Captured By The Dragon
Episode 31

Patara

The man reached his hand out to me. I hesitated for a moment before I took it and let him pull me up. The closer I was to him made me realize that he was a human. A normal man that couldn’t have been older than mid twenties.

There was no hint of shifter on him, he was the most human thing she had seen in this land so far. And that brought a new sense of relief inside her that coated every inch of her.

“Are you alright, Patara?” He asked. His voice sounded so far away from my mind, I didn’t know how to push away the sound of the ringing in my ears.

My lips parted, but nothing came out. He gently wrapped his arm around me and led me to the door. “It’s alright, we’re going to get you out of here. My name is Malcom—“

“How… how did you find me here? Are my parents okay?” I asked when I finally found my voice again. It sounded even weaker than I felt.

“Your parents are fine. They’ve been worried about you since you were taken.” He said. I watched as his team moved through the house into different rooms. Were they checking for more girls?

“As for how we found you, you’re to thank for that. We got a ping from that call in this area and it was enough to track you here. We’ve been waiting for days for the opportunity to save you. I almost thought Dylan would never leave.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I followed him out of the house. He gripped my arm lightly and led me over to a large rock across the path. It was a bit of a way from the house but not far enough that I couldn’t still see everything about it.

“This should be far enough.” He whispered. I made a confused noise when he made me kneel down behind the rock with him.

“For what—“

“Ready!” A loud voice boomed from inside the house. His team of men came running out of the house and basically threw themselves behind the rock the moment they were near it. Malcom gripped the back of my head and made me duck further just as a loud explosion erupted in front of us and almost blew me back further into the forest.

The smell of ash hit my nose first. It was everywhere around me quicker than I would have guessed possible. I would never forget the sound—it shook through me and planted in my memory to never be forgotten.

I kept my head down for a long, long moment. My ears rang even louder from the explosion to the point where I couldn’t hear a thing. Even as I looked up to gaze at Malcom, I couldn’t hear a word out of his mouth. What… what was he saying?

Dylan’s house was in pieces right in front of me. My eyes widened as I took in the sight of his once beautiful, gothic looking house that was now nothing but pieces of wood and flames.

“….We have to go before someone comes to investigate the noise. His house is far away, but shifters have amazing hearing.” Malcom said. His voice came back to me in a sudden wave that was startling.

I turned to look at him slowly. My body trembled as he helped me stand.

“We couldn’t leave a trace behind.” He explained as he guided me through the dangerous trees. My mind was too far away to be afraid of what might be lurking in the shadows. “We need Dylan to believe you’re dead. If not, he would tear through every area in our world until he found you.”

“Won’t he be suspicious?” I heard myself asking. It didn’t sound right to my ears. Nothing felt real, part of me thought I was only dreaming and I would wake up and this all would be the same as it was before.

“No, my team planted shifter made explosives. You can’t find those in the human world.” Malcom made sure she didn’t trip over any rocks or branches as they navigated the forest. They were so far from the road, she knew that no one would notice if they passed by.

“Wait!” I gripped his arm and stopped. His whole team froze to stare at me as if they were running out of patience.

“What is it?” Malcom asked. His eyes locked on mine without a hint of annoyance.

“Cindy! She’s another girl that was taken with me. I—I know that one of Dylan’s soldiers has her and I don’t know what they’re doing with her but we have to save her too!” I gripped his arm.

Malcom’s face saddened at her words. “Another girl? We hadn’t gotten a report of another girl… how old was she?”

“She has to be around 10. I tried to beg Dylan to let her stay with me but he let one of his friends take care of her… please. We have to save her, she’s just a child.”

I could see Malcom’s face for the first time as sunlight shined on his skin. He had a small scar along his jaw, but that didn’t distract from his handsome features that were sharp and soft in just the right places.

He scratched his jaw and looked at me as if he knew he was about to give me bad news. “Patara, we can’t risk going after Cindy right now. Our plan has already been set in motion and I have to return you back to your family before this all blows up in our faces.”

“But—please! She’s so young, she doesn’t deserve this!” I begged. I was careful not to raise my voice, but it was getting harder.

Malcom sighed. “Okay, I’ll tell you what… after I return you home safe, you can tell me everything you know about Cindy and where she might be. Once we know this, I will come back here and find her myself.”

I raised my brows a little. “You will?” I whispered. I didn’t expect him to actually give into my request. I thought he would have fought me until he had to physically carry me back to the human world.

Malcom put his fist over his heart. “I swear it. I will come back here to find Cindy and bring her back to the human world.”

I let out a long breath of relief and nodded.

“Sir, we have to get going if we want to make it before sundown. The darkness isn’t safe out here.” One of his men said.

It was the first group of men that didn’t look at me as if she was an object. They didn’t stare as if they had never seen a woman before, they looked at me with kindness even when they were annoyed.

I should feel safe, shouldn’t I? The further I got from Dylan, the more I started to miss him and my relief was quickly replaced with regret. What would he do when he found out I was gone?

“We better get going, then.” Malcom said. He glanced down at me with a tired smile. “We have a lot of ground to cover.”