Captured By The Dragon
Episode 58

Patara

They decided to brief us on the way there once they saw how serious Dylan was about leaving that instant. Everyone in the room had broken out in plans and packing all the things they might need.

Including weapons.

The sight alone made me swallow. I knew this was bigger than I expected it to be. I had hope that perhaps we could where the baby was sold and get it back from whatever family that wanted him.

But no, it was so much more than that. It was so much worse than my fears of him being simply adopted. In my heart, I knew he was still okay. He had to be alive… I would know if he wasn’t.

Dylan led me back to the van and several followed to ride with us while others broke off into their own groups. I wish I had the words for thanking them—perhaps when this was all over, I would.

For now it felt like my heart was in my throat and it choked me from saying what I wanted to. The ghost of myself followed close by and could only watch as life kept moving. I had to keep moving.

“This might take time to find them. We’ve had people watching the cities for weeks and we haven’t found exactly where they’re located yet.” Anna said as she climbed in the back seat with Eric and another man.

The man leaned forward when Dylan got in the car and looked him up and down. Dylan sensed his gaze and turned back to look at the stranger.

“Can I help you?” Dylan said with raised brows.

“Are you…. you’re really a shifter, aren’t you?” He said in awe. “What kind of shifter are you?”

“I doubt they would have taken my kid if I wasn’t.” Dylan grumbled. “I’m a dragon shifter.”

The man held out his hand. “I’m Steve and I hope to help you get him back.”

Dylan looked down at his hand for a long moment before he shook it. “Thanks, Steve. We appreciate the help.”

Steve offered a smile to me before he leaned back in his seat.

Anna leaned forward a little when Dylan started to drive. “With your shifter abilities, you might be able to locate them a lot sooner. You helped us with the last case in a fraction of the time it would have taken us on our own.”

“Shifter abilities?” I asked with brows raised. “Would you be able to find him if you were close?”

“Shifter abilities?” I asked with brows raised. “Would you be able to find him if you were close?”

Dylan glanced over at me before he focused back on the road. “The reason why I was always wanted for jobs is because I’m an excellent tracker. I might be able to sense our baby if I’m close enough with just a feeling. If there’s other children, that would be even easier for me to sense them since they’re part of my kind.”

A small bloom of hope formed in my chest. I glanced back at Anna who was texting on her phone. “You said that they change their location a lot?” I asked.

Anna set down her phone and nodded. “Any time we find them, they pick up and leave. There’s hundreds of underground buildings that nobody knows about, perhaps thousands so they have endless options to hide in.”

“How do you… save the children? Do you get the police that care to help?” I asked, honestly curious. I had no idea this was happening in the human world. How long had all these children been suffering like this? And not once did I see any cases on the news.

A bit of fear flickered inside me. I prayed that my child wouldn’t be forgotten like I almost was.

“We have to go in ourselves.” Anna bit her l*p. “They have a lot more security now and… we’ve lost a lot of volunteers to this cause. We once had thousands of people that wanted to help save these children. Now… we have less than a hundred.”

I parted my lips in surprise. “They’ve been killed trying to save these poor children?”

Anna nodded sadly. “Whenever we try to bring it up to the news or online, it never airs or posts. Someone monitors these things to make sure that the information doesn’t get out and therefore—we barely gain more help. There are more groups like us in further places, but we are all that’s left here.”

I felt sick to my stomach that anything like the anti-shifters even existed. It was fine not to trust shifters or want to be friends with them—I had been afraid my entire life because of all the things I heard about them… but to take children and torture them?

I frowned and turned forward in my seat. Dylan reached over to lay his hand on my thigh. “How do you… how are we supposed to win if their security is high?”

“They mostly carry shifter weapons.” Anna said. I glanced at Dylan but he didn’t look worried about that. I heard that one shot could take out a shifter… I didn’t want Dylan anywhere near that.

“I can get in and out of there and tear that place to the ground by myself.” Dylan said.

“You won’t do that.” I said. “No, you can’t do it alone. We all are going to help you. If they realize you’re a shifter, they’ll try to take you out first.”

“You’re mad if you think I would let you go in there, Patara—“

“I need to rescue my baby! Who knows what they’re doing to him in there—“

“You have no experience with fighting! I have fought in battles and won them on my own!” Dylan kept glancing at me as he drove. “I am not letting you in there just so I can carry your body out. I will save our baby.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “You think me waiting in this van is any better? They might find me out here alone and take me as a hostage!”

Dylan looked a little conflicted as he glanced at me. “That place is not safe, Patara. Our son needs a mother and I need you. I’m not going to risk you going in there when you have never had any training.”

I deflated in the seat next to him. “I just want to help. I don’t want to sit here and wait, it’ll kill me.”

Dylan sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “If you come inside, you realize how much danger you’ll be in?”

“I know. But they said that the place is big down there, we might need everyone we can just to find him and save others.”

“Oh, I will find him. You don’t have to worry about that.” Dylan muttered. I bit my l*p. “Alright. You can come inside but you will be at my side the entire time and you’re not to go off alone, got that?”

“Yes, of course.” I closed my hands into fists on my lap.

“Fine. Then I suppose we should go get our baby and flush out the scum that took him.”