As the party had continued, Cal kept his promise and took Darwyn to the North Pole. She loved the place and took a bite of anything too slow to dodge her. And a bite of some things that had been too slow for her teleportation. And he had joined her. Coming alone had been fun, but being here with someone else was twice as fun. After the wedding, he was going to drag her to the other planets to explore.

  Then her ears flicked up. : Do you sense that?:

  Cal glanced around and sniffed the air. : No?:

  : Follow me:

  She bounded away, teleporting yards ahead at the apex of each leap.

  Cal just jumped into the air and flew above her, teleporting whenever she got too far ahead.

  Then he felt it too.

  That excited buzz that he had felt only once before when he had found Darwyn’s egg.

  Impatiently, he scooped her up and teleported to the spot much faster than she could go yet.

  The stretch of ice looked like any other part of the barren snowfields, but in his senses, they practically glittered.

  Darwyn circled and scratched at the frozen water. : How will we get through?:

  Cal felt very smug as he reached into his newfound senses to the lake below him, : Like this: and teleported the whole section of ice in front of him onto land.

  The strain hit him hard. The urge to throw up the bride’s bouquet nearly succeeded.

  : Are you ok?:

  Cal nodded. : I’ll be fine. Let’s go find those eggs:

  They jumped into the water, pitch black from the endless depths below. But to a species used to traversing the space between stars, it wasn’t unfamiliar.

  Once they found the eggs, he would relocate them to a safe place he had found on Pluto, and show the planet to Darwyn at the same time. Then he would return to Beth, and she would praise his ingenuity and find people to hatch them.

  He and Darwyn would not be alone in the universe soon enough.

  …

  Commander John Archer had been to very few weddings in his lifetime. He had been the ring bearer for his aunt for one. And a few friends had also managed marital status. And his mother had succeeded several times. He watched her down a third martini as she talked with a woman who had enough giant diamonds on her to classify a fire hazard in sunlight.

  The last wedding he had been to was his mother’s almost fifteen years ago. She’d outlived that husband and two doctors, as well.

  “Have you seen Beth?”

  The Commander turned towards the groom, then glanced over the heads of the guests. Being a head taller had its advantages, but in the case… “No. What’s wrong?”

  He held up a purse covered in foundation powder. “The maid of honor found this in the bathroom. No one knows where she went.”

  The commander nodded and waved signals at the nearest security guard.

  Lock it down.

  Missing person.

  The man gestured an affirmative and placed a finger on his ear piece as he walked away.

  John placed a hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Don’t panic. We’ll have you on that honeymoon before the tide goes out.”

  Then he walked purposefully towards the security headquarters.

  …

  When Calamity popped back into the party with Darwyn on his back, he looked around for Beth to boast about their big find. Ten eggs. With him and Darwyn, that made twelve. Enough for what humans would consider an “inner circle” of friends.

  He teleported to the scaffolding that held up the stage lights.

  Darwyn peered over his shoulder. : I don’t see her:

  Cal shuffled at the sight of people standing awkwardly around instead of partying. : Me neither. Can you sense Mark? I can sense Beth, but she’s not here. He might know where she went:

  : I can, but can’t pinpoint him:

  Instead of answering, Cal leapt off and glided over the people in search of a familiar face. When he saw the commander, he teleported directly to the man’s shoulder. Luckily, Mark was there with his hair spiked from his incessant finger combing. Mark and Darwyn would interpret for the captain.

  : Is Beth ok?:

  “Yes. For now. Several unnamed hostile forces have undertaken to demand dragon eggs for countries other than the US. Mostly the ones that already have nukes. So, around six minimum. They will only return her when their demands are met.”

  Cal’s heart froze.

  Sacrifice his first family to keep his future family in safe hands? Or sacrifice Beth to hatch the eggs alone?

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Cal watched Mark hold onto Darwyn as if she were the last thing holding him together.

  What if he didn’t have to choose?

  He just had to find her first.

  And she was only a little bit east of here. Easy to find.

  …

  Cal had never felt so tired. Even when he had been hauling cargo to Mars, he had been able to take breaks.

  Not this time

  The weakness that had first dragged at his limbs had started to chip away at his soul. Like the little gamer, Beth used to free rocks from a cliffside. Except his insides were being split in two.

  He on one side, Beth on the other.

  The longest they had gone apart was half a day. He had always come back to check in on her, even when she didn’t notice.

  But with each hour this dragged on, his focus dripped down to a single point.

  Find Beth.

  For three days straight, he had followed her trail over the open ocean. She felt so close, and yet miles of ocean separated them.

  Every time he thought he had the correct spot, he dove down only to find a darkness deeper than space. With no friendly twinkle, save for the eyes of hungry fish.

  His time spent above the water was exhausting. It did not take him long to mimic the great birds that flew around him day and night without ceasing. Their effortless use of up drafts and wind to keep a loft. But after the fourth day, even his ability to teleport straight up and slowly drift down was not enough to keep him out there.

  So he returned to the wedding venue to see if those left behind had better news.

  …

  “They’ve seen you searching Cal. At this point, they know you cannot find her.”

  : But I am so close I can feel her. With just a little more time, I’m sure I can do it:

  Darwyn related the message to Mark, who passed it on to the commander.

  The man chuckled grimly. “ Too late for that. They issued a final ultimatum. Either you provide the eggs you acquired in the North Pole within two days, or they will open the hatch and let the water pressure kill Beth.”

  Cal whipped his tail back and forth and hunched his wings.

  It seemed his decision had lapsed into a single route. But perhaps he could stack the deck in his favor. As long as he could keep his frantic soul from tearing in two before then.

  …

  “Here are the basic rules. Each country may send one representative to the International Lunar Base after it has signed the agreement. This candidate must pass basic astronaut training, for obvious reasons. No outside influence allowed. There are nine eggs, and only nine. To keep things fair, the earth has been split up into nine zones. All successful candidates will live with and compete for the egg alongside those in their zone. All testing will happen for the next twenty four hours, and will be sent to the moon where the eggs are waiting. And if Beth is not returned at the end, Cal says he will personally take the leaders of the countries he believes are responsible and drop them into space without a suit.”

  Cal glared daggers at the camera that broadcast the commander's message to the world. Every minute that passed was another minute that his splitting headache tore through his mind and heart.

  He tightened his claws on the commander’s shoulder.

  If he couldn’t be happy, then the world could burn.

  …

  The commander watched in satisfaction as the last person finished their test. It was a late entry from Madagascar. A young pilot whose bright smile was as easy going as his musical accent.

  “Congratulations, Yandee, you passed. And with only five more in your region, I wouldn’t be surprised if you left with what you were looking for.”

  The man lifted his hands casually. “It is in the Lord’s hands. Just passing the test has-“

  Then Cal grabbed the man and teleported away just as he had done with the others.

  He worried about that dragon.

  If he cracked, there was no proven way to stop the ensuing rampage.

  Luckily, for everyone, however, the set of coordinates was sent to him just as the last candidate reached the moon. So when Cal came back, John had a map of the Earth already pulled up, and the section highlighted. He zoomed in just enough for Cal to get the idea, then the dragon disappeared.

  …

  Beth was blindfolded, marched out of the submarine, and thrown onto a beach. Within seconds, she had ripped off the cloth and winced at the sudden bright light. But the fresh sea air was a balm to her soul.

  Though her insides wound even tighter.

  She had thought it was a sudden case of claustrophobia caused by the room she had been shoved into once she had boarded the submarine. Now that she was out, it had only gotten worse.

  Beth took a shaky breath. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed that the beach was familiar.

  A slow turn to take in the surroundings and…

  Bingo.

  A lone mountain rose above the surrounding sloped hills. She knew exactly where she was. Not only that, she had already been here before. One of her internships had taken her to several of the Ring of Fire volcanoes, including this one. Mount Pico de Orizaba. One of three mountains in Mexico that had a glacier, and one that was visible from the Gulf of Mexico.

  Satisfied, she turned to the more immediate problem of going home. Which, while cool, knowing where she was did little to solve. Luckily, there were some beachgoers.

  Surely one of them spoke English?

  “Hola, hablo Englese?”

  A rapid fire response caused Beth to wince internally.

  She really should have paid more attention to those Spanish lessons. But there had always been other people who spoke it, so she had never needed to learn.

  But before it was her turn to speak again, Cal popped into existence and swept her away to her lab on Mars.

  She laughed.

  Cried.

  Held him close and felt the tight coil in her chest free without backlash.

  And then she noticed Mark.

  She repeated the process and finally released the last bit of tension that had built up.

  Everything was right in the universe.

  …

  Beth paced back and forth in her lab.

  “The US is useless if it cannot protect us. But tensions will not be solved as long as dragons continue to exist. Their abilities are too much of a security threat to the sovereignty of nations.”

  Cal watched her calmly from the bed. : Mark and I have already implemented a plan. While you were missing, Wyn and I found ten eggs in a portion of the North Pole I hadn’t checked yet. And now, with a minimum of one egg per country, and only one per region. Although I’ve kept the tenth egg to try and hatch on my own:

  Beth rubbed her face. “Yes, but how does that help us?”

  : Well, according to the paperwork they have signed, all those bound to an egg are held accountable by me. And if the country misbehaves in any way I deem unfit, they will lose that privilege. The contract is now public, so the people know what their leaders signed:

  “But, what if the dragon refuses to cooperate with you?”

  He bared his teeth. “After I lost you, I searched for three days straight. Once I returned and the headache went away, I was able to pinpoint people connected to me once I touched them: He looked at her unblinking. : That day on the beach was the last time you could ever become lost. From here on, you could be anywhere in the solar system, and I could find you. And if you were beyond that, I wouldn't stop searching:

  She smiled. "You clever lizard. I'm glad to be impossible to lose. Though I hope it never comes to that."

  : Me too: