Captured By The Dragon
Episode 84

I listened to Patara explaining everything she’d seen and heard while she was captive. A part of me wasn’t sure whether or not to believe her entirely, but I pushed it aside. She was here. I could smell how relieved and happy she was to be here. That had to be enough. My doubts would have to be quiet for now.

There were bigger problems to consider. Malcolm, the human hunter, was dead. I was grateful for that, but the rest of his unit was a problem if they were still carrying rigged weapons across the border, and if they planned on continuing to supply it, this war would only grow more troublesome. It didn’t seem like that had been caught in the explosion and I didn’t remember seeing any other wreckage in the area. It was likely that they had all fled back across the border to report.

It would be time to march on the humans sooner than I had anticipated, but how soon that would be from now had yet to be decided. I kissed Patara gently, wishing I could spend more time enjoying the taste of her and the feeling of her body.

She was too injured even if I had the time for it.

I stood, “We have to get ahead of this. I need you to rest in case we have to leave, okay?”

Patara nodded, “I’ll do my best to get better soon.”

The color of her bruises worried me. The bandages were still turning red because some of her injuries weren’t closing as quickly as they should. She would be littered with more scars.

I should have tortured the tiger princess longer than I had.

I looked at Ethan who curled closer to Patara.

I smiled, “Stay with your mom, okay Ethan?”

He said nothing and didn’t move as I headed out. The werewolves were just the first on the list, but based on what the alpha said, we’d be better off continuing the momentum for at least a week. My next target would be the snakes and grinding them into the muck.

“What’s the plan?” One of them asked.

“Divide and conquer.”

I split my forces up to attack the four major snake settlements. The objective was to get as much information about where they were getting weapons, how much, and who else was defecting. Erik would be in charge of combing through whatever information he could gather through the network about defectors and we hit them hard and fast while the Tiger King was still recuperating from my attack.

I rolled out with the group heading east and blast through their defenses. They were a bit more prepared than the werewolves, but they were too busy aiming at the sky to realize that we were coming through the jungle. We caught the first line of their defenses off guard, taking their weaponry and killing the opposition as ruthlessly as possible.

These weapons were rigged as well, so we made them fire until they ran out. When the explosions started, we shifted and rushed through the lines of their defenses, scorching earth and setting off more explosives as needed.

The leader of the eastern snakes hissed and sneered at me as I found her. I slammed her to the ground and put my foot on her throat.

“How interesting that you had the nerve to agree with the Tiger King. I didn’t realize you had a taste for human women.”

She hissed, “Why would I ever want a human woman?”

“A human man then? Doesn’t matter. Where did you get your weapons from? How long have you been working with the Tiger King? Answer me and maybe I’ll let your family survive.”

Her eyes widened, “They’re just children.”

“You crossed me. What’s to stop them from doing the same in the future?”

An explosion went off nearby and she twisted, “Let me go!”

“Answer my question.”

“Murderer!”

“Your weapons are rigged. Where did you get them from?”

“Liar—”

I heard someone behind me aiming at me and shooting, barely missing before the gun exploded. I covered my face as the woman screeched beneath me in agony and grief. I could only guess that it was one of her kids.

“Stop!” She cried. “Cease fire! I drop the weapons!”

I looked down at her as she wept, “I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you, please…”

“I’m listening.”

Patara’s POV

I woke up with only Ethan at my side. Everything still hurt, but I got the sense that it had been a long time since the last time I woke up. The bed was warm around me.

“Hey,” I said, stroking Ethan’s hair. “How are you, Ethan? How is my son?”

Noises came out of his mouth, garbled little bits of words as he curled loser to me. They made my heart clench with hope. They weren’t words just yet, but the words were coming and that was better than I had ever imagined.

A woman came in to check my bandages again and bring me food. Ethan ate a plate three times the size of my bowl of soup, and we remained in the room quietly.

“Could you tell me where Dylan is?”

The woman sighed, packing up her bag, “I can ask. The last I heard he was leading an attack on the snake shifters.”

“The snake shifters?”

She nodded, “You’ve been in and out of consciousness for the past few days, but the Tiger King has declared war on Dylan and has been rallying people to his side. Dylan’s been trying to get ahead of it by putting out rebellions before they start.”

Fighting. War. It seemed like even the two years we spent apart weren’t enough fighting. Would it always be like this? Would Ethan grow up and have to fight?

“When will he be back?”

“I don’t know.”

She left us alone and I looked at Ethan who continued eating as if he would never get full. If only I wasn’t so helpless. There had to be something I could do to help.

Erik came into the room next with a grin and a limp, “Hey. Good to see you up. Hi, Ethan.”

Ethan stopped to look at him, seemingly acknowledging his presence before going back to eating.

Erik sat on the edge of the bed, “I know you’re probably feeling a bit cooped up, but I wanted to pick your brain a bit on something.”

I nodded, “Tell me.”

“Dylan said the weapons are rigged. Do you remember hearing anything about what the humans were planning?”

That was such a big question. There was so much hatred for shifters among humans. Hatred, fear, and disgust, they were fascinated and probably a little envious of their strength, but hunters made it their business to kill as many shifters as possible.

“If… I had to guess, they just want to wipe all shifters out.” I winced, “Or at least all the ones they can’t control.”

“Control?”

I looked at Ethan, “They were… studying shifter children. They abused them and held them hostage, trying to learn more about them I guess. It’s where Ethan was.”

“For what purpose?”

I shook my head. I had no idea. “Maybe they wanted to turn them into weapons against shifters, maybe they just wanted shifters to try new weapons on.”

Or maybe they were just cruel.

“Dylan’s sent word that eventually he’ll be turning the forces on the human border.”

“What?”