She finally got to the part where, running out of options, she’d decided she had no other choice but to call on Trent – thinking she’d just offload the eggs on him and then keep running until Hargreaves almost certainly caught up with her – and this was where, finally, Hector put up a hand to interrupt.
“Wait – why was it Trent you thought of? Hadn’t you only met once before?”
Zina nodded, swallowing. She glanced at Trent, not sure how much she should say. But she knew she needn’t have worried.
“Because she’s my mate,” Trent said evenly. “I’ve known it for years now – ever since we met in London back then. But it’s taken a while for Zina to catch up and get on board with the idea, too.”
Zina could see the looks of confusion that spread across Hector and Rhys’s faces, but Euan didn’t look particularly surprised at all.
“I know what that’s like,” he said softly after a moment or two. “I’m sorry if this is a personal question, but was it because there was something interfering with your ability to shift?”
Zina raised an eyebrow, surprised that he’d guessed correctly. “You could put it that way – I’d temporarily suppressed my ability to shift, so I wouldn’t get clocked as a shifter by anyone on the mission. It meant back then – or now, actually, until a few days ago – I couldn’t tell Trent was my mate.” She paused. She felt self-conscious talking about something so personal to people who were, really, strangers to her. She was, after all, a very private person. But she felt they should understand the situation. “But Ididknow, even back then, he was someone I could trust. I think that’s why I came to him now.”
“Good choice,” Hector said, nodding approvingly. “Trent might be a clown at times, but I’ve never known him to botch a job. So you can rely on him for that, if nothing else.”
“Can we please,” Trent interrupted him, shaking his head, “stick to the topic at hand? Which is what exactly are you guys planning to do next?”
“We only had orders to find you and help you in whatever way we thought was best once we were here,” Hector said. He glanced over at the sleeping dragons. “And it seems like you have your hands full. The other egg still hasn’t hatched, though?”
Zina shook her head. “No. Not yet. And I still have to find the last one that Hargreaves have been searching for in the mines out here. I have no idea where it is, though, or even where their claim – or claims – are exactly, only that it’s somewhere here in Jackson’s Ridge. I was hoping once I told Trent what they were up to he’d be able to take the intel back and look into it more thoroughly from there.”
“But instead he decided to go on the run with you,” Rhys said, shaking his head. “Okay?”
“Hey, you see howyoufeel when your mate comes toyouin trouble,” Trent snapped at him. “See ifyoujust abandon her to whatever might be out there looking for her. Assuming you ever actuallydofind her, and she can put up with you for more than five minutes.”
Zina could see Rhys’s ears turning red, but before he could say anything, Hector spoke up.
“Kind of deserved, Rhys. You haven’t found your mate – you’ll understand when you do. I mean, like Trent said, as long as she can put up with you for more than five minutes.”
“All right, all right,” Rhys muttered. “Point taken.”
“So, I guess the question then is – whatdowe do next?” Zina said, keen to keep the conversation on track. “We probably only have a limited amount of time now before Hargreaves catches up with us again. It’d be my preference to find that egg and get out of here before they do. And before the last egg hatches, as well. We have our hands full enough with Goldie and Dusty over there. If there’sanotherdragon in the other egg, then we’re gonna have to –”
She was interrupted by the sound of a sharp, suddencrack!that made everyone in the room jump in their seats, heads snapping around to search for the source.
“What was that?” asked Trent, standing. “I don’tsenseany danger…” He tilted his head. “Huh. I guess my shifter senses are starting to come back – I just felt a twitch. Still no danger though.”
Zina frowned – neither did she. It was only then that she realized that she, just like Trent,coulduse her senses in that way again, and that everything in the room seemed to be suddenly clearer, her instincts flooding back in a rush.
Oh,she thought, as her antelope frolicked to the forefront of her mind, kicking up its hooves and shaking its head, as if awakening from a long sleep.You’re back.
The antelope didnotseem as pleased to see her as she was to see it – it looked at her reproachfully with its large, dark eyes, before turning up its nose and trotting off the way it had come, tufted tail in the air.
Wait!Zina tried to call after it, but it was clear that the antelope had gotten the message it wasn’t either wanted or needed. It had always been flighty and temperamental, but in this instance, Zina knew she couldn’t blame it for being out of sorts. She’d suppressed it for a much longer time than she ever had before. Maybe, to it, it was like being stuffed in a shoebox under a bed.
I’m sorry,Zina offered, hoping it’d make the antelope forgive her faster. She’d just have to wait and see, she supposed.
Shaking her head, she forced her focus back to the hotel room.
“Zina,” Trent called to her, from where he was crouching by the case with the remaining egg. “You better come and see this.”
Standing, Zina went to join him, crouched by the case.
“Oh,” she said, leaning in. She saw what he was talking about immediately. “It’s – it’s hatching!”
Immediately, she sensed the other men in the room coming to lean over behind her, everyone peering down as the crack in the dark green egg grew wider and wider, and it wiggled around in its foam casing.
“Brrrup? Cheeep?”
