In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,13

and crime. If he could wipe them all out with a thought, he wouldn’t hesitate. They sullied the name of the good dragons, those of Five Peaks and their European cousins.

And now they had Sam. He’d texted Laura, to confirm she was okay, though he’d neglected to mention that the Cado had grabbed Sam on her way to work. He wanted Laura to rest easy.

“Rakell.”

He jerked as someone spoke, the noise sounding like a gunshot among the stealthily moving dragons.

“What?”

“Isn’t that the entrance we’re supposed to take?” Lara asked quietly.

The female dragon shifter was the team’s third. Rakell trusted her opinion, and even as he looked around now, he realized she was right. He’d run them right past the tunnel entrance.

Get your mind in the game. Forget Laura for now, that’s just a showy thing, a goodwill gesture. This, this is what matters. The Cado. Blede’s mate. Rescuing a human. Focus!

The thoughts sat ill with him to a degree. Like they weren’t entirely true, but Rakell shunted that aside and motioned for the rest of the team to follow him deep into the side tunnel. They couldn’t afford to be late.

Picking up the pace they wound their way back upward, taking a side passage through a natural cave system that would meet back up with the cavern that Blede was headed to.

Sounds reached them, and the dragons slowed their pace, moving in complete silence as they approached the noise.

“Blede!”

Rakell heard the woman’s voice shout the team leader’s name. That was the first signal.

A moment later two women came rushing into the side passage. Rakell pointed wordlessly and Kayb gathered them up and went down the tunnel, back the way they’d come, moving them to a safe distance.

Not just safe for themselves, but for the dragons. The fight that was happening in the cavern, and was about to grow larger when the rest of the team got involved, would require them to use all their powers.

They needed to keep that secret from Sam, who was not aware of dragons and their existence.

Rakell watched her go, wishing he could ask her just briefly about Laura, about how she was doing, but he refrained, waiting for the right moment. A voice from out in the cavern interrupted them. It was Nisour, one of the Cado higher-ups, who was trying to kill Blede.

“You find this funny?” Nisour was barking. “You and your little cretins are on death’s door. I can hear them scuffling around back there, making terrified noises. Come out little ones.”

The Cado was referring to Sam and Kristin of course, but they were now safely gone with Kayb.

He only pointed at Lara, the smallest of the team, and the two of them set off into the cavern. Rakell was hunched way down, practically duck-walking to keep his shadow as small as possible, while Lara acted like Kristin, ‘protecting’ him even as she tried to shrink a bit as well to disguise herself as human.

“It’s okay,” Blede said as they approached, pretending to shiver in fear as if they were human. “Nisour here was just getting all overconfident about his plans to kill me.”

“Well that doesn’t seem very nice of him,” Lara said, standing up straight.

Rakell did the same.

“This the one you were talking about, Boss?” he growled. “The one responsible for Prate’s death?”

Blede’s grin became a ghostly smile. “I’m sure he was involved somehow.”

“Good enough for me,” Rakell said as the rest of the team emerged and prepared themselves for battle, scales covering their bodies, fire blasting from palms and lighting the entire cavern.

After that, things became a blur as battle was joined. Blede found himself squared off against a fire dragon like himself, the two using superheated streams of fire, heating the air until it was near roasting in the cavern.

The occasional blast of frost would cool things as Lara’s fight with a frost dragon spilled over, but Rakell didn’t have time to see how she was doing. His opponent was highly skilled, and powerful, and he would need all his focus to ensure he defeated him and went home to Laura in one piece.

Laura isn’t ‘home’, he corrected, earning himself a blast that he took on one scale-covered shoulder, the heat popping several of his protective scales free. The bright red scales withered and blackened on the cavern floor.

Rakell snarled at the pain and at himself for getting distracted. He launched a series of fireballs at his opponent, staggering him. The Five Peaks shifter used that distraction to close swiftly,