...Will Ho For Sex.

Even with the seriousness of the situation, Marina Rodriguez pressed her lips together to keep from grinning at the logo on the man’s shirt. Even more than four months after Christmas he was apparently still full of holiday spirit.

Or full of something, anyway.

She sobered. This was hardly a time to laugh. The man—the dragon!—wearing the bright red T-shirt with the suggestive text blazed across the broad front was a captive, and the people Marina worked for were about to do very bad things to him.

Unless she could save him.

A few years ago when she’d overheard a couple of her cousins bragging about hunting and killing dragons like they would deer or elk, she’d been sickened by it. She’d determined then and there to do whatever she could to try to make up for what others in her family were doing.

So far all she’d been able to do was get a job here at GenTex, the biomedical lab that appeared to be the headquarters of the dragon hunters. Or at the very least a willing partner to those who slaughtered these magnificent creatures.

She watched as a small group of white-coated scientists wheeled the unconscious captive’s gurney into the main lab—the inner sanctum, as it were. Marina had been here for almost a year and a half and had seen at least a dozen men brought in the same way. At first she’d been naïve enough to think they were only being studied to determine the differences between dragons and humans. She’d soon realized that wasn’t the case.

And when she’d seen body bags carried out… It had eaten at her soul that she’d been powerless to help any of them. It was only within the last month that she’d been granted security clearance to assist the scientists in the main lab. She was determined that this one would make it out alive.

The doors of the main lab swished closed behind the group. Marina turned back to her workbench and stared down at the small bottle sitting on the metal surface. It was a concoction that had been developed here using a base of methohexatol, a powerful sedative. While most sedatives needed to be injected intravenously to be the most effective, this one could be introduced into the musculature, causing unconsciousness in about thirty seconds.

Marina would do her best to sneak the captive out without having to drug anyone, but she needed to be prepared in case she had to sneak up on a guard or two. She wanted to be able to do this without getting caught, because otherwise she’d only be able to save this one dragon—and that was hardly balancing the odds against the numerous dragons her family members had killed.

With a deep breath, she picked up the first syringe and filled it with the clear liquid, then prepared a second and a third, just in case. After making sure the needle caps were on securely, she slipped the syringes and bottle of sedative in her lab coat pocket.

Christina Vandermaas walked into her small lab, making her jerk with surprise. The other woman seemed not to notice. “Marina? I’d like your assistance with a specimen that was delivered this morning.”

Marina stared at her over top the flat screen computer monitor. “Sure.” Here was her chance. Finally!

Dr. Vandermaas narrowed her eyes. “This will be your first time to assist with our primary work here. Are you comfortable with that?”