The Hunt for Freedom

Chapter 29

    Far away from the ice cream shop, a lean rugged male studied "Cat Island" as he liked to call it, through his computer monitor. After watching the fiasco the previous evening he was keeping a close eye on Princess Katalea. She had grown into a beautiful young woman since he last saw her.

He was tall, to the point of lanky when he didn't eat enough, Essam pushed away the oatmeal brought by the servants, chock full of nuts and berries. Rabbit food he thought in disgust. An alpha such as him should be devouring flesh.

The thought of a rare steak excited him, and he vowed to have one sent up before night's end. Seeing his own reflection in the window, he adjusted his wavy hair. Like everything else with him, his hair had to lay perfect.

Over six feet tall, with shoulder length dark hair, he knew he had a swimmer's build. Broad shoulders that tapered to a thin waist, he looked as though he put many miles in the lap pool. His muscular stomach was easy to hide when he wanted in a large sweatshirt, giving off the impression of a tall skinny nerd. The scholarly non-prescription glasses that he used to mislead humans completed the look.

Women rarely averted their eyes, he knew his first impression wasn't intimidating. He had worked hard on that deception.

Now, as he sat studying the screen in front of him, he didn't hide his smoky grey eyes with the small scar on the left brow. His tight t-shirt did nothing to hide his washboard stomach either. This is the way his Gruppa saw him. His name was synonymous with merciless amongst his dragons. Some might think he was pure evil. They knew better than to underestimate him..

He licked his lips when he saw Katalea sunning on the beach. There was only a weak sun, but she seemed content to stretch out and stare out at the waves.

The two day scruff on his face itched as he sat, he would need to shave soon to retain the youthful look his baby face provided. He remembered her in Utah, a fierce young panther fighting for her life. He still saw her in visions, long black hair streaming wildly, cobalt blue eyes burning through him as if they were lightning. She faced him defiantly that day, as the tornado she created came for him. Many nights he had woken with a start, sweaty, shaky, but worse, humiliated as the storm played out in his dreams. She was a worthy opponent, he would do well to remember that.

"Those eyes beguiled me, " he thought. "Deep blue, no azure, the color of a sapphire. So deep, worlds could get lost in there...and in wonderment he thought, "Aren't I supposed to be the one that captivates with the eyes." He considered this.

Enchanting.

It was too bad he had to destroy her.

He poured himself another drink, social rules didn't apply to him, and he often drank his breakfast. He studied the liquor, watching the light from the fireplace flicker through the glass as he thought of what he would like to do with Katalea before he rid the world of her and her type.

Maybe he could keep her like a play toy, visit with her when his needs demanded. Maybe she would submit, maybe she would be his. He scowled, if she was submissive he wouldn't be intrigued.

Desire coursed through his body, he felt the black leather of his pants tighten as blood coursed south. He needed release. He opened the window and shifted into his magnificent red dragon. Mammoth irerradescant crimson wings spanned the window frame, engulfed it. He took to the skies with his eyes cast on the town below. Which young lady would be his assistant this day?

The sky shimmered with cool opaque colors at dawn, the sea was restless and beat against the rocks with angry white fists. Summer was ending and they were no closer to finding Dakari.

The useless human girl had no memory of her companion, or for that matter, for the entire three days that she had been missing. Her parents had been overcome with emotion when the police called, willing to help in any way they could, but they offered no solutions as to how she came to be so far from home.

The doctors concluded she had not been raped, and no drugs were found in her system. They had no human reason for her short term amnesia, or her near three thousand mile journey.

Farsi and Katalea had questioned the girl at length, before turning her over to the mainland police. Naive, farm girls from Ireland just don't end up in Egypt. The weredragons had moved their territory into the United Kingdom. This was only an assumption, based on the logistics of the missing girls and Dakari's limited information. Drawing on the pattern the dragons had used before, never seeming to hunt too far from home. At least in this small way, something good came from the abduction of sweet little Margaret O'hare.

For two weeks scouts had been sent to survey the area, to no avail. There were many hillside towns to steal girls from and plenty of steep cliffs awash with caves to make any weredragon happy. Drones were used, with Penny at the helm to render them invisible, and the area had been combed relentlessly.

At home, cautiousness was the keyword. Shifting was now done only at night, only after the last ferry had left the island and the all clear had been given. Most training was done inside as Mr. Kalb had conjured a dome like roof over the training yard. A few of the new recruits had started mastering the elements of flight, and this dome roof was hindering their exploration. Penny was slowly able to share her invisibility with larger creatures, thus making her the natural leader for this new rank of flyers.

Down on the beach, Katalea's class of weather manipulation was trying to defeat the incoming storm. Swirling clouds grew and pulsed, moving toward the group at a brisk pace. Power was pushed out at them with no success until young Aran suggested combating the storm with one of their own.

Katalea was pleased with his innovation and joined him to create a wind storm that had the waves howling. Once clouds dissipated in the strong wind, the sun was able to poke through slightly and evaporate the mist.

The group celebrated this major victory with a mad dash into the now calmer sea. For fun, Katalea conjured some mid size waves, crashing to the shore with reckless abandon. Loud shouts of glee could be heard as hard young bodies, tanned to a deep bronze, showed their skills body surfing.

Flirtatious glances flittered between the young unattached cats, and in their need to impress the opposite gender, maneuvers became wilder. One youngster, looking as though he had just started puberty, tried to perform a back flip as he shot upward, seconds before a large wave crested. To his dismay, all he performed was a belly flop!

Races against the tide were the cause of raucous cheers as the winner was promised a kiss by a pretty little she-cat. As these were all forms of shoulder conditioning, Katalea allowed this to go on for some time. She stretched lazily in the weak fun, stretching sore muscles after a rough time in the Tahtib arena.

She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.