by Leia Stone
The shock of seeing such a gruesome death had me stumbling backwards, away from the scene. My dragon was panting, trying to regain some of the strength I had lost when I’d breathed all that fire, and I was trying not to throw up at the sight of so much blood. Suddenly, over the druid’s dead body, a green concentrated mist began to rise up. I looked up and locked eyes with Logan, instinctively knowing this was dragon magic. This druid had stolen dragon magic long ago and it was now rising up upon his death, as if it knew it didn’t belong with the evil man. Logan stepped forward into the green mist, breathing it into his nostrils and lungs, his eyes momentarily glowing green. The entire time, they were locked on me.
My body felt frozen as I took the time to examine his dragon fully. His belly had a silver pearl color that faded up to the inky black at his chest. His wings were tough and leathery, and outstretched must have spanned forty feet, but it was his eyes that had me pinned to the spot. Those emerald green eyes were captivating; they glowed in a magical way that had me unable to look anywhere else. There was an unfurling in my chest as I stared into those eyes, and my dragon stepped closer to him. She was vibrating my chest as if trying to tell me something.
“We’ve got two injured!” Keegan’s gruff voice called from behind Logan, and it snapped me out of my stupor. I looked at the place where Nadine had fallen and saw she was sitting up in her human form, but she looked pale; an angry purplish green bruise dotted her collarbone down to her elbow. Logan turned to Keegan suddenly and lowered his dragon head. Keegan reached in his pocket and pulled out what looked like … tweezers.
What the…?
I could see a bald patch of skin behind Logan’s dragon ear, or horn, or whatever it was. The scales there were gone, and a smooth pearl skin lay underneath. Keegan, on his tip-toes, reached up to the balding patch and with the tweezers yanked a black scale out. Logan didn’t even flinch. Then Keegan took another. Placing the two scales in his palm, Keegan turned to me.
“Sloane, do you mind if I take a scale?” Keegan asked me. “They can heal the pack and we can also sell them to the sorcerers for money.”
Whoa. Dragon scales healed. I let that sink in for a moment. Logan looked like he wanted to protest, even giving a little chuff of disagreement, but I nodded my consent before Logan could intervene. If my scales could help, then I wanted to. I was just glad no one had died today.
I lowered my head and without warning a lightning bolt of pain ignited behind my ear. I screeched and shuffled backward, slamming into the wall. Keegan stood there with one of my red scales between his tweezers. His lips were turned down into a frown. “Sorry. First time probably hurts a lot.”
A lot? That was the understatement of the century. That didn’t feel like plucking my eyebrows. No, that was like he had just pulled out my entire fingernail. How often did Logan do that? I realized there was so much about this life I didn’t know.
Keegan nodded to me. “Shift back. We need to go into town.”
Logan made a chuffing sound that was the equivalent of a dragon growl. I don’t think he liked Keegan giving me orders. It was funny that these guys thought I could just shift back and forth at my own will. I had no control over this. Didn’t they understand that? Now I was a dragon and couldn’t talk to anyone.
Logan had shifted and I was awarded a spilt-second view of him full-frontal before one of the pack tossed him some sweatpants.
I just stood there chanting to myself. Change back, change back, be human.
Nothing happened. This was freaking embarrassing.
I could also see now that Gear was injured as well. He was conscious but moaning in the corner.
Keegan was assessing Nadine’s injury when he looked back and saw that I was still a dragon. “Sloane, change back, we need to move out!” he said in annoyance.
Logan had taken two steps closer to me. “She can’t,” he declared, and I lowered my head in shame.
Here we were, injured and just barely escaped with our lives, and I was standing here as a dragon beacon. Probably leading more of them right to us.
Keegan looked annoyed. “Logan, you need to train her or something. We won’t survive like this. She needs to control it.”
Logan spun on his friend. “I know that! Don’t you think I know that! I take responsibility for all of your lives. What would you have me do? Leave her to fend for herself?”
Keegan’s face fell as he looked upon Logan in his irate state. “No. But six shifters aren’t enough to guard two dragons. We’re going to need a bigger pack.”
Logan sighed. “Fine.”
Logan spun around to face me. “Sloane, it’s safe now. Your dragon protects you from danger. She does what’s best for you, but it’s safe now.”
His words were soothing, their tone and the way his Adam’s apple bobbed when he spoke. He reached out a hand to touch my dragon’s chest and I nearly stopped breathing. It felt intimate, something that only someone I trusted very much should do. I suddenly felt vulnerable. But the second his palm touched my chest, a purr emanated from my throat. Green light infused his touch and my eyelids lowered. I felt like a hundred-pound weight had lifted off of my shoulders. I felt safe.
The sound of cracking bones and the dull throb that they brought with it jerked me from my trance. It was getting less and less painful to shift. How did my bones heal but my wounds didn’t? I had more questions than I had answers.
Once Logan was satisfied I was shifting, he gave me his back. So did Keegan and the other males. Sophie approached me with a handful of clothes, and once I was fully shifted, she threw them at my face. Hard. Anger flooded my body as I caught the clothes a little too late, after getting whipped in the face with the metal part of the jeans.
“Bitch,” I muttered, while I slipped on the panties and short black top that exposed my belly. These were hardly clothes that would keep me warm in the snow. Finally I pulled on the jeans.
Sophie spun. “Excuse me! You nearly got us all killed!” Her fists were balled, her face brimming with rage.
I knew how these girls worked. I moved schools nine times before I graduated high school, and Sophie was the kind of girl who pushed your buttons to see if they could be pushed. A bully. You needed to shut it down right away or you would become their punching bag. And I wasn’t a pushover. I was a smart girl with a sharp tongue, but I couldn’t fight for shit. Not against her. So, I needed to hold my ground now or forever be Sophie’s victim.
“So you throw clothes in my face?” I shouted back. “Grow up. And how do you know those hunters came because of me? I didn’t shift!”
I thought Keegan or Logan would interfere, but they didn’t. This must be how disputes were solved in the pack. Great.
Sophie stepped closer to me and I saw her coyote face barely below the surface.
“Because I’ve been with Logan for a few years now and we’ve only had a handful of hunter run-ins. One every year or so, and NEVER at the house. It’s you,” she spat. “I can smell the dragon all over you.”
Her words cut, deep. For a tiny moment I thought I could make my problem someone else’s and get some help, but it was clear I was on my own.
I shoved my feet into my black ankle boots and gave Sophie a salute. “Well, I’m not your problem anymore. Sorry for the trouble.”
I blasted past her, knocking into her shoulder, hard, and she stumbled backwards. The growl in her throat made me wonder if I should be giving her my back, but screw it. I needed to leave before these assholes saw me cry.
“Wait!” Logan shouted, and I stepped out into the frigid snow trying to pick up the pace. I heard footsteps behind me and then Logan spun me around to face him. Dammit, a few tears leaked out of my eyes before I could control my emotions, and when Logan saw them he looked on in horror, as if he had never seen a girl cry—he probably hadn’t. Sophie and Nadine looked like they didn’t have a single tear in their badass bodies. I wiped the tears quickly and gave him a piece of my mind.
“My car is parked
downtown. Once I get to it, I’m outta here.” I had stashed my only possessions in that car and left it there so the hunters wouldn’t destroy it. I couldn’t wait to get back to my life and leave this freak show behind me.
Logan looked offended. “You’re not leaving,” he said with certainty, and I looked down and noticed his feet were bare. He must be freezing, but he didn’t show it. “You’re a part of our family now whether you like it or not.”
Family. That word did funny things to my insides. Keegan trekked out into the snow with a coat and handed it to me.
“Put this on, you look like a prostitute jonesing for her next fix,” he said with a wry grin.
I made a choking sound and laughed. Bastard was a total dick, a funny one. I think I liked him. He reminded me of my best friend in sixth grade. Tommy. I hadn’t spoken to him in years.
“But Sophie…?” I motioned to the house, where Sophie was waiting with the rest of the pack.
Keegan nodded. “She had a concern, she brought it out into the open. That’s how we deal with things in the pack. We can’t let things fester or they build and it affects the whole. We’re family. We’re honest. And we get it all out so we can get over it. She is annoyed by your presence and she let you know. You stuck up for yourself. Great, now it’s done.”
What the…? These people were crazy.
Logan tilted his head towards the house. “Come on, we gotta get Nadine and Gear to a sorcerer friend for a healing. And I need to speak to Eva about you. We need to cover your scent.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I guessed I was riding a little bit longer on this crazy train. To be honest, the latest run-in had scared the crap out of me, and I figured I had better odds of staying alive if I stuck with my new friends.
“Okay,” was all I said, and started following Logan into the house.
Keegan stepped beside me and bent down low to whisper in my ear. “My guess is that Sophie isn’t crazy about some hot chick living with her ex-boyfriend.”
My eyes widened and Logan snapped his head back and glared at Keegan, who gave him an easy smile.
Keegan winked at Logan. “Just keeping it real, brother.”
Logan looked like he wanted to retort, but Nadine’s wail cut him off. She was in pain and we needed to help her.
As we entered through the blown-out wall, I looked around at the neighbors. Shouldn’t the cops be on their way? A wall was blown out of the side of the house and they must have heard the fighting.
I looked at the ground, watching my step, and to my shock the dead druid had been drug out onto the snow. It looked like he had sunk halfway into the ground. The hunters too.
“What the hell?” I muttered, unable to keep the shock from my voice.
Logan gestured to the scene. “I had a spell on the house to keep it from human eyes. The dead druid and hunters will be absorbed into the earth. They’re her burden now.”
Earthbound. Wow, that was really literal.
Keegan glared at us. “This learning session is cute but my pack is injured.”
Dick.
Logan looked at my outfit. “We need to go to a club for supernaturals. Eva, my sorcerer contact, lives on the top floor and owns the place, but I can’t have you recognized or smelled as we walk in.”
He was looking at my red hair. How would anyone recognize me? I was a nobody.
“The hunters have spread the word about a redheaded possible dragon female. Until we can camouflage your scent, you need a disguise.”
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. Mostly because Sophie was still shooting eye daggers at me. But also because at the word of hunters spreading rumors about me, a fresh wave of fear washed over me. I was fully jumping on this crazy train and I was afraid I would never find my way off.
4
“THIS IS MESSED UP! This better not be some kind of prank or I’ll kill you,” I shouted to Logan as Sophie and Cooper snickered in the corner of the alley. Dom stood at the opening of the alley, two guns drawn at his sides.
Logan winced. “Trust me, beautiful, it’s just as painful for you as it is for us.”
Keegan had pissed in a bottle and now Logan was proceeding to pour it on my clothes. Clothes which consisted of jeans that Nadine had been wearing and Sophie’s shirt. Topped with Keegan’s hoodie. They were trying to pass me off as a wolf shifter. The acrid smell of urine rose up and I gagged, forcing the contents of my stomach to stay where they were.
“Jesus, Keegan, what did you eat today?” Logan mock gagged and I had to clench my fists to keep from punching him in the jaw.
Gear, who seemed to be on the mend, brought over a flask, covering his nose as he neared. “Top it off with this and let’s go. Nadine’s arm is healing at an odd angle. They hit her with druid magic.”
Logan frowned as he upended the flask on the front of my sweater and the pungent smell of vodka hit my nose, causing a slow burn down my throat as I inhaled.
“I swear to God, this better not be a joke. Some hazing shit.” I would literally go dragon on them all and spray fire.
Logan looked me in the eyes and a serious expression fell over him. “I would never do that to you.”
His words rang true and I nodded. My life had taken a drastic change the last two weeks, but standing in an alley in front of a sexy dragon shifter while wearing wolf piss was really the icing on the cake.
Keegan linked arms with me then and began to drag me away from Logan. My hood was pulled up and my hair tucked back inside, finishing off my disguise.
“The bouncer can tell truth from lie, so don’t speak. I will do all of the talking.”
I just nodded. The bouncer must have some magical ability to sniff out a lie. The very thought had me more on edge than I already was.
The rest of the pack filed in behind us and I wondered just what the hell I was about to see. He had said “supernatural bar,” and I was already imagining sorcerers with cauldrons and shifters tearing into each others’ necks. And hunters. Dozens of hunters looking for me.
Keegan looked down at me. “I can hear your heart racing a hundred and thirty beats per minute. Just relax. Weakness is not something you want to bring into this bar.”
His words made the fear flush through me even faster. We had reached the end of the alley and I could hear the music now, but I couldn’t see the bar. We were in a weird industrial part of Flagstaff, not the popping college town that I thought we would go to. Keegan crossed the street with me on his arm and walked full speed right for a brick wall in front of us.
“Umm, Keegan…?” I asked as he jumped up on the curb with me at his side.
He looked down at me, annoyed. “You’re fine,” he said, and kept walking so that we were going to faceplant right into the wall. I pulled back at the last second, inches from the bricks smashing my nose, and he jerked to a stop.
“What’s your deal?” he asked, looking forward, embarrassed. Behind us I saw that Nadine was draped in Logan’s arms.
“Umm, my deal is that I don’t fancy breaking my nose on a brick wall,” I told him as I gestured in front of me.
Keegan looked confused, and then something dawned on him.
“Something is wrong with you, your magic is broken,” he mumbled, and with a hard yank he pulled me into the wall.
I braced myself for the face slam, but it never came. A tingling feeling caressed my skin and suddenly I was standing at the entrance of a raging nightclub. What the…? I looked behind me to see a shimmering brick wall, five feet away at my back. An illusion. The rest of the pack walked through it and I saw the brick illusion shimmer and wave before reforming once they were through.
“No way,” I murmured aloud.
“Act drunk,” Keegan whispered in my ear. “I’m your new alpha.”
Before I could respond, he yanked me forward so hard that I nearly fell.
“Watch it, dick!” I shouted. Partially because I thought it was what a drunk person would say and also because I had been dying to
call him a dick all night. Keegan gave me an amused side glance and pressed on.
There was a huge bouncer at the door, standing at least seven feet tall, with a shaved head and glowing copper eyes. I tried not to stare into his swirling gaze but I felt entranced by it, finding it almost painful to look away. Keegan’s warning from the alley came to me then and I clamped my mouth shut so that no lies would spill out.
As soon as we neared, the bouncer scrunched his face and covered his mouth with the cuff of his long sleeve shirt. I was surprised I hadn’t thrown up on myself from the mixed stench of piss and alcohol.
“Jesus, Keegan. What’s this?” The man’s voice was distorted, making me wonder if I really was drunk.
Keegan sighed. “Hey, Glum. New pack member. She got Nadine and Gear hurt. We need to see Eva about a healing.”
Keegan’s words cut right through me. Keegan knew this man could tell a lie, so he could only speak truth. That meant that he thought I was at fault for Nadine and Gear’s injuries. My stomach knotted with guilt at the thought. Glum looked at Keegan for another moment, something swirling in his endless yellow eyes, until finally he must have felt satisfied and nodded, opening the large brass door to let us enter.
As we passed, Keegan shoved a hundred-dollar bill into a tip jar. Damn, that would pay my grocery bill for two weeks. I was tempted to snatch it back out and replace it with a lesser bill, but thought better of it.
The moment we entered the dark room I was saturated with sights and sounds that were foreign to me. The music was beyond weird. Some kind of tribal drum and bass, but with a high-pitched live singer. It wasn’t bad, just different. The smell… was a mix of dog, metal and alcohol. The place was a pretty good size, with a large U-shaped bar off to the left, and a stage and dance floor to the right. I could see a second floor VIP area as well, with people leaning on the railing and looking down at the dancers. Up on the stage was a pencil-thin singer with purple-dyed hair and a half a dozen backup dancers. Now that we were inside, Keegan dropped my arm and Logan replaced him, clutching tightly to my upper arm and dragging me across the dance floor.