me curiously.
