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However, that was about the extent of the positive developments over the last couple of hours.

He’d been paying attention to what she’d been saying on the off-chance she gave him anything useful, but it was clear Anne was a bit too professional for that – while she had been talking to him, the only thing she’d really talked about was the dragon Hargreaves had supposedly found.

And he’d also been trying to focus his energies on possible escape plans and wondering what the hell had happened to his team, not to mention sending thoughts of Stay the hell away from here in Tahnee’s general direction and feeling mildly terrified about what might happen to her.

But that statement of Anne’s had caught his attention quick smart.

A feeling of dread crept over him. Suddenly, he felt he understood Anne’s interest in Tahnee all too well.

“I mean,” Anne went on, “dragons always want more gold. This one seems content to sleep on its hoard for now – that’s why they collect it in the first place, after all – but a sufficient amount placed just out of its reach should be enough to rouse it.”

She tapped her chin in exaggerated thoughtfulness. “We could send some of our more disposable agents to try and steal its hoard, which I’m sure would be enough to wake it up, but I don’t think it would feel very well disposed towards us in that instance. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Robb couldn’t reply, given that he still had about half a roll of tape stuck over his mouth, but he wouldn’t have had anything to say to Anne in any case. She was clearly beyond reason, the perfectly bland veneer of her unremarkable corporate persona now barely concealing the cold-blooded psychopath lurking within.

And he knew exactly what she was planning.

Tahnee! he thought, with even more vehemence than before. Get away from here. NOW.

The dingo struggled against the anti-shifter cuffs, almost blind with fear and rage. If it had its way, Robb knew that it would force a shift and tear Anne’s throat out – and Robb wasn’t even entirely sure that he would try to stop it.

“On the other hand,” Anne said, “if we could create gold – a truly tremendous amount of gold – and hand it to the dragon on a platter… well, then it might be more inclined to work together with us, don’t you think?”

I think you’re insane, Robb spat at her inside his head.

There would be no reasoning with her. This was the very essence of Hargreaves, standing here in front of him in its gray pencil skirt and sensible jacket. Pure, calculated greed, crunching the numbers and deciding on a course of action in isolation from the lives that would be destroyed in the process.

Anne leaned forward, her previously dull eyes aglow with excitement. “You can imagine our delight when we found out that there was a source of infinite gold right at our fingertips. And all we had to do to get it to give itself to us willingly was to take custody of its mate.”

Any last threads of hope that Robb had been holding on to snapped in that moment – and some that he hadn’t even been aware of in the first place.

He’d worked out that they were after Tahnee for her gold-making abilities… but the fact that Hargreaves knew the two of them were mates was something that he hadn’t been aware of until now.

It all made perfect, horrible sense, though.

“Oh, you poor, deluded, foolish man,” Anne said, with a creaking sound that Robb took a second to identify as laughter. “Did you really think that we were interested in you? You were just a pawn in a much larger game. Please, don’t mistake me,” she added, almost as an afterthought. “You have been quite a pain to deal with, and we’ll enjoy both using you and disposing of you.”

Her face was right up in his at this point, her voice alive with a vehemence he hadn’t thought her capable of. “But you were only ever the secondary target, and you’ve made it clear that you don’t want to work with us, so now your sole purpose in life is as bait. A squirming, twisting worm on a hook, waiting to be eaten.”

The dingo made a sound that Robb had never heard it make before – almost like a scream. Robb didn’t think any dingo in the real world could make that sound, and it sent a shiver up his spine.

TAHNEE! he thought wildly. If you come for me, they’ll use your powers to cause untold destruction, and then kill you when they have no more use for you. Do NOT come here! No matter what they tell you, stay far, far away from here!!

But, horrifyingly, he felt a wave of reassurance and determination coming from what could only be the mate bond.

Hold tight. I’m coming for you, he almost thought he could hear Tahnee saying, and despair almost overwhelmed him.

“It’s a shame, though,” Anne mused. “Killing a shifter in front of their mate, I mean.” She paused thoughtfully. “Maybe we’ll wait until we have all the gold we’ll ever need, and then kill you both at the same time so that neither of you has to suffer the pain of living without the other. Would you like that?”

I would not, Robb thought, her calm delivery bringing an almost surreal air to the conversation.

“Or maybe if you’re a good boy and I’m feeling especially generous, I’ll keep you in a cage for a while. It would probably serve as a good source of motivation to her if your feeding schedule depended on how much gold she could produce.”

Clearly Anne is just full of big ideas, Robb thought dazedly. No wonder she managed to work her way so high up the ladder.

He pulled against his bonds for what had to be the hundredth time, but once again, it proved futile.

This can’t be how it ends. There has to be a way out of this.