Triple Dog Dare

Chapter One

Now…

Lina Zaria-Alexandr still hated flying, even though in the past couple of years she’d grown a little more used to it. They had to fly over to France from Florida at least twice a year to meet with the dragon flagyer’s mucky-mucks. And truth be told, she’d grown very close to and fond of Andel Wattersson, the head of their flagyer, even though he was her uncle by mating and not by blood.

Zack, her best friend and Watcher, had the seat to her right and held her hand. Rather, he let Lina crush his left hand. To her left sat one of her dragon shifter mates, Jan. Behind them sat Rick, her other dragon mate, with Kael, Zack’s dragon mate.

“You okay, chica?” Zack asked.

“I miss Paris,” she grumpily muttered. “I miss it so fucking much I wish they’d just turn the damn plane around right now.”

“You hate Paris,” he reminded her. “And the plane hasn’t even pulled back from the gate yet.”

She opened her eyes and leaned forward to peer past Zack out the window. “Oh.” She sat back and closed her eyes again.

The seat belt felt uncomfortably snug across her ballooning belly. One, or both, of her twins, boys, decided to kick at that moment, landing a bull’s-eye on her bladder. “I hate flying,” she grumbled. “If I’m the goddess and the Seer, why can’t we just tell all of them to come over to Florida instead of us coming here?”

Their friend and wolf shifter, Daniel Blackestone, spoke to her from the seat directly behind her. “Remember, Lina. You’re the Goddess. The flight will arrive home safely.”

She grumbled again, but tried to settle back and relax. She knew he was right, but it still didn’t decrease her hatred of flying. Daniel always made the trip with them to Europe. He was once again one of the keepers of the Tablet of Trammel. After Lina hid it, she told him where it was. He also helped communicate to his wolf Clan’s Council the latest developments in the war against the cockatrice. Not to mention they were very close friends.

Brodey Lyall, also a wolf shifter who frequently made the trip with them, was at his home in Florida. They’d left him out of the loop this time.

Lina closed her eyes and tried to focus on that. She knew Brodey and his brothers had finally found their One, the woman meant to complete the triplet Alpha shifters. That’s why Lina hadn’t asked him to join them on this trip.

At least one good thing had come from my freaky-deaky visions.

Well, and hopefully a second good thing, depending on how the results of her and Zack’s visit to Bolivia a couple of months earlier shook out.

The plane lurched a little as the sound of the engines ramped up. It slowly pulled back from the gate. Zack made a pained squeaking noise as Lina squeezed his hand harder.

“Lovely,” Jan whispered in her ear, “it’s all right. You’ve made this flight dozens of times before.”

“And I’ve hated it every time, too.” At least she no longer feared accidentally blowing up the plane in mid-flight. She’d managed to develop a reasonable amount of control over her incendiary powers.

Now if I could just locate Fat Boy and fry his ass.

The mysterious man, whom she knew took part in the murder of Kael’s family, along with others, hadn’t crossed their paths again since their first trip to Paris and Brussels a couple of years earlier. Unfortunately, the cockatrice nest they suspected he worked with had gone completely underground, escaping them ever since the last showdown. Which was another reason she knew they had to travel to Europe in person. It improved their chances of locating the cockatrice nest and permanently putting them out of commission.

She closed her eyes and tried to relax.

Big mistake.

Even though she was a goddess, she was also their flagyer’s Seer. She had no control over the visions that came to her. Despite her eyes being closed, a vision flashed into view. Since it wasn’t blue in color, she knew it was something that had already happened. The past looked normal, while future events appeared as if through a blue filter.

She saw Fat Boy standing outside a storefront. He was staring across a street. In her mind’s eye, she turned and found herself looking at a farm supply store’s parking lot. A man she recognized as Cail Lyall stood there with a woman Lina had never seen before, but Lina instinctively knew she was Cail’s mate. They stood beside a stock trailer and reached inside to pet a horse.

The vision faded.

Lina opened her eyes and blew out a deep breath. “Change of plans, guys. We need to head to Arcadia as soon as we get home. Do not pass go, do not stop by home and do laundry. Arcadia, here we come.” She tipped her head back. “You don’t have to come with, Blackie,” she said to Daniel over the seat back. “We’ll be seeing you soon enough in Maine.”

“Another vision?” Zack asked.

“Yeppers.”

“What did you see?”

She smiled, but there wasn’t an ounce of humor in her mood. “Fat Boy’s back.”

“And there’s going to be trouble?” Jan added.

“Yep. Hey now, hey now, the psycho’s back.” She settled in her seat, her grip on Zack’s hand relaxing. She didn’t need to worry. She knew their plane would touch down in Florida safely. The only person that had anything to worry about was Fat Boy.

I can’t wait to fry him from the balls up.

Daniel Blackestone sat back in his seat as the plane took off. It’d been an interesting couple of years, that’s for sure. His mate, Callie, hadn’t made the trip with him this time. He’d taken Lina’s advice to leave her at home in case Lacey needed her help. With this newest revelation about Fat Boy, he understood why. They all knew from Lina’s visions that things with the cockatrice were going to get bad again soon, and they’d have to tighten their ranks, dragon and wolf alike.

Well, all the shifter races except the cockatrice, since the cockatrice were bound and determined to wipe out all the other shifter races. It was one of the reasons he’d decided to relocate back to the main Clan compound in Maine. Safety in numbers. Plus it put him close to the Tablet of Trammel. And now that he had a mate to think about, regardless of how strong she was, he didn’t want to do the lone-wolf gig anymore.

Despite their best efforts, they’d been unable to locate the cockatrice nest in Europe. Every trip they took to Europe, he went with Kael on scouting missions, following old leads and tracking down new ones.

Nada.

The main issue concerning him was Callie’s dreams as of late. She wasn’t a Seer, but she was the sister of Baba Yaga. While she’d made the transition well to settling in as his human-ish mate, wife, and slave in their BDSM dynamic, she couldn’t escape her heritage.

She was still an immortal by birth, regardless of the fact that she’d sworn to submit to him as his mate.

She also wasn’t aware of the nightmares she had nearly every night over the past month that awoke him. Dreams where she would yell, scream, rage at people, obviously involved in some sort of battle. In morning’s light, she always looked confused when he asked her about her night terrors.

He’d even had a brief, yet futile, conversation with her older sister, Baba Yaga.

Callie still had her powers even though she traded in true immortality when becoming his mate.

He tried to push worry out of his mind. The Cailleach had spent eons before he was born taking care of herself. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop him from wanting to protect her as his mate.

He’d decided to have a talk with Lacey, their Clan’s Seer, when he returned home. He didn’t want to bug Lina with this, because she was already stressed out enough with her pregnancy and regular Seer duties to her flagyer.

Maybe it’s nothing. Of course, he didn’t really believe that.

That would just be too damn easy.

Once they were safely in the air and the captain turned off the seat belt sign, Lina hauled herself up and out of her seat and waddled down the aisle. She made it to the front lavatory before any other passengers. Carefully wedging herself in, she managed to get turned around, lock the door, get her pants pulled down, and plop her butt onto the toilet seat before she wet herself.

With a relieved sigh, she emptied her bladder. It was a good thing, too, because movement out of the corner of her eye startled her. In the small mirror over the sink, a hazy woman’s visage looked directly at her.

Had she not been on the potty already, she would have wet herself.

Lina closed her eyes, counted to five, and opened them again.

The woman still stared at her from the mirror.

Totally creeped out, Lina got herself cleaned up and put back together. As she stood at the sink and washed her hands, the woman watched her.

“Who are you?” Lina finally asked.

“Please, help her,” the woman softly said before fading out of sight in the mirror.

“Crap,” Lina grumbled. “Just what I need. One more freaking mystery to deal with.”