Flint's POV
My treasure is wearing a hospital gown, and I want to burn this entire facility to the ground.
Councillor Nyx is leading us through sterile white hallways toward our "accommodations." Thea walks between Corvus and Sable, still shaking from the examination. There are needle marks on her arms. Someone hurt my mate.
My dragon is screaming for blood.
"Here we are," Councillor Nyx announces, opening a door. "Your living quarters for the duration of the study."
I push past everyone to examine the space first. It's large—a common area with couches, a kitchen, several bedrooms branching off. Big windows, but they're reinforced. Locked from the outside.
A prison pretending to be an apartment.
"This is unacceptable," I announce. "My treasure requires better accommodations."
"Your treasure has a name," Thea says tiredly. "And this is fine."
"It's NOT fine!" My voice comes out harsher than intended. "You deserve gold floors and silk sheets and—"
"Flint." She looks at me with those exhausted eyes. "I just agreed to be a lab experiment. Can you maybe not argue about interior design right now?"
Guilt punches through my anger. She's right. She just sacrificed her freedom to save us, and I'm complaining about furniture.
But my dragon doesn't understand guilt. It only understands MINE. PROTECT. HOARD.
And my treasure is surrounded by four other males who keep touching her, standing too close, looking at her like she belongs to them.
She does belong to them. The bonds prove it.
But she belongs to ME first. I've watched her for three years. I've protected her building, kept dangerous beastmen away from her territory, made sure she was safe even when she didn't know I existed.
"Everyone settle in," Councillor Nyx says. "Testing begins tomorrow morning. For now, rest." She leaves, locking the door behind her.
The click of the lock makes Thea flinch.
Corvus immediately moves to comfort her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "We'll get through this together."
"Get your hands off her," I growl before I can stop myself.
The wolf's silver eyes flash. "Excuse me?"
"She's exhausted. She needs space." I step forward, every instinct screaming to pull Thea away from him. "Stop crowding her."
"I'm not crowding her. I'm comforting her." Corvus pulls Thea closer. "Something you wouldn't understand, dragon."
Smoke curls from my nostrils. "What did you just say?"
"ENOUGH!" Thea shouts, pulling away from both of us. "I can't do this right now! I can't handle you two fighting over me like I'm a toy!"
"You're not a toy," I say immediately. "You're treasure. The most precious thing in existence."
"That's not better!" She presses her hands to her face. "I'm a person, Flint. A person who's had the worst day of her life and just wants to sleep without five men arguing about who gets to stand closest to me!"
Shame burns through me. She's right again. I'm making this worse.
"I'll give you space," Sable says gently, heading toward one of the bedrooms. "We all will."
"Thank you," Thea whispers.
But as she turns toward a bedroom, her legs give out.
I catch her before anyone else can, lifting her into my arms. She weighs almost nothing—too light, like she hasn't been eating properly.
"Put me down," she protests weakly.
"No." I carry her toward the largest bedroom. "You're exhausted. You need rest."
"Flint—"
"Please." The word is hard for me. Dragons don't beg. But for her, I'll do anything. "Let me take care of you. Just this once."
She looks up at me with those beautiful eyes, and something in her expression softens. "Okay. Just this once."
I lay her on the bed carefully, like she's made of glass. She immediately curls onto her side, pulling the blanket up.
"Stay," she says quietly. "Please? I don't want to be alone."
My dragon purrs with satisfaction. She wants me here. Chose me over the others.
I climb onto the bed beside her, keeping a respectful distance even though every instinct screams to pull her close.
"Flint?" Her voice is already drowsy.
"Why did you watch my building for three years?"
I'm quiet for a moment. "Dragons bond with treasures. Things we protect, collect, keep safe. The first time you toured that building, looking for an apartment, I felt it. This pull toward you. I thought it was just my dragon being possessive over territory."
"But it wasn't?"
"No." I carefully move a strand of hair from her face. "It was recognizing my mate. I just didn't understand it yet."
"That's kind of stalkerish," she mumbles, but there's no real anger in it.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Just..." She reaches back, finding my hand. "Don't fight with the others over me. Please? I can't choose between you. I don't even understand what these bonds mean yet."
Her hand is so small in mine. Warm and alive and perfect.
"I'll try," I promise. "For you."
She falls asleep holding my hand.
I lie there, watching her breathe, feeling the bond in my chest pulse with contentment. My treasure is safe. In my arms. Finally.
Then I hear it.
A low hiss from the ventilation shaft above the bed.
My eyes snap up just as a snake drops from the vent—no, not a snake. A serpent beastman, scales gleaming, fangs extended.
Heading straight for Thea's throat.
I move on instinct, throwing myself over her body as the serpent strikes.
Fangs sink into my shoulder instead of her neck.
Venom explodes through my bloodstream like liquid fire.
"FLINT!" Thea screams, awake now.
The bedroom door crashes open. Corvus, Sable, Russet, and Marlowe burst in, already shifting.
The serpent beastman hisses, releasing my shoulder. "The council sends its regards." Then he's gone, disappearing back up into the vent system faster than any of us can follow.
I collapse onto the bed, my vision already blurring.
"No, no, no!" Thea's hands are on my face. "Flint, stay with me!"
"Venom," I manage to say. "Serpent venom. Dragons... weak to it..."
"HELP!" Thea screams toward the door. "Someone help him!"
Corvus is already at the door, pounding on it. "UNLOCK THIS! NOW!"
Sable examines the bite. "It's deep. The venom's spreading fast."
"How do we stop it?" Thea's crying now, tears falling on my face.
"You can't," I whisper. My chest feels like it's caving in. The bond mark—crimson for me—is flickering, fading. "Treasure... I'm sorry..."
"No! You don't get to die!" She presses her hands over the wound, and something incredible happens.
All five bond marks on her chest blaze with light.
The light flows down her arms, into her hands, into me.
The venom burns away like mist in sunlight.
My vision clears. The pain recedes. The bond mark stops flickering and glows brighter than ever.
Everyone stares at Thea in shock.
She's glowing. Actually glowing with rainbow light, all five bond colors swirling around her.
"What..." she breathes. "What just happened?"
The door finally opens. Councillor Nyx rushes in with medical staff, then stops dead.
"Impossible," she whispers. "She just... she used the bonds to heal him."
"I didn't do anything!" Thea protests. "I just wanted him to stop dying!"
Councillor Nyx's expression shifts to something hungry. Excited. "This changes everything. If the bonds allow her to channel power through them..." She starts typing frantically on her tablet. "We need to run tests immediately."
"NO!" I sit up, pulling Thea against me protectively. "Someone just tried to assassinate us! You're not running any tests until you explain who sent that serpent!"
"I don't know," Councillor Nyx admits. "But this facility is supposed to be secure. If someone got in..." She looks genuinely worried now. "We have a traitor in the council."
"Great," Marlowe says flatly. "So we're trapped in a locked facility with someone who wants us dead."
"And Thea just revealed she has healing powers she doesn't understand," Russet adds.
Corvus's voice is ice. "If you can't protect her, we're leaving. Now."
"You can't leave," Councillor Nyx says. "The outer doors are sealed. Protocol during a security breach."
"Then unseal them!"
"I can't. Only Elder Crag has override authority, and he's..." She checks her tablet, face going pale. "He's not responding to communication."
The lights flicker.
Then go completely dark.
Emergency lighting kicks in, bathing everything in red.
An alarm starts blaring.
"FACILITY LOCKDOWN," an automated voice announces. "CONTAINMENT BREACH. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE. SUBJECTS REMAIN IN QUARTERS."
"Subjects?" Thea's voice shakes. "We're subjects now?"
Through the door, I hear screaming.
Then roaring.
Then the unmistakable sounds of beastmen in combat.
Councillor Nyx backs toward the door. "Stay here. Lock yourselves in. Don't open for anyone except me."
"What's happening?" Sable demands.
She looks at us with fear in her rainbow eyes.
"Someone just released all the test subjects from the lower levels," she says. "The dangerous ones. The failed experiments. The beastmen who went feral."
"How many?" I ask.
"Forty-seven."
The door slams shut. Locks from outside.
We're trapped in a room while forty-seven feral beastmen rampage through the facility.
And somewhere in the darkness, the serpent who tried to kill me is still hunting.
Thea looks at the five of us, glowing with power she doesn't understand.
"So," she says with hysterical calm. "Is this a normal Tuesday for you guys, or...?"
Something crashes against our door.
Hard enough to crack it.
Then crashes again.
"Get behind us," Corvus orders, all five of us forming a protective circle around Thea.
The door explodes inward.
And my last thought before the fighting starts is:
This isn't random chaos.
Someone planned this.
Someone wants my treasure dead.
And they just turned this facility into a war zone to make it happen.