The last two sprinted for the roof’s stairwell. I descended onto all fours, rushing forward. I sailed over my injured mate and snapped Viktor between my jaws. Fresh rage poured through me, and I roared as I threw him into the air. He screamed as he plummeted back toward the roof—and right down my throat.
Smoke blew from my nostrils as I swung to face the last vampire. He raced away from the stairwell toward the edge of the roof, but I caught him in my powerful jaws, slamming my teeth shut until blood gushed into my maw. He howled in pain, and I squeezed tighter until the sounds stopped. I tossed the body to the side. It tasted disgusting, like death and ash on my tongue.
My body heaved with heat as I turned, making sure there were no more enemies for me to defeat. A growl rumbled in my throat as I prowled the rooftop.
“Ariana?” Maximus struggled to sit, his eyes wide with fear and hope.
I swung to face him, blinking slowly. Ariana. Right.
As I looked down at myself, I wasn’t human or wolf. And I wasn’t just a beast like my mind would have me believe. I sorted through my thoughts, trying to pry myself free until I realized what the scales and wings and fire meant.
I was a dragon.
The realization slammed into me with such force I almost backed off the edge of the building. My heart raced, and my mind pulled in all different directions. This wasn’t possible. But it was happening. I was in the body of a dragon. No. I was the dragon.
A whimper escaped me in a deep rumble. What was going on? This couldn’t be real.
Pain burned through me suddenly, and I realized what it was. My beast was so tired she wanted to transform back to my human state. But I couldn’t let her, not yet. I had to get us out of there first.
I turned back to my mate as I assured my beast she only had to hold on for a few more minutes.
Maximus reached out a hand to touch me. I dipped my large head to press the tip of my long snout to his hand.
“Ariana,” he sighed. I felt his intense relief through our bond. “You’re alive.”
I nodded and nudged him with my nose. I wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be alive, though. If I didn’t get help soon, he might not make it. Pain rippled through me again. Just a few minutes, I told my dragon.
I reared up onto my hind legs, flapping my great wings, and lifted off the top of the building. Maximus looked at me in confusion before I dove back down and grabbed him in one of my clawed hands.
His arms wrapped weakly around one of my legs, and he held on as I sailed through the sky. It took nearly five minutes to fly out of the city back toward pack territory. Every minute was like agony tearing through every fiber of my body. My beast was growing weaker and weaker, drifting further away from me.
The lodge came into view through the trees, and I huffed a relieved sigh. But I’d never landed before. Even though flying seemed to come easily, my beast had been in control for that. But as she drifted to the back of my mind, panic stole me, and pain forced its way directly into my head.
I cried out as I plummeted toward the ground. I could feel Maximus's distress, but I could hardly pay attention to it with the ringing filling my head. Heat began to burn across my skin. I was changing in midair.
I hit the ground while half shifted, my entire body on fire and my head feeling like razors shook within my skull. I gripped my hair as the pain began to subside, and I became fully human.
21
Owen
I woke up to the pain of a sledgehammer pounding inside my skull. Grabbing my head, I sat up, my eyes searching out my mate. The doors of the car stood open, and her side of the seat was empty. Shards of glass glittered across every surface in the car, but Ariana was nowhere to be found. Maximus was also missing, but I found myself far less concerned with his welfare than hers.
I yanked at the handle of my door only to find it immovable, the metal crushed inward. I started for the open door, but a stab of pain in my leg stopped me short. My legs were trapped. Damn it.
My bear was fighting to get out, to charge down the streets roaring for my mate. The vamps had gotten her. I might have hit my head, but I remembered that all too well. They’d run us off the road and taken the other two, presumably leaving me for dead. Or maybe they just didn’t want the hassle of pulling me out of the car. My legs felt as if they’d been cemented in place.
I practiced a minute of meditation, trying to clear my mind enough to figure out what to do next. When I opened my eyes, I knew. I had to find Ari.
Bracing my hands against the crushed metal, I heaved with all my strength. With a squeal of protest, the frame of the car bent a bit. I threw my weight against it again, pounding at it until I’d freed my legs. Only my bear strength allowed me to free myself without calling in the Jaws of Life. I dragged myself across the seat and stood on aching, injured legs. I scented the air but caught no sign of Ari’s jasmine scent on the breeze.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I dialed Jett and then added Cash into the conference call.
“I know you’re busy with the Dragon Council today, but it’s going to have to wait,” I said. “Ari’s been taken by the vamps.”
“What?” Cash barked into the phone.
Jett swore quietly. I imagined if I were him, I’d be pretty torn up that I had left things so unresolved and hostile between my mate and I.
“They ran us off the road and took Ari and Maximus,” I said. “We need to find them now.”
“How?” Cash asked.
“I’ll have everyone going over the camera feeds from the last hour,” Jett said. Tapping in the background alerted me to Jett typing frantically. “Let’s see if I have any footage of an abduction. I’ll contact my moles and see if word has reached them yet.”
“And what are we supposed to do?” Cash snarled. “Sit on our asses and wait while Ari’s in danger?”
“I’ll alert the bears,” I said. “I’m closer to Maximus's home than my own, so I’ll stop and alert them, too.”
“They’ll know if Maximus is in danger,” Jett said. “Through the pack bond.”
Damn werewolves had it so good. I only wished I could communicate with my clan as easily.
“Then maybe they’ll know more than we do,” I said. “Besides, if they get free, they’re most likely to go home.”
The words left a hollow feeling in my belly. I didn’t like to think of Ariana’s home being with just Maximus. I had wanted to show her my home, to share my family with her. Instead of being safe and secure in bear territory, she was probably being tortured—or worse—by those sick bloodsuckers.
“We’ll meet you there,” Cash said before hanging up.
“I’ll come get you,” Jett said quietly.
“I’m on my way now,” I said, loping off down the street, leaving the crumpled car behind.
“I know,” Jett said. “I have you on one of my surveillance cameras now. I’ll be there in ten.”
I was glad for the ride when Jett arrived, as it would get me there faster than even my bear form could take me. And it wasn’t like I could run to Maximus's pack land in bear form. I would have done it if I could. Sitting in the car doing nothing while Ariana was in danger nearly drove me mad. Everything in me longed to get out, to run to her, to fight my way to her. But I had no idea where they’d taken her.
The moment we pulled up at Maximus's lodge, a dozen wolves were on the vehicle, yanking the doors open and dragging us out.
“We’re here as allies,” I said quickly, holding up my hands in surrender to the woman baring her teeth at me—Maximus's second, I remembered.
I quickly filled them in on everything I knew. A minute later, Cash’s car skidded to a stop in a spray of gravel, and he leapt out to join us.
“Any word?” he asked.
“Maximus is gravely injured,” said Shira, the second-in-command.
“What about Ari?” I demanded.
Jett’s phone chimed and he checked the screen. “We’ve got her,” he said, holding up the screen wh
ere a grainy video played.
“Then let’s go,” I said, turning back to his car.
“This was taken almost an hour ago,” Jett said. “But we can use it to track where they took her.”
“No need,” Shira said. Her eyes lit up, though her gaze looked far away. I realized she was focusing on the bond. “They’ve gotten free.”
It was all I could do not to grab the woman and shake her. “How is Ari?” I asked, measuring my words. I tried to channel some inner peace, but there was no peace inside me when it came to someone hurting my mate.
“She’s…”
“She’s there,” Cash cried, leaping toward the trees. I looked for her to come staggering out of the forest, though I had no idea how she could have gotten here so fast. It wasn’t until a shadow fell across the grass that I looked up.
A silver dragon came blasting through the treetops in a shower of leaves. A body hung from its talons, and it seemed unable to carry it any longer. It careened into the yard, growing smaller by the second. Then its eyes closed, and it’s enormous body slammed into the ground, upending earth with the force of its landing.
“It’s Ari!” Cash said, running forward.
I would have thought he was crazy if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. It was Ari. She was already partially shifted, and there was no mistaking that silver hair, the same color as her dragon scales.
“Ari,” I cried, running to her and dropping to my knees. “Come back to us, baby. You’re going to be okay.” I didn’t know what I was saying, what promises I was making. Just that she had to be okay. I’d barely gotten a moment with my mate. I couldn’t lose her yet.
She finished shifting, and her body looked so small and frail compared to the creature she had been when she blasted the top off half the trees on that side of the yard. Leaves and twigs and small branches littered the grass around us.
“I’m okay,” she said, her eyes opening but not quite focusing on me. “Max… Silver poison… Vampires beat him…”
“We’ll take care of Maximus,” Shira said. “We should get them inside. These vampires are getting awfully bold to attack our alpha.”
A beat of silence followed her words. I hadn’t thought beyond getting Ariana back. I hadn’t considered the ramifications of the attack. Vampires had attacked the alphas of two clans in broad daylight, obviously meaning to kill us both. And not just our mate, but the Silver Shifter. This could mean war, not between the clans, but between the shifters and vampires. The conflict between clans seemed like a petty squabble in comparison to all-out war with the entire vampire nation. If the shifters didn’t present a united front against the vampires, we had no chance whatsoever.
I looked down at our only chance lying in the dirt, semi-conscious. We needed her if we were to win this war with the vampires. We needed her if we were to unite the clans. But more than that, I needed her as Ariana, my mate, my only chance at more than winning. My only chance at happiness.
“I’m going to take you inside,” I said, leaning down to gather Ariana into my arms with all the tenderness and care I possessed. “We’ll worry about the vampires later. Right now, we’re only worried about you.”
The werewolves had lifted Maximus, and I followed them into Maximus's lodge with Ariana in my arms. Cash and Jett hurried behind. At the top of the stairs, I hesitated. I could take Ariana to the room in which we’d shared an intimate moment—her room. But something told me she belonged in the master bedroom now. I strode along the hall and into Maximus's room, where several wolves had gathered.
“He’s going to be fine,” Shira said. “His healing abilities were suppressed by the silver, but now that he’s taken the antidote, he’s healing already.”
“And Ari?” Cash asked.
I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of the look she gave him. “I’d think you could answer that question better than I could,” she snapped. “Her wounds are those of a dragon, yes?”
In typical werewolf fashion, she didn’t attempt to hide her slight feeling of superiority over other shifters. Cash didn’t seem to take offense. As I lay Ariana on the bed next to Maximus, Cash leaned over her and smoothed her hair from her forehead. “I can’t tell without talking to her,” he said. “But she might have simply overdone it.”
“She’s burning up,” Maximus muttered.
“Good, you’re awake,” Shira said.
“Can we have the room?” I asked.
Shira gave me a knowing look, the same one she’d leveled at me after I’d shared intimate moments with Ariana. Now, I knew I had nothing to feel guilty for. We were all Ariana’s mates, and I had the same claim to her that Maximus did. And she had the same claim to me.
We were all in this now, bound together by the Silver Shifter in a way I could never have predicted or imagined. And yet, as the wolves left us alone in the room with her, I felt the completeness of our group. Even Jett stayed, though he stood back, a troubled frown on his face, as the rest of gathered on Maximus's huge bed waiting for our mate to awaken. Though she wasn’t an oracle, our Silver Shifter held our future in her hands.
To be continued…
Follow Ari and her mates in the next installment, coming April 9th.
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Chapter One
Ariana
I woke slowly with a warm glow filling my whole body, though I was so exhausted I didn’t think I could move even a single muscle. Not even my eyelids. A sense of contentment had settled in my belly and radiated outwards. I didn’t want to move, but my curiosity took over and lifted my lids for me. I found myself lying on my back in a strange bed.
What the hell? The last thing I remembered, I’d been riding in Owen’s car on the way to bear territory. And then…
Shit. Vampires had attacked.
Before I could freak out, my wolf clued me in on my surroundings. She was happy. I wasn’t in a silver cage surrounded by vampires. I was safe and surrounded by my mates. Max lay on one side of me, his hand resting protectively on my waist. His eyes were closed and his dark hair fell across his forehead. Owen lay on my other side, his big hand gently enfolding mine. His blue eyes were fixed on me and his long blond hair spilled across the pillow beside him. Cash paced beside the bed while Jett leaned against the wall, frowning at his phone as he tapped at the screen frantically. Apparently, whatever had happened was worthy of his presence but not his attention.
I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat felt like it had been incinerated by a blow torch. Grinding my teeth against the pain, I forced the words out. “What happened?”
Cash jumped about two feet in the air, which would have been funny if not for the pulsing pain in my throat. “Get her some water,” he said, rushing to the bed.
Water. Fuck yes. I felt like I could drink a five-gallon bucket of ice water and it still wouldn’t quench my thirst.
Owen and Max both reached for the glass of water on the bedside table. They both snatched it up at once, then paused to glare at each other over the rim of the mug they held clutched over my parched mouth.
Jett snorted with laughter.
“Oh for fucks sake,” I rasped, grabbing the water glass out of their hands and chugging the water in four glorious swallows. At least half of it splashed onto my chin and neck, but that felt just as good as the stuff sliding down my throat. But it was only a drop compared to the raging thirst burning inside me. If anything, it had only gotten worse now that I’d had a few drops.
Owen jumped off the bed and slipped through the door without a word. My wolf whined with annoyance. But my human side was so parc
hed I thought I’d shrivel up like a piece of Ariana jerky if I didn’t get some water in the next ten seconds. As if hearing my thought, Owen appeared with another tall glass of water.
I wanted to thank him, but I didn’t know if I had the energy to say two things, and my greedy side won. “I’m going to need more.”
“Take it easy,” Cash said, sinking onto the bed beside me. His black hair fell in tight curls around his handsome face. “You can have as much as you need, but drink it slowly. It won’t help if you get sick and have to start all over.”
Owen held the glass gently to my lips, and this time, I managed to swallow all the water instead of spilling half of it. My body yearned for more fluids, more coldness.
“It takes a lot out of you to breathe fire,” Cash said. “You probably just overdid it your first time. If I’d known…”
Suddenly, a memory flashed in my mind. Falling. Shifting. Spewing flames.
Holy fucking shit. I was the blowtorch that had incinerated my throat.
“What?” I whispered, my throat feeling clearer despite my continued craving.
“If I’d known you could shift into a dragon, I would have trained you a little,” Cash said. “I thought—we all thought—you were a wolf shifter.”
I’d thought I was a wolf shifter. If I was more, shouldn’t I have known all my life? I’d known I was a wolf for as long as I’d known I was human. Hell, I’d known I was a wolf during the years of fighting, when I’d almost forgotten I was human.
How was I just now finding out about this?
“Ari?” Owen prompted.
I realized they were all waiting for an answer, but I couldn’t give them what they wanted. I didn’t know how it had happened, either.
“I didn’t know,” I said at last. “It’s never happened before.”
Her Wolf: A Why Choose Urban Fantasy Romance (Silver Shifter Book 1) Page 14