  ZOE POV
  &quot;Holy shit, Rika. Are you sure those coordinates are right?&quot; I ask my partner even as I touch our plane down on the landing strip outside a picturesque mountain lodge. Perched on the peak of one of the Montana Rockies, its log walls feature immense crystalline windows that must offer breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape. Despite its rustic charm, the lodge and its surroundings seem to sparkle in the midmorning sun—no doubt an effect of melting frost.
  &quot;They d better be. Regional Commander Baryshnikov sent them to me himself,&quot; Rika grumbles from behind me, where she s changing the dressing on Sasha s burns. Sasha used a ton of energy on her fight with Svartheron; normally shifting back to her human form from the feline one would have healed most of her injuries, but she barely had the energy to make the shift, once the fight with the dragon was 

  SASHA POV
  Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt.
  &quot;Who…dares…&quot; I grumble, fumbling blindly for the source of the infernal buzzing. There it is. Damn phone. It takes more effort than it should to get my eyes open, and then I m blinking back the early morning sunlight streaming through the windows of Regional Commander Baryshnikov s beautiful mountaintop home. How long have I been sleeping? Rika and Zoe have been checking on me from time to time, making me eat and stuff, but everything s been a blur since the support team arrived in Svartheron s lair and I didn t have to be intimidating anymore.
  My phone says it s 7am Mountain time, and also that the buzzing was to tell me I have new messages from Drake. Fuck. I haven t talked to him in a while. He s probably losing his mind at this point. Shit. I think the last time I texted him was when we touched down in that valley near Svartheron s 

  A/N--Content Warning. I decided to let Xander talk, and he s a bit of a potty mouth. If you re not interested in reading a good deal more than the usual amount of cursing, it might be wise to skip this chapter. I apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you all for your ongoing support!
  XANDER POV
  &quot;Drake, man, c mon. You gotta get up, or you gon  be late for work,&quot; Callum nags Drake, pounding on his bedroom door. Normally I m the one who sleeps through three alarms, not Drake. This Nikki chick s got him twisted, and I ain t here for it.
  On the other side of his closed door, Drake groans and mumbles sleep gibberish.
  &quot;I know it Sunday, man, but they got the new rollout of that software update and we gotta be online to run the online chat assistant to help customers adjust. Boss told us Friday this was happenin !&quot; Callum continues.
  Ugh, enough is enough. &q

ZOE POV
  &quot;Holy shit, Rika. Are you sure those coordinates are right?&quot; I ask my partner even as I touch our plane down on the landing strip outside a picturesque mountain lodge. Perched on the peak of one of the Montana Rockies, its log walls feature immense crystalline windows that must offer breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape. Despite its rustic charm, the lodge and its surroundings seem to sparkle in the midmorning sun—no doubt an effect of melting frost.
  &quot;They d better be. Regional Commander Baryshnikov sent them to me himself,&quot; Rika grumbles from behind me, where she s changing the dressing on Sasha s burns. Sasha used a ton of energy on her fight with Svartheron; normally shifting back to her human form from the feline one would have healed most of her injuries, but she barely had the energy to make the shift, once the fight with the dragon was over and a team of support operatives, led by Regional Commander Baryshnikov himself, arrived on the

Chapter 28 Hospitality