by Kimber White
I sniffed the air. Nothing but normal animal smells. Fox. Rabbits. Deer. Plenty of squirrels. A skunk had been through here within the last few hours. But there was no hint of shifter anywhere, nor magic either.
I couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. If they were leading me into an ambush, they’d come from the woods for sure.
I wanted to roam them. It was tempting to hunt and mark territory. It would at least keep any rogue Alphas from trying to claim the land over the next few days. I couldn’t chance it though. Not with Cassia so close.
Was I bold enough to bring her here? It was the surest way to flush out whoever wanted her. They’d bested me at Dan’s. I wouldn’t let it happen again.
I took one last great whiff. I smelled nothing but a rotting squirrel carcass about a hundred yards to the east. Turkey buzzards circled overhead, waiting for me to clear out.
I wondered about the house. Though it looked empty through the windows, there could be hidden passageways. I couldn’t see into the basement. Not one hundred percent safe in any event.
The sun started to dip below the horizon. Though the woods called to me, something else called as well.
Cassia.
Even from ten miles away, I could sense her stirring. It seemed impossible. I hadn’t yet marked her. Yet. Would I?
God. They’d already used her against me. They were doing it now. If I let the bond grow stronger, it would chain me for the rest of my life. I’d seen what it did to my parents. It was a way out. Destiny. Yes. But it made my father vulnerable. Their love was great, but so was their pain.
I shifted when I reached the road. I picked up my clothes and got dressed. The motel was just down around the next bend. A car slowed down beside me, thinking I was a hitchhiker. Smiling, I waved it off.
It was a pickup truck with two occupants. I got a polite nod from the driver. He was a big guy; his meaty hands gripped the wheel. The passenger was a muscle-head too. He frowned as our eyes met. He let a slow smirk spread across his face and he gestured to the driver.
The driver slammed on the accelerator, blowing back a cloud of dust that hit me right in the face.
Assholes.
For a moment, I thought that’s all it was. Then, my heart lurched as I watched the truck take a sharp right and turn into the motel parking lot.
It might have been fine if she’d stayed inside like I told her to. I broke into a run. The pickup careened to a stop right in front of room number seven.
Cassia was already in the doorway. She was looking for me. I called to her.
“Go back inside!” I yelled.
The two men got out of the truck. Bears again. But different. The driver was a polar bear. I could see the white fur bristle at his neck. His companion was a grizzly.
Just the two. I could take them. I let out a warning growl. They stood between Cassia and me. I’d have to kill them to get to her.
Game on.
The polar bear advanced on Cassia. From the left, the hotel manager stormed out of the lobby. He held a sawed-off shotgun in his hands and pointed it straight at the bears.
“Git!” he yelled. “All of you. I should have known you were damn shifters. I don’t need your kind here.”
“Get away from her,” I said, still growling. Then, lower, at a frequency only another shifter could hear. “You tell your boss I’ve followed his instructions. Not here. Not now.”
I tried to throw a look Cassia’s way. Trust me. Say nothing. But I’d given her one too many reasons not to.
“Don’t worry,” the polar bear said. He’d gotten himself under control. Though his eyes were coal black, he hadn’t shifted. “We were just sent to check whether you’d arrived safely. You have. We’ll be on our way.”
“Are these the men who tried to kill you?” Cassia asked.
“Just go back inside,” I said. “Everything’s fine.”
“The hell it is,” she said.
“Better do what the wolf says,” the polar bear said.
“You can all just go to hell,” Cassia shouted. She made a move then. Changed her stance. The grizzly took a step toward her. He might have just meant to show off. But something spooked the hotel manager.
A single crack cut the air as he racked a round. I don’t know if he lost his footing, had a twitchy trigger finger, but in the next instant, a shot rang out. It clipped the polar bear in the shoulder. He lunged forward, grabbing Cassia by the shoulders, his black claws digging into her skin.
Everything else happened in slow motion. I was on the hotel manager. I pushed him to the ground and disarmed him.
The grizzly bear shifted. I could smell the killing rage within him. I growled a warning.
And then Cassia…changed.
Her eyes turned golden red. The polar bear let go of her. As he drew his hands away, his fingers were covered in blisters.
“What the hell?” he said.
“Cassia,” I said. My throat ran dry.
Whatever was happening, she no longer seemed in control. The air around her shimmered. I felt a blast of heat and raised my arm to shield my eyes from it. When I drew it away, Cassia was no longer standing on the ground.
She was…levitating. She rose about ten feet high. Iridescent wings, matching the color of her hair sprouted from her back. The grizzly bear leaped through the air; he’d gone completely feral.
Cassia drew a breath. I ran toward her but hit the brakes, skidding to a halt as a column of fire erupted from Cassia’s mouth. In an instant, she’d reduced the two bears to ash.
I was on my knees, shielding my face from the blast.
“Holy shit!” the hotel manager screamed behind me. He ran back into the lobby.
“Cassia?” I said.
Her eyes went dark. Her wings disappeared, and she fell limp to the ground.
Chapter 13
Cassia
They were dead. No. Not dead. Incinerated. I’d laid down fire hot enough to turn the two bear shifters to ash in a matter of seconds.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I could barely see. The world existed in heat and flame. I rose higher than I’d ever gone before. The roof of the motel grew smaller and the farmland surrounding it stretched below me in a grid pattern all the way to the horizon.
I could hear my father’s voice through the warnings he’d given me since I was old enough to talk.
“Slow down. Be careful. Your wings are powerful, but you cannot fly. If you go too high, you could fall, Cassia.”
Was he right? Or was it a lie? Something to frighten me to keep me close to home.
The wind picked up. My wings got caught in the updraft. Terror seized my heart. I felt so out of control.
“Cassia!” A voice reached me through the chaos. It acted as a tether and calmed my heart. More than that, I felt his steady pulse filling my ears. It was a touchstone. A beacon. I latched onto it and exhaled.
The ground came up so fast. My stomach lurched. But somehow, I managed to slow my descent. Still, I landed hard, teetering to one side, I fell and scraped my knees.
“Mother of God!” A new voice reached me. It was the hotel manager. His face had gone sheet white, and he clutched his chest as he backed up toward the lobby doors.
My God. I hadn’t cloaked myself. He’d seen! They’d both seen!
The manager pulled a whistle out from under his shirt. He drew in a breath and readied himself to blow it. It was a signal to the Ring. If there were any agents within a mile of here, they’d hear it and come.
Colm reacted faster than I did. He charged the man and let his fangs drop all the way. He lifted him up by his shirt and pressed him against the side of the building. The man had the whistle between his lips. He reached for something. I saw a flash of silver. It was a knife. The fool actually tried to fight Colm off with it.
Colm gave him a quick death, snapping his neck between his arms. The manager slumped to the ground; the whistle still lodged in his lips. Colm grabbed it, tearing it from the leather strap
around the guy’s neck, then crushed it beyond repair in one hand.
He turned to me.
I knelt on one knee, struggling to regain my balance. The fire had taken something from me. My wings were tucked behind me but still rested on the ground.
Slowly, I rose.
Colm took a hesitant step toward me.
“You,” he whispered. “You’re…”
I knew what this meant. I’d been raised on it. Colm had just taken care of one problem in dispatching the innkeeper. The bears were already dead. That left just one more soul who’d seen what I was. Who could tell the world and do me harm.
My family had ingrained in me what had to be done. Kill to survive. The Ring had access to magic that could kill us. We’d been driven to extinction once before. Secrecy was the only way to survive.
“Don’t come any closer,” I said.
Colm put his hands up. But it wasn’t terror I saw in his eyes. If anything, it was wonder.
I let fire crackle between my fingertips. It was all I had left in me for now, but Colm didn’t need to know that. Let him think I was capable of blasting him into oblivion just like I’d done to the bears.
The bears.
I blinked rapidly. My legs felt rubbery. I’d never killed like that before.
“Cassia,” Colm said, approaching me with caution like the wild thing he realized I was.
“Don’t take another step,” I threatened.
Colm’s eyes widened. He tilted his head to the side and kept his arms spread, palms up in a non-threatening gesture.
“It’s just me,” he said. “You’re hurt. You’re bleeding.”
I looked down. With the adrenaline coursing through me, I hadn’t felt a thing. But I’d landed harder than I realized. Blood ran down both my legs. It was nothing. I could heal.
Sparks came from my fingertips. Colm kept coming.
“No,” I gasped. It was now or never. No one could know what I was…
The air left me in a whoosh. My legs gave out. And Colm was there. He caught me before I collapsed.
The world spun. I might have blacked out. But Colm acted so fast. Before I knew what was happening, he had me in the front seat of the pickup truck parked in front of the lobby. It belonged to the manager. Colm threw his body into the bed of the truck and sped away from the motel.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I managed.
I got the passenger side window opened and made good on my prediction. I’d never let out that much of my fire at one time before. I felt weak as a kitten, but Colm couldn’t know. I had to finish this one way or the other, and it had to be now.
Colm drove to the edge of the Kalamazoo River. We weren’t far from Fort Custer Park. He was quick, methodical, and I knew with cold horror this was something he’d done before. There were sandbags in the back of the truck, and he tied them to the dead man’s body. Then Colm heaved him into the river and watched him sink.
I slid out of the truck. I felt my strength returning but needed air. I went to the river myself and drank handfuls of cool water and splashed it on my face.
It helped.
I felt almost normal again as I rose to my feet and turned to Colm. As much as it tore at me, it was time for a reckoning.
“Cassia,” he said. A muscle twitched in his jaw. He stood before me, so tall, so strong, his wolf eyes flashing gold.
“Don’t,” I said, my voice dropping.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the Dragonstone ring I’d given him. He looked at it, then looked at me, understanding dawning in his eyes.
“You?” he asked. “This is you?”
He took a step forward. Run. Retreat. Cloak. Protect. All the lessons my father had taught me beat through me like a pulse. But it wasn’t his words. It was Colm’s pulse.
I felt torn in two. Everything I’d ever done to survive up until now fell away from me. I knew the danger facing me, and yet, I couldn’t fight it.
“Cassia,” Colm whispered. He stood right in front of me, no more than a foot between us. He reached for me. I flinched as his fingers grazed my arms.
“You’re a dragon?” he asked.
He had one hand on my arm, the other holding the ring. He took my hand and slipped it on my finger. It was too big, of course, being my father’s ring. Colm closed his fingers around it to keep it from slipping off.
“How did those bears find me?” I said, my voice breaking. I jerked away from him. Colm’s eyes widened as he realized the accusation in my tone.
“I didn’t send them for you,” he said.
“Then how did they find me?”
Colm shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“No more lies. Back in New Buffalo, they could have killed you easily. As strong as you are, you’re no match for that many bear shifters at once. They left you alive for a reason.”
His face went white. His eyes flashed with the truth. My heart dropped into my stomach. Kill. Survive.
“I did not lead them to you,” he said.
“You left,” I said. “As soon as you had the chance, you got the hell away from that hotel. You might as well have gift-wrapped me for them.”
Colm snarled. “I haven’t sold you out,” he said. “Yet!”
“What?”
“Why the hell would I have even bothered coming back then?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out. I didn’t have an explanation.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Guilt? You were hoping for a bigger payday?”
“There’s no substance on this earth more valuable than Dragonstone right now,” he said.
He was right. My heart twisted. I wanted to believe him. I knew what it was when he touched me. And yet, the world was upside down.
“Cassia,” he said, rushing me. It was as if my last thought reached him. He cupped my face with his hands. My fire began to rise again. My vision clouded.
Every nerve ending in my body was tuned to his. The ache started in my core and spread out. My breath came in quick, little pants and I was unsteady on my feet again.
But he’d seen. He knew.
I ripped myself away from him, nearly pushing him to the ground. If he’d been only human, the force of it would have likely vaulted him twenty feet backward. But he wasn’t human. His powerful Alpha wolf blood coursed through him. He came at me.
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t touch me!”
“You’re a dragon,” he said, and it came out as an accusation.
“No!” I shouted. “I’m…” How could I answer?
Something passed through Colm’s eyes. It was like he was in me, touching my very soul.
“Your father,” he said. “My God. Xander Brandhart is a dragon. Christ… That’s how he gets people out.”
No. No. No. No.
He was too close. Too dangerous. Powerful people would kill for what he knew. And they would pay.
I felt my fire build within me. I was strong enough again. I clenched my fists and felt my wings pop out. They rose above my shoulders. Colm’s eyes went large as he took it all in.
I circled him. Colm’s fangs came out. I’d woken the predator within him. We squared off. His strength. My fire. He was faster, but I could be far more deadly.
Then Colm’s shoulders dropped. He took a step back and spread his arms, surrendering.
“Kill me,” he said. “Is that your plan?”
I was beyond speech. I was pure fire…and desire.
“I’ve had about seventy chances to sell you if that’s what I was in this for,” he said. “I must be outta my mind not to. Do you know what it could bring me? Do you even understand what my life has been?”
I let out a blast of flame. It danced at his feet. But Colm never so much as flinched.
He tore off his shirt, exposing his chest to me. He thumped his heart, daring me.
“I don’t know what the hell you are,” he said. “But more than that, I don’t know what the hell I am when I’m aroun
d you. You torched my house. Didn’t you? It makes sense now. God. I’ve been an idiot. It was you, wasn’t it? You sent the bears after me. This has all been a setup from the beginning. And I fell for it.”
“What?” I found my voice.
“A test,” he said. “See how far I was willing to go. Flush out my allies. My contacts. God. I led you straight to Stella.”
“No,” I said. “I haven’t lied to you.”
“Prove it!” he yelled.
Heat zinged through me. I was beyond words. Beyond reason. What happened next had been coming on for so long. The last few weeks. My whole life. And eons before that.
Colm and I stood nose to nose. His wolf. My fire. Impossible. And yet, it was the only thing in the world that made sense anymore.
I don’t know who moved first. I only know that when his lips touched mine, it ignited something even hotter than fire.
“Yes!” I found myself gasping.
His hands were everywhere. My body curved into his. Thunder cracked and lightning split a tree near us straight down the middle.
I tore at Colm’s jeans. We collapsed to the ground together as the rain poured down and the storm came at last.
Chapter 14
Colm
Hunger tore through me. Cassia’s flesh ignited at my touch. The fire ripped through me too.
We tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. I couldn’t get her jeans off fast enough. She pulled her shirt over her head and threw it away from us.
The heavy weight of her breasts in my hand. The sweet and salty taste of her lips. The hard points of her nipples as I brushed my palm across them. The heat burning through her. The hottest point between her legs as she parted them.
I was rock hard. Throbbing. Starved. My vision went almost white as the primal parts of me came to the surface.
I slid a hand between her thighs, finding her slippery with her juices. Her pulse beat in time with my own.
Want. Need. Mine!
I didn’t care what she was. I didn’t care what I was. I only knew that without her, nothing else mattered.