In a Dragon’s Dream by Riley Storm Page 0,55

be around, mister.”

“Oh. Um. Okay,” he said sheepishly.

She kissed him.

“I’ll give you all the time in the world,” he whispered when they broke apart for air several minutes later.

“You’ll have to do that later,” another voice said, interrupting them.

She stiffened as Rakell looked up and over the back of the couch.

“Pierce,” he said, confused. “What is it?”

Laura knew it must be serious. Pierce was the leader of Clan Teres, and she didn’t imagine him interrupting them unless it was necessary.

“We have something,” Pierce rumbled. “We have to go. Now.”

Chapter Thirty

Rakell

“You’re sure about this?” he asked as they crouched behind a fallen tree, the thick trunk shielding them from view unless they stood up.

“According to our source, they’ve seen some rather suspicious activity going on. They rented the cabin to a party online. You know how that is these days. Sight unseen, basically. But today they came over to grab some things from the shed, and noticed a lot of torn up ground, what looked like giant paw prints, and evidence of far more people than should have been there.”

Rakell nodded, listening to Blede repeat what he’d already been told, and trying to figure out if they were actually about to storm a Cado hideout near Five Peaks, or if it was just a group of college students causing trouble.

My money is on the latter.

“How did they contact us?” he asked, trying to find that link.

“They didn’t. They contacted the Sheriff’s department.”

Rakell understood now. One of the Clan Aterna dragons had a mate who was a member of the department.

“How come we got the call instead of their team?” he asked, watching the cabin through the trees, trying to see any signs of habitation.

The rustic log cabin was set in the foothills of Mount Atrox, home to another of Five Peaks’ dragon clans. That proximity should have meant discovery of any Cado base. On any of the other dragon-occupied mountains, they would have been located early on.

Unfortunately, Clan Atrox had fallen onto hard times. Their last clan head, Victor Atrox, had been killed by a shapeshifter that had breached the Gate with help of several traitorous dragons. The shapeshifter had gone on to impersonate Victor for nearly four months.

The damage that it had caused to the Atrox clan in that time had been nearly catastrophic, and though weeks had passed, inner turmoil was preventing them from electing a new head. They were in shambles and, for the time being, not overly effective.

Thus, the Cado, if it was one of their bases, could have moved in easily and gone undetected.

“We’re the closest,” Blede, the team leader, said with a shrug. “Coincidence really.”

“I wonder if this is where the decision was made to try and nab Laura,” Rakell said, teeth bared in a silent snarl. If he ever got his hands on the asshole that had ordered that, he would burn them alive from the inside out.

“We won’t know unless we find someone in there,” Blede said, trying to placate his angry team member.

Rakell turned his attention back to the cabin. They were looking down at it from further up the mountain. Two other team members were getting into position at the base, while one each was moving in from the sides.

Perfect pincer movement. So far they hadn’t been noticed. Not as far as Rakell could tell, at least. The two-story cabin had plenty of windows, and the lights were all dark. The only thing the dragons had to see by was the moon.

That provided plenty of light for them, but even as he switched his vision over to infrared, Rakell could pick up no sources of heat. Not even the house itself.

“It appears empty,” he said, lost in thought. Were they too late?

“Bottom right,” Blede hissed.

“I see,” Rakell said, his attention having already been pulled by the brief hint of red.

A heat source. It was there, then it was gone.

“They’ve got bloody heat-reflective curtains hanging up,” Rakell hissed as he shifted his vision back to the normal spectrum and saw the curtain still swaying slightly. “That’s why we can’t detect anything. It’s blocking the heat, and we can’t see in.”

Blede growled his agreement. They had them. That was the surest sign yet that the Cado were operating out of the cabin.

“Easy,” Blede said as Rakell pulled his legs under him, preparing to spring over the log and charge.

“We still have to wait for the others to get into position.”

Off to the right, there was a bark of surprise, then a shout. A