Page 71 of Brock’s Mate

There was a silence, and then Colt and Remy got identical wide-eyed looks and stared at each other. She could practically hear the prank-planning gears whirring in their minds. “That’s awesome,” Remy said.

“Fuck you both,” she told them. “This is serious.”

“But after we rescue his ass, we’re never going to let him forget it,” Colt said.

Kitty said, “So someone must be trying to get him to lure you out there, and he’s telling you not to come.”

“Jered’s guys must have been watching the cabin all along,” Desi said.

“But they had to have told him what to say,” Colt said. “Or he would have made it something romantic. He wouldn’t have drawn their attention to DB if he wasn’t there.”

“Fuck me,” Brandon said suddenly. “They weren’t watching the place for you at all. They’ve got DB. And now Brock. With you, they’d have a clean sweep.”

“Well, so, we have to go get them back.” Desi looked around the room. “When do we start?”

Colt was already on the phone, messaging. “I’m calling the crew in now.” Brandon opened his mouth and Colt said, “Yes, I blocked Brock’s phone from the message feed. Do I look like an idiot?”

Kitty said, “You really want us to answer that?”

Desi said, “We have to respond to the message. And we have to buy time. Tell him… tell him Kitty’s just finishing dyeing my hair, and I’ll come over as soon as it’s done.”

Brandon started typing.

She added, “And tell him he’s going to love the new color. Aquamarine.” She glared at the twins. “That’s my safe word.” Colt mimed zipping his mouth shut.

The crew started sending replies, saying they were coming in from wherever they were. Nick still wasn’t back from hunting for DB in the spirit world, so Britt offered to go over to the cabin and do reconnaissance.

Brandon was back on the phone, talking to his old alpha, Flynn. “We’re having a dragon emergency over here… Yeah… Get Kira to call in Emon and some of his clan… No, ask Emon to come himself. I still think this kid has Al-Maddeiri blood, which means he’s technically one of Emon’s subjects. If this really is a Council op, we need legal firepower as well as the other kind.”

There was a silence, and then, “Uh huh. Oh, and tell her to ask Emon to bring whatever dragon drugs he’s got. Especially antidotes. The only way they could possibly control DB is if they doped him up.”

That didn’t sound good.

Another message came back from Brock, on Desi’s phone. Come soon. Situation urgent.

No fucking kidding.

It seemed like an eternity until Britt came back from her scouting mission, but it couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. They all crowded around Brock and Brandon and Titan, using their magic to hear her report.

“They’ve got Brock and DB locked in a cell in the basement,” she said. “DB is unconscious. I could see them from the spirit world, but the sorcerer has the place warded up tight with magic—I couldn’t get far enough into this world to let Brock see me or hear me, or to interact with anything here.”

At that moment, they were interrupted by the tramp of heavy feet in the outer room, and a deep voice called, “Where the fuck is everybody?”

The next few minutes were a jumble of new people arriving. There was a tall rangy man with dark hair and scary green eyes, who could have been DB’s cousin—King Emon of the Al-Maddieri dragon clan. He’d brought several big gorgeous dangerous-looking men and women who were apparently also dragons, plus three people she recognized. Tristan, the white wolf Brock had saved so long ago, along with Brock’s mom and stepfather, looking grim and worried.

With them was an enormous, bulky man with a riot of black dreadlocks, accompanied by a woman in black leather who looked like a freaking assassin from the movies. They turned out to be Flynn and his mate Kira—King Emon’s sister.

And a bunch of other people from Flynn’s crew, who Desi couldn’t keep straight.

They all crowded into the great room and Brittany continued her report, helped along by a spell from Emon that allowed everyone to see and hear her. Nick was back too, standing by with his mate.

After repeating what she’d told them before, Britt added, “I counted a dozen wolves, plus the sorcerer. I did a quick sweep of the surrounding woods, and I didn’t see any more. They have one vehicle, which they were going to use to transport DB, but Brock disabled it. They’ve called in for alternate transport—they’re expecting that about forty minutes from now.”

Brandon frowned. “The other night, they used some kind of spell word to escape when it became clear they were outnumbered. They took their dead and wounded with them. I don’t understand why they don’t just do that now, instead of waiting for a truck.”

Emon said, “If it was a recall spell, it would have had to be individually cast on each of them before they left for the mission. It would have to be cast on the prisoners as well, to bring them back that way. Maybe this sorcerer isn’t the one who can do the spell.”

“I hope not,” Brandon said. “Because if they zap out somewhere, we’re fucked.”