The Arena novel Chapter 71

I knew Avani was injured. Kaylani and I had seen the harpoon puncture his wing, but he had ripped the launcher apart before pulling the harpoon out of his wing with his mouth. His strength and willpower to continue were impressive. Kaylani had wanted to go to aid him, but before she could hand my brother to me, Avani was back to fighting.

Instead, she had pushed her healing into me. As a dragon, another dragon can heal me. My brother isn’t a dragon. We can smell that he got my father’s Lycan gene. That’s why my father and I had to heal him. We share the same fire that he would have because of our mother.

So, when my father says he wants to go attack the hunters, I’m ready. My fire is burning in my gut at what they did to my mother and my brother.

My father runs up my wing and grabs hold of a back ridge. “Let’s go,” he calls, and I lift off the ground. I roar to Avani that we’re coming.

I see another harpoon launcher being rolled out to where Avani is. I blow my fire over it, burning it and the hunters manning it to a crisp.

I fly low to the ground, letting my father jump off my wing before I lift up again and turn, blowing my fire over more of the hunters. I hear their screams of pain as they burn.

“Find their laboratory!” Papa shouts, and I see he has shifted and he’s ripping into the hunters.

I fly higher, trying to see where the hunters are coming from. The forest is thick here, which would explain why we had a hard time finding it. Through the trees, I see figures heading toward the battle. As I search, I find some figures moving away from the battle. I turn again, realizing that these people are trying to escape, which means I’ve passed the place where they were holding Momma. While I want to follow those escaping, I think finding the place where they held her is more important.

I float in the air, hovering, waiting to see more movement. When I do, I finally pinpoint the laboratory. I hear thrashing and fighting closer to where I am. I look over to see my father fighting his way toward me.

“Papa! Over here. I found it.”

~ ~ ~

Cedric

I’m killing every mutant and hunter I find. Avani is injured and needs time to heal himself. Or maybe he can go to Kaylani, and she can heal him, but I need to find Troy. I can hear the whoosh of Kenna’s wings and I follow the sound, killing more and more hunters as I make my way to her. When I hear her yell that she’s found the laboratory, I push harder, needing to catch Troy before he escapes. If he knows I’m here, he’ll run.

“Papa, over here,” Kenna’s voice is now her human voice, and I know she has shifted. I follow her voice and see her. As soon as I’m in sight, she takes off running. Suddenly, I see what she is referencing as more mutants come running out of an underground bunker.

Kenna pulls her fire and launches a fireball at the mutants. She takes out several of them, and I’m pulling my own fire, ready to launch my own fireball as she throws another. I watch as the mutants duck around this one, only to be hit with mine while they are distracted.

We arrive at the laboratory and see that it was built underground. No wonder we couldn’t find it. I blast the door with a fireball, and Kenna throws another one over my shoulder as we nearly run into a group of hunters racing toward the fight.

I search the rooms, looking for Troy. When I get to the room that smells of campfire and marshmallows, I stop. I take in the place that must have been where my mate was strapped to this table for a month. I snarl before I tear the room apart. Before I walk out, I throw a fireball into the room, letting it burn every horrible visual I can conjure of my mate’s torment away. They will never bring my mate or anyone here again.

I rush back out the door of the room, now engulfed in flames, and see Kenna checking the other rooms. “Papa, there are more here. We need to save them.”

We find three more shifters strapped to tables, some seem barely alive, others are unconscious. We can smell the drugs in their system that must be keeping them unconscious. I’m sure it’s the same one they used with Tana to keep her sedated so she couldn’t get away. That would explain why I couldn’t feel her. Whenever I did, it would have been when the drugs were wearing off. I’m guessing my fiery mate would start to fight back, and that’s when they would drug her again, weakening my connection to her.

We clear out the laboratory of restrained shifters. I check the rest of the building finding no one. I snarl, raking my claws down the walls of the building, angry that Troy got away from me yet again.

“Papa! Now is not the time. Momma needs us, and this place is going to collapse.”

She’s right. I started the fire in the room Tana had been held, but now, Kenna and I had thrown fire all over this building. It will collapse very soon.

I race outside, seeing the shifters are already starting to recover now that they are outside in the fresh air, the drugs burning out of their systems.