“How did they get away?” Conrad asked, not taking his eyes off Vee’s face. Mira translated the question, and he saw the young woman’s expression twist, grief vivid in her eyes for just a minute before she regained control. Beside her, Ren’s gaze stayed on the road… but Conrad hadn’t missed the way he’d reached out to squeeze her shoulder, lightning fast. Vee shook her head, saying something in a low voice.
“They didn’t,” Mira explained heavily. “Only Vee and Ren made it out, she says. The whole pack was dragged into the back of a van and knocked out, and a few days later, Vee and Ren woke up on the side of the road with silver burns and no memory of where they’d been. They haven’t seen the rest of the pack since that night.”
“Why?” Conrad frowned, trying to put the disjointed pieces together. Assuming these men were from the same organization as the men who’d come for Mira last night, why had they attacked a wolf pack? And why had they released these two, but none of the others?
“They don’t know,” Mira reported after relaying the question. “But they’re trying to figure out the pattern—if there’s a pattern at all. They say it’s not just their pack. They say it’s been happening for a while, that a lot of other shifters they’re in touch with have reported similar stuff… I didn’t even know there were shifters in the city at all, let alone a wholenetworkof them.”
Conrad nodded absently, but he kept feeling his gaze drawn towards the road—and he could see that the wolves were likewise uneasy about standing out here like this in broad daylight. Makeshift disguises or no, it would be pretty clear to anyone who knew what they were looking for that there was a meeting of shifters going on. When Conrad looked back, Vee was saying something to Mira, who hesitated, the uncertainty clear in her body language as she replied slowly. Then she turned to Conrad.
“They have a car,” she said. He had a feeling he knew where she was going with this… and he fought the urge to shut his eyes and groan. “They’ve offered us a lift to my aunt’s.” He waited for the catch, but Mira seemed to be waiting for his response.
“In exchange for…?”
“They just want to help,” Mira said, frowning at him a little. “They’ve lost people. They know we’re going through the same thing, so they want to help. Is that so hard to believe?”
“No,” he forced himself to say, though he didn’t mean it. There wasn’t time to get into the ancestral distrust that dragons and wolves bore each other… especially when he wasn’t sure exactly how that translated in this world. For what felt like the thousandth time since he’d gotten here, he wished he could talk to Lana, just for a few minutes.
But he couldn’t. He was here alone. And he didn’t trust either of these young wolves, but neither of them was exactly in a position to be choosy about what help they accepted, were they? So he hoisted a smile he didn’t feel onto his face and nodded his agreement. The relief on Mira’s face was enough to make him feel better about the decision for at least a few minutes… but as they headed back towards the gas station, he felt unease begin to gnaw at his stomach again.
He’d play along, he told himself firmly. But he’d stay vigilant, too.
Chapter 17 - Mira
Just a regular day, Mira thought faintly as she climbed into the back seat of perhaps the most beaten-up pickup truck she’d ever seen. Just going on a quick road trip with a dragon she’d met in her dreams and a couple of punk rock werewolves they’d met in a gas station. Couldn’t be more normal. At some point, she knew, her mind was going to decide that it had had enough of this madness. Maybe it already had. Maybe this was all some kind of deeply convincing hallucination brought about by a complete mental collapse… a comforting thought, but not one she could believe for long. She’d always been too practical to come up with something this deeply weird.
The car started on the fifth attempt, the young wolf who’d introduced himself as Ren not seeming concerned by the spluttering engine or the way the whole car seemed to shudder into life. Sitting beside her in the back seat, stiff and composed as always, Conrad barely lifted an eyebrow at the sound. Easy for him to feel safe in a car like this, she thought crossly. He’d only learned cars existed at all twenty-four hours ago.
Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers, wasn’t that the saying? And she was incredibly grateful to these young people for offering their help. Conrad didn’t trust them, she could sense that much from the way he’d been looking at them since they’d introduced themselves, but there was something about them that Mira liked. Maybe it was the way their gentle voices stood in sharp contrast to their somewhat intimidating appearances. Or maybe it was what Vee had said, when she’d offered to drive them both where they needed to go—that she knew what it felt like to be worried about family.
Heather could handle herself in a crisis, Mira told herself firmly as the truck merged onto the highway and they began the long drive. Vee had typed the address into her phone and set it on the dashboard to direct Ren, whose own battered phone seemed to be dedicated to the task of choosing music. Based on their outfits, she’d expected an unbroken wall of loud, discordant guitars, or maybe some angry rap music. But the playlist was a great deal more eclectic than she’d expected.
“Pack playlist.” Vee was twisted around in the front seat so she could see Mira and Conrad in the back seat. “We all get to have ten songs on there, and we always put it on shuffle, no complaints.”
“This is Arrow’s,” Ren said softly, nodding at the stereo, which had just started playing a mournful piece of classical music. “He was always an expert at bringing down the mood.”
“Heis,” Vee said sharply, her head snapping around and her silver eyes flashing. For a moment, Mira could almost see the wolf in her, snarling, hackles raised and teeth bared. Then the moment passed, and there was only the scrawny young woman in the passenger seat, glaring at her brother. “Heisan expert.”
“That’s what I said.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Vee growled. “You used the past tense. Like he was dead or something.”
“Is everything alright?” Conrad was looking at the wolves intently.
“Everything’s fine,” Mira told him, reaching out to squeeze his hand in reassurance. He relaxed, but only a little. “You know how siblings get.”
“What language is that, anyway?” Vee asked, setting the disagreement with her brother aside once he’d lapsed into a brooding silence. “Doesn’t sound like anything anyone speaks around here.”
“I don’t think anyone does, really,” Mira said, glancing sideways at Conrad. “They’re asking about your language.”
“Is it a dragon thing?” Vee pressed. “It’s cool if it’s a secret or whatever, I get it, but… well, we don’t really meet many dragons.”
“Neither do I,” Mira said faintly. She translated the question for Conrad, feeling a little unnerved by how easily she seemed to slip in and out of the language. Wasn’t this the kind of thing that usually took people years to master? Through Mira, Conrad explained that the language was the only one he spoke, but that he didn’t necessarily know that it was Draconic in origin.
“So everyone speaks—that, where you’re from?” Vee directed her questions to Conrad, though her silver eyes always slid back to Mira for the translation. “All shifters, or just wolves and dragons?”
The question seemed to surprise Conrad when she translated it, and he hesitated a moment before asking for clarification. Worried she’d overestimated her translation abilities, Mira checked the question with Vee again, then repeated it.
“You know,” Vee said helpfully. “Like, bears and coyotes and panthers and stuff.”