The Dragon’s Chance by Jessie Donovan

Chapter Thirteen

Sylvia had first tried Seamus's home. However, she learned he wasn't there but at his office situated near the clan's central area.

As she marched toward the building, Sylvia did her best to keep herself calm. Part of her wanted to lash out at Seamus for possibly deceiving her and supporting Arlo. And yet another part of her was sad at the thought of his betrayal.

After Arthur's death, she'd always thought Seamus her best ally from among all the MacAllisters. He'd been the only one to ask—and really meant it—about how she was doing instead of merely trying to determine how the children were faring.

Her dragon spoke up. Find out the truth from Seamus first. I find it hard to believe a solicitor would willingly engage in something illegal. Especially with Arlo, given the past between the two brothers.

I wish it were that simple. However, the MacAllisters are close, despite what happened with that female. You know that.

Regardless, talk with him first. Maybe Seamus is innocent in all this and can help us.

All she could do was hope.

Sylvia reached the offices used by Lochguard's two lawyers and did her best to smile at the assistant manning the front desk. Within a few minutes, Sylvia was inside a conference room, pacing and doing her best to keep her fear tamped down.

Because all it would take was for Arlo to drop Jake and her human would be gone forever.

Sophie would lose her father. And Sylvia would lose any chance at finding happiness with another male.

No.Jake needed her to keep her head and get to the bottom of everything, to help him any way she could. And for once, Sylvia was going to follow through. She could worry about fear, grief, and the ensuing depression later, if it came to that. For now, she held out hope.

A knock on the door followed by Seamus entering the room, his dark brown hair streaked with gray and his brows knitted together. "What's wrong, Sylvia? If it's about my dad, I'm doing my best to keep him away. But he's rather good at sneaking around and causing trouble."

She stopped pacing and stated, "I'm not here about Archie. I'm here about Arlo."

His brows raised. "What's my brother done now?"

She searched his eyes, trying to determine if Seamus was playacting or truly surprised. "You don't know? Because if you do, you need to tell me. I'm sure having a murderer in your family wouldn't be good for business, aye?"

"Murderer?" Seamus took a step toward her. "What are you talking about?"

Could it be true? Did Seamus not know?

"Don't play with me, Seamus. Jake's life is at risk."

He reached out as if to touch her arm but then stopped himself. "I swear I know nothing about what Arlo's done. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on."

She bit her lip a second before blurting, "He snatched Jake and flew away. I think he might want to kill him."

Seamus's gaze turned unreadable. "He's a fool, aye, but that big of one?"

"I don't have time to debate how much of a fool your brother is. Has Arlo acted out of the ordinary lately?" She wasn't ready to reveal her suspicions to Seamus, not until she could better judge whose side he was on. "Anything that could tell us why he'd take Jake?"

For a beat, she didn't think he'd answer. But finally Seamus ran a hand through his hair and said, "Arlo has been acting strange lately, aye, and more secretive than normal. However, he usually acts that way whenever one of his lovers breaks up with him. I figured that was the case again. But kidnapping? Why would he do that?"

She was starting to think Seamus didn't know about Arlo's threats and words to her children right after Arthur had died.

Regardless, she pushed aside the hope he was innocent to focus on getting more information. "No one truly knows why he did it except for Arlo. But I need to know—is there somewhere he could've taken Jake? I know the two of you aren't close since, well, that female. But he is your brother. Maybe he could've said something at some point?"

Seamus's lips thinned at the mention of the female Arlo had deliberately seduced away from him. It may have happened years ago, but Sylvia had always suspected the female had been Seamus's true mate and Arlo had done it on purpose.

Arlo MacAllister didn't like to lose. She'd always known that, but only recently had she started to understand how far he might go to win.

However, she didn't much care about the two brothers' relationship, only what Seamus might know to help bring back Jake.

The dragonman finally blew out a breath. "His last lover liked extreme role-playing. Arlo constantly bragged about it to me and my cousins. He mentioned how he liked to pretend to imprison her somewhere in the Orkneys and have her 'convince' him to free her. But I don't know any more than that. I vow it."

Dragon-shifters took vows rather seriously. A few might break them without thinking, but her gut said Seamus wasn't one of them.

And not just because she'd seen him defend countless members of her clan over the years against false human-made accusations either.

She nodded, but Seamus continued before she could reply. "I swear I had nothing to do with this, Sylvia. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I hold no grudge against humans or the fact you fancy one. Aye, I've dealt with some horrid ones over the years in my profession, but you know Lacey was human too."

Lacey had been the female Arlo had stolen away from him more than twenty years ago. By the use of past tense, Sylvia wondered if she'd died.

Maybe it was why he'd remained unattached all these years. Once she had Jake back safe and sound, Sylvia was going to try and better know Seamus. She knew what it was to lose someone and be lonely. And a friend who understood that could help more than he'd probably ever realize.

But Jake was her priority for now. Searching Seamus's gaze, she finally nodded. "I appreciate the information, but the bigger question is—will you side with Arlo if he's caught? Because he's going to be charged, you know it. Since a human is involved, both Finn and the DDA will deal with him."

Seamus stood a little taller. "I believe in the law. I won't simply look the other way because Arlo and I share blood. He's been bringing trouble to himself nearly his whole life. I once tried to help him, back before he betrayed me, but I gave up on him years ago and I've merely tolerated him for my dad's sake. Anything you and Jake need, just ask and I'll do my best to help."

Both woman and beast heard the truth to his words.

Sylvia reached out and squeezed his fingers. "Thank you, Seamus. Will you come with me to talk to Faye and Grant? They might have more questions about Arlo that you can answer."

"Aye, of course."

As the two of them headed toward the main Protector building, a small flicker of hope burned in her chest. The Orkney Islands were an archipelago, aye. But it was somewhere to begin a search.

And that was a start.

* * *

A mixtureof sounds slowly nudged Jake into consciousness. The crash of waves, the cries of a few birds, and gusts of strong wind.

The scent of brine brought him even more awake, until he blinked his eyes open.

Light filtered in from a tiny window, letting him see where he was. The walls were made of stone, the floor was only dirt, and the window didn't have any glass in it.

There was a solid wooden door, though, but it looked sturdier than the rest of the place, and he doubted it could easily be forced open.

Arlo was nowhere to be seen, so Jake took the chance to rise to his feet. After a moment of unsteadiness, he walked to the window. It was barely big enough for his head to poke through, but he didn't need to do that to see a vast, open space of water with some jagged peaks in the distance.

Craning his head, he looked either way and found a similar sight or water and land in the distance. Even without being able to see the fourth side of his prison, he guessed he was on some sort of island.

And since he was in Scotland, it could be any number of them. Up north were a ton of uninhabited islands, for starters. Although his report from his cousin hadn't mentioned the dragon-shifters having any clans living on the islands, though, so probably no one on Lochguard could guess he'd been taken here.

Turning back toward the room, he rubbed his face and tried to wake himself up a little more. His brain was foggy, as if it didn't want to work right. And even if Arlo could easily kill him without thought when he returned, Jake was determined to find out as much as he could about his prison so he could form a few plans. He didn't doubt Sylvia would get him some help.

If the Lochguard dragons did find him—although he wasn't 100 percent confident they would—he wanted to avoid being a burden and help in any way he could.

Although as he walked around the one-room cottage, studying it, the only thing he noticed was how some of the stones must've shifted over time since there were large gaps in parts of the walls.

Surveying the room again, his thoughts drifted back to Arlo. Jake didn't really understand why the dragonman had taken him. Simply because Jake had stood up to him? Or was there something more? Hatred had flashed briefly in the dragonman's eyes when they'd first met, not that he’d understood why.

As far as Jake knew, Lochguard accepted humans on their lands. His cousin's report had said as much.

Something else was up; it had to be.

Needing to focus on something, anything, to avoid going down the path of what-ifs, he walked back to the biggest gap in the wall. It was near the top, not far from the rotted thatch ceiling.

If he could push out one or two of the stones, then he might be able to create a handhold to try and find a weak spot to knock down some of the thatch. If he did that, he might be able to escape via the roof.

Or at least look out to see all of his surroundings to better see where he was.

He'd barely spent any time at all trying to wiggle a stone loose when something splashed loudly in the water nearby. Through the window, he saw the shape of a green dragon.

Arlo was back.

Jake quickly moved to a different part of the room, sat against the wall, and pretended to look weaker than he was.

A beat later, the door banged open, revealing Arlo in his naked human form. "You're awake. Good."

He strode inside, tugging a short, bound, and gagged woman behind him, one with black hair and golden skin. Jake had no idea who she was, but the look of resignation in her dark brown eyes made him wonder what the hell was going on.

Arlo stopped several feet away, tossed a pair of handcuffs toward Jake, and then tugged the woman against his front, extending a talon to her neck.

And still the woman merely looked resigned to her fate before she shut her eyes.

Arlo growled, "Put on the handcuffs or I'll slit her throat." As if making a point, he pressed a fraction, and a drop of blood rolled down the woman's neck.

Jake debated whether Arlo was bluffing or not when the dragonman pressed even harder against the woman's throat and she cried out as best as she could through her gag.

Just as he thought about reaching for the cuffs, the woman opened her eyes again. This time, they were full of determination. She winked at Jake, then stepped on Arlo's insole. His talon moved a fraction away. She ducked down, elbowed him in the stomach, and then turned to kick him in the balls as the bindings around her wrists fell away.

In the next instant, she had him on his stomach, her arm wrapped around his neck. She didn't say a word, but Arlo's body soon went slack. Only then did she stand up, tug off the gag, and extracted a capped syringe from between her breasts. As she stuck it into Arlo's bicep, she finally spoke, her accent some sort of English one. "Hand me the cuffs."

Jake did as she asked, still trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

However, given how the woman had just taken out a dragon-shifter despite having a talon to her throat, he decided to be cautious. Demanding anything wouldn't help. No, she'd have to tell him on her own terms.

Once Arlo was restrained, she finally stood, rolled her shoulders, and faced him. "Right, then. Dealing with him is the easy part. Now we just have to survive the bloody cold until Antony or his cohorts arrives."

Sensing she wasn't about to disarm him the same way as Arlo, he asked, "Who're you?"

"You can call me Trina for now. And don't ask how I came to be here because I can't tell you. Not yet." She patted down Arlo until she found his cell phone. "No service, as I thought. Bloody islands. But no matter, they'll find us soon enough. Come with me. I saw some driftwood that might be dry enough to make a fire. We'll start there."

She exited the room and he could do nothing but follow the strange yet fascinating woman who took down a dragon-shifter without so much as breaking a sweat. "But what about Arlo?"

Trina waved a hand in dismissal. "Thanks to the shot I gave him, his dragon will be silent for days. So don't worry about him. He can't shift and he won't be able to break those cuffs either."

He frowned. "Do you really expect me not to ask who you really are?"

She shrugged. "You can try. But trust me, I can resist."

And given her display earlier, he didn't doubt it.

Still, Jake kept a wary distance from the woman as they gathered wood for a fire. And once they went back to the small cottage, cleared out the dilapidated chimney, and were reasonably warm, the woman further tied up Arlo and tossed him into a corner.

She said nothing, ignoring Jake and only checking the window occasionally.

Now he had no fucking idea what Arlo had been up to. And given what the woman said about not saying anything, all he could do was come up with theories for the current situation.

Just what had Arlo gotten himself involved in? And what would happen to Jake?