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If the fact that they were setting off her shifter senses hadn’t been enough of a giveaway, their clear mismatch to the atmosphere of the place would’ve sealed the deal. Two hulking men in sunglasses – at night! – and wearing leather jackets, sitting together and staring at her in a very obvious way, as if they’d known to expect her.

Thugs and mercenaries don’t tend to lurk in the corners of hipster bars, she thought. And these are definitely thugs and mercenaries.

Any slight hope she may have harbored about taking them out or using them in some way to secretly gain access to where Robb was being kept deserted her at that moment. There was no way in the world she could take out even one of them, let alone two.

Oh, well. That wasn’t in the plan, anyway.

She sank down into a chair at their table, not bothering to ask for permission.

Nor should you, snapped the brolga. We are in charge here.

“Evening, gents,” she said with a confidence she didn’t entirely feel, channeling the carefree Tahnee of her youth, who never let her nerves get the better of her. “Let’s cut the crap and get down to business. You’re here to take me to your boss. And I’m here to get taken to your boss. So, let’s do it.”

The eyebrows of the guy she was sitting across from went up towards his hairline, and Tahnee did her best to keep her expression of calm indifference.

I’m going to look like a bit of a dickhead if it turns out these are just a couple of roided-up shifters out on a date.

Tahnee’s heart drummed out an insistent beat in her ears.

“Seriously, guys,” she said, putting her hands on the table to show that she wasn’t about to assault them with some kind of weapon. “I know why you’re here, and I’m here for the same reason.”

Her throat tightened. “You have Robb. I want to see him.”

The two shifters exchanged a look, appearing to be having some sort of silent conversation – Maybe they are mates, out on a very weird hostage-taking date for psychopathic murderer types, she thought – before they appeared to come to a conclusion.

The main one nodded and rose to his feet, with the other one standing a moment later. They didn’t seem to see the need to verbalize whatever it was they were thinking.

Following suit, Tahnee stood up, keeping her hands where they could see them.

“Lead the way, boys,” she said, and together, the three of them left the bar.

Okay, she thought. Here we go.

She felt very, very dwarfed by their enormous stature – and although she knew that chances were high that she could shift and fly away if she wanted to escape, the whole point of this little charade was not to escape.

And besides which, she didn’t know what either of these guys shifted into – if even one of them was something like a huge bird of prey, her escape would be pretty short-lived, even though the brolga was not a small bird itself. A condor’s talons would make short work of her no matter what.

And even if they didn’t shift into anything that could fly, the moment they got inside, any advantage her brolga form may have had would disappear – and, most likely, a lot of the brolga’s bravado.

They walked silently up the street to a nondescript office building, and the reality of the situation finally truly started to hit home.

Robb is in there. He’s right there. And I haven’t sensed anything through the mate bond after that first horrible feeling of… something. A chill ran down Tahnee’s spine. What have they done to him?

She did her best to send a message to Robb through the mate bond. A feeling of hope. Of reassurance. Of anything.

Don’t worry, Robb, she thought. I’m here. Help is on the way.

Tahnee had no idea whether any of that made it through to him. She could only hope that he’d only picked up on her feelings of reassurance, and not the feeling that she’d tried to keep to herself – that she was in way, way over her head.

With a sick feeling in her stomach, Tahnee allowed herself to be led inside the building.

Chapter 12

“My dear Mr. Lockwood. Do you have any idea how much gold it would take to wake a dragon that doesn’t want to be disturbed?”

Robb had to admit that he’d tuned out a little over the past few hours, given that there was only so much of Anne’s droning on about Hargreaves and its plans that he could bring himself to pay full attention to.

At some point she had deigned to straighten up his chair once more, and now, at least, he had the small mercy of being upright. The worst of the wyvern venom’s lingering effects had also worn off, and now he was just feeling mildly crappy instead of outright awful.