AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It didn’t take long to reach the tents. They turned, took three steps down a makeshift aisle lined with tents and two trailers, and stopped.
“Where did they go?” Nikki asked.
Reagan turned in a circle. “That’s a good question.”
Blake sniffed. “It doesn’t smell right.”
Nikki sniffed. “I don’t smell anything, and I should.”
“Exactly,” Blake said.
“I don’t hear anything either,” Reagan said.
Blake closed his eyes and opened his dragon senses. His senses had been overloaded before, and now, there was nothing. He couldn’t hear the kids or their parents. There were no food smells or bells and whistles from the games. But more telling, there were no people. Where were the four people?
“Do you think they took the women?” Reagan asked.
Nikki held out her hands to the side, palms facing the ground. “I don’t sense any kind of struggle. Given the backtalk the women were giving, I don’t think they would have gone away peacefully.”
Blake opened his eyes. “Then where are they?”
They stood quietly for a heartbeat before Blake felt the hairs on his arms stand on end. Reagan had dropped to all fours and was mid-shift before he could stop her. With two quick bursts of energy, Reagan shifted into a white wolf.
“Well, if we didn’t stand out before, we’re going to now,” Blake said.
There was a high-pitch whine and a dull thump. Reagan whimpered and fell to the ground.
Nikki got to her first. She ran her hands along Reagan’s body and lifted her snout to her lap. “What the hell?”
Blake knelt beside them and noticed a glint reflecting on Reagan’s shoulder. He pulled out a dart. Reagan started panting, and her eyes rolled up before closing.
They weren’t alone, after all.
He smelled the dart. There was no smell whatsoever, which made him think of only one drug.
Carfentanil.
“We need to get out of sight.” Nikki stood and hooked her hands under Reagan’s front legs.
Blake scanned the area and couldn’t find a great place to hide. “Drag her over there.” He pointed to one of the trailers. “We can hide under it.”
There was only one way into this corridor and one way out. This had been the plan all along.
There wasn’t enough space for him to shift, and unlike a wolf, a dragon would be impossible to explain. He could bring forth enough power to fight, though. Sharp claws broke the skin between his knuckles, and his shirt seams ripped as his chest and shoulders grew.
Nikki pushed Reagan under the trailer and stood next to Blake. “Where are they?”
A small canister rolled on the ground and stopped in front of them. With a quick pop, it exploded, and thick smoke engulfed them.
“Get under the trailer,” he commanded.
Another high-pitch whine rushed past him, and Nikki fell. He caught her before she hit the ground and started shoving her under the trailer.
He didn’t hear a whine but felt a sharp bug-like sting followed by hot pain spreading across his shoulder. The world spun, and he couldn’t keep his balance. Darkness filled the edges of his vision. He searched his shoulder, pulled out the dart, and stumbled a step forward.
“I told you that would work,” one of the women from before said. “I’ve never met a shifter who could resist helping a human.”
“We were only supposed to bring in the male. He’s the dragon they told me about,” one of the men said.
