Page 24 of Saving the Last Heir
“Joseph Anitoli,” I said, my teeth creaking as I clenched my jaw.
“Very good. Now that we’ve got the pleasantries out of the way, we can get down to business.”
The Anitoli crime family was one of the most dangerous in all of the dragon world. They were the most powerful drake family and had always envied the power of the winged dragons. If I had to guess, our downfall over the last few decades had been a pleasure for them to watch. The Anitolis were ruthless and operated within both the shifter world as well as the human, dealing in illegal drugs, guns, and the human trafficking trade—basically any shitty black market industry you could imagine. If there was anyone on the planet I’d be afraid of, it was this man and his family.
“What do you want?” I turned in a circle, glancing into the darkness of the surrounding forest and sniffing the air to catch a scent.
Hearing my sniff, Joseph chuckled. “Don’t worry, Jack. There’s no ambush waiting. I brought you here to make sure you were alone when I told you what I needed you to do. Are you ready to hear my proposal?”
What I wanted to do was tell him to go fuck himself and throw the phone into the trees, but I had to consider my sister. She was the first dragon egg ever stolen. As far as I knew, throughout all of history, the wars and skirmishes between the different races of dragons, the different races of shifters, no one had been so bold as to do something like this. I had to swallow my pride and find out what this man wanted.
“How do I know you’ve really got my sister’s egg?” I said. “This could all be bullshit.”
The odds of that were low. The fact that the egg was missing and he’d contacted me less than ten minutes after the discovery told me he had to be involved in some way, but I needed to know for sure.
“That’s a fair question,” Joseph said. “Shows you’re still thinking and not falling apart under pressure. That’s good. You’ll need that if you do what I want you to do. Hang on.”
There was a rustling sound on the other end as the man adjusted himself and then the phone vibrated, the screen showing that he was asking me to join a video call. My stomach gurgled, and I tried to keep my face stoic as I hit the button accepting the call.
Joseph looked down into the screen. His brown hair was slicked back from his close-shaven face. His dark eyes stared at me with malicious glee, and when he grinned, he showed me somewhat crooked teeth.
“There he is,” Joseph said. “Nice to see you, Jack.”
Before I could speak, he turned the phone, aiming the camera at the corner of what looked like a garage of some sort—concrete floors and painted cinder block walls, harsh bright fluorescent lights illuminating the space. Three other men stood around the large dark orange shell. Heat lamps—the same kind you put into a pet reptile cage—surrounded it. A burly man with long, greasy hair knelt and put his arm around the egg, then waved at the camera.
“Don’t you fucking touch her!” I screamed, unable to help myself as the outrage and terror overflowed within me.
The screen went dark as Joseph switched back to a regular call.
“Now, now, Jack, no need to get testy. Are you ready to hear what I need you to do now that you know I have what you want?”
“Spit it out,” I said. “Make it fast.”
“Oh, ho! Big man’s got a big mouth. I’ve heard this about you. They call you ‘The Last Alpha’. Like giving you a fancy nickname makes you more than a fucking flying lizard. Real men don’t fight in the sky. Real men fight on the ground. Like wyrms, and especially like drakes. Now, shut the fuck up and listen.
“Do you know the Torrence family? Wolf shifters?”
“I do,” I said. “I’ve heard of them.”
The Torrences were another underworld family, but rather than leaning completely into the illegal side of things, they still tried to maintain an air of respectability by keeping holdings in normal businesses too—most notably, a shipping and receiving company.
“Good,” Joseph said. “Then you know they’re a pain in my ass. I want to send them a message they can’t ignore. I’m done tiptoeing around things with them. It’s time they knew who the big dog—heh, well, the big dragon is around here.”
“Are you going to actually tell me what you want, or do I need to guess?”
“The patriarch of the family, Nico Torrence, retired to a beach in fucking Italy or Greece or somewhere a few years back. He left the entire business to his snot-nosed kid Alessio, and this kid is a bit of a fuckup. More concerned with how many supermodels he can get on his cock than honoring old agreements. He’s pushed his organization to horn in on some of the things my organization has laid claim to. Namely, the party drug scene. Molly, Special K, roofies, all that shit. We’ve been the go-to provider in East Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas fortwenty years. Now this little prick wants some of my cheddar? I don’t think so.”
“Listen, man, I’m not killing someone for you, if that’s what?—”
“Hah! No. Trust me, I wouldn’t ask some richie-rich boy like you to do that kind of dirty shit. If that’s what I wanted, I’d pay some dirtbag panther shifter to slice and dice the kid’s throat. No. I want you to send him a message. I’m going to have you take his most-prized possession.”
“And that would be?” I said, sinking down to sit on a rock as helplessness descended on me.
“What do you know about cars?”
Ipushed the memory aside. “It’s bad, yeah. My sister has been kidnapped. Uh, well.” I grimaced. “My sister’s egg has been kidnapped.”
Shyanne’s face paled. “You people lay eggs?”
