by Sky Winters
“Papa Rick!” called out Sarah as she approached.
Rick noticed right away that Lucy wasn’t with the two of them, and so did Jessie.
“Where’s Lucy?” she asked.
“She ran up ahead,” said Sarah. “But I’m getting tired.”
“Me too,” said Annie.
Rick and Jessie shared a concerned look.
“Fine,” said Jessie. “We can head back. But we need to find Lucy first.”
“Good call,” said Rick. “Girls, stay close.”
Rick felt a nervous feeling take hold of his gut, one that told him that something was off.
“You got a bad feeling?” he asked to Jessie.
“Kind of,” she said.
They made their way up the trail, keeping their eyes peeled for Lucy.
After a time, they found her. But she wasn’t alone.
Surrounding her were three men, all dressed in biker’s clothing.
Rick’s eyes went wide and an unmistakable smell filled his senses.
It was the smell of shifters.
CHAPTER 9
RICK
“What the hell?” shot out Rick as he saw what was happening.
“Who are those men?” asked Annie, tugging at Rick’s pant leg.
“Those are...shifters?” asked Jessie.
“You smell it too?” he asked.
Jessie nodded, fear visible on her face.
“Girls, stay quiet,” said Jessie, her voice low.
Rick watched the scene carefully, noticing that the three men hadn’t yet spotted Rick and Jessie and the girls.
“What do we do?” asked Jessie.
Rick reminded himself at that moment that Jessie was an omega – which meant that, despite being a dragon shifter, conflict wasn’t exactly in her nature. It was going to be his job to sort out this situation.
“Stay back with the girls,” he said.
“You think they’re....”
“Don’t know,” he said, cutting her off, his eyes fixed on the men. “But be ready to run if I give the word.”
Jessie nodded, and Rick started toward the men.
He took in another draw of their scent as he approached. The smell was rustic, smelling like the woods and raw meat.
Wolves.
Part of him wanted to shift right then and there, and kill the three men, get his little girl back as quickly as possible. But he and the other dads had done their best to not expose the girls to the more brutal side of the shifter world, and if he could avoid violence in front of them, he was going to try to do it.
“What’s going on here?” he called out.
The three men, all of them wearing jeans, boots, leather jackets and their heads shaved, turned their attention to him.
“Papa Rick!” said Lucy. “I was in the woods and these men told me I was getting lost, so they brought me back to the trail!”
“Lucy,” said Rick, keeping his voice level and stern. “Go back to Jessie and your sisters, right now.”
One of the men stepped forward and spoke.
“You the daddy of these girls?” he asked, his voice menacing.
“Lucy, go now,” said Rick.
“But Papa−”
“Now!” barked out Rick, his voice hard-edged.
Lucy nodded and ran off, past Rick and further back behind him down the trail.
Rick kept his eyes on the men until Lucy was out of sight.
“You three want to tell me what the fuck this is about? You want to tell me why the fuck you shitheads were talking to my little girl?”
The first of the men stepped forward. “Three alphas,” he said. “Three alpha dragons separated from their clans.”
“Pretty strange fucking situation,” said the second of the two men.
“What business is it of yours, pricks?” asked Rick. Then he waved his hand through the air. “You know what? I don’t give a shit. I oughta break the necks of all three of you for talking to my little girl. But I’m feeling generous today – you three fucking scram right now, and I won’t kill you.”
The three men shared a look. Then the first chuckled to himself.
“I got a question for you, Rick,” said the first man. “When you and your buddies decided to drop off the radar, how long did you think you’d be able to keep that up for?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” asked Rick.
“You still want to live in the city,” said the second man. “But you’re apart from your clans. Three alpha dragons, apart from your clans.”
“You all better get to the point, right fucking now,” said Rick.
“The point is this,” said the first man. “You got some powerful shifters paying attention to you three right now. Making them a little nervous running around on your own like this.”
“You aren’t doing that ‘getting to the fucking point’ thing I asked you to do,” he said.
He clenched his fists, feeling his dragon burn inside of him. Rick noticed that the three men hadn’t budged an inch – with each second that passed, he became more certain that this situation was going to get hairy, and fast.
The first man smirked again as he narrowed his eyes.
“And those cute kids of yours,” he said. “They’re potential little alphas too.”
“You mention my kids again and I’ll smear your sorry ass on the nearest tree.”
But the man didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
“And now you’ve got an unclaimed omega,” he said. “I may not be a dragon, but even I know that an unclaimed omega is a hell of a prize.”
Before Rick could speak, he went on.
“So, we’re going to take her off your hands,” he said. “Some powerful alphas in the city are looking for her.”
The second man spoke.
“She did a pretty good job staying off the radar,” he said. “But now that she’s back with shifters, she’s not going to be able to hide any longer. So,” he went on, “we’re going to get while the getting’s good. Take you out, sell that omega to some very, very wealthy alpha, and maybe even throw in the girls to sweeten the deal.”
Rick realized at that moment there was no way this wasn’t going to end in violence. He balled his hands into even tighter fists and prepared to shift.
“You can give them up now, and maybe we’ll let you live,” said the second man. “Choice is y−”
Rick didn’t need to hear another word. He shut his eyes, focused, and shifted into his animal form – a ten-foot-tall, ruby red dragon, his eyes still that brilliant shade of green.
Before the men had a chance to react, Rick swiped his claw through the air, connecting with the second man and cutting him off mid-sentence. Rick’s claw slammed into the man, sending him flying into the nearest tree.
He hit the tree, then the ground, and didn’t get up.
“Fuck!” shouted the first man. “Kill him!”
The two remaining men shifted into the forms of large, gray wolves. Once in their animal forms, they rushed wildly forward, their eyes fire-red and their mouths in tooth-filled snarls.
Rick tracked them both, watching as they split apart and went for his flanks. He knew that while wolves were no match for a dragon, let alone a powerful alpha like him, he couldn’t take any chances. A single lucky bite on his neck could take him down long enough for the wolves to use their numbers against him.
Rick backed up, his feet stomping against the ground. Once he had some distance between him and the wolves, he focused on one at a time. The wolf on his left, the third man in the group, reared back and pounced.
It was an easy move to counter. Rick swiped his tail through the air, the pointed tip spearing the wolf mid-air and bringing him to the ground. Red blood seeped around the wound. Rick dragged the wolf against the ground and pulled him off his spear-like tail, leaving the wolf in a lifeless heap.
The last wolf, the first man of the group, watched the death of the second of his group with horror in his anim
al eyes.
If the circumstances were different, Rick might’ve considered letting him go. But they’d threatened his daughters, not to mention Jessie – for this, there was no going back.
The last wolf positioned himself in front of Rick, ready for a desperate last stand.
But Rick didn’t even give him the chance to strike. He let out a burst of flame, scorching the earth in front of the wolf and engulfing him in fire. It only took seconds for the final wolf to be reduced to ash.
It was done. Rick surveyed the scene, making sure that all three wolves were dead. Then he looked around, realizing, to his relief, that they were so deep into the park’s woods that no humans had seen them.
Then he turned his attention to the other two wolves. He brought in a full breath of air into his lungs and let out a narrow jet of fire, scorching the other two bodies. Dragon’s fire was magnitudes hotter than regular fire, and quickly turned the other bodies into ash. With a stomp of his foot on the ground, he scattered the ash and left no trace of the fight other than the black streaks of scorched earth.
It was done. He shifted back into his human form and let his heartrate slow.
“Holy shit,” he heard a voice speak from behind him.
He whipped around on his feet and saw that it was Jessie. She stood alone, her eyes wide.
“What the hell happened?”
Rick noticed right away that the girls weren’t with her. He rushed up to Jessie and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Where are they?” he demanded.
“Back there,” she said, worry in her voice.
Rick ran past Jessie and made his way down the path. Sure enough, the three girls were together, safe and sound.
He turned back to Jessie and spoke to her in a low, harsh voice.
“Never leave them alone like that,” he growled. “Ever again.”
Jessie, her eyes still wide, nodded. She clearly wasn’t ready for Rick to speak to her that way.
“Papa Rick?” asked Annie. “What’s wrong? Where did those men go?”
He had no idea how to explain what had happened. He and Jonas and Samuel had gone to such length to make sure that the girls were hidden from the danger of the shifter world that he’d never thought what he would do when they were finally exposed to it.
Luckily, they hadn’t seen the brutality that he’d had to dish out.
“We need to go,” he said. “Now.”
Jessie and the kids following close behind, Rick hurried to the car. Once behind the wheel, he drove away from the park and back to the safety of the apartment. He kept one eye open and aware for any possible danger. Relief washed over him when they finally arrived back at the apartment.
By now, it was late in the day, the sun dipping down behind the towers of the city.
“Make the girls some food,” he commanded Jessie.
She nodded and led the girls into the kitchen.
He could tell that she was still scared and concerned. But at least she knew better than to pry. Once Jessie was busy with the girls, Rick went to the apartment study and called up the other guys on the video phone.
The call rang a few times before the faces of Jonas and Samuel appeared on the screen. They were both dressed in the jeans and dark t-shirt that was standard at the fire station.
“What’s up?” asked Samuel.
“We got a problem,” said Rick. “A big fucking problem.”
“Spit it out,” said Samuel, his voice hard-edged.
Any other time, Rick would’ve taken issue with being talked to like that. But the issue was too serious to bicker about tone.
He filled in the men with the details of what had happened. Once he was done, Jonas and Samuel sat back, saying nothing, instead processing the information.
“Fuck,” hissed Samuel.
“No shit,” said Rick.
“This is bad news,” said Jonas. “But we knew this day was going to come. We couldn’t keep the girls away from the shifter world forever.”
“Right,” said Samuel. “We’ve done our best, but word’s out that three alphas are living without clans. It was bound to attract some attention before too long.”
Rick spoke.
“And Jessie,” he said. “It’s fucking amazing that an unattached omega like her was able to fly under the radar in the human world for so long. But if these wolves know about her....”
Samuel nodded.
“Then the rest of the dragons do too.”
“We’ll be back tomorrow morning,” said Jonas. “Keep the girls safe until then.”
“Got it,” said Rick.
They ended the call and Rick was alone again. He sat back in the chair at the desk, turning it so he could watch out of the massive window that looked out over Brooklyn.
He knew that their idyllic, quiet life was about to be over. The rest of the dragons in the city would have their eyes on Jessie and the girls, and it was going to be up to him and the guys to protect them all.
Rick prayed he’d be up to the task.
CHAPTER 10
JESSIE
“Why was Papa Rick so angry out in the woods?”
Jessie had no idea how to answer the question. She knew that something bad, something violent, had happened in the woods. But what exactly it was, she couldn’t say.
And Rick had been in the apartment study since they’d gotten back. She felt safe again now that they were in the security of the apartment, but that didn’t mean the uncertainty wasn’t making her uneasy.
She took the empty plates from in front of the girls and placed them in the sink. Tension built inside of her, and she found herself wondering if she’d made a safe choice in coming to work for this family.
Before she could give the matter too much thought, Rick came back into the living room.
“Okay, girls!” he called out, his voice chipper as if nothing strange had happened that day. “Time to get washed up and ready for bed!”
The girls let out disappointed noises as they got up from their seats.
“We had fun today, right?” asked Jessie, as if she could simply ignore what had happened.
But then again, as far as the girls were concerned, they’d only met some strange men in the park. Jessie knew better – she knew enough about how shifter society worked to know that violence was common. She could tell that those men, those wolves, were up to no good.
And the way Rick had come back to them, that look of determination on his face, made it clear that he’d taken care of them.
“Taken care of them” as in “killing them.” She’d never had to kill before –fighting wasn’t the job of the omegas− but Rick looked like a man who’d done his share of violence.
Jessie went with the girls to the bathroom near their bedrooms. She got them washed up and ready for bed, and after an hour or so, they were tucked in and ready for sleep.
Once she closed the bedroom door of the last girl, Jessie returned to the living room. The apartment was dead silent aside from the sound of hard music coming from the balcony. She moved closer and closer and saw that Rick was out there, a bottle of whiskey on the table next to him along with a small stereo.
The closer she got, the better she heard the music, and she could make out that it was heavy metal. Jessie stepped up to the balcony doors and opened them, the aggressive music hitting her in the face like a hammer.
Rick must’ve heard her, as he glanced over his shoulder as she opened the door.
“The music!” she called out over the pounding racket of guitars and drums.
“What about it?” asked Rick.
“Can you turn it down?”
“Why?”
“Because I want to talk!”
Rick flashed her a glance that suggested he wanted to keep it going. But he did as she asked, turning down the volume.
Once the music died down, Jessie gave herself a minute to let her mind calm.
“You’re going to make Brooklyn go deaf,” she said.
/> “Nah,” he said. “One of the perks of the penthouse – you can blast your music and no one will hear you.”
Jessie sat down next to Rick. She glanced at the bottle of booze out of the corner of her eye. Rick must’ve read her mind, as he took the bottle, poured her a shot, and passed it over.
“You have my permission to get buzzed,” he said. “After the shit that went down today, I don’t blame you.”
Jessie didn’t need any more encouragement. She eyed the glass for a moment and tossed it back, the booze burning on the way down just as it had before.
“Shit,” she said.
Rick grinned.
“My bad manners are rubbing off on you,” he said.
He reached over for the glass and Jessie handed it to him. He poured himself another shot and downed it.
“Tell me what happened,” said Jessie. “I need to know.”
Rick snorted.
“You ever tangled with wolves before?” he asked.
“What did they want?” she asked. “What did you do to them?”
Rick looked away for a moment, and Jessie could tell that he was debating how much to tell her.
“I want to know,” she said. “Don’t keep any of this from me. If I’m going to be here taking care of your girls, I need to know if I’m in danger.”
Rick poured himself another shot and drained it.
“They know about you,” he said.
The words hit Jessie like a sledgehammer.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean just what I said. You were running away from shit, right?”
“Yes,” said Jessie. “But my ‘shit’ was all in LA. I made an effort not to get involved in the shifter world here in New York.”
“But you had to know that wasn’t going to last,” he said. “Especially when you got involved with a family of alphas.”
Jessie thought the statement over. He was right – any hope of continuing to stay off the radar of the shifters in the city went right out when she signed on for the job.
“You’re an omega,” he said. “It’s still blowing my mind that some alpha didn’t set his sights on you a long time ago. How the hell did you even pull that one off here in the city?”