Into The Dragon's World - Brittany White Page 0,20

somewhere, patiently waiting for an opening. He had managed to get too close at the club, which meant he was too arrogant to care who saw him. That could work in their favor if he got careless, but Brady had a feeling that this guy was too smart to let himself fall into a trap. Even if he did, as a bear shifter, he wouldn’t be trapped for long.

Which meant Brady would have to take the fight to him.

Hidden in the shadows, Brady quickly undressed as he began to change. The wings were the first to appear, unfurling from his shoulder blades, stretching out to their full length. He felt the familiar vertigo of gaining height as his dragon form grew taller. His hands and feet became talons tipped with razor-sharp claws. His throat burned from the fire rising inside him. All at once, he saw the world through his dragon eyes—sharp, almost painfully clear. He raised his head to the wind and inhaled deeply.

There it was.

With a powerful leap, he took to flight, gliding over the city with his wings outstretched. Evan Wallace’s scent was sharp and pungent, easy to track even from this height. It led him away from the streets and into Central Park. And then it disappeared.

Making sure no one was near, Brady landed and folded his wings. He lowered his head to the ground and sniffed. Nothing.

It took a few minutes for Brady to orient himself. Despite the darkness, he realized that he was in the Ramble, one of the heavily forested areas of Central Park. He was near the lake, close to the Ramble Arch. The smell of bear stopped there, at the edge of the water.

He was still close, Brady thought. Hiding.

He opened his mind to allow his thoughts to be shared with any shifter in the vicinity. Evan Wallace, I will find you.

He waited for a response, but didn’t expect one. Wallace must have closed his mind off to others. Once that happened, there was usually no coming back to the community. If you cast yourself out, you stayed out. You remained an outcast from shifter society. Everyone had the right to keep their thoughts private, blocking out the world, but Wallace had gone farther than that. He was invisible.

With a low growl of frustration, Brady took to the air again. He knew that Wallace was close. He could feel it. But for now, there was nothing he could do.

He glided into the night on silent wings. Back to Casey.

13

Casey

“He did what to my apartment?” Casey shot to her feet, eyes wide with shock and anger. The thought of Evan Wallace in her home was bad enough...but this? “He peed everywhere?”

Brady nodded. He seemed to be avoiding her eyes. “Sorry to say, but yes, he did.”

Casey looked to Zack. “He’s not telling me everything. What else did you find?”

Zack glanced at Brady. Casey caught the almost imperceptible shake of Brady’s head and a flash of warning in his eyes. Zack hooked his thumbs into his rear belt loops and cleared his throat.

“He left a message on your wall. In your bedroom.” Zack glanced from Casey to Brady and back. “In blood.”

“Oh, my God…” Casey sank back down on the couch. Jasmine, sitting beside her, took her hand. Brady’s office was quickly becoming a second home to her. But now I don’t even have a first home, she thought. “What did it say?”

“Casey,” Brady said. “That’s not—”

“What did it say?” She fought the urge to raise her voice. She didn’t like being treated like a damsel in distress. It was her life, her problem, and she had the right to know what was happening.

“It said, ‘you will be with me.’” Brady sighed. “We think he used his own blood.”

Casey fell silent for a moment. “And he destroyed everything?”

Brady nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder. The weight of it was comforting, and when she put her own hand over his, the warmth of his skin seemed to spread throughout her body.

“Why would he do that?” Casey asked quietly. “I don’t understand.”

“Guys like that aren’t thinking right.” Zack leaned against the edge of Brady’s desk and folded his arms in front of his chest. “They can’t handle rejection at any level. You didn’t have to do anything to provoke him. He just fixated on you.”

“Stay with me tonight,” Jasmine said. “He doesn’t know me or where I live.”

“He probably does by now,” Zack said. “Stalkers tend to go after friends and family, too, if