Chapter 20
I regained consciousness with a throbbing head and found myself tied to a chair.
Not my first time for either, to be honest. However, it should be noted that the dude who thought it would be funny to tie up my drunken ass and stick his dick in my face when I woke ended up needing stitches.
The cops, when he called them screaming that I’d tried to amputate his dick with my teeth, showed him little sympathy when they realized what he’d done.
Last I heard, Johnny had a gig on Only Fans where he called himself Almost Bobbitt.
But back to my situation: Leo’s betrayal. He was the reason I found myself in this dilemma. My boss had been behind the goons sent to my place. He knew about dragons.
Wanted Abaddon and seemed willing to go to great lengths to steal my Little Fella.
Fuck.
It burned that I’d had no clue, and it annoyed that I’d blithely accepted his invitation to stay in the barn when he was technically responsible for my being homeless.
It also pissed me off to no end to realize he’d been watching me this entire time.
Spying on my dragon. Plotting to take him captive.
What did he plan to do with my Little Fella?
Speaking of the devil, Leo sauntered into his office, a room I’d been inside a few times before, although not as a prisoner.
“Oh, good, you’re awake. When I told Malone to have his crew take you into custody, I didn’t expect them to be so vigorous about it.”
“Vigorous?” I snapped. “They punched me in the head.”
“Which I’ve given them shit for.”
I’d do more than that if I saw those goons again. “Untie me,” I growled, struggling against the zip ties that wouldn’t loosen from around my wrists.
“Not until I know you can be reasonable.”
My brow arched. “That will never happen.”
“I know you’re angry right now—”
“Angry doesn’t even come close.” Hurt. Disappointed. Murderous…
Leo raked fingers through his hair as he paced. “I’ll admit, things did not play out as planned. I’d hoped by having you nearby that you would introduce me to your dragon, whereupon we could have built a bond and—"
I cut him off. “Where is Abaddon? What have you done to him?” Before I got knocked out, Leo had said something about sending people to fetch him.
“Before you freak, I don’t plan to hurt him. As we speak, I have a team retrieving him from the barn.” Leo clasped his hands together and rocked on his heels with excitement. “Soon I’ll get to meet him in person.”
“I wouldn’t count on that. Abaddon won’t let himself be captured.”
“There’s nowhere for him to go in this storm, and even if he tried, the tracker we implanted will quickly find him.”
Every word out of his mouth only made things worse. “Abaddon was right. Someone did fuck with him.” My gaze narrowed as I recalled how deeply we’d slumbered. “How did you drug us so we wouldn’t wake during your visits?”
“Not easily. We initially thought of putting the sleeping solution in your food, but given how often he eats, and the fact you don’t always eat the same thing together, we had to come up with a different plan.
We had the sprinkler system in the loft drained of water and filled with an odorless sleeping gas.
We simply had to activate it remotely and once it took effect, Malone and his team would go in and take measurements and samples. ”
“Who’s Malone?”
“Dr. Malone is a renowned cryptozoologist specializing in dragons.”
I snickered. “Wow, he must get mocked at parties.”
“Not in the circles we run in. You see, it’s long been known dragons are real.”
“Known by who?” I retorted.
“The U?um-gal Abarakkum. Which translated is essentially the Dragon Stewards. An ancient sect who used to care for the mighty beasts before they were eradicated.”
“And you’re a member?”
Leo nodded. “As was my father before him. He introduced me to the group. For the longest time, the stewards have been seeking out unhatched eggs but not having much luck. The dragon females tended to scatter their clutches to increase the odds of viability. However, finding those eggs proved difficult. Too many volcanoes, you see.”
“Yet you claimed you knew Tseax had one.”
Leo’s bright smile made my fist itch. “Only because of a stunning breakthrough. About a decade ago, in the remote Peruvian Andes mountains, we discovered the home and hoard of a female dragon. Long dead, unfortunately. No flesh remained and her bones were brittle with age. You’ve seen them in my collection in the basement. ”
“You said those belonged to dinosaurs!” I accused.
“Because I couldn’t exactly tell you the truth and quite frankly, they do have much in common.
Anyhow, this dragon hoard contained dozens of scrolls written by its servant.
It took years before we could properly translate them.
The parchment was understandably fragile, the ink used faded, and then the language not something you can pop into Google Translate.
But after much care, attention, and research, we did it.
We managed to decipher a few of the parchments, including one that listed the locations of a clutch that contained seven eggs. ”
The pain in my wrists from the tight plastic was the only reason I didn’t suspect I was hallucinating what sounded like the plot of a fantasy novel. “You have a map to the eggs.”
“Not exactly. Keep in mind, back then people and dragons didn’t have the same means as we do to create accurate maps. What we got instead were general descriptions such as ‘over the mighty sea, past an island and mountains, the spreading forest parts for the cone that rises.’”
“You figured out the Tseax from that?” I didn’t hide my skepticism.
“Actually, Tseax was one of several cones we were watching.”
“Didn’t you claim you caused it to explode?”
“I did.” Leo looked gleeful. “It occurred to me that I might die of old age, waiting for a volcano to erupt and hatch a dragon. So I had Malone work on a way to activate it. Don’t ask me to explain how he did it. I’m just the money man in all this. What luck the first one that exploded bore fruit.”
“Why are you talking to her about our work?” The sharp bark came from the man who entered. The same suit that I’d met at my trailer who tried to falsely arrest me.
Leo cleared his throat. “Pip, this is Dr. Malone.”
My gaze narrowed. “I’ve already met the asshole.”
“To think, a mighty dragon took an uncouth, trailer trash female as his servant.” Malone tsked.
“Better trailer trash than a jerk off who thinks it’s okay to drug people and experiment on them while they sleep,” I retorted. “Although, I’m a little confused. Seeing how you tried to kidnap Abaddon from my place, why didn’t you take him while we were unconscious?”
“I wanted to,” Malone grumbled. “Leo wanted us to wait.”
“The habitat I’m building wasn’t ready yet.” Leo sounded almost apologetic. “Besides, we were fascinated by the way the dragon interacted with you. What an intelligent creature. We learned so much watching.”
Nausea hit me as I realized not only had I been drugged and vulnerable, but I’d been spied on too! Watched while I dressed or walked around in my underwear and nothing else. When I took a shit. When Maddox and I fucked.
Leo must have read my expression because he shook his head. “We had no interest in you, Pip. Only the dragon.”
“Did it ever occur to you to talk to me about this? We’re supposed to be friends.
But no, instead of saying, ‘Hey, listen, I know you’ve got a dragon and guess what, I’m totally interested,’ you went straight to trying to forcibly nab him.
Then you put us in a glass house like we were some exhibit there for your amusement. ”
“I’ve already said I didn’t handle this well but I promise to make up for it.” Leo waved his hands as if it were of little matter. “Once the dragon is secured in his new habitat, he’ll see the benefit. As much food as he needs. People to care for him around the clock.”
I interrupted. “I doubt Abaddon will see it that way.
“Which is where you come in. You can explain we mean him no harm. That his best chance at survival is with us.”
I snorted. “All that spying and you obviously didn’t learn much about Abaddon.”
Malone’s phone beeped. “It’s Kaitlyn. I’ll return in a moment.”
The asshole stepped out of the office and I stared at Leo. “I thought we were friends.”
“We still are. Once you and Abaddon are settled in, you’ll see.
Things will work out. You’ll both come to understand that I am determined to help the dragon thrive.
Perhaps he can help us find some of the other eggs so he isn’t alone.
A female would be nice. Did you know that, unlike humans, dragons, even those born of the same mother or fertilized by the same father, have completely different genetics? ”
“And?”
“And it means that they can procreate without issue, unlike human siblings. Malone thinks it’s because the birth rate is so low that this was nature’s way of improving their viability.”
My nose still wrinkled because ew, brother sister sex.
Malone stalked back in. “The dragon’s killed most of the team.”
If I could have, I would have fist pumped at the news.
“Oh dear.” Leo finally lost his jubilant smile.
“This is your fault,” Malone accused Leo. “If you’d let me take him down earlier before the storm took out the power, we’d have been able to scoop up his sleeping ass and relocate him without any casualties.”
“The dome wasn’t ready,” Leo muttered.
“Ready or not, it’s time to stop fucking around. I told Kaitlyn to warn the creature to cooperate or we’ll harm his servant.” Malone jerked his head in my direction.
I had to wonder if the threat would work. Abaddon seemed fond of me, but at the same time, he could be arrogant. And let’s be honest, he most likely valued his life much more than mine.
Malone glanced at his phone and sighed. “The dragon is demanding proof we have her in custody.”
“I’ve got this.” Leo whipped out his cell and started a FaceTime call featuring me front and center.