Taken by Lane L.V. (top young adult novels txt) 📕

hasn’t asked. Since you have such skill at sneaking and the lads are the size of a house, perhaps you can sneak back and let the little monster out.”

“Why would I let her out?” I ask.

“Yes, why?” Caden asks, suspicion in his voice. “And how do you know her?”

“Because they have put her on a leash, and worse collared her, and she cannot shift with a collar, just as a wolf cannot shift with bound hands . . . and as we’ve already established, I know lots of people. Let the little one go, Priya. It is important.”

Brook’s hands tighten around me. Hairs rise on the back of my neck. Raglan is asking us to trust him.

As I look at the huge shifter, bound as he has been since the day we first met, I know that I do.

I wriggle to free myself from Brook.

“This is not a good idea,” Caden says, although I sense he wants to relent.

Rising on my tiptoes, I press a kiss to his cheek. With a last glance at Raglan, I slip out the door. Twice as nervous about going back toward the hated room. Swift steps take me back to the cabin, breath shallow, I ease open the door . . . and nearly trip over Zeta, who is kneeling face expectant. When I make a motion for her to follow, her face splits in a happy grin.

Outside, she tugs on my hand and points to her collar.

Yes, the collar, Raglan said I needed to remove it before she could shift. I hesitate. She is a small child. What if she were to shift and hurt herself? She tugs my hand with urgency, and her eyes say, please.

I have no idea how her being out here is helpful to anyone, least of all Zeta, for I don’t want her hurt. But I utter a groan of defeat, for we are outside now and committed. The arrival of the lamp carrier sees us dart for the shadows of the prow. A few crew lay sleeping, but we slip between them carefully until we find a place to hunker down between a stack of crates. Under the moonlight, I inspect her collar, realizing the catch is intricate. She trembles as I work at it. It breaks my heart to see this upon her slim throat. It is nothing like the collar Caden uses upon me. It is an abomination that I cannot wait to get rid of. I tug, pull, and prize the buckle with my nails for long moments before it finally springs free, falling to the deck with a small clatter.

We still, then Zeta turns to me and throws her tiny arms around my neck. No sooner has she hugged me than she is clambering on nimble feet over crates and throwing herself from the prow.

I gasp. Shock and horror that she has dashed to her death. I fling myself at the railing that I might jump in after her. Her tiny body is morphing, the air crackles, and where a little girl once was, is a beautiful, sleek dolphin. Salty spray rises as she crashes into the depths, only to break the surface in a mighty leap. Tears pour down my cheeks. I am weeping that such wildness was ever kept a captive. I am weeping that she is now free. And I am weeping too for Raglan, who has been denied his wolf for so long.

I turn from the water, feeling heavy. Things have changed. This is no longer a secret sneak to share moments with my mates. A captive pet has been freed.

I can no longer go back.

The only path before me is forward. Perhaps tonight is my last of earthly life. Perhaps tomorrow terrible consequences will be had. But for now, the only thing that matters is returning to my mates.

I find Caden and Brook pacing when I return. They both set about examining me like some hidden damage might have befallen me. I bat their hands away, for I’m powerfully cross with Raglan, who is lounging against the wall in his usual relaxed pose. “You could have warned me that she was going to shift into a dolphin,” I say, folding my arms to let Raglan know I mean business.

“Dolphin? I’ve never heard of a dolphin shifter,” Brook says. “What about sharks?”

“Brook!” Caden growls.

“I thought she might have mentioned it herself before she leaped,” Raglan says, frowning back.

“The girl is mute,” I reply, exasperated. “I thought she’d plunged to her death.”

“She is no mute,” Raglan says. “Choosing not to talk and being mute are very different things. Also, she’s over a hundred and has got a little cranky in her old age.”

I glare at Raglan; this is no time for his questionable sense of humor.

“I think you should return to the room,” Caden says, disputing this determination by drawing me close. “Although it pains me to see anyone, be they human or shifter, taken as a pet and bound, you should not have let her go. If you’re caught here or suspected to be involved, who knows what the fucking Orcs will do, never mind Derick.”

“It’s too late,” Raglan says. He jangles his cuffs in a determined way that I’ve never seen him do before . . . Was that a claw? “The shifter is gone. And tomorrow, it won’t matter.”

“Of course it fucking matters,” Caden growls. “Do you want the lass to die?”

Suddenly, Raglan’s cuffs spring free, dropping to the floor with a clatter. The shifter surges to his feet.

My jaw hangs slack. We are all three gaping.

“Have you been able to do that the whole fucking time?” Caden demands. He is the first of us to recover sufficiently to find wits.

“Aye, lad, I have.” Raglan rolls out his shoulders with a sigh.

“Fuck,” Brook mutters.

“Fuck,” Caden agrees.

“Fuck,” I say.

Caden swats my bottom before pointing at the cuffs and chains upon the floor. “Who the fuck are you?”

Raglan looks down at himself. “I am Raglan.” He indicates himself.