Page 86 of Tempting the Tiger
“Jet.”
“Nope, you’re not my alpha. You can’t make me.”
We don’t have time for this. “Ethan would tell you the same thing.”
He gives me a stubborn look. “Raj, if these people have been testing swords and grenades and who the fuck knows what else on those five missing shifters, they deserve a taste of their own medicine.”
My gut tightens, my tiger snarling at the thought of the defenceless shifters, kidnapped and brought somewhere they can’t access the animal side of themselves, facing down whatever weapons these fae have chosen to test on them. Now that we’ve finally found the base of operations, part of me is holding out hope that when we rescue Bryn and his siblings we’ll also find the men and women I’ve spent months searching for. That maybe that’s what the ‘alive’ part of Bryn’s message meant. Yet each new weapon seems to make the chances of that smaller and smaller.
“Fine, but if we die because of that thing, I will find you in the afterlife and murder you.”
He shoulder-bumps me. “Deal.
Back in the corridor, Ethan gives the signal for us to open the third door. We burst in on three fae working at computers, their wings the grey of a thunderstorm, who immediately shoot to their feet.
“BSG Task Force. Where are the dragons?” I snarl, rapidly running out of patience.
The closest two exchange a glance before firing air blasts at us, presumably in an attempt to push us back, while the one at the rear reaches for her computer.
“Stand down or we will open fire,” I say, to no effect. I belatedly repeat it as best I can in Alandrian in case there’s a language barrier.
The fae on the right screeches and rushes at us, his hands raised and wings fluttering madly. The ceiling is too low in here for any of them to fly, but we’re similarly restricted because Ayo didn’t put our charms on cords long enough to fit around our necks in our animal forms. If it wasn’t so mission-critical to wear one, I’d be shifting anyway and introducing this fae to my fangs.
Instead I look the fae dead in the eye and shoot him in the forehead. Oddly, the other two fae seem to run out of magic quickly and within minutes all three are unconscious and we’re moving on. Through this room is a server room with no other exits, so we return to the corridor and continue around the corner. If this basement is as big as the warehouse above, searching it could take a while.
My tiger urges me to hurry, as if I actually need the prodding. I will search every single room down here until I find my dragon, his siblings, and any of the missing shifters left alive, no matter how long it takes. And I’ll unleash fury on every single fucking person who gets in my way.
Chapter Twenty-One
BRYN
The yawning emptiness inside me is all too reminiscent of my time in Wargate. I sit on the cold, damp floor next to my siblings, Milo and I each with an arm wrapped around Zara as we huddle against the only solid wall in the cell and try to hold ourselves together through the searing agony. It’s exactly as I guessed—there’s a ward here just like the one around the prison. Our dragon sides are missing and along with them, all the abilities that protect us.
I’d pushed my memories of this feeling away, stuffed in a box at the back of my mind, never to be revisited. Yet this feels like my first day in Wargate all over again, when the ragged chasm felt so immense I didn’t think I’d ever recover.
Within hours, someone had offered me drugs. It was the only way many of the inmates coped. I never took anything, mainly because those who did were so addicted and dead-eyed that it seemed worse than the pain. My dragon is who I am, who I was born as. I never wanted to numb myself to that.
My sister’s body shakes with the force of her sobs. Milo is trembling and glaring at the concrete floor.
The other five cells are occupied just as Ember showed me on her phone, with one occupant in each. We’re in the last cell in the row, and with nothing but bars between us, I can see the state of each person.
The fox shifter was the first to go missing around three months ago. I’m guessing he’s the small redhead in the furthest cell. He cowers in the corner, shivering, his hair lying in matted strands in front of his face.
The smell in here is extremely pungent and none of them look particularly well fed. Even Jay in the cell adjacent to ours looks like he’s lost weight, his clothes hanging loosely on his frame after being down here for several weeks. He stares at the steady drip of water in the corridor outside the cells, his eyes more alert than those of the others.
Val, who has petite features and a wiry strength, is in the cell next to Jay. She has dried tear tracks down her dirty face, her vacant eyes show no glimmer of recognition when she looks at me, and she’s tapping her fingers rhythmically on her legs.
Next to Val is a woman with dirty blonde hair hanging in greasy clumps. Her head is tilted at an odd angle, her green eyes staring at me with an emptiness that’s haunting.
The remaining cell houses a tufty-haired person splayed out on the floor. Their chest is rising and falling rhythmically, their eyes closed, with skin so pale I’d be concerned for their continued aliveness if it weren’t for their regular breathing.
‘You shouldn’t have let them bring you here,’ Milo signs with jerky hands, his glare now directed at me. ‘You should have gotten help.’
I let go of Zara to reply, my hands shaking. ‘I wasn’t going to let them hurt either of you while I tried to figure out where you were being held. It’s me Lance wants.’
Milo’s hand movements get wilder. ‘But by coming here,you’re just playing into his hands! How is anyone supposed to find us now? You should have contacted the task force.’
I look away, my heart aching. Could Milo be right? He doesn’t know that Dhiren is actually Raj, and that I’ve been working with the task force all this time, but should I have gotten away from Aire and Ember instead of allowing myself to be captured?
