“She can do it,” he said confidently. “Hi, Chiara, nice to meet you! We were all starting to feel sorry for Jared, but now I see that he only took his time because there was someone special waiting for him.”
Chiara felt herself blush, but even so she gave him an answering smile. It would take a while to get used to Jared’s friends. They were all rather overwhelming—and not because they were all powerful, charismatic shifters.
She didn’t really know what she’d expected—but they were all so normal. Worse than that, they were all so nice.
Not a single person had made fun of her for having contacts in the alien conspiracy subculture. Instead, somehow they all seemed to think that this made her smart and helpful. Not crazy, not a lunatic, not a weirdo loser with too much of an imagination—smart.
Given how the people who she’d thought were her friends had reacted to her tale of the werewolf, this would take some getting used to.
She’d never thought that she’d feel so instantly at home in the shifter world. But perhaps that showed just how wrong she’d been about shifters. Everyone here was willing to give her a chance, when her own dad hadn’t.
“I’m Timothy, by the way,” the man on her screen continued. “Liana’s mate.”
“And the dragon of water,” Jared added. “One of the four elemental dragons of our council.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting you,” Timothy said, then grinned as he looked down at his own mate. “If I can ever tear Liana away from her new project.”
“Gimme just a few more minutes,” Liana murmured distractedly, and Timothy laughed in response.
He rested his hand on Liana’s shoulder, who didn’t look up or stop typing, although a smile lit her face while her fingers continued to race across the keyboard.
“I’m in!” she said triumphantly a moment later. “Copying all their data now. Then I’ll see if I can get us a hidden backdoor access. Sifting through the data will take at least a few hours, though.”
“If you find anything, let the chimera know,” Jared said. “Chiara and I need to head out soon. With any luck, we’ll return with a new elemental dragon. Then we’ll have the five dragons
of the chimera’s prophecy.”
“And meanwhile, we’ll find out where they are going to strike,” Liana murmured, narrowing her eyes at the screen.
“Be careful,” Timothy said. “We’ve no idea what happened to Steele, and I don’t like the thought of that new shadow dragon you encountered.”
“We will be,” Jared promised. “In any case, we’ll hopefully find a new ally. And we’re the ones who found the map. They don’t know where we’re headed.”
“But if there’s a new elemental dragon, they might sense its power.”
Jared nodded reluctantly. “Still. We’ll have the advantage of surprise. And if we can warn whatever dragon is hiding there, he’ll be prepared.”
“We’ll bring him back with us,” Chiara said. “At least, that’s the plan. No wasting time out there in the open where Darkness can attack him. Get him back here where the chimera can talk to him.”
“And then I want to talk to him,” Jared said softly.
On Chiara’s chest, the old disk of gold felt warm against her skin.
Through the mate bond, she could feel a similar sensation from Jared, who was wearing his old amulet. He’d told her that there hadn’t ever been a time when he hadn’t worn it.
It had been the only link to his past. And now, at last, it was time to shed some light onto those old secrets.
He wouldn’t endanger Chiara, she knew that. He’d made that more than obvious. They’d fly fast, and they wouldn’t waste time in the mountains.
But he had to know. After all these years, he had to know what had become of his family.
And she’d be damned if she let her mate shoulder this burden alone.
***
They were both eager to start, and so they set off early the next day.
Liana and Timothy had kept them updated over email. So far they hadn’t yet pinpointed any particular areas of suspected supernatural activities, but Liana had managed to establish her backdoor connection into the UFO database.