Page 7 of A Dragon's Curse

The footprints in the snow didn’t look as if anyone had been fighting, which meant she’d left this for someone to find. Hopefully for me.

She was cooperating with whoever took her, but that didn’t mean she’d gone with them willingly.

From everything Justine had told me, someone must have used River to get to her. He was her family. I could understand why she’d leave, but who would want to bond with her? There were very few dragon shifters in our realm that had anything nice to say about the other supernatural races.

What would they have to gain by stealing my mate?

I didn’t know, but I was going to fucking find out.

I pressed my hand onto the mountain surface, and the familiar shimmer of the portal door opened. Its energy wrapped around me, testing me before welcoming me back home.

I glanced back one more time, double-checking there wasn’t anything else I was missing. It wasn’t until then that I realized the third set of footprints didn’t come to the entry point. They’d appeared and, two steps later, disappeared.

Someone had brought them here and then left, but I couldn’t scent anything other than Dawsyn, meaning the others had been cloaked.

I checked my phone again. With no news from Justine or River, I stepped into the portal.

The energy sucked me in, dousing me in darkness for the briefest of moments before depositing me just outside of the main town of Drago.

Fucking hell.

This was so much worse than Nannio had described. Wind whipped around me, sending smoke through the sky and out toward the trees and mountains. Any hope I’d had of following a scent trail from Dawsyn as soon as I arrived was dashed in that moment.

The sun was nowhere to be seen, but the heat was almost unbearable. From this far away, it seemed as if half the buildings in town were on fire. Yet, there was very little noise. It was almost as if everyone had abandoned their homes and businesses, but where had they run to? Why hadn’t my grandmother or uncle responded to my many attempts at contact?

That last question really only had one sensible answer, but it wasn’t one I was willing to accept just yet.

My family couldn’t be dead. Things couldn’t have gone to complete shit so fast that nobody would have called me home.

Deciding not to let myself wallow in what-ifs, I shifted for the first time in much too long. Instead of the steady transition I was used to, this was hard and fast and painful as fuck. Much like my day.

My skin stretched until I was certain it was going to rip into shreds just before my body elongated into its dragon form.

Earthy, golden-brown scales with splashes of blue covered my body. Claws dug into the dying ground and my wings expanded, flapping abruptly at our sides.

Better?I asked him, even though I knew I wouldn’t get a response. At least, not a verbal one.

He huffed and scraped his feet into the dirt, then let out a loud rumble. Smoke puffed out of his nostrils, and rage filled our shared mind.

If you can sense her, go, I said, and he thrashed his head around, confirming what I already suspected.

We knew Dawsyn was here but had no fucking clue where to start looking.

Nannio’s first, I said.

If we were going to find our mate quickly, we needed help.

My dragon didn’t disagree. As he took flight, sparks of lightning enclosed our expansive size, growing stronger as we rose further into the air.

I watched our surroundings, careful not to draw too much attention, but also looking for anyone who might still be around and could tell me what the hell had happened here.

It was one thing for there to be an attack, but for every single dragon to flee? That didn’t make a bit of sense.

Within five minutes, my dragon was soaring back to the ground and toward a small cottage just outside of the main part of town. It was the place I’d grown up after losing my parents and still considered home, even if I didn’t sleep there at night.

The windows were dark, and I couldn’t scent any recent activity. My dragon was slightly resistant to shifting back, but it only took me pointing out that he couldn’t fit through the front door for him to relent.

Changing from beast to man was still uncomfortable, mostly because my muscles hadn’t had time to heal from the previous ravenous shift, but it at least went smoother.

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