Dragon's Fire [PUP Squad Alpha 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Abby Blake Page A

“They’ll sound the alarm if a jump vortex opens anywhere near the house. The wards are back in place so no one will be able to jump, slip, or bounce directly inside. Do we know how long we’ve got?”
    “What’s going on?” Ava managed to force past a throat tight with anxiety. Whatever was happening now was something neither Ava nor Kali seemed to understand. So much for their strange “knowing” skills. She glanced around the room, surprised to find herself back in the bedroom of the first safe house they’d taken her to.
    “Baby, everything’s going to be all right,” Nathan said as he gathered Ava into his arms and cradled her protectively. She had the very real urge to cry, but since none of what was happening made any sense, the emotion just managed to annoy her.
    “Ava, I’m so sorry. If I’d known this was a possibility I would have warned you. We would have been prepared.” Brody seemed devastated, completely overwrought, and she wanted to crawl into his lap and comfort him without actually leaving Nathan’s arms. Impossible, of course, but her frantic emotions didn’t allow for reality.
    “What’s happening?” she managed to ask once more. “Who’s coming? Why are we frightened of your mother?”
    But even as she asked the questions, the answers came to her. Somehow someone else’s memories played in her head. Scenes of violence, of hatred, of murderous rage, filled her mind and she cried out at the onslaught. Kali scrambled over to her, grasped her hand tight. “I see them, too,” she whispered.
    “See what?” Brody asked anxiously.
    Kali turned to him, tears streaming down her face. “I see what dragon-shifters do to babies of mixed parentage.”
    Brody nodded once, but turned away, unable, or maybe unwilling, to look at Ava. He left the room, and Ava tried to scramble out of Nathan’s embrace to go after him. But Nathan held her tighter.
    “He needs a moment. Just give him a little time to pull his emotions back under control.” Ava nodded, trying to do as Nathan asked. Tears flowed down her face as she realized how awful it must be for a man as controlled as Brody to lose himself to emotion. “He’s not like them,” Nathan said quietly, the voice of reason amid the chaos. “He doesn’t believe any of what his family taught him. He has never agreed with or shared their attitudes. It’s why he works with the PUP squad. He sees a far greater world outside of the bigoted, narrow-minded attitudes of his own people.”
    “At what stage of pregnancy can the matriarch sense her grandchild?” Ronan asked, obviously more aware of dragon-shifter biology than Ava.
    “With a full-blood dragon-shifter, usually within the first week,” Nathan answered. “I’m guessing that it may take a little longer with a mixed breed simply because the woman hasn’t landed on our doorstep yet.”
    “Is it possible she won’t sense Ava’s baby?”
    “Anything’s possible,” Nathan said, obviously trying to sound optimistic. But he was too much of a realist to pretend there was no danger because he added, “But it’s more likely that she’ll come soon.”
    “She’ll come,” Brody said from the doorway, “and she’ll bring help because she knows I’ll oppose her.” He turned his attention to Alex. “Are the others coming in?”
    “Of course,” Alex said with a grin. “We’ve worked together for five decades. Where else would you expect them to be when you need help?”
    “Thank you,” Brody said with a genuine smile.
    “We’ve recalled both teams, everyone except Darian and West,” Ronan said as he headed for the door. “Even Jason who’s still technically on emergency family leave is heading in. Within the hour there’ll be so many vampires, werewolves, bear-shifters, fire demons, warlocks, and heavily armed humans around it’s going to look like a sci-fi convention.”
    “Don’t forget the ice demon,” Alex said with a laugh. “Angus would be mighty pissed to