Dragon Scorned

36. Nikolai

Ihated leaving River like I did, but I had no choice. Dr. Kayortie messaged me saying my sister finally arrived at the hospital. River would be fine, she had three of her mates with her.

I shifted, flying at lightning speed through the dark sky. I didn’t even need to cause a snowstorm, the night sky hid me well enough without it. I pushed my body to the limit, flying through the sky at record speed.

Once the hospital came into view, I dove, shifting before I reached the ground. I landed on two feet, stumbling a moment before I caught myself. I ran the rest of the way, reaching the back door that was propped open for me. Snagging the scrubs Doc always leaves for me, I slid the pants on, forgoing the top.

“Doc?” I hollered into the small space, he wasn’t at his normal spot behind his desk. I paced the floor, knowing I couldn’t go anywhere. The moment I left this room, the alarms would go off.

We were still trying to figure out a way to disarm them, so I could freely move throughout the building. It would make my job a lot fucking easier. Moonbeam had a security system unlike anything I’ve ever dealt with. All the doors inside the building had a sensor on them. If anything went into or out of a room that wasn’t on record, the alarms sounded.

The only reason I was able to get into Doc’s lab was because we kept setting it off, so Doc demanded it be removed because it was malfunctioning. He told them with the supernaturals he brought in here the alarm kept going off, which was a lie. It was me setting it off, but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

Security complied, though, and removed the sensor to the door leading outside from his office. Now, we just needed to figure out how to get access to the rest of the building. I pulled at my hair, waiting for Dr. Kayortie to show up. He better fucking hurry up, too, because I was two seconds away from losing my shit.

I tapped into my connection with River, the feeling of her calmed me. She was still fine, I was just getting ready to mess with her when the doc walked in.

“It’s about fucking time.” I hissed at him.

He pushed his thick black glasses up the rim of his nose before walking over to his computer. “Your sister is being delivered in fifteen minutes to have her blood drawn. I’ll get rid of the guards so you can talk to her, but I need you to disappear first.”

“Roger that, doc. I’ll wait outside.”

He nodded to me before I walked back out the door I just came through. My body was shaking with nervousness, it has been twelve years since I’ve seen my sister. Would she even recognize me? More importantly, would I recognize her? She was three when the hunters took her, and now she’s fifteen. I know a lot of time has passed, but there was a part of me that knew I would recognize her.

She was my sister, she was the whole reason why I started working with the doc to save supernaturals in the first place. He didn’t like what Moonbeam was making him do, it went against all his morals. I only happened upon him by chance, quite literally running into him while I was trying to break into this very place.

He told me all about Moonbeam and how they were trying to extinguish the human race. We formed a pact and have been working together to take them down from the inside. It has been a long journey, and finally, I felt like it was starting to pay off.

I paced back and forth, stopping when the door finally opened, and Doc popped his head out.

“She’s here, but I need to tell you…she’s not exactly stable. Tread lightly, Nikolai.” His face twisted in a painful expression as my stomach bottomed out.

I followed him inside, immediately laying eyes on Caterina. She was strapped to a wheelchair, eyes darting around all over the room before landing on mine. I thought I saw a flash of recognition before it was gone, replaced with the look of a caged animal. Her chest was rising and falling with fast, frantic breaths.

My heart broke, looking at her face to face. I walked in front of her, kneeling down so I was eye level with her.

“Caterina.” My voice was soft and gentle. I reached out to place my hand over hers. Her body jerked against the bindings, trying to get away from my touch. She thrashed against the chair, hissing and jerking her head side to side.

I released my hold and took a step back. “What did they do to her?”

I didn’t take my eyes from hers as I spit the question. I saw the swirl of light blue in her navy eyes, almost consumed by her blown pupils.

“They”re giving her a cocktail of drugs to keep her from shifting. It’s driving her mad.” He said, pulling out a tourniquet, needles, and five vials.

My dragon growled within me. How dare they suppress her beast. No wonder she was acting like a caged animal, our dragons were not meant to be locked up. It would eventually drive us to insanity.

“What are we going to do?” I asked him, watching as he stuck the needle in the crook of my sister”s arm to draw blood from her. There were multiple tracks all along both her arms, showing me how many times this regularly gets done. She didn”t even flinch at the pinch of the needle as it slid underneath her skin.

“What we do with all the others. I’ll figure out what we can safely take her off of. Get her coherent and then break her out.”

Right, just like what we have done countless times. Fuck, why wasn’t my brain working? I just wanted to snatch her up right now, but I knew better than that. If we didn’t slowly take her off the drugs they were giving her, we risked losing her to her own mind. She would go insane, and there was no bringing her back from that point.

It has happened a few times, the supernaturals got taken off the drugs too fast, and they snapped. Went so crazy that Moonbeam put them down. I wouldn’t let that happen to Caterina, though, I would get her out.

I watched as the doc finished up, not wanting her to go, but knowing I could do nothing to help her right now. We had to do this the right way.

A pang hit in my mind, it felt like I was just punched in the gut. I doubled over, clutching my arms around my middle. Fuck, what the hell?

I immediately reached for the link I had with River, something wasn’t right. This pain could only be coming from her. When I reached to enter her mind I was met with a black wall.

“Fuck,” I roared, turning and heading for the door.

Another gut-wrenching burst of pain hit me, and I knew something was wrong.

“Doc, I’ll call you later. I need to go.”

I didn’t wait for his reply, just burst out of the door, running and shifting as soon as I was clear of the building. My dragon roared into the night sky.

Another jolt of pain shook my body, and I beat my wings faster while relentlessly pounding against the mental block River had up. Whatever pain she was feeling, it was strong enough to affect me.

Let me in, star. Fuck, please. I beat my wings faster, flying to the abandoned building I left her at earlier in the day. I swear I will kill those fuckers if anything happens to her. I will slit their throats and watch them bleed out slowly.

I pounded against the wind around me, pushing my body to the brink of breaking. The world blinked by me below.

Finally, I felt River”s wall crumble. A mix of terror and pain slammed into me, causing me to falter in my flight.

I shook my head, quickly recovering and righting myself before I plummeted to the ground.

I’m coming, my star. Just hang on. I’m coming for you. I will kill everyone who hurt you.

I screamed into her mind. Her fear was too much. I couldn’t get a clear picture of what was going on, but I knew it was bad.

My dragon roared again as I picked up speed, I only had a couple more minutes to go before I reached her. I just hope my body didn’t give out before I got there. I was pushing the boundaries of my breaking point, but I didn’t care. My mate was in trouble and the devil himself wouldn’t be able to stop me in my need to get to her.

Another wave of emotions flooded into me from River. Terror, betrayal, anger, confusion…they were pounding against my brain.

Natalia…

River whispered the name of her best friend into my mind before my connection to her was severed. I could feel she wasn’t dead, just unconscious. That sent a mix of relief and fear through my body. This had to be the work of the hunters, but why would she say Natalia’s name?

Maybe the hunters took her, and Nat got away. I was hoping for a miracle as I beat my wings against the sky. I wasn’t fucking flying fast enough. I needed to go faster. I felt my strength slowly diminishing, but finally, the sight of the parking lot came into view.

The empty lot was filled with only three cars…mine, River’s, and Jax’s.

I landed just as two green dragons touched down on either side of me. We shifted simultaneously, and a fearful Tate and Ryker were standing before me.

“Where is she?” I growled.

“I don’t know, we left her here with Jax and Nat. Knox was hurt, she told us to go, that she would be fine.” Tate stumbled over his words, talking so fast I barely caught what he said.

Ryker walked over between the cars. Bending down to look at something on the ground. “It was the Kailua Horde.”

My head snapped in his direction as we raced over to see what he found. Killigan was written in the dirt, right next to two sets of drag marks.

“Fuck,” I roared, “I’m going to skin that mother fucker alive.”

Killigan would regret the day he laid a finger on my mate. I was out for blood, and I would wipe his entire horde from existence to get my mate back.