Page 67 of Brock’s Mate

As they climbed the steps to the house, Brock said, “No one knows where he lives. He would never say, and none of our dragon allies seem to know anything about him, so we kind of figured it was somewhere deep in the Dragonlands.”

She looked more worried than he’d expect, seeing as she’d only known DB for a few days. “Why?” he asked.

Desi answered as they walked into the great room. “I’m no expert on shifters, but I’ve known a lot of runaway kids in my time. DB told me once that he left when his home wasn’t a good place to be.”

She looked off into the distance and added softly, “He said they tried to make him do things he didn’t want to do.”

He could tell she was thinking about her own childhood. “That covers a lot of ground,” Brock said, trying to be comforting.

Fail. She just gave him a look that said, ‘Get your head out of your ass.’

“It sure does,” she said. “Lots of ground. Crime… sex… magic…”

Nick said, Oh, fuck.

Brock said, “Do you think someone’s trying to use him for his powers?”

Desi said, “Could be any number of bad things. But you told me there’s a lot of uses for dragons, and their blood and parts and powers. Maybe his people have figured out he’s been getting away, and made sure he couldn’t anymore.”

Brandon walked in from the other side of the house, Remy behind him. He was tucking his phone back into his pocket.

Brandon said, “Or maybe they pushed him too far, and he finally left for good.”

As they all looked at him, he said, “I just got a call from Thorne Greystone, the Wild Dragon liaison to the Draken Council. It seems that somebody has finally owned up to missing a teenage dragon.”

Chapter 26

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Brock stared at Brandon. DB had been hanging around the Wild Blood Crew for months, and not one of their dragon contacts seemed to have any idea where he came from. Now suddenly they did?

Nick said, It can’t be a coincidence that they put the word out right when he’s gone missing for real.

“I know.” Brandon had an amulet that allowed him to connect to the spirit world and hear Nick talking. Remy put his hand on Brandon’s shoulder so he could hear too.

“According to Thorne,” Brandon went on, “the kid’s description was surprisingly sketchy as far as physical details. Only that it’s a young adolescent, just coming into his powers, and he’s unstable and dangerous.”

“That doesn’t sound like DB,” Remy said dubiously.

Desi said, “It does if they want to make sure that if anyone finds him, they call his clan before they get too close. It they call him crazy and dangerous, people will be less likely to believe his side of the story—if they let him tell it at all.”

Remy looked at her with respect. “That’s smart.” He frowned. “And disturbing. Why would they do that?”

“In my experience with runaways in that situation, either he’s got enough on them to get them arrested, or he has something they want. Money, usually—like an inheritance or trust fund. Or in his case, magic.”

Her voice was hard, and Brock knew she was thinking once more of her own past. He put his arm around her shoulder and rubbed it gently.

Hold up, Nick said. DB is the most powerful worldwalker any of your dragons have ever heard of. He’s not ‘just coming into his powers.’

Remy said slowly, “But what if he is?”

There was a silence as they all digested the idea of DB getting exponentially more powerful as he matured..

“Holy fuck,” Brock murmured. “I’m glad he’s on our side.”

Brandon said, “But if he left home for good, why didn’t he come to us?”

Desi said impatiently, “Because he knows you have dragon allies. He’s not going to show his face here until he knows for sure that they won’t find out and turn him in.” As they opened their mouths to protest, she looked around the circle and said, “He’s only thirteen. Can you guarantee that your Council won’t give him back to the dragons to avoid some kind of international—interdimensional—incident? And could you stop them if they insisted?”

They all looked at each other. “Yeah,” she said, with a touch of bitterness. “That’s what I thought.”