Page 33 of Fire Dragon Lover

“Me too,” Hailey agreed.

The doors opened suddenly,and both women scrambled to their feet. The lab-coated woman entered, flanked by the large man who had threatened Gretchen before. She went to Gretchen’s cage and unlocked her door and pulled her roughly out.

“Hey!” Hailey shouted, “Take your hands off of her!” She reached out through the bars and tried to grab the woman. The large man stepped forward and tased Hailey, who fell to the floor with a cry of pain.

“Hailey!” Gretchen screamed. “Don’t hurt her!”

The man looked at her dispassionately. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine for now. We have plans for her. Tomorrow we have a film crew coming in, and we will be executing her on film to show everyone what happens to those who betray humanity by mating with beasts.”

Gretchen gasped in horror and realized tears were pouring down her cheeks. “You’re monsters!” she sobbed, “you call them beasts, but they are far more humane than you, for all of your claims of humanity.”

He smirked. “We’re not killing you though. We’re keeping you. Well, at least until you give birth to the beast inside of you.”

“Enough.” The woman pulled Gretchen towards the door. “It’s time to get started.”

Gretchen, overcome with horror, struggled wildly, but the woman passed her along to two burly guards, and she knew they were too strong for her.

“Take her to the lab and get her strapped to the table,” she instructed. “I’ll be right behind you.”

She went limp in their grasp, and they dragged her into a laboratory and strapped her tightly to what appeared to be a surgical table. They pulled a curtain between the table and the open door and left. The woman came in and uncovered a tray full of gleaming silver instruments. She ignored Gretchen’s tears and snapped a pair of surgical gloves on her hands.

A shadow loomed up against the curtain. Gretchen’s breath hitched as she suddenly realized that it was a very familiar-looking shadow.

“Logan,” she gasped.

Forty-Five

Logan

Logan was having trouble controlling his anger, but he had to tamp it down. This woman had a scalpel to Gretchen's throat. He wanted to tear her apart with his bare hands, but he held back. One wrong move and his mate would be dead.

He wanted to talk her down, but when the woman's insane laughter filled the room, he began to have doubts about the effectiveness of negotiations. He still had to try.

"You take another step, and I'll cut her fucking head off!" the woman screamed.

Logan could smell the fear coming off of Gretchen. It made the dragon within him stir and rattle its cage. Someone threatened what was his to protect, and no dragon would allow that crime to go unpunished.

"Listen," Logan said, doing his best to sound calm. "Put the scalpel down, and you can just walk away from this. Let her go, and I let you live. You have to understand, if you kill her, you throw away the only reason I have not to kill you as slowly as I possibly can. I don't want to do that. I wouldn't want her to see that. She's the only reason you're still breathing."

Logan started to shake from the effort of not hurtling himself at this woman.

"Make the smart choice. Put the scalpel down and just walk away."

The woman took the blade away from Gretchen's throat, and Logan breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now, just take a step back," he said.

The woman grinned at him and then brought the scalpel down fast. Gretchen jerked her body and moved as much as she could with the straps holding her down and she turned what would have been a stab to the heart into a glancing shoulder wound.

Gretchen cried out in pain, and all the coiled muscles in Logan's body sprang into action. He leaped across the room. The woman pulled the weapon up and held it up as if trying to defend herself. She slashed at Logan's arm, but it was nothing compared to the bone-crushing strike to the chest he gave her that sent her sprawling to the floor.

Logan took a step towards her. She'd pay, but he wanted answers. Then the woman let out one more maniacal shriek. Logan realized too late what she was doing. He tried to get to her but couldn't before she drew the scalpel across her own throat.

Blood seeped into her coat, darkening around the seven-sided talisman over the breast pocket. Sloan had mentioned this. It all pointed to someone within Draconis Fire that had made some sort of pack with the anti-meta organization, Gideon's Torch. There were too many unanswered questions there, but at the moment, that didn't matter as much as Gretchen.

Logan tore the straps off her.

"Are you okay?" he said, looking at her shoulder.

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