Page 3 of Having the Dragon's Baby

“What else is there to this? You’re giving me the selling points, but why isn’t every woman doing this if it's so great?”

Luna laughed. “Because shifters are picky, but the agency seems to be even pickier. They have a specific process of evaluating potential prospects so that they find the best choices for the shifters and the humans. SSA is very proud of their results, and it sounds like they aim to keep it that way.”

“How did you learn so much about them?”

Luna let out a sigh. “I told you, people I work with know people who did it, and all the stories are the same. Rach, I think it would at least be worth doing the interview. You can always tell them no thanks if you don’t like what you hear.”

Luna was right. Rachel just wasn’t sure how to take all of this. It seemed so sudden that she wanted to sit on it for a while, but she knew that if she did, she’d either miss her opportunity or put it to the back of her mind altogether. Then it would be her own damn fault for letting the opportunity pass her by.

And right now, it was the only chance out there.

Rachel took a deep breath and made the choice.

“Okay. If you say it's legit and worth checking out, I’ll go see. Especially since you went through the trouble of already signing me up.”

She smiled as she heard Luna cheer over the phone.

“Okay, good. And be sure to let me know how it goes and what you think. I’m eager to know more as well.”

“I will, and Luna?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for looking out for me.”

Rachel heard the smile on her best friend’s face. “Well, someone has to. You protect everyone but yourself, so that’s what I’m here for. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Rachel ended the call and stared at the email. She took a deep breath and clicked reply.

She quickly typed that she was interested in interviewing and what days and times worked for her. She edited it and pressed send without hesitation, knowing nerves would get to her if she delayed too long.

She let out a breath as she pushed herself away from her laptop. That was it. She had accepted the invitation to interview to be a shifter’s surrogate.

Holy shit, was she really doing this?

TWO

MARCUS

“What do you mean we haven’t been able to come up with anything?” Marcus barked over the phone.

He was sitting in his office, trying hard not to rip his jet-black hair out of his head. He and the other alphas had been working together to discover why shifters were suddenly coming up missing.

Marcus had his own dragon den out scouting for any leads or suspicious activities and was coming up empty-handed. He was losing both patience and sleep over it.

“How do they not know anything about their abductors?” he seethed, knowing the unlucky enforcer he was on the phone with was probably cringing. “You’re telling me that two of our own were almost kidnapped, and they saw nothing? How?”

He tapped his fingers in irritation, trying to hold back the inner fire of his dragon.

“It was dark, sir.” The enforcer definitely sounded like he was cowering. “They were attacked from behind, and they never got a good look or even a whiff of their attackers. And whoever it was took off as soon as help showed up.”

Marcus blew out his annoyance. “I’ll meet with them myself and see if they remember anything. We need some hard information before this gets even more out of hand. All the clans, thunders, and packs are taking these hits. And since it’s the young ones, it’s destroying our numbers and making us look weak. It needs to stop. It cannot and will not be tolerated!” he yelled before slamming the receiver down.

He threw himself into his chair. He wasn’t necessarily angry with his den. He was angrier at himself for not being able to protect them from such a threat.

He didn’t even have a place to start looking. No one did.

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