I stared at him, uncomprehending. What had her nose to do with the hatch?
When I didn't respond, he continued. "I'll see what Gabe can come up with. Maybe Sadie will have some ideas to try to wrangle the eggs out of the museum."
"The omega should be left out of it. She has little enough use as it is," I said, scowling out the window.
"Right. Fuck you and your bullshit," Hudson said, reaching across me and opening the car door. "Get out. You insult my mate; you don't need my pack's help."
Had he picked up such crass language from his bottom-feeder of an omega? I snorted at him and ran a finger over the upholstery, which immediately recoiled from the heat. "I will burn your sex wagon to the ground."
"I'll eat your eggs for breakfast."
We met the other's gaze and locked there, stubborn and unwilling to sacrifice an inch on either side. He barred his teeth and I met him a moment later. I grabbed the collar of his shirt, my fist drawn back, when Gabe cleared his throat on the outside of the vehicle. "Must I remind you two idiots that there are still humans here, watching this happen? And that they have cell phones that connect directly to every single social media outlet in the world?"
My fist dropped. I glared as I smoothed Hudson's collar back into place. "A sensible reminder, Gabriel. Thank you."
"When you apologize about our mate, I'll give you what help we have. Get out," Hudson demanded.
I roasted a line across his door on my way out, but I left as requested. Several heads had turned our way. Gabriel had a point. The humans were endlessly curious about those with money and the drama within. It was the issue of many of their ridiculous reality television shows. I looked for Nariti and saw no sign of him.
Gabe caught me. "He's back at the site negotiating the storage of those opals."
So many, many reasons why I kept Nariti around. I went back to the site, watching as they placed the golden egg upon a thick bed of cotton batting, wrapped it, and affixed a lid to the crate. With the combined weight of the box, it took two humans to lift it into the back of a pickup truck.
"And if we could simply get an additional bit of information from you, Doctor Nicole?" Nariti asked. "We require the location of the storage facility for our insurance purposes, please."
The woman, not a drop of magic coming from her, rolled her eyes at him. "The objects aren't in your possession and you have no reason to be concerned about-"
"We have every reason to be concerned about the long-term prospects of those opals, doctor," I said, coming to stand beside Nariti. "If you would be so kind. I assure you, the more information you allow to be available to us in this moment, the easier this process will be for you and yours. You will be graciously rewarded for your-"
She cut me off, her voice like a lash. The audacity. "I don't care about a reward or about your money. If we were in it for the cash, we'd auction the damn things and be done with it. Our contract outlines the situation clearly. You'll be lucky if you get paid for them and you should be happy that we're willing to play ball about this whole thing."
"The contract you mention states you have another week entitlement to this land. It would be a simple thing to find another willing entity if you are no longer interested in maintaining a rational, polite state of affairs with those who hired you," I hissed.
Opals were worth thousands, though I doubted that the museum would be so intensely pleased once they realized what they had were not stones. Indeed, when the government descended upon their discovery, there would be nothing left for them at all. Perhaps Nicole realized that we were the ones signing her check, for all it was indirectly. Though I doubted it.
"I'll speak with the project director and I'm certain he'll be in touch," she said, her voice frosty.
And then she left, climbing back out of the hole and into the truck. She smacked the dash and off it drove, the bed full of my flight's future.
A last crate was being prepared. The final egg, the first they'd found, lay abandoned in the soil. It was far enough away from the humans. If I snuck down, it was possible that I could hide it away and run from them. My vehicle lacked significant trunk space, but I would be willing to hide it in the back seat if so needed.
I started my descent but paused when the blonde lifted her head. Another man working with her called out to her. Olivia. That was right; her name was Olivia. She didn't move. Instead, she stood there staring at me. After a moment, one fist went toward her hip and planted itself there. I found myself amused, a rare emotion for me. What did she think she meant to a dragon? There were other magical humans in the world, many with connections to our old psychic services hotline.
It would be simple enough. I could contact one of them, many of whom believed me to be something other than human as it was, and make all their supernatural wishes come true. They would assist me in hatching the egg. And then I would kill them, ridding myself of the security risk and bearing a single whelp into our flight for the first time in well over a century.
When she turned to address the issue with her co-worker, I crept closer. Step by step, I drew nearer to the egg. I reached out for it, crouching beneath the ridge they had placed it under.
Again, she slapped my
