Cannon

3

Cannon ate solemnly. Despite having lost the abilities of a shifter, he was still a mercenary and still able to detect danger. The danger was the sound of clicking boots approaching his cage. They weren’t the sound of a casual night guard. No, these steps had meaning.

“Good evening, General,” he said.

A woman with a thick frame approached his cage. She was small but clearly strong and experienced. She had aged since Cannon had last interacted with her but maintained an attractiveness very few could resist. He mostly did his best to avoid her because nothing good could come out of pissing off the prison warden.

He continued eating as he held her frame in his peripheral vision. With her hands behind her back, she spoke assertively. “Cannon, I have some good news for you.”

“Do I finally get to die?” Cannon joked, but a part of him meant it. He’d rather not be living than sit here in a cage, unable to tap into the most authentic part of himself.

The general shook her head. “You’re getting a chance at freedom, Cannon. I hope you can listen attentively to what I’m asking of you and what will be in store at the end of it for you.”

Finishing his dinner, Cannon threw the tray across the side of his cage. He turned to her and raised his hands into the air, looking deep into her eyes. He shrugged, then let his hands rest in his lap.

The officer breathed in deeply, maintaining her soldier-stiff stance. “I am forming an elite team of shifters responsible for taking on some of the most dangerous missions known to man. Actually, they won’t be known to men at all – it will be strictly shifter business and no humans allowed. Do you follow?”

Cannon nodded sarcastically. He was listening, but he never trusted anything this woman said. The idea of freedom did perk his interest, though, so he paid attention to any catch that was coming.

The general closed her eyes before she spoke. Cannon swore he saw the beginnings of a headache in her brain. “The first mission pertains to a group of doctors who have been taking care of children in Africa. They were kidnapped yesterday and are being held for ransom.”

Cannon nodded seriously this time. “Why me? Why not send in the SEALS or whatever military groups you have?”

“We can’t trust anything they’re saying about a ransom. They’re in the middle of an area full of extremely dangerous militia groups. One that no human would survive.” She gave him a piercing gaze. “I know you’ve gotten out of worse situations than those.”

Cannon tapped his fingers together. “Where does my freedom part come into play?”

“We will remove your implant.” She raised an eyebrow. “Your dragon will be set free because it is essential to the mission. But you must successfully complete the mission, for true freedom, of course.”

Cannon smiled wide. He hadn’t smiled genuinely in years. “Of course.”

“Once it is complete, you will be free to roam in shifter society. But because of your sentence, you would be bound to us forever. You understand.”

Cannon sighed, then stood. He couldn’t get himself all the way to the edge of the cage as the chain clanked in strain against the wall. He knew there was a catch coming, but it really didn’t matter – he was high on the notion that he could let his dragon free again. Free to fly at a moment’s notice.

He looked at her through the bars. It was difficult to see in the dark, and she was much smaller than him. But he knew she meant what she was saying. He wanted to make sure she knew that he meant what he was saying too.

“I will get your doctors. No problem at all.”

The general sighed, then called one of the guards to release him from his cage and the chain. She turned to him as she waited. “This is a very important mission. One we cannot send even the toughest of our men into. So I am sending you.” She met his gaze unblinking. “The one person who walked out of a major war between two countries and countless terrorist organizations at every turn, that would destroy the strongest of men. I hope I can trust you, Cannon. If you prove untrustworthy, then your dragon will never see the sun again. Do we have an understanding?”

Cannon gave her a single nod, and she turned and walked out of the cellblock, passing several guards on their way to his small prison. Cannon released an unintentional moan as the chain around his ankle was unlocked. He rubbed it.

The guards took Cannon to the same operating room where he had his bug first put into his neck. But this time, the experience was entirely painless. They used a device that looked like a giant magnet and placed it on the back of his neck. It powered up, then sucked the device off in a single swoop. Cannon almost instantly felt his dragon come back to life. Blood coursed through his veins like fire.

Before he could move, another pressure poked at the same location, and something plunged into the opening. It stung a little, and Cannon cried out in surprise.

“f**k, what the hell was that?”

General Anderson came over to the operating table. “We don’t need you running off before you get the doctors. This is a suicide bug. It ensures that your head will explode if you go outside the radius of the mission. It also keeps you from fully shifting.”

Cannon rubbed the back of his neck. “I thought you said you need me to have my shifter abilities.”

“You have everything – strength, speed, hearing, claws, teeth. But no wings. You’re not completely free yet, Mr. Dez.” Nydia smiled, but there was pain behind it. Her hand lingered on Cannon’s arm before she left the room quickly.

Sure, he’d rescue the doctors, but as soon as they were safe, f**k everyone else. He was out of here. The damn human race could all go to hell as far as he was concerned.