Page 41 of Ignited

Sitting up worked okay. They were sitting on the floor in a huge, dimly lit room made completely of stone, except for the ten-foot-tall carved wooden doors at one end. To their left was a raised dais with a long carved wooden table running across it, and one large, high-backed chair like a throne behind it.

Not a dungeon, exactly. But definitely a place no one would want to hang out.

“Where the hell are we?”

“Drink this.” Boomer handed her an open water bottle. She started chugging. Damn, she was thirsty. As the water permeated her parched cells, her memory started to come back.

“He locked us up, didn’t he,” she said. “Thanatos.” She should have known he couldn’t be trusted. She did know. “It’s okay. We can get out.”

“Hey, relax,” Boomer said. “Nobody’s holding us prisoner. But Big T was getting peeved about you tearing up his study—his hood got all quivery and shit—so we finally decided it would be better if you and I waited somewhere else. I told him here would be good, because there’s nothing to destroy and it’s secure, but big enough that it wouldn’t feel like a cage.”

She turned and looked at him. He sounded cocky as always, but there was an undertone of real concern in his voice. And he’d been worried about her feeling caged. “Wow,” she said. “I thought… you know, Thanatos…”

She’d never thought he’d agree to help her. There must be a catch somewhere.

Boomer said, “He had to tranquilize you—sorry—but I was with you the whole time. So was Gunn, until he went off to find Mikey and make some calls. For backup.”

She narrowed her eyes, her hangover mind finally catching up. “What kind of calls? What kind of backup? And what is it we’re ‘waiting’ for?”

He said that last thing she expected. “A dragon.”

“Excuse me?”

“Dragons have the most powerful magic in the known worlds. I figured, if they can’t fix you, no one can.”

Karisma stared at him. “You did not just say you called in dragons. Dragons are…” She shook her head. She knew they existed. She’d heard rumors, in her travels. But… “People don’t just… know… dragons.”

“Mikey does,” he said. “Gunn’s mate.” He shoved his plate at her. “Here, have some sausage rolls. You’ll feel better.”

A dragon. They really were rumored to have the most powerful magic in the known worlds. And also to be ruthless, reclusive, and unfriendly. “How?”

“Related to them,” Boomer said, mouth full of sausage. He swallowed. “She has an uncle who mated into a dragon clan. These ones specialize in helping ex-captive shifters who’ve been fucked up by the people that took them. On account of, it happened to her uncle’s whole family. And some of the dragons, too, I think.”

He took her hand, lightly running his fingers down her arm. His touch gave her goose bumps. He gave her a crooked smile. “So I figured maybe they could help you. At least make you some more of that potion. I took the bottle, remember? Mikey went over to the cabin to get it. Maybe they can analyze it.”

Karisma was stunned. “You did all that for me?” While she’d been knocked out, Boomer and his alpha had been working behind the scenes, for her.

“Guilty. So will you let them try?”

“Do I have another choice?” But even as she said it, a tiny seed of hope was flowering inside her. Maybe there was something the dragons could do.

Boomer said, “Well, I guess you could beat me up and escape. Go out into the world all alone. Leave me behind. Break my heart.”

“Yeah, right.” He was obviously kidding about that last part. But despite herself, her mind went back to last night, back to what they’d shared. Nothing else had ever made her feel like that.

He added, “Or, you could stay here, get de-tigered, and maybe—if you’re nice—get the chance of more sexytimes with the hottest wolf you ever met.”

“Really? Where’s he?”

He grinned and pulled her tail.

She growled. “Do not do that if you want to live.”

“No promises. Have a sausage roll. Mikey will be here any time.”

They’d finished off the sausage rolls and most of the coffee before the big doors at the far end of the room finally opened, and Mikey walked through.

She was nearly six feet tall with blond curly hair, dressed in army fatigues that in no way concealed her curves. She also looked like she could beat up an entire battalion of soldiers without breaking a sweat.