Captured By The Dragon
Episode 87

Dylan

I felt lighter than I had in a long time. Even if war was coming, at least, I had a shot at real happiness hovering in the future.

“Erik,” I called, “Can you get a meeting together. We need to talk about what’s going to happen next.”

“I’m on it.”

Erik was just starting to fully recover after his run-in with the tiger princess and her lackeys. He had just the faintest hint of a limp now.

“Shouldn’t I go?” Patara asked. I eyed her.

“I’d rather have you on bedrest.”

“But I talked to Malcolm before he died.”

“That hunter?”

She hadn’t said that he’d been there. A bit of doubt crept up as Patara nodded, stroking Ethan’s hair.

After she’d planned to escape, she climbed out of the window using a sheet. Malcolm was there with his unit dropping off weapons.

“He covered for me and put me in his car. I asked him to take me back to you and Ethan, but he refused.” Her lips twitched, “I ran us off the road.”

I nodded slowly, “I’m… glad that you got out of the crash safely.”

“There was something strange about it though. Malcolm’s not the type to make a deal with shifters and they were all eager to leave as soon as they dropped off the weapons.” She winced, “He… he died in the explosion I think while I was trying to escape.”

“That’s because they’re rigged to explode,” I huffed and considered it.

It was possible that the hunters had some sort of detonators, but I wasn’t certain of that. It would be too obvious and they wouldn’t be able to make sure that as many people ended up dead as possible.

“Stay in bed,” I told Patara. I ruffled Ethan’s hair. “Look after your mom, alright? If we need any more information, I’ll come back.”

“Dad,” Ethan said looking up at me. “Go?”

My lips twitched, “Just for a little while. Stay with your mom, okay?”

I kissed his head then Patara before leaving. Jealousy stirred in me. It was ridiculous since he was dead, but Malcolm had been the same hunter who had taken Patara from my home and across the border. He’d been alone with her.

He’d agreed to help Patara replace Ethan. I didn’t know much about hunters, but I was sure that if we captured a few of them we could get some information out of them.

Erik had managed to get enough people together and as expected they’d brought a few of the weapons with them, the older version and the newly rigged version.

“We managed to capture a few hunters. They weren’t easy to crack,” she smirked, “But that’s never stopped me before.”

I grinned at her, recognizing her. She had a personal vendetta against hunters, and while I wanted peace, I didn’t stop her from seeking her personal vengeance whenever she needed.

“Between them and the snakes, we’ve found out enough to say that this plan has been in the works for a while,” Erik said pulling up a map. “We think that the main factory is somewhere near here. It’s not too far inside the human territory that we couldn’t hit it if we needed, but there’s another problem.”

“What’s that?”

“There’s been some talk and a bit of evidence that they’ve either built or are building a weapons plant at the edge of the tiger territory.”

He pulled up the information and kept talking as I looked over it. It was thought to be back up against some mountains and undercover.

“There’s been an uptick in human kidnapping, not just female, but males too.”

“How do you know that?”

“We’ve sent spies across the border to get a read on the situation. There’s a human convention coming up about something they’re calling the Shifter Offensive. We don’t know if the tigers are building this factor on their own or with help, but I’ve got a feeling that it’s worse than we think.”

“If this factory explodes, how many people will be hurt?”

“Whoever is nearby, but I think they’ve got something else under their sleeve. The weapons that are rigged are dangerous, but mostly harmless if you don’t use them.”

I nodded, “What do you think then?”

“I think they may have found some way to kill us long range.”

“Missiles?”

“Maybe or a sickness.”

I narrowed my eyes at them, “A sickness?”

Erik showed me all the information they’d gotten from a hunter. All the children they had taken were used to help develop shifter weaponry. I supposed they found some way to get them sick enough in a way that would work against older shifters as well.

Something in the air, but they wouldn’t risk it affecting humans.

“Still, it makes no sense to have it at the edge of tiger territory. It’s too remote.”

“That’s what we don’t understand either.”

I stood, “Then we should go investigate it. As for the factory over the border, if we replace that where the weapons are coming from and the humans are really in league with the tigers then we’ll discuss it then.”

It would be risky to launch an attack on their factory without being absolutely sure and without having more information.

“Scouts called from the area we think is the factory. They confirm the tiger king is there.”

I smirked, “Good. Let’s go pay him a visit.”

We took human jeeps towards the jungle and changed direction to make it seem as though we’d crossed the borders. Using the old shifter weaponry, we cut through the few scouts that seemed to want to stop us. It wasn’t hard and we didn’t give them a chance to warn anyone.

When we reached the area, I smell silver and gunpowder and grit my teeth. I smelled humans too. Near the large building there was a smaller house. I pulled my hood up and got out of the car. We made a show of unloading weapons to keep our cover when I got the scent of the tiger king coming from the house.

A few of his lackeys directed us to take the weapons into the building, but the leader was meant to go to the house. I left the rest of my subordinates to follow through with the plan before following the group towards the house.

A human woman opened the door with a metal collar around her neck. She was naked and covered in bruises. Her head was lowered and she stepped aside to let me inside.

I didn’t hesitate to take out the two shifters inside. They were too busy f*****g to think I was a threat to them. I covered the mouths of the women beneath them and nodded towards the other room.

Their eyes watered as I rolled the man’s body off of her. She stood on shaky legs. Two other women helped the other woman up and dragged her towards the other room. The scent of her b***d irked me. As soon as the door closed behind them, I headed further into the house, following the scent of the tiger king.

The air heated and I heard a high-pitched sound before I dove aside. The wall exploded beside me and I heard him laughing.

“I was wondering when you’d show up, Dylan. I smelled you the moment you walked in the house.”

I smirked, “I’m glad you started to make peace with your pending death.”

He fired again, the shots were getting closer, but as I avoided them, I took a chance to see what weapon he was wielding. It looked like a rigged one.

The idiot was going to kill himself. I smirked. While I wanted to rip him apart for what he’d done to Patara, I decided it was best to make sure he was dead even if I didn’t get to rip his insides out.

I dove aside, counting shots before making it back down the hall to the room where the women were. They shrieked looking at me in fear and cowering against the other side. I barricaded the door and hurried to the other side of the room to break out the window. I covered the broken glass with a rug off the floor and started to lift them out of the window as he began to beat at the door. Another shot was fired as I lifted the last woman out and began to climb out after them.

“Head back towards the building!”

The door burst open with another shot and I landed as he roared behind. I heard him getting to the window and heard the last shot fired. I felt the bullet shoot past me and hit the side of the building, cutting through the cheap tin like paper before the air heated sharply and shook with the explosion.

Shifters came out of the tin building as my subordinates launched into action, tackling them to the ground and knocking them out when they could, shooting them when necessary.

The house blazed behind me. I couldn’t make out the figure of the tiger king through the flames, but I smiled.

It wasn’t as bloody as I would have liked, but it was fitting.