Captured By The Dragon
Episode 68

Malcom

“What do you mean you don’t know where Patara is?” I asked Sherry. It had been raining for days and Patara hadn’t returned any of my calls since I saw her last and told her about the baby. I called her more times than I wanted to admit—but still she didn’t answer. After a dozen or so tries, I finally decided to knock on her door and see what happened.

“I don’t know where she is. She left days ago.” Her mother said with a lightness to her tone. She shrugged it off as if it didn’t matter. It was so different from the way she acted when Patara was first taken. When she had tears in her eyes and cried about never seeing her daughter again.

Or did she cry because she was afraid of how it might look to the outside world? To this day, I couldn’t tell but I had a good guess.

“Is she a missing persons—“

“No, no. Don’t start with any of that. I don’t want this out in the news, she just left.” Sherry said. She glanced out around me as if she was worried that someone might overhear us. I furrowed my brow in confusion. “She left, I let her go. She’s not missing and no I don’t know where she is at the moment.”

“I’m sorry, I have a hard time understanding what you mean. Do you have another house she is staying at—or help me understand where your 17 year old daughter went. It’s not normal for mothers to allow their young daughters to leave without somewhere else to go. Especially after what happened to her.”

Sherry sighed as she looked me up at down. She looked as if I was a new problem that she hadn’t considered before and gestured for me to follow her inside. If I had a child that was gone, I would have been a lot more upset than how she looked.

When we got to the sitting room, she motioned for me to sit. No longer did she try and offer me tea or take my coat. She only looked as if she wanted me to leave. Even the house was so much darker than it was when I entered all those weeks ago. As if all of the light had been pulled out of it.

“Patara has decided that she doesn’t want to live in this world anymore.” Her mother said simply. “I didn’t stop her and I don’t need this information getting out—“

“She doesn’t want to live in this world… You’re saying… she wants to live in the shifter world?” I asked and leaned back in shock.

“Shhh, please don’t repeat any of this. Our family wants to be separated from her actions… Patara already agreed that she wasn’t my daughter anymore.” Sherry glanced at the front door as if she was worried someone would come in and hear their conversation. “She wasn’t happy here. She wanted to be in that world with that…beast.”

I looked up at Sherry. “Beast? You mean her child?”

Sherry flinched at the word and shook her head. “Not that one. I saw her from the window… she ran into the arms of one of those shifters and he led her away from here.”

I froze. Every inch of me froze at her words. I almost wanted to believe that I had heard them wrong. There was no way that Patara had gone back to the shifter world… not with him. I saved her from him—this wasn’t right.

“What did he look like… this shifter man you saw?” I asked carefully.

“He had dark hair and wore black clothes. He looked about a foot taller than her.” Sherry scoffed. “He was horrifying. I almost called to report him but I didn’t want my name to be plastered in the news if Patara was caught with him.”

I knew who she saw was Dylan. But it just didn’t make sense… she wanted me to save her—she thanked me for saving her.

“And you just let her go with him? Why did she go with him?” I asked. Sherry looked a little surprised at the question but I was more surprised that she would let her go. After everything she went through to get her back—it didn’t make sense.

“We got in an argument and she left. She didn’t want to live here anymore so I let her go.” Sherry said simply. I knew then what they must have argued about—Patara must have confronted her about the child.

How did Dylan replace her? How did he remain so undetected through this town and past the borders? I did everything I could to try and prevent him from ever getting near her again, and now he had her.

She was probably back in his land now. I knew that she wasn’t ready to date another man after what happened, but I could feel her opening up to the idea. I knew all I needed was patience and giving her space until she was ready.

Perhaps I gave her too much space. I should have tried harder. If I had, perhaps it would be my shoulder she cried on instead of a horrible shifter.

I stood. “Thank you for your time.” I said before I headed for the door. That mother didn’t deserve my thanks or kindness. She let her daughter go back to a shifter after everything we had done to get her back.

Each step I took away from the house felt like I was leaving a trail of fire behind. I stopped at my car and touched the small dents across the side that I noticed the morning after I dropped her off.

Dylan did this. He found her that night and I was too distracted to notice. How did he replace her? Her address was kept from the news and any public knowledge—how did he replace her?

I curled my hands into fists and got in my car. I knew it was a mistake to not make my intentions clear. If I had, she would have known that there was a normal man here in the human world ready to take her as she was. I didn’t care what her past contained—I only wanted her.

I drove away from their house and went straight to the station. Anyone that tried to stop me for a conversation was ignored. This was wrong—I had more information on her child and I couldn’t even give it to her.

My hands curled and uncurled as I stared at the documents across my desk. Her beautiful face smiled up at me from one of her school photos. It was wrong to be attached to someone I saved but…

No. There was no way a girl like this had chosen a shifter over me. There was no way that she was in her right mind. Perhaps Sherry was confused and didn’t realize that Patara was being taken again—but I knew.

I knew I had to go back there and save her again. I had to bring her back here for myself.