The Beast Within

Chapter 25

I was thrown to the ground inside a tent. I landed with a grunt. I tried to move, to use my limbs. Nothing worked.

"If you try to move it'll just get worse." The Boss said. I glared at him. He laughed at me. "Sam. Daughter of Mia and Aaron. The red daughter of the white and black." My eyes narrowed. How does he know my name and my parent's names and colors?

"Your brother is Francis. He's the black one you blew your cover to save. Killed one of my men." I watched his feet and he moved closer to me. He crouched in front of me, his knees popping. Weak knees, good to know. "He was only sixteen. He had a family. A mother, father, sister. You killed him mercilessly!"

I stared him in the eyes, a challenge. A growl came from my throat. I began to shake with anger. I did not kill him mercilessly. I had not meant to kill him in the first place, but he was about to kill my brother. My own blood. I reacted and saved my brother, killing the human in the process. Did I regret it? No. A life that would go out within the century was nothing compared to a life that lasts for eternity.

"Why not kill me?" I asked, just barely being able to move my mouth enough to talk

"I used to love dragons." He said, ignoring me. "I had a friend that was a dragon. Neither of us knew about what the other was. We thought that the other was just human and had to keep ourselves secret from the other."

He stopped for a moment, his eyes locking with mine. I could see the sadness in his eyes. There was also a hint of something else I couldn't decipher. Pride?

"She was a beautiful Dragon." He was still crouched in front of me. His eyes holding mine. "The day I found out what she was, I was sent to kill her. I almost did too. All I saw was a dragon. I didn't see my friend, I didn't see a human. I saw a monster that wanted to kill everything." I saw him flinch, had I been a human I wouldn't have seen it.

I wanted to say something but I didn't want to ruin the moment. The leader of the Hunters had a dragon friend.

"Then she changed into her human form. Her beautiful white scales disappearing to become skin. She said my name, broke my concentration. I no longer saw a monster. I saw my friend. The friend who I'd known for years. I failed that mission." He took a shaky breath. He stood up and pulled me up with him. He injected me with something and I could feel my muscles relaxing.

"I trust your interested enough not to run away." I nodded. I was interested; I want to know what happened. A Hunter and a dragon being friends has never happened before. Especially a Hunter leader and a dragon.

"We had met when I was sixteen. I don't know how old she was at the time, but she looked the same age I was when she was human. But I've never seen a dragon that looked older than twenty, females always look younger.

"She saved my life. I was being attacked by an animal. I cougar I think. I don't remember the details very much. She killed the animal, I remember that much. I owed her my life.

"So when my father told me to kill her I couldn't. I got whipped, ten lashes, because of it but I couldn't kill someone I owed my life to." He took another shaky breath, one a human would not have noticed.

"I saw her again, a few years later. She was in dragon form with a huge black Dragon. She saw me and thanked me for that night. She introduced me to her family.

"The black Dragon I saw her with was her lover. Another, smaller, black Dragon her son." He looks at me. His eyes willing me to catch on. "Her daughter, dark red color.

"Mia was my friend's name. Her lover Aaron, son Francis. Her daughter was you, Sam."

I took a step back.

"My mother trusted a Hunter? The very thing that killed her!" I yelled the last part.

The Boss at the top.