He replied, “Aye, just send me the information, and I’ll work it out with UHI.”
Ross nodded. “It’s short notice, though. Once they learned that Dr. Emily Davies was here, they immediately wanted to get started. Apparently, she’s in high demand and it’s hard to get her assistance.”
“I didn’t realize she was that well-known.”
Ross arched an eyebrow. “Your background check didn’t include a popularity rating?”
He gave Ross the double-finger salute. “Don’t you have young minds to corrupt?”
Ross snorted. “It’s a half-day today because of the yearly student health checks.”
That’s right, he’d cleared it weeks ago.
His dragon spoke up.You’re distracted and pretending not to be.
Shut it, dragon.
After assuring Ross he’d reach out to UHI later in the day, they parted ways and he quickly made his way to Euan’s house.
Since the clan leader’s daughter, Kaya, had moved out, Euan lived alone. His mate had died when Cam had been a child, and no amount of meddling from the clan members had convinced him to take another.
His dragon spoke up.He loved her. Sometimes dragons never take another chance at love because of either a broken heart or being hurt too badly.
What are you getting at?
You were betrayed years ago byher. Ever since, you’ve been too serious and a workaholic, and I think you’re hiding.
Cam mentally growled.I just care about my clan. And never bring that female up again.
Why not? Not all females are as dishonest.
It went beyond dishonesty, dragon. She wanted a child—my child—so she could hand it over to the dragon hunters for money.
Before his dragon could reply, he knocked on the front door, and Euan opened it.
Seahaven’s clan leader was in his fifties, with gray hair and hazel eyes. However, since Euan MacKay loved flying and swimming, the male was nearly as fit as Cam himself.
The dragonman motioned for Cam to enter. Once he closed the door, Euan said, “I have a surprise for you.”
He frowned. “I don’t like surprises, Euan.”
“I know, but I had no choice this time. Come on, and I’ll show you why.”
Euan had more than earned Cam’s trust over the years, so he followed his clan leader into the living room. Inside were two people he hadn’t seen in a while—the human named Antony Holbrook and his dragon mate, Iris Mahajan Holbrook.
Antony worked for some secret human department in the government, and until recently, Iris had been a Protector for Clan Lochguard. She now worked with her mate, doing who knew what. And while Antony’s help had proved useful over the years, Cam had never fully trusted the male, who was too secretive by half.
Antony smiled. “Hello, Cam. You look happy to see me again.”
He resisted rolling his eyes. Iris spoke before Cam could. “Ignore him, Cam. We’re here for an important reason, aye?”
Euan motioned for everyone to sit down, and once they did, Iris spoke again. “The short version is that the dragon hunters have put a bounty on Dr. Emily Davies.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Antony nodded and said, “If you remember, a joint task force found a house full of prisoners being experimented on, including some human females that were pregnant with dragon-shifter babies. After that place was raided and taken over, the hunters went mostly quiet. However, through our contacts, we’ve learned that they have a new goal—to improve the success rates of using in vitro fertilization to impregnate human womenwith dragon-shifter children. Not only does Dr. Davies have the skills to help with that, she also knows how to use dragon’s blood to reduce the danger of a human carrying a dragon-shifter child.”
IVF rarely worked for dragon-shifters, which was why the human sacrifice program had been created—to help the dragon-shifters grow their populations again.
