Page 5 of The Dragon's Dream Mate (Savage Shifters Special Ops 3)

Lucian

Icouldn’t have been more surprised when Rainey walked through the door. Despite what I had told Gage, I had never forgotten her. I had also never forgotten the guilt I had for leaving her.

It wasn’t a good enough excuse for running off without a word, but I was so overwhelmed with the grief I had for Cedric’s death that the only thought I had at that time was of revenge. I wanted to kill everyone responsible for my brother’s death.

As I matured, I realized that revenge was not the way to avenge Cedric. The best way was to create order in a chaotic world. That wasn’t even vengeance. It was a way to honor Cedric. He wouldn’t have wanted the hatred and destruction that I was determined to unleash when I learned of his death. Although he did sign up for the military and went into the special forces, it was with the idea that he could somehow make this world a better place. Gage and the others helped me find the peace I needed so I could live my brother’s ideals and make his mission mine.

I don’t know if it was guilt or cowardice on my part that kept me from seeking out Rainey once I got my head on straight. Perhaps, it was a combination of the two. I have thought about her many times over the years. I’ve even fantasized about finding her, being with her again. But, I never reached out to her. There was always one excuse or another.

There had been other women. Yet, I could never hold another woman without seeing Rainey’s face.

Leaving Rainey behind had always been my biggest regret. However, I wouldn’t have been any good to her, or myself, if I had stayed.

She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. I didn’t know if it mattered, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking. The other thing that I noticed right away was that she was even more beautiful than she was all those years ago.

The fact that she had become a high ranking FBI agent was no surprise to me. She always had a drive for justice. She had always rooted for the underdog.

Once Jared and Gage let their families know we were leaving, we made a quick plan. While we were on the flight to New York, Andrew would set up surveillance in the area. There were always satellites that could be hacked to watch almost anywhere in the world. Details might be hard to get, but he could get an idea of what type of activity was going on around the house where we believed the children were being kept.

Alex would contact people in the area to find out any information available on incoming and outgoing shipments of ‘special freight,’ as well as any kind of information about the locations of ‘special clients’ and, of course, those running the operation, up to, and including, Sam Dawson.

Once we arrived, we would do some reconnaissance to get more information on the location where the kids were held, the number of guards, etc.

Then, we would make a more definite plan.

The plane ride over was a quiet one, almost eerie in its silence. Rainey mostly stared out the window. I was sure that she was lost in thought, worried about her niece. I hoped that she would be able to put her personal feelings aside and focus on the situation at hand. I learned the hard way that when people let their fears, anger, sadness, and other emotions interfere with decisions, then sound logic and common sense disappear.

Gage reserved a suite of rooms for us at a lovely hotel. I was quite impressed. All of us were in rooms right next to each other. Rainey’s room was in the middle, so she had two of us on either side of her. Of all of us, she was the most vulnerable if any of the traffickers discovered that we were getting close.

We were all pretty tired, and so we opted for room service with the idea that we were going to eat and go to bed. We had a big day ahead of us, and it was already pretty late.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep. That was pretty common for me. If I were lucky, I would get four or five hours of sleep a night. I had been that way since I was a kid.

I decided that I would head out to the vending machines for a soda.

On my way back, I ran into Rainey. Literally. She came around the corner at the same time I did, and we smashed into each other.

She muttered, “Excuse me.” Then, she continued toward the vending machines.

I turned to head back to my room, but then I decided that I was going to address the elephant in the room, so to speak.

When she came back, I said, “Rainey, we need to talk.”

“Why?” she asked.

“We have some issues that we need to discuss. We need to clear the air between us.”

“There is no us,” she said. “There hasn’t been an ‘us’ since you asked me to marry you one night, and then disappeared without a word the next.”

“I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you,” I said, and I truly meant every word.

“It’s a little too late for that. But I’m all grown up now, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. As soon as we find Simone, rescue her, and the other kids, we can go our separate ways. Then, you can forget all about me again,” she hissed. She was angry, but she was trying very hard to keep her voice down so that we didn’t draw the attention of anyone else.

I grabbed her arm to pull her into my room, but she pulled away from me.

“Don’t touch me,” she growled, narrowing her eyes. “I’m tired. It’s been a long day, and I need some rest so that we can find Simone. She is my only concern.”

She turned and almost ran to her room. I almost let her go. I thought that maybe she was right, and we should keep this professional. We were here to do a job. Once that job was done, we could go our separate ways, and that would be that.

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