4
Even from over the phone, I knew Taylor was raising his eyebrows at me. “You want me to just waltz up to Hexen Manor after we took Gavin’s side in that fight?”
“No, I want you to check the perimeter of Dalesbloom territory to see if they or the dragons have moved, or if they’re still there. Assuming they are, I want you to arrange to send a human to the Manor—their security system is serviced by Rooster Alarms in Dalesbloom. We have $10,000 to offer someone to discreetly plant a bug inside the manor. Can you do that?”
Taylor went silent, the gears in his head turning as a new scheme between us took shape. “I can sort that out. You have the cash?”
“I’ll transfer you the money.”
“What if it’s a no-go at Rooster?”
“Offer them the money anyway to keep quiet. And don’t use your real name.”
“That’s a given.”
“Can you get this all done by tonight?”
“To the best of my ability,” said Taylor.
“Great. Call me once you finish the perimeter check.”
“Can do.”
Even if I didn’t know how effectively I could interfere with the conflict between Dalesbloom and Grandbay, getting a plan into motion put some of my anxieties to rest. Ten thousand dollars was a lot of money, but it wasn’t like I was strapped for cash. We had to make it worthwhile for whoever we approached, to either do the job or not blow our cover.
I made my way to the lumber mill, parking my grey Lexus near the industrial entrance. The front lobby was manned by a single receptionist who politely waved at me, and a vestibule that led to employee lockers and a lunchroom. On the wall sat a row of hooks from which hung bright orange high-visibility vests that my employees were required to wear on the floor at all times, as well as extra protective eyewear and hard hats. I grabbed one of each for myself before entering the wide double doors leading onto the factory floor.
Inside, a labyrinth of churning and grinding machinery processed shipments of hardwood logs that the mill received each morning. Most of the machinery was automated and outfitted with laser-guided planing tools that mitigated the risk of injury to my employees, but there were still bodies on the floor to supervise, manually count and inspect, and operate machinery as necessary. The scent of sawdust was so strong it often tickled my nose into a sneeze but having spent my entire life around the lumber mill, the smell had become a comfort to me. Sweet, dry, dusty, tangy. The scent always varied slightly based on where the logs came from and what type of wood they were, but they all had that same earthy smell of nature that reminded me of my roots as a wild animal. A wolf.
Recently, one of our debarker machines had failed and we couldn’t determine what the cause was. It seemed the millwrights we brought in had gotten it operational again. I watched the machine hungrily take logs and strip them of their rigid brown bark, flinging the odd chip into the air before setting the naked log on a belt that would feed it to the next machine in the lineup. Satisfied with the repairs, I returned to the lobby with a fresh layer of sawdust on my shirt.
My receptionist produced the invoice for me to sign. She smiled sweetly at me, plying for some kind of attention, but my gaze didn’t rise until I’d scrawled my last name on the paper and pushed it toward her. “Thanks, Mr. March,” she said, taking it back.
“My pleasure.” Always a pleasure to pay for good work. I would do whatever it took to keep my business running smoothly.
After my quick visit to the mill, I would have joined Taylor on the perimeter check, but with the Mythguard in town I needed to make sure their operations were running smoothly too. I pulled up to a motel at the base of the mountains, the parking lot dotted sparsely with cars, and knocked on the door of the fifth suite. A lanky man with thinning brown hair and scruff on his cheeks welcomed me inside.
“So I received the case files pertaining to recent Lycan-related incidents,” said Sebastian Hicks, the Mythguard representative supervising the Gunnison packs. “I’ve been looking over them and, in each event, the damage has been… significant. It seems there isn’t a Lycan event in which the transformed individual in question hasn’t caused destruction. Then again, non-destructive events might not have been reported, but based on our knowledge of Lycans, it seems unlikely that a person can obtain their Lycan form and remain in control of their actions. It’s like the beast aspect of a shifter is amplified tenfold and becomes so dominant that it completely overwhelms human cognizance.”
“Even in a marked individual?”
“The marked condition prior to turning Lycan seems to bear no effect.”
I stood beside Sebastian in front of the table where he had spread out his case files. There were five incidents laid out before us from all over the world—one from Iceland, one from Thailand, and three from right here in the U.S. All of them reported some number of human deaths—and the Lycan involved had been euthanized every time.
“All of these individuals were dragons,” I pointed out.
“Yes. They’re the most notorious for seeking out the Lycan ritual. Ghouls tend to keep to themselves and vampires find strength in numbers, relying more on stealth than brute strength. Fae generally aren’t an issue, as we’ve found they and unicorns are far more benevolent than the aggressive shifter races. At times, wolves may dabble, but it’s primarily dragons that we have experienced abusing the blessings from their Sun God,” explained Sebastian. “We suspect it’s because the dragons feel the greatest effects of shifter oppression, being diurnal rather than nocturnal like ghouls and vampires. They don’t have as much freedom to hunt or embrace their beasts like wolves do, because dragons… well, most humans don’t believe dragons exist. Wolves are part of nature. Dragons are an anomaly that the Mythguard have worked for centuries to hide, to protect the delicate sensibilities of humans. I think humanity would suffer a collective mental break if they knew that there were giant flying reptiles prowling about.”
It made sense for dragon shifters to be most prone to acting out. “That was Lothair Javier’s leading cause, wasn’t it? While in the Mythguard, he was an advocate for the exposure and freedoms of dragon shifters.”
“That’s right,” said Sebastian. “He advocated for the slow introduction of dragons to humanity, but the Mythguard continuously rejected his proposals. Exposing dragons would mean exposing shifters, and the world just isn’t ready for that. The damage it could cause to shifter communities globally would be astronomical.”